Un : ma - A question about the new arrivals(4th wallers welcome)

[stopfen]

Name: Mikasa Ackerman
Date: 18/05
Format:voice

Has anyone noticed if the people who arrived the other week have started going back yet? [Very blunt. So blunt, it almost sounds like she can't wait to be rid of them. But she's just wondering how long she has until Jean just disappears and she's alone again.

Then as an after thought.]

What happens when people return? Has it always happened out of sight?

Comments

[unsundered]

[He leads in with a low, thoughtful hum, a sound barely picked up by the device.]

I'm sure some would claim there's solace in knowing the end is approaching in a timely fashion, giving one a bit of warning to get one's affairs with the soon-to-be-departed in order. ...I'd say those people are mistaken. Whether a week or a year or a mortal lifetime, there's no true preparation for loss. For being forgotten.

[Emet-Selch hasn't even lost anyone here yet, but that doesn't stop him from some preemptive pessimism. He'd lost all else in his life, why would this place be any different?

His tone abruptly shifts to something lighter, but no nicer.]

Well! That's assuming you give much of a damn about this person, or whether you're simply counting down the hours until his less-than-tragic disappearance. But I fear you'll be helpless to watch in either case.

And oh, I've only been here for around eight months... barely a blink of time, but a period of both great eventfulness and greater nothings.

[stopfen]

...It doesn't matter how much time there is, it never feels like enough. [Mikasa had learnt that the hard way. She'd lose the two she'd cherished most for so long. There was no avoiding it. They'd die due to the curse. In less than ten years she'd lose them, though hadn't she already lost one.

Well that killed her mood a bit. Then the mystery man continues. Earning a snort from her. It's as close as he'd get to a laugh from her.]

At least I'll know once he's gone. He wouldn't leave without saying anything. [Jean had kinda made that clear. He'd stick around like glue, even going to the Coven to bother them about.]

[unsundered]

And that would be... because there isn't enough time. There never is. 'Cherish what time you have' is another thing people say. Those who've not lost enough to understand that things are never so simple. Those who have nothing to fear from their disappearance here, or the disappearance of those they cherish. But for the rest of us... what a futile, harmful sentiment.

[What a cheerful, encouraging sort. But as bleak as he is, he's apparently in a chatty sort of mood.]

And well, there's that, then. How nice and tidy, to know when the silence stretches for a moment too long that it's over.

[From idle to glib to another pause. He didn't know this woman at all, but it sounded as though she had some sort of attachment to this person who was soon to be gone. He could recognize that.]

Still. Useless as my words are, I'm sorry for your impending loss. It never gets any easier.

[stopfen]

[Wow. Cheerful, slightly more cheerful than she was. Given that she was one of those people. Or maybe she wasn't, she'd just put the lives of other people and their comfort above her's. Then learnt that no matter what she did, they'd die to something she couldn't prevent.]

When someone goes, someone else is left behind... [And that's all she had left to say there.]

We've known each other for a long time, saved each other enough times... Besides, he's kind of loud. [ Cause even if she wasn't getting alerted when someone responded she'd have been able to hear half this conversation from her room.]

Hopefully this will be the only time. I don't know many people.

[unsundered]

[There's a truth to that statement that has him quiet. There's a sound eventually like another low sigh before he ignores it and presses on.]

So a well-known companion, briefly regained and soon to be lost. Though if he's the loud sort, I can only imagine the incoming silence to be accompanied by a feeling of great relief.

[There does seem to be some noise in the background... what were with all these noisy households....]

But seemingly hailing from the same star is no guarantee of anything, I've realized. Are there- complications, in regards to his return? Any reason to believe you won't find him again on your inevitable disappearance?

--Which is the only way to avoid losing even more, I suspect. Disappearing oneself. Even remaining appropriately isolated and indifferent is more difficult than expected.

[stopfen]

[He was wrong there. Mikasa liked the noise, it was reassuring, dead people didn't make noise. But she doesn't mention that.]

