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[ And there's one (1) small brunette walking up with too many feathers in her hair and urgency adjoined to the increasingly usual force in her step. Hurried? Whatever would make a person think that. She's not out of breath. Really, she's not. ]

Shigure-san -- [ and she pauses as she was about to ask him if he had a minute, substituting that for a breathless little sigh, then ] -- can I borrow you?

[ It'll be more than a minute anyway given what's weighing on her mind this time. ]

Hm? Yes, of course, Yamaguchi-san! Is something the matter?

[He looks a touch concerned -- seeing as it's clear she came here in a hurry.]

You're the resident time surge specialist, so you must have a good understanding of time and I'd presume space.

[ She pauses, frowning. ]

Frankly, I'm not entirely certain how I should put this. I've been over it enough times. You're familiar with there being other worlds out there, too, of course.

[ That should make this easier. ]

Something happened in mid-February.

Edited 2021-03-13 06:28 (UTC)

[He immediately looks a bit sheepish. Sorry, he knows exactly where she's going with this.]

Something happened... meaning you gained memories of living in another world, yes?

It's a phenomenon we're studying, but we haven't made much progress. I'm afraid that's why things have been silent on our end.

So it's not just us then.

[ And that's something to chew on along with this disclosure, but something else comes to her very quickly, a nagging in the back of her mind, heart. ]

You wouldn't happen to have any idea why some people who spent time in one of those other worlds might regain those memories and others might not? I think the rate for the group I'm familiar with has been roughly the same.

No. A small handful of other refugees have reached out saying they've experiencing something similar. However, we've found that quite a few have become distrustful of us as a result. Obviously you can only take me on my word-- but we neither intentionally reset your memories, nor implanted false ones.

[Not everyone comes from jamjars where they ones bringing them there were doing so kindly, it would seem.]

Our current theory is that it has to relate with how you were taken to these other worlds in the first place. It was an unnatural process. Essentially -- you were all in two places at once, something that should be impossible.

Ah, for example-- your worlds right now? Although the loops are repeating infinitely, they're repeating without you in it. These other worlds... it seems that wasn't the case, and your disappearances back home went unnoticed.

But as for what causes the one you mentioned... I'm afraid we're not that far yet. It's possible they may have not remembered yet, or... they're simply from a different, albeit very similar world. Or perhaps the same world, but a different point in time! There's so many possibilities, we didn't want to risk passing on incorrect information and starting a panic.

[ She listens intently and remains quiet for a moment, turning over what Shigure has said in her head. ]

If you hadn't been so forthcoming when you brought me here, I'd be inclined to distrust you, too, but you haven't given me reason so far. The last thing any of us needs is a panic.

[ Still, this is a lot of information to take in and turn over on top of what she's been carrying with her. Certain things slot into place, but there are so many others, unknowns, and some of them she isn't entirely prepared for. ]

Someone from a different, albeit very similar world... that's possible?

Yes, it is. However, it's typically rather rare to find any two people from these universes who resemble one another in any recognizable way. After all, even if there's another world out there with a bo-- man named Shigure who works for a laboratory in the year 1920, there's no guarantee he and I would actually be the same person.

If there's someone you knew in this other world who doesn't remember you... well, this is just a theory, stick with me a moment, it's a bit complicated--

[He crosses his arms and closes his eyes, trying to think of how to put his theory in layman terms.]

As I said, you were in two places at once. Something that shouldn't be possible. As such, we didn't take into consideration that there could be two different places to take you from.

Because you gained memories of this other world-- even though the loop as you remember it was from home, you were actually taken from that other world. But that world's method of bringing you there interfered somehow, resulting in the rather strange delay. Time is a bit finicky like that.

Meanwhile, this other person... they may still exist in two places at once. The one we brought in from their world-- and the one still living in that other world, who you may have known. Of course, we haven't actually spoken with anyone who was recognized as being from another world without remembering it, so we can't confirm this.

H-Hopefully that made sense... it's all very complicated...

It is complicated, but I need to have a proper understanding of these things.

[ Need, not simply want. If she's going to accomplish the things she's determined, she needs every relevant piece of knowledge. Just because she doesn't wear her years doesn't mean she wants to spend an excessive number of them working without success and if what Shigure says is right, she has to factor this Nippon into her equations just as much as Prismatica.

She lets out a breath she hadn't quite realized she'd been holding. ]

What a headache. No wonder everyone was ready for a vacation. I'll have to make a chart when I get back to the dorms.

[ Visual aids can be helpful, easier to follow at times than words, much as she loves them. ]

Can I ask you something else?

[He can only hope his answer provided some clarity to the situation.]

