Day 65, early morning, shortly after the explosion

[glintingglasses]

 “What’s up with this coughing fit?!”

Murata had been peacefully sleeping until two things happened:
1. A tremendously loud explosion woke him from his sleep and
2. Now this strange coughing fit didn’t let him get back to sleep.

He decided to wander around the hallways, since he had nothing better to do this early in the morning. The coughing wasn’t

Comments

[glintingglasses]

Ah, Nissi. So this was Anissina's double. He nodded to acknowledge this - he didn't want to speak more than he had to, if all he was going to do was spit out more horrible puns. What was going on?! It seems like people were being affected differently by the same cause - the explosion. If that was even the cause at all.

The best thing he could do right now was try to explain his situation. "I'm not usually like this. All these puns are completely punintentional- I mean unintentional, I tell you! Seven days without a pun make one weak!" He lightly smacked himself in the head for letting that one slip. "I can't make it stop!"

"Yes, I heard an explosion this morning. In fact it's what woke me up. After that I thought about taking some sleeping pills, but I didn't want to wake them up." Ack! He cleared his throat and continued. "So I walked around the castle with a coughing fit and suddenly all these puns started coming out. I think it's because of the explosion, so we're probably not the only ones affected." He was finally getting used to the puns randomly coming out, so it was getting easier for him to restrain his laughter each time one slipped.

However...

He suddenly felt a tingling sensation in his throat. "Oh, no...here comes a big one..." He tried to keep his mouth shut, and he even tried covering his mouth with both hands, but all resistance was futile.

"For some people the only puns they make are about dairy products, because the rest are just too cheesy. When they think of one, they tend to milk it for all it's worth. Usually I don't think they're gouda enough, but we could find a whey to cream off the best ones.
I cheddar to think what they'll come out with next."

He couldn't control his laughter in that one. "So-sorr-..hahaha!!..sorry, Nissi" he said as he laughed. "Might as well enjoy the puns while they come out!"

[spinning_nissi]

She certainly appreciated his effort, but when she realized his behavior was caused by the same thing that had turned her skin purple, she had more sympathy for him. Actually, it was kind of funny, even if she didn't understand half of the puns.

She giggled, more because of his laughing than the joke. "It's alright. I don't mind. If you can't help it, you can't help it. I'm purple and you tell bad jokes." She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. "I was going to wander around and see who else was affected. Do you want to come with me?"

[glintingglasses]

He was relieved to see that Nissi understood his situation. Having purple skin was quite the condition, too, after all.
"Yes, we're quite the dynamic duo." He said with a smirk.

He nodded in agreement. Finding out the condition of the others could bring them closer to finding out what was going on. "That's a good idea. Where should we start looking? If you can only go left or right, and you know that left isn't right, then by a process of elimination, right must be right because it's the only way left. So what's right is what's left if you do everything else wrong." He cleared his throat again and lowered his head in an attempt to avoid another chuckle. "I'll just follow you..."

[spinning_nissi]

"................

"Um. This way then..."

She hesitated, then took his arm and started to the right. Because it was right. And not left. Or whatever he said.

"I've met other Muratas, but I don't think I've met you," she said. "What should I call you, sir?"

[glintingglasses]

He was caught by surprise when she took his arm and began walking. He followed close behind, stumbling forwards a little. "Woah, watch out with my humorous! By that I mean the bone in my arm, not my sense of humor." He smiled at the wordplay. "Ah, jeez. Forget it."

He blinked in surprise. "You met my doubles, then." He really wished he could have met them as well. They were probably very interesting people.

"It's a shame we met under these circumstances." he sighed, looking at the purple hand that was holding his arm. "I'm usually quite wise when choosing my words, but right now, I'm otherwise." He chuckled a little.

"Well, I guess you could call me Geika, like Anissina and others in the castle call me. But I'll answer to my name as well." He smiled cheerfully.

[spinning_nissi]

She shrugged. "I've been here a while. I've seen a lot of doubles come, and go."

Her hold on his arm tightened just a little. "We can meet again when we're normal, and it will be like meeting for the first time," she replied with a cheerful smile. "What would be the proper thing to call you? You are important, right? So... Geika?"

[glintingglasses]

He tilted his head. "Go? Where do they go? Do they go back to their own worlds?" That could help solve the mystery of the doubles, and how they come and go from this world. Why didn't he think of that before? Maybe the puns were clouding his judgement for the day, even if he was slowly getting better at suppressing them.

He smiled. "I guess so." The smile turned a bit more into a grin when she called him "important". "Geika it is, then."

He looked down at the hand the had tightened its grip on his arm. When he looked back up, he noticed a maid with...hamster ears? dashing down the hallway. "A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor!" He snickered. And he had gone so long without uttering a pun!

[spinning_nissi]

"I think so. That's the theory, anyway. I hope they go home, anyway. Many of them wanted to. But... not everyone." Herself included. She would be happy to stay here forever, even if it meant her skin changed color every once in a while.

She bit her lip at the funny-looking maid. "I guess... some people got another set of ears? This explosions has a wide range of side-effects."

[glintingglasses]

"Do you know how they left?" Maybe there was something that the doubles who wanted to return to their worlds could do in order to speed up the process.

He still had the image of the hamster-eared maid in his head even after she was long gone. "That was sooo cute! I hope there's other girls with cute furry ears like that. A maid with bear cub ears would be unbearably adorable!" He restrained a chuckle. "I'm sorry that you have to bear with all these puns."

[spinning_nissi]

"They just disappear. One moment they're here, and the next they're not. Same as how we got here." Though, it seemed people had a habit a disappearing as soon as she got close to them. That would make for a depressing trend.

She smiled over at him and shook her head. "I don't mind. Though that last one was really terrible."

[glintingglasses]

"Hm..." He looked at his feet as they walked, deep in thought, letting Nissi's purple arm guide him through the long hallways. The doubles just appear and disappear in what seems to be a random pattern...there has to be more to it.

But for now, his biggest concern was his current state. Not only were puns leaving his mouth non-stop, they were also invading his thoughts, making it quite hard to think in peace.

"I can't help it. All of a sudden I come up with these horrible puns which I'd never even think of before. It's like having a personal teacher inside my head. I call it in-tuition." He chuckled slightly again. Was this what it felt like to speak before thinking? How could people ever live like this their whole lives?

[spinning_nissi]

"Oh, my." She couldn't even muster up a fake smile for that one. "Do you think it's part of the condition, that the puns get worse the longer you're affected?"

Her eyes went wide and she stretched her free arm out in front of her to see if the purple were darker. She lifted her skirt and checked her leg as well, and pulled her blouse and looked down. Well, she didn't seem to be getting any worse, at least. That was a relief.

[glintingglasses]

"I sure hope not. It might just be a coincidence." Hopefully it was. He dreaded the possibility of increasingly worse puns. Nissi didn't seem to be turning a darker shade of purple, so hopefully that applied to all the different conditions as well.

"If the pun is mightier than the sword, as they say, and they become increasingly worse, I’ll surely be dead in no time." He didn't even know where that came from. He supposed he meant to say pen, not pun, but that made even less sense. He sighed. Today would be a long day.