30th: The Study of Haruhi Suzumiya

[godbent]

[Action Part 1: 15th -> 20th]

[Following her break up, Haruhi didn't tell anymore. Not explicitly. She didn't see Winry either, didn't go the Smithy, didn't go the Hughes house, and has yet to use any of the relationship cards she has left (why would she? Most of the ones she has are just inane things anyway... maybe she will in time). Instead, she just hits the books in the library hard. Studying absolutely everything she can find about magic, alchemy, or other superpowers which she hopes/wills to be learnable through effort on her part. She's even trying to practice some of the stuff she finds in there, though with limited success due to how foul her mood is.

This sets the stage for her whole week, really. Wake up, make breakfast out of habit, go the library, study obsessively, and when she can't study anymore (around the actual meeting times in the early afternoon) she goes and hangs out at the SOS-Brigade's HQ, nominally to check out how people are doing with preparations for the cultural festival. But he heart isn't really in it, not yet. She hopes it'll be there again before the day of. Anyway, from there, skip lunch, maybe go to All Passions, then back to the library until she comes home to House 10 quite late. Snack thing at about 10PM, go to sleep, repeat.]

[Action Part 2: 22nd]

[A certain voice message is what totally breaks her out of her stupor. Because frankly (and she knows unfairly) the idea of Winry going out drinking (probably celebrating her singleness with that bitch) while she's stuck with just being frustrated on her day just pisses her off. She doesn't even want to spend her day with Winry right now, which is why despite them agreeing to meet on Sundays she made absolutely no effort to run into her. ...It's not that Haruhi's stupid. She knows Winry is upset too, and she knows that the other girl won't be celebrating. But it's so much easier to be mad than it is to be miserable. It's for that reason she attempts her longest teleportation yet that that night, going all the way from the library up to the roof of House 10. And she's going to just be sitting there on the roof of House 10 all night, looking up at the sky. Trying to be right again.

It's eerily similar, to anyone who has been here long enough to remember, to Haruki's reaction to Kyonko going home, actually. She promises that this is the last night to herself. She'll be better after this. Because moping (yes, she has been moping, hasn't she) like she has been is stupid anyway.]

Comments

[godbent]

[...Hah. He's right, of course. That just pisses her off more, but at the same time, when she rolls her head to not look at him she smiles a little. She also makes a noise of agreement. Good, that's... good that he's here]

[menial]

[He'll let the silence reign again for another while, then. Mentally, he's wondering whether it's perhaps about Mikuru or Yuki leaving. For him, Yuki's presence was short enough to seem more like an unexpected gift -- he hadn't had time to get used to her being around yet to miss her again in a fresh way -- but maybe it was different. And Mikuru, of course, was different.

He'll watch her narrowly from his seat now, pretending to be flipping through the journal, but really waiting to see what she'll do next.]

[godbent]

[...Finally, finally after a long time of cursing Winy, cursing Ed, and cursing Luceti, she decides to share something. A seemingly unrelated memory. She's still not looking at Kyon as she said it]

A girl named Usagi Tsukino used to be in this SOS-Brigade, you know.

[menial]

['You know, Haruhi, I can do that head-desk thing too, but probably not as long as you can.'

On a lower level, he notices that she's calling it "this Brigade" to him now, too, and for some reason, that makes him sad. Not that it isn't how he thinks of it, but he didn't expect her to accept that.]

Yeah? What happened to her?

[godbent]

Well, she went home... twice, actually. One of those times she came back middle aged, but she was actually a at least hundreds of years older, I never really got the details. I think there's a new Usagi Tsukino here now, but she's a different person than the one I knew. ...Even beyond the memories, I mean, she's like when those messed up versions of Mikuru and Yuki showed up.

[menial]

...Messed-up versions? What was messed up about them?

['Though that certainly was a freaky example to give. Hundreds of years older and then completely different? Sheesh.']

[godbent]

Their names were Mitsuru Asahina and Yuuki Nagato. Both male.

1/3

[menial]

['.....................

That wasn't what I expected!!']

2/4 actually

[menial]

['... Okay, but wait, put it together. Rockbell said she knew Haruhi as a guy for a time, too. Apparently all these girls are capable of turning into guys. I'm glad I didn't have to face that particular problem, being already a guy...

Anyway, that means it wasn't just her, but them, too? And not some shift, but actually different versions...?']

3/4

[menial]

['...

Oh, God, stop thinking about what Asahina Mitsuru looked like. I don't even want to know. Things that should not arise might arise.']

4/4

[menial]

...And it wasn't just some kind of shift?

[godbent]

No.

[...] Of course, everyone will remember them as being the normal ones, here.

[menial]

...Because they came here first?

['More questions about the alternate universe here, but maybe less than you think, considering I know a bit about alternate Brigades.']

[godbent]

No, no... because my memories are different.

[...] I remember always being me. However, before I came back to Luceti one January ago, everyone else remembers "Haruki Suzumiya" being there for the time I was here before then. He- Or well, no. I guess "I" have an "alternate" version of his memories. I don't know the full details of how "he" remembers things, but one pattern is that when I remember anyone from our world being here, I remember them opposite. So I guess the way they are in "his" world.

[...She feels small now. At least Kyon probably won't reject her at this point but...]

[menial]

['But... But you said I was here. Does that mean...']

...Including me?

[godbent]

Obviously. ...Except the first time. The first time, you were you.

[menial]

....

['Well, I'm wondering all kinds of bizarre things about my other self right now. Including whether she (she, seriously, "she") looked good in ponytails. Whatever.']

That's a whole other load of complications for us, huh, Haruhi?

[He pauses.]

To tell you the truth, Rockbell once mentioned that there was a "Haruki" to me, but I didn't know the whole scope of this...

[godbent]

For me. They have nothing to do with you.

[So don't make it about them. Don't hark back to them]

[menial]

['You don't think my having an alternate version who was a girl has anything to do with me?']

Well, as far as they're our friends, Haruhi, and as far as I have to do with you, they must have something to do with me.

[godbent]

No, it doesn't because they don't matter. I'm the only one who remembers any of them except "Haruki" and the girl version of you and that was years ago.

[menial]

Yeah, well. You remember them, and you matter to us, so they still matter in that sense.

['And please, stop freaking me about this girl version of me.

Though I guess at least they couldn't have called her "Kyon", could they? So that's good.']

[godbent]

I remember them, everyone else who's that old remembers them, but that's ancient history. I'm not him, so it doesn't matter.

[menial]

Right... I mean, of course you're not. But it's got to affect the way you look at things.

['You don't actually think of me as a girl, do you?']

The way you think about us.

[godbent]

...Kyon. Until you showed up I hadn't seen any of you in over two an half years. That's all there is to it.

[menial]

Right. But I'm here now. And I'm going to stay, evidently... So I'd just like to hear a little more about these weird versions, I guess.

I mean, Asahina-san and Nagato... That must be weird, but you and me, that's even weirder. Wouldn't anyone be curious?

['Am I having to argue to get Haruhi to tell me about something weird? How things change.']