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[ribbonbon]

[With the recent temperature fiasco, Pilouette hadn't been paying attention and September kind of snuck up on her. Now with a particular day coming up, she's found that she's ended up with a somewhat...odd problem. Having found herself unable to figure out an answer on her own, she decides to turn to the network. ]

You all know how people can come here from different worlds and different times and stuff, right? Well, um...hypothetically. Say someone just had their birthday. Like, maybe a month before coming here. But only a few months after getting here, it's already their birthday again!

Do I...uh, they just keep being the same age and wait a whole year or should they say they're older now? Oh! But the year is different, too, isn't it? I wonder if that matters...I've been thinking about it all day, but it just seems like, so totally complicated...!

Comments

[ribbonbon]

I kind of miss regular boring life, though. [She can't help but let out a quiet sigh.]

M-My birthday...it's, um, on September 9th. ...Why?

[heirrant]

[He's not sure he's ever had anything close to that, not even when he was her age.]

Just curious. At any rate, I hope it's peaceful for you. It seems a little unlikely that something will go wrong again so quickly, so maybe you'll be lucky. [Or maybe lightning will strike twice...]

[ribbonbon]

Y-Yeah, I hope so, too. ...Thank you.

That guy on the network the other day...He did say they were working on stuff, s-so maybe you're right. If they're working that hard on it, everything probably will be okay for a while. Maybe.

[She adds in that maybe because she can't be sure. Not that she ever is.]

[heirrant]

[She seems to want to have faith in them more than she's actually able to grant it, and he can't exactly blame her.]

They seem eager to please, don't they? Have they acknowledged problems and made promises that publicly in the past?

[ribbonbon]

Not really, but nothing big has really happened until that temperature thing, so there wasn't really a whole lot to say. ...Well, there were those blackouts a couple months ago, but black outs aren't that much of a big deal in a city that's having power problems, right?

[She frowns thoughtfully for a second before continuing.]

...But it was kind of weird because they'd just had a bunch of people power up a bunch of generators a little bit before that. They never said anything about it, though.

[heirrant]

Blackouts? [Now that's interesting- especially when she adds her note about how they came just after a power-up of sorts.

Though he keeps his tone as even and thoughtful as ever, he's chasing the point down like a dog with a ball.] Let me see if I understand you. You're saying that they asked us- that is, their "guests"- to power the generators, only for the city to be hit with blackouts soon afterwards? [His eyes narrow just a touch.] Then where did the power produced go?

[ribbonbon]

Well, that's what happened, yeah. B-But I figured that people were just using more energy because they were excited for the generators being powered up or something...

...I don't really know where the power goes, though. I wasn't actually in any of the generator groups. Actually, I'm not sure if they know either... [Her shoulders slump a little. She wonders for just a second if that might be the kind of thing she should know and feels a bit bad for not knowing the answer.] S...Sorry.

[heirrant]

[Did he come on too strongly? Either way, Ataru is quick to backtrack when he spots the stoop to her shoulders and the drop in her tone; it's one thing to submit someone like The Ninja to his theorising, but another entirely to do the same to a complete stranger.]

It's fine. You couldn't have known it would be important. [He pauses.] ... I'm sorry. I haven't even asked for your name.

[ribbonbon]

[She does her best to straighten up. She was always told not to slump when introducing oneself, after all.]

U-Um! My name is Pilouette Bonheur. [She nods politely.] It's, um, nice to meet you.

[heirrant]

[She really doesn't have to worry about formalities with him, but it's nice that she made the effort.]

Kinnikuman Soldier. Just "Soldier" is fine- and it's nice to meet you too, Pilouette. [A French name...? It sounds that way, but where she comes from there may not even be a France.]

[ribbonbon]

[A man wearing a mask who says his name is "Soldier." Pilouette seems to be meeting more and more interesting people every day in this place...]

Oh! And, um, thanks for helping me out with that question. ...It's probably a silly thing to worry about now that I think about it.

[Or maybe she's just trying to sound a little grown up.]