The Transience of Her

Claiming

Turns out Monday wasn't too manic at all. Instead, it was exciting and upbeat.

I got to learn about a heartwarming moment between siblings.

And as an only child, I envy her.

She stretches her arms out as she yawns loudly, but not loud enough to disturb the others at the mini-park.

“Well, Soren, it's nice talking to you. I think... I need to go somewhere.”

“Where exactly?”

“Hmmm... wherever the wind takes me, perhaps?”

“Sounds like a certain adventurer with a big yellow bird as his companion.”

“Heh. To be honest... I don't care if you will show up or not in the next few days. But not because we're getting too distant.”

“I know you're not avoiding me because of our differing circumstances.”

“Yeah, absolutely not.”

And as she announces her plans for the coming days, I can sense a forlorn aura in her eyes.

“I... I need some soul-searching. I need to understand this world – the world of Eleftheria – more. How it differs from Earth; while at the same time, how it adapts some of Earth's many cultures, legends, and customs – since it is created by people from Earth, after all.”

I can see her line of thinking.

She's literally diving deep into the imaginations of the developers behind Skypaths Online – and those imaginations were unified to create another complete world, separate from our own.

I wonder if her brand of immersion feels radically different from just reading words and characters on a page or pressing buttons and expecting results in a conspicuously-built virtual plane processed by trillions of circuits.

“I will be feeling bouts of loneliness, like what you're sensing in my eyes right now. So if you ever need to give me some encouragement, you can always PM me. *sigh*... If only I realized I'd use this mechanic sooner so that I wouldn't forget it.”

“Of course I will.”

She rises from the bench and prepares to wander once more.

“Until next time, Soren. We will, and must, always keep in touch. Ta-ta.”

She waves me goodbye as she leaves for the southern entrance gate of Tulyasi.

I vow to her as she disappears into the horizon...

“I hope your soul-searching yields at least something. It's not just literally searching for your own soul, but also... finding your own purpose beyond being a special case of a possessed avatar.”

After a few more minutes of sitting on the bench, I decide to log out myself.

I go back to the harsh reality of her being gone from this world.

I wished her luck in her soul-searching, but how will that amount to in the end, when such an achievement of hers... will be forgotten, too?

No.

Even though I know achievements can be fleeting, just like life itself...

There are several ways of preventing those achievements, and the person behind them, from being forgotten.

There's this concept of damnatio memoriae in Latin, or the Hebrew phrase yimakh shemo.

Both pertain to the complete and utter erasure of the records of a certain person, usually due to reasons such as committing a horrible crime or betraying a certain cause.

I've learned about those phrases from history class, by the way.

There's another facet of this “damnation of memory”, the “obliteration of their name”.

In old times, keeping civil records of people wasn't a thing.

Therefore, people lived and died anonymously, with their time on Earth being entirely undocumented, forgotten by future generations.

And even if the records of Lianna's unfortunately short life are thoroughly documented... people would eventually forget her, only recalling the bare essentials (her name, date of birth, date of death, nationality, and residence) when digging up those records in the civil registry, and not everything else.

Not her interests, her cheerful personality, not her aspirations in life, not her day-to-day motions.

And especially not her achievements.

But I will make sure that all of those won't be forgotten.

Even Levin emphasized this in his note.

After eating dinner, I go straight ahead to bed, looking forward to the next day...

...the day where I will ensure that the things she left behind will be preserved, as a way of not forgetting everything about her.

Tuesday.

I'm off to school again.

Today's school schedule is a continuation of yesterday's, as I get to learn more about advanced soldering techniques for laptop repairs.

Again, no homework to be done.

But more importantly...

Once I get home from school, I'm being greeted by a pickup truck carrying lots of boxes.

Ah, so he's employed the services of a moving company, because sending package after package of Lianna's things would cost him in the long run.

The driver of the pickup truck asks me...

“Hello. Is this the residence of Mr. Soren Orr?”

“Yes, that's me.”

“I just need you to sign some forms confirming the transportation of several games, hardware, and other things on behalf of the client, Mr. Levin Ingersoll.”

A few seconds of paperwork, and I'm done.

“Great. Now we can take these boxes inside.”

“Sure.”

I open the door, and dad and mom immediately greet me.

“Good afternoon, son. Perfect timing, for the truck containing your departed friend's things has just arrived.”

I answer him.

“Yeah. Her cousin also told you that you and mom will allocate some space for her things.”

“Yes, my dear son.”

Mom echoes his sentiment.

“In fact, while you were out for school, we moved the furniture in this living room to fit all those things should you decide to keep them here. Also serves as good exercise for us.”

Yeah, she's right. I can see that the sofas and the coffee table were tucked away in a corner.

“Anyway, we can all decide where her things will permanently go.”

He answers.

“Yup, that's our plan all along. Hopefully they ain't gathering dust in the attic. It's kinda full, anyway.”

