maskormenace | VIDEO: 002

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VIDEO: 002

It’s funny how time works here, isn’t it... Even disregarding what happened with the missile launch.

[Quatre’s sitting on a beach outside Heropa-- one of the meteor-viewing party spots-- as the sun sets; his eyes keep drifting away from the camera to watch the light off the water.]

For example, my birthday was a few days ago, by this world’s calendar. Back in my world, it was December, but I arrived here in March. I want to say that it’s hard to believe it’s been a year... but it hasn’t been, not really. Ten months, give or take. In the end, I suppose it’s the date that’s more important than how much time has passed, especially when no one else in this world would know that it matters.

[After a second, he visibly catches himself, smiling apologetically at the camera.] I'm sorry, that’s pretty dramatic for a birthday, isn’t it? I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s had to deal with this, for birthdays or holidays or important dates back home. I’d like to know what people normally do, or if it’s not something that’s worth worrying about.

...Well, in either case, it's been a year or ten months since I first came to Earth. I was mostly in Europe and Asia before, so I’d like to see more of this country while I can. If anyone has any recommendations for places to visit, I’d love to hear them. [His eyes are wandering off to the horizon again.] It really is beautiful here.

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[ A young girl of eighteen, with thick curls and wide eyes gazes back at him with such interest and sincerity. ]

I don't find it dramatic at all. It must be difficult not to think about these things in a place like this.

[ A beat. ]

Happy belated birthday, too.

Thank you. [He smiles back because he can't help himself, he's drawn to sincerity, even when he's moping around in his own emotions.] It just seems a bit silly, talking through it when it's all so arbitrary, in the end. Are you new here?

[ A gentle chuckle. ]

Is it so obvious?

[ Or maybe he just pays attention to the network. ]

Oh, no! I just recognized you from your video. [He smiles a little sheepishly; he pays a lot of attention to the network.] You're not showing your hand, I promise. Or if you are, I haven't been here long enough to tell either.

Ah, I see. I had thought us newcomers were too easy to spot.

[ She smiles. ]

Have you never had a birthday celebration of your own before?

I wouldn't worry about it. I think enough people come and go that even if it was obvious, the ones who have been here the longest are used to answering our silly questions.

When I was a child, we had a few, but not for the past several years. I come from a large family, and celebrating everyone's birthday would get exhausting. It's mostly calls from some of my sisters and lots of thank you notes.

I think birthdays deserve to be celebrated, though.

[ They bring people so much joy, but she wouldn't know how exhausting they can be coming from a large family. She is an only child, after all. ]

At the very least it's good you get something. How many sisters do you have?

Twenty-nine of them. I'm the youngest.

...which is why individual celebrations would be difficult. It's not as though everyone ignored it, though. We just couldn't manage to do something thirty times a year.

[ ... give her a moment here. ]

Twenty-nine?!

[ The poor woman who gave birth to all them?! ]

Yes. [he knows it's not exactly normal, so he helpfully adds] It's bigger than average for my world as well.

[ She's really having a hard time wrapping her thoughts around it. ]

That is certainly a big family... wow. I can hardly imagine how big the house must be then!

Well, most of them were out of the house by the time I was growing up-- the eldest is nearly 40 by now. But we do have a large house. [he adds as an afterthought, as if he didn't grow up in an enormous mansion.] Getting the entire family together is an endeavor, so it's usually just whoever is able to come by for important events.

[ She wonders if they're all blood related or if they're step-siblings if the oldest sister is pushing 40, but she remains quiet on that. It would be impolite, she thinks, to question family dynamics like that. ]

It must be exciting when any of the family is able to get together. I wouldn't have minded having some siblings growing up.

Ah, are you an only child? [It's impossible for him to picture what that would be like; even when the house was empty he was always painfully aware of the rest of his family, and the idea that there could always be another child.] You can borrow some of mine, if you'd like. They'd love the chance to make it an even thirty. It means a lot of fussing, though, and I'll have to teach you their names so they don't tease you for forgetting one.

I am.

[ Which made it quite lonely growing up. Her mother had passed long ago and her father was invested in his business, pushing aside sentiment and morals in order to gain wealth and influence. ]

I think that would be fine by me. That kind of warmth and love... it's good that you have that in your life.

