Don't worry, she laughed when she saw the royalty results too. And then shrieked in terror.

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto 2/12 near Recollé

So, I've got a ... question. The freaky things don't exactly seem to be stopping, and one thing hit me as really weird. The whole. "Founder's Day Court" thing. It didn't stand out to me until afterwards, but... well. I looked back through what's been posted to Retrospec so far, and... There are definitely more than a couple of us chosen from that who are also on THIS. That ... seems more than a little odd, doesn't it?

[Someone seems to be lacking a certain amount of energy that's normally on display. Why, it's not as if many more "freaky" things have been happening, right?

I mean. Unless you woke up in the middle of the night with some awfully weird visions in your head, or you're desperately trying to stave off the desire to build a conspiracy wall in your bedroom.]

Comments

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto um
Maya Aimoto tiny brightly colored floating animals...

[rosettareflected]

[Blink, blink. There's radio silence for a moment.]

Alicia Clover It'd only be weirder if you told me they corresponded to our hair colors. Then we'd truly be knee-deep in an anime.

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto ...They did?

[rosettareflected]

Alicia Clover That is indeed weirder, alas. It's also highly unusual and I have questions that I am not certain you'll have the answers for at present, given we're both still largely in the dark on what we're seeing.

[Like who broke physics.]

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto I've got nothing BUT questions and all I keep getting is more and more of them.
Maya Aimoto At least the animals were cute...

[rosettareflected]

[There's a long pause. Then:]

Alicia Clover A rabbit, and a dog, and a bear, and a cat. Pink, and blue, and yellow, and purple.
Alicia Clover Why do I know that? Maya, the only way we can have the same memory is...

[She can't type the words. If she does, it's admitting to herself that her life has gone upside down. But aloud to herself, without even thinking about it:]

...if we knew each other before this. If we were friends long ago. Oh, God. What's going on...?

[strongestheart]

[...

EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!]

Maya Aimoto THAT'S EXACTLY IT!
Maya Aimoto Don't tell me you remember the same thing?! When did that happen?!

[rosettareflected]

Alicia Clover Someday I will learn not to borrow trouble. I only just remembered it now - you were talking about it, and I was asking questions, and all of a sudden it just hit me.
Alicia Clover It's vivid, and very surreal... We look like we were having fun, at least? And so do whatever those flying things were.
Alicia Clover Oh, this is so confusing...

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto oh my gosh

[WHAT SORT OF POWER IS THIS THAT SHE WIELDS?!]

Maya Aimoto I'm sorry!
Maya Aimoto I mean. I guess I'm glad I'm not the only one seeing it.
Maya Aimoto ...it did look like fun, though...

[She gives a forlorn sigh to herself, then blinks at another part of it.]

Maya Aimoto Um, this might sound crazy but then again maybe nothing does at this point, but have you ever met girls named Rachel or Melody around here...?
Maya Aimoto Like, actually here - not crazy shared memory land!

[Actually, she realizes a part of her should be ecstatic she shares something with a new friend and someone so cool and famous! ... But the weirdness is kind of overriding that for now.]

[rosettareflected]

Alicia Clover It's... it's fine. It certainly isn't your fault, in any event.
Alicia Clover I do know Rachel, we've met a few times. Melody... I don't know her terribly well, but yes, we've met. Why do you ask about them?

[...That blue-haired girl looked kind of like Rachel. Then...]

Alicia Clover You suspect Rachel and Melody were there, too?

[strongestheart]

[Well, this just gets freakier by the moment.]

Maya Aimoto Yes, I do! Or at least... whatever it is we're remembering! They're involved!
Maya Aimoto If you remembered something like that, then that's got to be the case!
Maya Aimoto I was super nervous about telling any of you about this, I didn't think you'd believe me, and then... THIS.

[rosettareflected]

Alicia Clover There is a truly staggering amount of coincidence required for that to work. I don't doubt it - I'm fairly confident the blue-haired girl is Rachel, myself - but the stars needed to line up just so.
Alicia Clover That brings up a harder question: how do we tell them? As you've probably noticed, I'm not exactly taking this well myself.
Alicia Clover Even having seen the memory, I'm still not a hundred percent certain I believe it! But it would be silly to doubt it when it's... all right there in my head.

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto How do we tell them...?
Maya Aimoto ...
Maya Aimoto oh
Maya Aimoto um
Maya Aimoto you might want to look at some of my other comment threads here
Maya Aimoto ¯\(◉‿◉)/¯

[rosettareflected]

[More than anything else, it's probably the text-based shrug that makes a shiver pass down Alicia's spine; it's about all she can do to keep typing, but boy is she suddenly nervous as she checks the other threads. Her next reply is delayed a minute or two, but it comes all the same.]

Alicia Clover I guess we don't have to, because you already have?
Alicia Clover Then I still have another question: what do we do with this? So we knew each other before... somehow. Another universe like Prof. Lunise thinks, or not remembering, or something else I haven't even thought of...
Alicia Clover What does that mean for us? What are we to each other? Sure, we were working on becoming friends anyway, but this implies a bit more of a connection, don't you think?

[strongestheart]

[Maya's concerned at first, but sensing some level of worry, she tries to push past that, and... well.]

Maya Aimoto You're right, this ... means something, yeah.
Maya Aimoto But that doesn't change things otherwise... not fully, I don't think...
Maya Aimoto I met you before any of this weird stuff started happening! I don't think this really changes any of that, does it?
Maya Aimoto If... I'm your friend, that's the important part!
Maya Aimoto We can figure out the rest, but that part's the most important, because... like. That's what we've got now, rather than whatever else is going on!

[rosettareflected]

Alicia Clover Speaking in terms of our interactions before now, no, it doesn't. You're still Maya and I'm still Alicia. That hasn't changed, and even without this I think I could still say we're friends. I'd like to continue doing things in accordance with that fact.
Alicia Clover But this definitely has some effect on where we go from here. Who are those girls? How did they know each other? How did they have hair like that, and what are those flying things? There are a lot of questions to answer, and we have very few leads to go on.
Alicia Clover Given the stakes - and who else is involved - I have no particular desire to rest on my laurels. I want those answers, and if we have to reach them by working together and figuring out what connects us, then I think that's what we should do.

[strongestheart]

Maya Aimoto Mm! I agree, I want to know, too!
Maya Aimoto Especially about the animals! [and the baby]
Maya Aimoto But... it's pretty easy to tell one thing, right?
Maya Aimoto They were friends!
Maya Aimoto So, we obviously started on the right track...! o(^▽^)o

[Really, Maya has a hard time holding onto cynicism when faced with something like a pillow fight, no matter how weird or peculiar visions from beyond might be.]

[rosettareflected]

Alicia Clover Yeah. We're on the right track. I don't know what our future holds, but together, we can overcome it and figure out what's going on here.
Alicia Clover But given that memory, "together" probably needs to mean all four of us. Five, if we can find that last girl, but starting with us four is probably okay.

[strongestheart]

["Together" isn't something she's terribly used to. Maybe on sports teams, but she never stuck around, or ... actually she's had a hard time sticking around in general to most things...]

Maya Aimoto Mm, together sounds... good, actually!
Maya Aimoto Which means we need to get together! The four of us!