searched | first paradox

Entry tags:

first paradox | video

[ The video starts with a shot of the ground, Serah's feet and a Starly chirping at her determinedly nearby. When it appears Serah's more focused on the PokéGear in her hands, the Starly shoots forward and knocks it away so it goes clattering across the ground. ]

Hey! [ From a slightly awkward angle, Serah is visible with her hands on her hips. ] Okay, that's enough out of you! You'll have to sit still for a few minutes longer!

[ The Starly looks appropriately scolded, so it just nods and goes back to chirping more quietly. Serah moves over to the PokéGear, picking it up, her face now more clearly visible in the shot. ]

Sorry about that. [ All smiles and politeness, now. Noel was right about one thing: Serah can go from smiling angel to angry ogre, and vice versa. ]

I only just arrived here a few hours ago, and... I'm still a little confused. Is there anyone else who's not supposed to be here?

[ At this point, the Starly barges back onscreen. Serah laughs. ] All right, you can move around again now. [ With that, the video cuts. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He knows that voice. Hasn't heard it over a year. Hasn't seen her in over a year.

And hell, even that quirk of hers. He'll never be able to forget that.]

Serah! [Hope holds off on most things though, considering she's very obviously new, and not the one who'd been here... when he'd just arrived for the second time.]

I'm here. Light's here, as well as Vanille. [Does she remember who Vanille is he wonders. He didn't think about that when he'd met her back in Bresha Ruins.]

Hope? [ Maybe slightly less surprising than Lightning, but still surprising. Serah's wondering if her original theory - that this is all some dream of her own creation, considering what had just happened to her - might actually be true. ]

Vanille, too? Wait, did all of you... end up here the same way as me? [ That's not possible. Is it?? She's so confused. Is this a paradox. ]

It's me. [Well, there wouldn't be anyone else like him, anyway.]

We all arrived here the same way-- you woke up in a bed with a woman claiming she's your mother, right?

[Rhetorical. They all did.]

That's right. [ Hence the belief this was a strange dream because what. ] And then some sort of... professor talked to me.

[ Plus the music and the sudden Starly... well. It's been a weird day. Speaking of Starly, it chirps at Hope in greeting. ] Oh, and... I got this little guy, too.

Professors are this world's leading authorities on Pokemon, they say. [Though still rather unhelpful, by Hope's standards.]

But at least you arrived safely.

Oh... I see. [ Sort of. She's still not entirely sure what a Pokemon is other than knowing her Starly is one, and that apparently she's supposed to be a trainer of some description. Hm. Conundrums. ]

I think so, anyway. [ "Arriving safely". She's not sure that's how she'd put it. She pauses, and because this is more important than Pokemon, for now - ] Hope, this might seem like a weird question, but what's the last thing you remember from before you ended up here?

I was... I was expecting you to ask that. If you didn't I would have asked.

[Because it's become rote now, asking old friends what's the last thing they remember, so he knows where everyone stands when it comes to their timelines.

But how should he say that he'd seen her die?]

Academia in the year 500AF. I remember you and Noel arriving from wherever you'd fought Caius at. [Would that be enough, he wonders...?]

[ So no getting around this conversation, then. Part of her had been hoping he wouldn't remember or know things from that far in the timeline... but then again, Serah supposes there's no point in hiding it. Whatever this place is, it can't hide the truth forever. ]

Academia 500AF... that's when I'm from, too. [ A beat. ] So you just remember Noel and I coming back?

[ She has a feeling maybe that's not all there is to it, but she wishes it was. If there's one regret she has - and generally, she's content with the path she'd chosen - it's hurting everyone else with what happened. ]

[... Well.

Hope raises his hand in a sign for her to wait, before rapidly putting up a filter. It wont do much if someone's around them physically, but at least it will keep anyone from snooping, because this is going to be a very, very sensitive conversation.]

I know more beyond that. [Know, not remember. For as little as Noel had told him, he's managed to figure out some things for himself.]

You died, seemingly without reason.

[ Serah obligingly waits until he puts up the filter - not that she understands what he's doing, but she figures it must be important. When he speaks, her frown deepens, her gaze shifting from the feed to the ground below her. She'd never expected to have this conversation, never expected she'd need to.

It's definitely not easy. ] ... It wasn't without reason, Hope.

Noel told me you saw every change that happened in the timeline due to the defeat of Caius-- but why didn't you tell me you had this power in the first place?

[Because still, he felt betrayed by it, something that large and important being kept from him, which resulted in yet another person dear to him gone.]

... I wanted to change the future, no matter what happened. When I found out that having those powers shortened my life with each vision, like they did with Yeul...

[ She trails off, her voice quietening. ] I still wanted to continue. [ That hadn't been an easy decision for her, either. Not knowing if she'd ever see Lightning or Snow again... or anyone else, for that matter. But she hadn't wanted anyone to stop her. It'd been something she wanted to do alone, for once. Other people had already made too many sacrifices for her sake. ] I'm sorry.

I know you did.

[(Does. He knows she does.)

It's his wish too, changing everything for a better future.]

But as your friend, it was still something I should have known, not found out in bits and pieces when it was too late.

[ She nods, finally looking back up at the feed. ] You're right. It wasn't fair of me to keep it to myself.

[ Even with Noel, really - while Noel had known she had the same powers as Yeul, had guessed what that meant, she'd never told him exactly how sure she'd been of her own fate. She'd never known how to. ] But it helped me to keep moving forward.

[Until you died, he doesn't say.

But he knows there's something more to the story, because while she'd... well. He'd been around to see everything.]

The place you were in before returning to Academia-- what was it like? What did it look like?

We were in Valhalla. The place where Lightning was fighting Caius in the vision the Oracle Drive showed.

[ She thinks of the best way to describe it, remembering Noel's words. A realm of possibilities. ] It's... a strange place. It's like there's no real life there at all... or even time. Lightning said it was Etro's realm.

[Not much different from what he knows then, and he sighs at the lack of new information. But there's one more question he hasn't asked yet.]

Did you see anything strange, any sort of... [How did he describe it back then?]

Some kind of dark energy that looked like mist. Did you see anything of the sort while you were there?

Dark energy? Now that you mention it... [ Thinking thinking. She was caught up in the moment for most of the fights with Caius, but with more time to reflect on it, the details are reemerging. ] Yes, I did see something like that. Caius could manipulate it.

... So everything still points to him.

[He presses his fingers against the bridge of his nose.]

That energy came to Gran Pulse almost immediately after you died. [Oh wait, he should elaborate.] A... tear, for lack of a better word, opened in the sky, and beyond it was Valhalla.

The dark energy came through it. I have no idea what exact effects it had on the world, but it began to change it somehow.

[ Serah is surprised to hear it, but it's a fear that had been weighing on her mind after Caius' words during the battle. She bites her lip. ] It must've been... because Caius died. [ She always feels like she doesn't know enough. Despite the visions and everything she'd learned on her journey, it never seems to be enough. ] I think that's what he wanted all along.

[ Goddamn Caius and his Batman gambits. ]

[... What.

No really, what?]

What would he have gained by sacrificing himself?

He wanted to save Yeul from her fate as a seeress... to stop her from dying over and over. To do that... he wanted to stop time itself. [ Her frown, which has not disappeared at any point during this conversation, seems to grow more pronounced. ] I'm not sure I understand this entirely myself, but... Caius said he had Etro's heart inside him. He was made immortal by her.

[ Put like that, it's starting to click. ] When Noel refused to kill him, Caius forced him to. I think... when he died... that Etro must've died as well.

[ It's only as she speaks that she realises the gravity of what must've happened, of Caius' plan. She'd already accepted the sacrifice she'd have to make to change the future. But what had it amounted to? ]

[He has to pause right there and massage his forehead because damn it, even the person who has been making trouble all this time turns out to be interested in the welfare of someone else, and it's not easy to hate someone because of it.

Is he sympathizing with the man? No. He cant, considering Caius' methods.

But damn it, it's not so black and white now.]

It adds up to what Noel said-- that he killed the goddess.

And with the goddess' death, a tear between our world and Valhalla had been opened, as if she'd been the one somehow keeping time moving.

... Yeah. I guess that's what must've happened. [ Her voice wavers a little. ] Then... Caius succeeded after all.

He did. [And it's terrible.]

Even losing his life, he did succeed.

But I still don't know what exactly has been changed in Gran Pulse, save for time.

first paradox | video

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered

video; filtered