hotel: yuri

[shaft]

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w3, monday

[ashenvaliant]

[ i just think it'd be funny if they were in the opium den, honestly. yuri is rooting through the drawers and he pulls out a block of ... well. opium. and gives it a flat look. ]

Well, this is something I wasn't in a rush to see again.

[shaft]

[ I also think it's great for them to be in the opium den—maybe it was all a drug-induced hallucination...

But, we don't do foreplay during memshare week, so Claude doesn't get a chance to reply before the scene around them changes.

(0:00 - 0:35)

The first thing that comes into focus is the smell of smoke, and the bright red banners that hang in the wind, emblazoned with a gold two-headed eagle.

Derdriu isn't your city, but it still aches to see it under siege. Even with the citizens evacuated, with each contingency plan that you've put into place, it aches; its streets bloodied and burnt with magic, men and women dead, blissfully unaware that they'd lost their lives in vain.

Behind your old teacher, and the woman in red and gold armour, the bodies of the only people to ever believe in you grow cold. Your mind is racing—always thinking, always planning—how do you recover them? How do you do this entire thing again, better, smarter, so that they're standing by your side instead?

You told Hilda to flee, if she thought the situation was lost. You value life more than any ideal and any victory. Maybe that's why you're here, defeated. Perhaps you should've been more ruthless.

"If you're as smart as you seem," you start, smiling even as a chill spreads through your chest. You're going to lie, because Almyra won't welcome you back. If you're being honest, part of you doesn't even want to carry this weight back to your birth place. You're not as clever as you think, not as smart, not as worthy as you've always wanted to believe. Part of you truly believes that dying here would be the only right choice you'll ever make.

But it's too ingrained in you. Survive, find a way, think smarter, and win. Don't give the trials of your childhood validation.

Your wyvern growls, tense and unhappy. She's smart enough to know the severity of the situation she's in.

"I bet you've figured out why I was able to summon Almyran reinforcements. Wouldn't it be better to let me go and have me in your debt?"

But Byleth has always been impeccable at routing her enemies, hidden or otherwise.

The only answer you get is the Sword of the Creator burning as it runs through your chest, precise and deadly, even with the distance afforded to you by sitting atop your wyvern. It's jagged and destructive like this, and you can feel how it tears through flesh and bone, your blood staining the fabric of your uniform, but hardly enough to dampen the Sword's glow. You think the pain ought to make you cry, but it doesn't.

"I see…" It's paralyzing, both the pain and the realization no matter how hard you think or how hard you try to weasel away, this is it. You failed. "Right until the very end, I've read this whole thing terribly wrong..."

He just keeps his eyes closed at the end of it. His favourite memory, really. ]

[ashenvaliant]

[ in comparison, yuri's memory is not so tinged with despair and futility of someone trying to survive. although that's something he understands deeply -- the drive, and determination, and the way you move and think and seek ways to protect yourself and others, those who love and believe in you, above all else.

he barely gets a moment to register fully what's happening in claude's memory. his attempt to barter, and find a way out of the situation he's found himself in and the brutal efficiency with which that attempt is cut off before it really even has the chance to leave his lips. and just the strangeness of it all. he's so used to seeing byleth at claude's side, her ruthless efficiency as a tactician linked so tightly with his planning and contingencies and charisma that the golden deer could barely see the space between them.

seeing her run him through is... unsettling. it leaves him cold.

not that he has long to process it (7:23 - 9:21, 9:31 - 10:16*).

it's almost mocking in a way, that this place would show something so mundane and calm in comparison. just him and byleth talking amid the warm wooden shelves of the library, within the safety of the walls of garreg mach. a very different world away from what he's just seen. ]





*i really wanted to show claude the second one but it felt kinda something and nothing after that memory, so claude can have two as a treat. it fits for the cr anyway.

[shaft]

[ He hasn't seen Garreg Mach since he was a student there, and it almost feels stranger to be there than the ruins of Derdriu.

A different place. A different Byleth.

He recoils on instinct, hates the feeling of familiarity the memory brings. Even if he'd made peace with Byleth at Wiwaldi, with the memory of his death so fresh in mind, he can feel a familiar anger boil up.

Back in the opium den, he just laughs humourlessly. ]

Wow, you and Byleth seemed quite close. I didn't know you were so willing to show your soft side, Yuri.

[ashenvaliant]

[ he tilts his head. ]

At that point it had been…. five years, since she’d been teaching the Deer. She’d nagged me about my people before in the past, so it wasn’t so much of a surprise she was doing it again.

[ … ]

Watching that felt… wrong. Even though I know all our worlds are different.

[shaft]

[ He shrugs, not about to run to Byleth's defense, even if it is one different than he's known. Not when he can still taste is blood on his tongue. ]

Your people... Are you referring to those that lived underneath Garreg Mach?

[ashenvaliant]

[ it's fine, he's not looking for byleth stans. each world is so similar, but the differences are stark enough that they make a huge impact. he's understanding that a little better with each passing day. ]

Living. And yes, those and others as well.

[shaft]

[ He tilts his head, happy to move the conversation along to Yuri. ]

What exactly were you fighting?

[ashenvaliant]

[ he tilts his head back. *yuri has not forgotten the memshare. ]

In what context?

[shaft]

To have lost people. What were you fighting?

[ashenvaliant]

... The war, Claude. Same one we've all had to deal with. My people aren't gathered under Garreg Mach their entire lives, and the fighting bled into all corners of Fódlan, you know that.

[shaft]

[ He shakes his head. ]

That much I could guess. But the way you spoke of it made it seem like it long predated the war.

Regardless... I'm sorry to hear it. The weight of a lost one isn't something that ever gets lighter.

[ashenvaliant]

The war made it worse. Sometimes it’s not as easy as saying “who were you fighting?” when the answer is everyone, one way or another.

[ he waves a hand slowly. ]

Like I said, my ways of coping are ultimately just for me. It doesn’t do the people who died anything. [ … ]

I have to ask though — this battle at Derdiru. Before or after Grondor Field?

[shaft]

[ True, but loss hurts more than just the person being lost. He wants to pursue it, but doesn't ignore the question. ]

There was no battle at Gronder in my timeline. The three armies never clashed... It was just Edelgard invading one after the other.

I assume, anyway, that she went after Fhirdiad after Derdriu.

[ashenvaliant]

… So, with the Professor behind her there wasn’t even a stand off. [ oof. ]

One would assume, yes.

[shaft]

[ tries not too obviously to be too bitter about this ]

You know, if you really trust someone, you should give them your real name.

[ashenvaliant]

[ YEAH, KHALID. ]

I barely use it as it is. Like I said, I enrolled in the academy under this name so for all intents and purposes it might as well be.

[shaft]

Hmm, not ready to bridge that last gap?

[ashenvaliant]

Are you... putting yourself on the same level as my own mother, Claude?

[shaft]

I meant with Byleth.

[ashenvaliant]

She doesn’t know.

[shaft]

So you don't trust her that much.

[ashenvaliant]

I thought the memory made it pretty clear. Only my own mother knows my name. There’s very few people I trust enough with it.

[shaft]

It's only a glimpse, and you could've very well grown closer after that.

In any case, I'm not going to pry. Personally, I think a person should be allowed their secrets.

[ashenvaliant]

You’re being rather persistent about it regardless. [ khalid ] But no. She’s not at the level I’d share my name with her.

[ she will never be s ranked because luca got there first ]