[not again] catchall for nie huaisang

[fishingforcompliments]

Comments

[unanswering]

It was like this at the mansion one week, too, but I really hoped we wouldn't have to deal with it again-! Is this those... residuals' fault?

[he frowns at the sky, like he can just. give the residuals themselves a Look, if he tries hard enough.]

[fishingforcompliments]

No such thing happened to us on the island...

[if it is a residual effect, it's not from there, at least - though that doesn't really help them much]

It is quite the invasion of our privacy. I wish there was some way to stop it from happening.

[unanswering]

I've tried not looking at others, not touching them... it really seems becoming a hermit is the only way.

[he's much happier going on about this than discussing... anything in that memory, haha. it's fine. he's fine.]

[fishingforcompliments]

That seems as though it would be rather lonely—

[—but would being lonely be the better alternative, this week? Flayn doesn't have the chance to think about it much, because before she can even finish her sentence, they're pulled into another memory - and this time, it's her own.

the end of a battle, on a coast - and then the conversation afterwards.

(pretend it's fem byleth though this was just the first video of the scene i found and i'm tired)]

[unanswering]

[-oh. that place seems nice, he thinks, even if it's...

there's something a little melancholy in his expression, even as he manages a small smile after seeing that.]

Family, is it? The two of you seem quite close.

[fishingforcompliments]

...

[ah. well. she can't really expect him not to comment on what he's seen.]

Ah.. yes. We are.

[unanswering]

[it's a little bittersweet, in a way. it's nice she has that, but it's also a reminder he doesn't really, not anymore.

but if they're both dealing with this...

nie huaisang sighs, apparently deciding he may as well.]

It's good that you're both able to visit her, at least. That you remember her. I was too young for that, myself.

[fishingforcompliments]

I am so sorry to hear that.

[even being too young to remember - it hurts, to not have that person there as you are growing up.]

[unanswering]

I had my brother, still. Just as it seems you still had your father.

[it's different. but it's not lesser, he thinks-- there's absence, but maybe that absence makes other bonds stronger.]

I'm sorry that you know it, as well.

[fishingforcompliments]

It is good that you were not alone - but... it would have been better if we had not had to experience losing them in the first place.

[...]

If no one did.

[unanswering]

-well, such isn't the way of the world.

[there's a certain resignation, in that. he's seen enough of it.]

[fishingforcompliments]

Yes... you are quite right.

[unfortunately.]

It is impossible to change the past. One can only move forward and work for a better future.