❀ 5th petal [written]

[bravelittlegirl]

[Ib's handwriting is the careful but slightly awkward cursive of someone who hasn't been writing cursive very long.]

How come this keeps happening? I mean the thing where we're suddenly in a new place every couple of weeks. It's really confusing.

[pause...]

And every time it happens, somebody dies. I don't want anyone else to die. It's awful, and it needs to stop. I wish we could just stay at the castle.

Comments

[princeandwizard]

[Did... she just say 'someone dies' when these happen? That's certainly unnerving for a newbie on his first world change to hear. Especially when he's in his home city. What could possibly happen here?

But he'll try to be optimistic here. Even from writing, it seems like the writer is possibly scared.]

I may not be well familiar with the castle's magic, but... we're in my home town. As far as I'm aware, we should be safe.

Are you alright?

[bravelittlegirl]

Yes, I'm okay.

[That's a surprise, though. She's only been in a couple of world changes herself, but...]

Your hometown? Does that mean we're all back on Earth?

[Because EVERYONE IS FROM EARTH, right?]

[princeandwizard]

Yes, we are. We're in Japan- Tokyo to be exact. It even looks like it's the era I grew up in.

[Man, Tokyo without the buzz of Angelic Layer feels so weird now.]

[bravelittlegirl]

"Era"?

[she assumes the word means something like "neighborhood," from context, but she wants to be sure.]

[princeandwizard]

A certain period of years. It seems like we're somewhere in the 1980s, and I happened to be born in 1982.

[bravelittlegirl]

[!!!]

That long ago? How old are you?

[princeandwizard]

I'm fifteen. It was 1997 when I got picked up by the castle.

[bravelittlegirl]

[This is just boggling her little mind.]

For me, it was 6XXX.

[only pretend the X's are actual numbers, because canon is unhelpful.]

[princeandwizard]

[Wow, that... certainly surprises him.]

That far off? Really?

[bravelittlegirl]

Yes. That's more than 4000 years...

[She's not sure how concerned she should be about this.]

Does that mean the castle moves through time?

[princeandwizard]

[That gets him thinking. There's so much time shenanigans going on in Paradisa, it's hard to figure out.]

It's hard to say. Perhaps it's not that it travels through time, but it's simply the reach of the castle's magic. It's the simplest answer, but it may not go any deeper than that.

[bravelittlegirl]

... I guess so. If it can even capture someone like Santa Claus, then it's definitely got that kind of power.

[princeandwizard]

[......did she say Santa Claus? He almost can't believe he's asking this. Almost.]

Santa Claus? The castle brought him here?

[bravelittlegirl]

Yeah. I haven't seen him yet [except she totally has, she just doesn't know it], but he's here.

[princeandwizard]

[Admittedly, he wasn't too sure what to think... but in this place, it seems anything is possible.]

The castle brought him awfully early in his season then, didn't it?

[bravelittlegirl]

It really did! Summer isn't even over yet. I wonder how he handles the heat.

[princeandwizard]

I'm sure he can handle it just fine. He does travel all around the world.

[bravelittlegirl]

Oh right. I forgot about that.

[Of course she's only thinking about the equator because WUT IS OPPOSITE SEASONS IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE]

[princeandwizard]

[Daww Ib, you're adorable.]

If anything, I'd be more worried about his stay here putting him behind schedule.

[bravelittlegirl]

[!!! She ponders that for a moment.]

But the elves make all the toys, right? They should be fine because Mrs. Claus will help out while Santa's here. As long as he's back home in time for Christmas it'll be okay.

[HOPEFULLY.]