#tomeweek2023

she thinks, Was that the only chance I'll ever get? kijibayashi gets mad at her for finishing the takis. the air is silent and cloudy.

tome and inukawa are both insistent the aliens will come back the next year. the club tries again and the aliens dont come back, again. tsubomi wasnt expecting much but at least its interesting to go camping with mob and some weirdos.

so thats what it becomes, a yearly camping trip to mudboat mountain. on year three takenaka cant make it, so the shiratori brothers do the transmission instead. tome rolls the alien stone around on her palm. no response.

then tome graduates and moves away for university. and mob, inukawa, and takenaka have to worry about exams. and it all just doesn't line up. so they skip year four. tome sits in a corner of her dorm room and hates the feeling of obligation and fatigue washing up around her. she doesnt have the wisdom to accept it yet. maybe she never will. she cant tell if that would be good or bad.

It's year five. Saruta puts down his marshmallow stick, gets up, and walks away from the fire. "Okay, I'm gonna go look for aliens." Mob smiles but warns, "It's slippery." "Does--does he mean--?" Tome responds, laughing, to Teru's confusion. "He means he's gonna find somewhere to take a dump."

the next new years she tries something new and it doesnt go well. sitting in an alley and trying not to cry she gets a text. its a shitty picture of some mountains and the distant horizon at night. you cant see any stars, just the dim glow of city in the distance. in the corner of the photo is a green smudge with little red cheeks giving her the finger. the message is from mob.

she pretends like she doesnt remember the seven years number but she starts thinking about it in like june. it takes her until september to finally say something. tome: okay mfers this is the year this is THE year inukawa: What year tome: let me finish this is t he YEAR WE SEE ALIENS AGAIN all thet sources say seven years! the aliens dont visit every year, only ever seven well were all old now and its been sseven years! so lets get out there and DO THIS!!! whatever or whoever else youre doing plz bring it all up the mountain with you inukawa: Oh my god this is the year mob: Seven years, jesus. kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR takenaka: THIS IS THE YEAR mob: THIS IS THE YEAR! kijibayashi: THIS IS THE YEAR

in the end no one can get hold of saruta. he would respond to a hello but wouldnt engage for more than a few messages. tome is mad but everyone hopes hes okay. mob dredges up mezato from her journalism internship. he even convinces jun (shaved head guy from the body improvement club) to come with. the team comes equipped with two switches, a laptop for anime, ultimate werewolf, a portable speaker, comics, snacks, and as much booze as they can carry.

tome can feel the transmission vibrating her teeth, but only the ones without fillings. she leans backwards as the tractor beam pulls her up so she does a slow flip before landing on her back in that warm, round space. shes 15 again. these are her friends, the same aliens she met last time. takenaka confirms this but she knew it as soon as she shook one of their hands.

shes not 15, though, shes 22. she has to elbow in on mezatos interviews. Are there alien ghosts? How old are you? Are there like alien teenagers or is it more of a chrysalis situation? Why are you here? Are there alien videogames? What advice would you give to someone who's struggling to find respect for her work? Have you ever tried fireball?

Inukawa is annoyingly good at telling when the aliens are lying so he keeps winning at werewolf (Takenaka is only allowed to play if he's cool about it). Tome wonders, internally, what it would be like to kiss an alien. Probably reserved at first, like of course, you'd want to start slow. But then after that… She watches an alien laugh at a visual gag in Crayon Shin-chan. Mob slams smirnoff and engages in an intense series of arm wrestling matches. "Hey noodle arms! Square up!" He gets beaten by every single alien. Jun wins against one. Takenaka looks shiftily over at them and says, "That was out of pity." Everyone raises a shot glass to Saruta.

tomes 15, shes 22. and then she realizes she's 29, too, and 36, and 43, 50, 57… she has maybe eight or nine more chances at this, ever. would the aliens accept her as an old lady? how long would she be able to make the hike? I should talk to mob about that. How to become dash granny.

everyone has gifts ready this time, except for mezato, who decides that her offering to these strange beings from another world should be a half-empty bottle of jagermeister. tome gives the aliens one of those compact cb radios, thinking maybe if they were nearby they could gibber on a particular channel and tome, who had her own radio at home, would know they were here. according to takenaka their response is very coy and mysterious and annoying.

Tome shows the aliens the stone they gave her last time. She'd kept it on her person basically since she got it. She receives a hug from one of the aliens with their soft many-segmented limbs and starts crying. More of the aliens move in for a group hug around her and she cries and laughs and cries some more as she reaches out to wrap her arms around as many as she can. Gross rivers drip from her nose. She sniffs and wipes her face with the backs of her hands as they disentangle. She looks at the group of weird big-eyed friends. She opens her arms wide, hands covered with tears and slime, and announces, "Thank you! Thank you all! This has been so much fucking fun. Pretend you all have glasses in your hands, I'm gonna do a toast. A toast to strange friends!" Two species say "Clink! Clink!" as their empty hands knock together.

the suns been up for an hour or two. the ship shimmers in daylight, translucent, floating away.

29, Tome thinks. "I want you all here, next time."

"So I'm free? I can party for the next six New Yearses as long as I go camping with you on the seventh?"

"Whatever, Kijibayashi, fuck you, like that wasn't the best party you ever been to. Yes. Next time."

the memory has multiplied, into past and future. Who? How? Is it stupid to make such a big deal of this thing? tome watches the stone in her palm.