Audience: Hanako

[becomemod]

Comments

[hanaban]

[ still counts ]

Middle still means you're an older sibling to someone! What's your family like? Do you miss them? Of course you do.

[becomemod]

Of course I miss them. I have my mom and dad, two older brothers and seven younger brothers.

[hanaban]

-—Seven?!

[ there's no way. goat is lying. ]

[becomemod]

Yeah. Two older brothers, seven younger brothers. My mom wanted to have as many kids as there are people on a football [ soccer ] team.

[hanaban]

[ closes his eyes for a second because how does Goat even stand that... Hanako can't even stand the one brother he has sometimes ]

...I guess that meant you always have somebody to play with, and don't get too lonely.

[ And that no matter how annoying younger siblings are, Goat loves them. that's how family is— should be ]

I'll be direct with you, then. I want to talk about going home.

[becomemod]

[ A good question that doesn't have an easy answer. ]

Okay. I'll answer whatever I can.

[ Because they would also really like to go home. Eight months of this weird work trip is way too long. ]

[hanaban]

...really?

[ He looks surprised, actually, at that "okay," clearly expecting more resistance from somebody in another team, but also reminds himself not to get his hopes up over Goat answering "whatever they can" ]

Then, I want to know more about that book you guys took from the moon back then. Mouse says they don't know where it is now.

[becomemod]

I'm actually not sure where exactly it went. I know Silver Horse had it with them when they died.

[hanaban]

[ his hopes...... ]

And Silver Horse... disappeared? I think that's what I heard, anyways. What about a dorm room?

[becomemod]

Yeah. I wasn't there, but I think Phoenix was closer to that incident.

[ They shake their head. ]

I looked all over my place and I didn't see that book around. I guess you could ask everybody but... I think Silver Horse probably took it... with them?

[ Unsure. Did they take it with them in death? Did it go somewhere else? Much to think about. ]

[hanaban]

[ It's frustrating, letting that question hang in the air while either of them have an answer to it. ]

Hmmm... But it can't have been something that happened out of nowhere. You guys— or at least Silver Horse— had to have known about the book, where it is, what inside it, why it's so important. Don't tell me you know nothing at all about it.

[ Unless Horse just waltzed into the moon and stole it? He wouldn't blame the moon for laser beaming them all to death in that case ]

[becomemod]

My powers aren't really suited for frontline combat. From what I heard, she managed to get it away from the man in white during the fight. Then it got damaged in the struggle.

[ Goat only knows what people share with them. ]

[hanaban]

[ meanwhile there's Mouse with super strength and they can't tell him anything either! aaaaa!! ]

So it was something that he carried with him, most likely. If Silver Horse really shared nothing about it beforehand, then how did you know to come help? Who called for you?

[ or maybe Goat wasn't there directly at all, and that's why they're still here ]

[becomemod]

The moon did shoot lasers... That was impossible to miss.

[ Sometimes nobody calls for you, but you see lasers coming out of the moon and all you can think is: Oh Fuck. ]

[hanaban]

[ sometimes the city's on fire but you're at work so your character sleeps through it, it happens ]

What direction was it shooting? Where was ground zero?

[becomemod]

Where it was shooting... pretty much everywhere.

[ Like the death star. Disco ball of death. But it was the moon. ]

[hanaban]

Ah! I told Will I was right! [ yessss!! he gets to brag about this one thing, later, ]

Did it reach the ocean?! What color were the lasers!? Was this a Monday or a Thursday!?!

[becomemod]

[ Wh. HUH? ]

I think it did. I don't know, like... white maybe? Or yellow? Something along those lines.

I'm not sure exactly what day it was- why was it Monday or Thursday?

[hanaban]

Aw, I think red lasers would've been so much cooler. Or green!

[ he and Mr. Moon Man have to talk ]

That whole thing made it into the papers, didn't it? There has to have been a date on them. Does the library have a newspaper archive?

[becomemod]

Why green?

Yeah, it seems to, but the library doesn't have a newspaper archive. It's weird because I definitely remember seeing newspapers back then...

Now they come from those adventures you guys go on.

[hanaban]

There's this movie about hamsters in space fighting an intergalactic war and some of their battleships—

[ snaps his mouth shut. we are not talking about hamsters in space or we will be here forever. focus, hanako ]

Ah, well... we can go see it later if you want, but that's not important right now. What do you know about those adventures?

[becomemod]

Wait no, go back to the movie some time.

[ Sometimes you are Just A Nerd. ]

What kind of adventure did you go on? And did you get anything like a page or a newspaper clipping from it?

[hanaban]

Later. [ maybe if they're really really reaaaally lucky, they can find a copy of Hamster Space Wars somewhere, because he can't exactly Amazoom something he'd only heard about in the movie theaters once upon a time ]

Yeah, we did! In ours— it was me, Ryuki, and Rita— we went through one of Danny's past experiences. But that can't be the same for everybody, right? Like Nico's "adventure" [ finger quotes ] was some sort of ... curry heist.

[ UNLESS THAT WAS ALSO A MEMORY, WHOSE WAS THAT, WHO IS THE CURRY FIEND ]

[becomemod]

[ The most baffled look in the world, that's half hidden behind a mask. ]

"Curry heist"? Who's that into... Curry...

[ The very distinct feeling of somebody putting pieces together. ]

[hanaban]

... Who are you thinking?

[ don't you try to hide anything from him ]