...I don't know that yet, unfortunately - no one seems to have any information about what's doing it. It's entirely possible that I just haven't been in contact with the right people, though.
Working this out has been something of a hobby of mine since I arrived.
Strange incidents have consistently happened centered around dates like Halloween, America's Thanksgiving weekend and Black Friday, Christmas and the New Year, and something that I believe may be intended for either Easter or Golden Week.
Sometimes it's things that no one can explain or something to do with Legendary Pokémon, which are something like the local gods; other times the incidents are entirely manmade. But either way, it's usually centered around large, commercialized holidays that most of the foreigners here would know and have reason to observe. Valentine's Day would fall directly in line with that sort of pattern.
[You could! You could say that, and it would be extremely catty and also not wrong.]
I'm fairly sure one of the natural incidents stole some people's souls. Since there aren't any soulless people wandering around that I'm aware of, presumably those souls were returned at some point or another.
One of the manmade events involved a pair of completely insane people setting their patron deities against each other and nearly wiping out everyone in the region in the crossfire. I was there for that one; those people were defeated and obviously everyone is still alive, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation.
[...APPARENTLY HIS DEFINITION OF "NOT BAD" IS "WELL EVERYTHING'S FINE NOW."]
[...you'll have to give him a moment, Tsukiyama. At some point during reading that his gaze shifted to the ceiling because, no, there is nothing you just said in that text that isn't really BAD.
But eventually you will get a response, and if it sounds very concerned that's because it is.]
...you don't think anything like that will happen this time, do you?
Somehow I doubt it, given the nature of the holiday. The nicer ones tend to be good to us, actually.
We went to France for New Year's; we think it was a reward for dealing with those two people who nearly destroyed the region, though no one explicitly called it that, but it was basically a ball and fireworks, very high-class. Christmas usually brings gifts of some sort with it - eggs containing Pokémon that are rare or have usual colorations, sometimes, and I've heard from one of my contacts that sometimes on the "good" holidays we receive items from home, or things that are otherwise important for us.
[For all that Kaneki was saying about how peaceful this place seemed compared to home, there sure are a lot of people interested in blowing it the hell up.]
So Halloween is the "bad" holiday...
I know you already said you don't know why it happens, but it just seems...I don't know. Very suspicious that things happen that way, I guess.
I haven't actually been here for any holidays yet, so I guess I'll know more about how I feel about it after next week. But I wonder if there might be someone, or something, causing these things to happen.
You know someone is causing the manmade ones, but you said that people get gifts on Christmas. But nobody actually knows who they're coming from, right?
I don't know what caused the soul-stealing; it's possible one of the other Pokémon was responsible. Maybe one of the gods, maybe a swarm of normal ones that just had the advantage of numbers...
Either way, it's a good question, since the gods in question are still allowing things like that to happen in the first place.
Yeah. It doesn't really make sense. Even if things turned out okay in the end, that still doesn't mean they should be happening at all. Especially if these Pokemon are powerful enough to stop it.
One of the other effects of this world is that we can't die. I'll spare you the details of exactly how I know this, though I'll reassure you that it wasn't because I was hunting; I imagine the process isn't very nice, but once it's over with apparently we just wake up in a nearby Pokémon Center, with all fatal injuries healed.
Why should these gods have any interest in protecting us? If we die, we'll just come back.
If I were feeling really pessimistic, I'd think that perhaps we're just here for their entertainment...but this is a lot of effort to go through just to get some new playthings, and there's no sense in rendering us uninteresting by making all of us human. So I genuinely don't think that's it; at the same time, they don't have any particular incentive to care about us, either.
[...seeing as this is the first time Kaneki has heard anything about being unable to die, it's difficult for him to believe it. "But why would Tsukiyama lie about something like that?" is his first thought, and he has to stop himself because that sort of thinking is exactly what got him into so much trouble before, isn't it-
But that doesn't matter right now, and this is still over text. It's fine.
He still has to take a moment to think about that, though. It's...not a pleasant thought, to be sure.]
