video; (forward-dated to June 19th, late afternoon)

[lightstrike]

To those who've met her, Serah Farron's not in the city anymore. [Light's keeping her face as straight as possible. Why emote in front of all these strangers?] It's been over a week since her disappearance. She may have been sent back home.

[Which is... honestly better for her, as far as Lightning is concerned. She's her big sister, and she'd have liked to spend more time with Serah, but she has a duty. They both do, but better for Serah to do hers, because it's far more important.]

To the newcomers: take this as a sign that we'll go home someday. No one knows when, but someday it will happen.

[And that's enough of an announcement for today. Just talking about it hurts her.]

Comments

[Video]

[protomensch]

Sent home?

[That's... not exactly the best of outcomes, all things considered.]

As we are, or as we were?

[Video]

[lightstrike]

As you were. You're sent to the exact time you were taken. You don't remember anything about Saeng Seong, there's no evidence of it on you at all, and no one will notice that you actually left.

[Video]

[protomensch]

Well, that explains why I've never heard of this place until I got here.

What if [A momentary, if not almost imperceivable pause] we don't really have anything to return to?

[Video]

[lightstrike]

[... Oh. Does that mean what she think it means? She doesn't want to ask though.]

I don't know the answer to that.

[Video]

[protomensch]

Wonderful.

[The flatness of his tone helped to fill in the details, but by now there wasn't much point in subtlety.]

No warning, no say in it? Just... blink and you're there, like when we arrived?

[Video]

[lightstrike]

Even quicker than that. You don't notice that you've even been away. It never happened, until you come back, if you come back.

[Video]

[protomensch]

That's horrifying. Staying's starting to sound like a better deal, even if we're just being used as contact batteries.

[Video]

[lightstrike]

Then you need to hope that you wont be sent back.

[Video]

[protomensch]

How do they choose that, anyway? Is there someone pressing the button on whoever they feel isn't doing their part?

Any idea how they choose who comes through in the first place, for that matter?

[Video]

[lightstrike]

There's no rhyme or reason to anything they do, like everything else that goes on here, and they cant control their own systems like that. But there's a completely different consequence for not keeping in contact, and they have nothing to do with it, so anyone who doesn't in order to rebel or try to get sent back home are out of luck.

[Video]

[protomensch]

Are you telling me that nobody's actually in control of any of this? That's... dangerous. They have systems to pull power from handshakes but they can't even control it?

[Video]

[lightstrike]

They don't. And if you asked the people at the welcoming table, they would have said the same thing. After all, I got it from them.

[Video]

[protomensch]

At least they're honest. I'll take what I can get.

How long have you been here, then? Wonder how long the average 'stay' lasts.

[Video]

[lightstrike]

Nearly five months. But there are others who have been around for longer, and others who haven't. Serah only spent a little more than two months here.