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[ hajime is currently outside at the island they build around the base, sitting at the beach. it's a nice day out, after all. and she wanted to introduce the newest member of her notebook collection to the sunshine! completely unironically. ]

Ah, Number One? Are you there?

Number Two?

[Of course it's the other Hajime, literally no one else calls him Number One. He has his hands occupied taking apart a drone, but it's easy enough to talk on the communicator at the same time.]

Yeah, what's up?

Nothing, I just wanted to say hi!

[ the sound of papers being shuffled can be faintly heard. ]

Carol-chan is very cute! Thank you for giving her to me.

Carol-chan...?

[He pauses pulling two wires apart, quirking an eyebrow. If it's something he gave to her, that can only be...]

Ah, that's what you named the notebook? I'm glad you like it. Uh, her.

Sorry it took so long to finally make you one.

It's okay. You were gone for a couple of days, and you didn't have to rush.

[ she would point out the irony of her promising him not to vanish suddenly without warning only for him to immediately do the same? ]

Carol-chan agrees with me!

Haha, does she...?

[That's kind of cute, pretending like the notebook can talk. A little childish, but that's fine.]

Well, I'm glad. I remember you said your favorite color is usually yellow, so I figured I couldn't go wrong with that. It's actually a lot easier to make a notebook than I thought it would be.

[He has many talents.]

Hm, was it?

[ she traces her fingers across the cover. it's very well made? hajime doesn't think she'd be able to make something this neat on her first try. ]

You did a super good job.

Thanks. I mean, it was a gift for you, so...

[He coughs. Okay, Hinata, don't get ahead of yourself. There's a clank of machinery as he starts shifting drone parts around again.]

But I mean it, don't go disappearing again just to see what kinds of presents I give you when you come back.

[As if... he hadn't just disappeared SHHH.]

I could say the same to you.

[ she saw the video he posted, but hadn't gotten a chance to reply to it. ]

A week is still a long time, you know.

I don't remember getting any presents for coming back.

[It's said lightly, almost teasingly, in an attempt to buy time to decide what he wants to say. There's no real good way to say "yeah well I disappeared and now I've come back with years worth of memories crammed into the same body and it's weird??"]

But... I'm sorry. Believe me, I didn't do it on purpose. I wouldn't leave of my own will without at least telling you first.

I know. Like I've said before, you're a good boy.

[ she will definitely give him a present though. she can't say she will, because it has to be a surprise. ]

You said something about getting new memories though. [ admittedly, hajime was waiting to see if he would broach the subject with her. she has since realized that she will probably have to take the initiative here. ]

Mm... yeah.

[There we go, that's the part he was looking for. He pulls out the antennae the drone uses to broadcast information to study it carefully. With his attention on the part, his voice dips in tone, becoming a little less natural-sounding, a little closer to a monotone.]

I can't explain exactly how it happened. Whether I was absent from the planet and time was passing at a faster rate back home than it was here, or whether it's information that was present in my memories that has only now been released... I'm really not sure.

I haven't been able to find any conclusive evidence to support one theory or the other.

Were they important memories?

[ hajime isn't going to ask him what they actually are, nor does she expect him tell her. memories are kind of private? ]

How many people have experienced something like that? Did a lot come forward, or...

Yeah. It answered... a lot of questions I had about myself, and my circumstances. It's kind of a relief, in some ways. Having answers.

[He just... sticks the antennae he was examining into his pocket for now. Because that's what you do with things that are interesting, or something.]

Roxy's the only one who said anything. She was gone for exactly seven days, like I was, but she only experienced a single day's worth of time passing. Like I said, I have some theories that might explain the difference in passage of time, but I don't have enough evidence yet.

If anyone else has gone through something similar, they've kept their mouth shut. I'm not willing to force someone to give me information they're not willing to divulge themselves.

[Im...plying that he could???]

[ she frowns at that, but won't comment on the implication. it's not like he can see her frowning, anyway. ]

What are your theories then? I'll try to keep up!

[ also bypassing the first thing he said, about how it gave him answers. once again, if he won't explain himself then she won't pry. ]

Mm... the one I think is most logical would be that we're experiencing time differently on this planet than we are back home. Which is to say that it's possible we -- Souda and myself -- left this planet entirely and returned home through the same method we arrived. Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity speaks about how time can pass differently depending on your perspective.

