ohmyarceus | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER TEST DRIVE MEME

[The first thing Sylvain sees on the screen with this reply is a shiny Tsareena with huge wide eyes that are filling with tears - though they seem to be glad tears, as she's wearing a broad smile, too. She makes a few trilling noises that seem like happy ones and then the view is dizzying as she clearly grabs the Gear and starts running full-speed.

Felix is mid-training with Assal and Andre when Inda careens over to him and urgently holds his Gear up for him to take; Sylvain can hear the clash of steel on steel until Felix pauses to look down. She wouldn't be acting like this unless it was an emergency, so he doesn't bother wasting time with asking questions. He just takes it and peers at the screen with a concerned frown, slightly red-faced and sweaty from exertion, hair mussed and falling a bit out of its tie.

What he sees makes his eyes go wide, too. He feels like his heart has stopped and he's forgotten how to breathe. He can't make any words come out before he sinks down to sit in the grass, not bothering to try to seem cool or collected. He just lets go of the Doublade in his hand, which floats up to hover behind Felix so it can look down at the screen, too.

His voice is tight with barely leashed hope. He can't...assume anything.]

...Sylvain. Where...where are you?

Edited 2021-09-27 04:47 (UTC)

[Sylvain has no fucking idea what he's looking at. The cute creature on screen has big tearful eyes but its smiling? And she trills? He's very confused and unsure what to make if what he sees and then it all blurs into incomprehensible images. He makes a questioning sound in the back of his throat, but doesn't really expect the fairy or whatever it is to answer him.

He also doesn't expect to only have more questions as the camera jostles around until Felix comes into view. Sweaty and fresh from a spar, it seems, and the cavalier has not a clue what to make of the face his normally stoic friend is wearing. Is he... sitting down?

Something heavy and cold settles into Sylvain's stomach, like a premonition he's about to get some horrible news, or that he missed something very important. He swallows down a metallic taste. and puts on a brave face.]

You know, that's an outstanding question, I have no idea. Oh!

[He seems to notice something and turns the 'gear so that the sign for route 29 comes into view.]

I guess I'm on route 29.

[Sylvain's voice is clear from above, the camera still looking at the sign.]

[An enormous weight comes crashing down to crush Felix. At least, that's what it feels like.

It's not the same Sylvain. He doesn't remember.

What the fuck is Felix supposed to do now?]

Stop.

[It comes out much more urgently than he meant it to.]

Stop walking. Stop moving. Don't do anything. I'm coming to get you. Do not move, do you hear me, Sylvain?

[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.]

[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.]

[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.]

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.]

[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?

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.

Okay.

[He tries to process. To add things up together and sort them in his mind. He gestures vaguely in front of his face with both hands in circular motions.]

This stuff. That I could be from after liberating Derdriu and you're from Fhirdiad several days before. That people leave and come back and sometimes they don't remember. That it happened to Dedue. That there's apparently a lot of us from Fódlan who are here.

[He breathes in deep and then lets it out slowly. He'd forgotten to breathe for a moment, too busy thinking. His chest visibly expands and deflates with it.]

I want to apologize anyway. Because it has to suck. I know if I were in your shoes that it would suck. I wish I remembered. I wish I hadn't been gone so long. That's all I'm trying to say.

[He doesn't necessarily blame himself for the fact that he disappeared, but Felix doesn't need to know about the little toothy guilt monster that's gnawing at him.]

Well good thing you didn't, because then I would have come back and you wouldn't be here.

[And that's another small dent in Felix's tension levels. Claude didn't explain the personal things. Just the logistics. As he'd expected.

Felix does his best to keep his face from doing anything weird, but hearing Sylvain say he wishes he remembered and hadn't been gone so long almost makes him feel like things are back to normal. Almost. He wants to get there now, not hours from now. He doesn't want to wait for Dimitri. He wants to throw his arms around Sylvain and never let go.

Instead he just nods and hopes he doesn't look...soft. He doesn't want Sylvain to ask questions now, he wants to be able to explain in person.]

I wish that, too. But what's done is done. It doesn't matter anymore because you came back.

[He can't help a small smile at that last part.]

Ha. And then who would keep you out of trouble?

[His relief is tremendous, to see Felix slowly relaxing. Such a contrast from the way he'd looked when Sylvain first saw his face. It chases away Sylvain's own sense of impending doom and makes it easier for his smile to reach his eyes.]

Who indeed! Claude and Ashe would be left to the job!