Hmm? Why, yes of course! What is it?

I'm not entirely sure it's something you can answer, but for the longest time, when people would be returned to their homeworld and brought back to Prismatica, the story across the board is that no one remembered their time on the latter while they were home, but their memories were instantly present upon their return.

After we essentially cleaned up the gods' mess in that world, we were guaranteed our memories beyond it and accessibility to that planet through a prism gifted to us.

I'm not sure what this means as far as time and memory in that situation or how it connects or relates to things here, but... when a person returns under normal conditions, outside of the loops, what do you think happens without interference in that sort of situation where they're taken to and fro unnaturally from one world to another?

...that's a very complicated question.

[TENSE SMILE he has no idea.]

To be honest...we're just not that far yet. For example, the people sent back home when their bonds with Nippon break -- we still don't know why that happens, but we've confirmed people either return to a normal flow of time, or reenter their former time loop with no awareness of it.

As such, in all likelihood, should you leave this world in a similar way, it will simply be as if you were never brought here at all, and everything would go back to the way it was. But we know that's not something everyone would want, and we're working on a method that would allow memories from here to remain with you, but... it's not exactly easy to study when we're limited by what we can safely test.

Why go so far?

[ She folds her arms under her chest and cants her head as she regards him. ]

[He smiles. But there's something almost melancholy about it.]

Yamaguchi-san, have you noticed... we scientists at the NRL skew rather young?

Repeating the same year over and over again... it takes a heavy toll on one's mind. Our older colleagues... couldn't handle it anymore. And of those who remain, most of us didn't even start this work until after becoming aware of the loop.

[It's clear there's more to it that's he's leaving unsaid, but if pressed, he may be forced to excuse himself. Even saying this much, his eyes are shining a little.]

Even the act of saving you all doesn't feel like enough to compensate for what our world has done to yours. If there's anything we can do to truly make up for everything, then we want to be in a position where we can offer it.

[ She asked because she wanted to, because she needed to see with her own eyes how Shigure responded to that question without the eyes of his colleagues and the various refugees he addresses as spokesman trained on him. True, she's among the latter and a good spokesman can convincingly spin words regardless of the number of his audience, but there are things more easily plucked, plied, and generally presented during a one-on-one conversation.

There's more he isn't saying, that much is clear, but he isn't being ingenuine and she hadn't expected that his eyes might shine like that. She lets out a small breath, speaking quietly for just a moment. ]

So it really is like that, hm?

[ But it's just a moment. ]

Say, Shigure-san, is there something you like to eat?

[He looks genuinely caught off guard by the sudden shift in topic, looking a bit flustered as he adjusts his glasses.]

Oh, uhm... er... I suppose... I'm rather fond of anpan?

[Secret sweets fiend.]

[ Flustered? Oh, that's cute, a much better look on him than that teary eyed melancholy. In fact -- ]

A sweet tooth in a sweet guy? I suppose that isn't terribly surprising.

Ah... hahah... you flatter me, Yamaguchi-san.

[Suddenly looking so nervous and oh no the ceiling is now very interesting to stare at.]

[ She smiles at that and inclines her head in a slight bow. ]

I probably shouldn't take up too much more of your time. I do appreciate you taking the time to speak with me. I think I have a somewhat better understanding of some things now.

Y-Yes, of course! I'm glad I could be of assistance.

[He bows back -- too enthusiastically, with a quick second bow.]

If you ever need anything else-- we're only a quick call away.

Thank you. I do appreciate it.

[ And with another bow, she'll take her leave, but the next day, Shigure and the rest of the staff are in for a surprise.

There's an especially large and nicely packaged delivery of anpan addressed to him and an assortment of other homemade sweets for the other scientists as well along with hand written, individually addressed "thank you" cards from who else?

She meant it, after all. ]

[ Ash wants to help. He feels bad that there isn't anything he could've done to stop the kidnapped refugees from going missing, or getting hurt. Regrets that he didn't even hear about any of it happening until it was already mostly over. But once he does hear about it, he makes his way to the NRL Hospital, to see what use he can be of now.

Except there are times when everyone just needs rest, and so Ash is left on his own. To wander freely, with no restrictions as to where he goes or what he does. That's when he finds her name, written on a door in an eerily quiet ward that he's fairly certain he's not supposed to be in. EMILY POWELL. He didn't get a chance to see if it was really her when he first found the door, being ushered away and running into Baku back in the main wing of the hospital. But later, when no one is looking, he goes back. He remembers where to go, remembers exactly what turns to take and how many meters down the hallway until he's back at Emily's door.

