[IC - update post]

[actualizedname]

 [Earlier this morning a tiny teenaged boy went out to explore ruins in camp.

Some time later, said tiny teenager reappears at the outskirts of camp, eleven inches taller, thirteen years older and very confused.]

Somehow, I think I'm lost.

Comments

[heralding]

No. We have to make our own reason for being here. This place doesn't give a damn about that.

[actualizedname]

Not this place. But ... there's a purpose behind our actions. An overarching purpose, that is. We're here, in this place, from our times, for a reason.

[heralding]

Are you talking about fate?

[actualizedname]

No. I mean you. In the future, you're directing us towards a certain path. We just haven't got there yet.

[heralding]

I like that answer a lot more.

Even if it sounds like I messed up.

[actualizedname]

No. We did. But it's going to be fixed. I know it can be.

[heralding]

Look, Hope.

If the only way to save Serah is to leave me where I am, do that. She has a long life ahead of her. She deserves to live it.

I'll be fine.

[actualizedname]

And if that's not the only way? Because if there is a way, I will find it. No matter how long it takes.

[heralding]

If there is, then I can't stop you.

But if there isn't, then know that what would make me happy is Serah being alive. That's how it needs to be.

[actualizedname]

I know. But for her, what she wants is you with her. So, I'm sorry, but the only solution is one where everyone lives.

[heralding]

Where will you be when you manage that?

[actualizedname]

Right there with you. I said everyone, not everyone but me.

[heralding]

But if it came down to that, you'd do it that way, wouldn't you?

None of this sounds like a very good plan.

[actualizedname]

I'd try not to. I can help people more by being alive than by being dead.

[heralding]

Just keep thinking that, then. And try not to be in your fifties by time you save us. I can't have you being more than double my age. This is weird enough already.

[actualizedname]

I'll try to have moments of inspiration more often.

[heralding]

And I better pull it together and offer you some more help. However I can. If only I could change how I behaved there.

[actualizedname]

Lightning, no. I know you offered us all the help you could, even when you really shouldn't. I know you.

[heralding]

I wouldn't let Serah die. I would find a way to stop that!

[actualizedname]

We don't even know if this isn't part of that way!

[heralding]

I can do what I can to help. I'll change things. But don't ever try to make me feel like it wasn't my responsibility. Serah's my life, Hope. That's the bottom line.

[actualizedname]

I wouldn't dare to say that Serah was anything less than the most important person in your life.

[heralding]

I—I know you wouldn't.

[defeated tone]

We'll handle things.

[actualizedname]

We can't give up. We can't.

[heralding]

I'm not.

Are we even any closer to saving Fang and Vanille? We have the world covered, but what about the two of them. That was why I thought I was leaving, before I got swept away by an uncontrollable force.