ohmyarceus | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER TEST DRIVE MEME

[Felix's weirdly floored reaction was bad enough. It compounds when Sylvain sees the video from Dimitri, making that strange cold dread in his stomach worse. Who died? Why are both of them here?

Probably even worse for Dimitri than the obvious amnesia or whatever it is, is the fact that Sylvain seems to regress years in the way he treats his king.]

Boss. [Not "Dimitri". At least it isn't "Your Majesty", but the old pseudo nickname does nearly stutter on his lips.] Are... you okay? Where are we?

[When Grant frantically calls the household's attention to Sylvain's network post, Claude has his Gear open in seconds. He watches the video, and struggles to breathe.

There's...so much to process.

It's Sylvain. The same red hair, the same warm eyes, the same warm voice. Right there in the world with them again, and Claude's wanted nothing more than that since he left. It's enough to bring tears to his eyes - for himself, for Dimitri, for Grant, for Chip, but especially for Felix. To have him back isn't just more than he'd ever really dared to hope for; it's everything.

But Claude's not stupid, and not so dazed at seeing Sylvain that he misses Sylvain's words - or the meaning behind him.

His memories of his prior time in this place...they've gone the way of Dedue's. They're lost.

That'll be hard for all of them, in a number of ways. Felix is bound to ache over Sylvain's losing his memory of their wedding. Dimitri had a lot of love and memories with Sylvain here that it'll be wrenching to have be so one-sided. But, ultimately...building up those memories again, creating new ones - having the opportunity to make new ones - is still hopeful. Like losing precious things in a fire, but the people make it out okay. There will always be other opportunities. Even if things have burned down to the foundations, those foundations are still strong, still there.

But for Grant, and Chip, and Claude himself...it's harder. Sylvain didn't know Claude all that well before coming to this world...and he didn't know Grant or Chip at all. They don't have foundations. They're starting almost from nothing...and there's no guarantee that things will happen the same way this time that they did last time.

Claude still loves Sylvain...but this Sylvain doesn't love him. And may never love him again. Grant must be feeling the same way...and Chip's lost their buddy that they warmed up to so slowly. And none of them - none of them can greet Sylvain the way they want to, can even hug him, because to Sylvain they're all just strangers. (Or, in Claude's case, almost strangers.) They can't even fill him in right away, because that's just...way too much to dump on Sylvain's plate. None of this is his fault, and they can't just overwhelm him trying to get him back up to speed. (No point, anyway. It's not as though being told about the relationships Sylvain had with them will make him feel the same way his past self did.)

Claude's never been more grateful that he can see someone through a screen without their seeing him. The effort of keeping it together right now...well, it's a lot. There's no way Claude could even fake composure if Sylvain was right there in front of him, and then how would he explain that?

It takes several long minutes for Claude to figure out what to even say.]

Hey, Sylvain, this is Claude von Riegan. You've figured out these devices pretty quick.

The explanation for where we are and what's going on is long and pretty unbelievable, but probably no more unbelievable than waking up in a strange house in a strange land with a colt that's on fire hanging out with you, right? So hopefully you'll believe me when I fill you in.

This is a whole different world from ours. People from all kinds of different worlds get randomly brought here. No one's really sure how or why, although it tends to get chalked up to a god they've got here just pulling weird tricks for who knows what reason.

There's a few of us from Fodlan here already. Dimitri, Felix, Ashe, and Annette, for example. I'm the only one not from the Blue Lions here.

[Yeah that basically cinches it: Sylvain is definitely missing something. His stomach twists itself into knots. The camera turns back around to Sylvain's very concerned face. Normally he would do everything in his power to hide his concern from the other Lions, but in this case his eyebrows are firmly knit, and he's frowning unhandsomely.]

Yeah, okay, whatever you say Felix. Can you at least give me a hint of what's wrong? I'm starting to think someone died.

[Or this place is secretly some kind of horrible trap or something. He eyes the Ponyta warily, but she just tosses her firey mane and turns away.]

