bellelurette | Epilogue

Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Your stopped time has restarted. Whether you were in the grassy field or fighting for your life on the castle grounds, you'll suddenly find yourself in an untouched area of the gardens. Ish is back, and so are the items, and the dead.

You return to Chateau Ambregris with the certain knowledge that come Monday, you will greet a new week, in a home of your own choosing. No longer will the chime of the clocks hunt you down, no longer will the oppressive scent of roses haunt your senses, no longer will you be forced to watch the death of those you've come to love and hate.

Parting is such a bittersweet sorrow, isn't it?

Make merry one last time, in this castle of illusions. Ironically, your memories of this stolen time that never existed are the one thing that will truly remain to you.

END NOTES

🔮 All dead are revived as tsukumogami! Congrats on your immortality(?)
🔮 Any other contracts made with Ish will be honored
🔮 Characters may choose to leave for any world they desire.
🔮 Time has not passed while you were stuck in this loop!
🔮 There will be no cross-dimensional world travel, except for on Samhain (Witches New Year October 31st/November 1st). On these dates, Ish will enable everyone to visit each other's world freely.
🔮 Universal Communication will be possible, courtesy of Manba and Ish. Everyone who wants one will be given a small fox that can communicate with other foxes through voice and video; the foxes can talk and are fairly simple creatures, enjoy them and give them fried tofu once in a while.
🔮 Powers are on for the finale, but Ish will step in and yeet anyone who gets too out of hand back to their homeworld, so play nice! (or relatively nice. )

[OOC: Welcome to your epilogue! The timeloop is ended, the evil has been defeated, and you have some time to catch your breath in the castle before the rest of your life begins! ]

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Ah, Richard...!

[ Hello, sir. One last Primrose chat for the road. ]

I'll be headed back home. I have a friend who needs me, and if we're...going to be placed back from when we were taken, I've got a lot of work to do.

[ To stay alive. To live and to fight against cruelty. That is and always will continue to be part of who An Lili is. ]

What will you and Ayaka be doing?

I'm very familiar with your world.

[Their tone is testy, but not quite biting or hostile.]

...I can't go home. Because there is no home for me to return to. It is just black space.

Time is stopped outside, right?

[ they do have to get going, but if richard isn’t in a hurry, then… ]

We can stay. I don’t know if we’ll ever see a castle as pretty as this one again, anyways.

[ might as well enjoy their time before they have to go back to fighting for their lives. ]

[ Yo, Ayaka! Lili will catch Ayaka with her fox creature, and Lili's got one of her own. Listen, it's too cute to pass up. ]

What's the US like? It's not anything like here, right?

[She swings by the solarium to let the sun hit her face through the windows one last time ... and maybe she'll take a piece of fruit or two. These kinds of exports aren't impossible to get, but aren't they better from the tree?

Andrew polishes the fruit on the front of her dress but pauses before eating it.]

You'll see your brother soon, won't you? For him, it probably won't feel like it took any time at all.

With the... red.

[ Why...... haven't they asked about it before? Well, ]

I remembered how to see color. So it's kinda shocking. It's the same darkness as Raha's.

[ ...? Dark... doesn't really describe the red now, though...

(You're gonna have to learn new terms for that too, huh.) ]

Shiv. Thanks for the help today.

[ She was definitely more biased with...everything that happened around her death, but she won't deny that Shiv gave her an assist. Honestly, a part of her likes that Shiv didn't want to just lie down and die knowing her position, either. She just doesn't like what happened as a result, but there's no ire from her.

And assuming Lili still has the ring, that's being held out towards her. It at least looks like Lili made an attempt to keep it in decent condition over these past few weeks. ]

Did you get to choose this form, by the way? The ring is really beautiful.

You need not say a word, my friend.

[ Urianger's support is more than enough. He'll likely need it much like he did on the First, even if it's a terrible burden to place upon him all the same. He feels... guilty for it, even though he knows well that Urianger is a strong enough man to carry the burden of this knowledge, at least for a while.

At least until G'raha figures out exactly how he wants to share it. At least until he can bear the brunt of pain on all of his loved one's faces at this knowledge. ]

I know it is barely a consolation, but I am not alone this time. That will... ease the burden, I believe.

[ Ease it, but not rid him of it. ]

...

[ When Clover walks in, Lili is also here, tidying up her bed, gathering her belongings. The crossbow is coming with her, that's for sure. She looks a bit mopey on her bed, but when she sees Clover, she perks up a bit. ]

Oh, there you are. I was hoping to see you before you left. Are you getting everything in order before you return home?

... I see. I am glad you are well despite it, then.

[ she does not know how tearing out wings would remove something like a core ... but perhaps, if they are more conceptual, more magic... maybe. ... maybe. ]

Do you think there would be a way to do that with whatever limiters they made for you, as well?

Bradley?

[ That motion. Is he trying to use his magic?

