fandomhighdorms | Fourth Floor Common Room; Tuesday Night

Alphonse passed by, giving a tentative wave as he decided to walk in. "Hello."

Sakurazaki looks up from her book at the sound of a greeting, and instantly places a bookmark between the pages when she sees who it is, sleepy grin sliding onto her face. "Hello, Alphonse; up late again, too, I see?"

"Yeah, guess I am," Alphonse admitted. It was probably very obvious he looked more like he should've been in bed already, but what he wouldn't admit is that he didn't want to. Apparently, having to wake up the next day was something he'd rather not do. "Not really in the mood to sleep."

"Same here," she says with a light sigh. "Tired, but just can't...sleep, you know?"

"I know that feeling," he responded with a tiny smile. "I'd much rather be out here right now than in my room anyway."

Head tilting slightly, Sakurazaki sets her book and her camcorder down on the floor beside the couch. She then pulls in her legs, hugging them close to herself and nodding toward the space opened up to invite him to sit if she wished. "Is it anything you'd like to talk about? Or perhaps there's something else we can talk about to get your mind off that?"

She certainly knew what it was like not to be able to stand being in a room for a given circumstance, although she highly doubted his reason was anything like hers had been. Still, he had been so amazing helping her, talking with her, listening...If it weren't for the fact that she actually wanted to be there for him, she would have offered because it was the least she could do to show her gratitude.

Alphonse took up on Sakurazaki's invitation and sat down on the sofa. He sank in comfortably, and boy did a rest sound really good right about then... He shook his head, attempting to get that thought out. That was the complete opposite of what he wanted to do. "I don't think any amount of distraction could get my mind off this," he said honestly. "If only because I can't make heads or tails of any of it."

Sakurazaki's head tilts slightly, slight frown on her face, trying to figure out exactly what that is hiding behind his tired eyes. "I'm not sure if can actually be much help," she says, "but I do owe you a few attempts if it's anything you want to talk about..."

Alphonse cast a brief glance at Sakurazaki before leaning his head back against the sofa, idly staring at the ceiling. "I swear I thought I'd go mad before ever, ever saying this," he started slowly. "But I keep seeing my-- a ghost."

He wasn't really sure if he wanted to say who it was, yet. Alphonse realized he'd never even as much as mentioned his past to Sakurazaki.

Sakurazaki's shoulders straighten slightly. Ghosts were certainly a subject she had a little bit of familiarity on, but, with the exception of Sayo, her exposure had all been based on excorcisms with Tatsumiya-san. Excorcisms weren't pretty...

But a Fandom ghost? That was one thing she didn't think she'd heard of around here before. She couldn't discern if a Fandom ghost would have good or bad intent.

"Ghosts aren't such a rare occurance, you know," Sakurazaki says lamely, instantly regretting falling back on that just to have something respond with. Ghosts may not be a rare occurance with her, but they probably weren't such a simple thing if someone's never experienced one before.

He resisted any and all urge to tell her that ghosts didn't exist. It was completely unproven and impossible thing.

Then again, Alphonse wasn't back home, either. Everything that shouldn't exist and shouldn't happen, happened here.

"... It wouldn't be so hard if it wasn't someone I knew," was all he said, instead.

Sakurazaki's expression is blank, her face rather pale. "Oh." This may be well beyond her grasp...

But, licking at her suddenly dry lips, she resolves to at least try. Her eyes drifting away, she considers what she knows about ghosts.

"Have you been able to communicate with it? Or is it just a presence?"

"I wish it were the latter," Alphonse sighed. The ceiling became a loooot more interesting, suddenly. "She's been... telling me things. I don't have a clue what she's talking about, and at the same time, there's a little something that says I do. I'm afraid to remember what she's talking about... if what she's saying has any truth behind it."

Again, her eyes slide away, thoughtful, worried. Sakurazaki didn't particularly know what he was talking about, true, but it didn't take an expert to conclude that Alphonse was signficantly bothered by whatever it was.

Focus on the questions, she reminds herself. Only when you have knowledge can you dispense knowledge. Biting her lip, she considers her brief experience with ghosts again.

"Is it a territorial ghost? Have you only seen her, felt her effects in your room, or elsewhere as well?" She isn't sure if that had anything to do with anything, but it might....

"I don't know," Alphonse replied quietly. "So far I've only seen her in my room, but ever since yesterday morning I've had that eerie feeling she's still around... Even right now."