My housemate is loud too... [So there would still be noise. But then her voice softens a little.]

That depends on if what others have said is true doesn't it? If time doesn't pass where we came from then I'll see him again. [She doesn't mention the alternative if time did pass.]

[unsundered]

Then we have something in common. How nice.

[Droll as anything. To him, loud housemates were little other than a nuisance.

But only mentioning what happened if time didn't pass certainly implied something happening if it did. But he decides not to specifically inquire; not out of any sense of politeness or respect, but because he honestly didn't particularly care.]

How fortunate would it be, for time to continue without us. [Fortunate for himself, anyway, which was what mattered.] How much could be avoided... though I know few share my preferences. How unlucky that I've heard nothing to suggest that we do anything but return to the moment from whence we came, ignorant of all we've done here.

[Not that he exactly has much evidence in any direction, but he'll believe the most unfavorable possibility. It was better than having hope.]

...Were you given the opportunity to follow him home, would you take it?

[stopfen]

[Thank you for not giving a shit and making her think about it more than she already was.]

I would... I'd have to arrange a few things like work. But there's little reason to stay here, is there? We can't plan to prepare for what is happening at home, because we'll forget.

It's not as though I could stay here. There'd always be a chance that I'd just disappear like others have.

[So much optimism.]

[unsundered]

The not having a choice either way is the problem... 'tis an occurrence of happenstance, with no apparent way of influencing the outcome. I wonder how many would choose to leave, if given the option. The majority, I suspect, and understandably so.

[He's honestly not sure what he'd decide if given the chance.]

But instead we're all forced to endure, never knowing what will be taken from us on each new day, waiting until we too succumb.

[The most optimistic conversation.]

[stopfen]

I think if people had a choice to be here or home...[She. Mikasa couldn't actually finish that. Because if she was given a choice, and the people she cared about were given a choice to stay here were it was so much more peaceful. What would they choice?

She had to go back. She knew that much. Eren had to be stopped but if it'd been before the rumbling...She couldn't give an answer. So she sighs, leaving that hanging.]

One of the others, he said him and his bonded are dead...I could understand them staying. But most people have things to do.

[unsundered]

[It's an answer (and non-answer) that gets a hum from him. It seemed as though it weren't as straightforward a choice as initially portrayed.]

Yes, well... you'd think death would make things more straightforward. [And that's a sigh on his part.] As for having things to return to- one could make the case that with time paused and memories that fail to follow, that there would be no reason not to remain. It costs nothing, harms nor helps any task.

[Not that Emet-Selch necessarily agrees, but he can understand the argument. But he doesn't know if he can ever convince himself to go along with it.

He shrugs, though of course that can't really be heard. Maybe some slight rustling.]

Of course, that all depends on finding something worthwhile here to occupy one's time with. Be they experiences not available at home, or people one would never have a chance to meet otherwise. Or meet again in some cases, for those long lost to us in our own time.

[stopfen]

That's if what they say is true... [Even if some mirrorbound had said it, there was no way of knowing for sure.]

It's strange, how time works here. I've been keeping busy [read:keeping alive.] hopefully whatever I do helps out the residents of this place. Seeing as I won't remember what I've learnt. [And it was debatable if learning how to grow magical plants would benefit her when she went back.]

[unsundered]

The only thing that's ever certain is loss. While true in any world, 'tis especially inescapable here.

[People leave: that much is incontrovertible. Everything else is unknown but probably at least as bad, if not worse.]

So why bother helping anyone here? Oneself or one's allies excluded... there's nothing to gain. It's not as though it's like to improve one's odds of remaining.

[stopfen]

[That first part is true. Whether by death or them just leaving, loss was a part of life. That had once made Mikasa think every moment should be cherished... That zest for life had dimmed though over the past year. ]

There's still the residents here, and anyone who arrives after. It's better than doing nothing. [Movement, keep moving. It was a distraction, but it was better than sitting and thinking of things she couldn't change.]