CAMPUS WIDE EVENT: SPRING FEVER

[intercom_voice]

[Today, the lovely denizens of the Campus will wake up to a beautiful spring morning. Birds are chirping, flowers are blooming, and pollen is in there. But this isn't just any pollen, the kind that afflicts the allergy prone to months of watery eyes and sneezing, oh no, this pollen is far more potent.

This morning, you will wake up with exactly one menial illness. It won't kill you, it won't even really hurt you, but it will be a constant annoyance to you for the next week. Sicknesses range from sneezes and rashes to spontaneous floral growth out of the forehead region. Really, anything goes.]

((ooc: okay, so, feel free to give your characters whatever silly or petty illness you want! This event ends on the 25th. Our cooperative event has been postponed due to a lack of feedback/interest--since it's an event that requires at least a small group of people to be active in.))

Comments

[replicatastrophe]

[Much more understandable, but this doesn't seem to calm him down at all. He steps back when X moves forward, raising a shaking arm as it shifts to a buster.]

S-stay back! I told you, I am X! Identify yourself properly o-or I will open fire!

[lumineinfinitus]

[X's eyes snap to the buster and he jerks up his own, though unlike the other X, his arm isn't shaking.]

Puteth the bust'r down. I don't wanteth to hurteth thou, but if thou maketh me, I will.

[His voice is firm and almost cold, a far cry from what it was before. He doesn't know what's going on here, and he really doesn't want to fight in the middle of what appears to be a school, but if whoever this is is that trigger-happy, he's a danger.

But why does this man seem so convinced of that?]

I told thou... I am X, of the Maverick Hunters. Calm down, and we can talketh this o''r.

[replicatastrophe]

[He stays where he is, eyes wide and intent on X, studying him. He's perfect. Absolutely perfect in every way. He can't possibly ignore that.

Slowly, he lowers the buster, shifting it back to a hand. The fear in his eyes calms as well, but is steadily being replaced by something else...sadness, perhaps?]

[lumineinfinitus]

[Oh, thank god... he actually listened.

X waits until the other buster is fully shifted before doing the same, letting out a slight breath of relief.]

Is thith'r somewh're private we can speaketh?

[Because he doesn't want to have this discussion in the middle of the hall.]

[replicatastrophe]

[Well, they are in a school hallway. Maybe they could try one of the classrooms? He takes a look around, a little at a loss for which door to try before just picking one at random and testing the handle.]

...Is this alright?

[lumineinfinitus]

[Empty classroom... that works.]

Aye, this shuld be fine.

[All right. How does he even begin to start this conversation?]

...So. Thou said thou wast X.

[replicatastrophe]

[His voice is much quieter now, somber.]

Correct. I am X, sovereign of Neo Arcadia.

And you said...you are X as well.

[lumineinfinitus]

Aye. I am X, Command'r of the 17th unit of the Maverick Hunters.

[He's never heard that name before... though "sovereign" means it must be a country or a city. He definitely likes the sound of it, if nothing else.]

What -- or whence -- is Neo Arcadia?

[replicatastrophe]

[Maverick Hunters? They disbanded over a century ago; this "X" was awfully out of date.]

Neo Arcadia is a city where the world's remaining humans and reploids live in peace, free from worry.

[lumineinfinitus]

[Wait... what did he just say? X just sort of stares at him for a moment, trying to process that. A city where humans and reploids live in peace...

That sounds exactly like Elysium!

He has to ask. He has to know.]

Wast thou the one who made it?

[replicatastrophe]

I was, yes. It began as a safe refuge during the Elf Wars, but since their end has expanded into a thriving city.

[Strange, he's usually so proud talking about Neo Arcadia. Surely an inkling of that shines through, but for the most part...]

[lumineinfinitus]

[X places a hand on one of the desks to lean on it, thinking. The color scheme and gem could have been a coincidence, if an unnerving one, but the dream couldn't have been. He's never shared that with anyone, except maybe Zero!

