i'm too impatient for the event so play something small with me maybe

[compendiem]

WHO: Minato/ota
WHERE: Wiffle-Waffle
WHEN: Friday, 8/3, all day
WHAT: a """stake-out""" aka eating waffles and talking because nothing will happen on the 3rd like it usually does. some info-sharing to get people up to date (or alternatively, non-productive wheel spinning with Minato because he knows NOTHING haha)
WARNINGS: none

i.
[ Shit goes down on the 3rd every month --> we don't know what's going to happen aside from something being wrong with Retrospec --> the waffle house used to be where the Retrospec building is and its mailbox is outside --> stake out the waffle house just in case something happens

That's basically the thought process that went into this, but word might not have gotten around that it's happening. If anything, what draws people's attention, if not by word of mouth, is that whoever's on the way to the waffle house early Friday morning may see Minato on his way there too, struggling to push a wheelbarrow up the street.

It's a covered wheelbarrow. There is definitely a blade or three poking through the cover where he'd tried to tie the fabric down so it wouldn't blow off. But don't mind that; help him push. ]

ii.
[ The Wiffle-Waffle is a respectable business which wouldn't appreciate loitering, so head on inside and let's have a waffle party. You're also paying for your own waffles, because Minato isn't made of money. He tries to keep his head down, mostly, finding a far away corner booth to sit at and waving people down with a credit card in one hand, the other hand held by the side of his face as if it does anything to obscure his identity from the workers there who shoot uneasy looks his direction from time to time. ]

Four waffles. Plain. If you can order that for me...

iii. (chronologically after prompt i.... I so clearly edited this in after the fact without reading)
[ He's just stuffing a mini-armory of axes and swords into the mailbox, don't mind him. ]

iv.
[ Time trudges on with nothing happening— a good thing, really. But Minato fiddles with his phone a lot during the time, pulling up a message he'd sent to Zee, checking and rechecking Wednesday's post from Joanne in hopes that it'd corrected himself.

With people here, it's a good a time as any for some info sharing. If anything, it'd be good for people to catch up on what happened last August that'd gotten so many "veterans" riled up, and Minato's one of those who wasn't there and is interested in learning more about it all. ]

So... Summer in Recollé sucks, huh. [ yeah ] ...I was talking to Zee a little, and he mentioned something about old maps, if you know anything about those. I guess it's of the city? Or Retrospec itself. I'm still a bit lost on it all, actually.

Comments

[compendiem]

Mm... I guess the connotation for "corruption" is a bit worse than "altered." Rather than something that needs to be cleansed and healed, how things are now doesn't really need to be changed?

[ Unlike corruption, altering things can be for better or for worse, and who are they to say which it is. He silently slides a menu over and sets it down on the table to cover up the cream splatters. Here, use this as a coaster. ]

Unless it really is wrong and ignoring it is damaging our souls.

[floret]

But that's what I mean. It's true that people's memories aren't matching up, but it almost sounds like you're just assuming anyone who remembers things differently from how we do is automatically right. Something has almost definitely been altered, but it's too soon to decide that it was us, isn't it?

And... why jump straight to the idea of corruption and damage? Other than that he seemed kind of different sometimes, you don't know anything about this other version of you. If he really existed, isn't it just as likely that he was the corrupted one? --I mean, assuming any of us have to be corrupted in the first place, which, why would they be, even?

[ he bites his lip, troubled, and glances down the list of omelet options. ]

[compendiem]

[ Does it say something about him that he's so ready to believe everybody as right and himself as wrong? In the end, he supposes it boils down to simplicity: it's easier for one or two people to be wrong, than the entire world. ]

I... guess, with what we've learned from Retrospec, it follows that they're the original and we are copies. Think of it as a cell- there's a process that goes into dividing and splitting off, and it's the descendants that accumulate mutations when the process goes wrong, resulting in an imperfect copy. Isn't that what we are?

[floret]

Why does it follow? It's not like the two of us are the only ones who remember things always being this way, nor are the two of us the only ones that some people think used to be different. Basically, either we got fake memories implanted... Or, um, I guess maybe actually had our pasts altered, somehow? ...Or they did.

Or, I don't know, maybe there used to be two or more concurrent timelines, and then they collapsed down to just this one, and everyone's right about everything. Or--

[ ah fuck the server is back and Hanatarou forgot to give any serious consideration to what he wants to order ]

--Uh, I'll go second!