yeah, i'm ok. never thought i'd be happy to hear just that quiet background hum of the station, you know? i think i'm going to play video games on mute for a while. give my ears a break.
i kind of just want to go back to sleep tbh. i could sleep for a week and still be tired, i think.
on that topic though, is there like... stuff you're not sure actually happened? i don't mean the bees, i mean like... stuff that COULD happen, but it doesn't make sense to have happened. you know?
The more disjointed you from a sense of time the more it seems to kinda escape you?
Towards the end there I didn't know if it was a minute or an hour and it was kinda like one huge brain mush. Who knows what coulda happened in those spots between minutes and hours that you didn't realize went by
i think she slept next to me?? that's what i can't figure out. i remember it really clearly, but there's no way that would actually happen, right? i mean, you've met mishima
Sounds pretty timid for like... a hallucination? Unless your brain is like. Into moe shit like that, I guess it could be something you imagined up in there but I'm gonna guess and say it happened
Besides you both were tired as hell anyway, right?
So whatdya think? Are you gonna ask her about it or is it like FORBIDDEN TERRITORY?
i don't know about all that, but you're right, it's not super-weird or unfathomable. if it weren't somebody as standoffish as mishima i'd probably assume it had happened
[Just going to bypass right by accusing his brain of being into moe shit... he's not an otaku, damn it!!]
idk i kinda wanted to ask you what you thought. isn't it supposed to be weird for girls to just do that stuff with guy friends? i don't want her to think i'm assuming anything weird
If you're friends with someone you don't wanna risk ruining the friendship by letting someone know how you actually kinda feel about them. But in the end, hiding it doesn't really work out too well either.
Even if it's not exactly like that, I guess. I can see why you'd be afraid with Erika
yeah. it seems like she's finally coming out of her shell, you know? i don't want to do anything to make that harder for her
i don't think she got to spend much time with people outside of her family, before she came here. i've kind of learned my lesson about prying too much into what people do at home, though.
[8'T]
idk... i guess we should probably worry about more important stuff, huh. like how to prevent something like this from happening again
You probably don't give yourself a ton of credit when it's due, dude, but trust your heart, it'll lead ya right. There's gotta be a sweet spot to ask her, y'know? Then it just kinda comes down to timing.
Anyway, I guess we can try 'n figure out how to make noise cancelling headphones or something like that.
Don't think it's gonna happen again, though. The station probably isn't gonna throw the same thing twice at us.
i guess. man, maybe i need to get some more sleep. how tired must i be to be asking you these kinda questions, huh? lol
[It's a joke. If Hajime were the type to use emoji, it'd be more obvious, but as it is, Hajime can only assume that Ryuji's familiar enough with his own brand of dry humor not to take it to heart or anything.]
you don't think so? what, like they got as much data as they needed from this experiment? i don't want to think about what they could come up with next. assuming it even IS researchers and not like... idk, some kind of automated system.
like what if this place was programmed back when this kind of music was still popular, and the researchers are long gone. and the station is just... automatically going through its programming, torturing us even though nobody's watching?
[Oh, no way. He lives for the moments his friends dunk him, and he's proud as shit that Hajime feels comfortable enough to waltz right in and slam him right through the hoop, shattering the backboard like in those old Genesis NBA games.]
What're you talkin' about man I'm like the LOVE GURU just stamp that shit right onto my jumpsuit and start payin' me 50 yen per consultation, I've got this hooked up straight for the Hajime dokis that be goin' out left and right all over the shoulders of girls everywhere
You really kinda think that this is one giant experiment?
I guess we couldn't know unless one of the locked rooms kinda leads us to believe that. I'm gonna stay optimistic that we ain't guinea pigs though
sure fifty yen a consultation would net you a whole hundred yen at this rate. maybe you could get some ramen at the conbini on the corner between the bar and the VR room. if you're lucky i'll find at least two more cute girls on this station so you can afford some discount kusamochi too with all two hundred yen you earned
[Too late he's already found enough dokis for kusamochi, it's all of Ryuji's teammates.]