...even if that's true, there has to be more to it than that. Putting it that way sounds like they might be making these things happen just to see how we'll react or letting them happen if they aren't causing them outright, and if we get ourselves killed it doesn't matter because we can't die anyway.
And why would they go to the trouble of giving us gifts or things from home, then? Just to make us happier here so we won't want to leave?
[...Tsukiyama, you might want to elaborate so that doesn't sound completely bugfuck insane.]
That's what this world is based around, isn't it? Some sort of game? Maybe these are the trials we're being put through because the plot necessitates it.
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It's really so regular that you can keep track of it like that? I wonder why that is...
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Working this out has been something of a hobby of mine since I arrived.
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So why are you asking if I know anything about it?
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This place likes to keep holidays; I don't know for certain, but something may happen next weekend. Be aware of it.
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Alright...has something happened for other holidays you've been here for?
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Sometimes it's things that no one can explain or something to do with Legendary Pokémon, which are something like the local gods; other times the incidents are entirely manmade. But either way, it's usually centered around large, commercialized holidays that most of the foreigners here would know and have reason to observe. Valentine's Day would fall directly in line with that sort of pattern.
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Strange incidents. Just strange? Nothing...bad or anything has happened during those holidays, right? It's just something you wanted me to know about?
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Well, that depends on how we're defining "bad," amore - it's nothing that ended poorly, from the look of it.
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Okay...well, can you tell me something that happened so I'll know what to expect?
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I'm fairly sure one of the natural incidents stole some people's souls. Since there aren't any soulless people wandering around that I'm aware of, presumably those souls were returned at some point or another.
One of the manmade events involved a pair of completely insane people setting their patron deities against each other and nearly wiping out everyone in the region in the crossfire. I was there for that one; those people were defeated and obviously everyone is still alive, otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation.
[...APPARENTLY HIS DEFINITION OF "NOT BAD" IS "WELL EVERYTHING'S FINE NOW."]
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But eventually you will get a response, and if it sounds very concerned that's because it is.]
...you don't think anything like that will happen this time, do you?
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We went to France for New Year's; we think it was a reward for dealing with those two people who nearly destroyed the region, though no one explicitly called it that, but it was basically a ball and fireworks, very high-class. Christmas usually brings gifts of some sort with it - eggs containing Pokémon that are rare or have usual colorations, sometimes, and I've heard from one of my contacts that sometimes on the "good" holidays we receive items from home, or things that are otherwise important for us.
The cataclysms are usually around Halloween.
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So Halloween is the "bad" holiday...
I know you already said you don't know why it happens, but it just seems...I don't know. Very suspicious that things happen that way, I guess.
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I have my own thoughts on the matter, of course, but I'd like to hear yours.
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You know someone is causing the manmade ones, but you said that people get gifts on Christmas. But nobody actually knows who they're coming from, right?
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I'm not entirely sure how a person could orchestrate that, but maybe one of the gods could.
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Either way, it's a good question, since the gods in question are still allowing things like that to happen in the first place.
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Why should these gods have any interest in protecting us? If we die, we'll just come back.
If I were feeling really pessimistic, I'd think that perhaps we're just here for their entertainment...but this is a lot of effort to go through just to get some new playthings, and there's no sense in rendering us uninteresting by making all of us human. So I genuinely don't think that's it; at the same time, they don't have any particular incentive to care about us, either.
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But that doesn't matter right now, and this is still over text. It's fine.
He still has to take a moment to think about that, though. It's...not a pleasant thought, to be sure.]
...even if that's true, there has to be more to it than that. Putting it that way sounds like they might be making these things happen just to see how we'll react or letting them happen if they aren't causing them outright, and if we get ourselves killed it doesn't matter because we can't die anyway.
And why would they go to the trouble of giving us gifts or things from home, then? Just to make us happier here so we won't want to leave?
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[...Tsukiyama, you might want to elaborate so that doesn't sound completely bugfuck insane.]
That's what this world is based around, isn't it? Some sort of game? Maybe these are the trials we're being put through because the plot necessitates it.
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I never played Pokemon, but I don't remember hearing about the games being...that intense, do you?
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