victory_road | Arrival; [Video]

The gear's feed flickers in to a rather disheveled looking redhead that clearly doesn't want to be doing this. Because goddess and all the saints, he does not want to be doing this. Asking for help is already a task. Asking for help within a brand new world he cannot even begin to comprehend? Nightmare scenario. He's clearly lost and disoriented, and there's music and a fire pony following him around. Really, the only good thing is the fire pony- ponyta- whatever.

"Okay, don't know what this is, where this is going, or who's on the other end, but I can read instructions well enough to get to this point. Hi, Sylvain here, no clue where I am besides a very unhelpful 'New Bark Town' sign a few paces back, and I found a horse on fire. A baby horse, err, or maybe a pony. So... help? Maybe? I'm not even sure what I'm asking here."

And the apparent cause of how much of a mess his red locks are becomes obvious as he sweeps a hand through it again like a nervous tick. Behind him, the camera is panned just enough for a ponyta to be seen running obviously bored laps back and forth. They're pretty clearly at the edge of town, the buildings of New Bark still somewhat visible. Sylvain didn't make it very far...

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[Ssshit he wasn't fast enough.

Ideally, being "fast enough" would have meant intervening before Chip contacted Sylvain at all, making sure they understood the situation and handling the inevitable crisis himself, in private, so it wasn't quite so abrupt and upsetting for Chip and Sylvain both. But he would've taken just reacting quick enough to head things off before they got quite this bad.

Instead, as Chip breaks into tears, there's the sound of unseen footsteps - those of someone much larger than Chip themself - before Grant comes into view. He quickly sits down next to Chip, pulling them close in a hug with one arm while gently trying to take their Gear with his free hand.] Aw, no-- hey, c'mere, buddy.

[His eye flicks to the screen, and he swallows down the tightness in his own chest at the familiar face he sees there, in favor of speaking up softly.] I-I'm sorry. About... how this went. [He has to pick his words carefully, with Chip in earshot. Too much room for interpretation, and they could draw something from Grant's words that would only make them feel worse.] H-Hopefully someone can... clear things up, uh-- maybe talk to Claude. I'm sorry.

[Among other things, he's sorry he can't explain what's going on. But, even if he weren't caught up in calming Chip down, Sylvain doesn't know him, either. Better he hears it from someone he knew back home, and Claude's probably the best option to break the news.]

Oh Saints, he's gone and made a kid cry. And now there's someone else he doesn't recognize either. He'd been about to to try consoling this poor kid, but it seems whoever this is has a better handle on that front than Sylvain could really hope to have. What would he even have said? How do you comfort someone you don't know, but knows you, and is upset you don't know them, other than 'I'm sorry.' It wouldn't be the first time Sylvain's apologized for being who he is, but usually he's done something stupid enough to merit it.

They know Claude. He notes briefly. Is this another person he's supposed to intimately know? Another person he's probably invading the life of... wonderful.

"Yeah... sorry." He offers to the new stranger. What else can he say? Grimacing, Sylvain fumbles over what button he needs to end this nightmare of a call. "I, uh- yeah. I'll do that. Sorry for the trouble."

Chip surrenders the Gear just as soon as Grant's hand is on it, instead turning to cling to him as tightly as they can. With their face buried against his chest and hiccuping through their sobs most of Chip's words come out a mess, but there's one part that comes through clear enough.

"I'm sorry...I'm sorry...!"

They hurt Sylvain again.

Grant rests his hand on the back of their head, gently running his fingers through their hair, even while he fumbles to maneuver the Gear, trying to speak to Sylvain and comfort Chip at the same time. "No, it's-- you didn't do anything wrong, okay? It's-- ssshh, ssh, it's alright, Chip."

He lets out a breath and speaks up again, still gentle but loudly enough to try and make sure they both hear what he says. Even if he doesn't really expect either of them to believe it. "It's a difficult situation. It'll... take some sorting out. But the problem is circumstantial, not with either of you."

He absolutely doesn't expect either of them to believe him, but he's got to try.

Sylvain wishes he could offer anything more. As it is, every option he could try feels entirely hollow. It's hard to make anything right when, well, there is no real solution. All he can offer is a nod that means something equivalent to, 'I get it, but I don't at the same time.'

Really, the best thing he can probably do now is stop exacerbating whatever wound he's apparently opened up. Whoever they are, they'll figure it out. They were probably doing fine before Sylvain showed up (again?) as it were.

"I'll give you guys some space. Uh, good luck-" and he finally finds the button to hang up.

A second after the screen goes dark, Sylvain staring at the muted reflection in the surface, he sighs. Yeah. Good job, Gautier. Great job. That sure went well.

Arrival; [Video]

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