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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[frostlight]

[She doesn't answer right away, opting to watch and take measure of him first.]

. . . Yeah. You did.

[Despite her terseness, she speaks truthfully. She has no love for the carnivals as a whole, but Hwylryn's question is telling of what sets the both of them apart from their human guests. Of course, he'd seen it as a game—a bet he'd made in order to determine his lot in life, no matter how extreme his school of thought.]

So? Has winning changed anything for you?

[coldseep]

( He seems happy, genuinely happy, for her assessment - he could whip up a tornado about her, but he'll be good and spare her the theatrics. The air that flows about them, though, is suddenly much warmer, and the way he articulates in the air flares with delight. yay tiamat praise!!!!!!!!!!!!

He can't help it. Her demeanor resembles Gwawlyn and Balthazar enough that her words hold particular weight. )

Mmhm. It gave me a lot to think about.

( The tears finally dry, like a raincloud passed by to reveal the sun. It's a difficult topic, still - he's lost friends, and even the act of doing it has run great cracks along his heart.

But it did help him, in the end. Though that's not an answer he thinks most want to hear. )

I've been worried about the same sorts of things for such a long time. ( Clearly. He cried about Gwawlyn on their first meeting, and how long ago had Gwawlyn died? ) But doing this, I think . . . forced me out of that mire. Not all of it, but enough. I wish I didn't have to do it this way, but . . . I'm glad that I did it, in the end.

At the very least, I think I'll try living.

( Maybe he'll even get to pay Akira and Mithra a visit in the future . . . Ah, he'll feel bad, after what he asked of Mithra, but? He does miss them. )

Has your time in the other gardens changed anything for you? Are you going home soon?

( Not too soon, he hopes. )

[frostlight]

[It's gotten a bit hot here . . . As an ice dragon, she's sensitive to the shift. She doesn't dislike it, though.

Hwylryn seems like the type to linger on things far longer than he should. Tia is different, and Ragnar never lets her forget with all the nagging about how reckless and thoughtless she can be. But it's that same frankness which has her understand that, for Hwylryn, the events surrounding the carnival were an inevitability, and they just happened to take place here.

(Does that make it right? Spirits don't concern themselves with such things. They carve their way forward by devouring one another.)

She shifts her weight, favoring the side that's holding the lantern—one of the models that lives in the palatial resort. She didn't change, no. As for the Spirit World . . . ]

Not yet. I have to return to Aernas first. That was where I was stationed before all of this happened.

[coldseep]

Is Aernas an interesting place?

( He says this, each section of his body slowly twisting in place, running up the line from tail to head, as he rotates piecewise in a half-circle, eventually like to end up upside down. He just seems to be in a good mood, like a cat rolling around on the ground. )

[frostlight]

It's one of the material realms. There's nothing particularly outstanding about it.

[It's got mortals, mostly humans. The technology is on par with this dimension. She can't say that it's exciting.]

But I promised someone that I'd watch over her subjects, and that's what I intend to do.

[coldseep]

( Curiously: )

A friend of yours? Is she busy?

( Tiamat seemed so fixated on the spirit throne, he didn't think she'd sidetrack for something like this. )

[frostlight]

. . . She wasn't feeling well—my summoner. I sent her somewhere else to recover and then took her place.

[coldseep]

( oh nyo

He seems to perk up at that. )

Summoner? ( That sounds kind of like the Sage position, huh? (Hwylryn inadvertently discovering gacha tropes...) ) ... Is she okay? Does she need help? I could ask Ish if there's something he can do.

( If she's important enough for Tiamat to do a favor for, then Tiamat must care a lot about her!!! He wants to help!!!!! )

[frostlight]

[Her face crinkles at the mention of Ish. Right. That guy.]

She should be doing better now. I'd rather not involve more people than I have to.

[It's already a mess with another dragon dragged into mortal politics.]

You don't have to do anything, either.

[coldseep]

( listen tiamat ish may be really bad but hwyl swears he's not that bad-- )

I want to, though. ( But he can't exactly force it when he doesn't know the situation. ) Can I at least call to check in, sometimes?

( 🥺🥺🥺 )

[frostlight]

[One punch to the face and she might call it even between her and Ish.

Knowing how sentimental Hwylryn can be . . . ]

You can. If you speak to a source of ice, I'll be able to hear you.

[coldseep]

( !! )

And can I visit?

( if you give a hwyl a cookie-- )

[frostlight]

[She imagines Hwylryn's showing up like this at Eldepel . . . and it's a little amusing to think about how the nobles might react, seeing a dragon to disprove their theories about her true identity.]

Sure. We can see each other at the Spirit World once the matter of the duchy is resolved.

[Best not to risk it just yet, though.]

[coldseep]

( YAY!!!! )

Okay! I'll bring Ish and Junior along.

( +1's them without permission it's fine )

What kind of place is the Spirit World, anyway?

[frostlight]

[Not Ish—]

What do you mean, "what kind"? It's the realm of spirits.

[That's self-explanatory, no?]