38th sigh

[sosnarrator]

[Kyon has been kicked up into a furore over this latest event, however having hit a wall almost immediately, you may find him sitting on a park bench musing to himself...]... Man, I really am hopeless on my own, huh? I decide that I have to go and investigate this mess, yet I haven't the slightest clue where to start. It'd sure be useful if I had

Comments

[answerer_sword]

You could start with what you already know. For example, did you happen to have a strange dream on the 16th of December?

[sosnarrator]

Yeah, I saw someone I knew back home in it. Although, I turned her down on the disappearing act.

[answerer_sword]

So did I.

[Actually, the "Kotomine" from her dream had been violently punched away.]

So if all of the residents experienced dreams of that nature and everyone still remaining rejected the offer...then perhaps the ones that disappeared accepted?

[sosnarrator]

Sure, it stands to reason... But how does that help us now at this point? I mean, it's not like we can walk up to our dream apparitions now and demand an explanation.

[answerer_sword]

We cannot get one from the mayor either. I attempted it and failed.

[The secretary had absolutely refused to let her even see the mayor, much less talk to him.]

The dreams were probably sent by the town. This raises a question--why would the town kidnap us from our homes and keep us confined here, only to erase us? Everything I have seen of its behavior makes me believe it is possessive and protective when it comes to us. Whatever physical damage we might take, it is always repaired after a certain length of time. Even drones are restored, despite being mindless. It is like a child and we are like its toys--and like a child, it does not like to play with broken toys. Therefore, in light of its previous behavior, it makes no sense for it to simply erase some of us. The copies used this time seem to be more like the originals than the usual drones. Perhaps this town is planning something with the originals... Or perhaps there is some secret for this new type of copy?

Has there ever been a precedence for non-drone dopplegangers before

[sosnarrator]

We had alien bodysnatchers back in October, but they left rather conspicuous pods containing the originals hidden around the place.

[answerer_sword]

Perhaps the originals are hidden away in some other place this time? If you were to hide a bunch of kidnapped people, where would you place them? The cemetary?

[She has seen it done before. The question is, did Mayfield even have a cemetary?]

[sosnarrator]

Cemetery, huh? We don't exactly have one of those either. The park turned into one briefly during a previous event...

(Or well, the same one I mentioned a minute ago, but it's a long story so I won't delve into it...)

... but as you can see, not a headstone in sight today.

[answerer_sword]

What other places in Mayfield can act as a vault? The Hotel? The Church? The Dairy?

[sosnarrator]

Perhaps the dairy... It'd be a tough job even trying to get in there though.

[answerer_sword]

Yes, it will be. Perhaps we should move on to the subject of the dopplegangers then. How does their behavior compare to the previous non-drone dopplegangers? Do they have some purpose besides antagonizing those who remain?

[sosnarrator]

Well, the alien doppelgangers seemed to have some kind of passive aggressive streak going on, these ones are just... Well, something is off about them, it's hard to place.

[answerer_sword]

It seems the town is getting better with creating dopplegangers then. Still, it cannot completely replicate the behavior of the replaced people. After all, the Tohsaka I know would...

[She trails off here. What would the real Tohsaka do and not do? She knows the Tohsaka from her world would have phoned the rest of the town to ask questions and then find some way to deal with the crisis, but what of the Tohsaka here? She was from another world, but she was still Tohsaka. She should have behaved like the Tohsaka she remembers, right? But still, she was from another world...]

She would...

[Try as she might, she cannot seem to remember how similar and how different the Tohsaka in Mayfield is to the Tohsaka from her universe.]

I don't know what the real Tohsaka would have done...

[sosnarrator]

[Sigh...]

I still can't believe that Haruhi would've actually accepted the condition of that stupid dream.

[answerer_sword]

She was too strong of a person?

[She stops trying to remember what the Tohsaka in this town had been like. Right now, she has to focus on finding out the details behinds the new dopplegangers.]

It seems all of Mayfield's creations have some sort of theme. Drones are obviously overly cheerful and mindless. The previous dopplegangers were more refined, but still passive agressive. What defect do these dopplegangers have besides feeling subtly wrong? What is their "theme?"

[sosnarrator]

It's damn near impossible to tell her to do anything. Honestly, at this point I'm almost convinced that most of her decisions are specifically made in order to be a nuisance to others.

(And by others, I mean mostly myself.)

Their "theme", huh...? I haven't really picked up on anything like that from them yet.