I shall never be forgiven all my faults

[Unknown site tag]PART 1 - Night of the 7th

[It's dark.

...it's quiet.

...he can move.

...no more videos. No more glimpses. No more reminders.

Just...quiet.

Giles, laying where the droids left him in the deepest recesses of the library, breathes a sigh of relief. His back hurts...a physical ache among all the dull, dead mental and emotional ones. It's almost reassuring. Something tangible, a reminder that he still exists, that he's not just an abandoned, empty consciousness watching lives that he's no longer a part of.

Even if the rest of the world has forgotten as much...

When he finally opens his eyes, Giles realizes that he's in a library. The last red rays of sunset filtering through a nearby window shows him that much.

For a second, an instant, he feels an instant of familiaritiy, bordering on actual homesickness. It's not a feeling whose source or reasons he can really identify...especially not in this state...and the feelings are there and gone in a second. Just long enough to make him hurt a little more.

Funny, it reminds him of the library in the village...

...which is not a pleasant sort of thought at all.

They can't have sent him back here. They just can't. Not after so much has changed...

It's a while before Giles gets up the courage to actually unlock the front doors and look outside. And his heart stops when he does.

It is the village. The village they took him from...how long ago was it? Months. Years. But with the sun gone, the shadows left in its place makes everything seem...almost familiar. It's enough to make him ache for the days long past. For a while, Giles just...simply stands and stares out at the world around him, unable to rouse himself enough to move and see the changes for himself.

The only place he makes a point of stopping is the food store and the item shop, both of which he'll break into if they've closed already. Some food gets packed into a bag - food that will keep, food for a long trip, rations easily portable. He grabs some new clothes from the Item Shop that will fit him reasonably well.

Necessary tasks to keep himself alive done, Giles is left with trying to find a new way to avoid the problem at hand. The problem of being back, in a place that's moved on without him, in a place where he exists even less tangibly than he did back home. The last time he felt quite this dead was the first day he arrived, not knowing how long had passed or who would still be here to remember him or whether or not he'd already been buried.

He knows that there's no one here for him now.

Eventually, numb to the horrors, his steps fall unconsciously into the familiar attitude of patrol. Muscle memory briefly takes over mental memory, and he's glad of that. He's too tired to think, or accept, or cope. But walking the paths and watching for monsters?

That's something he can still do.

At the very least, he needs a new place to stay until he's well enough to make the walk to the beach and never, never come back.]

((ooc: Wishbone is chronologically first. I'm...pretty sure the easiest way to do this is to have Harth and Melaka be next to last, with Helios and Frederic being chronologically last, shortly after the attack with Giles going home.

Also, mallynap effect. Through clever use of sensory deprivation, mental torture, and video editing, Giles has been led to believe that he's actually been gone for months, bordering on years. For the week, he was left chained up to watch "video feeds" of what the scientists told him was the village. Obviously, it wasn't. Which is to say? He thinks you all gave up waiting for him and have entirely forgotten that he was ever here in the village. Expect a bit of defensiveness, disbelief, and disorientation. I'm playing it similar to how I play his memory loss - he might believe someone he trusts explaining to him otherwise, provided they have some proof or make a good case for themselves. But mental knowledge might not translate to rational behavior for a bit.

Physically? Well, he's still fighting off sedation and painkillers. Because yes, he's bleeding. The wound has largely clotted and scabbed over, but there is blood on the back of his shirt that will be pretty damn obvious. It's located between his wings, anyone giving him medical treatment will see scalpel injuries - once the blood is cleared off, it will be possible to see that the cuts form the word "Solus". It's not a big mark - think 9 or 10 point font.

Encounter him anywhere on patrol tonight.))

PART 2 - Morning of the 10th

[It's a couple of days later before the voice post goes out. Giles still sounds tired, and a little subdued, but some improvement has taken place, simply by virtue of time and a little support. His is the voice of a man who hasn't spoken up in a while and is a little uncertain about doing so.]

I hear new voices.

...are we really into a new cycle already? Good Lord, but the Malnosso are determined to make me as useless as possible, aren't they?

Anyway. [He clears his throat. The sound of a pencil absently tapping against paper can be heard.] Um. Hello, everyone. I'm back, for those of you who were, um, concerned. Doing quite well. [Which...isn't actually a lie. He is doing better. Almost well, even.]

A-And, um, to all the New Feathers...well, welcome to Luceti. You've probably had enough time to get settled in, at this point. But if you haven't, well, that is what the Welcome Center is for - answering any questions, helping people find places to live, just...making tea and letting you sort out your thoughts, if that's what you want.

We have a guest book, if you'd like to look it over. You might have friends here that you didn't expect. We even have a calendar, apparently, if you need help keeping track of anything. Lord knows, some of us still do. Luceti can be...unpredictable, at the best of times.

...it can be nice, here. Scenery, weather, people...we've even picked up some new venues of entertainment, recently enough. It can also be very unpleasant. You'll find that out with your first experiment soon enough. But we help one another, here. You'll make friends, and...whatever can be done to help you get by will be done.

[It's far more hopeful than his annoucements used to be.]

...th-thank you for listening.

((ooc: Aaaaaannnnd because the mallynap return might be both hard to reply to and too angsty for some, have a part two! Just title your comment with "Part 2" if you're taking this one, to save me some puzzlement. Flatmates can feel free to assume that their replies to the message are handwaved. Friends checking in from Part 1 can also assume that's handwaved if they don't want to thread it out. If they do? Tag away.

LJ IS BEING A BITCH WITH LENGTH, SO CUT TAG WILL EVENTUALLY COME ONCE IT STOPS EATING MY TEXT BY DOING SO.))