i. amber[Looking uncharacteristically solemn even for him, Evan appears on the amber. At the bottom of the frame where he's propped up his slice, the hilt of a sword can be seen.]
Hey.
So... everything I've heard seems to suggest that once someone's gone they don't come back. Right? And we never really... hear from them again. They're just gone.
... Has anyone ever left anything behind before?
[He pulls the hilt and pommel up into the frame: it's attached to a sword some folks might recognize.]
I haven't seen Celena in quite a while. I checked today and her name's no longer on the list upstairs. She left this.
ii. At home, actionEvan sat at his bed, the sheathed sword across his knees. He was losing himself in his thoughts as he stared at the weapon, going over his recollections of its owner.
It was strange. He hadn't been here for what he'd consider long enough to make friends, if this had been back home. Two months wasn't even a semester, and back home distractions and excuses to hole up and avoid people were thick on the ground. It wasn't exactly that the Tree had somehow turned him into an extrovert, but...
But in the course of fulfilling tasks and investigating the mysteries of the Tree he'd found himself stumbling into friendships that he hadn't expected, with people he'd've never even thought to speak to back home.
To the often isolated young man, the loss of one of those new friendships stung more keenly than he had been expecting.
He'd still be there, sitting and considering, when his housemates returned from their daily wanderings.