BYLETH, CLAUDE, DIMITRI

[divineimpulse]

Comments

[divineimpulse]

What were you fighting, then...?

[...]

And... what are you dressed in?

[shaft]

It was a disguise. I was entertainment.

[repress]

[ well, whatever works to keep him awake... they can talk.

though that's a confusing answer. ]

To what end?

[shaft]

Some... sort of test, I suppose. We were tasked with protecting those we cared about.

[ ... ]

And to do so, we had to kill others at this school.

[divineimpulse]

[byleth blinks, and exhales.

don't like it. don't like that at all.]

The ones you were with?

[shaft]

No. It was... Maya. Mandricardo and. [ uhh ] Yamato.

But they seem to be fine, so it must've been some trick.

[repress]

Nothing seemed amiss with all of us while you were gone, no.

[ he's not going to mention that he went looking for him because spoon is an asshole. ]

Where did this happen?

[shaft]

No clue. It was as though we'd stepped into another world... We were someplace with floating island and massive ships that sailed through the sky.

[divineimpulse]

[...

it seems too fantastic to be real. but if claude was saying it, then...]

If you were the distraction, did you all fight together, rather than one-on-one?

[shaft]

Not quite. We didn't fight at all.

These injuries are from crashing an airship.

[repress]

[ ... ] As a jester?

[ now he's the one starting to sound tired. ]

[shaft]

Do you find it funny?

[divineimpulse]

[uh-uh, not doing this here. she's shaking her head. moving RIGHT along.]

You crashed the airship instead of fighting them, and that's what destroyed the enemies?

[she's not using the names of the people they supposedly fought, because those people are alive and well!!]

[shaft]

[ He's really not explaining this clearly. ]

No- we started off in a... docking station for ships. We had to assume disguises in order to commandeer a ship, which we did. But as we were escaping to the secondary location, the owners of the ship—they're no one I recognized—caught us and shot us down.

Once we landed we found the others. Catra found a way to pause time so that we could make our rescue without any conflict.

[repress]

To... pause time?

[ that's a strange one, but all right. ]

You're lucky all of you survived such a crash.

[shaft]

Yeah, time flowed unusually there. Occasionally... It would rewind if we made a poor decision.

[divineimpulse]

[...

for a moment, it looks like byleth has stopped breathing completely, listening to claude.

she holds the glass of water for claude in both hands in her lap.]

How did you activate it...?

[shaft]

We didn't. [ just. rubs his temples. ] We were being watched by something. Presumably whatever was testing us.

jumping order for time shenanigans

[divineimpulse]

[...]

Did you remember all your mistakes?

[shaft]

Yeah. We remembered everything.

[repress]

[ interrogating him is certainly effective for keeping him awake, but by this point dimitri just frowns. ]

Whatever it was behind this, you need to heal first. Being injured here is a liability.

[shaft]

[ He laughs. ]

Yeah, if tonight is anything like last week, I'm going to be an easy target.

[divineimpulse]

[her lips purse, but she doesn't say anything to the contrary. he's... not wrong.

instead, she presses the glass of water into his hands.]

You're having a conversation with us. That's a good sign.

[she's been monitoring his speech, and all things considered, it's all probably as good as it's going to be.]

Drink plenty of water. You can sleep in a few hours.

[shaft]

[ He takes the water to have a sip, eyes slipping closed. ]

This is going to be a tiring night.

[divineimpulse]

I'd rather you were alive and tired, than dead and well-rested.