It's normally explained in simpler terms by imagining you were to have a set of twins, one of whom remained on Earth, and the other boarded a spaceship traveling near the speed of light. Both of them would feel that time, from their perspective, was passing normally. But if the twin on the spaceship were to return to Earth, they would find that from Earth's perspective, more time had passed. The twin on Earth would have aged more than the twin on the spaceship.

So it's possible that we're in that kind of situation. If we were to think of this "universe" as the spaceship, and imagine that Souda and I returned to the Earth presented in that scenario, we would experience more time passing from our perspective on Earth than you might perceive from this planet.

What it wouldn't do is explain how I look exactly as I did before experiencing that passage of time. If I had truly left the planet and returned, I would expect my body to reflect those differences. It doesn't.

{Since... when did Hinata know this kind of information?? Hajime "I don't like using my brain" Hinata. As he explains, his tone drops again, a little more slowly and closer to that same monotone. As if he's reciting information rather than speaking his exact thoughts.]

Is that so?

[ she should probably respond with something more than just three worlds, but hajime's main concern is... yes, this does seem like a lot of information for him to suddenly know? she didn't think he was dumb or anything, but hajime #1 never really gave the impression of being too knowledgable in scientific theories.

so. what happened then? in the years of memories he received, did he learn about all of this? that's possible. it's still a little strange listening to him speak though. if he was interested in this type of thing, she would have thought he'd sound a little more excited while discussing it. ]

That all sounds very complicated! But I guess it would let some things make sense.

It's one theory. Like I said, I'd need an explanation as to why I don't reflect any of the physical changes I went through during that time. Or rather... not all of them. Externally, I look the same as I had before. But internally...? I don't think it's exactly the same.

[He starts cleaning up the drone pieces, setting them aside for now.]

Another theory is that these memories were already present in our brains, but somehow repressed or erased. And whatever happened during the seven days we couldn't be detected by URSULA was enough to restore those memories. It would mean that my physical body was a copy taken from an earlier time, and my mind imported into it and made to believe that they were one and the same.

It's hard to say one way or another.

That also sounds very complicated. Hm, Number One, you're awfully smart. It must have been a very busy few years for you.

[ the words are followed by some silence, although if he listens carefully he can hear the waves. hajime is standing up and, after pocketing the notebook and dusting sand off of herself, she returns to the conversation. ]

A lot of this is going over my head, but it's interesting to think about. Just when you think we had enough mysteries about this world, more pop up!

Ah...

[All at once, his voice seems to return to something closer to normal, if a little quiet. He exhales quietly through his nose and shakes his head, though she can't see it.]

Yeah, something like that. But I wasn't gone for years. It's... a long story, but before I came here, I'd had... a lot of my memories erased. When I returned back to where I came from, if that's really what happened, I was able to go through some... really weird circumstances that allowed me to get them back. So I regained memories I knew I had lost, while also... moving forward in time by a few weeks, from my perspective.

I guess that's the easiest way to put it.

Edited 2016-10-06 23:15 (UTC)

[ that's still complicated.

although it's a little funny, how when you try to explain your circumstances to someone they think it's the most bizarre thing in the world. but when they explain theirs to you, your reaction is the same. ]

Well! I'm happy that you got them back. Losing your memories kind of sounds like its own unique kind of horror story.

Ha...

It's something, alright.

[Not agreeing or disagreeing about the losing memories bit. Instead, with his workspace cleaned up and a suitable segue, he glances toward the communicator.]

Speaking of horror stories, though... have you been okay? With the nightmares, I mean.

I'm fine! They seem to be really bad for everyone else though, a lot of people aren't sleeping.

[ she sounds cheerful enough, at least. ]

Dirk got mad at me over it though.

...

[Are you really fine, or are you just saying that so I won't worry...?]

I'm glad to hear that, at least. Why did Dirk get mad?

Edited 2016-10-06 23:41 (UTC)

Maybe "mad" isn't too accurate... He just didn't like an idea I had.

[ not that it matters to her too much whether or not he approves, since the only way to stop her would be to babysit her in the dreamscape?

let her search for the final boss, dirk. ]

audio, 10/6

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