video;

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji is in the diner, putzing around, cooking things. He's been trying to cover as many shifts there as possible in order to a) keep himself busy and also to b) give Tohru a break.

Since most of the people in the Mansion probably aren't going to be ordering curry or anything else he's used to cooking, he's been practicing making American foods. Hence the delightful image filling the feed when he turns it on.]

I think I figured out how to make good American-style hamburgers. [This is an important distinction to make.] But...now I have too many. If anyone wants one, just come by the diner.

[Because this is too many for even him to eat.]

Comments

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[... Yeah, that's weird. That's not just "die horribly, wake up in Heaven" or "fall into a hole, wake up in Hell" weird, that's direct-to-video levels of strangeness.

After everything this person's tried to tell him, what's one more unbelievable little tidbit?]</sub>

I never read the books.

_{[Adam is good at compartmentalizing.]}

[eatsyourscience]

you don't really need to. a lot of this place isn't that accurate anyway.

[halfwinchester]

_{[Well, that's a relief! Except... not really. But sadly, he's getting used to this.]}

A kid's story that doesn't add up with the real thing, funny that. Seems to be true about a lot of things.

[eatsyourscience]

i guess so.

anyway, if you change your mind about the burgers or think of any other questions i might be able to answer, text me.

[halfwinchester]

Is that a thing everyone does here? Message strangers?

_{[They don't know each other. Does anyone? The phone things are just another unexplainable convenience that doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense.]}

[eatsyourscience]

i do it. i don't know about the others.

[halfwinchester]

That's friendly.

Did I ever ask your name?

_{[He knows he hasn't.]}

[eatsyourscience]

my name's souji. what about you?

[halfwinchester]

Adam.

_{[Guess now they've met. Sort of, in the barest sense.]}

[eatsyourscience]

i hope we can talk again.

[halfwinchester]

Doesn't sound like we'll be going anywhere in a hurry.

[eatsyourscience]

you never know.

[But he's been here so long, he's stopped hoping to go home soon.]

[halfwinchester]

<sub>[Thing is, there's nowhere to go to, at least not for him. Unless they're talking returning to the pit, and that's...

That's a thought that haunts most of his nights, and one he tries not to entertain during the day.]</sub>

Then I'd hate to see the next place we end up. Atlantis?

[eatsyourscience]

[Souji's met enough people in Wonderland to know that he's lucky to have a good place to return to. He knows that wanting to go home isn't a universal sentiment in Wonderland, and he thinks that's one of Wonderland's cruelest tricks.]

that wouldn't be so bad if it were before it sank.

[halfwinchester]

Now that does sound weird.

_{[Enjoying cooking? Sure. He remembers what that's like, sort of. But world-hopping isn't all it's cracked up to be.]}

[eatsyourscience]

i don't think we'll have to worry about it.

[halfwinchester]

If you say so.

_{[As they'd already proved, anything's possible. Adam's liable to accept just about anything at this point.]}

[eatsyourscience]

i like to stay cautiously optimistic if i can.

[halfwinchester]

<sub>["Cautiously optimistic" is a setting Adam doesn't know how to turn on anymore, and he can't remember if the words were still in his vocabulary after two years in the pit. Optimism seems like a luxury, not a privilege.

Or just something that hasn't been beaten out of a person yet.]</sub>

And how long are you going to keep that up?

[eatsyourscience]

it's been two and a half years and i've still got it.

[So not any time soon.]

[halfwinchester]

Hope you're still talking like that in fifty.

_{[For all anyone seems to know, they'll be stuck here for the next millennium or more.]}

[eatsyourscience]

if i'm here 50 years, i probably won't remember my world well enough to be pessimistic.

[halfwinchester]

Why's that?

<sub>[He's gotten the bare bones already, but this is new enough to him that he still can't help but ask questions.

Is that what happens in this place? Losing bits of yourself like in Hell?</sub>

[eatsyourscience]

you lose memories while you're here. i've lost at least three in two years, so in fifty, i'd probably lose most of the ones that make me me.

[halfwinchester]

_{[Maybe Adam's the odd man out for not finding the prospect of losing one's memories to be a terrible outcome. He reads the message over again and decides it doesn't much matter whether the other person is telling him the truth or not.]}

How do you know you've lost something if you can't remember?