Forgotten But Never Gone part 16

Yeah, this is about as far as I'll get for now.

**April 20, 2018**

*Star's POV*

During the past four months, the building has been going through renovations. It no longer looks like the abandoned house it was when we arrived. The room we're in now has painted walls, a bed, anime posters, a wardrobe including many merchandise shirts, black jeans and shorts, as well as a computer. It is pretty clear this is going to be Tay's bedroom as soon as she moves in.

Until suddenly, everything changes. The room is no longer decorated. It now looks abandoned again. The same it did four months ago.

"Oh no!" Rapunza shouts. "The experiment has gone wrong!"

"We don't know that for sure," DBee points out. "It could be something unrelated to the experiment. But what is certain is that whatever happened, Tay won't be moving into this house in this reality."

"Maybe we could check the news," Eclipsa suggests.

"It has been less than a minute," Paige says. "Even if it's because of the experiment, nobody has had time to report on it. And with the experiment getting forgotten, we don't even know for sure it happened in this reality."

"You're right," Absol says. "The best we can do for clues is look for clues. Star, since you're the biggest Vsauce fan out of us, maybe you and Cake should do it. Rapunza can search with you as well."

"Alright," I say as Absol and Itten give me one of the Tadashi Computers. I go on YouTube and try to find Vsauce, but with no relevant results. I find some channel but it has been inactive for years and none of the videos have a person who looks like Michael Stevens in it. Vsauce2 and Vsauce3 are nowhere to be found.

"Vsauce is forgotten," I say. "Or, if not him, whoever inspired him to join YouTube. But I think it's him. After all, the experiment was planned to take place today. It seems likely that the experiment was what caused... Anyway, maybe I should look up Vi Hart's channel."

I type "vihart" in the search bar and the channel seems to be the same as before. This includes the one video about the experiment Vihart uploaded shortly after Vsauce did in an earlier reality. I decide to watch the video and it is mostly the same except that there is no mention of Vsauce also being involved.

"Maybe we should wait some time to find out how things went with Vi Hart," I say. "For now, Absol and Itten can have the laptop back."

A few hours pass when suddenly, I hear a voice. Sounds like a girl, maybe a few years younger than me.

"Did you hear that?" I ask the others. "Maybe we should go investigate."

"You and Cake can go," Snow says. "If that's ok with everyone else." Nobody seems to disagree with Snow's decision, so Cake and I walk downstairs.

We see a girl in front of us with short, curly, dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. She is wearing band merch and black jeans. She looks at us for long enough for it to be clear that she can see us.

"Uh, hi," Cake tries to greet her after some time of awkward silence. "Are you looking for something here?"

"This was supposed to be my home," the girl responds. "At least I think so. Unless I have the wrong address. But everything looks so... so, broken. I know this house was abandoned for years, but I thought they would have fixed it by now. But I guess they spent all that time and money on a holographic door."

"Holographic door?" I ask.

"Yes," the girl responds. "I tried to knock on the door, expecting it to make a sound, but it didn't. Then I noticed I could put my hand through it, and that I could walk through it. So, not a very effective door for keeping thieves out. I guess you two got in the same way."

"I guess," I say. "But the truth isn't, that's just a regular door. And this house was fixed, but recent events reverted it back to its original state. I guess we should explain to you what has really happened. There are more people upstairs, so I guess we can introduce them to you."

We walk back upstairs, where the girl meets up with everyone in our group.

"Rapunza?" the girl says, looking at Rapunza.

"So, you must be Tay," Rapunza says. "So, your transformation was successful after all. At least in the sense that you actually look like 14-year-old girl now. I didn't know that would be the case. But I did figure it would be possible for us to meet in person after everything Vsauce disappeared on the day of the experiment."

"Vsauce disappeared?" Tay asks. "But how? I thought Jake and Kevin were supposed to continue running the channel. I didn't think they would delete it."

"They didn't," Snow says. "I know you must be confused right now with all the new information you're getting. Let me explain what is going on." Snow introduces Tay to all of us. He tells about what it means to be forgotten, how we all met, how Meependale and the MovieStarPlanet Wiki changed and much else.

"So, what did you experience during the experiment and shortly after the experiment was over?" I ask Tay.

"When I went to the machine, I was surrounded by bright lights," Tay explains. "I couldn't see anything around me. Then I felt changes in my body, but I can't really explain how that felt like. It was unlike anything I felt before. When it was over, I heard an explosion, and at that moment, the bright lights turned green, kind of a yellowish green, before the lights were completely gone."

"Green light," DBee says. "That must be the flash color. On one of the computers, we have a file where I keep track of everyone's flash colors. Maybe you could enter yours."

Tay and DBee go on one of the laptops and enter the flash color. We notice it is the exact opposite of Rapunza's flash color.

"Anyway, what happened after the experiment?" I ask Tay after the color is entered. "What did the scientists say?"

"I didn't pay attention," Tay explains. "I was told that after the experiment, I should go to my new parents and they would take me to my house. I couldn't find them anywhere so I decided to go look for the house where I'm supposed to live now. I know it isn't far away from the laboratory."

"And you didn't talk to anyone on your way here," Cake continues.

"Of course not," Tay says. "I followed directions entirely on my own."

The next day, Cake and I are on the laptop again. Tay and Rapunza decide to watch.

"Let's find out new information about the experiment again," I say as I open YouTube. After a while of browsing, we notice a video with "Vsauce" in the title. It is recent and seems to be a kind of conspiracy theory video. I decide to watch it.

"Hey, Vsauce, Michael here," the video starts. "Does this sound familiar to you? Within a short amount of time, thousands of people have reported that they think this line or other aspects related to this Vsauce are somewhat familiar. This is just the newest instance of a strange mystery known as the Mandela effect. For those who are unfamiliar, the Mandela effect is when many people remember the same detail, but it is wrong. Anyway, here is the full story of what we know about this mysterious Michael Stevens and Vsauce."

The video explains about the Vsauce channel which has been unused for many years in this reality, and about how the current Vsauce Mandela effect started when Vi Hart said something about Vsauce after the experiment, claiming he was involved in it as well. Some of the scientists noticed it sounded familiar and posted about it online. Within hours, thousands of people said they thought Vsauce seemed familiar. Occasionally, people brought up new details about Vsauce, including his famous greeting and video topics, which others seemed to agree on. The video also explains that people have been trying to look for mentions of a YouTuber called Vsauce or Michael Stevens on shows such as *The Simpsons*, which have often been the cause of people's misconceptions on certain topics (or as some conspiracy theorists believe, residue of an old reality which didn't change along with everything else), but nothing was found.

"Oh no, this can't be good," Rapunza worries. "People are noticing things are wrong. But how did Vi Hart even remember Vsauce in the first place?"

"Must have something to do with the experiment," Tay says. "Maybe Vi was in the process of transforming at the very moment the explosion happened, and somehow that made it so Vi's memory didn't change along with everyone else's."

"Someone's memory not changing? That's unheard of!" Rapunza says in shock. "But I'm worried how this might affect the universe! I was already worried Star would find out when I accidentally revealed too much online..."