datadiving | this is fun and we have fun here

[This was all such a pain. It's bad enough that she had all those other chores to do (and then got backstabbed after finishing, the nerve...), but there was still her own mess to clean up. ...Which really wasn't her fault at all and the fact she had to fix it was really just unfair.]

[Either way, she eventually found the shattered hourglass and the strange, time distorting substance leaking out. Once inside, nothing looked that much difference from the outside.]

[Who knows how much crazier things will be once reaching the bottom though, and the kid better hurry if she wants to get there soon. Although...there was that feeling like she was being watched again. She curiously looked up to find it.]

[...Okay that is definitely someone the kid's never seen in this forest before. She would have definitely remembered running into a human...not counting the really scary lady in the manor. But it does take a little more time to notice anything that was familiar. ...Wait a second.]

-! Hey! [She wanders closer beneath the tree, to get his attention.]

Edited 2019-04-29 11:35 (UTC)

[ He glances down at her. He makes no indication of coming down yet, but he's certainly listening. ]

Hello.

This is an odd dream. Why are you here?

I'm here because of all of this! [Waves arms out to motion at everything. ...No this does not really explain anything.]

...You look different.

I see. [ He doesn't see at all, but he's always tended to make soothing understanding noises as a default reaction. ]

Do I, now? [ He looks down at himself, clearly confused. ] This is what I've always looked like, so I'll have to take your word for it.

[What no, that's not at all how he looked.] Really? You always looked more like a dog before.

[She should know this, especially after riding on him a few times.]

[And no, not just because of that mask. Although that sure does not help.]

[ That seems to make something click in his head. ] Before? Ah.

No, this is what I looked like before. What I am now is different. [ Cryptic, as usual. ]

Before...

[...Oh, wait! That's right.]

--Just like how everything else in the forest is different now! [He had mentioned it awhile ago...and now the kid actually did find some evidence to back that claim up.]

That's exactly right. [ His smile is a little sad. ] It used to be very different, but that was a lifetime ago.

[ Probably several lifetimes by now. Time is hard to keep track of when you're dead. ] It's a shame.

[ And that's an understatement. ]

...

[It is strange that he would look this way now. Rarely those who enter a rift would change themselves, nor could he be a ghostly recreation if he still remembers the outside. There was something very particular about this one...]

[The kid hesitated. She should just hurry and close up the rift, thinking he might slow her down. But yet...]

Hey, you should come with me then! I think you might be surprised~

Will I, now? [ He seems vaguely amused. ] Then I hope such a surprise doesn't bite.

[ He'll follow her, then. And prove adept at keeping up; even without the benefits of being a shadow-dog, he seems quite agile anyway. ]

[...Whether she wanted to admit it or not, it was kind of nice to be accompanied along the way too. Being a lone space girl meant there was plenty of time of just loneliness.]

...These sorts of things don't last for long anyway. So I guess now is the only time to experience it.

[ That loneliness is something they both share, even if it's not addressed or spoken of. Of the people he knows to exist, one is decidedly and irretrievably estranged; the other refuses to speak of times past, and would rather focus on the present.

The forest and what it's become is his home just as much as it is theirs, but he still feels he doesn't belong any more.

He likes the company, too. It's fun. It reminds him of better days. ]

What manner of magic is this? I've never seen anything like it.

It reminds me of the stars in the place I used to live, before I came here.

[ At night, the Skylines could almost be another world - in the presence of the Twilight Bell, especially. Everything changed once the sun went down, so high above the clouds. ]

It's a Time Rift! One of my pieces is doing all this. [...And not exactly sure if to be proud or slightly humiliated by that statement. A lot of this planet's problems had been caused by her. Some might find all this stuff really neat - and it is, but it was also such a hindrance to get back and return everything back to normal.]

Most of time if they break like this, they don't...really lead to anywhere particular. But sometimes, sometimes they will show things from the past.

[...]

[And now she really must know.]

...You haven't been hit in the head with anything lately, have you?

Oh, your strange hourglasses. [ He's got little idea of how they work, but they seem to be vital to her return, so he's glad, in the end, that she got them back.

Even if she did beat up Snatcher. As much as he likes him, he can't say it wasn't an undeserved beating. ~~Also, it was funny.~~ ]

Hmm...

[ He has to think about it. ] I think I did get hit by something, yes. Not so long ago.

[ He hadn't really paid attention to it. ] Is that important?

[Oh, has he now?]That might explain a lot then. ...These sorts of time rifts especially seem to happen if they land on somebody.

[The kid moved on a little further until suddenly a few of the pons she had collected floated out of her pocket and rose above them, then shattered open with light. As the light fade, it was abundantly clear that they weren't in the same place anymore. Not quite anyway. The forest was full of lush green trees and grass. Not a single trace of deadly swamp water, burning woods, or that one spot that appeared to be permanently frozen. It is far more peaceful than all that.]

[ The forest looks -- like it used to, not how it is now. Some things are the same - lanterns and the way the trees cluster together - but moonlight filters down through the leaves and fireflies dance in the darkness. Clean and bright.

He's silent for a long moment, and then he laughs, weakly. ]

This certainly is powerful magic.

[ It's been a long time since he's been able to remember this with such clarity. It's a shock to his senses. He doesn't know where to look.

The village still thrives. He can hear the voices of children, distant and laughing. The sounds of forest creatures, filling the night.

Everything is as it was.

He appears to be somewhat shellshocked. ]

...I guess you could say it's magic. [It's a little more scientific than that, but sure. We'd be here all night if she tried explaining every little bit of it, and that's not nearly as fun as getting to explore it all. She likes this version of the forest a lot better already.]

This must be a really old memory. [Which, the kid already had a strong guess this would happen. If his appearance was in some part reflecting what this time rift was going to be like.]

[She was distracted by the sound of other kids nearby. It would seem that they aren't alone, let's go check it out! ...Well, check it out without being creeps about it.]

[ Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, et cetera, something something. He looks at her oddly, for a moment, but doesn't question it. ]

[ There are masked children, doing the things that children do; playing and shouting and talking together. Instead of dwellings crammed with shadows and yellow eyes, there are people; the houses in the trees and on the ground bright with lights and life. ]

It is. It's been -- a lifetime, since it looked this way.

Well, several. I suppose it must be several, by this point.

[ He sounds a little distracted; a small group of three children has caught his eye. A girl with long, blonde hair and a horned mask; a brown-haired boy dressed in purple, with a mask shaped like a moon turned on its side; a boy with white hair and a mask that mimics a fox's face.

They're talking about something or other, excitedly. ]

[He did sound distracted. The kid looked over at what he was staring at too for a moment and watched. What was so special about them?]

[Actually...]

[She looked up at him again. Hey, one of those kids does have the same sort of mask as him. That's weird.]

[With that little found detail, she approached them closer.]

[ He doesn't remember what they were talking about - his memory is so hazy, and he made it that way for a reason, he thinks - so even up close, there's not much to hear.

The boy with brown hair says something indistinct, and laughs; the boy with the fox mask smiles to hear it. The girl tosses her hair (decorated with flowers), but it's easy to tell that even under the mask, she's amused.

But it is easy to tell, this close, and with him following dazedly behind like he doesn't know what to think, that the child with his mask looks too much like him to be a coincidence. ]

this is fun and we have fun here

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I'm just going to say 'eff you' to game mechanics from here on

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