stilldontgotit | 48 - voice/action;

Heh. The end of the year. Time sure flies, huh? This marks the third winter I've spent holed up in this place. Now, I could get all nostalgic about how things changed, but frankly? I'm sure you guys are tired of that by now.

There's... something else on my mind, though. Something I've thought about for a while, about the way this place works.

[He pauses for a few seconds, mulling over how to properly phrase this...]

Anyway, I'm sure most of you guys are familiar with the way people vanish out of the blue just like I'm sure you're used to people showing up without a single memory of their time before. Assuming they'd been here, anyway. But sometimes people come back with memories fully intact or those memories return after a quick reminder. I've even seen a few cases of somebody coming back as a blank slate and showing up again later with memories from a visit before the last.

Maybe I'm over thinking it, but have you guys ever thought that maybe the people who show up without memories might be different versions of someone rather than the same person with those memories wiped out? Now, I'm not saying people actually remember this place back home; I've gone back twice and I sure didn't. And, sure, timelines probably factor into it, but who's to say there can't be, say... twin versions of the same world?

Just some food for thought, I guess.

[Okay, and with that silliness out of the way, Riku can be seen in a few different places. First, there's the Community Housing 1 building, where he can be found feeding a big ol' chocolate cake and some colorful ice cream to his Dream Eater. Upon eating the goods, his bat sparkles and glows. Feel free to boggle at this.

Outside, he can be found strolling along in the snow for a bit. Aftr a while, however, he gives into some silly urges. What kind of silly urges, you ask? Snowballs, of course. He won't be outright malicious, but if he sees any familiar faces he miiight just toss a little snow their way. After all, it's been far too long since he's done something silly like that.

Otherwise, he can be seen practicing some magic out by the forest. And by magic I of course mean summoning gigantic, colorful balloons that explode. What's all that about?]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, it's not like I don't have my own share of lookalikes. If Kohan ever cut his hair, it'd be a pain to tell us apart.

[But he's not gonna suggest that. Kohan's his own person, anyway.]

Kohan? Who's that?

Ah, right. He's my replica.

Wait, they have replicas in worlds other than Auldrant?

[Because he knows about Luke, but this is brand new to him.]

Yeah. They're not too common or anything, but the Organization's got a bit of experience with replication.

[That's all he's gonna say because he doesn't wanna talk about Xion's replica status behind her back.]

Wow. Other worlds are a lot more complicated than I thought. But now I understand why the idea of other universes isn't that strange to you, if there are replicas in yours already.

It's not just that. Where I'm from, there are as many worlds as there are stars in the sky. Not only that, but I kind of met doubles of people I already knew in the Realm of Sleep.

You mean in your dreams while you were sleeping? I've had that happen to me before too.

No, nothing like that. The Realm of Sleep isn't just made up of dreams-- it's a whole different dimension full of sleeping worlds that sank into darkness.

... okay, now I'm really confused.

[Your world is WEIRD, Riku.]

Okay, I'll try to explain it as clearly as possible.

[Hmm.]

All worlds contain hearts made of light and darkness, hidden behind a Keyhole. At one point, these monsters called the Heartless spread from world to world, dragging them into the dark by striking at those hearts. My friend Sora saved most of those worlds, but a handful remained lost, stuck in slumber.

When we took our Mark of Mastery exam, we dived into the Realm of Sleep to restore those worlds. At least, that's how we started the test. Things got a little out of hand after that.

Oh yeah, Sora told me about the Heartless. He kind of explained what they did... they steal peoples' hearts or something, right? Only it doesn't kill them when it happens. I'm not sure I understand the whole thing, but I think I sort of get the idea.

Pretty much. It gets a little more complicated, especially when you throw Nobodies into the equation, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. Stuff like that is just part of our universe, and I know it probably sounds strange.

It's okay. I think everyone's universe has parts of it that just sound strange to anybody else.

True. Still, it'd be hard to weird me out at this point, between Luceti and everything I've experienced outside this world.

Yeah, I think I've gotten used to a lot of pretty weird things since I came here too. It's kind of nice, though. I've learned a lot about things I'd never heard of before.

And I think that's one of Luceti's perks. Get past all the rough spots, and you do get to learn a lot about other worlds, not to mention meet people from those worlds.

In a way, it kind of balances out.

Yeah. I wouldn't trade coming here for anything.

Glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. To tell you the truth, it bothers the heck outta me when people act like everyone wants to go.

Me too. I can understand why a lot of people would want to go home, but that doesn't mean it's true for everyone. What about people who are dead back in their world? I don't think anyone would want to go back to being dead.

Exactly. Plus, my memories here are too precious to forget. Same with all the friends I've made.

Yeah, it stinks when people leave, and the experiments are always a pain, but at least it's better than facing serious threats every month.

I wouldn't want to go home unless I knew there was some way I could still visit all of the friends that I've made here.

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