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[vrdantwind]

"Hey, this is Claude! Pretty sure I'm doing this correctly. You can leave me a message here, and I'll get to it as soon as I can. Talk to you soon~."

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some nebulous post-prom time

[bestswordmaster]

[Ever since Felix's conversation with Greg about his wife and her battles, he's been turning over in his mind what to do about it. Maybe nothing. Maybe he should just keep this knowledge to himself. It would only cause pain and worry to tell Dimitri or Sylvain about it, and he's had enough of watching them suffer.

Claude, though, would be upset if it became relevant later and Felix hadn't told him. And Claude can obviously be trusted with it.

So Felix knocks on Claude's door one evening, without sending a message first.]

Are you there? It's Felix.

[vrdantwind]

Yeah, come on in! [Claude's voice is cheerful enough, though not too close to the door.

When Felix lets himself in, he'll see why; Claude is sitting on his bed, reading, with Voir the Umbreon curled up on his lap with every evidence of contentment - something like a large cat. Red eyes open languidly to study Felix for a moment, before Voir stretches slightly and shifts position. He seems very happy, and not at all inclined to let Claude get up.

Claude, for his part, sets his book down and smiles at Felix.] Hey. What's up?

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix closes the door behind him and heads for the bed without being invited, giving Voir a nod of greeting before he sits down near Claude and pulls his feet up onto the bed.

There's no preamble before he says,]

Did you know that dead people can show up here, alive?

[vrdantwind]

[Claude, who had been casually petting Voir, pauses at this. Voir looks around at him to see why the petting has stopped.] ...it was a possibility I'd considered, but I didn't actually have confirmation. I asked Dirk about it, that night we caught him breaking into Jane's place, remember? But he didn't exactly give me an answer. If she could die back in her own world, and what would happen to her here if she did...

[bestswordmaster]

Hmph. Not much of what Dirk said that night made any sense. I tuned most of the conversation out.

[He reaches out a hand to pet Voir himself, somewhat idly.]

I was talking to Greg Universe. He said his wife died, but he found her here. So...that means anyone from back home who died could show up here too.

[He frowns, glancing up at Claude from where he'd been resting his eyes on the far wall.]

I didn't tell anyone else. But I figured you would want to know. I don't think we should tell Dimitri or Sylvain.

[vrdantwind]

I definitely do want to know...and I agree with your assessment that Dimitri or Sylvain finding out would be a bad idea. [Claude sighs.] If it was up to me, I wouldn't want you to know something like this, either.

Honestly, thinking about something like that, knowing something like that...I wouldn't wish that on anyone who'd lost someone. Being caught between hope and dread, not knowing which was worse, and probably getting worked up over the possibility for nothing into the bargain. The chances of that happening..it can't be high.

[bestswordmaster]

I don't know...I wouldn't have thought the chances of so many of us coming here were high, either. There seem to be so many worlds out there. But here we are. Maybe it's like...a sinkhole.

[He makes a slight face; he's no good at explaining these things, and the thing he's explaining is troubling in and of itself. Bear with him, Claude.]

Dimitri falls through the hole, and he makes the passage wider. And then you and Sylvain fall through it, which makes it even wider. And then me, and Ashe...you get the idea. It just doesn't seem like a coincidence.

[vrdantwind]

I feel like the boundaries between worlds have to be a little more robust than that. Otherwise this sort of thing would be way more common...and probably a lot harder to go unnoticed.

Why not look at it another way? Rather than this place sucking us in, maybe it's our bonds that draw us to each other. You're right that there's so many of us here by now that it seems impossible it could just be random selection from among all possible worlds, and yet crop up such a number of us from the same place. But if you look at it as the bonds between people connecting us, then you'd get a similar effect.

Even then, though, it's not a foolproof theory. You, Sylvain, and Dimitri are all here, but Ingrid hasn't followed. I'm here, but Hilda isn't. But if your sinkhole theory was right, then more and more people from our world would be flooding in faster and faster, wouldn't they? And it wouldn't explain how Dedue went back through to go home, either...not that my theory explains that one any better.

Let's face it, it's all just guesswork. But I'm not sure either of us are guessing along the right lines.

[bestswordmaster]

[Felix frowns in light concentration as he listens to Claude's thoughts.]

Hm. You're right, that makes more sense. But in that case, don't we have bonds that connect us to the dead as well? Then the likelihood of someone like...like my father showing up seems...higher.

[He nods at Claude's final assessment.]

Mm. There's no way to know, I suppose. And I know that means I shouldn't worry about it, since there's nothing to figure out or to do about it.

[But he shrugs. He's worrying about it anyway, much to his annoyance.]

I have no idea how I'm supposed to prepare myself for something like that. Even if the chances aren't high, they still exist.

[vrdantwind]

I suppose that's one thing my theory does cover a little better, then. If this place can pull people who are dead in, well...we should be overwhelmed. [Claude waves a hand vaguely.] I mean, the number of people who are currently alive in any world is barely a drop in the bucket compared to all those who've ever died. So if this place really just pulled people in completely at random, from any time period - including after a person's death - then not only would it be wildly unlikely for any of us to have any connection to each other, but the ratio of people who've died to those who are still alive should be massively in favor of the dead. But that's not the case at all.

So whatever is behind our being brought here, it's not entirely random at all. There's a bias toward the living, and a bias towards people who have some connection to each other. It seems like ideally both would be present, but sometimes only one or the other will do. And maybe, rarely, there are complete exceptions - someone dead in their own time with no connection to anyone here.

That's a lot of words and theorizing just to acknowledge that you're probably right, but...you're also right about it probably not being too likely. Not one of us has met a dead person from our pasts here yet that I know of, and that's a lot of time and a lot of chances spread out across a pretty decent number of people. It's definitely not common.

[Claude meets his gaze briefly.] The question is, are you hoping to see him here, or are you hoping to avoid that?