shslasshat | First Silver Spoon - Joint Post, Video/Action for New Bark

[The boy who appears on the other end of the feed is sitting outside, in New Bark Town, if the gently waving trees and the windmill in the background are anything to go by. He appears deep in thought. In contrast to this, a sharply-grinning face appears over his left shoulder, all teeth and claws and hard, cold, gemstone eyes. Since Sableye aren't native to New Bark Town, that must clearly be his starter.]

Out of one game and into another, then.

[Piercing green eyes meet the camera from behind white-framed glasses.]

I presume I'm far from the first person to come here. ...Perhaps, even, not the first from my world – since this obviously is not the world I come from. I may have catching up to do, but mark my words: Byakuya Togami does not lose. Anyone who stands in my way will fall. So remember my face, and don't waste your t—

[But then, abruptly, the feed goes wild and veers away from his face; hopefully nobody watching gets motion sickness, because if so, they might want to avert their eyes. But given the angle and direction of the camera shift, combined with the brief flash of the boy's astonished expression before it disappears completely from view, it seems that someone has just snatched the Gear right out of his hand.

Which would be an entirely accurate conclusion to draw, really. Suffice to say, the camera is now displaying a rather attractive shot of the tip of someone's boot and a fair expanse of slightly matted grass.]

Don't be so quick to sacrifice your anonymity with needless posturing. There's nothing to be gained from ceding that advantage — particularly not in a place where that name almost certainly means nothing to anyone.

[...Does somebody want to get this man some ice for that burn.]

[The aforementioned boy huffs in the background, his hand appearing on the camera as he tries to take it back like a nerd who's become the victim of a cruel game of keep-away.]

Have you even read the training manual? A place that asserts the goal of becoming "the very best, like no one ever was" is not a bastion of subtlety.

[Then, almost sulkier,]

When did you even get here?

[JUST WHEN HE THOUGHT HE WAS SAFE.

Eventually, though, his superior ~~height and reach~~ everything manage to get control of the Gear back, and amid the shuffle, the second voice speaks again.]

About twenty minutes ago. [A beat.] I've been looking around. Haven't you?

[Even when his gear is back in his own possession, he doesn't bother aiming it at his face. However, he will flash Johto a shot of the lovely, lavender-haired girl who so rudely interrupted his arrogant pontificating.]

I've been reading the materials provided about this place and the creatures who inhabit it. [A smug, punchable beat.] Haven't you?

I wanted to see what my own investigations turned up first. But it'd be useful to see how much of my evidence is corroborated by yours; turn that off and let's compare our findings instead.

[For the first time since the girl appeared, Togami actually pays attention to the gear, and he scowls at it before flicking the camera off as requested.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Well, that explains the little bug that's been riding around on her Johto-issue backpack, and corresponds to what Togami and the guidebook both mentioned, so that all seems fairly—

..."A bunch of the others"? There's three accounted for so far; there's not actually that many who could be left as far as "a bunch" is concerned.

~~Although maybe that means Naegi is here—~~]

The others. So Fukawa-san, Hakagure-kun, and Naegi-kun?

[Asahina shakes her head. OH RIGHT. No yeah, that could be an important thing to mention, right? So her voice grows a great deal more serious, less bubbly for once.]

No, that's not quite right. Naegi is here. But not Fukawa-chan or Hagakure. See... this place is a little strange, I guess. But it's good. It's really really good. Fujisaki-chan, Oowada and Ishimaru are here as well.

What?

[Don't mind her brief slip of SUDDENLY EMOTION in the face of all that emotional drywall — because seriously, what.

...

What.]

How can that be? We saw them...

[Well. You know.]

I don't really know. I mean... I think it might be kind of like time travel. Ishimaru and Oowada at least, they're from the the past, from a time before they. Well.

[A little frown.] Though I'm pretty sure Fujisaki-chan... [Whose secret she has promised to continue keeping, thus the honorifics in that case.] is from after that terrible thing. So...

