Video: There's an old voice in my head

[flawed_immortality]

So it seems the coeurl is out of the bag.

[For those of you that haven't seen Cor since he escaped the Temple Priests care he's looking... well... quite a bit less haggard. As a matter of fact he looks better than he has in months. No less worried or stern but the harsh weathering has faded from his skin making the light smattering of freckles clearer, his hair is a little darker, the lines in his face a little lighter.

As a matter of fact he looks more like a man in his early 40s, not one teetering ever closer to 50.]

There's likely a whole mess of time paradox concerns but as we have more and more people from Eos arriving it is becoming harder and harder to keep track of who knows what. Anyone that has any input on how to handle these potential paradoxes I'd appreciate it.

[He sighs, lifting a mug of coffee to his lips, and offering the tablet a resigned shrug.]

Of those here... I believe I have the most complete picture of the future. It was August ME 758 last I knew. If you'd like to know what your future holds rather than tripping into it. Come see me.

[He reaches out to kill the feed, hesitating for just a moment.]

Mmm, Ardyn, I've a favor to ask when you have a moment, as well.

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[scourgingstars]

If it is within my power, you need only ask.

[He didn’t address the rest just yet, debating if he even wanted to know.]

[Audio]

[original_is_best]

[Perhaps it would be a surprise to hear this voice. Much as they didn't get along, Verstael was a researcher first and foremost. He absolutely believed Cor would give him a highly biased retelling, but he might glean something useful from it.]

Tell me.

[carbungle]

[Man...]

I'd like to. But I know I probably shouldn't. Not... not yet.

[He's already heard enough bad news, and he loves Cor and knows the man would try to be gentle, but he's still very much a soldier. Undoubtedly there's more bad news on the way, and with everything that's happening... well, he's just not sure. And this is something he needs to be sure about.]

text. - some ShB spoilers

[astralera]

Hello,

It is good to hear of other worlds with coeurls in them.

You are looking quite well, compared to when we first and last met. I am the woman you raced to the temple. The one with the horns and the tail, if you happen to have a habit for such things.

My name is Era, and Ardyn is a dear friend to me. [ Even if she's begun distancing herself from him now that Aera has arrived, lest the misfortune that follows her loved ones like a plague ruin what happiness has been returned to him. ]

I have some experience that you may find of use. Time paradoxes are of little concern — at least if your universe is as similar to mine as I'm lead to believe — as they will resolve themselves in the end.

The situation that this place has brought up would likely cause not a paradox were you all to remember your time here, but separate timelines entirely. In my home world someone I knew traveled back in time to prevent unprecedented calamity. They came to their past, my present, and together we changed the timeline we were both in.

The assumption was that the timeline they originally came from would be erased, and them along with it, but in the end we discovered that it merely became its own separate world on its own divergent path.

To use your situation as an example:

If I were to whisk Ardyn away with me to my own world rather than allowing him return to his fate, your timeline would remain intact.

If you and the others of your world from varying timelines were all to remember their time here upon returning to the moment they were stolen away from, each of you would branch off into your own separate timeline. Like a tree growing new branches, your worlds' origins are the same, but their futures are all separate.

So if person A and person B were taken from the exact same moment in time, their timelines would not diverge from each other. But if person C came even a second before or after, then their timeline most likely would.

Reality is durable. You need not fear for your worlds' futures, as it will do what needs to be done to protect itself.

Of course, this is only from my own experiences in my own world. The men who go by Emet-Selch and the Crystal Exarch may have more insight to offer, as they are both more scholarly in nature than I.

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[wifeacle]

That is a very kind offer. But are you certain it is wise for us to know such things?

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[somakemelaugh]

[This is something he has had a little experience with in the past, most notably when Vincent showed up in Riverview for the brief time that he did. That one still hurts him; he won't speak of it in telling terms. But he does have something to contribute here, and so he does.]

What is there to handle? You won't be able to control what your friends know any more than you can control what you know. But in the interest of protecting them from whatever it is you hold in your head and they, currently, do not, why not take them as they are and enjoy the time you have now?

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[iustaegis]

[ "Any input", it reads... ]

Regarding these paradoxes, do you wish to change the future or to preserve it?