[Bless your thoughtfulness, Claude, but it's a little damn late for that unfortunately. Sylvain's plopped his ass into the grass next to the route 29 sign and is trying to not feel totally sick to his stomach when he gets the message. His insides are still in knots, but the cool, measured message is somewhat reassuring. Possibly Claude knows whatever it is that has Felix and Dimitri so out of sorts as well, but at least he isn't falling apart right in front of him, too. Sylvain isn't sure he could handle one more person looking at him like... that. Whatever that is.]

I got help from a kid wandering around with a strangely large bird.

Thanks for the heads up, I really appreciate it. I've talked to Felix and Dimitri already. They seem... I guess upset? I feel like I'm missing something. Is something wrong? Is everyone okay? Maybe you can't tell me over this little trinket.

You know, somehow "god pranks" just makes perfect sense, doesn't it?

[Same shit, different day.]

[That first flippant comment feels a little like a knife in Felix's gut. It's been a long time since Sylvain just dismissed him like that. He can feel his blood start to boil with desperation and he clenches his jaw in an attempt not to look angry.]

I...sorry. No one died. Everything is fine. It's...ugh, I don't know how I'm supposed to explain any of this.

[But no one said he couldn't explain and move at the same time. He pushes himself to his feet and starts walking briskly, even though he can't pull his eyes away from the screen. Inda hurries alongside him.]

What's the last thing you remember from home?

[This is the easiest place to start. He'll at least have something to work with if he knows how much of a difference there is in their starting points.

He's just not going to think about what he'll do if Sylvain says he's from after the war.]

It was easy to get here, so there should be an easy way to leave, right?

[Especially since he still thinks he's hallucinating or something.]

Not necessarily...

[Honestly, when he thought he wanted to understand Yuu better, this isn't what he meant!]

While the situation is by no means identical, something... similar happened to an underclassman of mine back home, and they've had no luck throughout the better part of a school year.

[Sylvain breathes out a long breath. Okay, nobody's dead, that's a good start. He's definitely still missing something. Something important, if the way Felix is acting is any indication.]

Something tells me you've been here for a little bit, and I'm the rotten egg?

[Like the last kid to the racing point.]

Um, Last thing I remember is beating the Empire back out of Derdriu and letting Claude feed us all to bursting to celebrate. I think I might have fallen asleep at the feast table, even.

[Please laugh, he's trying so hard.]

That is both very vague and very ominous.

The explanation likely won't help. They were apparently brought from an entirely different world from my own... The headmaster has supposedly been researching a way to send them back, but it seems he's had no luck.

[Of course, Dire Crowley is Notoriously Useless, so Riddle is personally taking that with a grain of salt.]

In other words, it may be more complicated to return than to be brought here ... wherever here happens to be.

Heh. I have, and you are.

[Sort of.

It's Felix's turn to exhale in relief. Not only is Sylvain close to his own point in time, but he's from after everything with...Rodrigue, and all of that. Thank the Goddess he won't have to explain that a second time. It was bad enough the first time.

Then he huffs a brief little chuckle.]

Of course you did. No doubt Ingrid and I had to drag you back to your room.

[The tension starts to leave him, a little. Just hearing Sylvain's voice feels like coming in from the cold to a roaring hearth on a winter evening in Faerghus. And he only feels a tiny bit pathetic for thinking such a dumb and sappy thing.

It's odd but fitting, he thinks, that when he first got here, Sylvain was the one telling him what was going on and making him feel like he wasn't alone. And now it's the reverse. Or at least, he hopes he's doing that for Sylvain.]

This is a different world. People get brought here from all kinds of places, not just Fodlan. No time passes at home while we're here, so you don't have to worry about the war. And...and sometimes people go back home without warning. They just vanish.

[Felix tears his eyes away from the screen and picks up the pace. He's got to get to Sylvain fast. Before anything...happens.]

[OH BOY

Claude downright winces at the thought of...whatever passed between Sylvain, Felix, and Dimitri. He can't imagine the other two are keeping their composure even as well as Claude is keeping his, which is...not well, but that's what texting is for. So you can hide the fact that you're currently a disaster!

