7th Social Link ▫ [Text + Audio]

[jivitadana]

[That nightmare was... different. Not new, as the stuff of nightmares was something Minato was used to. But different. He had been taking a nap at his desk while working on testing something. Something had been bothering him for a long while already, and it would be a way to distract him from thinking about the dream. The nightmare was the sign of something to come. Like those event announcements. He would just be prepared for it whenever it came.

Thus once he was ready again, he began writing, solving this math problem, then the next math problem and others like it.]

...

[Done. Answers checked out. But what about something... simple?]

42 - 17 = ______
...

........ What's forty-two minus seventeen?

.....

[Blank. How could he not know this? Something had to be wrong. (And it isn't cheating to ask the network!)]

Comments

[video forever]

[akapeanut]

...You okay? You haven't, uh. Died five times without telling anybody, right?

[jivitadana]

If I did die five times, I would hope someone would know.

[At least, he could hope, as he said.]

But I'm okay. Thank you.

[Minato looked and felt okay for the most part. Maybe a little worried.]

[akapeanut]

Just, uh. Since Phillip lost something like an ability when he did. I wondered...

It's not an event, is it?

[jivitadana]

[Minato shook his head.]

No, I think you're safe. It's just me.

[He thought so, anyway, since he might have figured it out. It could've been worse.]

[akapeanut]

I. I didn't mean it like that.

[She fidgets. It's been a while since she and Minato spoke-- they got distant before he left, and once he came back he was, y'know. Different. And now here he is, having a crisis and she hardly knows him anymore. She feels sort of guilty. Especially if he thinks that she's more concerned about how this might affect her.]

Did you buy something from the vendors?

[jivitadana]

[No offense taken at all. He was just glad that it was just him who was affected and not anyone else. Well, affected in this way, anyway.

Minato shook his head again.]

I haven't tried that yet.

[He didn't want to. Yet. He didn't want to risk losing a memory like that.]

Can I ask what your ability your friend lost?

[akapeanut]

Mm, I meant maybe you sold a memory that included, uh, learning math. Like, maybe it was a side effect of losing another memory. But I guess you didn't, so there ends that.

[George blinks, a little awkward at the thought of Phillip as a "friend", despite them both being among the people with the longest residencies in Wonderland. And then winces a little when she realizes she can't answer that question partially because they aren't really friends.]

I...don't know. He didn't want to say over the network, and I haven't spoken to him in person yet. Guess I should, uh. Ask.