[Hi everyone! Hopefully you weren't sleeping or concentrating too hard on something or whatever, because this dumb loud voice is about to interrupt you.]

Hello!? Hey! You out there, Sis!? C'mooon guys, you gotta be there somewhere!

Uh, I dunno who else can hear me on this thing! [A short laugh follows those words. Whoever this idiot is either doesn't seem to notice how loud he's being, or simply doesn't care.] Met the weirdest li'l guy though! Gave me this thing. Yep! I'm guessing it's some way to communicate, since I heard people talking!!!

Uh... well, I'm gonna come lookin' for you guys if you don't answer! Heroes don't sit still for long!

This is... Troia. [The name seemed to be plucked from his mind like a memory. He'd been here before. This world before. He had thought it was all a dream when he returned to Ivalice. He had thought some sense of normalcy had returned.

The Fates decided against it, it seemed.]

I have been here before... What has changed since my departure?

[He's really been putting this off for too long. Part of it was the snow, part of it was that he kept trying to ignore the problem by ignoring the linkshell he'd been given. But when the snow melted and he was left with a desert, he'd checked it... and heard familiar voices.]

So-- What needs to be done?

[He didn't feel the need to beat around the bush or introduce himself. If they knew him, they knew him. If they didn't, they could ask.]

Uh...is this thing really on? Oh, okay. Um.

[ At first, it's just a voice; Hope isn't sure it's okay to show his face after everything that happened. Then he decides that on one hand, it probably won't work anyway. And on the other, so what? If people can't find him they can't chase him, either. ]

L-look, I'm kind of new to this going other places thing, and this has all gotten weird enough, so if someone could tell me how to get back home, or at least closer to it, I'd really appreciate it.

Oh, right. My name is Hope Estheim. A-anyway, if someone can actually hear this, can you answer? Thanks.

[ Enter one unhappy woman. There might be passing similarity to a certain fluffy chocobo headed SOLDIER, but really, it's only passing and hard to notice with the way she's scowling. The poor Namingway all but fled from her when he handed her the Linkshell with it's brief description of how to use it, and she's now got it flipped open, on video. She keeps glancing down -- probably looking at the map on the bottom screen, and she's walking fairly fast. ]

This had better not be some kind of sick joke. I have to get home.

[ A slight pause -- and she mutters to herself, barely audible. ] I think.