Not that he can blame Dimitri and Felix, really. Claude can hardly claim Sylvain means more to him than he does to them...and he certainly can't claim to have lost as much as either of them. To have Sylvain back, but in this strange half-measure of his having lost his memories from before...of course they're not keeping it together.

But Claude hasn't spent most of his life incredibly observant of others and working out their feelings, thoughts, and motives to not be hyper-aware of how this whole situation must be for Sylvain. And he loves the man - memories or no memories. The least he can do is try to cushion the shock of his arrival and filling him in on things as best he can - and if he can do that better than the others(not much of a debate there), then he practically has a responsibility to.]

It's kind of a complicated situation that's tied into how being dumped into this place works.

The thing is, when people get pulled here from their own worlds, we're kind of - snatched out of time, if that makes sense. Time isn't passing in Fodlan while you're here, so you don't have to worry about missing things, or about other people noticing you've vanished. Whenever we get sent home from this place, we're sent back right to the minute we left, as though we were never gone - no matter how much time passes here. Follow me so far?

But when we go back, we lose our memories of this place and anything that happened here. Which is pretty rough, especially if you've been here for a long time and made a lot of memories here, but...that's how it works.

But arriving here, and being sent back...it's at the whims of the power behind this place. And sometimes the same person leaves, and then gets brought back here again. It happened to Dedue, who I somehow forgot to mention as someone else being here. [There's too many Lions, and also Claude is kind of distraught.] And, well...now it's happened to you. This isn't the first time you've been here, but obviously you don't remember anything about the last time. Dedue doesn't remember his last time, either.

Or maybe you're a completely different Sylvain Gautier than was here last time! Because that's another weird thing about this world - it can bring people here from the same world, but from different points in time...or from different versions of events. Teach is here - but they're from a timeline where they chose the Golden Deer house to teach. I'm from a timeline where Teach chose your house. So that's weird. The upshot is that you could be from a timeline that had a very different version of events than other people from our world remember - and from any point in time within those events.

In retrospect, 'complicated' was probably an understatement.

Anyway, Dimitri and Felix...they've been missing you a lot since you left, obviously. And they're undoubtedly sad that you don't remember anything from your last time being here. That's why they're upset.

Having to explain all that is a lot to dump on a guy who just got here, but I figure you're better off knowing the basics than being left in the dark about the weird reactions you're getting. And, well...without all the context, I couldn't really have made their reactions make any sense.

Hopefully people let you settle in before they dump any fine details on you. Just the broad strokes is already a lot to swallow, I know. So you can ask them to confirm what I've told you if you don't want to take my word for it, but unless you're ready to open some floodgates, I wouldn't ask for too much in the way of particulars until you're feeling - not overwhelmed.

Don't worry about what other people's expectations for you are here, though, or what people might be disappointed about. None of it's your fault, and we're glad you're here. (Is that weird to say, when you're probably not even glad you're here right now? Well, you know what I mean.) Dimitri and Felix might be disappointed about the memories, but you're the important thing to them. They're just, you know...caught way off guard. We weren't sure any of us would see you again until whenever this place chooses to send us back to Fodlan ourselves. And that can take awhile.

[Dragon alien gods from space, living weapons made out of bones, traveling between worlds, sure, why not. All very normal. Everything makes sense around him always.]

Seems like you're a bit more prepared for all of this than I am. You nearby? I think I recognize that building.

Perhaps only somewhat. These--I hesitate to call them familiars, but that's what they remind me of--are rather new, as is not being able to use any of my magic.

[More importantly, however--]

I believe I am, yes. Should I stay where I am or should I try to come find you?

[Masamune would be delighted to knock some rocks around! He demonstrates by chucking one right into the ocean. Take that, water!]

Ah. So you were a sea-farer.

[Auron's impressed! Only the very bravest people in Spira move on the seas! He himself is still a bit apprehensive of it, even though he knows Sin doesn't exist in this world. Bad things come out of the water, and he never learned how to swim.]

Do you have creatures like this in your world? Sea horses and the like?

