menial | 1 ~ when did I stop believing in Santa Claus? [audio/action]

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1 ~ when did I stop believing in Santa Claus? [audio/action]

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[A teenage boy is extricating himself with some difficulty from having been dumped, or appearing, in the middle of the fountain in the center of the village. He's muttering to himself and clambering out. He's dressed in the generic-enough North High uniform, but of more interest may be what he's saying -- which is picked up by the split-open journal next to him.]

...Really, Haruhi? After all of that, I'm in some other time and place again?! Oh, boy. She really just doesn't stop... Where the hell is it this time?

[Once he gets up and brushes himself off, he can be found staring with slightly less bewilderment than you might expect at his surroundings.]

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'Santa Claus? Please, let's not deal with that particular discredited issue.'

[He follows them in while looking around. Tea. Board games. Books. All of these things are relatively familiar.]

'It seems Haruhi's taste in decoration tends towards the replication of old patterns. And that's Haruhi, all right. Not like I didn't just see her a few hours ago, so it's not as if it's a surprise.

But something that does look different about her... she's edging towards ponytail territory? I guess I'm not complaining. Well, nothing to be done now, except...'

Yo, Haruhi.

It's New Feather's time, what could it be?

[Keiichi just chuckles a bit before Kyon makes himself known.]

They threw him to the fountain just now, I brought him here right after he got dry clothes.

[In case she wants to do the explaining or something. Keiichi goes and takes his usual seat at the table, expecting Kyon to take a seat as well.]

[ Yo, Haruhi.

...No way. She looks up from her laptop. And slowly, her eyes get wide, her mouth gapes. Blatant amazement. She stands, quickly, causing the chair she was sitting in (it's a wheely chair) to go flying back into the window/backwall That's- Kyon?! He's here- almost a year later, he's here?! For the first time in years, the real - her - Kyon is here?! She's actually at a loss for words for all of a few seconds]

[What is- how does she?! She flushes a bit and squirms in place before chiding herself - no! She shouldn't be thinking that far ahead! And even if she did, she shouldn't be ashamed or whatever, she has her own life! and she doesn't owe anyone, least of all Kyon, any explanation! He's not even - what did she even see in him?! She looks between Kyon and Keiichi.

Yes, it's obvious what to do here. she regains her composure and-]

You better not catch a cold.

[YEAH !]

'Enjoyable as it is to cause Haruhi such conniptions, I have to be curious as to why. Shock? Okay, fine. Weird squirming? Kind of endearing. And then the attempted smooth brushoff? Well, not entirely unexpected.'

If I do, I'll be sure to direct you to the person responsible for a penalty.

[Keiichi just... Keeps eying Haruhi and her reactions, he has nothing to say at the moment, thinking it's better to let them get over with the sudden meeting. He's also wondering if he should be worried or not... Or even why he should be worried.]

I'd just punish both of you by proxy.

[SIGH. Okay, waving that aside, she's collected herself now! She now starts to walk over to Kyon, looking him up and down. Surveying...]

Which means just me, right? Delightful, Haruhi.

'And now it appears to be time for the mule to be inspected.'

[He stands there, hands raised, a faintly displeased expression on his face, but without actually backing away.]

Satisfied?

[Okay... pointing at his face! Looking up and-] What is the last date you remember?!

[Evasively:]

I thought you said SOS Brigade trips weren't dates.

'Not that I don't know what she means, but why not stall?'

Why, what's the last date you remember?

Of course they aren't- now I asked you first, now hurry up and answer!

[She does narrow her eyes at the " not dates " thing. and get a step closer. Menacingly.]

[He sighs.]

April... April 16th. Or was it the 18th?

'Actually, I can't really think about details like that at all right now. Particularly not with that Beloved Leader's face looking at me from that unpleasant angle.'

[And now she takes a step back, surprised]

Wai-wait, you're from all the way- ...[No, that makes no sense. Yes, he's started talking to her in April, but he'd be more surprised, he wouldn't be this casual. He wouldn't- So that means the only answer is-]

Second year or third year?

'Breathing room!'

Second. Are we done here yet? I think Maebara's waiting.

[Keiichi waves a hand.]

It's cool, you two get this sorted. It's important.

[He looks at Haruhi a bit worried, though. How does she take this?]

Yeah forget him- [Wave and that means...] That means, relative to me, you're from the future.

[In fact, she leans up against the back of one of the chairs at the table, considering that]

'Dammit, Maebara, you were supposed to get me out of this!

Oh, well, she seems to be taking the revelation that I'm a time traveler pretty well. Then again, if this is a new world, maybe that doesn't matter so much. I don't know. Where's Koizumi?'

How do you figure that, exactly?

[Sorry, pal, but it is important. There was nothing to get you out of.]

Because that's how things often work in this world. We're all taken from different times, sometimes from different worlds even. Just by asking what's the last someone remembers it's easy to know if they are from further ahead in time or not. Though with the time she has spent here she's technically older than you, most probably.

[...Actually, Keiichi has a good point. She starts to math that out in her head. Kyon's birthday is... then, so that means- oh. Heh. She smirks, but the waves at Keiichi]

Keiichi there's from 1983.

'I guess I suspected as much. Or at least, it's not a complete surprise, judging from the way this stuff works usually, which is to say, not at all, and Haruhi's reaction.

I have to admit, I never knew exactly what would happen to us if she did find the supernatural and alien and so on. Apparently... not so much? Yet? Or maybe there's another explanation behind it.

...What's the point in me running around in circles like this, anyway?'

Ah.

And how long exactly is it that you've been here, then, Haruhi?

Four years, if I remember right. Though she left for a few months a year ago so it may be less than that.

[Not that he was the one asked but...]

Three and a half, at this point. [She doesn't know why she bothers to correct Keiichi there, actually...]

[Kyon is decidedly taken aback. He makes a funny sound and then stops short.]

'Three and a half years... But she left our world before me. Am I supposed to try and reason that out? I refuse. I'm just not going to think about it. Where's Koizumi when you need him? In fact, where is he at all? What am I doing here? Usually there's something I have to do before getting back to our world, but I'm getting a sinking feeling about that.'

Three and a half years, huh? And you've expanded the Brigade quite a bit.

'What is that part about? What even is the SOS Brigade without the five of us? Is it really true that she could have picked any four people, or even more, and made it her brigade? It's not that I'm obsessed with being important to her, or this, but--

Hell! The lesson of the little adventure I just went through was that only we can be the SOS Brigade. I thought so, anyway.'

[He frowns markedly.]

Six months aren't that much, it's still closer to four than to just three.

[He eyes Kyon, noticing the funny sound he makes. It's not really hard to imagine what the issue is, at least part of it.]

Don't try to reason time flow here by the rules you know, [There's a cat mewling at one of the windows.]. Think of it like a video-game or a movie. You have your life in your world, with your sister and your family, your school and everything, that would be movie 1, one day you pause it, or rather you're forced to pause it. It's not the same as making it stop, and you switch to play a video-game rather than keep watching the movie. When you're tired of the game, you return to the movie, continuing it and everything goes on as normal on it, as if you never paused it.

Basically, Haruhi was taken from a time that for you is in the past, but that time-line stopped moving on while she's here so no one noticed her absence. When she returns she will return to the very second she left, continuing her life as normal... Until April 16th or 18th, time at which you're brought here and meet her before she's returned.

[He actually even tries to make an explanation drawing.]

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1/2

2/3 I lied

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[Action] /Tora said to skip her this round

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[Action] / still skipping

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[Action] /more skip

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