[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.
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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.