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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[He follows her direction.]

On the whole, it's the place I most prefer things to begin.

Okay...where do I start. [She's going to go ahead and choose to skip over the part where Haruhi used to be Haruki and Haruki was in love with Kyonko before Kyonko left and there was Shiki and Neku who were just starting to be a thing before Neku left. So that means the start is...]

Well like I said, we met right around the time both of us had our friends from home leave this place. I was living alone, and Haruhi was living in a house with another friend of ours, but she was kind of...depressed I guess? I wouldn't call it depressed, more like cranky. [It was depression. It was definitely depression, but she doesn't want to share all of the details.] I kept visiting the house out of boredom and to check on her to make sure she wasn't going to go on a rampage, she finally got annoyed enough and told me just to move in if I was basically going to be around anyway.

Living with someone lets you learn a lot about them...

[All of that would certainly be some cause for circuit explosion in his brain, so that's probably for the best. He pauses for a moment, though.]

'I know that form of Haruhi depression. Or melancholy. Whatever you want to call it. One thing's certain.'

That was probably a good choice. Haruhi in that state's hardly safe.

'As for the rest of it, it's hard to tell exactly what Haruhi meant by that without having heard it. Whether that was her trying to pretend everything was okay, or if she was really in that kind of place... I wonder if I've really been that lucky all this time as to avoid her being in danger of 'going on a rampage'?'

Anyway. Go on.

I figured as much. I got called an idiot enough times when I was trying to get through to her. Anyway, you know...this village gets put under a lot of experimentation. The Malnosso have put us through a lot but I guess thanks to them I got to learn a lot of stuff, see a lot of things she probably wouldn't have told me about. I think that's ultimately why we're friends. We know too much about each other.

'...Now I almost feel like an intruder.

Wait, what? I am an intruder, aren't I? And I should get home as soon as possible. From whatever's going on here. And then all of that 'things she probably wouldn't have told me about'... Whatever this ride is, I think I want off.'

Sounds like it really did take some magic spells, then.

'Taniguchi accused me of that when Haruhi first spoke to me. But looks like it came true. I really don't know how to feel about all of it. There's something wrong with Haruhi being close to... other people. And I don't know if it's habit or cautions about the world's safety [or jealousy?] or what.'

Congratulations on achieving the seemingly unachievable. For a normal person, anyway.

Science, magic, who knows what it really was. [She shrugs, just giving him an unreadable look for the time being.]

What's that supposed to mean anyway? "For a normal person."

In my experience, there aren't that many normal people who can get through to her.

'Unless the other shoe (or scarf, in this shop) drops and it turns out, once again, she's some ancient doomsday android in the shape of a cute girl.'

I like to think I'm pretty normal. What does that make you then?

'Good question.'

An anomaly?

...you know, that makes sense, considering. Does it bother you?

At first, sure. These days I generally tell myself it means I have as much of a a special role to play as anyone else in the Brigade. Representing some semblance of sanity.

[At least, in his version of the Brigade.]

Yeah? ...what can you tell me about the Brigade where you guys are from? She only really briefly mentioned it.

'Weird to think the Brigade is any different, really. I still don't know how much is prudent to say, though. Maybe the version for the public?'

Well, it's a pretty long story at this point. But basically Haruhi got to high school looking for something interesting, joined all the school clubs, left them, and decided to start her own. Cue forced conscription of various people that, whether by luck or design, ended up working a lot better than you might have expected. To keep her entertained, anyway.

...she was looking for something interesting here too and started the Brigade. She usually makes announcements trying to get new members every couple of months, and sometimes she forces people but it's like...some of them just join on their own.

[He hesitates.]

Well, the odd thing about that is that--for us, there was never really a serious question of getting new members. It was more... subjugation of the conquered. Grinding the boot and all that.

'Sometimes literally.'

In fact, recently there were Brigade tryouts, but we didn't end up taking any new recruits, in the end... There was one girl who nearly made it, but it turned out she couldn't do it. I'm surprised that ... 'That all that we specifically meant to her was a pastime?' she felt the need to make the same thing here.

[His discomfort with the whole idea is fairly clear in his tone.]

I think...it was more the fact she was lonely. It keeps her busy, keeps her from thinking about the things going on here. It's become such a huge fixture in this place, after all.

'What can I say to that? It seems churlish to disagree with something that's important to others just because it represents something that's, well, important to me. At the same time, I can't help that feeling.'

Maybe that's it. It's just a weird situation for me to be thrown into. For that matter, I don't know if I've been this far into the future before.

'At least a couple years, she said, right? I suppose it's not a huge gap, especially if what I saw... well, forget it.'

[A shrug...and then a curious look.] 'This far'? So what, you've been into the future before?

'...Am I usually this indiscreet?'

--Aren't we all perpetually entering the future as every day goes by?

Nice try, but that's not going to work.

'Sigh.'

...Well, I'm not entirely sure if it was the future or if I just ate some bad shellfish, you know? In either case, it would probably be best if you didn't tell Haruhi.

Well...I've got to start keeping secrets from her sometime, right? So what actually happened?

'Not the most encouraging way that that could've been phrased.'

In all honesty, I'm not sure what it was. Suffice it to say that one moment I was in April, and the next moment, without any warning, I was falling onto Haruhi's bed and it was the middle of May.

'And then let's not get started on that bit where we were on that campus.'

...and you have no idea what could have caused it. [Because she's got an idea, but that's different.]

It was a bizarre situation already, and that was just making it more bizarre.

[Which isn't saying he has no idea what caused it, exactly, but hey.]

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