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[selfconcept]

HELLO

"..."

GOODBYE

TEXT | VIDEO | VOICE | ACTION

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[selfconcept]

[ Hien chooses to stay here for the time being. He can speak and doesn't want to use his thoughts for communicating, but he's fine receiving them from Yosuke. ]

"No. I'm used to this sort of occurrence, but I know no one else is here. That's why I figured that I should give them all space. I didn't want my presence to invoke any visceral reactions... it hasn't been that long."

[aerodynamic]

[ oh this makes sense. he settles for a soft sigh and doesn't say anything for a second.

"i think from where i was standing, more people were worried than they were upset about what happened. but i get it. it's a lot for other people."

nevertheless...

"wanted to find you right away anyway." ]

[selfconcept]

[ Hien lets out a quiet huff as he breathes out. ]

"You bunch are the most forgiving ones I've ever seen in my life, and that's really saying something."

[aerodynamic]

[ "i think part of it has to do with knowing these trips do whatever they can to screw us over. the other part has to do with you being you."

i.e. people like him and he's made a strong impact that it's easier to be understanding. ]

[selfconcept]

[ ...

Hien quietly sighs and finally turns around to properly hug Yosuke. ]

"I'll still apologize for hurting you and making you witness all that. Sorry."

[aerodynamic]

[ he was apparently waiting for that because he kind of clings to him for a second.

he also stays there for a few moments before he pulls out a familiar notebook and pen and scribbles on a page. ]

I'm not going to say you don't have to apologize because I get it's kinda important. But it's not like I regret trying to help you when you needed it.

[selfconcept]

[ Hien looks down at the notebook and. Oh. It finally clicks. ]

"... Did the river take away your talking ability?"

[aerodynamic]

[ he just sort of pouts. yes. yes it did. wanting to yap, forced to shut up. ]

[selfconcept]

[ Okay he feels even more sorry than before. His Yosuke!!!! Without his voice!!!! Who is he!!!! ]

"... Thanks though, for helping me. In trying to restrain me when I spiraled out of control. I'm glad that I was very weakened by then."

[aerodynamic]

[ he doesn't want hien to feel bad!!! just bonks his head into his chest like an annoying cat. ]

On the one hand, I'm also glad you were weakened because that could've been worse. On the other hand, I don't like that you were because it means things were really bad out there. I didn't want something like this to happen to you.

[selfconcept]

[ Hien sighs and just hugs him again, gently patting his head. ]

"Of course you didn't... I'd start questioning it if you did and maybe go 'okay' to see how you would react."

[aerodynamic]

[ even if the clinginess has worn off by now (who knows) he just accepts this and stays here. ]

Hilarious.
Were all six of you together? It didn't feel like you were.

[selfconcept]

[ Hien leads Yosuke to a table where they can sit on chairs and so that Yosuke has a better and more comfortable time writing in the notebook. Hien is glad to see it getting use. ]

"I was only with Sylus and Lucien."

[ ........... ]

"And a bunch of others who shared the people's faces here. Who were the other three?"

[aerodynamic]

[ eagerly following as usual, but he has a seat. from here, hien can probably see the notebook had a lot of pages filled out even before this so it has in fact been helpful. ]

Fiammetta-san, Tokinaga-san, and Isabeau.
We saw a bunch of people sharing faces of people here on ours, too.
It's hard to tell if they're real or not in the moment right?

[selfconcept]

[ Hien doesn't really want to explain his own thought process regarding doubles, because that's basically his entire life. ]

"I killed many people in the place I went to... they shared the same faces as the ones here."

[ He looks at Yosuke. ]

"I don't remember seeing you there though, so I'm glad. There was also this really weird blond guy that was being a creeper."

[aerodynamic]

[ tapping the pen on the page for a moment... ]

There's a lot I want to address.
What weird blond guy? Being a creeper in what way?
What actually happened to get to that point?

[ he just doesn't think hien would randomly start murdering everybody. ]

[selfconcept]

"He was caressing my face and all that stuff and said that he was waiting for me. I have never seen him in my life."

