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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cw suicidal ideation mention

[coldseep]

( Hmmm...

He was already on his haunches (kind of like when a cat is parked on the floor), but he seems to shift, so he's on his tummy - the elevation difference isn't significant, but he does drop a few inches, sure.

Then he seems to lower his head a little bit, so he's not looming over Sariel so much. He wants to remain a dragon right now, but he's trying to be a little less imposing... for once... )

... I'm sorry.

( The tone is sincere, even if the expression is vague. )

You were very fearsome and powerful. And you continued, despite everything. And I thought...

( He trails off here, considering. He shouldn't say he didn't mean to scare Sariel - it's true by technically, but that's a little deceitful to say: Hwylryn was going to kill him regardless of how he felt.

Hwylryn doesn't really want to deceive about these things. This murder was the foundation he's building his family life upon - he ought to be proud of it. And he has to accept what he's lost in so doing. Wasn't that the point of his exercise?

... )

... I think... I was hoping that you'd kill me. And so... in some way, I got excited. Even though that was cruel to hope from you, too.

( He wishes it were as simple as dismissing his desire to die the moment he began this plan - or, even now. He doesn't know when this will go away, if it ever will.

It's... complicated, and Sariel is a simple creature. He didn't deserve to be wrapped up in it. )

[antline]

[He listens to it all. He listen to every word. He looks at the face of the dragon, and sees the way it bows its head, lowers to his level.]

[And just like that, the tears come, as messy as that of a boy crying in the rain.]

Why would you want me to do that-?! I don't want to kill you. I never wanted to kill you.

[His voice is wet, and breaking, and he's falling apart, he really is.]

I... wanted to live.

[coldseep]

( Oh, no... Don't cry... it'll make him want to cry, too.

Hwylryn is short on expressions in this form, but what serves as the closest equivalent to the ridges of his eyebrows seem to emphasize, as if he were furrowing them, troubled - a habit picked up in reverse from his time spent humanoid. )

... The love I know is scary.

( Perhaps the simplest way to put it. A bad match (for most people, ever). )

How you chased me was how my brother used to play with me.

( Fortunately, Sariel missed Hwylryn traumadumping on #gen during trial about that. It wasn't exactly the same, no, but... )

... But... I knew in my heart your love isn't like that. And I forced it on the both of you.

( Even beyond the chase. With the whole series of murders - all of it. He knew he shouldn't have dragged Sariel into it, but he chose to. And for this, he has no excuse, even if... that fact makes it that much worse. )

[antline]

It is...scary.

[It was so scary.]

It reminded me of when I was...taken over by the void. The darkness. I...wanted to destroy. And you were like that feeling all over again.

[He had lost himself, became a tool, became that terrifying Executioner. He moves to wipe away his tears, lips still trembling.]

You deserve...something. That isn't so scary.

[coldseep]

( Ah... He feels sad, for Sariel. His hearts aches for him, just as it had before he'd done all these things to him - even though he's the source of Sariel recalling such a miserable part of his life.

What he doesn't expect is for Sariel to extend that kindness back to him, despite everything.

Hwylryn is quiet for a few moments, before Sariel finds what tears he's failed to wipe away drifting from his face - and dispersing into the air. )

... I think I've seen it here. ( Has been given it, even - from so many people. ) But I was scared of it. The dark is all I've known.

( He's scared of a lot of things that are unfamiliar to him, deep down. Maybe it was so easy for him to twist into the mirror of Gwawlyn as he is because his heart was the fragile one between them. )

... Have you experienced kinder, here?

[antline]

I have. Through many.

[He starts, stops - something crushing in his expression, even as the tears fly off and disappear. He finally looks up at the dragon.]

I gave kinder to you, Hwylyrn.

[And he returned it in that way. With a hand in the hair and heels digging into his cracked chest.]

How can you be scared of something that warm?

[coldseep]

( Sariel is like this, huh. Soft, and then - something firm beneath. He'd found as much when he'd killed him; he meets it here, too. Perhaps he'd have recognized it before, if he'd looked a little more carefully. )

You did.

( He can't apologize, not really, but he can acknowledge what has been done.

The question, though . . .

He shifts, seeming to settle into himself, seeming neither anxious, nor certain. He's a wondering thing in between - someone who drifts and has never had a place to stop. It might feel better to be killed by someone who knows themself.

He knows he's not the only one. And yet - why do any of them feel so at a loss when they're faced with it? Mmm, if he thinks of himself as Balthazar, and he had to explain to Balthazar why . . . )

... Because I know that hurt, and it's my own. I know its name, and I can say surely that it loves me, and I can tell whether I've gone too far or not. But here... there's so much uncertainty. I can't tell when I've messed up, or when I'm going to... I don't know what's going to last, and what's going to pull away.

I like it. I do like it. And... I want to treasure what I've found; what remains.

( It's different than what he's known before - where he has dipped in and out of people's lives, superficial and defined by what he was. )

But that doesn't mean it's not scary, still. It's a stranger, still. But one I'm coming to know.

( ... )

It wasn't scary for you at all, when you were freed from your role? Were you content from the start?