text; @The Seventh Crown of the Seventh Demon King;

[unrequite]

[ Four lines of text. ]

This is written in Victorian.
Kore wa Laterano-ji Higashi-go de kakareteimasu.
This is written in Higashinese.
This written by in Yanese. (Might be bad. Sorry.)

Please do let me know how many of these sentences you understand.

[ The first is in what would be considered Earth English, the second is what would be known as Japanese written in Romaji, but he's called it "Laterano-ji Higashinese". The third was written in Japanese, the fourth was written in some rather poor Chinese. He's called the languages themselves clearly incorrect names. What's more important, though, is that only the second one should parse as phonetic, and should only be understandable to fellow Japanese speakers. The rest are in whatever language is most understandable to whoever reads it. Funny, huh? This city sure is strange! ]

Comments

[unrequite]

The language spoken in the nation of Higashi, of course.

To actually answer your question, it seems as though Higashi, my home nation in my world, and the countries of Japan and possibly Inazuma may share parallel cultures between our worlds, language included. Would a name like "Junpei" or "Shoko" happen be commonplace where you're from?

[petsthedog]

[Ah. Definitely alternate universe bullshit, then.]

yeah
never heard of inazuma or higashi but i am from japan
so that sounds about right
gotta say
different planets is one thing but this one's extra weird

[unrequite]

Puts one in mind of alternate realities, doesn't it? There's some appeal in peeking into another history from a safe distance, seeing how the other half lives. No different from a book, now that I think about it, with a layer of fictionality removed.

[petsthedog]

i guess
never really paid that much attention in history class honestly

[also he dropped out like...two years ago, so. most of what he DID listen to at the time is fuzzy by now.]

still
it is kinda interesting that we could have entirely different countries but japanese and higashinese'd look exactly the same, down to even the romaji like the second line
the hell are even the odds of that

[unrequite]

Quite small, I'd say. I'd almost accuse this all of being too coincidental. It doesn't feel quite real, except it must be. I'm not a terribly creative person, so making up this many people with the depth and complexity required to make this feel as real as it does would be completely beyond me. It's like a falling into a lovely play, in that sense.

[petsthedog]

dunno if it is a coincidence, really
someone's gotta be watchin us, right?
like whoever made those surveys from when we showed up
maybe they picked people on purpose

[Not to mention being patched up upon arrival when he was distinctly bleeding out in the moments before. All of this can't be entirely random and without intention behind it]

[unrequite]

[ Still trying to find a common denominator, huh? ]

Any thoughts as to what we might have in common? Besides the obvious, of course.

[ That they're all stuck here is pretty self-evident, after all. ]

[petsthedog]

might not be all one thing
maybe not even just one person doin this
could be different people interested in different shit
like languages that're similar, or background stuff like what you're good at or how you grew up

[He and Kitsuragi are both orphans, for one thing. There's at least a few people who are dead. Many people know how to fight, from what he can tell. He and this man share such language similarity it can't possibly be a coincidence.]

[unrequite]

I'm flattered, but I wouldn't say I'm good at anything other than words. I think you bring up a good point about swathes of us having different kinds of commonalities. For example, the only other person here from my world works for the same company. Even though we were never formally acquainted before we arrived here, it seems like an odd coincidence. There's nothing specifically special about where we work, other than it perhaps being a research facility with a philanthrophic bent. However, if one of our admirers is more interested in the relationship between relative acquaintances rather than perfect strangers or best friends, it would explain why there seem to be a wide variety of people here who work for the same companies where they come from rather than friend groups or families.

[petsthedog]

words probably counts
most of what i'm good for is punching shit meanwhile

[...and cooking, but it feels weird to bring that up here.]

probably fit in with other people like that since nobody i know from home's here otherwise

[It's weird, though because technically ... SEES is special. They're the ones with the Potential, after all. The only ones who can fight the Shadows. So if Midnight is right, why is it just him here?]

[unrequite]

Quite a lot of us are some sort of fighter, aren't we? Well, even by that metric, my inclusion is a bit odd. I'm good by civilian standards, but I don't hold a candle the veteran operators employed by Rhodes Island. If we're supposed to be some sort of army, the sorting algorithm could use some work.

On the bright side, I know that very little would be impacted by my absence. No one's in danger, other operators can easily do what I do.

[petsthedog]

hell the group i was in is better off without me, even
maybe they're grabbing people who wouldn't be missed much

[sorry to everyone in the city he might be insulting with that comment, though he's not that sorry really. the self loathing is strong with this one.]

[unrequite]

Oh no, I'd be deeply missed. My departure simply wouldn't affect much besides their hearts... Which I deeply grieve, of course, but such is life.

[ Midnight knows what's up with himself, at least. This stranger... sure does seem to need a pick-me-up, though. ]

[petsthedog]

[...]

sucks for them i guess?
or you?
i dunno

[unrequite]

Thank you, but I think it's best that we lack a proper response to such things. To disappear from someone else's life — individually — is always a difficult thing. To have a stock response means to gain some societal measure of acceptance over bereavement as a whole. I think I'd prefer for such occasions to be slightly awkward.

[petsthedog]

[Hrgh. There's a strong temptation to leave the message on read and fuck off rather than engage in anything more serious than the vague condolence, but. There's one bit here that rubs him wrong, so:]

it doesn't really matter if people accept it or not
what people say about it ain't gonna make much of a difference in someone bein gone

was just tryin not to be a jackass about it but whatever

[unrequite]

[ Ah, understandable. This person has reason to believe they're dead, after all. ]

I find a great many things forgiveable, dear stranger. Honesty is certainly one of them. I'm rather of the opinion that death is something that happens to the living, but I can't say that's a comforting idea at all, either.

[petsthedog]

you talkin the people left behind?
same thing pretty much
nothing anyone's gotta say'll make it suck less
nobody knows unless they know and it's still gonna be different for everyone
someone could get just a sorry or a wholeass poem and it wouldn't change anything
people just say shit to not be a jackass when someone tells em about it

[unrequite]

[ At this point, Midnight is aware that this person is probably speaking from personal experience. ]

Sounds terribly unpleasant. Makes one wonder why we go around dying in the first place. Seems terribly rude to inflict such unpleasantness on other people.

[ ... And his response is jokes. Sure! ]

[petsthedog]

[So much of this conversation is hitting uncomfortably close to home, frankly.]

eh
sometimes bein a rude prick's still the less shitty choice

[Or at least, that's what he's been telling himself ever since he woke up on that train. #coping]

[unrequite]

[ ... This place certainly caught this person in a bad way. ]

That's a terribly difficult sentiment to answer. Mostly because I don't mind people, perhaps.

[petsthedog]

[At least he's not far enough gone as to outright say that liking people in general is different from having him around--though he is lowkey thinking it.]

aint much to say
its just true sometimes

[unrequite]

I don't understand, then. Tell me why that is.

[petsthedog]

hard pass

[Being vaguely self-loathing on the network is one thing. He's certainly not about to talk about the details of his death and what led up to it in public to a near-stranger.]

[unrequite]

Fair enough. If you ever change your mind, find me.

[ Only one way to stop being strangers, after all. ]