imatreenow | three [action/voice]

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three [action/voice]

Mithos has lived his entire life in the village of Iselia, under the care of his older sister Martel who just so happens to be Sylvarant’s Chosen of Mana. When the siblings were younger, their parents were killed by Desians (or a group of people who looked suspiciously similar to the Desians...), a power-hungry group of humans bent on subjugating other races. Knowing that the villagers would be enraged upon discovering that the Chosen’s parents had been killed, Martel decided to keep the truth hidden, even from Mithos. She wanted Iselia to remain peaceful, until she could embark on the journey for world regeneration and make everything right.

Mithos’s best friend growing up is none other than Genis. The two are inseparable, having so much in common. He is also close to Genis’s sister Raine, Iselia’s school teacher. With such an unusually high half-elf population, Iselia is very nearly a haven against racial prejudices (the fact that the Chosen herself is half-elf helps). But nowhere is perfect...

The day of the oracle, Mithos sneaks away from school to witness Martel begin her duties as Chosen. He drags Genis along with him, because that’s what friends are for. They meet up with Martel at the temple, but the Desians (supposedly) are there as well, bearing gifts of violence and chaos. Just as the situation seems hopeless for our young half-elf friends, a mysterious swordsman by the name of Kratos comes to their rescue and...okay, you probably get the idea.

If Mithos is our bright-eyed and bushy-tailed protagonist, then what of Lloyd? Lloyd Irving, the celebrated hero of legend, who fell into the depths of despair and madness upon the murder of the person most important to him, Colette. With the help of his companions, Kratos and Sheena, he builds a twisted system to revive Colette, punish the world for its ignorance, etc. Sheena defects from his vision to form a counter-organization called the Renegades. Kratos...is not secretly anyone’s father. No.

As the Chosen One and her party travel around Sylvarant releasing the seals, they repeatedly encounter a somewhat ill-fortuned assassin named Yuan. He insists that he must eliminate Martel in order to save his land (except he is a loser and falls in love with his target). This makes a lot more sense when it is revealed that another world exists parallel to Sylvarant, and it is in competition for the only source of mana, like two halves of a time-glass, etc.

Mithos remembers being in Luceti these past few weeks, but he is unaware that there exists another version of himself. His memories of Luceti have been replaced with ones suitable to his AU-counterpart’s personality, but many of these are vague. The last thing he remembers prior to Luceti is Martel finally returning to her normal self, after being a soulless doll in the aftermath of the shenanigans that transpired at the Tower of Salvation.

[Mithos is more than a little confused. Not only has he awakened in a completely unfamiliar room in a completely unfamiliar house, but his memory seems a bit...fuzzy. Only vague snippets of the past weeks float to the surface. Is this one of those Malnosso experiments he has been warned about?

Well, he better check in with the Professor, or maybe even Yuan.

So he is currently making his way across the village (how did he end up at house 52 anyway?), an expression of contemplative concern on his face. As he sets out, he can't help but sigh lightly.]

If Martel were here...

[He trails off and shakes his head, trying not to think about how much he misses his sister. Unknown to him, the journal picked up on that bit of wishful thinking.]

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Well...

I suppose this might sound strange but... there's a possibility that an alternate reality like that could exist, even if it's in a form of altered roles. There was a week when nearly everyone was affected by it in some form.

So for Yuan... that memory is his reality, until that particular effect wears off, or the end of the entire experiment. They're usually a week so... maybe it won't be much longer.

Yuan said something similar. I think it's just difficult to imagine my life being any different. When you've known something your entire life...

[He pauses, realizing what he's saying and the subtle hypocrisy. It's attitudes like that that spawned prejudice and hatred.]

I guess that isn't a very good excuse though, huh? It's only an experiment...I shouldn't let it bother me.

Once you've seen things a certain way for a long time... it becomes harder to accept other possibilities, even when they're in your face. But here... when what reality is is questioned so many times... it becomes easier to open your mind when you aren't as challenged by things you ordinarily would be.

But yes... that's right. Everything will revert to how it was eventually. [... The sleeves of her robe are just becoming looser and looser. She tries to ignore that as well.] But sometimes there's something to learn from these incidents.

[Even though he is fully confident in his memories, just the idea, the suggestion, that they could be falsifications - especially his memories of and experiences with Martel - deeply bothers him. He isn't quite sure why, but it does.] ....Yes, I'll keep that in mind.

[....People shrinking while you are talking to them is fairly distracting, by the way.] What do you mean, Professor?

Learning more about other perspectives... trying to become more comfortable with who we really are. When you're faced with uncertainty, you have to learn from it, somehow.

People adapt by either moving forward or going backward. There are those who don't want to learn from uncertainties. ...I don't want to be like that.

... I'm glad to hear you say that. But during those times you feel uncertain... you have to reach out to others, more than ever.

[All things she never expected to sit and talk to Mithos about, even on a normal day. As it is... her feet aren't reaching the ground anymore, either.]

[NOD OF DETERMINATION.] That's how people can learn to change.

[Well it's funny, the difference not having your sister killed right before your eyes by some racist douchecake can make.]

...I'm...not sure if shrinking counts as a new perspective, though, Professor.

... this is utterly ridiculous ... [She lifts her hand to facepalm, but it's just... completely lost in robe. Like all of her will be, rather shortly.]

[Has the shrinking sped up in the past few minutes??]

....Professor, is there anything I can do to help?

I - [She lost about a foot and a half during her words of wisdom. Certainly makes a difference, doesn't it?]

There's no way to stop it if this is what it wants to do. [She's starting to flail her arms a little, trying to get out of the robe. It's almost comical.]

...What if it doesn't stop at all? [He is worried that she could keep getting smaller and smaller until she is microscopic, at which point her life would be quite endangered.]

It'll - wear off eventually. [She's not thinking of what he's thinking, too caught up in the moment of trying to get free of robe. It's almost as if it's fighting back.] When it does I'll be -- back to normal.

...I hope so. [He is currently on the edge of his seat right now...literally. He feels like he should be ready to leap into action.]

I should...probably stay with you until then. Who knows how small you'll get? [He has all these mental images of inch-tall!Raine being stepped on. YOUR STUDENT CARES ABOUT YOU, RAINE.]

N-not much smaller, I hope. [She hopes. But is she likely to have any luck with that, the way this day has gone so far? The question is what else can go wrong with this predicament.]

[At this rate, she'll need help getting down from her chair.]

...It isn't slowing down.

Everything is getting so... large. [And larger. Everything except her.

Two and a half feet. ... Not for long.]

Are you sure you don't need me to do anything? [He may not be able to stop the shrinking, but--]

[Please hold, Mithos, the robe has seemingly won the battle as she's nowhere in sight.

Well. It's obvious she's there from the struggling.]

[He's on his feet in an instant and digging through the mountains of cloth to free his teacher.]

[When he frees her she looks a lot more shaken up and ... smaller still.]

... I'm almost reminded of the Meltokio sewers.

Except we knew how to control that...

It wouldn't work on this anyway- [She has to actively project her voice now. At least being a teacher gives her that experience. Less than a foot. There wouldn't be much of her left if this kept up at that speed.]

... How am I going to get anything done like this?

[He returns to the couch, carefully setting Raine down next to him.]

I can help! What do you need done today?

[This day just keeps getting stranger and stranger.] Ah... just a few personal tasks Mithos, you don't have to worry about them.

I had been thinking about lunch, but ...

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