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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[ Fireworks can be a weapon if you aren't a coward. ]

Borrowed? To help with your time loop.

[ they can be, but now make it more weapon. though imagine the timeline where walpurgisnacht looked like some sort of celebratory display... ]

Borrowed... [ she makes a noise, faintly. ] Might be a good word for it. But... not for the sake of my time loops. Not the way that we were all saying Ish's magic was.

If anything, it is more a memento. My magic lies mostly in memory.

[ Okay, but fundamentally that fucks, so we should let it happen. ]

Like manipulating it? Or you're "empowered" by it, like me and the others are?

[ ... ]

Um, as... tsukkomis. No, tsukumimis. [ That Also Isn't Right. ] We're stronger because of how much history we gain, memories and stories. Which is great, since I have none.

[ The loops they've been through really carrying them, here. ]

[ we can say this happened at least once in all her timelines. ]

... tsukumogami, you mean? All of you are now the same as Yamanbagiri, then?

[ that wasn't just a temporary thing while they're stuck in the castle? well. okay. enjoy being tied to an item. twinsies. ]

But as to your question, it is the first one.

[ which really helps to smooth things over when you don't belong, and all your memories are of a different universe than the one you ended up in. ]

[ Yeah!!!!!! That!!!!! A nod. Twinsies. ]

Kinda wish I had that. I have to be really careful about not moving too fast, with my loops. Or they'll start to get suspicious of me. Odile's the most observant person of them.

[ It's so hard, Homura. But she can understand that at least. ]

If it's a memento... I guess they're just yours, now. Not that bad of a trade off. Maybe. Depending.

I understand that. Saying too much, knowing things you shouldn't ... Being distrusted by those who you called friends.

[ she sighs, letting her gaze fall to the lilies. ]

I apologize. I should have made it clearer, before. Where and when I come from ... the loops are over. The wings, my bow, these ribbons... they and the memories they represent are all I have left of the one whose sacrifice marked the end of them. I didn't have this kind of magic when I was still going back.

[ she just somehow has it now, the nature of it changing upon her entry to the new universe, because she's not good at letting go. ]

[ He knew she'd get it. Little time looper things.

(... Still. You are the only who hasn't figured it out, huh. Or, rather, for Homura... Sacrificed.

You wonder. If you have to sacrifice something, too, after all.) ]

... A friend of yours?

... yes. The loops were, ultimately, to protect her. Just once, I wanted to see her survive past Walpurgisnacht. She always thought ... she would always sacrifice herself, over and over, if it would save others. That was just the kind of person she was.

[ and watching her doubt herself, thinking she didn't have any value or meaning unless she was able to do that...

she's trampled over so many hearts. and in the end;

'no trace of your life on earth, nor a single memory of you will remain anywhere. no one will ever be aware of your presence again, and you will never be able to interact with anyone.'

'what ... are you saying? that this is the ending madoka wished for? you think this is a fair reward for everything she's done? don't be ridiculous! this... is even crueler than killing her would have been...!'

but she was happy. she chose that. she became something more, something great, something shining and bright and made of hope—

(homura has to cling to that: madoka was happy. she was fulfilled.

or else she's failed even more than she ever knew.) ]

It ... wasn't my decision in the end. She erased herself instead. Became something else. She isn't dead, just ... From the beginning of time to the end of it, Kaname Madoka never existed, just the concept that she became. There's no going back anymore when there was never anything to protect in the first place.

[ which is- probably, as best as she can guess- why the nature of her magic shifted. anyone who was a magical girl before still seems to be one in the after. Madoka only made a wish to undo witches, after all, not everyone's wishes. Homura's was just made paradoxical, when there's no Madoka to redo her meeting with. ]

[ ... So she was the cause, and the reason for the time loops was ultimately the solution. Siffrin watches without judgement as she continues, then returns to looking at the red, red, spider lilies.

Lifting a hand to touch them gently, cradled in his palm. Truthfully, honestly-- ]

Raha... thinks that my feelings, might be the reason the world is trapped in a time loop. [ Softly, because. They don't like it. Being a root cause of something so terrible. ] I don't know how, but... it's not the first time someone's mentioned something like that, to me. About when the world flicks back.