She tilts her head curiously. ]

Is your hand oka- [ and then the booze appears. ] ...oh. That's what you were trying to summon.

[He doesn't look particularly fazed at the approach, and there's no judgment at the guns and blade. Honestly, Sousuke had been meaning to have a talk after Ish revealed the results of the vote, but between everything that had happened post-trial and Junior's lack of responsiveness immediately after, there just wasn't the opportunity.

There isn't any hesitation as he answers, because he doesn't anticipate that Junior will recognize it.]

Mithril. We specialize in counterterrorism operations and military intervention for regional conflicts.

How long are you going to stand there for?

[ Wallflower, meet morose young lady who is insistent on not leaving you alone, apparently?? ]

Come on, don't look so solemn. This is a good thing.

[ But she does sound a little sad. ]

[ Funnily enough,

Siffrin would not count G'raha as particularly dodgy, though G'raha and Loop certainly share that trait. He's always been quite open, in their opinion. ]

... Maybe. They're pretty dodgy most of the time, and always remind me there's no point in getting to know them when I've got my hands full with my looping problem.

[ (Actually.

Would Loop still be around, after you break the cycle? Or... would they disappear?

...

Huh.) ]

But I...

[ ... ]

[ (Oh.

You can do that now, can't you!

You didn't think of it sooner, and everything was-- everythinging before, but--!) ]

I see.

[ wow, seems convenient. ]

I do not have quite the same luxury as you in regards to that, I am afraid. Still ... it would be nice, to have something familiar.

[ just in case she needs something and can't rely on magic! though how the hell she's going to acquire more ammo if she somehow runs through a clip or mag or whatever it is that she's gotta use on whatever she hypothetically picks up is still a mystery. liberal usage of memory editing magic, maybe. ]

Exactly how much would you be charging for them, though, considering we do not exactly have access to money here?

Raha, let me go a second. I just remembered something I wanna do.

[ Wiggle wiggle. Release the beast.

What conversation. ]

( Of course he sits comfortably in his lap, arms loose around Ish's shoulders, a kiss already pressing into his cheek.

He feels good - he feels wonderful; he feels whole. Ish is here, Junior will be here, and the winds fill his lungs like air and he can see and feel as he always has.

It was hard, but he has to say it was a journey worth it, despite the pain. )

We~ll, since you're s~o free, I've heard there's this white tiger that's looking looking for a little bit of fun . . .

( A playful, feather-light kiss on the lips. )

I can't answer that question for you. [For many reasons... but most of them because she's not in this situation.] If you're concerned he'll leverage against you if he finds out, then maybe that's the information that you need.

[It's a choice to condemn a child to a life they'll regret from the start. Siobhan also hasn't said a word about what she did or didn't want. Andrew's already drawn some conclusions that she won't voice.]

If you need resources, I have a doctor who's working with me.

[ Theirs is because they dyed it some months ago and it's been growing out since, but it counts! To them! ]

I think you don't have to pretend too much anymore, though. You've saved a lot of worlds now.

I’ll… do my best. I’m not sure what’s gonna happen when we go back, but I hope I can do that.

[ maybe she’ll regress. maybe she’ll do something worse. she’s not sure, not yet. the future is uncertain as always, but she doesn’t want to let the people rooting for her down.

she’ll give sabo a quick bow. ]

Um… have fun! [ wait, that’s not really the best thing to say, is it? ] And good luck! For both you and your team.

[ she may not know who they are, but she doesn’t find it hard to imagine that they must be important to sabo. ]

[Sure enough, Junior doesn't recognize the organization. Fair's fair, so he responds in turn.]

I'm with the British Library's Special Operations Division. It's supposed to be an anti-terrorist organization as well.

[Well, he'd found out a lot about their goals, lately. "Supposed" was definitely the keyword.]

Ten months...

[ Hm. Andrew's request of him sounded urgent, so crosses his arms, serious look on his face. ]

Is that too long, then?

What a shame that all of this will go to waste. It really wouldn't be missed.

[Andrew is pretty sure she's talking to herself. At least, hopefully, that's what she's doing!

She's got the stuffed capybara under one arm and the fox...thing...under the other. With one last baleful look at all of this wealth that will go wasted, thinking about the inheritance she's about to forfeit, she just kind of...shrugs and turns on her heel.

Though she's trying to jet out of here unnoticed, this top-level wouldn't exist if she couldn't be caught. If she is caught, however, she will say, as if she expects this to be the beginning and the end of the conversation:]

I wish you a long and happy life.

[The same as if it was the Monday after she walked in here. Any conversation beyond that pleasantry might surprise her.]

I have you beat there, but I believe in you!

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Page 11 of 60

Epilogue

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solarium

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primrose

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outside

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wallflower

1/3

2/3

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3/3

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cw mentions of pregnancy, abortion, reproductive abuse. on the epilogue post. i'm so sorry

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pick a room, any room, or even the gardens tbh

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