IC Inbox - Isle of Avalon

[asaviorshand]

[For now, you just get the default automated message. Dimitri will need some time to figure this out.]

Comments

[hegemonwings]

[ she nods acknowledgement at the initial—platitude, frankly, but she'll keep her mouth shut. when he goes on to express that hope, again, she nods in thanks.

but then he keeps talking, and that's... all a great deal to take in. she's quiet for a long moment, eyes wide in obvious surprise. ]

She... I can tell you now that she doesn't remember that time with any clarity. It would... make sense, with some things I know, but... [ she pauses, hesitant. ] What happened after she left Faerghus isn't my story to tell, but it badly affected her memories of her life beforehand.

[asaviorshand]

[Dimitri nods after taking another sip of tea.]

I wouldn't ask anyone else to tell it for me. That is her story and her choice to share it. I can only surmise that it was terrible...so much so it changed who she was. It even changed the color of her hair.

[hegemonwings]

[ byleth frowns, very slightly. ]

... She is the girl she always was. Despite everything. [ she may not have known edelgard before the experiments, may have only known the broken and angry girl she'd been left as, the girl who wore her heart on her sleeve and tried to bury it all at once, but—

she knows what it looks like, when the self shines through. ]

She's just... had to pick up the pieces. I would think you could understand that better than most.

[asaviorshand]

Actually, that was something she said to me. It was when we met for parley prior to the war's final battle.

However...that was a version of her that never received your counsel or care. Perhaps under your guidance, some semblance of who she originally was managed to awaken. After all, it was another version of you that saved me. And a third that helped Claude realize his dreams.

[Dimitri's gaze falls to his teacup.]

I had once told the professor I knew that I would have died were it not for him. Hearing about other ways history had played out only confirms that. It stands to reason that you would be able to save El and help Claude grow.

It's only a shame that they couldn't all have happened at once.

[hegemonwings]

[ byleth wants to protest further. that of course edelgard at her lowest would say that, whether or not it was true. she still claimed similar things even up to the final day of the war, from time to time. it was something edelgard told herself, byleth knew, to try to harden herself enough to take on the cruelties of the world. it was not the truth.

but then again, none of that is dimitri's business. so she lets all of that pass without any reaction at all, face blank. she hums, finally, at what he says at the end, nodding once. ]

In a perfect world, maybe. But then none of you might have needed me in the first place. I'm glad for the chance for us to be friends here... but I have no regrets.

[ she tilts her head slightly, like she hopes she's making sense. ]

I'm very happy with my life, Dimitri.

[asaviorshand]

[Dimitri nods. She had a point; if it weren't for their problems they might never have met. And that would have been a shame.]

I'm glad for you. You deserve it. I hope that one day I can say the same.