SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER TEST DRIVE MEME

[indigo_events]

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Comments

[vrdantwind]

It was a pretty awkward process on both counts, honestly. The thing is, Dimitri's from the furthest time back - he's from before the battle at Gronder Field. So when he showed up here...well, you can imagine the kind of mental state he was in. It took a lot of help and effort from you, me, Felix, and a couple people we met here to get him back to his better self. Not having Edelgard in this world is a big help, of course, but...well, it took a lot of effort just to convince him he wasn't dead and this isn't some kind of weird afterlife.

I wouldn't say this Dimitri's recovered to the same level as the Dimitri I met at Derdriu, but he's come a long way and he's worked hard to get there.

As for how Felix and I became friends...that's a whole story in itself. Which involves you, which I'm sure isn't surprising news, considering how close you two are. But it's too much to tell right now when your head's got to be spinning already, and it's a story that can keep.

And hey, what do you mean they don't call me the master feast planner now? My shoulders might not be as broad as yours. Mr. Knight In Shining Armor, but they're wide enough to hold up under two fancy titles. Clearly my not already having both is an oversight.

[Sylvain's not the only one eager to take some refuge behind a lighthearted tone.]

Well...I'm not going to outright lie to you and pretend this isn't affecting me even a little. Even if I was willing to deceive a guy who played a part in my still breathing after Derdriu, someone who I've made friends with besides, when the guy in question is already at a massive intel disadvantage through no fault of his own...well, it'd just be insulting your intelligence, and I don't want to do that either. But I think it's fair to say you're the one who's dealing with a bigger shock to the system right now...and that you're already bearing up under the weight of other people's reactions. Mine doesn't have to be worked out right now, and definitely doesn't have to be worked out right now by you while you're already overwhelmed. There's no rush.

I'd be happy to fill you in on things you want to know when you're ready, though. But like I said - this isn't a race. The feast already showed you've got a bad habit of overloading your plate, but information isn't like food - it won't go bad if you don't stuff your face right away. And you know you'll hear it from Felix if you go so overboard you incapacitate yourself.

Felix is right to have you wait until he can come get you, though...although it might be a bit, so you may want to find somewhere comfortable to do the waiting. It's kind of a cute reversal - you were the one who dropped everything to go find him when he first arrived last time.

[ruinedsky]

Goddess, of course he thought he'd died...

[It would be funny if it wasn't also so sad. At least there's some other things that get a smile out of Sylvain here, but oof.]

That does explain a lot about Dimitri's... reception of me. Why he looks... I'm not really sure how to describe it, but he's clearly not in the same place he was when I saw him last, at the feast.

[Claude seems to know Dimitri rather well, after all the months here. Not necessarily a surprise, knowing what he does now, but it's still strange to see the rival house leader talking about Sylvain's childhood friend like they're old pals. A very strange mixture of jealousy and warmth rise in his chest, twined together like battling snakes.]

I'll forgive you for withholding the gossip if you keep calling me "Mr. Knight In Shining Armor" sound fair? Anyway I'm just... it's sort of really exciting, to be told that we've had the chance to bond. I've wondered what being your friend for real would be like, since I got a tiny taste of it at the academy. Hilda told me once we're too alike and I've never known her to be wrong about such things.

[Probably that's part of why he never really pursued getting to know Claude better. He knew that would be turned back around on him and he was not ready to be seen so thoroughly back then.]

I wish to clarify that I do not overload myself, thank you very much, I just let myself indulge to excess sometimes! It's very purposeful!

[He will Not say anything about cuteness or fretting over Felix. Nope. Maybe he's still not ready to be perceived...]

[vrdantwind]

Yeah, Dimitri's mental state has been healing slowly, as opposed to him being rather roughly snapped out of whatever violent fugue he was in by Duke Fraldarius' death. As a result, he's way better than he was before the battle at Gronder, but...not exactly what you'd call fully reformed yet, either. He still lapses into at least overblown threats of violence, say, when someone he cares about is being threatened, or someone infuriates him. And I'm just glad Edelgard's not here, because I've got no idea how he'd handle that. I don't think he's ready for that much of a strain yet.

