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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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.

[He can’t help but smile, very briefly, when she wonders about the station on the moon. They hadn’t made it to Martian orbit by Quatre’s time, but he knew it was coming in the next few decades, and the lunar base in his own world has been around for longer than he’s been alive. It’s amazing how many different worlds people could come from... but they’re talking about someone’s attempt to eliminate the state of Florida in a missile strike, so that does a good job of removing that expression from his face very quickly.] I think they were trying to. I don’t know if we’ll ever know the full reason. I hope we do, so we can take steps to stop it from happening again, but unless they contact us to tell us, we can only guess.

[And he’s biased from experience to assume there are alternative motives here, given how many different reasons the people in his universe managed to come up with to justify continuing the war or trying to exterminate life on planet Earth.]

That's... that's horrible!

[ She didn't believe this place to be a bastion of perfection, but to think a missile was launched with every intent to kill... it makes her feel so small and powerless. How does anyone stop a missile?

And with a never-ending Cold War, what can Haru do to help? She doesn't want to be the government's puppet, but lives are now at stake? ]

Only someone so heartless could do something without consideration for other lives.

It's one thing to want to attack imPorts. That's what most people think, that this is all to try to get rid of us. I can understand why they could view us as a threat. [He glances away to look out at the horizon again, folding his knees up against his chest as the sun continues to go down. This feels like a conversation that he's had too many times to count; it's only natural that he slips into his old manners of talking, when he's not watching how he phrases the distinction between 'us' and 'them.'] But involving civilians in something like this is another matter entirely. They just live here. They shouldn't be at risk just because of us.

[ Because of how new she is, Haru doesn't understand why imPorts are targets in the first place. ]

But why us? Have we done something these people don't like?

[He pauses for a moment to figure out how best to put his thoughts into words. He finds it's easier to say without looking back at the camera.]

...If a group of strangers came to your home, and they were much more powerful than you... maybe they're not all violent, but a few of them are, and some of them want to get their own way, and you knew that most people wouldn't be able to stop them, because they're so much stronger. The only thing that would stop them from hurting people is your faith that they don't want to. Would you be worried?

[ Haru falters, but nods understandingly a moment later. ]

I... I do see your point. A sudden change in your life, especially one that may be a threat... no, I can't blame anyone for being frightened.

That doesn't justify what they did. [He says it quickly but firmly.] They can't really care about the safety of the natives [that was the right word, this time, not 'civilians'] of this world and do something like that-- they're the ones who would be most hurt by it, not us. But I... understand why regular people, people who are just trying to live their lives, wouldn't feel safe with us around, even if we hadn't done anything wrong to them.

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