So did that mean... this person was him, somehow? But why the red eyes and different look? And why the name of a city he doesn't recognize? Something like that couldn't have gone unnoticed.

...Okay. Focus on the thing he can actually ask about.]

What wast the Elf Wars?

[replicatastrophe]

The end of the Maverick Wars was brought along by the creation of the Mother Elf, a program with the capability of reversing the Maverick virus within any reploid. However, a scientist working on the project, Dr. Weil, stole the program and re-coded it with intent to exert control over the world's reploids. This was in conjunction with his creation of a devastating weapon, Omega, and smaller copies of the Mother Elf's core program.

[He pauses. He's just reciting history, almost like he was reading from a textbook, but that strange melancholy rears its head again.]

The losses were catastrophic. Most reploids and nearly half the human race was lost in the ensuing battles with Omega. After four years, Zero and I managed to capture and seal the Dark Elf, along with Dr. Weil himself.

He and his creation were punished accordingly for their crimes.

[lumineinfinitus]

[Wait... "End of the Maverick Wars"? "Mother Elf"?

...No. It couldn't be... could it? There's no way that... but at the same time, it might...

However dumb the question is, he has to pose it.]

What's the year f'r thou?

[replicatastrophe]

The year? [It couldn't be...] 23XX.

[lumineinfinitus]

[...it was right. That was it. It explained it. It explained everything.

X sucks in a breath, not sure how to say this.]

For me... the year is 22XX.

[replicatastrophe]

[And there it was.

This was X. The original X, standing right in front of him.]

I was told people from different worlds could be brought here, but from different times...?

[lumineinfinitus]

[He has no skepticism to give to that claim. Not when he's staring down himself from more than a hundred years in the future.]

If you're who you say you are... and I don't have much doubt left to that... then yes, it seems like it can.

[...Oh, it figures now his translator locks on English. Well, that's fine. It's a good time for it.]

[replicatastrophe]

[He takes a moment to collect himself. This means two very different things for the both of them, but he needs to act as if it doesn't. He has a much more educated judge on his role than ever before now.]

...I see. Well, then. I apologize for our unfortunate introduction.

[lumineinfinitus]

[At least Copy X has some time. X is in no state to judge anything right now, with all the implications and questions swimming dizzily in his head. Time travel. Time travel. This is him from the future, the him who made his dream come true, after another battle with Zero.

That thought overjoys him more than he can express. Over all these years, he had never given up hope on that, no matter how much everything else seemed to tear at him, or try to break him down... and it paid off.

Well, pays off. Even so, he can't stop the smile crossing his face, just giving a breathless laugh.]

It's all right. [He has a guess about that.] It's something to do with what's going on right now, isn't it?

[He's about to say "It's even affected me," but, well... yeah.]

[replicatastrophe]

[He isn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't a smile. He almost looks surprised to see it. Even so, it somehow manages to start wiping away that melancholy that had washed over him.]

What's going on? What do you mean?

[lumineinfinitus]

The virus that's worked its way into my language and translator systems is something that I can't even sense, much less get rid of. The hostile reaction was something similar, wasn't it?

[Because... well, that conversation was proof. He wouldn't freak out over staring down a doppleganger.]

[replicatastrophe]

[Looking at it objectively, nothing he had done during that encounter made sense. He might not have been pleased with another doppleganger, but he certainly wouldn't have trembled and retreated. Not to mention he had been under so much stress he'd almost forgotten X wasn't even speaking English at first.]

I believe it might be, yes. We've both been infected with different viruses at the same time?

[If this is what that woman considered "playing"...]

[lumineinfinitus]

It seems so. Mine is annoying, but it seems yours might be worse than that.

[Almost as if to prove that point...]

因此，我們應該盡可能小心--

...大.

[replicatastrophe]

[Surprising himself, his first reaction to the sudden language switch is to try and hold back a laugh.]

There are robots present in the school. Do you suppose the nurse is equipped with antiviruses?