"He was very real, Yuna. Both in Zanarkand and in your Spira."

Auron has a theory about this: the reason the Fayth were able to dream both Jecht and Tidus into the future was because they'd been famous blitzballers, and enough of the Fayth remembered them to reconstruct their memories. It's only a theory, but he assumes that's why Spira ended up with two blitzball stars and not simply some random person.

"And yes. The Farplane..." He pauses, and his voice is thick when he continues. "It exists, and the sent exist there too. They're waiting for us in the light."

Difficulties with training, I can understand.

But disliking them due to their nature? I believe that says more about the individual in question than the ghosts.

[It's ghost prejudice! What's wrong with being an unsent spirit, still wandering the earth?]

[Boss... Dimitri feels unmoored, unsteady, like the ground rolling beneath him. How long has it been since Sylvain used such casual little nicknames for him? It feels like forever. It's probably just been as long as he's been in this place, this land.]

[It's Dedue, all over again... and how much had Dimitri had to tell him, before the two of them could just lay there together, in the shade of the garden? With Sylvain...]

[Dimitri takes in a deep breath, and it rattles all the way down to his lungs. Calm. He has to be... the king he should have given Sylvain a long time ago. Even before he was his lover. Which... They may not necessarily be anymore.]

I... I am fine. I apologize. [For everything, really, but, for the right now and immediate present, his own reaction.] This is a land called Johto. I promise it is a good land, peaceful. There is no war here. You.... You will like it.

[And it's the start of fall... Good weather. Dimitri tries to find such positives.]

It will take some time for us to go back and reach you - we are in another land, as of current, but it is Johto's neighbor, and we have fast fliers. Until then.... I will endeavor to answer whatever questions you have.

I... It must be overwhelming.

[Do they tell him? Dimitri feels sick to his stomach. He doesn't know what to say, here. How to explain. He thinks of the wedding, and....]

[Traveling in such a state is a terrible idea, but the camera clearly shows Dimitri already pushing himself up, a little unsteadily.]

To an extent. There are several ghost Pokemon whose origins or habits are disturbing, if the bestiary is to be believed. Can't really blame people for being nervous around something that has a reputation for stealing children.

[It's fine to be an unsent spirit so long as you aren't also a dick about it.]

[Sylvain's halfhearted laugh at him is as much of a relief as the confirmation that no big tragedy had befallen anyone. Possibly because he's having it confirmed by Claude as well. There's an implication in Felix's tense that has him thinking.]

Do you... not remember that?

[The camera seems to move as he sits down on the grass. He sets the 'gear down so that it's angled up at him. Not the most flattering thing but he's tired of holding it out. He watches Felix explain, nodding as it aligns with the explanation Claude sent him, and feeling his heart wring itself around like a wet towel in his chest.]

Full disclosure, I just got a written message on this thing from Claude and I think he did a pretty good job of explaining stuff.

[He frowns slightly and fidgets, glancing at the tiny Felix on the screen and then away.]

I'm sorry. I... I don't remember being here before. At all. How... long have I been gone?

[He can't go entirely on the face journey that he wants to because he's on call with Felix, but Sylvain has to sit the hell down in the middle of reading all of this. And then read it again. He feels a little like he's looking down at himself, sitting in the grass, staring at a tiny light box.]

Oh, boy that is. That's a doozy right there.

Thank you. For explaining all of this. It makes a lot of things make sense and no offense to my main man Felix but you make it make more sense than he probably would have. Don't get me wrong, it still doesn't make much damn sense, but I can fake that it does.

Might amuse you to know that the last thing I remember is eating myself into a coma at a feast you planned.

[Goddess they need that levity. Please. There's... something about that last paragraph that feels important. It's uncomfortable, but not in a wholly unpleasant way. Claude clearly knows Sylvain much better than Sylvain knows him, which makes sense given they apparently were here together before!]

How long was I here before I left and forgot everything?

And. Um. Thanks, for the reassurance. I'd deny that I need it, but something tells me that you know better by now, or that I gave something away, before I forgot everything. That's a weird feeling.