[He hadn't always thought of it that way. Even just a few years ago, he was still moody and bitter growing up with a father who had thirty children created in a lab until he got the son he wanted for an heir, feeling like he was more a tool to continue the family business than an individual.

But he thinks of his sister telling him that they all supported him, that even their father had been concerned-- angry, he'd expected, but also concerned-- after he left. He thinks of the Maganacs, adopting him into their family because they cared about him and wanted him to care about himself as well. He smiles, glancing down at the beach around them; it's funny how much he could only see in retrospect.] Yes. I haven't always appreciated it, but I'm very lucky.

[It's a lot to dwell on, today of all days, so he smiles apologetically when he looks back at the camera and gently changes the subject.] I'm sorry. You mentioned your name in your video, but I can't recall it. I'm Quatre.

[ She's felt similarly; she was a tool for her father to use, though he struggled against his love for her vs. his desire for power. Considering her grandfather's debts, it makes sense to Haru why her father did the things he did, even if she disagreed with it and hated the life he held her prisoner in. ]

Don't worry about it. My name's Haru. [ She waves a hand. ] It's so nice to meet you, Quatre.

And you as well, Haru. Like I mentioned earlier, I haven't been here very long myself, but I'm happy to help out in any way that I can as you get settled in.

Thank you, it's much appreciated.

[ Everyone here is really nice. There's that old thought in the back of her head that maybe they want to take advantage of her for something in return, but rationality sets in to remind her these people don't know her. What could they want? ]

I think I will settle in well enough soon. I have Ken Kaneki's notes to read. Unless there's something else that us newcomers aren't told?

They're a very helpful resource, aren't they? [Quatre has a little more information that didn't make it into Kaneki's notes, possibly because it was so old, but Duo had asked him not to advertise their connection... ah, well, it's probably better not to overload her anyway. He only accepted it so quickly because it was Duo telling him directly, from first hand experience from nearly ten years ago.] Has it been updated yet to talk about what happened with the recent missile launch? I'd imagine you'll see a lot of people discussing it as if everyone knows what they're talking about.

Missile launch?

[ She's puzzled. ]

What do you mean?

[He makes a sympathetic face; even if he's the one who brought it up, he feels bad about being the one to break the news to her. It would be today, wouldn't it.]

I don't mean to alarm you so soon after you arrived, and I know this is going to sound difficult to believe, but... in the early morning of March 20, AD 2018, a missile was detected heading towards Heropa. Somehow [he knows from experience that getting into Lachesis now makes this more complicated, and that Lachesis herself isn't as well known as he was led to believe, so he skips over that detail for now] time reversed before it hit, so we had a chance to stop it. We managed to destroy it before it entered the Earth Sphe-- sorry, before it entered Earth's orbit, but only after the day repeated itself several times.

[He knows how it sounds hearing it summed up like that, so he pauses and says again, apologetically] I know that's a lot to hear. I can do my best to explain it more.

[ She can't control how her brows pull toward each other, concern seeping into her expression. ]

That sounds frightening... where did that missile come from? Time repeating...? I had no idea such things could happen here.

I think it was the first time something like that did happen here. Time repeating, that is. [He can answer the other question with much more confidence, since he'd mapped the trajectory himself.] The missile launched from Mars. I believe Kaneki's notes mention the OTO-- Otherworldly Technologies? The current theory is that they built a station on Phobos, one of Mars' moons.

[He's not comfortable speculating on why; it never sat right with him that the answer would be purely about the imPorts and their presence in this universe.]

If you check the network archives for March 19th, you'll see a number of entries in that 24 hour stretch of time. For whatever reason, those didn't disappear each time the day reset. But-- [almost as an afterthought, though he does look concerned as he brings it up] some of the videos are rather graphic. It was a very tense period of time. I don't think we normally deal with crises that are that extreme.

A station on a far off moon? It's impossible to imagine...

[ There have been no technological advancements like that back home for her, so it's hard to wrap her head around it. ]

But why did someone launch it? That could have hurt so many people.

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