>>Text

[gautsome]

[There's no vibrant smile when Sylvain opens the line. There isn't even a Sylvain for that matter. It's just text on a screen, a message carefully tapped out.]

Hey.
I'm looking to talk to someone who has left this place and come back again. Either actually leaving, or just that weird sleeping thing.
I... Have some questions. I could really use some help.

Comments

[lordofthefries]

okay
what do you want to talk about

>Private

[gautsome]

Oh. Hey Sash.
One second.

[He switches over to a private channel. The consensus amongst their group had been to protect their youngest from learning about what returning to their world would entail.]

You didn't remember anything when you went back, right?
Just... one big blank slate. No cute creatures, no friends you made along the way, nothing.

>Private

[lordofthefries]

[Good that he's figured out how to lock conversations. That's still eluding her.]

no
i didnt remember anything
it was like i never left home at all

[gautsome]

Right. Okay. On the same page then.

How did you deal with it when you came back? Here, I mean.
If nothing we do matters... what's the point?

[Text]

[cyan_maid]

Well...yeah.
What's up?

>Private

[gautsome]

Hey Jane.
I thought about reaching out but... With it being so fresh for you, I figured it might be too much.

Uh. Are you doing okay? Adjusting well?

[Private Text]

[cyan_maid]

[Oh, aw, goddamn.]

I appreciate it, really. But you know, if you make a post like this, I can't not respond to see if I can help.

As for that, uh...I'm taking it one day at a time.
Thinking about "what would I like to do that's fun this summer" is the only future planning I have going on. Keeping it simple seems to help.
Still haven't shaken the, um. Nightmares? Yeah, can't seem to get those to shoo just yet.
But it'll happen!

What's up on your end?

[gautsome]

I'm sorry. I really did not mean to drag you into this.

Keeping it simple, though. That seems easy enough. Baby steps and all that?

... I guess I should be grateful that I'm only having the normal war nightmares. At least I learned how to deal with those years ago. Are you okay?



[Just going to pointedly ignore that question, it's fine!]

[text]

[paladinlost]

[Cecil rarely, if ever, uses the Gear's text function, but for a question like this...]

I've slept. I've progressed. I've remembered. Ask away.

>Private

[gautsome]

[Sylvain isn't sure if he's surprised to see Cecil's name or not. What he is certain of is that he's relieved. The man had proven wise once before -- perhaps he might actually find some reassurance from this whole matter, rather than screaming into the damn void.]

How do you do it?
Go through each day knowing that it could be your last, and that you won't remember anything that you cared about here?

>Private

[paladinlost]

Easily.



No, that's an unfair answer. I know for a fact that there are other worlds out there with similar properties, lands I forgot for decades and remembered in bits and pieces when I was brought here. That knowledge is its own sort of comfort. Even if I return home tomorrow and forget everyone, I may just as well find my way to another land and remember once more.

And even if I do not... Aerith told me, over a decade ago, that even we are apart and our minds forget, our hearts are connected. Experience and chance meetings have taught me that she was right. You might not remember exactly why you cared, but that feeling will remain, somehow.

Besides, we learn more and more about this world with each passing year. Perhaps we'll find a way to keep our memories before this all ends.

[gautsome]

Connected hearts, huh?

[Some part of Sylvain wants to laugh about that. It sounds like something out of a storybook, rather than a concept that could ever be true. Yet even as that small fragment of him balks, the rest of him is oddly reassured. He remembered the moment he'd woken up back home, and the sadness that gripped him when he looked at Felix.

He hadn't been able to explain it at the time. Now that he's awake again here... he has to wonder if Cecil is onto something.]

Maybe you're onto something there. If nothing else, it's... nice to believe in, right?

Text

[fingersandteeth]

Yes. It happened to me back at the end of November, the kind where you sleep. I was back home for almost six and a half years.

>Private

[gautsome]

And, uh. How are you doing since you got back?

Re: >Private

[fingersandteeth]

Variable. One complication is that the me who was here the first time and the me that I am now are different men, but sometimes I feel like people still expect me to be my younger self.

[gautsome]

I guess I don't really have that to worry about.
A lot has happened in the last six months but... not enough to make me someone completely different.

You didn't remember anything while you were home, right? From here, I mean.

[Text]

[tearsofademon]

It's been a few years, but I've had the latter happen. What do you want to know?

>Private

[gautsome]

I'm assuming you did not remember a thing about this place once you were back, right?
I'm just... trying to wrap my head around what to do. It feels like nothing here matters, not if it could all be erased tomorrow.

>Private

[tearsofademon]

Yeah, didn't remember any of this when I was back there.

You're right, that it could all be erased tomorrow. Doesn't matter if you've been here a month, a year, a decade... Every day here could be your last, and then you'll just end up back home with nothing to show for it, not even a memory.

It kind of sucks, you know?

[Ryner that's not helpful.]

[gautsome]

There's no kind of about it.
I'm really struggling with the whole thing. Wondering why I should even bother making friends or caring about anything that happens here, when tomorrow I could wake up back home without a single memory of it all.

text

[secondhandsome]

yeah, been there before

that was about uhhh a decade that I went home before I ended up back here

>Private

[gautsome]

Shit, a decade? And I thought my six months were bad.

Uh... What's it been like being back for you?

[islandshore]

Haven't been through it myself, but I've known plenty of people who've come and gone.

Known plenty of people who left for real and then came back, too. Don't know if an outsider's perspective's what you need, but the offer's on the table.

[gautsome]

Uh, hey.
I appreciate the offer but I'm mostly looking to talk to people about how they've felt... uh. After.
Kind of hard from a third party experience?

[islandshore]

Nah, I get it.

Second-hand experiences don't hit the same. But what brought this up, anyway? You just wanting to brace yourself in case it happens?