seriously though, think about it. what else would be the point of putting us through this? sure, the gravity switching off was an accident, but what kind of "accident" accidentally broadcasts American music from the 90s on repeat, loud enough that we couldn't sleep for days? it sounds like either deliberate torture, or an attempt to study us under stress
hang onto that optimism, though. it's what a protagonist should say
I kinda still subscribe to the other world theory goin' on here. That like, things that are happening in another dimension are kinda messing things up for us here, and maybe even vice versa? Like maybe the crew's stuck in some other world, trying to signal to us for help and don't realize that they're actually hurtin' us
Or, maybe you're right. Maybe we're a science experiment
i mean... i guess that could be a possibility? idk it wouldn't explain why we're all on this station in the first place. at least if there's somebody studying us, it would give some kind of reason. maybe you'd be the star of your own documentary
then again, maybe there isn't an explanation at all. i seriously need more sleep before i start thinking about all that crap
If this is a documentary I don't wanna be in it. I just wanna do the normal kid thing and go back to
I dunno, like. Wandering the streets past midnight and regretting that 'cuz the trains stopped, or hanging out at the arcade, worrying about finals. That sort of stuff. It's a little much to deal with... 7 days without sleep. You feel that way, too, right? But it's useless kinda talkin' about it since we're here and we gotta make with what we got, and we got each other, so at least there's that.
yeah, me too. go back to my normal life, i mean. it's all i've been thinking since i woke up here. i thought about it a lot over the last week, what i'd do if i fell asleep and woke up back where i belong. get some mochi and onigiri at the conbini, take a walk outside in fresh air. it's hard not to miss the little ordinary things, you know? especially when you're just trapped in your own head
i guess... it kind of helps to think there's some kind of end goal here. a point where the study stops, and we can go back where we belong. but maybe there's nothing like that, idk.
you're right though, we've got each other. i'm glad you're my friend, ryuji
Someone's gotta fill that void, might as well be me. Too much cleanliness is godliness going on over here.
Yeah, I'm glad we're friends too. You make all of this shit a lot better. Even if there's no real end goal, and we wind up spending the rest of our lives here, at least it's in good company.
That's too long for Hajime to even think about. The past several days felt like a lifetime on their own, time warping and stretching weirdly until he couldn't tell which way was up or how long he'd been awake. The rest of his life... what would that be? On a space station, that could be a week, or that could be years. Assuming nothing disintegrated him, or worse, he could live to his nineties or beyond.
It's easy to get stuck on that thought, but he tries to hold onto the intent. He can't think about spending his whole life here, he really can't.]
haha, i guess if we made it through the last week without trying to kill each other, we're stuck with each other, huh?
[He doesn't know that he's struck a chord with Hajime, which, of course, wasn't really his intent. Ryuji fluctuated between optimism that this was only a trial run on the station and that home was beckoning him, but the longer he spends time here, the more it seems like... there's really no end in sight. 3 months, already. It's been 3 months. He had only known his Phantom Thief friends for about 8 months. That means, at some point... he'll have been here longer than he was a thief, and honestly... that thought is kind of fucked up.]
Hell yeah. Stuck like glue gun stuck.
Anytime, man. You don't gotta thank me, either. I'm here for ya.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Y...eah, I mean. Was probably losing it.
You okay? Tell me you hit your pillow as hard as I did
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i kind of just want to go back to sleep tbh. i could sleep for a week and still be tired, i think.
on that topic though, is there like... stuff you're not sure actually happened? i don't mean the bees, i mean like... stuff that COULD happen, but it doesn't make sense to have happened. you know?
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The more disjointed you from a sense of time the more it seems to kinda escape you?
Towards the end there I didn't know if it was a minute or an hour and it was kinda like one huge brain mush. Who knows what coulda happened in those spots between minutes and hours that you didn't realize went by
You should definitely sleep some more though :(
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there's stuff that happened that i'm not sure if it was just like... a dream where i was dozing off, or a hallucination, or what.
i think i might've slept with mishima
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Uhm.
Uhm?]
Shit, man. Congrats either way
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i think she slept next to me?? that's what i can't figure out. i remember it really clearly, but there's no way that would actually happen, right? i mean, you've met mishima
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Oh you mean like we slept together
[Listen, he's slow on the uptake.]
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sort of? unless you put your head on my shoulder while i was sleeping and just didn't tell me
she hasn't said anything about it though
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Sounds pretty timid for like... a hallucination? Unless your brain is like. Into moe shit like that, I guess it could be something you imagined up in there but I'm gonna guess and say it happened
Besides you both were tired as hell anyway, right?
So whatdya think? Are you gonna ask her about it or is it like FORBIDDEN TERRITORY?
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[Just going to bypass right by accusing his brain of being into moe shit... he's not an otaku, damn it!!]
idk i kinda wanted to ask you what you thought. isn't it supposed to be weird for girls to just do that stuff with guy friends? i don't want her to think i'm assuming anything weird
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Level setting? If that makes sense
IDK how badly do you wanna know if it was true? Do you get a good vibe when you think about doin' that kinda stuff with her?
[Bro... what happened to your crush on Haru?]
