bellelurette | 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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[ Richard almost instantly winces at that. The callback of the memory she saw about him with his mother is all but a critical hit on him – the only thing keeping him from the floor right now is the unfounded-yet-lingering worry of someone walking into this unfortunate scene. His pride could probably benefit from being taken down a few more notches, but Ayaka...

He murmurs something about still not being able to speak English, but it's more to himself than anything else. There's a bit of a pause as he tries to get any sense of decorum back, before he feels okay enough to pull his hand back from his face. ]

M-My apologies. I'm not sure what came over me. Perhaps...

[ He slowly turns back towards her as he trails off, still red from embarrassment but at least finally able to meet her gaze with his own. ]

Are you... sure? [ About him. About any of this. About what this means for what lies ahead of them. ]

[ ayaka watches richard slowly regain his composure, doing her best to ignore how warm her own cheeks are and how red they probanly look. her gaze flickers away for a second, embarrassment and concern flashing in her expression for a second before she swallows it down like a stone and turns back towards him.

she gives his hand a light squeeze, as if to reassure him— or, perhaps, herself. ]

I’m sure. [ she nods, looking up at him. ] About you and, um… about whatever happens once we’re back in Snowfield. Though I… I get that I put you on the spot right now, I’m really sorry about that… you can say no, it’s fine.

[ she’d understand it. ayaka knows that there’s far greater things that richard can do and far better people to do them with. to be with ayaka is like wading through mud and grime— she can imagine a hundred reasons why he could and should say no.

despite this, she adds: ]

But… I think that if you’re nervous about you leaving once the war is over, I… um… might have been offered a possible solution. You weren’t the only one Ish offered a wish to.

[

At the mention of another wish, Richard's return of the hand squeeze lingers a little bit longer than normal. ]

What does he want?

[ and why is the bloodlust starting to kiCK BACK UP – (no) (unless????????) ]

[ she squeezes his hand back, looking up at him with a serious expression. calm down, lionheart. ]

Seems like him and Hwylryn are already planning their marriage and they weren't happy about me coming alone. [ a beat. ] So that's the price.

[ another beat. ]

It sounds too good to be true and I'm not going to decide what you should do with your life. So I wanted to tell you first, so you could decide.

[ even though he says he's not affected by the influence that she passively exerts, that's not an invitation for her to start doing it on purpose. richard is a person of his own, and deserves to decide how he lives, whether it's with her or returning to the throne. she's fine with either. ]

You can grill him yourself, if you'd like. I only ask that you don't start a fight. [ two vs one with a giant dragon? please don't give ayaka those kinds of heart attacks so soon after this finale. ]

[ He blinks at the mention of marriage, but once he realizes realize who in fact she's talking about, and the confusion seems to dissipate just as quickly as it came. His own marriage was a little wacky in circumstances, he's probably not one to exactly much of a judge of how anyone goes about their affairs. ]

... If it helps assuage any of your concerns, there haven't been any additional conditions to the one I received that seem to have manifested.

[ He eyes the tarot card she's holding for a moment. If she didn't trust any of it, Richard wouldn't hold it against her. He's still a little unsure about how straightforward this all seems to be. But even he's not immune to the idea of all this. He had made his peace with the fact a long time ago that one way or another, he would be going back to the Throne, either here or once they were done with the War. So he honestly hadn't really thought much more about what comes after, so between this and Ayaka's actions the past few minutes...

He looks back up at her, his head tilting slightly. ]

Do you even want to go? I wouldn't want to cause you undue harm simply for my sake.

[ just checking! ]

[ ayaka stares up at him, taking a few seconds to process what he asked because.....really? is he making fun of her, right here, right now?

no, she realizes that he isn't, but a not insignificant part of her still wishes he'd go back to writhing in embarrassment. ]

With everything that I've seen here and in Snowfield, I think I can handle a wedding. At this rate, I'd be more worried about you ending up on the floor because they started getting all affectionate in front of us.

[ yeah she's punching low, fuck you. ]

[ He splutters a little bit at that low blow, as she sort of gets her wish, though much less pronounced than it just was. ]

I-I didn't mean to question whether you could handle it or not! Simply more of whether you were even interested in going or not.

[ like on one hand, that's their weird cat dragon, but on the other hand.... ish. ]

I'm interested. [ a beat. it's not like she has ever been to a wedding. ayaka can't help but feel a tinge of curiosity. ] And if it ends up being too much, I'm sure I'll find a way to manage.

[ she shrugs. mandated socialization sounds like a small prize to pay for what they would be getting and, again, she is curious of how the event will be. ]

And I... don't really hate Ish. I just think he's a huge idiot that should have gotten smacked over the head a couple times. Maybe finding someone to be happy with will help him not do something like this ever again. Same with Hwylryn.

[ she doesn't think that she could ask for much more than that, actually. ]

So yeah, I'll go to their wedding, whether you're there or not, but I think they'd probably be a little happier if you were there, too.

[ Richard hums in response, the knit in his brown softening slightly as he watches her. He's realized that he's run out of room to sidestep the question at hand. He could probably figure out some way to keep going, but before long there's no way he could without making himself look even stupider, or worse, giving Ayaka any wrong messages.

And he certainly doesn't want that. ]

I'm more concerned with your happiness.

[ He reaches up with his free hand to push a stray section of hair behind her ear. ]

If you're okay with the terms, then I'll accept them, as well. Regardless of what happens in Snowfield, I want to see this [ another squeeze of the hand, so there's no doubt of what he means ] through, wherever it leads.

[ Also, he's kind of curious to see what that wedding is going to look like, too. ]

You are unbelievable.

[ ayaka says this with a short, embarrassed giggle, glancing away from richard. she leans slightly into the hand that fixes her hair, doing her best to ignore the fact that she surely must be flushed, if the warmth on her face is anything to go by.

she feels a lightness in her chest, and she wonders if this is what people mean when they say that they have butterflies in their stomach. she has never been one to look forward to the future, because in her eyes, there had been nothing but pain waiting for her. now, however, it was different. ayaka's certain that she doesn't deserve this sort of happiness, but she can't help but look forward to see where this leads them to.

pushing through her embarrassment and hesitation, ayaka looks back up at richard, a bright smile on her face. ]

Alright, I accept. Thank you... Richard. For everything.

Epilogue

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