[ Because, as she can assume in implication, it isn't always through death. There's other times, too. ][ Awful, terrible, the worst. And yet, and yet. Can one really help it? ]

... G'raha is a scholar, after all. If he thinks so, then maybe ...

[ and if she looks at it through her own frame of reference...? she tilts her head a little. ]

... Is it possible, somehow, that you might have wished for something to cause that without remembering anymore?

[ she remembers a bit, from the end of the carnival where they'd all convicted Siffrin for Ayaka's (and Richard's) crimes.

(she hadn't voted for Siffrin, but that doesn't mean much.)

they apparently know about how you have to be careful with wishes too. ]

[ Wished for...

...

(Had...

....

Had you wished for something?) ]

I remember going to the Favor Tree like everyone else when we first arrived in Dormont, but... I don't really remember wishing for anything in particular. [ Hmmmm. ] Was yours from a wish?

It was. I made it for her, because ... She saved my life when we met. And I never really thought ...

[ backtrack. take a step back, and rewind. ]

... when Walpurgisnacht came, that first time, she was the only one left who could fight it. Back then, I was useless. Weak. [ it's a wonder she survived going out in the storm to look for Tomoe Mami and Madoka. ] I found her, but ... I asked her to run. To do anything other than fight alone and die for it. I tried to tell her that something like that wasn't her responsibility alone, that there was nothing left we could do. That no one would blame her for not trying to fight an impossible battle.

She just smiled at me. She told me she was happy to have been friends, that saving me was one of the things she was the most proud of ... and then said goodbye.

[ ... ]

I wanted to try to repay that kindness, somehow. Some way. I wished she could have lived, somehow, because it wasn't fair that she didn't, and that someone like me was still alive instead. I wanted a second chance. I wanted to be strong enough to protect her, the way she protected me.

But there is a being in my world who grants these desperate wishes, and it was in their interest to have these wishes turn against the ones who made them. None of us knew that back then.

[ (...

You understand far more than you want to admit. Helping everyone out with their issues, making them feel more free and closer as a whole, the atmospheres at snack time far more light and... like a family, a family you chose, a family you don't want to leave and don't want to leave you--

Each and every time, you go through the steps. You know it doesn't get you any closer.

You help Mira find her own way of changing, without changing. You know what she needs to hear.

You help Odile learn more about familytales, an unknown history. You share an understanding of being "outside".

You help Bonnie overcome their frustration at not being able to help more, without putting themselves in danger. You never blamed them a day in your life.

You...

...

Isa didn't need help, only wanted your time. You look forward to it the most.

But you know there's no progression, when you help them out. All it is... is for your own sick pleasure, to be loved for a moment, to be deserving of that love. To repay their kindness at first, and then to take advantage of the fact you can. You wonder if Homura ever felt the same, or if she was better than you.)

Siffrin's thoughts are silent and many in the wake up Homura's words, and their hand leaves the flower to rest in their lap as they get comfortable. ]

Wishes are tricky things. [ Something they both know, something they can both agree on. ] There'd... never be a day, that she wouldn't sacrifice herself, and so... you were stuck. Becoming stronger each time, but never strong enough to stop the inevitable. It always, always, had to be her who was left. Who could stop it.

[ The softspoken grief of understanding lines his words, because-- yeah. Yeah. ]

Your wish... must've been a boon, for that being.

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.

[ Protect the memory of her, and her sacrifice, huh. Siffrin glances over at Homura. ]

... Memories are tricky things. There's an island that suddenly disappeared from the world, and everyone forgot about it. Anyone... who went there, too. [ ... ] My island. My home.

[ "Orphaned by the world," Hwylryn had once said. He wasn't wrong. It pains them now and forever, evident even in the strokes of pain in their softspoken way of reply. ]

I've forgotten a lot about it, [ the language and customs, the people and things they did, ] but I still remember a bit from time to time. The Universe. Stars. How we take care of our dead, and what the island looks like, kind of. My cloak and hat are from then too.

[ Physical pieces, wrapped tight around him always. He plays with them hem. ]

As long as we remember the things others don't, those things still exist. Even if you can't see them or return to them, they're still there. Her bow, her ribbons, her wings, her magic... are proof of that. You're proof of that. She's still there, even if she can't be seen. Because she's with you.