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you have to put it like that huh
i'm telling you, it's not like that. it really is like... how you and me do stuff together. just that she's a girl. a really withdrawn girl
idk i just don't want to mess anything up, you know?
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Oh
Yeah, man I totally get you on that though
If you're friends with someone you don't wanna risk ruining the friendship by letting someone know how you actually kinda feel about them. But in the end, hiding it doesn't really work out too well either.
Even if it's not exactly like that, I guess. I can see why you'd be afraid with Erika
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i don't think she got to spend much time with people outside of her family, before she came here. i've kind of learned my lesson about prying too much into what people do at home, though.
[8'T]
idk... i guess we should probably worry about more important stuff, huh. like how to prevent something like this from happening again
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Anyway, I guess we can try 'n figure out how to make noise cancelling headphones or something like that.
Don't think it's gonna happen again, though. The station probably isn't gonna throw the same thing twice at us.
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[It's a joke. If Hajime were the type to use emoji, it'd be more obvious, but as it is, Hajime can only assume that Ryuji's familiar enough with his own brand of dry humor not to take it to heart or anything.]
you don't think so? what, like they got as much data as they needed from this experiment? i don't want to think about what they could come up with next. assuming it even IS researchers and not like... idk, some kind of automated system.
like what if this place was programmed back when this kind of music was still popular, and the researchers are long gone. and the station is just... automatically going through its programming, torturing us even though nobody's watching?
how fucked up would that be
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What're you talkin' about man I'm like the LOVE GURU just stamp that shit right onto my jumpsuit and start payin' me 50 yen per consultation, I've got this hooked up straight for the Hajime dokis that be goin' out left and right all over the shoulders of girls everywhere
You really kinda think that this is one giant experiment?
I guess we couldn't know unless one of the locked rooms kinda leads us to believe that. I'm gonna stay optimistic that we ain't guinea pigs though
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[Too late he's already found enough dokis for kusamochi, it's all of Ryuji's teammates.]
seriously though, think about it. what else would be the point of putting us through this? sure, the gravity switching off was an accident, but what kind of "accident" accidentally broadcasts American music from the 90s on repeat, loud enough that we couldn't sleep for days? it sounds like either deliberate torture, or an attempt to study us under stress
hang onto that optimism, though. it's what a protagonist should say
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Better to have kusamochi than kusomochi
[They don't say that.
No one has ever said that.]
I kinda still subscribe to the other world theory goin' on here. That like, things that are happening in another dimension are kinda messing things up for us here, and maybe even vice versa? Like maybe the crew's stuck in some other world, trying to signal to us for help and don't realize that they're actually hurtin' us
Or, maybe you're right. Maybe we're a science experiment
But think about it
Who would wanna study you and me :)
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i mean... i guess that could be a possibility? idk it wouldn't explain why we're all on this station in the first place. at least if there's somebody studying us, it would give some kind of reason. maybe you'd be the star of your own documentary
then again, maybe there isn't an explanation at all. i seriously need more sleep before i start thinking about all that crap
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Yo, way to call me ouuuut like that but okay
If this is a documentary I don't wanna be in it. I just wanna do the normal kid thing and go back to
I dunno, like. Wandering the streets past midnight and regretting that 'cuz the trains stopped, or hanging out at the arcade, worrying about finals. That sort of stuff. It's a little much to deal with... 7 days without sleep. You feel that way, too, right? But it's useless kinda talkin' about it since we're here and we gotta make with what we got, and we got each other, so at least there's that.
Anyway, that was my soap box
Gonna use that dove to wash my armpits
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i guess... it kind of helps to think there's some kind of end goal here. a point where the study stops, and we can go back where we belong. but maybe there's nothing like that, idk.
you're right though, we've got each other. i'm glad you're my friend, ryuji
...even if you're kinda gross
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Yeah, I'm glad we're friends too. You make all of this shit a lot better. Even if there's no real end goal, and we wind up spending the rest of our lives here, at least it's in good company.
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That's too long for Hajime to even think about. The past several days felt like a lifetime on their own, time warping and stretching weirdly until he couldn't tell which way was up or how long he'd been awake. The rest of his life... what would that be? On a space station, that could be a week, or that could be years. Assuming nothing disintegrated him, or worse, he could live to his nineties or beyond.
It's easy to get stuck on that thought, but he tries to hold onto the intent. He can't think about spending his whole life here, he really can't.]
haha, i guess if we made it through the last week without trying to kill each other, we're stuck with each other, huh?
i'll see you later. and... thanks again
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Hell yeah. Stuck like glue gun stuck.
Anytime, man. You don't gotta thank me, either. I'm here for ya.