004 [Video/Public]

[otakuro]

[VINDICATION YES WEEKS OF WASTING HOURS READING ABOUT THE MOST POINTLESS CRAP HE'S EVER HAD TO STUDY COME TO FRUITION PRAISE THE GODS HE HAD BETTER GET SOME KIND OF MEDAL WHEN THIS WAS DONE

No wait this was a bad thing ahem yes very bad the proper thing to do in this case was to maintain a certain air of decorum and er grave sincerity yes grave.  ...Atsuro can't help grinning slightly anyway as the COMP feed flickers on.]

Look sharp, guys.  Those of you who were around back in October know what this means.  For everyone else...  The news broadcast probably could have stood to be a little more informative.

Let's do a quick recap.  Back in October, about a week before the 23rd, we started noticing that a few of us were acting a little strange.  This escalated over the next few days until some of us were brainwashed into trying to attack people and some of us were brainwashed into being terrified of everything that moved.  And, uh... sometime during all this, all of these giant scorpions started falling from the sky or something; I don't know.  It was probably a totally related natural progression.  Anyway, on the 23rd itself, a really huge scorpion monster appeared, and a few of us had to beat it off.  We compared notes afterwards and realized that the behavioral changes all had to do with what star sign you had.  If you have no idea what that is, just hold on a sec.  The important thing is that the ones who were attacking had the sign of Scorpio and the ones who were frightened were Leos, Taurii, and Aquarius...es...ii.

I know a lot of you aren't from Earth, or if you are from Earth, you're not from the right time period to even have Scorpius or Taurus as constellations anymore.  I can do a quick explanation of astrology if you want, but it's really a lot of trouble for something that's pretty much meaningless for you - It has to do with what day of the year you were born in, and which imaginary pictures formed by stars in the sky were closest to the sun then.  There are 12 of them, and each one is supposed to mean different things about your personality and the people you'll fall in love with or something.  ...Try not to think about it too much.  You can just take a look at the little ID cards you get when you come to the city and your completely arbitrary sign should be listed there.

Anyway, we're already off schedule.  The 21st - that's today - is the first day we're supposed to be under the sign of Taurus.  If a monster appears, it's probably not going to happen for a few days so it looks like the government is trying to quarantine everyone before it does.

The one thing is... I don't want to undermine our great government or anything, but I don't think their predictions are right.  Scorpios were the main targets last time because the sun was swinging into that area of the night sky; Leos, Aquariuses, and Taurii were affected because of something to do with the relationship between the signs. I never could find any consistent information or an exact chart or anything, but I don't think it's just going to be the same people as six months ago.  We'll be able to gather more data after this round, but I think everyone should be on guard for emotional changes, regardless of what your sign is.

...Also be on guard for giant bulls, because that's really not going to be fun at all.

Comments

[otakuro]

Yeah. I mean... my world worked pretty much the same as this one does, I think. All of the spells are similar, but there are a few extra elements here - Light, Dark, Earth, and Water. We also had Force instead of Wind, but it seems like the same thing.

The naming conventions are strange. I'm not sure what language root they come from, but you've probably figured out that Agi is Fire, Bufu is Ice, Garu is Wind, Zio is Elec, and Dia is Recovery. Like I said, we had Zan for Force instead of Wind, but the effect is the same. It looks like they've added Hama for Light and Mudo for Dark over here - Aqua and Magna are Latin, of course, but the rest definitely aren't.

[bondsofsuffering]

Wait, so you're saying the spells even had similar names where you come from?

[Huh.]

[otakuro]

Well. If the demons are the same, it stands to reason they'd be using the same techniques, right?

[bondsofsuffering]

But those are skills Personas use too, aren't they?

[otakuro]

Right.

Personas seem to be a way of letting people use demonic powers - just like my COMP does for me. It seems to be reasonable to say that the demons in this world and in mine - a few others, too - all came from the same source.

[bondsofsuffering]

...