We all help the driver of the moving truck transport these rather huge boxes inside carefully, because the last thing I want is for her stuff to sustain some damage. I even take care of my own collections pretty well, anyway.

Once all that's done...

“Thank you all for your help. Have a nice day!”

And thus, the moving truck sets off.

Dad comments...

“So she has left quite the collection, huh? Five huge boxes of video games that are way too advanced compared to that black-and-white ping-pong game that I grew up with! Ha ha ha!”

“Of course. She was an avid gamer like I am. Plus, she also had great tastes in music.”

“And you always do your best to keep your good grades, so we don't mind you playing them video games to your heart's content.”

“Of course. Well, we're all delaying ourselves. Let's get right into it!”

We open the first box, which has quite the selection of boxed games.

Those games are stored in smaller individual boxes, all labeled by system.

There are games for the DreamStation, the Family Entertainment System, the Meganesis, the Admiral 64, and several more vintage and not-so-vintage systems.

The games themselves come in several media formats: Cartridges, optical discs, floppy disks, and even compact memory cards.

No doubt, her cousin contributed most of these, as she always used to tell me frequently.

I tell them...

“These will all go in my room.”

My mom replies...

“OK. We'll help you carry these smaller boxes to your room.”

And so, mom and I carry the small boxes upstairs, one by one.

After we're done with the first box, we're opening the second.

And lo and behold! The consoles themselves!

Some of them come with their own original boxes and packaging, while others come in custom boxes because the original ones were lost.

Wow, she really took care of her consoles pretty well. They're in relatively good shape, cleaned pretty well, and have no visible signs of abuse.

There are also other smaller boxes containing several controllers, AV cables, power cables, and AC adapters, all conveniently labeled to avoid confusion.

And in the smallest box I find, I can see several memory cards.

They're all pre-owned, of course, so they contain old save files. This way, I can view not just Lianna's previous exploits, but also the exploits of the previous owners of the memory cards.

“Hmmm... these consoles will stay in this living room for now. I'll figure out a way to hook them all up to our TV later.”

Both mom and dad agree.

Nowadays, there are solutions for hooking up classic game consoles to modern HD televisions. Most of these involve converting analog signals coming from the consoles and upscaling them to clear and sharp images via HDMI.

Many of those solutions are affordable and thus within my budget.

There's also the matter of placing the consoles in our (honestly) barren entertainment center.

We all then proceed to the third box.

There are some more consoles, some handhelds, and the real star of this box: Her custom-built PC.

So, peeking at her PC, its specs are almost similar to mine, and even utilizing the same full-tower ATX case, with the only major difference being a custom pink-and-white color scheme.

Oh well, she fully embraced her femininity.

Her mechanical keyboard, mouse, and headphones that are also in the box also sport the same color scheme.

Mom then says something.

“Oh yes, I have to prepare dinner. I'll let you and dad take charge of opening and moving the contents, OK?”

Dad and I nod in agreement as she leaves for the kitchen.

“OK, sonny. I'll do the honors of moving the actual computer upstairs, and you can carry the keyboards and stuff. Don't doubt my strong muscles, ya hear?”

Even though he's approaching retirement age, he's still proud of his strength. He exercises every morning with mom, in fact. Thus, I have full confidence in him.

“Yeah, dad.”

After successfully carrying the pink PC, its peripherals, and the handhelds to my room...

We go back downstairs to open the fourth box.

This box contains a quite impressive collection of alternative rock CDs, most of which I already own myself.

But what she does own that I don't...

...are several DVDs and Blu-rays of various films, mostly chick flicks.

Again, she fully embraced her femininity.

And I'm certain dad won't chastise me watching chick flick after chick flick if those were the films she enjoyed.

Hmm... I have no plans to sell off the duplicate albums for now; but if ever a fellow alternative rock fan decides to get at least one of those, I will comply, stating to the buyer that those were pre-loved by my dearly-departed friend.

I tell dad...

“These chick flicks and more will go to the entertainment center along with the consoles. I'll move the music albums to my room.”

“No prob, sonny.”

After moving the albums to my room, we're now on the homestretch, as we open the fifth and final box.

The box is relatively simple.

It contains several alternative rock band posters, pillows, framed cross-stitch patterns, bed sheets, and a few miscellaneous trinkets.

I partially open the posters and discover that I also own many of them personally. Again, I can sell these off to fellow alt-rock fans if the need arises, also emphasizing their pre-loved statuses.

Dad and I carry the final box, which is the smallest of the five, to my room.

Phew. We're done opening all five boxes.

But it's just the beginning.

After all, we still have to re-arrange the stuff in order to accommodate the newcomers to our household, and display and store them neatly like she normally would.

We all can't do it in one go, right?

And so, over dinner, dad, mom, and I discuss the finer points of arranging what was once hers, and the process will be in a piecemeal manner.

Tomorrow can't wait.