Video 001

[seasaltkey]

[A screen pops up and at first nothing is seen, though the noise of something rubbing against the screen is plainly heard. There's a muffled voice before whatever was rubbing against it was pulled away. There's now a blond haired boy on the screen, a blue bird with cloud like wings on his shoulder.]

Doesn't look like the fall broke it, Sky... Huh? It's on?

[The boy stood straighter and looked around.]

I guess we can send a message this way.

[He looks down at the screen again as his little friend chirps.]

If anyone can hear this, can you tell me what's going on? This lady said she was my mom, and there was this old guy who gave me a red and white ball and talked about Pokémon. Is that what Sky is? She just looks like a bird with clouds for wings.

[Sky objects to this and chirps shrilly into her trainer's ears. This causes the boy to drop the device, which promptly lands on the grass. Now there's just a view of the sky and muffled grumbling.]

Comments

[friendyousohard]

Perhaps it's just with strangers... Or it could have been her position at the time. She'd only just arrived here and the friends she was waiting for hadn't picked her up yet. That would make anyone a bit nervous.

[Well, it could be any number of reasons and speculation is kind of useless. Moving on to the more important topic.]

I thought that might be the case. Well, as you probably have realized by now, people can be plucked out of their own world at any time, no matter what they were doing before. The same goes for being sent back. The difference is you don't keep your memories of this place when you go back to your own world.

But people who have left can return, and sometimes they have their memories again when they do. Sometimes, however, they don't.

[seasaltkey]

Maybe. I know Sora and Riku are trying to get me to go with them. They're not really my friends... but Naminé is with them.

[That reminds him of something from earlier!]

Is that why Riku welcomed me back? He said I'd been here before.

[friendyousohard]

That's probably it, yeah. Most likely you have been here before, but you didn't keep your memories of it when this place brought you back.

Why some people keep their memories and others don't is still up in the air, I'm afraid. It probably has something to do with time.

[seasaltkey]

I don't get it... I don't think I'm the same person. Is there any way to prove it? And how long ago was I here? Have you met others like me without memories?

[Questions. Now it seems it's his turn.]

[friendyousohard]

Any way to prove what? That the "Roxas" who was here before is the same as the "Roxas" I'm talking to now? Well, there's probably never going to be any concrete proof, but I'd start by talking to the people who knew the Roxas that was here before and seeing what he told them about his world. If it lines up with what you know, then that's some pretty solid evidence.

[seasaltkey]

[He puts a hand over his heart, frowning.]

But if I was really here, wouldn't I remember it even a little?

[Sora kept saying things about being connected to others through their hearts in his dreams... if he was here before, his heart would let him know... right?]

[friendyousohard]

You'd think so, but there's a power out there that we can't understand. It could be suppressing, even removing our memories.

I've... been here a couple times before now myself. Some of my best friends from home told me so. But none of those memories have ever surfaced for me.

[seasaltkey]

Than maybe we're not the same people? If we come from different times, it's possible, right? Or even different... [What's that word...] dimensions! Is that possible?

[friendyousohard]

I can't say it's impossible, but there's no evidence for it. And typically speaking, it's best to go with the simplest possible explanation, which in this case is simply that something's blocking or erasing our memories.

[seasaltkey]

What if I don't want accept the simple explanation? I want to know what's going on!

[friendyousohard]

[Well if he's going to act like a brat about it she'll just revert to lecturing teacher mode.]

Well I'm afraid that's just beyond the realm of anyone to help. No one can give you answers we don't have.

[seasaltkey]

I'll find them then.

[He's got a stubborn mode that can rival your teacher mode.]

[friendyousohard]

And where will you search? How will you look? What will you do to try to uncover the answers that the rest of us haven't tried already?

[She knows logic is probably useless here, but she can't help but try.]

[seasaltkey]

I'll go wherever I think I'll find something. If there's no answers, then there's no answers. But I won't know that unless I try to find them on my own!

[friendyousohard]

By Celestia's mane... I didn't say there weren't any answers, I just said we didn't have them! And you're not going to be the one to find them charging off wildly who knows where! Do you even know how to do research?

[seasaltkey]

No.

[Wait.]

Yes. I did a research project with my friends for school. We investigated an entire town!

[friendyousohard]

Okay, well, that's a basis to start, at least. What were you investigating?

[seasaltkey]

The Seven Mysteries of Twilight Town.

[friendyousohard]

Okay... what were these mysteries, and what were you trying to find out about them?

[seasaltkey]

Hmm... I guess they were more wonders than mysteries.

[He's thinking about what they did again. This place sure kept your mind busy. He's counting them off on his fingers.]

There was the spooky steps, the friend from beyond the wall, the moans from the tunnel, the doppelganger, the animated bag, the ghost train, and the lonely girl!

[friendyousohard]

[Well, those all sound mostly like urban legends to her.]

Let me rephrase the question. What were the mysteries about?

[seasaltkey]

Oh.

[They aren't that fancy.]

The spooky steps was just Rai counting wrong. Supposedly there was more steps going down than up. The friend from beyond the wall was just a ball bouncing against the wall in the back, not someone throwing it. The moans in the tunnel weren't a ghost, just Vivi training.

[He's clearly not telling her everything.]

The doppelganger wound up being the reflection in the waterfall instead of an actual copy of the person. The animated bag was a dog trapped in a bag instead of a ghost! The ghost train isn't real, and the lonely girl was a curtain moving in the wind.

[friendyousohard]

Ahhh, I see. So, let me see if I've got this straight. You heard about these seven mysteries, made a guess about each of them, went out to investigate them, and recorded what you found to match it up against your guesses?

[seasaltkey]

I didn't even know about the mysteries till my friends mentioned them. They told me what everyone had said about them, and we went to investigate.

[friendyousohard]

... You're a bit more of a follower than a leader, aren't you?