Anonymous text after the Taurus event

[trainwrecking]

[No way is he showing his face to Hinoto-Ri: not now, not soon. Time heals all wounds, and time is exactly what he needs to work through the aftermath of the event.]

The government announcement and star sign "sickness" —

Will this happen to us a lot? Is this just how it works here? What can we do to... stop it?

...

I'm sorry.

Comments

permanon text/private;

[trainwrecking]

Maybe they would, but maybe not. If people thought it might be a one-time event, or if people were trying to get back to their lives after--

Wait. . .

Mind control, brainwashing... Like hypnotism, right? What if someone did have experience with something like that?

[otakuro]

Aw, come on. We're brought here to defend the city; hoping it won't happen again isn't a good excuse. I mean, it's not like I did anything of any practical help, either... Predicting the signs doesn't mean anything if you can't stop it.

If someone knows how to fight these things, they should probably speak up.

[trainwrecking]

Yeah, but just because we were brought here to defend doesn't mean that everyone does. And some visitors are new and had no idea what was going on. Predicting when these things happen is at least a step ahead of where we are now. . .

I don't know how, but I knew someone who taught himself hypnotism. There must be a way to learn something like that. . . If we learned, maybe we could teach ourselves to combat it—

or at least have a higher tolerance for brainwashing. Any defense is better than what we have.

[otakuro]

...Susceptibility to hypnotism is a personal thing, too. Some people are able to combat it more easily than others. I don't know if learning how to hypnotize someone means you're any less susceptible to it, though.

Still, it can't hurt. I guess there must be books like that in the library...

[trainwrecking]

Learning it wouldn't make us less susceptible, but having it used on us regularly and learning how to break out of it might. . . ?

Periods of lucidity during these events would help, even.

. . . I'm not convinced this is a perfect solution, but I need a lead somewhere. I plan to research astrology too.

[otakuro]

Ohh, sorry. ...Yeah. That might help, if it's working on the same principle or something. I don't know if people can learn to be less susceptible, but there's no harm trying. It's kind of like equipping a Null Mind ability, right?

Good luck with the astrology. I tried it for a few weeks, and the whole thing just sounds like people making things up off the top of their heads.

[trainwrecking]

Yeah. And if it doesn't work, I can cross it off as an option. It's at least some progress.

I --

Yeah, I thought the same thing. It seems like it comes right out of an old myth, or maybe something you would find in high school magazines. . . Those dating magazines? Something like that.

I thought it was pseudoscience.

[otakuro]

I think the worst part is that half the people here don't even have the same stars back home. It's like the universe doesn't care about it making sense more than it just wants us to suffer.

[trainwrecking]

I'd like to have more faith in the universe than that, but. . .

This world is looking more and more strange.

[otakuro]

Did you come from an Earth before?

[trainwrecking]

Yes, but... no?

I... was dead. It sounds weird to talk about it like as a past event, but... I came from an Afterlife with rules that weren't exactly like Earth's. Close in some ways, but not always.

[otakuro]

...An Afterlife? Capitalized?

[It is hard to express stunned disbelief through text but Atsuro will hold off on the pages of ellipses.]

Well. I've heard enough crazy things here to believe it. Did you... start off on Earth, though?

[trainwrecking]

Uhh I think so? I only ever referred to it that way. . . Except I've heard there's more than one, so maybe I shouldn't anymore . . .

[He's not sure if that's worrisome or comforting.]

Yeah, I did. I don't remember exactly where... Japan, I know, but no specifics.

[otakuro]

...Huh.

[There were too many questions to decide which one to start off with.]

Well. This is still Japan, I think. Just... after the apocalypse or something.

...I know this is kind of off-topic, but you're awfully casual about being dead.

[trainwrecking]

It sounds Japanese, but I was never sure. . .

[He stops. Well, yes--he had gotten so used to people saying "oh, okay" that he hadn't thought twice about mentioning it.]

I'm not as casual as some others. . . It became a joke to everyone else

"Oh it's not like you can die!" or "I'll kill you! Isn't that funny?" After a while I guess you just have to accept it. Being dead I mean, not being killed over and over again just because you'll come back anyway

[otakuro]

Being dead sounds an awful lot like... being alive. Just in a different place. Is it... the Christian heaven? Hell? Some sort of alternate dimension where everything is made of chocolate?

[trainwrecking]

It was. . . It felt so normal that I thought people were lying to me about it. Except you can never die permanently. . .

Christian heaven or hell? Uhh... no, I don't think so. I'm not exactly well-versed on Christianity but I'm sure it wasn't like that. It was, uh

well

it looked like a private school ground.

[otakuro]

...Oh. So. ...Purgatory?

[Haha very funny etc. etc.]

Did you actually have to go to school?

[trainwrecking]

Uh. . . I guess you could call it that yeah. Isn't that a harsh place though?

[Maybe he's wrong, but wasn't Purgatory a place of suffering? The afterlife had suffering, but not fire-and-brimstone style.]

No not exactly. We were supposed to go, but only one person heavily enforced it. The punishments for not going weren't that bad otherwise.

[otakuro]

S-So... Does dying mean anything? There's no change? You just sort of... keep going to school?

[trainwrecking]

It does. I'm not explaining well

. . .

It was somewhere to fulfill your regrets from life and live normally if you didn't get a chance to when you were alive. If you lived a normal school life and felt fulfilled, then you disappeared from there.

[otakuro]

I think I see...

[Vaguely. It did seem vaguely purgatory-ish.]

Sorry to ask so many questions. ...I'm not sure if your afterlife will be the same as mine, but it might be good to know.

Ah.

But you're alive here now, right?

[trainwrecking]

[It's complicated. He's sorry.]

It's OK. I asked a lot of questions when I was introduced to it too.

I'm alive here, though I'm not sure how that's even possible. I don't mind, mostly

[otakuro]

Do you think you'd want to go back?

[From this guy's description, purg -- the Afterlife honestly didn't seem like such a bad deal. But... still. If you vanished after living a 'fulfilling life', it either meant the end of existence or it meant there was still something else after this private school.]

<font face="courier'>...You don't have to answer that if you don't want to.

[trainwrecking]

I. . . don't know. I wanted to when I showed up

Now I feel like I should make the best of it here, too. This is a second chance for me to live as myself. . . I didn't think I'd get that.

[... Even if it hasn't been so great lately.]

I have a question for you, too. . . It's sort of related.