Epilogue

[lesmodsalouette]

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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[calamitish]

Oh? Thank youuuu for finally noticing!

[ preening. ]

I was always the only attendant who could actually explain things, plus I usually accompanied Norna so she wouldn't get confused or misunderstood.

[ ...it was a full time job. ]

But as for if G'raha knows...well he might! It goes beyond just people who are into romantic literature. It comes up in general research about flowers too. Take for instance you're looking for what uses daisies might have, it wouldn't be unheard of it to find a flower meaning footenote there.

Though the meanings might be slightly different for him, I've found that most of them basically line up.

[calamitish]

[ sighing dramatically!

though he recovers quickly. ]

Spending the rest of my life with Hwylryn and providing for Junior. I'm probably going to need to buy a house...

[vivens]

[ sabo will gently take the fox's paw and give it a shake with a "nice to meet you too!" ]

It doesn't mean that I can't still thank you for what you've done. Responsibilities or not.

[ he'll let you have it. ]

[simulacres]

Somehow, you choosing the domestic lifestyle is more unsettling than the four weeks of weekly murders we went through.

[ and she picked up a head! ]

[cleansheets]

Even though she's leaving you again?

[ Yeah, he's just going to... keep right at it with the inquisition, sorry. ]

[vivens]

[ flutters lashes. ]

No, it doesn't.

[ he says with a laugh and a sigh. he doesn't know richard's situation, but, as far as sabo's concerned, the road the both of them walk is a perilous one where he can only wish their safety. though, at the same time, thanks to how he was "revived" maybe it isn't so bad. ]

But if it was something that could resolved quickly or easily, then it wouldn't be worth the struggle. Fortunately for me, giving people their freedom is worth the long road ahead.

[vivens]

[ as blade approaches, sabo will quick to wave the fire from his hand while flashing him a smile. oh boy, will blade be the first one who he actually tells this to? ]

Not quite off but I suddenly have an "affliction" that I didn't think I'd have to worry about. [ hope that blade can hear the air quotes in sabo's voice. ] Something that some people go to great lengths to obtain.

[ so funny to be talking to blade about this of all things. how being effectively immortal absolutely sucks. ]

[distain]

["All of you have the same condition." She doesn't grace that first statement with a verbal response. Andrew just closes her eyes and inclines her head a little bit, as if the weight of the enormous shift in time is pulling on it. The shock is more pronounced for her than it might be for some others; it's quite a lot more time to deal with than Andrew was prepared to need.]

I will. She won't believe a word of this, so I'll wait until I can prove it. I don't need to be derailed further by winding up in a sanitarium for spouting madness.

[Her life being bound to a children's toy would be insanity of the highest caliber to anyone from Andrew's mundane, god-fearing world.]

My condition may prove useful, but when that's done, I'm not sure how I'll stand it. [To say nothing of years down the line, when she has to face the thought of being once more alone.] How do you? [And it's not purely from her own selfishness - maybe she also wants to know more about him while she can.]

[vivens]

If we cross paths, I'll definitely make sure to do that.

[ and for a moment sabo considers telling dan heng just how hard it'll be to throw away his life now. you know, considering how he's now effectively immortal but decides against it. instead, he'll give him a more muted, perhaps even bashful, smile. ]

Don't worry; I don't exactly make it a habit of going to those extremes. I have a partner of my own who gets very angry with me whenever I am simply being reckless.

[ "simply reckless"... ]

[calamitish]

[ he's laughing, amused. ]

Why's that?

[siffriend]

[ (... You guess you'll have to keep your only eye out for a book of flowers.) ]

Even at the end, you talk so much.

[ And they can't even skip the dialogue because it's new. Not that they would, because it's important now, but. ]

Um. Thanks for the information. Knowing... that they're more or less the same helps. Even if he doesn't know it.

[ It might spark his curiosity... heheh. ]

[vivens]

[ and that fruit is going to be caught by sabo so quickly and hold it against him for a second. ]

It is— [ then cue sabo immediately taking a huge bite out of the fruit then, also, promptly making a face. if he thought it tasted bad the first time, it definitely did not taste any better the second time. ] —but I don't think you'll be eating that for any particular reason any time soon.

If you do, though, I'm curious to know what would happen.

[simulacres]

Saber…

[ her eyes widen slightly again when she hears what the wish was for, genuine shock written across her face. as obvious as it might have been to everyone else, it sounds like she would have been the last to figure it out. never in a million years would she have imagined that he would have spent his reward on something that would benefit her.

she feels… overwhelmed. she looks around, hoping that no one else is watching this, and then back up at saber. ]

You don’t… you don’t have to do any of that, Saber. I’ll take care of it, I promise. Even if I have to buy a new wallet for it or something.