I don't really know how it works at all. But they're here and alive and okay.

[Ah. So we're protecting Fujisaki — after all, Asahina of all people should know that Kirigiri is aware of that particular secret, being the one who exposed it to the class at large in the first place. And that's...something, oddly enough. Something that makes it a little easier to accept, amid all the utter implausibility.

And there is a lot of utter implausibility in play here.]

If that's the case, then what's the last thing you remember, yourself? What point on the timeline were you...drawn here from?

[Memories being touchy subjects, naturally.]

[It's for the benefit of everyone else really, that and she can't keep it straight if she keeps switching it up depending on who knows and who doesn't. But she frowns a little at the question. Aaah, it's a little hard to talk about still, all of it.]

After the mastermind was discovered. And died. What about you, Kirigiri-chan?

That's what I remember, too.

[There's that word again.]

But you realize that, if what you say is true, that particular victory doesn't mean much — the mastermind might arrive from a point before that event on the timeline, with no memory of that execution. That's the consequence of death apparently having no meaning here.

Even if she did, we know who she is now! And more than that, she wouldn't be in control in this place. So no matter what, nothing like that will happen again! We can't let it, okay?

That's why I told the others, so they'd know just in case! [Fool her once, shame on Junko. Fool her twice...]

But I really hope she doesn't... I hope she never comes to this place at all.

You told the others?

[Hmmm. Doesn't that create a TIME PARADOX? Unless...]

If they're from a point earlier on the same timeline as us, and they now know information about the future, that means they should have the capability to change the future we remember and avoid...those incidents. That they didn't — and it makes no sense that they should fail to change that history when the information in question is the identity of the mastermind in the first place — suggests that either the history we remember is set in stone with no ability to be altered, that a deviation into a parallel timeline occurred on account of that new knowledge, or...

[Or, possibly the most uncomfortable possibility.]

Or that they'll lose those memories once they return to maintain the consistency of the same timeline we all share, because we don't remember them doing any differently.

Mm. They asked. And they said Naegi had told them things too. But... Naegi's from the past from me but the future from them?

[Oh it makes her head hurt. Her nose wrinkles a little as she thinks about it. And then her head nearly explodes as Kirigiri keeps talking. W-what. That ah... that sounds complicated. Really complicated.

But at least one part sticks out.]

They'll lose memories? [Again. No. No that's really upsetting.]

[Preaching to the choir on that one, Asahina-san. Preaching. To. The choir.]

That would be the logical conclusion. For example, if Oowada-kun were told the exact circumstances that led to the incident with Fujisaki-san — and his subsequent punishment — it wouldn't make sense for him not to try to change those circumstances because he gains nothing by adhering to them but everything by altering them. Of course, that would have implications for our memories as well.

Perhaps it's just easiest to say, "it's likely something will happen to our memories of this place". The nature of the circumstances would seem to favor that conclusion.

I guess that makes sense... but I don't like thinking about that happening. Everyone's already forgotten about enough important things!

[Asahina glances down now. Kirigiri's logic is pretty flawless, as per usual, so she can't really argue with her.]

It's really sad. But... but maybe there's a chance for people who can't really go home to live and be happy here!

Or the chance for all of us to live here together?

[As opposed to ten of them dead and six about to face a world that's supposedly fallen almost completely to despair.

Is that shirking their duty, suggesting something like that? Or is it just an unexpected extension of what her f— the headmaster really wanted for them? She doesn't know. Maybe that'll be something to think about, for the duration.]

All of us... mm! I'd like that. I can't decide if it's selfish or not, but things are scary back home and...

[And they aren't here. And she likes it. But that makes her worry she's being cowardly and selfish, so it's difficult.]

First Silver Spoon - Joint Post, Video/Action for New Bark

[Video] - DR ENDGAME SPOILERS

[Video] - DR ENDGAME SPOILERS

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