entranceway | video/action;

Entry tags:

video/action;

[Souji is sitting on the front stoop of the inn, looking around at the snow. His expression, while typically neutral, also shows a combination of excitement and pensiveness. He offers a tiny smile to the video feed.]

I think Kanji and I have to take responsibility for this event. It shouldn't be bad, though. Unless someone else's memories are mixed in, this was just a nice vacation.

[He falls silent for a couple of seconds, distracted, then addresses the network again.]

Would anyone mind helping me figure out what word we lost this time? I need to write it down.

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Not at all.

[ Stefan's already got a pen and notebook ready, though he had honestly been planning to write about other things. This lost memory (lost words, rather) seems a lot more important. ]

Though um, I didn't realize anyone had ever lost words from each event.

I appreciate it.

[He offers a small smile, but his expression turns pensive again.]

That's what it's always been for me. I can picture whatever it is, but I don't know what it's called.

That's gotta be frustrating. [ . . . ] Also, admittedly, a little different from what I was expecting.

[ He just got his memories back, too. ]

I got lucky when a friend from home came. He was able to help figure out what was missing and write it down.

[That's not going to work this time, obviously, because both of them had forgotten.]

They're related to events, right? I'm sure you'll find it if you both think hard enough about what happened back home.

[ Though from what he said, it was a nice vacation. Shame that re-living it comes with a price. ]

That's how I've done it in the past. Although sometimes it was pretty easy to figure out where the gap was.

[He couldn't figure out the word itself, but he knew where it should have been in his memory.]

I've been trying to think of what it was, but I haven't come up with anything so far.

Hm. It probably isn't anything like "snow", "snowstorm," or "ski."

[ He takes a moment to jot those words down, just in case. ]

That's a good thing, I'd think. Being unable to describe the weather would suck.

Yeah. I lost the word for a piece of clothing during an earlier event, but at least it's not one people use often.

[At least not non-Japanese people.]

I went through most of the obvious words in my head. It's definitely not something about the physical environment here.

Must've been important, all the same.

[ Now he's wondering what it could be, not that Souji could tell him. Surely this guy doesn't mean some outdated fashion trend . . . ]

What about the way this place made you feel? Did you spend a lot of time inside?

[Souji considers that.]

We were outside for a lot of it. We spent most of the first day skiing and the second day a few of us got caught in a snowstorm. We spent the night in between talking inside.

Did you play any board games, maybe? Or did you sit by the fire with hot chocolate...?

[ He's guessing, really, as he writes down "board games" and "hot chocolate," holding his current page up to the screen. ]

[Souji looks over the words and shakes his head.]

Not those. [He thinks over that.] We did sit around by the fire for awhile. One of my friends was scaring the others by--

[He falters.]

...By telling stories.

Oh! [ He quickly writes down two phrases that come to mind, holding them up to the screen. If Souji can't vocalize it, maybe he can see the word.

"Urban legends" is the first phrase. "Ghost stories" is the second. ]

There's two phrases on this page. If I'm guessing right, you're only going to see one of them.

Edited (grammar edit!) 2017-06-09 03:10 (UTC)

[Souji eyes it and nods.]

I can see "urban legends." I don't know what the second one is.

Ah. The first one was kind of a reach to begin with...

[ It had made sense in his head: vampires, werewolves, and the boogeyman might as well have been urban legends, and those were the stories that kids had told each other in Mystic Falls. ]

Did those stories, by any chance, involve spirits? The supernatural in any way?

[Souji nods.] Exactly.

[Something occurs to him and he gets up, taking the device with him.]

Hang on. Let me find some paper and a pencil. I want to try something.

Okay. I'll be right here.

[ Hang on. Instead of just idly waiting – ]

Or maybe you should come find me? If you can't find any paper?

[He pauses, then nods.]

That will work better for what I want to do. Where are you?

Oh, I'm in the common room.

[ He takes a moment to flip the camera around; he's right by the fire, with extra blankets (even though he doesn't need them). ]

Okay. One minute.

[He cuts the feed and is probably there in less than a minute. He comes to join Stefan by the fire. It feels a little awkward to just walk up and plop down, no pleasantries, but they've already been talking for awhile, and besides, he's a bit preoccupied with something he wants to try.]

Can I see the paper?

[ Stefan scoots over when he sees Souji, and hands over that journal and ballpoint pen with zero hesitation. ]

Yeah, sure. [ There's nothing personal in this journal, anyway (so far). ] What're you gonna try?

I want to see if I can write it.

[There are two ways he can do this: try to replicate what he sees and have Stefan spell it out and write it letter by letter. He chooses the former for the moment. Frowning, he starts to draw what the words look like to him--an odd combination of squiggles, blurs, and random characters. When he finishes, what Stefan will see is the correct words--"ghost story"--though they look a bit like a five-year-old wrote them. Souji still sees the scribbledy-gook, though.

He holds the journal out for Stefan to see.]

What does that look like?

[ Whoa. Even without the memory, the word's still moderately legible. ]

It looks like the word. [ A child's version of it, anyway. Stefan tilts his head. ] Is this what it looks like to you?

...It's a weird combination of things. But it's definitely not words.

[He taps the paper with the end of the pen on the page before looking up again.]

There's something else I want to try. Can you slowly spell it for me?

That's pretty thorough of Wonderland. [ But also a good indication of the magic at work, if it can even steal the concept of a word. ] And of course.

[ He nods, spelling it out letter by letter – or character by character, depending on how Souji hears it. ]

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