[ she laughs, trying to play it off as something casual… but she can’t. it’s impossible to not be impacted by the weight of this gift. of course, her kneejerk reaction is to want to reject it— she wants to say that she’s not deserving of this and that saber should take it back, but…

fighting against those instincts, she pockets the card and, mustering all her courage, she looks up to richard with a warm smile on her face. ]

Thank you… even if you didn’t answer my question.

[antemeridian]

I imagine it was. It seemed ... so satisfied, those few times I saw it in the wake of another one of her deaths. But you're right. I got stronger, but never strong enough. [ echoed quietly, a confirmation. ] Everything I tried always led to the same ending. Different variations of it, maybe ... but in the end, the same thing.

[ Madoka dies, or Madoka gives herself up. Madoka sacrifices herself, this final time so thoroughly the universe rewrote itself around her, without her. Both, at the same time.

(everything Homura ever did only made things worse. she's watched all of them die so many times she's lost count. try to befriend them, or push them away. support them, or try to horrify them with the truth? work together, or do it all alone.

it was always going to end like this, the conclusion to this story the same as how it all began. book ends: Homura, caught in a hopeless situation, wavering and unsure, and Madoka stepping in to save her.) ]

All I can do now is protect the memory of her sacrifice. No one else remembers that she existed... well. Her brother, a little. I'm not sure how. But even her mother thinks she's just his imaginary friend. So that's why... the bow, the ribbon, the wings, my magic. All of it is hers.

[diel]

[ he leads her somewhere they can sit and enjoy the sun. (for once the garden is not full of death or sin.) where brick edges meet flower beds, it turns out. ]

Hmm. It might be awkward with the phone calls.

[ he takes a seat and urges her to do the same with a gentle tug. ]

He doesn’t know I exist. And I was hoping when he’s awake again - [ when yoru allows him space in this body ] - he’ll think this was all a wild dream. Bad idea?

[simulacres]

[ she shrugs. ]

Then again, between you, Hwylryn, and Junior, you make for an odd enough family. [ so maybe it’s a little less unsettling? she’s not sure— and it’s not like she has a frame of reference either. ]

Protect Junior. Emotionally, I mean.

[ maybe don’t have hwylryn eat a person. ]

[calamitish]

I'd have preferred if she didn't. But...I think this might be better.

[ emphasis on the think, because the hole norna leaves is vast. ]

[vivens]

You saying that much will put my mind at ease. I know just how tall of an ask it is.

[ goodness knows if sabo's fully forgiven himself but he chuckles softly at the "have fun". ]

I'll try not to have too much fun or I might start to give people the wrong impression. [ he has enough opinions about him out there in the vast world and there are only so many other opinions that he should nurture.

and that was going to be all that sabo was going to say before allowing ayaka to run off but then something suddenly occurs to him. wordlessly he'll reach into his coat and pull out a small piece of seemingly normal paper before ripping off a small scrap of it to hold out to her. ] Take this.

It's a called a "Vivre Card" and allows someone to keep tabs on its owner. I doubt it'll work across different worlds, but if we happen to end up being in the same space again, it'll try to reunite with me.

[ depending when/should she take it, she can see that it'll already wriggle towards sabo. ]

[calamitish]

I know, I know. I used to be pretty good at that stuff, you know.

[ just give him some time to shake off the dust. ]

[antemeridian]

... In truth, it was much the same for me. [ There isn't any judgment, whether of their tears or their words. How can there be, when their words are things she's thought about at times herself?

As ever, her tone is soft, steady. Factual. ] In the wake of the universe rewriting itself, that final time ... I didn't have anything left, either.

[ Her final remaining guidepost, the only thing she had left to guide her after...

'The truth is, I think I lost myself a long time ago.'

And then.

And then. ]

... Here we are still, though.

[ Persisting, persisting. Despite everything, it's still you. ]

Has anyone else offered you somewhere to go yet?

[simulacres]

Before all of this?

[ ISH WAS A WIFE GUY? ]

[vivens]

[ wouldn't it be hilarious if the two of the crossed paths in the chapel? i think that's where they should given literally everything that went down that week (trial). however, if they're not in the chapel then they can literally be anywhere else at this point.

especially considering that they're both the type to leave without saying much of a goodbye to others. places to be; people to get back to... nevertheless sabo will chuckle softly. ]

Isn't that what I should be saying to you?

[ not just because of her disease that she no longer has to worry about, of course. ]

[antline]

I'm glad we could solve it, too. I believe most of us have something outside of this world...we want to go back to, or look for. Or maybe we have found something to keep living for.

[A little huff.]

Do you have something to keep living for, Ayaka?

[antline]

Hm. More like you...

What if someone wished to...not battle the curses?

[LOOPHOLE? (no)]

[arbalestrier]

[That was weirdly easy… Honestly, it makes him suspicious (everything makes him suspicious).]

Then let’s make a deal out of it.