001 - Minato Arisato - Entry

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Minato Arisato. I have met some of you already around the campus and I will probably meet the rest during classes. I hope we get along, at least until we get sent back to our original worlds.

Something I have noticed while talking to people, BTW - there is a good chance this Time Compression thing will bring people from your world, but at different point in time. After all, the SeeD Commander was thrown here from this same world of 20 years ago.

BTW, since it looks like most everyone here is in one scholarship or another, if there are any other Ambers reading this, please drop me a line.

PS - the rest of this entry is in Japanese, for the people who are not very good at English, and because I am translating it from there to English. Please let me know how I can improve my writing.

[Sure enough, the rest of the text is the same as the above, only in Japanese and using romaji. It's also written more fluidly.]

Comments

[lastesper.livejournal.com]

I'm not in Amber, I'm afraid - I'm in the Carbuncle group, but... you've met people from your world here? I don't think I've met anyone from my world yet.

...

Also, what does "BTW" mean? I'm not familiar with that word.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Yes, I have met some people from my world, though they were not people I knew. I think I saw someone from my last school at the assemly, though.

Ah, sorry. "BTW" is an abbreviation for "by the way". It is commonly used in forums such as this one.

[lastesper.livejournal.com]

Oh... that's a shame. I guess it would make things easier to adjust here if you at least knew people here, from your own home.

I was at the assembly myself, but I didn't see anyone that I recognized. [ A pause at the explanation. ] Oh! I see - it's a little strange, but thank you for explaining. I guess it's faster to shorten things like that.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it certainly would be.

A lot of the forumspeak is about shortening words or phrases as much as possible for efficiency. Sometimes it ends up taking as much time deciphering the writing as it would have to just write it normally.

[lastesper.livejournal.com]

Forumspeak ... so you're used to this sort of ... this level of technology? These bulletin boards, and cars and computers and things...? I'm still learning about it all, really.

[knell]

*oh dear, romaji. He hadn't thought about that particular hurdle of being stuck in a different world before. There's a few typos in his reply, but he writes back in Japanese*

Good morning, Arisato. It's nice meeting you! I'm Murasame Tsukumo. Thanks for the bilingual post. It's a little overwhelming suddenly being dropped into a world where everyone speaks English, isn't it.

Have you met someone from your own world? That could certainly get awkward.

I'm not an Amber, but I'll point them to this post if I happen to meet any.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

[Minato didn't spend all does nights building his Academic stat for nothing, you know. He writes back in both languages, since this is a public entry, after all.]

Good morning, Murasame. It's nice meeting you too. It's really odd to have the language barrier thrust upon you like that, yeah.

I've met two, though not people I had met personally. One's a J-Pop singer, oddly enough, and the other is some sort of junior detective from a rural town.

Thanks, Murasame. Which group is sponsoring you, if you don't mind my asking?

[knell]

*still in Japanese only over here. He might like to write in both languages once he's been able to do a little more studying, but at this point he's not too confident in being able to make himself understood.*

Huh, that is pretty weird. I wonder if you and I are from the same world. At first I thought meeting people who spoke Japanese would be enough to prove that all on its own, but now I've also met someone who knows Japan, yet comes from a country I'm pretty sure doesn't exist back home.

I'm sponsored by the Diamond group.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

That might be hard to tell. I only think those two people are from the same world because they mentioned the city where I've been studying, and because I recognized the singer.

Let's try to confirm whether we're from the same world or not: what year was it before you got sent here? Which were the more recent national news?

The Diamond group, huh? Sounds like a good one, judging by their requisites.

[knell]

Hm, let's see... 2008? I was in Tokyo. Recently there have been a lot of headlines about high school boys disappearing, and high school girls falling into mysterious comas. They call it Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.

I hope it's a good group. (LOL) They said to pick the one that seems to suit you best, so with any luck, I'll be able to live up to it. It's very impressive that you got Amber, though!

[shops-a-lot.livejournal.com]

Hi Minato! My name is Bulla. I'm a Ruby person instead but I thought I'd say hi. I think it's best if we do all get along while we're here.

My mom's a genius inventor, so maybe she'll invent something to bring me home.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Nice to meet you, Bulla. It's great meeting a Ruby too - they're the cool ones, after all.

The way you write it, I guess your mom's made something to travel between worlds before?

[shops-a-lot.livejournal.com]

Well, not like this, but she's made spaceships, and all sorts of other things.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Spaceships, huh? Man, your mom must get a lot of funding for making those. Where I'm from, only the richer countries have a space program.

[shops-a-lot.livejournal.com]

My family owns one of the biggest companies in my world, so getting money isn't a problem.

[lovesmemory.livejournal.com]

Well met! My name is Nia. I am also sponsored by Amber.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Well met, Nia. It's nice to meet another sponsored by Amber.

How have you found Garden?

[lovesmemory.livejournal.com]

Am I the only other one you have met?

Garden is wonderful! The people here are very kind to give us all a place to live, and to offer their classes to us. Everyone has been helpful and informative.

What about you, Mister Minato?

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

So far, yes.

The people I've met who are from here have been helpful to me as well. The SeeDs especially - it looks like they take their position as senpai seriously.

[lovesmemory.livejournal.com]

I wonder how many of us there are? Surely we cannot be the only ones.

"Senpai"? What is that?

[pinkgospel.livejournal.com]

I can't say I'm from Amber, but I hope that doesn't mean we can't be buddies.

Hi there, I'm Aerith. Nice to meet you, Minato.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Ah, that's fine. Sorry if it looked like I was being elitist there.

It's nice to meet you too, Aerith. How are you finding Garden so far?

[pinkgospel.livejournal.com]

It's alright!

Well, I guess I like it here so far, but I'm sure about the whole 'SeeD' business. It looks it's going to be very hard for new cadets like me to actually graduate from here.

[zeroth-card.livejournal.com]

Yeah, fighting other people's battles doesn't sound like something a lot of people would be into.

As for graduating... I guess it depends on how the classes are. I'm guessing most cadets under our program could graduate in three quarters, maybe four or five if they're struggling.

[pinkgospel.livejournal.com]

I wonder why they are letting us newcomers join the Garden so easily. Tossing new folks into mercenary work isn't a very nice thing to do, but I guess it won't be so bad.

Hey, where you from?