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.]

Comments

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'Handles them' consciously or subconsciously...?

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Guess you could call it subconscious.

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'...I think that's enough for me.'

...So you know about--Closed Spaces. What else?

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[so_shik]

I know that's she's...technically God, basically. She knows she's God. Beyond that, not much. She never really delved into stuff from back home.

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[The phrase 'she knows she's God' strikes a pang of shock and a little bit of horror through him, and he quite nearly jumps to his feet.]

...What do you mean, she knows she's God?

'As if there was really another interpretation of that! Still, if she knows that, what am I still doing here? What is she doing here?!'

Who told her?!

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[so_shik]

...oh my gosh don't you dare tell her I told you that she knows! [There's a pause though.] Of course she knows. How else do you think I would have found out?

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Believe me, no one's telling anyone that you told me that she knows, and especially no one's telling her!

[Breathe.]

I would presume through the usual channels. Other people who found out and told you because of an interest in keeping the world from exploding.

'That said, if she knows, why isn't the world, well, exploding?'

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[so_shik]

...are you telling me that normally when she finds out stuff like this everybody just...dies?

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--Well, as you can imagine, we haven't exactly wanted to test that hypothesis, but at least once or twice we were on the brink of needing a whole new world to live in, yeah.

[He paces, a little agitated.]

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[so_shik]

...damn it. [She just sighs, tapping her fingers on the countertop.]

...they're the ones who told her, I guess. The Malnosso. Inadvertently.

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'Disaster. Or is it? Now I'm just looking around waiting for the other shoe to drop. And by shoe I mean world. And by drop I mean explode.'

--They experimented on her and found out? And then... she found out?

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[so_shik]

Not quite. This all happened before I was here I guess, but somebody found a bunch of reports on all of the people here. A friend of ours translated the report for her and that's how she found out. Because she read the stupid report. [And she's starting to sound a little mad here, if only because she got to be on the receiving end of watching Haruhi have something of a mental breakdown right after that.] Because she read the stupid thing, who knows how often she wonders if she causes half of the things that happen here! But as far as I know...she's only made a chicken hatch from an unfertilized egg.

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As far as you know.

'But she could be responsible for just about anything. How would anyone know? Except Koizumi. Or Nagato. Okay, a lot of people could know, but not me or Shiki, probably.'

And... what did she do?

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[so_shik]

[And...bringing a giant squid here. And the Closed Spaces. And...well, she thinks she may have made herself switch bodies with someone but not entirely confirmed.]

Kept it. We're currently raising a rooster in our house.

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'That seems unusually docile and low-key for Haruhi.'

...Right. But you really think nothing else has happened because of that?

I have no idea how any of it works, but I wouldn't think she could be kept here if she knew how to use those powers.

'Of course, I wouldn't think that anything would be safe if she knew how.'

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[so_shik]

What, because of the rooster? No. Unless you mean...I mean it's pretty possible, yeah, but...she doesn't really know how to use her powers, that's the thing. A lot of the things that happen happen on accident if anything. Maybe that's what the difference is.

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'Either I'm not being clear, or Shiki has an unusual interest in the rooster. Probably both. Wait, probably just the former. I hope.'

...But there haven't been any Closed Space incidents?

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[so_shik]

...maybe...just one. Closed Space is like the gray area, right?

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Yeah. Like the operating system just froze or something.

['Only one? Either Koizumi's a drama queen or maybe something is suppressing them? Or she's that happy without us as long as she's in a different world? Useless to guess, I ... guess.'

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[so_shik]

Just once I think. The Malnosso might be stopping her...is it supposed to be more than that?

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I've been told by someone who should know -- though maybe also someone with a vested interest in making himself seem cool -- that, particularly when she's upset, he has to be on duty 24/7 to take care of such things.

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...and who would that someone be?

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The vice chief of the Brigade.

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...Keiichi?

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Keiichi? No, his name is Koizumi.