For Ilya: Give her a big hug. If she cries (either in joy to see the MC again, or out of guilt because she still thinks she failed to save the MC), comfort her and thank her again for always believing in the MC. Then, congratulate her for becoming the Saintess.
As for Leon, give him a chance to explain himself. If I find his reasons satisfactory, reconcile with him. If not, I’m calling him “Leomar” from then onwards. “The Leon I knew died long ago. You are but a murderous king who wears his face.” (A reference to what Leon said to the MC in the dungeon the night before their execution.)
As much as I appreciate the ghost of Christmas past idea (also a Rick and Morty joke btw), I think I’ll settle with a simple “Hello King Leomar” with a dead look in the eyes that says “I don’t hate you, but I’m not over it.” My mage is too done with everything to be angry at this point.
For Illya, a hug and a “thank you for believing in me.”
Alternatively, a funny reaction would be to suddenly drop to the ground dead of an apparent heart attack just to screw with them. Can you imagine the looks on their faces watching you die suddenly a second time after JUST getting you back? Priceless.
something that i think would actually be super haunting for my mc post-BBQ is that to her, it seemed like leon turned against her completely on a dime for no obvious reason.
she tried to tell him that she had good reasons for killing the saintess, but she literally couldnt tell him what they were. she was pretty shocked that he didn’t listen to her literally at all. the leon she used to know probably wouldn’t have been so quick to believe that actually she was a monster the whole time, and she has no idea when he stopped being that person.
so i think after my mc got past the visceral emotions of the reunion (screaming, crying, biting, etc.), she’d just want to ask, “when did you stop trusting me?”
My Mage is gonna hit Leon with that Sunblind energy. Just the good old pragmatic, stoic Mage just absolutely passive-aggressively dogging on him.
Leon: She’d never talk to me like this ;v;
The Mage: comes back from the dead
The Mage: Is exactly like his self-hatred ghost version of the Mage
Leon:
But she dated Ilya and looks on Sain fondly. With Ilya I think she’d just go “I still love you.” and avoid the pained topic that is her girlfriend being forced to watch her burn to death.
THAT would be priceless! Though it’s hard to imagine the MC being the jester type.
True. When Leon said the MC he knows has died and called my MC “a demon who wears his(my MC’s) face”, my heart shattered. To think that one of my MC’s best friends, who he believed in and has sacrificed so much of himself for, has such little faith in him really stung like no other.
For real, I would love to have an option to not say anything to our former friends, but something like that will probably skip a lot of possible content so the second best thing for me is to be completely apathetic towards Leon and be mildly uncomfortable with Ilya and Saine.
My mage would probably the few here who will hear Leon out and probably be happy to see both Ilya and Saine again. My MC is quite empathetic and probably too forgiving.
I have a mage who’d probably treat the three of them like nothing ever happened just to fuck with them. Like straight up, “Hi Leon! Sorry for the long vacation. Why are ya looking so glum? C’mon, Ilya, I have lots of stories to tell you! Saine, I have a burning question for you-!”"
It’s not that they’re not bitter, far from it, they just think this is one of the most painful ways they could act and they are taking the opportunity for a small bit of revenge.
It’d probably also be their small test of character to see if any of them (particularly Leon) would actually admit to what happened.
I absolutely love the avenues of screwing with them. Tack on an “Oh you might have met my twin at some point while I was away, how are they anyways?” just to seal the deal
“I remember our last conversation like it was yesterday, ‘MC, one day I’m gonna go down in history, I’m gonna go out in a blaze of glory, and everyone will love me for the amazing things I do. They’ll cheer my name as I’m paraded through the streets I tell ya.’ I wonder how that’s panning out.”
My MC would be nauseatingly forgiving about all of it. Like, absolute fucking saint about it. I mean “you’ve done nothing that needs my forgiveness my friends” levels of nice (albeit, all in their characteristically antisocial, silent, and blunt ways), which I feel would hurt more than anger ever could…
MC: “Oh, this scar?” Points at their face “I got it around four years ago when a bandit jumped at me and slashed my face with his cutlass. I guess my twin was lucky they weren’t traveling with me back then.”
Leon, Ilya & Saine: Think back on the Bandits Camp mission from around four years ago “By Jove! They are so identical they even suffered from the same injuries around the same time! But wait. How are they still alive when (MC’s name) is dead?”