[And one of them is an enabler and the other hasn't ever been able to tell Sylvain anything.]

Pff. You say that as though Claude doesn't make trouble of his own. And Ashe is too nice.

[Felix's gaze flicks away from the screen briefly toward the warp and decides he doesn't have to wait for Dimitri here. He stands up and turns to hold out his hand for Inda, and abruptly realizes with a pang that he has no idea who Inda is.

He hands her the Gear and she beams brightly into the camera, giving Sylvain a wave and making a little cooing noise of fond greeting. Felix leans over her shoulder so they can both be in view for Sylvain.]

This is Inda. She's--uh. You...you hatched her from an egg.

[Why did he do this? Now how he is supposed to explain the rest? Inda glances up at him with a :/ face; she clearly wants him to just spill all the beans at once.]

And I was there. As well. So...she's...ours. Our--our Pokemon, I mean. She's, um. We both train her.

[Wow, Felix. Good job being subtle. Even Inda's giving him a long-suffering look, now, as if to say is that the best you can do, papa? He shrugs a tiny bit.]

That's exactly my point!

[He chuckles mildly, his head slowly tilting as the laughter fades and that pokémon from before appears again. She's so bright and wide-eyed. Cute, really. A weird cute little creature. She's clearly happy to see him, which makes him feel guilty, like he's disappointed a small child. Then Felix goes on to begin explaining.]

Oh.

[Is is very eloquent response. There's a lot to unpack, here, but he sets most of it aside to laugh all over again as Inda makes a face at Felix.]

Aww we have shared custody? No wonder she looked so happy to see me. I'm sorry I don't remember, sweetheart, you're a very cute little lady. Thanks for taking care of Felix while I was gone.

[He winks at her, covering up all of his own confused thoughts with goofing. And, well, helping himself dispel some of his jittery tension.]

[Sylvain may mean it as a joke, but she really did take care of Felix while he was gone. If he hadn't had Inda, he's not sure what he would have done. His mind strays to his birthday, reading Sylvain's letter and crying like a child over his sleeping form with Inda, finding that goofy hat and the cologne...

He firmly banishes all of that. It's irrelevant right now.

Inda smiles and pats the screen, as if to tell Sylvain it's all right. After all, her dad is her dad - he's not a different person just because he doesn't remember. She hands the Gear back to Felix, who peers into it only a little awkwardly.]

I'm going to warp to Saffron so Dimitri and I can board the train that will take us to where you are. And he'd better hurry up, or I'm leaving without him. But do not hang up.

[He narrows his eyes a little just to make sure his message gets across before he heads over to the PC to quickly switch out his team, and then to the warp pad. It doesn't occur to him until he's already started the sequence to warp that he has absolutely no idea what that's going to look or sound like from the other side of the camera. Oh well.]

[Sylvain's cheeks color a little at being screen-patted by his daughter-pokémon. Everything about this is weird and a lot and he kind of needs a lie-down, but he won't hang up on Felix. Not when he so clearly needs the constant proof of existence. Not that Sylvain can blame him, he'd be the same way.

There's some food for thought about Felix being so open about his emotions, here. A feast for thought, really. They've been apart for long periods of time before but the reunion has never made Felix seem so desperate. Then again, alternate worlds and memory loss have never factored into it either.]

Some of those words don't mean anything to me but okay, Felix. Someone said the next town up has a beach... how long does it take to walk there, do you know? I could... meet you partway?

[It is partly a desire to literally meet him halfway and also a desire to walk off some of his nervous energy.]

[Felix waits until he's through the warp and sitting down at the cafe in the Saffron Pokecenter before he replies. Inda runs off to get them some drinks.]

...right. Sorry. The warp pads are the same as that magic the Imperial mages use to vanish from the field, but they only go to these buildings called Pokecenters. Saffron is the city I'm in now. The train is...like a carriage that travels at some ridiculously high speed.

[The next town up has a beach. Felix can't help a small smile, even though he knows Sylvain has no way of knowing why.]

It takes about three days to make that walk. But once Dimitri and I are close, we can fly over the path and spot you as long as you don't go hiding under any trees. So...I suppose you can start walking if you want.

[And maybe once they reach Cherrygrove, they can spend some time on the beach. Sylvain won't know why it's important, and Felix doesn't know if it will be a good idea to tell him just yet, but...that's fine.]

SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER TEST DRIVE MEME

Network - private

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject