curriculum_fictae | [IC] Misc. Open Post

Yes.

[ Said softly, sympathetically. ]

Trust me. If I knew of any other way, I would tell you.

...Is that what your husband did?

[ Something aches in Martin's expression at that. ]

No. We found another way, but it cost everything. You don't want that solution.

['Everything'.

He looks at the crack of his family's family tree wall, hearing them starting to come in. There's a nervous energy out there, no one being sure what exactly is going on anymore.]

...But you're happy now.

[ Martin is very, very silent indeed for a long moment. ]

We were. Yes. We were - incredibly happy. The months I spent with him were the best of my life.

Were?

[Oh no. What happened? The last time he saw Martin, they were happy together, his vision from when he was a kid was proof enough of that.]

Wa-whuuu-what happened?

It-

[ God. It's still fresh. Martin gulps in a breath. ]

His world wasn't ... fully resolved. After a while, things started leaking into the paradise we were living in. More and more over time, until - until we realised he couldn't stay. I told him I didn't care, or that I'd - I'd go back with him at least, but -

[ His voice cracks. ]

One morning, I woke up and he was gone.

Just... gone?

Where'd he go, what happened?

[A great guy like this, his husband must be an idiot to just leave.]

He went home. To keep the Fears from escaping it. To make sure they couldn't spread any further.

[ Martin scrubs at his face with a hand. ]

We should have put his eyes out the first instant he came to the place we were in. Then - then maybe we could have stayed for the rest of our lives.

...But they are spreading...

[He looks around again, feeling it creeping in, an uncontrollable force freezing his veins.]

You said last time that you don't know how to leave or go back to that place, but you're saying he found a way?

Yeah. There's - there's so many versions of him? Making the same decisions. It might be his world, or it could be a different one.

[ Anyway, he nods a bit. ]

Y-yes. There was - a soft spot in the world? That seemed like we could get through. I don't know if he took it or not, though.

[He wrings his hands again, nervously tugging at a loose thread of his shirt sleeve and looking around.

Is he the cause of this? Probably. It is always his fault.]

...When he left you, did. Did it stop? In the place he left you in.

[ Poor Bruno. Martin pulls himself together, damn it. ]

Yes. It - it did. Sidereal went back to being peaceful.

[ And desperately, miserably lonely. ]

....Then I should leave.

[ Martin stiffens at that. ]

I thought - last time, you said you wouldn't. Your family is all here.

I wouldn't before because I wasn't hurting them staying back here. But - but if I'm hurting them now like this...

...

Oh. Oh, Bruno...

I just- I need to know. I need to know if it's me doing this. Because if it is, then- Then I can't stay.

R-right. Let's try to find that out then.

And if it is ... come back to Sidereal with me?

...Wouldn't I risk bringing it there?

Maybe. But. Where else could you go?

I-i don't know. I don't know what's outside this encanto, and I only have the visions of your bakery for somewhere else.

Then we have to go there, and figure it out from there.

[ A pause. And a flicker of hope. ]

Unless ... unless there's a way to my husband's world from here.

Maybe? I dunno. I don't know your stuff or your gods or your world, I just know that it all started going wrong in the last month and- And I don't know how to fix it.

I - I know. I know.

[ He reaches for Bruno's shoulder. ]

We'll figure something out. Even if it means leaving.

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