thunderfists | ◎ Bout 2: The age question [action/voice]

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[Akihiko's been adjusting well enough to Luceti following the crash back to reality that Luceti was a different world that was not the TV world he was supposed to have appeared in. He's back to a "civilized" level of hygiene and no longer running around in survival pants and a cape -- no, now he's back to sweatpants and T-shirts for his jogs and training. He can be found jogging on the village roads and into the forest, which he's now fairly familiar with after spending so much time out there.

Later in the day, after he's finished with his training for the day, he opens up his journal. Ever since that "experiment," he's been wondering something. But before he asks, he should probably introduce himself...]

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Hey. I'm Akihiko Sanada. I arrived here in the recent ... cycle. I guess that's what you call it. I've heard that I might have met some people here before, so I thought I'd warn you that I don't remember ever being in Luceti.

Anyway, I've got a question. How do you decide when to celebrate or acknowledge your birthdays here? There can be a lot of different kinds of calendars, even in the same world, so... I'm curious how other people handle it.

Also, if anyone knows how I can get my hands on a speed bag, I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From what I've seen of the calendar, yeah. Twelve months, about thirty days each month. It's not much to adjust to, other than it suddenly being autumn instead of spring.

[Long enough to grow accustomed to it, though...] How long have you been here?

It's been over two years since I arrived here, though I was sent back for a few months during my first year.

[But that might be a bit discouraging for someone who's only just arrived to hear, huh.]

There doesn't seem to be any pattern to how long certain people stay. Sometimes people only stay for a few months, and sometimes only for a few weeks.

A few weeks to a few months... [While he does note how long the boy had mentioned being around, he's more curious about being "sent back."] So you came back with your memories intact? It sounds like that's uncommon.

Yes. Most people who return to Luceti forget their previous time here. A number of my friends from Auldrant have come and gone multiple times, but they never seem to remember being here before when they return.

To my knowledge, things like that are simply the nature of this world.

Even if it's the nature of this world, there has to be a reason for it. Like you get pulled through something that others aren't, or something happens differently on the way out of this world. [Not that he knew enough about this place to really theorize anything.]

I'm guessing there's not much known about how people disappear from this world, huh?

I've heard the experiments the Malnosso conduct on the village are done with the intent of testing shift technology. Though I can't say for certain whether that's something that directly relates to how people come and go from this world or not.

There was an experiment in this past year where people were sent home for a day and others were sent to different worlds, but the effects weren't permanent. We were told upon returning to Luceti that our presence left no impact, so it was as though we never really went there at all.

[Interesting. While he wasn't usually the one theorizing off of the information gathered, he could still appreciate learning more about the situation. Especially the specifics of what sounded like a very important experiment.]

If that's true, and people actually returned to their worlds ... doesn't that make it sound like these Shifts can affect our worlds badly, too?

[There's a brief pause on his end, thinking over his words before he speaks. There are certain things, after all, that aren't meant to be addressed over the journals where the malnosso can hear. But certainly, if it's something they're already well aware of, there's no harm in discussing it openly.]

I think I've heard something like that mentioned before, though it's been quite awhile since then. I assume no harm was done during that particular experiment, given our worlds were said to have returned to normal. But I can't say I know very much about the shifts they used to accomplish it.

So we have to be affected badly by ... a process-- [he's not sure what to think of Shifts at this point] --that can affect our worlds, in order to possibly get home. Sounds like a miserable situation. [For both them and whoever actually had to carry out these processes -- assuming they hadn't been desensitized by it all.]

◎ Bout 2: The age question [action/voice]

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