[ 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?

[ 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.

[ The camera is covered, but Joshua is making no real effort to disguise his handwriting. He's too upset for that. ]

What should you do if you're so homesick you honestly, truly cannot stand it?

[ A few minutes later, the following is added. ]

[ Locked to Haruhi - 100% ]

The friendship club might have to wait a bit longer.

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. ]

[ The following goes up on the journals later on in the morning. ]

A rather large collection of sheet music appeared in the shops some time rather recently. If you were looking for any that you'd hoped would follow you to Luceti, I might have picked it up.

[ Soon after that, the sound of a violin can be heard coming from in front of House 38. If you're quiet, it can even be heard all the way from the town center. What's he playing, you ask? Well, anything.

Maybe your favorite song. Maybe something hauntingly familiar. Maybe a rousing song. Maybe it's even battle music!

Seriously, he'll be playing anything if there's someone with that canon here. Who needs a fourth wall.

Joshua is sitting out in front of House 38 on one of the chairs from inside, sheet music on his lap has he sight reads it. Care to stop by and listen? ]

[ Joshua was used to empty space. For more years than he'd cared to count, it had been all he'd ever spent most of his time in. He didn't need friends. He didn't need companions.

Without his city, maybe he'd grown too attached to his Producer. That had to be what it was. The one bit of it all that stuck with him, even here. Even through all of it, Sanae was his one connection to what he was. To Neku, he was a friend. To Shiki, he was a bother. But to Hanekoma, he was the Composer, even here with no Shibuya to watch over. He'd said that if he ever found a way home, he'd be sure to bring Joshua with him. So was this an accident, or was that a lie?

Early Tuesday morning, a written message goes out over the journals. Joshua doesn't trust his voice right now. ]

Kat's Kradle is closed until further notice.

[ After that, he heads down the stairs, doesn't bother locking the front door, makes himself a cup of coffee, pulls a stool up to the bar, and sits. He doesn't drink the beverage. He just holds the cup in his hands and stares off into space blankly over the counter top. Not moving. Not thinking.

But there were a few things left behind, and at least one of them should be dealt with. So if the intended recipient doesn't show up at the formerly-a-cafe before the early evening, he's finally going to move and make his way to house 44, a note in his hand. ]

[ 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?

[ If you happen to be celebrating the new year with some coffee or pastries or... whatever else Hanekoma feeds people at Kat's Kradle, then you might hear the sound of someone tuning a violin coming from the second story.

It starts off quite out of tune, but within a minute or two, it sounds fine. Then, Joshua starts up a piece of music: fast-paced, somewhat frantic, somewhat chaotic, without chorus or verse, but it has an overall feel to it of life, of progress, of change.

Or maybe you just missed the whole performance.

Either way, a little later, the following goes out over the journal. ]

Why do you want to go home? [ And then, after a short pause, ]

Why do you want to stay?

[ 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. ]