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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[distain]

[Presumably, the cigarette also comes with a light. She makes a face at the taste of the smoke, which she really doesn't like. These things smell terrible, but she's still here partaking of them anyway.]

Have you? [By who, Andrew wonders, though she doesn't follow up on that. She doubts he'll say.] I don't care for forced apologies, but I can teach you to do it the noble way if you'd like.

[Just like him, she can't comment on part of the conversation. Is she lucky? There's so much that has changed with the conditions for her body. None of it feels very good at the moment. Maybe, little by little, that impression will change.]

[spotsalone]

The noble way, hm?

[ He's curious, although it's debatable on whether or not he'll bite. ]

It would be forced, though. You've got me there. I'm not a man of regrets.

[ And it all worked out in the end, didn't it? They both get to live, and live better than they would have if he had left her be. In some twisted way, he feels he's done her a favor. ]

But I am glad that things worked out the way they did. You deserve to live as much as anyone.

[distain]

Then I'm not interested, even if you grovel and prostrate yourself.

[It's something that she also knows he wouldn't do, but framing it as so intense a submission is a nonetheless satisfying way to make her intensity and position on it clear.

His magnanimous gift of taking her life from her is not one she'll ever thank him for giving, but Andrew also doesn't want to reward him with vulnerability that would come from explaining her misgivings about immortality.]

I suppose there are many ways to make use of this new second chance, [is what she says instead. That much, at least, is true. All Andrew needs to do is figure it out.] Yes...In fact, I think I may become unstoppable. Our last meeting might have a different ending if it happened now.

It shouldn't mean much, coming from the one who took my life. [She pauses to let that linger, dragging from cigarette again.] And yet I've heard I don't deserve to live so many times, I almost appreciate it from someone who was brave enough to do it.

[spotsalone]

[ He grins. He sees what she's doing there, and he'll let her have that moment for herself. Ultimately, they understand each other. ]

I'd say you're unstoppable already. I certainly wouldn't choose you as my target now.

[ He was in the maze, Andrew. He saw you power carry the rest of the team. He knows, and he's not going to pretend he doesn't.

He does take a moment to study her, though, tipping his head curiously as he does. He won't apologize, but: ]

I did underestimate you. I wasn't expecting you to strike back. And the Bible pages...

[ He laughs, shaking his head. That threw him for a loop. He really had to work to weasel out from under that one—and he does enjoy a challenge. ]

Clever.

[distain]

[It really is strange to hear all of this from the man who killed her, and she still feels no desire to share certain things with him. The thought that they might understand each other even a little is repulsive but feels, oddly enough, more and more likely. At his admission that he underestimated her (but not too much, she thinks; he did succeed), she draws one arm across her waist.]

It's the one thing that I wouldn't allow for myself. No matter how prepared I was for death... [And in the end, she had been prepared and unafraid, though animal instinct and her boiling thoughts drove a spike of uncontrollable panic through her at the end regardless. Though she accepted it, it had been overwhelming.]

I refuse to be trampled upon, to just be erased... I wasn't going to roll over.

[Perhaps that's why, even though she's finding it difficult to adapt, she took to their more powerful spiritual forms so quickly. There was determination wrinkling her acceptance of her death all this time.]