Happy New Year! I'm sorry I haven't updated NPIS - I've just had a bit of writer's block :/. I haven't quit, don't worry!

Anyways, for a 2013 gift, here's the story behind my username, rewritten and redacted from my dream diary :D

I approach the small, fenced-off area for the umpteenth time. Every day without fail, I always come here, sign my name off on the members' register and get on a little children's ride.

Yeah, I know. Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

My name's M••••, and I'm stuck in a time loop. I have to return to this same place every day - the 27th of September 2012 - and get on a stupid pretend train ride.

That train always follows the same track with the same scenery repetitively. So, in a way, it's like me - reliving the same day, and nothing's ever changed.

I have one of the most boring lives ever.

But today, something feels different. I think it's a time contamination of some kind.

I duck under the arch leading into the ride area, approaching the staff member holding the clipboard containing a register. She doesn't have straight, brown hair as usual, though, but blonde, curly hair instead. As she looks up to acknowledge me, I realise that she is in fact a different person.

So my suspicion of something changing was spot-on.

She smiles at me and asks me to tick my name off on the list, as is standard protocol. I look to the same box where my name is always written, and instantly notice that something's up.

"Uhm... my name isn't Mitrus S••••••," I remark, pointing out my incorrect name. She then apologises and crosses it out, scrawling something else in letters too messy and wide to read, which overflow out of the allocated box.

As I head towards the train (the blue carriage I always sit in, to be specific), a girl comes up to me.

Her blonde, almost albino, hair ends just below her shoulders, even as she's looking directly up at me. I make eye contact with her pale blue eyes, full of childlike innocence with a streak of... fear?

"Can I share your carriage?" she asks, and I can't help but stare at her, mouth agape. I've never seen her here before, on any other-same day. What could've caused a time shift like this?

"Please? I won't exist tomorrow," she adds sorrowfully.

"Uhm, sure, I guess so," I mutter, still in shock, and she beams in response.

While we're heading towards the blue carriage, I notice a new face in the green, back carriage. He has an air of out-of-place aristocracy surrounding him. His hair is short and brown, with a small strand sticking up. He seems stressed for some reason, but controls it well. Reading his expression, I notice a mole near the left-hand corner of his mouth.

The girl in my carriage calls to me to get on the train; I comply, still chuckling to myself about the weird man in the back.

I relax, leaning into the back of my seat. How I've longed for this variability.