Sakurazaki can't help but idly look around the room a bit, frowning deeply. You'd think that someone of her...origin would be able to see something like ghosts, but she supposed that was one half of her where the human side dominated. She is still thoughtful on the semantics, especially after that consideration: what did cause a ghost to show up, and how was it determined who they showed up to? Obviously, this ghost was someone Alphonse knows...or knew, rather...so that had something to do with it, but how come he wasn't seeing her until now? Why, no one had seen Sayo until Evangeline-san had cast a spell...

"Has anything happened recently that might have inspired this part of your past to be aggrivated?" she muses aloud. "If you've never seen ghosts before, there's usually a reason they show up. Either summoned, or magically, or because something has happened to bring them out...."

Alphonse shook his head slowly. "Not that I know of, and I wouldn't even dare doing something like purposely conjuring a ghost. At least, anything here at Fandom, I think..." He trailed off when a sudden thought hit him, and he sat for a moment before blinking and veering himself back on track. When he took consideration of the idea of ghosts being summoned by and outside force, Alphonse scowled. "If this is somebody else's doing, I swear I'll..." he couldn't finish that threat, but it was obvious in his voice he was angry about it.

Worry cast across her face, Sakurazaki sighs lightly. "It does seem in the realm of greater possibility that it's the cause of an outside force," she reiterates as her brain turns a bit. But why would Alphonse be the receptor of that outside force? That didn't make any sense at all...None of it made sense.

And none of it probably would unless she continued to try to resolve unanswered questions. She backtracks her details a bit. "The spirit isn't a malicious one, is it?" The question is asked with significant hesitation, as she's not entirely sure she really wants to know the answer if it veers toward yes.

"I-- I wish I could say no," Alphonse said, mulling more over it. "She hasn't done anything to hurt me-- physically, anyway, but..." By this point, he didn't know what to think. He'd never had any experience with ghosts, he was disoriented enough already, and his mind was exhausted and yet he refused to get to bed. "I don't know what she wants, and I don't know why now? It's been nearly seven years, Setsuna..."

Sakurazaki nods thoughtfully, in a way of telling Alphonse that she was pondering that exact same thing.

"Well," she muses her thoughts aloud, pulling from her internal lexicon of such lore. Numbers and a certain passage of time could sometimes be important.... "Seven is generally an unlucky number, but that in itself doesn't seem to harbour the manifestation of a spirit. There wouldn't happen to be any other significance about that particular time frame, would there? Seven years?"

Sakurazaki had managed to hit one of his problems right on the spot. It certainly had been seven years since she passed away, but it always felt like three; and within those three years, he knew nothing could've happened then. One year of that was only spent training-- harmless enough, right? And the other two... nothing major ever happened in Risembool. It was all over by then.

"I wouldn't be able to remember," Alphonse began. "I've thought about it a lot, and now that you've mentioned it... it's possible." He turned his head slightly towards Sakurazaki. "But I wouldn't be able to know. I've never told you, have I? I don't have any memory of a period of four years. Most of this would be after she had died."

Head tilting as her eyes finally drift back to him, Sakurazaki blinks. "Four whole years? Completely gone from any recollection?"

"Yes," he replied, nodding. "I don't remember any of it at all."

Sakurazaki's logic has her finding this to be incredibly crucial. Four whole years! She couldn't even begin to imagine it. "Have you been actively trying to remember those four years at all?"

"Of course," Alphonse sighed. "Every important thing I need right now is in those years. I want those memories back like you wouldn't believe. My brother, however... I don't think he wants me to remember any of it."

Sakurazaki's eyes fall away again; part of her feels like she really shouldn't be saying what she's about to say, but it's very much overpowered by the part of her that feels like she needs to.

"Perhaps there's a reason for that, though," she speaks quietly, timidly, still so confused yet wanting desperately to help. She can't ever just leave anything alone, can she? "And that's why this is happening now. A door to an unknown past being unwittingly opened..."

She swallows a lump in her throat, recalling her own locked doors.

Alphonse wanted to disagree with her. He didn't care what had happened, or what he'd been through; little by little things have been happening that, if he could only remember, they could have been solved so much easier.

Frankly, he was getting a little tired of everyone telling him the same thing. What reasons were there that it'd be best if he didn't remember? Alphonse didn't believe it was doing him any good so far.

"And the one person who could tell me what happened, isn't here," Alphonse murmured.

Sakurazaki considers that sort of quiet reaction deeply. Four whole years...She spends a good, long moment inside of her head, trying desperately to grasp onto something. Everything keeps slipping through her fingers, though, it seems. Except...Ojou-sama. She had never known about her powers, but, when the time came...A hand briefly drifts near her left shoulder.

