001; come be the first in line to shake the hand of mine.

[truthvalue]

Who: Souji Seta and ... you???
Broadcast: Network; open.
Action: Marsiva; all over.
When: backdated to Saturday morning, before the Shuffle.

[It's a little unnerving, this idea of being on television - a little too reminiscent of the Midnight Channel. Souji himself never appeared on it, but he saw a lot of his friends in those staticky broadcasts over the past year, back in Inaba, their flaws put on display for all to see. It's uncomfortable, but - there really isn't anything to be done about it, so Souji doesn't.

He spends his first three days quietly aboard the Marsiva, mostly keeping to himself. Time seems a little too linear and solid for this to be Liminal Space, and when he wakes on the fourth day and nothing has changed, he concludes this must be the next Jaunt after all. He's not seen or heard from any of the Travelers he knows, though, and the psychic network seems to be out of reach, too. It's somewhat unsettling - but, he supposes, things could be worse.

Things can always be worse.

Later that morning, he finally turns his device camera on himself to make a proper introduction. The face may be recognizable to some, with one notable exception - a thin scar slashed across his left cheek. He speaks quietly but confidently, with all the poise of a perpetual transfer student. The smile he shows is practiced and polite.]

Hello. I'm sorry I didn't introduced myself sooner - my name is Souji Seta, and I'm new here.

[Words he has spoken so many times he's lost count.]

I look forward to working with everyone. If there's anything I can do to help, please let me know.

[He nods once, then ends the transmission.]

Comments

audio;

[feathery]

[This guy looks...almost exactly like someone who was briefly on the Wonderduck. Weird.]

The name's not like. An alias or anything, is it.

[THAT'S NOT A STRANGE QUESTION AT ALL.]

video for souji 8|

[truthvalue]

[His eyebrows arch up in surprise. NO NOT A STRANGE QUESTION AT ALL.]

No, it's ... just my name. The same one I've always had.

[He smiles politely. His answer is mostly the truth.]

Why do you ask?

[feathery]

Oh. Huh.

[He thinks it over only very briefly, before he shrugs to himself and lets it go.]

I met a guy who looks like you a while back. The resemblance is hella uncanny, to be honest; I would have figured you were from an alt timeline or something if the names matched up.

[truthvalue]

[It's actually not the strangest thing Souji's heard, believe it or not, so there's no alarm in his expression, just curiosity.]

You may not be wrong. What was his name, if you don't mind me asking?

[feathery]

Yu...Narukami? I think that's how you say it. Dude was a mean cook, at least by the standards of this shitshow.

[truthvalue]

[Souji nods; it's close enough to what he guessed might be the answer.]

Where I was before ... there was another Souji Seta who looked just like me, down to the same scars from childhood accidents. There was a girl, too, who looked like us. Her name was Yua Narukami.

[He smiles, a little fond, a little wistful. It's pretty clear from his questions that wherever he is - Jaunt or otherwise - they are not.]

We didn't really have time to compare timelines, but I'm sure there was something different between all three of us. Besides the obvious, in Yua's case.

[feathery]

A girl version of you. Ok, that's something I haven't run into before.

[It isn't that surprising—he just has to remember his own life and where they are—but Davesprite has never considered the possibility there might be an alt him out there who is a girl. What a weird fucking concept.]

Is this something normal where you're from or did you get ported in from another multiversal collection zone. 'Cause we've got those in spades.

[truthvalue]

[Shaking his head:] Ah, no, not where I'm from originally. I've been Traveling for a while. That's where I met them. And it wasn't uncommon there. There were a couple other Soujis with a different family name, too - they didn't look like us, so they must have been from somewhere else. And at least one other person with a double that I was aware of.

[feathery]

No shit. [It's mild, almost thoughtful.] It wasn't that common where I've been. Well, no, it was practically the norm where I'm from, but we never had too many alt selves coexisting longterm.

What's it called, where you were traveling.

[truthvalue]

Hm ... I don't know if there was a name for it. The whole thing, I mean. We sort of moved around. There was a city called Melasurei, and there was a place called Questing Country, and in between that were places called Liminal Space - each one was different.

[And now he's here, assuming it's probably just another Jaunt. But there's really no point in mentioning that.]

What about you?

[feathery]

Started out in a video game, ended up in Asgard. Now I've been here for a few months.

[He'd shrug, but, audio.]

I guess I don't really know where "here" is, beyond getting stuck under the thumb of a contractual nightmare that no one in residence knows the actual terms of. So maybe it's a similar deal, just with a side of reality TV. We been to a few different planets, though I never heard anyone mention Liminal Space.

[truthvalue]

You were in a video game?

[That's ... new.]

What was that like?

[feathery]

Shitty.

[Very helpful.]

Nah, I dunno, it wasn't that different from real life. Besides the underlings and quests and me kind of becoming an NPC. Then there was the whole death with occasional resurrection bs.

[...]

Ok, maybe it was pretty different, but it didn't feel different from walking around Earth none, if that makes sense. Felt as real as juice with no artificial ingredients.

[truthvalue]

[Souji's memory flicks back immediately to last summer, leading his friends through Mitsuo Kubo's dungeon in the TV World, the pixellated walls of the labyrinth leading them forward to the showdown with the final boss, the confrontation with Mitsuo's Shadow. He shudders.]

Have you been asked to go on a lot of quests?

[feathery]

Christ, dude, I have been on so many fucking quests. Mostly mini, inconsequential quests that didn't mean nothing in the end, but still dumbass quests. I got stuck running errands for crocodiles once and the assholes tried to turn me into soup.

[Still a little annoyed by that, years later.]

I never really got asked, though, it was just shit I had to do for one reason or another. You know how it works in video games; you always got to keep doing something, trying to trip the next trap or event so the story progresses.

[truthvalue]

That sounds like it must have been frustrating. I used to get asked to do tasks or find things for people, the last place I lived before I was taken Traveling. There was usually a fair trade involved, though ... and nobody ever tried to turn me into soup.

[feathery]

Oh man, that almost sounds normal. No soupification or demeaning bullshit quests, that's like. The life.

[It's only half a joke.]

So where did you use to live. Pretending I would've heard of it, after you rattled off all those unfamiliar locations.

[truthvalue]

Before Traveling, I lived in Japan. All over - my parents moved around a lot for work - but most recently, a small town called Inaba. It's pretty far out of the way of everything, so I'd be surprised if you knew it.

[feathery]

Oh, I heard of Japan, at least. I grew up in the United States. I guess I could've assumed, but one of my best friends was named something plain as Henry and he came from fuckin' mage country.

[truthvalue]

Where's mage country?

[feathery]

Uh. Pledge-something. Plegia? I dunno if they had a proper planet name, but it was near somewhere called Lists.

[Ylisse. He means Ylisse.]

[truthvalue]

Ah ... it's another planet? I wondered. Seems like the sort of thing I'd remember from geography.

[feathery]

Yeah. I personally would've noticed the existence of mages, too, but there are some wizards around who find that normal.

[truthvalue]

I can't say I've ever met a real wizard before. Just read about them in books.

[feathery]

Oh, well, if you run into Alex Russo or James Potter, [Davesprite, don't give out the names of people you haven't talked to just because you were friends with his son] you know you've hit the jackpot for sure. There's a blond girl called Nightingale who knows magic, too.