"Look, Sheriff...let me try to explain. Did you serve overseas?"
"Viet Nam."
"Okay, so maybe you can appreciate this. You go to another place that's really another world. There's similarities, but there's so many differences too. Different plants, different animals, different people. Takes a while to get over the shock, and that doesn't even allow for what you're there to do.
"You meet people. You kill people. Sometimes you have to figure out which is which. And all the while you're wondering if you're ever going to see your home again. It's insane.
"And in the middle of all that insanity, maybe you meet someone. She doesn't quite understand you, and you don't quite understand her, but what you both understand is that maybe you can find some sanity between the two of you. Her home is under attack, and your home is like a million miles away, but there you are, and you each find a kind of home with the other.
"And then it's time to come back. And by that time, maybe you've married this woman, so you bring her back with you.
"And it turns out it's hard. For her, it's a whole new world. Everything's different. Back where she came from, there weren't all the cars, there wasn't all the TV, there weren't all the big buildings...hell, there might not have been running water. And there weren't all these people who don't look like her and who keep seeing she doesn't look like them or act like them.
"As for you, the world you come back to is the same, but you're different. The people do look like you, but they still look at you like they don't understand you. You've seen things and done things they can't really get. You've killed people. You've had to try real hard not to get killed. You no longer really get what people here find important, and they don't really get what you want or need.
"So it's just the two of you. The world over there is gone, the world over here isn't quite here. So your world is what you and your wife make between the two of you. Your home is her and her home is you, whether it's in a tent or a park bench or someone else's couch. You're the only people who really understand each other, and people see that, see how you orbit around each other and cling to each other and do your own thing, which doesn't really fit what everyone else does.
"And that's fine with you. You've got each other, and you've got your love for each other, and the rest of the world can just go fuck itself.
"Does all that make sense?"
"Yeah. I get all that. That's not the point. Your wife isn't from Viet Nam. Is she?"
"...No. No, she's not."
Echoes of Home: A Final Fantasy XIV story.