Mmm. That is what I'd like to think, at least.

[ that as long as she doesn't forget, something yet lives on. that as long as she holds fast to her resolve, to what she knows (?) to be true, in spite of reason or logic or what anyone else says, all of it was real once.

but memory can be such a fragile thing. ]

Though ... An entire island and the memories of it just ... gone? How does...

[ what kind of wish manages that? and, moreover— who makes it? was it even a wish, or is this— something else? ]

... I see. You also do not have anywhere to go back to, do you? Or, rather, not a place, just...

[ just people. orphaned by the world, indeed. orphaned by time, by memory, by the void of their own making ...

really, what is the difference between them? ]

I'm a traveler, after all. [ Though it's said wryly. ] We don't belong anywhere or to anyone but ourselves.

[ No, they don't have a home to return to. It's why not once have they ever referred to returning to Vaugarde, to their world, as "going home" unlike others -- it isn't their home and, unfortunately, would never be.

(Your home has been swallowed by the sea by anyone else's measure. Even if you can see it on the horizon, sometimes.) ]

... My family members aren't waiting for me, since they don't realize I'm gone and they wouldn't remember even if I was. [ Timeloops, and all. ] I like it when they love me. I feel like I belong. But it's just a farce.

[ Of their own making, their own direction, loop after loop after loop. Siffrin shakes their head. ]

They're good people. I'd like to be one of them.

[ Adrift in a world that's forgotten what home ever was... ]

... Those who I have been both friends with, allied to, and aligned against on varying occasions are the same. Whenever I rewound time, it would take me back to a point before I met them.

Each and every time, I would be starting anew.

[ After all, she made a wish to redo her meeting with someone, didn't she? She got exactly what she wished for. ]

... I was friends with them more often, in the beginning. As time went on, though ... I suppose I just got worse at not seeming strange, or suspicious. They didn't know me, so of course I would steadily grow further and further away from them.

[ ... an echo of the thought she'd had, when Siobhan Roy had first revealed Ayaka and Richard's deed to all, and the ensuing commotion: ]

If you want to stay with them, though... I suppose I should just say this. Don't let everything that's happened change you more than necessary.

[ (You feel like it already has.)

Siffrin lets the quiet answer for them, heavy with a grief the two of them can share, before they pull from the topic at hand. ]

Do you have any hobbies?

[ Pretty abruptly, maybe, but

(you don't want to linger) ]

[ ah. well.

she can understand the need to simply drop a subject. she's done it so often, though unlike them she doesn't typically offer a replacement in the previous one's stead. ]

... I enjoy theater. Ballets. Plays. Music and instruments... that sort of thing.

[ not quite the same as how miki sayaka did, does, did, but all of it is integral to the overall experience, after all. ]

For quite some time I was ... more or less bedbound, too. Not entirely, but... [ rather than elaborate, she pivots. ] I read a lot back then. Literature, stories, fairy tales.

I like theater, too. Watching and reading plays... is something that I came to enjoy a lot, while traveling. I think it's neat. How seamlessly they can become someone new, like putting on a mask. [ A quiet huff of laughter. ] I'm not that good of an actor myself, though.

[ A better director, strict if nothing else.

... But acting is something they've had to practice, to a point, even if it only serves to worry others. ]

Do you have a favorite? Story, play. Book or tale. I like heroics, adventures, poetry...

... Making something new of and reinventing oneself as needed, right? It is an admirable skill.

[ Becoming someone new, putting on the mask, as they put it. And then, when the role is no longer needed, putting it away just as easily. Maybe it would have been easier for her if she was so skilled an actress. ]

I don't know about a favorite... but I do enjoy Swan Lake. I told another about it, actually, not long after we'd all originally arrived here.

[ She tilts her head a little, thinking back and amending the way she'd described it then. ]

I suppose it would be a drama. A romance, but a tragedy with ... typically, but not always, a bittersweet ending. There are differences and variations in the ending depending on what the groups performing it choose to depict.

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Epilogue

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my html...... not that i remember what was there anyway.

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