He hasn't really learned the costs vengeance and violence can carry in the same brutally direct way, and actively chosen against them. It's been a more gradual change due to persuasion - persuasion that might not have worked if he hadn't been removed from his chance to keep pursuing his vengeance anyway. So it's a more fragile thing. But I know that your understanding how it stands will be more than enough for you to know how to handle him. You're one of his oldest friends, after all; the only thing you're missing is some recent context.

[Claude's...more than a little flattered, to be told that getting to know him is something Sylvain's excited about. It really highlights how much of a different place Sylvain himself was in mentally between the beginning of the war - being on edge, thinking one of his oldest friends had been executed, not having seen Claude in years or knowing where he (or his kingdom) stood in relation to Claude and the Alliance - and after the battle of Derdriu. And Claude's heart, aching for Sylvain, can't not warm at the feeling that, on some level, even this Sylvain with no memories wants to be with him.]

I have to say, that's a way warmer reception than I got from you the last time you were here. But you were from a very different period of time back then...and definitely had more reason to be depressed and suspicious and jaded about the war, and about a guy who hadn't proven to be an ally yet. So this is definitely a better reception than I got last time.

But yeah, I don't think Hilda was wrong. Ingrid's comparisons were, shall we say, less flattering. But I can confirm that we got along great last time. For instance, without you, there's been so many jokes that, even if I'd been in the mood to make them or anyone else had been in the mood to laugh at them, no one else would truly understand or appreciate...and there's been no one to play chess with except Gremlin. Who is a rat. And who's still way better at chess than Dimitri or Felix.

[ruinedsky]

[You vastly overestimate my skill at handling Dimitri's emotions he almost says but doesn't. Sylvain gnaws at the inside of his cheek as he processes what he's reading, and what he's being told over video.]

So you're saying the last time I was here with you all, the last thing I remembered was right at the beginning of the war?

[He considers saying something snarky about Claude telling him he gave a colder reception that time, but once he thinks on it, remembering where his mind was back then, he decides against it.]

I'm sorry if I was suspicious or accusatory back then. Sounds like it didn't get in the way of us getting along, eventually, or if it did you're doing a wonderful job of hiding your grudge. I suppose that's what I would suspect from a guy as politically savvy as you, but that isn't the point.

I am... assuming Gremlin the rat is not a normal rat. For one thing I haven't seen a normal blessed animal since I got here.

[vrdantwind]

Not from the beginning of the war, so much as...you know, I can't remember if it was right before your reunion with Dimitri, or right after? But you'd been through five years of the war by then, either way. But the Alliance, and thus I, hadn't exactly declared a side in the war at that point, so I can't entirely blame the other you for some suspicion. Especially with how the other leader of a non-Kingdom country was kind of responsible for the whole war, and had been planning it for probably the entire time we knew her...add in my own reputation for schemes, and who wouldn't be paranoid?

It just came as kind of a shock at the time, because I was from after Derdriu, so I'd definitely left the version of you I'd last seen on friendly terms. But once I worked out his circumstances, I couldn't hold it against him.

You've got nothing to apologize for, since you're not really him except in some very brain-twisty ways, but you especially don't have to apologize for him because he wasn't out of line either. And you're right - I won him over all over again, in the end. How could I not? We're probably the only two people from our world here with real senses of humor. And who else could possibly keep up with you in the innuendo and banter department? I think any versions of us are primed to get along just fine, one way or another.

And yeah, Gremlin is a pokémon. There are basically pokémon versions of a lot of animals we know from our own worlds. So he's a rat pokémon, which is only superficially similar to rats as we know them back home. They're purple, for one thing. And pokémon versions of animals are way smarter than their counterparts we're familiar with.

Not that it'd necessarily take a smart rat to be better at chess than Felix and Dimitri...