[ For once, Joshua is broadcasting from outside. For anyone who wishes to track him down, he's not hard to find, simply sitting in the plaza. The sound of the fountain is just faintly picked up by the journal. ]

In a place like this with so much in flux, it isn't surprising, but still manages to somehow be unexpected. Like a next door neighbor who you didn't realize was moving away until there's a truck outside loaded up with boxes. It was just a part of the setting that you always expected to be there.

I suppose it's reasonable. When the last resident of a house leaves, everything that the entire group had goes with them. After all, the Malnosso don't seem fond of leaving loose ends around here. What's the difference between a room and an entire building?

Though I should probably make the announcement that it likely now falls on me to make. If you knew of a boy who called himself Beat, he appears to be no longer in Luceti.

[ And with him, the last piece of home Joshua had vanishes into thin air.

One thing that Joshua doesn't realize is that his death penalty is temporarily gone, so if anyone feels like showing up and making some music around him, it would probably freak him out quite a bit. ]

[ After some mistletoe-induced spilling of truths he'd rather have kept to himself, Joshua has paused his mischief making to ask his traditional new years slash birthday question to the village. ]

Do you think you look for different qualities in the friends you have here as compared to the friends you have back in your own world?

New Feather season.

[ Joshua gives a frustrated sigh, and there's the sound of sipping as he takes a drink from a cup of coffee. Dammit, Hanekoma, your nervous habits have finally worn off on him two years after the fact. ]

If any of you were wondering, I've been gone for at least a week and a half. And if anyone cares to give me a date, I can give you a more precise duration than that.

[ Not that Joshua is too terribly fond of being in the village, but at least talking to people is good for taking his mind off of things. Being held captive by his lonesome gives him a little too much time to think, and being poked and prodded is almost preferable. As long as things never get as bad as they did his first kidnapping. He'd take a month of solitary confinement over that. ]

They tend to give us an experiment right before the New Feathers come, don't they? Cause or effect, which do you think? [ He takes another sip of coffee. ] And while I'm asking, what did I miss this time?

[ Another year has passed. Funny enough, doing requests for the elf kick-started Oosouji for Joshua, so for once he had it done on time. It's another empty new year in the house he once shared with the man he'd been closer to than anyone else. Another convenient excuse for a birthday. Nothing more.

He's almost convinced himself it doesn't hurt. ]

How has your time here changed you?

[ It's windy, and it's cold, but Joshua has an anniversary to celebrate in his own quiet way and he's not going to let the weather stop him. His first stop is to swing by his old room, room 7 at Community Housing 5. It's still empty, but he's not surprised to find that both Hanekoma's graffiti and his own long-disabled traps have disappeared from the walls.

After that, he'll spend some time trying to spray paint one of the not-yet-painted walls of House 38. Of course, given that spray paint doesn't like cold temperatures and really doesn't like wind, that's going to produce a result that's about as neat and tidy as you'd expect. So after a little while wrestling with that, he'll head inside to make himself a cup of nostalgia coffee (not as good as Hanekoma's...) and sit down with his journal to warm up. ]

What was your first experiment here, and what did you think about it? [ He giggles. ] For me, I suppose an amusement park made for a rather gentle introduction. Does anyone else remember the Great Mysterio?

[ The picture in the feed is a rather disgruntled Joshua, sopping wet and with a towel draped haphazardly on his head. ]

Let it never be said that the Malnosso are inhospitable. Of all the places to be left out in the rain, they deposited me on my very own roof. [ Dramatic sigh. ] The least they could have done was given me a ladder to get down.

Well then, who wants to let me know what I've missed?

[ The 16th. July 16th. Six months minus one day after January 17th, one year minus one day after July 17th of the previous year, and one year and six months minus one day after the day he was made to be no longer an Angel. Hanekoma and Neku are both gone. Shiki has been here even longer than he has. Rhyme and Beat are both Players, far too fragile to rely on, far too distant to trust.

Tomorrow, he will probably die.

It's strange, in a way. He's never been afraid to die before. But he's caught up now in so much more than he was any of the previous times he was faced with death. This time, if he dies, there's no telling what will happen to Shibuya back home. And that's what he's afraid of.

This entry is public. This entry isn't anonymous. Maybe it's his way of saying goodbye for now. ]

Why are you afraid of death? Or, why aren't you afraid of death? Home, here, or both.

[ A few moments later, after drawing up a filter, he adds this to the message. ]

[ Filtered to Shiki Misaki: 100% ]

I have a favor to ask.

[ Day 6 ]

[ Early morning (locked to Tsuzuki) ]

[ The best part of waking up in a body that isn't yours is finding out the company said body keeps when it sleeps. Which is why the first thing that Joshua notices, upon waking up in a place which is distinctly not House 38, is the other person in bed with him. ]

... I think I missed something.


[ And after that fun little interaction resolves itself, Joshua picks up the journal and reaches out to the person it might be a bit important to contact about this. ]

[ 100% filtered to Joshua and Hisoka because he isn't quite sure which is the necessary one in this sort of situation ]

I do hope that my body is over there with you.


[ Morning onwards, open ]

[ Joshua and Hisoka are wandering around town together. But to anyone who knows them, something seems odd... ]


It's rather hard to believe that you wouldn't have any way to make mental defenses.


If you want to figure it out while you're in there, be my guest.

[ Feel free to run into the two of them. Clearly they want to be bothered. At least I'm sure Hisoka does, since he isn't the one with the headache for once. ]

[ While leaving out a mug of coffee, mostly-filled, might seem to be a weird thing to do in remembrance, regardless it's what Joshua does as he goes about cleaning the downstairs floor of his house, the space previously known as Kat's Kradle.

