[ It seems this conversation will have no shortage of small shocks. The last thing Claude expects - even when he shouldn't be expecting anything at all - is to be told that the person he's sitting across from came directly from Gronder. It's enough of a surprise despite everything that it cracks his mask; he simply sits and stares at Sylvain with zero certainty of what expression is on his face.
Even when Sylvain stops talking, it takes Claude a few seconds to blink back into responsiveness and set his face back to something neutral despite his frown though his mind is still whirring over those words. ]
You were just at Gronder. [ Repeating it doesn't magically make it make more sense, sadly. Here he had been hoping that even despite the differences in memory they had of Teach that it'd be some easily resolved puzzle in the end. But now? Now there's confirmation that won't be. ] Gronder was almost a year ago for me, Sylvain.
[ Or longer; Claude's not even really sure how to account for the time difference with Abraxas thrown into it. There's too much silence being drawn out without some kind of quip, he knows, for it to not imply that Gronder is every bit as awful as that fleeting expression on Sylvain's face said it looked even before he'd seen any bit of the battle. Being on the other side of it offers no reprieve. ]
You're somewhere in 1186, then. The year for me before I arrived here was 1187.
[ That explains nothing, Claude knows, and only kicks open a door to more questions. A cascade from both of them, probably, because he feels what might be a faint headache starting. There's one more point that feels important to reiterate even if it's redundant and Sylvain's already established it. ]
ahh sorry!! totally didn't mean to put you on the spot, that's my bad
Even when Sylvain stops talking, it takes Claude a few seconds to blink back into responsiveness and set his face back to something neutral despite his frown though his mind is still whirring over those words. ]
You were just at Gronder. [ Repeating it doesn't magically make it make more sense, sadly. Here he had been hoping that even despite the differences in memory they had of Teach that it'd be some easily resolved puzzle in the end. But now? Now there's confirmation that won't be. ] Gronder was almost a year ago for me, Sylvain.
[ Or longer; Claude's not even really sure how to account for the time difference with Abraxas thrown into it. There's too much silence being drawn out without some kind of quip, he knows, for it to not imply that Gronder is every bit as awful as that fleeting expression on Sylvain's face said it looked even before he'd seen any bit of the battle. Being on the other side of it offers no reprieve. ]
You're somewhere in 1186, then. The year for me before I arrived here was 1187.
[ That explains nothing, Claude knows, and only kicks open a door to more questions. A cascade from both of them, probably, because he feels what might be a faint headache starting. There's one more point that feels important to reiterate even if it's redundant and Sylvain's already established it. ]
Was Teach with you? On... your side, I mean.