[ For a second his thoughts don't align with what he sees, that familiar face far less so, and when footsteps rush towards him and hands suddenly grip him to keep him upright Claude jerks away on instinct. Or tries to with something long buried back to the surface with the thought unsafe paired alongside where someone grabbing for him never ends well, though neither does the step he takes as he stumbles that would've resulted in him falling otherwise.
He's still tempted to move away, to make another try at it, but who in particular the voice speaking to him belongs to sinks in. Another blink and Sylvain's face comes into focus rather than what his past and near present memories filled in. Claude stares at him for another drawn out moment as recognition hits, mind recalibrating and willing it to not be something else he's imagining.
At the end of his pause he lifts a bleeding and still shaking hand to place it on Sylvain's shoulder. That certainly feels real. But then again, so had the vines. ]
You weren't wrong.
[ About the ritual, about being down here, anything else unspecified it feels like that statement wraps around. There's a noise which might've been a laugh had it not strangled itself in his throat when it's too difficult to pretend no matter how much he wants to grab onto some semblance of normalcy. This is as close as it gets. ]
no subject
He's still tempted to move away, to make another try at it, but who in particular the voice speaking to him belongs to sinks in. Another blink and Sylvain's face comes into focus rather than what his past and near present memories filled in. Claude stares at him for another drawn out moment as recognition hits, mind recalibrating and willing it to not be something else he's imagining.
At the end of his pause he lifts a bleeding and still shaking hand to place it on Sylvain's shoulder. That certainly feels real. But then again, so had the vines. ]
You weren't wrong.
[ About the ritual, about being down here, anything else unspecified it feels like that statement wraps around. There's a noise which might've been a laugh had it not strangled itself in his throat when it's too difficult to pretend no matter how much he wants to grab onto some semblance of normalcy. This is as close as it gets. ]