Without any real reason to keep more than the cooking area clean, he hadn't. Dust coats many of the tables and forms sometimes-impressive piles in the corners. Today, despite the rain, Joshua has the front door of House 38 wide open, and he can occasionally be seen sweeping piles of dirt outside.

It's rather cold, but Joshua doesn't seem to mind it. At least it's keeping him from working up a sweat. It's a bit late for a new year cleaning, but at least he's getting around to it at all, right?

Every so often he takes breaks to check on his journal, which he left the following question on earlier in the day: ]

How many of you learned things here that you're not looking forward to having to learn again when you go back to your own worlds? Your own death might be the obvious one, but I mean things like, say, some truth about your world, or friends, or family as well. Anything you'll need to find out again if you forget this place.

[ Sometime in the early afternoon, the following question goes out over the journals. The camera is covered, and the handwriting is disguised. ]

Let's have a thought experiment. Say you were dying, and the only possible way to save yourself is to get help from someone very close to you. However, you don't know for sure that this help will indeed save you, and whether or not it does, there's a chance that it will damage the one helping you. Trying to help you might even kill them.

Do you ask for their help anyway? Would you accept their help if they offered it?

[ Later on in the evening, Joshua makes a separate post from the previous, this one voiced and not anonymous. ]

[ Filtered to Neku, 100% ]

Hey Neku, are you busy tomorrow?

[ /Filter ]

I've gathered that some of you out there are rather old. I'd think if you were immortal, individual years would start to lose their meaning with time. So, what do you think constitutes a memorable birthday? Every ten years? Every one hundred? How old do you get before you stop taking notice of single years?

I'm guessing most if not all of you have felt the phenomenon where time seems to move at different rates, even though you know it's all in your mind. So tell me, does being in Luceti cause time to feel different to you than it did when you were back home?

[ Two years. It's been two years, and after experiencing as much time slip by as Joshua has, feeling those two years is a less-than-welcome change.

As a distraction, he spends the day painting a side of his building that has been blank ever since a certain someone went home. It's certainly not Hanekoma's style, but it's similar to it, the color scheme the same though the designs are more fluid, less blocky and more streamlined, with harsh points instead of rounded curves.

Maybe this is his way of making peace with it. Maybe he's finally moved on.

Maybe he's just that homesick. ]

[ Well. It wasn't enough that he had been forced to track down every mermaid he could find and berate them one by one, outside world this, Malnosso world that...

Of course not. Experiments always had to go the extra mile, didn't they?

So this fine day, Joshua could be found clad in all red with a crab hat on his head, in the fountain. Singing. With his journal open. ]

In Luceti...!

In Luceti...!

Darlings it's scarier outside the barrier, take it from me!

[ Of course, the Malnosso had to give him his own musical number. Of course. ]

[ The entry opens with audio. ]

Wha--

[ But the voice is cut off almost immediately by the sound of sudden coughing. Red splotches appear on the page, and after only a few seconds, the feed audibly cuts off as the journal is quickly shut. A few minutes later, a written entry starts up in its place with the splotches still visible. ]

What day is it?

And who decided to poke around my home while I was gone?

[ The journal feed opens to the sound of dull tapping in the background. Then it pauses, and Joshua speaks. ]

What do you suppose is their criteria for drafting individuals to fight?

Or if you don't care for musing, what do you do when so many people are away?

You know, I never did like the enforced dynamic of Valentine's Day and White Day. To save you all the trouble of worrying what would be proper, I've decided I will be the one to deliver chocolate on Valentine's Day to my male friends. I expect reciprocation on White Day from all of you, hee hee.

This means you, too, Neku.

[ With another giggle, the feed cuts.

Afterward, Joshua can be found out and about delivering chocolate. This is made a bit more difficult by the fact that he doesn't actually know where all of you live, but he's got chocolate for Hanekoma (dropped off before he left the house, of course), Neku, Hisoka, and Haruhi (yes, he is delivering that one mostly to be jerk). He also has a few more in case he bumps into anyone he's not particularly close to but he'd be amused to give anyway. Yes Hisoka he is trying to find your house, and if you don't show yourself soon enough he will start pinging you. Hard. With mind-beams. Ooooo mind-beams~ ]


(( First journal comment is reserved, but feel free to wait Go ahead and respond, or bump into him in person ))

[ Hey, Luceti. Have you been missing your daily dose of snark and rainbows?

Actually bundled up for the first time since last winter is a Joshua, making his cheerful, if slightly lethargic, way from House 38 to Community Housing 5 and back again. One thing that might also be noticeable is that for the first time since the summer, he looks like a 15-year-old.

So yeah. Surprise.

And after he gets back into warmth (yay being affected by temperature again?) he'll just put out a little public service announcement. ]

It seems I'm finally back to normal.

[ It's early in the morning when the audio clicks on, just about the time when the earliest risers will be waking up. Joshua isn't going to be going to bed any time soon, though, so he'll be responding well into the day. ]

Call me curious. What do you dream of?

[ His tone of voice is level, more bored than curious with just a hint of weariness. ]

[ Filtered to Hanekoma, 86% ]

So tell me, did you Erase him?

[ Joshua's voice is calm, but very cold, both disdain and disgust lacing his words. ]

With so many people suddenly dying, I was wondering: what's it like to die here, where death isn't permanent? If you've died back in your home world, what's the afterlife like where you're from?

And even if you haven't, does death seem less important, does it carry less weight here than it did back home?