[But if he trusted Claude before, then it's probably okay. Right? Not that he mistrusts Claude as he is now, he just didn't think they were close. They aren't close. Weren't, back home. Ugh, his head hurts.]

Could you come find me? I'm by the entrance to the road out of town. Look for the big redheaded asshole sitting by the fire horse.

[He pans the camera toward his ponyta again, who spins around to show Riddle her butt.]

I don't.

[Felix doesn't seem particularly perturbed by it, though.]

The last thing I remember is retaking Fhirdiad. We were preparing to march to Derdriu in the morning. But I've heard what happens afterward from Claude, and from you.

[Another slight bit of tension leaves Felix's shoulders when Sylvain sits down. He's staying put. He's going to let Felix come and retrieve him. Good.

When Sylvain mentions Claude's message, Felix looks a little relieved at first, and then his brow furrows warily. He knows Claude wouldn't just spill everything, but it's nerve-wracking not to know what he did spill.]

Which 'stuff' did he explain?

[For once, Felix is the one looking back down at the screen, even as he's walking into the Pokecenter. He'll have to switch out his team and then warp to Saffron...and wait for Dimitri before he gets on the train, he supposes. Much as he'd rather not wait for anything, he also doesn't want Dimitri to spend six hours on a train alone. Who knows what might happen?

But for the moment he just sits down in one of the nearby chairs. Just for a few minutes. Without realizing he's doing it, he curls his left hand into a loose fist on his lap, below the level of the screen.]

...I know you don't. There's no need to apologize. You've been gone for two months.

[There's not even a half-second of hesitation to figure out how long it's been. Felix knows exactly how long it's been.

When he speaks again, it's quieter, almost a murmur.]

If I'd known how, I would have followed you.

[He is very clearly not fine, and Sylvain is buying none of what Dimitri is selling in that regard. His eyebrows are pulled in, slightly, and while he doesn't frown exactly, his usual smile isn't there either.]

Hey... slow down. It's okay. Claude... Claude sent me a message that sort of explains things. I have been here before, or was here already, but now I don't remember I guess. And how sometimes weird stuff with time and where we come from happens. I don't really get it entirely but...

[He does frown properly, wishing he could reach out and touch Dimitri on the arm or something.]

I get that I disappeared on you all and now I'm back with no memories. That has to be hard. And kind of creepy, probably.

[It explains why Dimitri looked at him like he'd seen a ghost at first, but Sylvain won't say that out loud.]

I admit I'm pretty confused but I'm sure it'll sink in eventually. I'm... more worried about all of you. I can't imagine how much of a mess I'd be if you or Felix suddenly didn't remember a bunch of stuff that happened.

Hah. At Derdriu? I remember that. You guys deserved it, after the jam you helped me out of. Or, well, I guess it's more accurate to call it "the plan I came up with that wouldn't have worked if you guys hadn't come to help". But it was the least I could do to show my appreciation!

As for how long you were here...it was awhile. Counting back...I think about eight moons. You disappeared about two moons ago.

I won't pretend I don't know you better than you know me, thanks to this weird memory mix-up. But to be fair, we were always pretty similar - enough that I used to come under fire from Ingrid for it sometimes. So there are some things I can infer with or without any unfair advantages. And even if I knew next to nothing about you at all, I'd know enough to be aware that you care about Dimitri and Felix a lot, and that you'd never want to seriously upset them. So of course you'd feel awkward and upset about their being upset over something to do with you, even if it's something totally beyond your control, right?

But yeah, this is a lot from any angle. I can't blame Felix or anyone else for not knowing how to handle this, or not being able to make any kind of sense while they're dealing with it. I just happen to be good at looking at things from a broader perspective, and knowing how weird and jarring this has to be for you...well, I might be the only one who's in any state to appreciate that right now. But you definitely deserve to have people thinking of that and helping you with it, so I'll do what I can until the others have their feet back under them enough to do the same.

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER TEST DRIVE MEME

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Claude is switching this to Private to hide certain things from Chip if they view this thread

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