Day 42: Twin Pines [Evening]

[rubbermancan]

Luffy was in good spirits by the time evening rolled around. There was nothing like some music to liven up the day! Then again, who'd ever heard of a pirate who didn't like music? It was the main reason he'd been hoping for a musician ever since he'd managed to get a ship of his own. If his musician position hadn't already been filled, Luffy

Comments

[oftemptation]

Endrance had nodded and vaguely mumbled something resembling the word 'yes'. There had been something resembling a fast-food place on one end of the street, but the greasy smell turned his stomach. That left the other place, and he stepped in and immediately sat down, not feeling up to standing much more.

"I know that I let my temper get the best of me, back there." he said, voice a little louder than it had been. "But it's like someone insulting someone you care about...I couldn't just let it go. I don't mind if they get to me, but...I don't want the rest of you getting hurt."

[cannotlogout]

They wandered down the street, aiming for the fast food place, but Tsukasa didn't complain when Endrance turned away. He didn't mind fast food but it wasn't to everyone's taste. They headed to the other restaurant instead, finding it mostly empty so it was easy to find a seat. The food on the menu all seemed rather foreign, but it couldn't hurt to try it.

"It's okay, I guess I'd want to do something if anyone went after Subaru like that guy did." It had happened before and Tsukasa hated that he hadn't been able to do anything about it.

[oftemptation]

"I'm sure you would have...and back then, I'd have probably done the same for Mia." It was strange, trying to think about her through the heavy haze. The feelings were dimmed now, a more faded memory than usual. It was almost painful to try pushing past that enough to really get at them, and that was probably for the best. If he thought too hard about the past...

The waitress came by, expectantly, and Endrance ordered tea and a light salad - not that he was particularly hungry or anything. It was more that he didn't want the others to worry. That in and of itself was strange. It had been years since he'd felt anything close to that.

"Why...why do you think we're all here, like this?"

[cannotlogout]

Tsukasa nodded seriously. "I know people say that it isn't like having real friends, knowing someone in The World, but I met my family there, and my girlfriend and my best friend. I'd fight for them too." They were just as real as people that you met at school or out in town, especially when you'd shared such things with them.

He ordered something light when the waitress arrived, the fish and a soda. The steak that was their speciality looked too heavy for Tsukasa's tastes. It was more because he knew that he had to eat than because he wanted to particularly.

He frowned a little at Endrance's question. "I don't know. If it was just us maybe I'd think it was something to do with the Key of Twilight, with Aura. But there are meant to be people here from different worlds."

[oftemptation]

Endrance nodded, trying to find the words to explain it. "That's it exactly...the connections you form in The World can go deeper than most people think. There are things you only find there...and things you never would have found otherwise." That wasn't as eloquent as he might have been otherwise, but it was a struggle to string coherent sentences together.

He frowned at that last statement. "The Key of Twilight...it's been years since I've heard those words. And Aura..." Of course, he knew the connection. They called them Morganna Factors for a reason, after all, and it wasn't surprising that the particular one that had found him had. It would have been stranger for it not to.

"Different worlds...right. I remember asking about that. It's so hard to wrap my head around, even without things being so...so slowed down."

[cannotlogout]

Tsukasa smiled slightly at the thought and nodded. He could understand that perfectly well. Just because it was online, the experiences weren't any less real, the exhilaration and happiness wasn't false. It was just as real and as intense as spending time with people outside The World.

Tsukasa laughed softly at that. "It's hard to think of a time when it isn't on everyone's lips," he admitted. "It was so important for those months." His smile turned sad. "I guess everything has to come to an end sometime." Endrance had said that they were on a new version of The World now. Who knew what had happened to Aura?

"I doubt anyone can understand it entirely," Tsukasa replied with a . "The nearest I can even think of it is the real world and The World, but that isn't right. It was real last night, when I cast the spells. I could feel it and it was tiring."

[oftemptation]

"It was," Endrance nodded. Though that alone stirred a faint memory from a few months ago. While it was true he didn't often read the bulletin boards, it had been impossible to avoid the rumors surrounding the breakup of one of the bigger guilds in The World, TaN. You couldn't walk two steps in either Mac Anu or Lumina Cloth without overhearing discussions about it. There had been another guild involved too, hadn't there? It was hard to remember, but something about the word 'Twilight' stuck in the back of his mind. It was too far out of reach for now, though, through the haze of sedatives

[cannotlogout]

It was sad. It had been a trying time, but had led to real friendships being forged. They'd all been part of something bigger than would have been possible otherwise. It had been a quest, the like of which was only supposed to happen in storybooks. "But we'll never forget it. I don't think I ever could. The idea of a virus infecting the actual people behind the characters though..." It made him shudder. It sounded even more serious than Morganna had been.

He laughed softly and agreed with Endrance's analysis. "It is. I guess it really does prove that we're here and really have these bodies. I never really got tired when I was stuck before."

[oftemptation]

"No, I don't think any of us could ever forget it. There were too many things that happened, too much that we all did

[cannotlogout]

"We got to be real heroes on a real quest," Tsukasa said, sounding a little dreamy at the idea. "It was scarier than it seems in books." He'd spent a lot of his time terrified, upset or in pain. Heroes in books always seemed to brush that kind of thing aside.

He listened curiously the the information about AIDA and how it had affected Endrance. "That's terrible," he agreed with a grimace. It had been bad enough when Morganna had used illusions of Mimiru and Subaru to try to shake him, this sounded much much worse. "It's good that you found him then. And in some ways, that he's here, even if none of us should be here." But he hated to think what Endrance's state of mind would be like if Haseo wasn't there to say that he hadn't been abandoned.

"We really are here and these are our 'real' bodies now." Even if they were fundamentally wrong in so many ways, at least for Tsukasa.

[oftemptation]

"We were..." Endrance's sentence was interrupted by the arrival of their food. He began poking at the salad absentmindedly as he continued. "The stories tend to gloss over the scary parts...leaving us to remember all the darkness before the light."

He nodded, frowning deeply. It should have hurt a lot more to admit all of that, but his emotions were stifled, almost numbed. "It's insidious, and it affects everything. It amplifies your emotions..." It was too hard to explain what the effects were; he didn't feel as if he had the words. "I'm sure it must be strange for you to think of a Data Drain as a good thing, but in cases like that, it's the only way..."

Endrance sighed softly. In some ways...it wasn't as bad for him, being in the form that he was. It was taller, and his hair was longer, but, otherwise, there weren't so many differences. It was probably worse for the others.