Once again, he's not alone. But this time, it's a face he recognizes. Shizuko, the woman who had interviewed him briefly when he first arrived. ]

What's happened to them?

[ That isn't an answer to her question, as to why he's there. But she ought to be able to infer from context. Maybe. ]

I figured you'd be coming back.

[Despite the way she sighs in response, Shizuko gives the impression she was actually waiting for him. Or perhaps, for anyone who would have a reason to sneak back in a second time.]

[She won't stop him from looking into the window, where he'll see Emily sitting in a hospital bed, animatedly speaking with someone who isn't there. She won't react if the window is tapped, but the door remains locked. If he watches long enough, she'll eventually just freeze in place, before continuing the exact same actions as before.]

[Shizuko's arms are folded, and her tone a bit sharp, as if preparing to chastise him. But instead, she answers his question.]

She's time afflicted. It's a term we use to describe mental disorders caused by time surges. They were far more common during the time loop, though it took a number of subsequent loops for us to begin to understand what was happening. Even now, we don't know very much about how to treat them.

I'm that obvious?

[ It does Ash good, to see Emily animatedly talking, her face lighting up in the way it would when she would come up to see him in the attic. He doesn't like that she's here, trapped in a time loop like this. But it does feel good to see her.

Is that selfish? ]

Is she in any pain?

No. As far as we can tell, she's completely unaware of where she is and what's happening to her.

Those brief moments where she seems to pause is actually the time around her freezing. Our research points to the possibility that she herself has become a time surge, causing her own time to become distorted. But unfortunately, time surges are one of the most complicated types of magic out there.

[She frowns as she looks into the room, before glancing at Ash.]

If I may ask, Starmer-san... what is your relation to Emily-san?

She's my—

[ He stops, winces, self-corrects, before he says anything out of turn. ]

She's the daughter of my administrative user, Martha.

[ He looks back towards the room, towards Emily and her excited face. ]

I'm something like her imaginary friend.

...I see.

Then are you, perhaps, the "imaginary friend" she thinks she's talking to?

[She walks up to the door and pushes a button on a small speaker near the wall, allowing the audio in the room to come out. The conversation she's having is one-sided -- but he'll recognize it as the conversation she was having with him up in the attic on her birthday, just before time began to loop for him]

Though it may be hard to believe, she's been here longer than you have. Not by much time, but... we've theorized that bringing her out of the time loop caused you to notice the time loop as well, due to ambient magic produced by our interference.

It's thanks to this that we now understand why so many people who become aware of the loops seem to have some connection to one another. It's possible that one person being aware has the power to pull others out of the loop as well.

But in terms of applying this theory to cure her of her present condition... we're still working on that.

[ And there it is. Hearing Emily's voice, excitedly talking about her devious plan to get herself two slices of birthday cake by claiming one was for Ash, just cements it as being really her. She's trapped in a time loop, just like he was. His memories of being stuck are... faulty. Fragmented. As though something went wrong with the save file. Probably because the same data was being written and rewritten over and over again, causing redundancies in the code that...

Ah, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that Emily is here, now, even though she's stuck in then. ]

Thank you. [ That's about the only response he can piece together. ] For saving her from it. For saving me.

[ Emily comes first, of course. She matters more; she's actually alive and he's just a computer with a human casing. Emily will always matter more. Just like Martha matters more. ]

What about her mum? Is she still in the time loop as well?

...don't thank us until you two can finally enjoy a slice of cake together.

[It was hard to accept gratitude when there was so little they could really do to help. Even bringing everyone who becomes aware here could be considered the bare minimum, seeing as their own world is the reason these loops exist at all.]

Her mother is still in the time loop. The nature in which we look into worlds is a bit complex, but in this case, we know this because you and her are the only ones here from your world. If she had become aware, our systems would have been pinged to send her an escape portal.

I understand.

[ Well, he sort of understands. The whole scope of travel between universes and infinite time loops is a little beyond his programming, but... He understands the theories involved. He's done a little reading, since he arrived, to try to get up to speed. ]

How far does the time loop spread? Is it just our part of our world affected, or is it everything and everyone?

...the scope is nigh impossible to comprehend.

Your city. Your country. Your planet. Your solar system-- though we use the term "worlds" to describe the places we draw you all from, what we really mean is "universes". And once a universe has been affected by the time loop, reality itself bends to its whims.

[She takes a calming breath, adjusting her glasses as an excuse to look away from a moment. For all that her demeanor has been entirely composed, this is a topic that's difficult for her to talk about.]

Before we began our mission to save those who become aware of it, we were awestruck by the sheer magnitude of what a single spell in our world could do. Even now, I don't know if we truly understand the weight of what has been done. Much as we've come to depend on it in modern human society, the limitless power of magi-tech is... truly terrifying.

