002; video: phone. ARIA & DANNY JOINT POST.

[eras]

[Behold, a beautiful video of both Danny’s and Aria’s faces! Behind them is a magnificent view of some highway pit stop.]

Hey! Uh, hi. So, uh, Aria and me decided to do a test.

Right! [ Aria waves the arm of a rather sizable bright orange dinosaur plush toy at the screen. ] For science! You see, we were talking the other day, so we got to wondering...

...There’s like a boundary around the city and if you cross it, you lose all your weird memories and pulse-thingies related to the network, right? So, we went to the Meadowland Falls theme park, just outside of Locke City, to see where that line actually is. And, uh...we’re starting to think it’s not actually that simple? Because when we were driving over to the theme park, this weird thing happened where--

[Danny is shifting his weight from foot to foot as he’s talking into the screen, but then accidentally takes a step to the side. He immediately drops his sentence and looks around as though he’s dazed.]

I--what? A-Aria? What was I just doing…? [He looks over to the phone and leans in, trying to see what’s on it.] Do you know what’s going on? This is really weird--

Danny? [ Danny’s treated to a confused glance before Aria figures it out: he must have gone over the arbitrary memory line. Aria reaches over to take Danny’s elbow. ] Uh, just - let’s take a few steps over this way... [ And she tugs, although gently, to pull him back to where he’d been before. ] Gosh darn it. I thought we were further past whatever-it-was!

[After a bit of readjusting, Danny’s eyes seem to refocus and he looks back to the screen, and then to Aria.] Oh--did I--? Darn, I didn’t realize we were so close.

[ Aria shrugs, looking sideways with a curious expression. ] I didn’t either, but...here, hold Andronikos, for a second. [ She shoves the oversized toy at him, and then takes a few steps in the direction Danny had gone. When she gets a good ten feet from the place she’d left Danny, Aria turns and shrugs, hands on her hips. ] ...I still feel fine. But you definitely just lost it, so that must mean...

Yeeaah...uh. I think we found out that the boundary or border or whatever isn’t the same for everybody? So. It looks like we just have to be careful near the edges of the city, because there isn’t a single border everyone can really avoid...

Well...at least we learned something new, even if we can’t report an outer limit. [ Aria frowns a little, put out, but bounces back to smiling in the space of a second. ] It was fun anyway, though - and like I said, now we know!

Comments

[Text]

[shiromadoushi]

Explains why it wasn't the same spot in the airport when people came back in. Good to know.

[Text]

[eras]

from holidays and the like, or another experiment?

[ Swapping to her own phone so she and Danny can answer people separately, lalala. ]

[Text]

[gogoghostpowers]

Oh man I didn't even think about the airport, going over the boundary there must be weird.

Have you been there a lot? I wonder if maybe the border changes for people over time if they keep going over it often enough.

[audio]

[stealinghats]

Intriguing. If the "limit" is different for each of us, perhaps that's some explanation for those who've lost their memory without leaving the city as well.

[audio]

[eras]

I don't know if that's the case - after all, those people probably go to many of the same places they did when they had their memories, so they probably would have recrossed the boundary and regained the memories at some point if that were so, don't you think?

[audio]

[gogoghostpowers]

I didn't think about it that way. That would really suck, if someone's limit was that close to the city.

Maybe people's limits can change, and that's why they lose their memories without leaving?

( audio )

[argents]

[ GREAT ]

Since it fluctuates from person to person, maybe the threshold isn't actually definite. Like, um. A field?

( audio )

[eras]

Centered around Locke somehow, and we all...resonate to it differently, you mean?

[Video]

[originaloddcouple]

[Isaac rubs his chin in thought.]

This changes a lot about what we know...

[He assumes. He actually has no idea what this changes. But hey, science!]

Uh... Do we know how this affects people with... similar pulse things? Memories that match up? And such.

[Video]

[eras]

Nope! At least, I'm pretty sure Danny and I don't match up at all. I mean, not that we've spoken about.

