Twenty-Seventh Shooting Star - voice;

[risingwinds]

[It's been about four months now since he had his talk with Lea. Most of that time he's spent trying to keep his spirits high. Socializing with friends, going on with his day-to-day routines.

But a recent talk with Masaomi and the whole lantern ceremony a few weeks back smacked him in the face and brought those words back into the forefront of his mind. The fact is, his future's far from pleasant. All signs point to one massive failure for him and his friends.

So here he is, journal in his lap. Maybe it's time to finally air those thoughts.]

So, um... I know at least a couple of you guys have bumped into people from the past or the future, but have you ever been hit with some really bad news? Like, say you had this goal to save a friend. Keep 'em from losing themselves, but it turns out you failed. That friend doesn't just lose themselves: they become somebody else's vessel.

If something like that did happen, what'd you do? 'Cause for me, knowing really hasn't helped. I'm stuck with the fact that I couldn't save my two best friends, and when I get back, I'll probably forget that I ever found out.

I just hate feeling so helpless.

[There, he got that off his chest. That's the first step.]

But it got me thinking about something else, too. Say we find a way to get back home without forgetting everything. Do you think it'd be wrong to try and change that future? Because I feel like I should so that my friends don't end up suffering, but doing something like that means changing the futures for everyone else, doesn't it? And I dunno if that's really fair.

[Sigh. What a mess.]

I dunno. It's all way too complicated. Makes me wish they were here now so I could ask them about it.

Comments

[dangerouswind]

I'm pretty sure there's more than just a handful of people with the same problem floating around here. I don't think the future's written yet. There's no excuse for doing nothing when you have a chance to change something for the better.

[risingwinds]

Maybe it's not written yet, but I'm still kinda worried about how it'd affect the people from that future. I'd hate to erase 'em from existence. That's just way too cruel...

[Sure, Lea would probably still exist, but what about Roxas? Xion? Some of his friends came from that future, and something tells him that changing his friends' fate might carry some heavy repercussions.]

[dangerouswind]

Who says you are?

[risingwinds]

Nobody, really.

[He lets out a shaky laugh. Maybe he's worrying too much.]

It's just that some of the people I met are copies of other people, or they exist because of what happens to me and my friends. More than anything, I just wanna know that I can fix things without preventing those people from being born.

[dangerouswind]

Here's the thing, though: maybe you're not even from the same world. Maybe little things are different, things you wouldn't even notice. These people already exist. I don't think you can erase them.

[risingwinds]

Wait, are you talking about split timelines or something?

[He's read a couple of sci-fi books in the library, so the concept's not too foreign to him. Just kinda surprising to hear it come up over the journals, of all places.]

[dangerouswind]

That's the working theory, yeah.

[risingwinds]

Man, that just makes things more complicated!

[Which is both good and bad. On one hand, fewer repercussions for the friends he met here, on the other hand, does that mean the Terra and Aqua he met here weren't his Terra and Aqua?]

Like, does it mean that when somebody comes back, they're a different version than before? I guess that'd explain the memory loss and why some people do remember, but I dunno. Now I'm just getting confused!

[dangerouswind]

See, that's why I try not to think about it. You can't live life second-guessing yourself.

[risingwinds]

True, and that's the big downside to knowing the future, too. Before I found out about all this, I got by just fine, but now that I do know, it just won't stop nagging at me.

You know any good distractions for stuff like that?

[dangerouswind]

Poetry. [Yep. That's her answer.]

[risingwinds]

Poetry, huh?

[Hmm... That's an interesting thought.]

Man, I don't know that many good poems, though. The last time I tried looking for poetry, it was so I could read some to Fuuko. And, well, that was a really long time ago.

[dangerouswind]

So go look for some. There's a hell of a lot out there.