[They're still home, in a way, but Skulduggery feels even more alienated and distant from Ireland now than he had when falling through the portal. Out there, he's still with Valkyrie, still chasing villains across Europe. Solving the mystery of Darquesse, murdering her, or being murdered by her...
And yet he's also here. Trapped outside of time and maybe trapping more of himself here with every passing event. He still doesn't know what happens to the versions of himself who he's taken memories from. He has no idea how much he's truly taken from himself. He knows the memories aren't his own, but is the skull? It is his skull, after all, but not one he himself found.
The more Jade talks, the more he extrapolates, the worse it feels. He isn't an expert on these kinds of things to begin with, and the fact that the captain seemed equally in the dark about it...]
Well, he didn't. [Weirdly defensive, but okay...] He has no control over it. Over any of it. He doesn't choose who gets taken aboard and he doesn't choose when this happens. We're as stuck here as he is. Because, regardless of the new skull, I never left.
[He pulls up his left sleeve to reveal Darcy's friendship bracelet still tied on tight, with the same complicated knot he'd made at the dance. It's possibly the only reason he hasn't been mostly catatonic since finding out there are other versions of himself. It reminds him that he's real, and that he hasn't inherited the ship as memories from yet another version of himself.
("Oh, so I don't exist because I never made you something," Valkyrie says, having come close enough to hear even as she stands well out of range of his hat. Skulduggery dips his chin slightly to avoid having to look at her. The answer, he's afraid to admit, is yes.)]
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And yet he's also here. Trapped outside of time and maybe trapping more of himself here with every passing event. He still doesn't know what happens to the versions of himself who he's taken memories from. He has no idea how much he's truly taken from himself. He knows the memories aren't his own, but is the skull? It is his skull, after all, but not one he himself found.
The more Jade talks, the more he extrapolates, the worse it feels. He isn't an expert on these kinds of things to begin with, and the fact that the captain seemed equally in the dark about it...]
Well, he didn't. [Weirdly defensive, but okay...] He has no control over it. Over any of it. He doesn't choose who gets taken aboard and he doesn't choose when this happens. We're as stuck here as he is. Because, regardless of the new skull, I never left.
[He pulls up his left sleeve to reveal Darcy's friendship bracelet still tied on tight, with the same complicated knot he'd made at the dance. It's possibly the only reason he hasn't been mostly catatonic since finding out there are other versions of himself. It reminds him that he's real, and that he hasn't inherited the ship as memories from yet another version of himself.
("Oh, so I don't exist because I never made you something," Valkyrie says, having come close enough to hear even as she stands well out of range of his hat. Skulduggery dips his chin slightly to avoid having to look at her. The answer, he's afraid to admit, is yes.)]