[ that's not true because hien lost memories of that guy in the river ]

"Then he bit my neck and kinda tore off a huge chunk of it."

[ The open wound that he eventually succumbed to! Yippee! ]

[aerodynamic]

[ immediately eyeballs his neck like ????????????? ]

Vampire???

[selfconcept]

[ His neck is thankfully free of scars, so there's nothing to look at. ]

"Dunno, but I wasn't too interested in finding out. It was pretty bizarre..."

[aerodynamic]

Should've just punched him, but I get it.
Where did you even go?

[selfconcept]

"Oh. I did that too."

[ sagenod

anyway, ]

"We were on a journey to find some treasure... we started out with a bunch of people, but it only ended up being the three of us left. We stopped by an island to restock supplies, but it turns out the village behaved a little like a cult and they were in the middle of celebrating something. It was a severe case of dangerous tribalism too, so when we barely escaped... we found another boat. Someone was gravely sick, and he was bleeding this black goo. Things looked dire... and we decided to return to the island where that happened to see if we could help him."

[ ... ]

"You can probably tell, but this is where it all went bad. For some reason, I had the urge to keep praying? I didn't even know who to pray to. Myself?? I don't have enough ego for that."

[aerodynamic]

[ why does that make him laugh? god. ]

Good.
That all sounds extremely normal for a bit until it wasn't though.
I take it your memories were messed with to make it seem like all of that was reasonable?
Why the hell are we now involving cults? Not that I know anything about cults.
That's a choice though.
Did you guys even make it to the other island?

[selfconcept]

[ We need some levity in this depressed day. ]

"My memories weren't tampered with in the beginning but I was more focused on getting the treasure that I never really thought about it. I'm not a materialistic person, but I was mostly in it for the adventure with Sylus and Lucien. Things were fine from the beginning. We had to carefully ration our supplies too."

[ He tilts his head. ]

"We ended up splitting up when we returned to the cult island, and I checked out the church. Apparently, Fiammetta was like... a nun there, which is ironic, considering everything. Rafayel was the one who was sick on the boat, and there was this woman that Sylus seemed to be interested in, but I never got her name. I escorted the two to the church, since that would have been better than lying down in the deck of the sailboat. After that, I went to go check out the back rooms. It was a bedroom with a single bed and chains coming out? I tried to take a better look, but the chains came to life and started burning me."

[ His left wrist and right palm. ]

"I went to another room where there was this library-looking thing. I didn't want to use my hands too much at that time, so I was skimming book spines. It was trippy... and when I opened a book that had my name as the title, it was... empty, but for some reason, I saw myself in those empty pages like there should be something there, but... there was nothing. Everything that made me into who I was at that moment... accumulated into nothing. I started freaking out."

[aerodynamic]

[ he leans back in his chair to listen, very obviously mulling this over. some stray thoughts include:

"what is with these things screwing with our memories at all?"

"splitting up is always a bad idea. why is it always churches?"

"oh. oh fuck, okay." ]

You felt like you lost who you were because there was nothing that made you who you are. Without showing it on the pages, it got to you in a way that meant the monster was what remained in the end.

[ haha, great! ]

I hate how these things are so good at pinpointing the exact thing that'd freak you out. Did you find the others after that?

[selfconcept]

[ "Why is it always churches" good question, Yosuke. Hien wishes he knew. ]

"Yeah. We regrouped in the forest on the outskirt of town. Before that, I met this blond guy who was being creepy at me and bit my neck. I killed him and wandered out, and then into the forest because I saw smoke coming out. The villagers were all over there, and I saw a few of you there as the cultists. You guys were praying... something about fireworks? Rafayel came back and he was infected with black goo, so he killed the woman who had Sylus's attention earlier and I killed the rest. Then there were tentacle monsters coming out of the bonfire and for some reason, all I could think of was to 'return to the sea'. I was obsessed with the idea. That compulsion made me carry Lucien, but he and Sylus stopped me and the latter got us all to the river... in which we eventually escaped."

[ ... ]

"That's it from my end. You'll have to ask the others for their point of view."