[text]

[gogoghostpowers]

Huh. I didn't think about that. Maybe?

I don't actually know...I don't think I have any memories or whatever that match up with Aria, or anyone else really, so we can't even test that while we're out here.

audio;

[enrages]

That was the worst use of the scientific method that I've ever seen.

audio;

[eras]

Hi Karson!! [ CASUALLY IGNORING THE INSULT. ] Don't you think it's at least a little interesting, though?

[text]

[gogoghostpowers]

Well it wasn't perfect, but we still learned something from it!

text;

[wirsinddiejager]

wow thats really weird. and kind of creepy.

text;

[eras]

yeah just a tad!!
it was sort of ridiculous actually
since danny and i met via this
neither of us was 100% sure why we were going to an amusement park together
at all
luckily his parents were very reassuring and hey amusement park

text;

[gogoghostpowers]

Yeah, moving in and out of that border thing gets kinda confusing after a while. It's really weird to remember doing stuff when you couldn't remember anything.

[Texted]

[espigeonage]

Strange. I think the reservoir was farther away from that... When it happened to me it was after I'd been bussed a few hours away.

[Texted] HAHA YES i replied to someone before aria did!!! VICTORY

[gogoghostpowers]

It happened to you at the reservoir? Jeez.

...Maybe they put it out of bounds on purpose so that we wouldn't remember to do anything about it if we tried to go there ourselves!

[Texted]

[eras]

hm
if the boundary thing is manmade for some reason to include locke
i would include the reservoir myself :o
idk for sure though why this is a thing that is a thing

text;

[shortspoken]

Even if getting an exact boundary line isn't possible, finding out more about it could still serve a purpose. Particularly if we can determine a rough shape.



[ Ellie's writing and drawing skills are fucking awful. She's attempting to illustrate that different boundaries could indicate differently-shaped "fields" around the city, pointing out alternative sources for the numbersy stuff. ]

Though even if that was possible, we'd need a way of testing in the air as well...
Still. Showing initiative is good. Knowing more about this is always useful.

text;

[gogoghostpowers]

[kyaaaaaa~ annie-senpai complimented me instead of kicking me in the face!!! Ｏ(≧∇≦)Ｏ]

[he has no idea what he is looking at.]

Right. Well, uh. Maybe if we all just pay more attention when we're on the edges of the city and try to record when we lose all our network stuff (or when we get it back) then we could get a better idea of what it looks like?

[text]

[amberhearted]

[ wowwwwww he is so fucking glad the reservoir wasn't 'too far'. the idea that he could lose a part of himself just like that still wigs him out. ]

Excellent research comrades. Thanks for sharing your results

[ he is charmed by andronikos tbh. that might be because he has his own childhood dinosaur plush, wilbur von pinkleton, somewhere in his closet. ]

[text]

[eras]

hey eb!! :)
and no problemo! anything for science
and also figuring out the range of this thing, because
well
if at all possible i would like to avoid losing things except on purpose

[voice]

[acequeen]

Just like people get different visions, boundaries seem tailor-made to a specific person if one of you feels fine while the other is affected. Just a guess.

[A thoughtful hum.]

I'd say this is weird as hell, but it's already a given.

[text]

[gogoghostpowers]

Maybe! Do you think that means that the boundary can change as we get more crazy vision-things?

[Text]

[dyingtohealyou]

Great. I guess having a solid line would just make it too easy for us.

[Text]

[gogoghostpowers]

At least it's not so difficult that we can't figure it out at all! I mean, we at least got this far, right?

audio.

[summit]

[ His first thought is very simple. ]

Does this mean we can't ride the rollarcoaster?

text

[gogoghostpowers]

No, you can definitely still ride the coasters! You just won't remember any network stuff or have any weird things you got from pulses if you do.

...or maybe the theme park is still inside the boundary for you? I don't know. For Aria and me it's too far, but maybe for other people it's not!