"Although, on the other hand, it could entirely be possible that you've reached a state where, not only are you somehow subconsciously ready to remember, but it might be important for you to do so. Do you know why you have no memory of these four years? How it came to be that you can't remember? Or has it just been how it is?"

"Yeah, I kind of know why," he said vaguely. "And kind of know how. It's not something I could easily get back though, since, if the theory's right, I lost them through alchemical means..."

"Alchemical means?" Yeah. That one just outright requires elaboration before Sakurazaki can even begin to have something to ponder.

"Alchemy doesn't create, nor can you work with it if you've got nothing," Alphonse began. "If you're going to use several trees to create a house, you are, in the end, loosing those trees. This rule applies to everything; you must give up in order to gain. It's the law of what we call equivalent exchange." He tapped the side of his head, continuing, "My master concluded my memories were used in an exchange for a transmutation."

"Trans...mutation?" The word was familiar; they had discussed it before, because she remembered writing it down to remember it. But it takes a moment for Sakurazaki to recall exactly what it meant.

"Oh! Right!" Her head tilts slightly. "But...what sort of...transmutation do you make using memories?"

Alphonse stared at Sakurazaki for a good, long moment. Should he tell her? He had the feeling if he did, she'd further question that, too... Right now was probably a bad time for explaining any of that. Of course, he couldn't blame her; people are, naturally, curious things. He hoped the being-vague card worked. "The kind to get soemthing... very important back."

Briefly, Sakurazaki considers asking more along that line of questioning. If she intents to help Alphonse, really, she should. But she recognized that hestitation, that period of thought before responding, because she herself was constantly doing it. Just as she wouldn't want someone to question her deeper on, say, the hair dye or the contacts or the wings, she wouldn't question Alphonse on this.

Except for one, which she can't particularly help.

"Did it work?"

There was something about that question that Alphonse couldn't help but smile at. "I would say it did."

"That's good, then." She was glad that she had made Alphonse smile, but Sakurazaki couldn't exactly share in his momentary mirth. She had meant the question very seriously; sacrifices were a subject of highly personal and grave matters. She felt a strong surge in her already existant respect for Alphonse, in discovering this hard kinship between them.

But this was problematic, logically speaking. "So, technically, if you had given those memories for your transmutation, it sounds as if it would be impossible to get them back, under any circumstances...am I understanding that correctly?"

"I don't know about any, maybe just under most," Alphonse answered. "I'm sure there's a way, somehow."

Sakurazaki nods. "It seems like what can be reserected might just be trying to do that."

And she promptly frowns. "But that still doesn't seem to explain the ghost, not really, unless it actually is just a figment of your imagination in collaboration with your subconsious."

She adds quickly, "Not that I'm saying the ghost isn't real; I'm just trying to evaluate all the possibilities."

Alphonse nodded, realizing they did kind of go way off track. "If it is my imagination, then... it certainly took a long time to kick in," he responded wryly. "I don't believe in ghosts. Well, didn't. I would think whether you did or didn't would factor into this, as well."

"Do you mean in terms of the imagination most likely not manifesting itself as something that the conscious would be prone to disbelieve?"

"Yeah. I mean, if I truly didn't believe in them, is it possible for the mind to cause you to think you see them? It'd make sense if you did, but that's not the case here."

Sakurazaki nods; it was an extremely good point.

Although, she's tempted to argue even further on the concept of the subconscious realizing how the conscious would respond in disbelief, and therefor inspiring a certain sort of reverse pyschology...

But she's had enough brain-breakage on the subject, settling in her thoughts until she can come up with something a bit more substantial to add, rather than just mere propagating and theoretisizing.

"... Of course," Alphonse added in belatedly, and again, wryly. "I think we're forgetting where we're both at. Anything seems to be possible, whether logic applies or not."

There's a snort, something trying to be a laugh, although it fails because Sakurazaki doesn't feel much like laughing. "That's another extremely valid point."

"...I'm sorry I haven't been much help to you, Alphonse," she adds quietly after a brief, thoughtful pause.

Alphonse quickly shook his head. "No, don't worry about it at all. For all I know I am just seeing things, and maybe this place is just being quirky at me for some reason. It's... upsetting, but it'll blow over. It has to."

She nods gravely. "I hope it does, Alphonse..."

Before leaning back and falling alseep again like he hadn't intended through the entire conversation, Alphonse rubbed at his eyes again. "Maybe forcing myself to stay awake isn't such a good idea," he concluded.

Fourth Floor Common Room; Tuesday Night

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject