riverview | Text Open | un: l.dylandy

There are public records of when people leave here. He might be on the list.

[It's quite possible that's also not helpful.]

I would think so. I guess not everyone uses the network the same, though.

[He knew there were others who had lost family and never said a word about it. It just wasn't something he could understand the why of.]

There are? What does it mean someone leaves? Like, what happens?

I guess not.

The story is that they go back through the portal, home.

[Ed didn't like to think about it, home for Lockon didn't mean much of a future.]

I'm not sure I believe that yet, but everyone else I've talked to seems to buy it. It held up in the other world I was on, but there wasn't a portal so much as someone sending us home or bringing us in. This portal is erratic, unpredictable and evidently a force of nature, which makes me wonder how we can be so sure anyone actually gets home.

Home? Sure, wonderful.

[How knows exactly what happens to his brother in his world and that wasn't the best thing for him to go back to]

So in other words, no one has any clue what the heck happens to someone if they just disappear from this place?

Depends who you ask. Some people are dead set that the portal sends you home, and that's that.

[A shrug.]

If it's anything like the last two places I was there aren't a lot of options.

[Just the one.]

I've heard that you can request the direction the portal sends you, which means you can choose to go home with a friend instead of back to your own world or time. I've never heard of that before, but I suppose it's possible.

[It does, however, stand to rule out the theory that you just go back to wherever you left off to inevitably continue the chain of events in your life that coming here might have prevented.]

Well, for some people, getting to go home with someone else would be the better option.

[Like his brother who has no future back home]

But that kind of implies its willing to go home. Why wouldn't someone say good bye if they knew they were leaving?

It would, especially if you don't have a lot of options back home.

[Moving away from that subject.]

We don't know. A few of us have tried to come up with reasons, maybe there's no time, the portal is too unpredictable... Maybe they don't get a choice.

[He might be sulking at this point.]

If you could just send out one text, at least the person you message could tell others that you had a chance to leave and took it...

[And Lyle has no desire to keep the topic on that so he will let it go as well]

Yeah.... maybe. I just wish I had no known this was going to happen. Felt like I barely got to see him here and then there is no warning and he's gone.

[He sulking now too]

Same thing happened with Al. Back where I was before showed up a few times... Probably six all together. He barely stayed a month the first five times. Hell, he left practically the day I arrived.

[He's quiet now, not wanting to think about that much either.]

The nature of Purg is that we were there for our sins, so it became a theory that Alphonse wasn't even there at all and it was all part of my punishment. At least until the last time... That one stuck around for more than a few weeks.

Still, I can't help being unable to shake the feeling. Like I'll just turn around and he'll be gone. I've been waiting for it since the day he showed up.

[Ed switches topics again, not really wanting to dwell on that growing paranoia.]

Lockon was around for a long time in Purg, about as long as me if not longer. Probably longer. By the time you showed up- well, you're the one that left. Surprisingly when you came back you had all your memories of the place, it was as if nothing changed and you'd never been gone at all. That happens sometimes... It could happen here, Lockon could just show up again one day, whether or not he'll remember being here before is another story.

That... that's rough. It would have killed me if the same thing had happened to Neil, that he kept appearing and disappearing like that. I'm sorry you had to go through that.

I really hope that doesn't happen to you here... or anyone. That's just cruel.

[And now flowing the with topic change]

So... he could be back and literally pick up like it was yesterday... or whenever he went home?

[He doesn't say it, but he'd like if that were true]

Cruel is something you get used to in Purg.

[At least when it happens to you, and not you doing it to someone else. Not a topic he's going to approach with Lyle, though.]

Yeah, there's always another chance to reconcile your differences here. He could show up again at any moment.

[Ed doesn't really know the details of why they weren't talking back home, he just knows the relationship was tense and Lyle had shut him down for trying to encourage him to talk to his brother. As in, actual communication.]

Based one what you've told me, I'd agree.

Well, I wouldn't say no to that. It's not like I got to spend a lot of time with him back home.

[Yes, he wanted to talk to Neil, but he also didn't particularly think that he was the one who should be the one to apologize or make justifications. He had tried back home, but been rebuffed so he'd stop trying]

[He had to laugh at that, pretty much everyone would agree.]

I was never really aware of the details, honestly. Lyle kind of mentioned it and then seemed to immediately regret that decision. I learned to mind my own business.

Let's just say it it was related to his "job" and involved a random card once a year and no other way to to hear from him.

[Okay, so maybe more than once a year, but it was so infrequent that it didn't really matter]

[Edward made a face at that, glancing away as if embarrassed.]

I was a lot closer to Lockon in Purg, Lyle liked to keep his distance-

[It was getting a lot easier to see this Lyle as a different person from the previous one he knew. Which was an unsettling thing to grow comfortable with, even if he had done it in the past with others.]

it's kind of weird to think it was him that stayed away the whole time.

[He supposed it shouldn't have been though, even if he was awkward about it, Lyle was the only one of the two that even approached the subject at all nevermind talked about it being something to fix. Honestly, it made him mad, to do something like that by choice - he couldn't imagine it. He also felt a little guilty about the whole ordeal, if Lyle had just told him that instead of getting defensive the whole conversation might have gone differently.]

I guess it makes sense... Lockon was the one trying to act like everything was normal, I only know they weren't close because it was Lyle that pointed it out.

[Perhaps it was that time had changed Lyle a bit depending on how much this other version of him knew. It was also possible that he had stayed away because of Ed's connection to Neil]

I know now it was because of Celestial Being. He couldn't let on anything, maybe couldn't be seen in our area, who knows. But to hear nothing for years was not something I'd wish on someone else.

[It had hurt... a lot to only receive random letters or cards here or there. The letters had nothing of reliance and the cards were standard cards. He didn't want to admit he still had all of them because that had been his only contact with Neil for years]

[Ed winces slightly at the last part of Lyle's words. He probably wasn't much better in that regard.]

Al had to deal with something similar. I don't know much of the details since it hasn't happened to me yet, but I know we were separated for two years.

[He doesn't look happy about admitting the next part.]

.... and once we're back together, apparently I up and leave again.

So, according to your brother you do leave him, but you personally don't know that you do or why?

[He wasn't quite sure what to think at that. Seemed like anyone could just up and decide to leave family members. Of course he would have never thought that Neil would have done that to him either]

Back home I sacrifice myself to save Al. Instead of dying I go through the Gate, which is where I apparently stay for two years.

[It wasn't really a choice to leave Al so much as bring him back, but the second decision was the one that Ed had trouble coping with.]

When we're reunited it starts a war between the two worlds, our's and the one I'm trapped in.

I managed to get back home, but in order to stop the war I go back through the portal to break it down from that side. Al followed me through the portal, the one in Purg had already been in Germany before he arrived, but this Al didn't get that far before arriving here instead.

At least that's what I've heard.

[Lyle is just kind of stunned at that story. Ed has a wonderful way of doing that. Just about every conversation includes a good healthy dose of "what the heck is this person's life?" This one included

And here he had always thought he had weird problems with his brother. His problems with Neil were kid's stuff compared to some of the issues Ed had]

I can't ever say that I've had this problem before and I doubt I ever will.

[And you thought you had him with that flower story, Lyle. Nothing is weirder or more suffering than the life of an Elric, clearly.]

It's another one to add to the "wouldn't wish it on anyone else" pile.

[He offers a weak smile at that, as if it was a joke.]

Al didn't deserve any of that, after the life I put him through- he might have been better off with just a card.

[Lyle makes the mental note of this: Ed's life is insanity beyond what he can completely comprehend]

Yeah, sounds like it. I know I wouldn't wish it.

Card? Like Neil randomly sending me a card?

[He looks kind of apologetic at the question.]

Yeah. I know it probably doesn't feel like it, but... anything's better than what he went through.

[Your brother could have made you lose your body nearly getting you killed, Lyle. Silver linings.]

Edited 2017-09-12 06:22 (UTC)

[Lyle gives Ed a sad smile]

Neither is good. Of course, he wouldn't know how good he had it just receiving a card if none of that had happened.

[He knew better now too]

Yeah, that makes sense.

[Honestly he wouldn't wish either situation on anyone, and here it had happened to two people that he actually cared about.]

I'd probably feel terrible either way, too. Since neither of us would know any better.

[A pause.]

At least you got that closure now though, right? That he did it because he probably didn't have much of a choice...

(no subject)

holds_up_walls - 2017-09-23 01:36 (UTC) - Expand