Ah. Mm.

[ There isn't much he can say to that. She's right, the immense scale of it, spreading out to near-infinity across a near-infinite number of universes... His mind is designed to be more powerful than an ordinary human's, and it's still a lot even for him. ]

Do you— Ah... Is it known how it all started? What caused the time loops in the first place?

We have a strong theory that most of us have accepted to be the truth. I suppose it's been a while since we've included it in the weekly orientations for new arrivals...

[But she'll need to explain a bit, for why they're certain this was the case--]

The flow of time has always been a bit odd in our world due to the existence of Sora magic. Using it, you can manipulate the flow of time, but typically only on a small scale. The natural time surges that pop up here and there are also powered by Sora magic.

Ordinarily, there are limits to what can be accomplished by single spell. But magi-tech is designed to move around these restrictions, allowing even non-magic users to cast spells through technology. Your magi-comms are a good example -- they run by casting thousands of very precise spells, which work in tandem with the technology so that it never loses power or signal.

We believe that someone created a device to cast a powerful Sora magic spell. Essentially-- they were trying to make a time machine. But when that spell backfired, it was amplified by an unimaginable magnitude.

The reason we can only call this a theory-- is that such a machine shouldn't be possible using the technology available today. Meaning that whoever created the machine broke the past.

[ The explanation is a lot, to someone for whom most of this magic and time loop business seems like fantasy. But he's been trying to broaden his definitions of what is or isn't real, upon being brought here. So he coaches himself to accept the explanation as it's given, and move forward from there. ]

That doesn't sound awfully fair. We're all paying the price for a mistake that hasn't been made yet.

It isn't fair, no. And for that reason, we tend not to talk about it too much. After all, it wouldn't be too difficult to imagine who might one day be responsible for such a thing. And I refuse to allow anyone to punish someone for a crime they've yet to commit.

Of course, with everything that's occured, that future is unlikely to ever happen now. But as for what sort of time paradox we've spawned as a result... that, we don't yet understand.

I wonder if whoever made the time machine mistake-- or, whoever will make it-- is even aware of the paradox that's resulted.

[ Not that it would make anything better for those living inside the paradox timeline. ]

...the person as they are now is aware. But the person they may have one day become may not even exist anymore.

While we are aware of circumstances in which someone can exist in two places at once, we've decide there's no merit in pursuing that possibility.

And in any case, it has no impact on what we choose to do from this point forward.

[ He wants to ask who the person is. But it feels like overstepping some kind of boundary. Like even if she did tell him, it wouldn't be information he ought to have any right to know.

So, he'll focus on the rest of what she says. ]

And what is it that we choose to do? ...That the NRL is choosing to do, that is.

[Ranpo sent a text to the NRL's medical team asking for advice about a possible pregnancy. He kept the details vague, but it seems he's been seen through somewhat. And he gets a phone call right away.]

--ah, yes? This is Ranpo?

[Ah. He was hoping to just have this talk over email, but looks like he has to talk to more people about being mpreg'd.]

Edogawa-san, yes? Er, if I may, you're... certain? That this is a possibility?

Do you really think I would send a message like that as a joke?

N-No, not at all! Just... mm.

[His voice sounds distinctly worried.]

If you believe this may be a possibility, then for your own safety, please stay where you are. The less you move around the better. You can stay in a single area-- a room would be better, just... try not to leave, if you can avoid it. We'll be sending someone to you, so it may take a few hours.

Why go to all that trouble? I'm still in the West, so can't I just catch a train back?

[He's asking solely to fish for an explanation. He knows the answer is no, just not why.]

...as you know, we strongly encourage all refugees to take birth control upon arrival, regardless of whether they're sexually active. While it's not something people like talking about... the reason is because of time surges. Even a simple time surge can become fatal if their unborn child is affected by it.

[Let's not think about why that is!!]

It's been an issue in Nippon for a long time, long before we knew what time surges were. But ever since the time loop, the issue has become exponentially worse. So far, mandatory bed rest or restricting the movements of those who are expecting have been the only methods to allow for safe pregnancies. But even still... ah.

[He trails off, clearing his throat, and then continues.]

In any case, please wait until then. We can discuss the next few steps after that.

[.................]

Yeah.

I'll just stay right here.

[Thanks for the nightmare fuel!!]

Edited 2021-07-08 07:52 (UTC)

NPC Contact Post

March 5th | Action | Shigure

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June 26th | Action | Shizuko

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Sorry for the delay!

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July 8th | Audio | Shigure

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cw: implied pregnancy-related body horror

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