I wonder if it has anything to do with that alternate world theory? I mean, there have been a few people here who are almost the same person before, right?

[It's mostly thoughtful musing to himself...]

[otakuro]

I don't know what you mean by theory, but I can tell you that alternate worlds definitely do exist.

[bondsofsuffering]

Sorry-- I guess it's force of habit to keep calling it that.

Do you know if there's a specific number of worlds like yours represented here? Ones that could have come from the same branch.

[otakuro]

There's at least three.

[Atsuro gives a small shrug.]

They're all based off of a single decision made late in an... important event that happened, though. I can think of any number of combinations of worlds - and that only includes events that I was directly involved in.

[bondsofsuffering]

A single different action leads to a completely different outcome, which leads to a whole other world...

It's probably not too much of a stretch to say that the worlds with matching abilities are all likely from the same root, even if they did end up far different. If just one decision could influence your world to that extent, then a large number of them could easily create a world that's hardly recognizable by comparison.

[otakuro]

...

[Atsuro has to think about this for a few moments.]

So you're saying... Every world that has these demons is an alternate one split from some decision made long, long ago?

[bondsofsuffering]

Well, it would make sense that way, wouldn't it? And all of the worlds that resemble earth - they could easily be the same case.

...This is all just conjecture, though. It would be difficult to find any evidence either way.

[otakuro]

...If we go back far enough to the point of creation, maybe every single world is an alternate universe of another when God changed his mind on some details.

[Atsuro is joking, but his expression is serious. It certainly wasn't a possibility he had considered before... But even if it were true, what were the actual ramifications it had on the reality he lived in?]

[bondsofsuffering]

It's possible. After making a whole universe, it must be pretty boring to just sit around and watch it. Alternate universes could just be an elaborate game of "what if?"

[What if someone died here? What if no one died here?

What if there was a game between God and the Devil...?]

[otakuro]

...So God got bored and decided to create the multiverse, some of which are infested with demons, just because?

[Accurate.]

...Anyway. I think the point was that these demon powers aren't too new for me.

[bondsofsuffering]

Sounds believable to me!

[Between the Creator and Kiyotaka, both of the Gods Hizumi knows of are kind of assholes.]

Your world must be convenient with these kinds of abilities, though. We don't have any magic like that in mine. Well, outside of fiction, anyway!

[otakuro]

No way. You don't think we had these things normally, do you? It only started to be a thing in the last week before I came here - if you didn't pick up a COMP and learn to use demon powers, you were toast.

[bondsofsuffering]

Heeeh, really? What kicked that off?

[otakuro]

...Off the top of my head, I'd be willing to guess the demons did.

[bondsofsuffering]

Well, duh.

[Really, Atsuro.]

But why?

[otakuro]

...Your guess is as good as mine.

[Not strictly true, but Atsuro felt no need to go into the details about Naoya and the Shomonkai and Yehowah at the moment.]

[bondsofsuffering]

[He gives a penetrating stare, but only for a split second. He doesn't believe Atsuro, not really - the guy seems pretty smart, so he's sure that even if Atsuro doesn't know the full story, he's got at least a hypothesis.

But just like that, he goes back to his usual flippant air.]

Aah, I guess having a power like that without having to pay a price really is too convenient. [If... having to deal with demons everywhere could be considered a price.] Too bad!

[otakuro]

It's not like they're good for anything except fighting demons, anyway.

[Atsuro frowns for a few moments.]

I mean, could you imagine everyone being able to destroy a city block with Megidolaon? That'd be a pretty terrible idea.

[bondsofsuffering]

That was one of those weird spells, wasn't it? Not exactly an element of its own and kind of a game breaker in terms of strength?

[otakuro]

Megidoalaon is probably the strongest spell, yeah.

[A short pause.]

If you have any magical aptitude. [Atsuro doesn't.] It does have an element, actually; it's Almighty, which means that nothing resists it. It costs a lot of energy to use, though.

...The point is, demon abilities are fine if you have to fight demons. But... I'd rather just have a normal world, really.