etraya | un: localflorist

( ooc ; likely spoilers for rebirth endgame chapters within )

[ One moment she's there, in her apartment, and the next...back on Gaia. With no memories of the city, the other world, where she'd been for months, fighting to save the planet she'd been unceremoniously returned to. And then...after so much on the home front, she'd found herself right back in Etraya: her memories of the time before in tact, as well as the memories of the things she'd been through in the interim. The things Cloud had already known about, but kept from her.

After she reappears and processes all the memories, she has to recuperate a bit. Without anyone around, the usually-cheery Aerith doesn't have to mask her expression, and sits in her apartment, letting it all break over her like unceasing waves onto someone whose feet are thoroughly stuck in the sand. (It's not unlike when her plushie was destroyed, honestly, which feels like ages ago.) When that's...more or less done, she reaches for her phone.

She doesn't leave the unit, doesn't go down the hall. Yet.

In crafting a message to the network, she opts for text because, this time, she doesn't trust herself to keep a straight enough face. To keep all of what's happened - disappearing from this world, returning to her own with no memories of Etraya, and...the weight of their journey at home - from her voice. So, she takes a deep breath and begins typing, eventually sending out: ]

long time no see, etraya! or, maybe it hasn't been that long, considering all of the plant life at my place is still in good shape.

so...has anybody been back home? that is: was brought here, then went back somehow with no memories of ever having been here, then got pulled back again? consider me curious about the details.

i know i can't be the only one. right?

also...if there're any kind souls out there who don't mind giving me a little refresher on our current mission, it'd be much appreciated. thanks!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ I didn’t realize that was something that can happen. Are you okay? Did anything bad happen here before you went home? Did you ask Aurora to go back?

You just went back somehow? ( huh. )

( sorry, what now? )

mission's been and gone, be glad you missed it. no details on the next one yet.

no-one else has mentioned leaving and coming back. you asked aurora about it?

You lost all memories of being here?

[A knot of dread sits in her stomach.]

Are you sure you actually went back? You didn't just regain memories further along the timeline? Or - I don't know, received a flash of knowledge regarding the future?

you and me both!
i'm okay. it was overwhelming at first, but it's no big deal.

before i went home? i remember we were in that other community for a while.
it was kinda nice actually...

i didn't ask to go back, but maybe i should ask aurora what they know...

yup! out of nowhere.
not sure why, and it seems like nobody else has had this happen to them.
as far as i've heard, anyway.

glad i'm back during a lull at least.
maybe that means i'll get some time to get used to this place again before the next thing.

not yet, but i'm realizing i probably should.
can't believe this hasn't come up before! what makes me so special, huh?

i'm pretty sure, yeah.

[ Let's just say that she has some experience 'regaining memories' and/or 'receiving a flash of the future.' ]

but i'm no expert. planning on asking aurora, so...if i learn more, i can let you know?

that'd be the nice thing to do.

( which, actually— )

what's the last thing from here that you remember?

if it happens to anyone else, we might be able to answer that.
are you okay?

I haven't uncovered any information on the network about people leaving and coming back later, only that they've left. The same goes for other planets; they disappear without a trace, but there isn't any data on them that I can find at the moment.

You might be the first, unless someone kept it to themselves.

feels like forever ago, but we were in that other community.
moorecroft?
i was pretending to be an architect, and i had a pretend family, too.

[ ..... ]

i'll be alright.
it's more disorienting than anything, honestly.
but thanks. for asking.

that's not weird at all...
hopefully aurora has some answers.
otherwise i'll just be left wondering "why me" for a bit.

do you know why people leave and never come back?

well, that was the last mission. ended just a bit ago.
architect sounds like one of those things that's tough to fake.

not the same thing, but i've time travelled before.
i know what disorientating's like.

( he's just saying. )

It's unlikely she'll have answers that will satisfy you, but I don't think it's because she doesn't want to give you the information. From my conversation with her, it's more like she can't.

She's been told that the disappearances are because they return home, so she isn't actively involved in them. Maybe you have unfinished business here, according to her or Echo.

[.005 seconds later:]

Did you really have no memory of Etraya once you were in your own universe?

that was the last one?
weird.
seems like i was right: i wasn't gone for long.
here, anyway.
it was a good amount longer back home.

really?
was it...on purpose?

[ Seems like the kind of thing that would be disorienting whether you intended it or not. ]

huh...okay.
i'm not sure if that's better or worse, but it is good to know.

"because they return home" though...
makes it sound like they have a choice.

[ "Unfinished business," he writes. Something - grief, maybe - presses against the inside of her throat like a wild animal: trapped. ]

maybe.
and yeah: no memory at all. like i'd never been here.
makes me seriously sad to think about...i don't want to forget everyone.
there's gotta be a way to hold onto these memories. right?

Does it? I wouldn't be so sure. They only returned after completing Echo's assessment. You didn't choose to leave, did you?

I'm not sure if it's possible. The data I do have on multiverses doesn't cover this, but I think on a more simpler level, your mind wouldn't be able to comprehend the existence of other worlds. It could drive you insane.

[smooth.]

no, never happened.

and i wouldn't want to anyway.

I didn't know such a thing is possible.

So then, we can be returned temporarily, and we lose memories. When all of this is finished, then...

[ He cuts off his own thought, disliking the feeling of it. ]

That can happen in this place?

I mean, sure I guess, might as well happen.

[ Like it wasn't insane to begin with, goddess help him. ]

on the note of memory
...
have you encountered people from your world in etraya with memories of the past that differ from your own
?

[ Don't mind him, he's still getting used to technology as well as text being a verb now. ]

maybe your not-family can tell you exactly how long, given they would've noticed when mom suddenly disappeared one night.

or didn't come home from going to get milk.

...the time travel? it's kinda split between being on purpose and on accident.
met some cowboys once though.
that was cool.

[Her hands are shaking. She clenches them into two fists, the skin of her fingers boiling.

Mage hand. Lift the phone. Do it autonomously. Never let them see you flinch.]

I'd be in your debt.

I wonder what the point of all this would be if we weren't able to remember it.

assuming i was a mom, huh?
i'll have you know i would've been a great kid and only disobeyed my fake parents /sometimes./

i did check, and it seems like i was honestly gone for no time at all.
literally.
not sure i understand, but weirder things have happened.

that does sound cool!
i've met some ranchers and farmers, but not sure about cowboys.
glad you got back to your own time safely? i assume?

don't mention it.

and i'm not sure. i don't really understand it myself.
why do they care about saving some of our worlds?

maybe they don't have any control over it. the leaving, i mean.
so they can't help us keep the memories, either.

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