WEEK SEVEN: ENDGAME

[saturations]

ENDGAME

Sunday morning starts peacefully enough. After the events of yesterday, it was probably a relief to go about your evenings, reveling in the presences of your friends and loved ones, grateful to be alive and well. Everything is quiet until around noon when alarms start going off on your phones. It’s a gentler sound than the noise that once alerted you to the executions to take place on Sundays. You can always ignore it until 1 PM, but then you’ll blink and find yourself back in the Central Node once again.

The color in the node seems a little brighter as the archway where the Tree once stood continues to shimmer. The fog has gently blown back, revealing an opalescent area just past the entrance. It’s warm and it’s inviting, little tears in the air around it showing off different places you may know as home.

You get the feeling that perhaps, finally, the Prism has listened to your wants and desires. Nothing is forcing you out right away, though nothing is making you stay either. The clock from the Tree continues to tick, counting down to twenty-four hours from now.

The Prism isn’t what it used to be, though all of the nodes have reverted to somewhat pleasant locations albeit drab. Take a tour of places you haven’t seen before, or say goodbye to the places you grew fond of in your time here.

Take your time to say goodbye. There's nothing stopping you from going to someone else's world - but you'll find you need to be careful. The Prism is a delicate thing, constantly in need of balance. You'll need to maintain it, if you're going to use it to go from place to place. All it takes is color - something strong, both positive and negative. When you come through to visit other worlds, you have to offer something that you have faced from home, big or small. A good day, the happy vibes from a birthday party, the sad vibes from a funeral, the pain of an injury. Coordinate, and take care of the space you have cultivated. It's your responsibility now to make sure the Prism doesn't try to hurt itself in its confusion.

You could even stay here if you wanted, now that the Prism’s cleaned up again. You'd slowly forget, just like the Residents did, but it'd be a long process. You could live a normal lifespan in peace.

Or don’t. So many of you are ready to return from where you once came. And that was never really the point, right? You have to face the music. It was always about taking your problems head on, and not running away.

Your phones will still work no matter where you go. You may not always be able to be together in person, but you'll always be in each other's contact lists.

As for your Residents, both current and past? It seems that Thinker, Revenge, and Scout have all vanished, their items mysteriously missing and pieces of themselves left to be regained. As for Dreamer... you don't know what happened to him.

For the living Residents, well. Fret, Rindo, Caduceus and Ei have a decision to make, too.

Make good choices, now. Balance is key.

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Comments

[aitou]

[RUNS UP FOR A TACKLEHUG]

[fretbro]

[i love that yasusada is NOT having fret be a moody boy

he squawks and probably gets knocked down, laughing]

[aitou]

[LISTEN he can still be moody but!!! For now it is hug time.

It's good to hear him laugh, though, even knowing that he's got to be feeling so many complicated things.]

Are you staying a little longer?

[fretbro]

[he's never going to say no to hugs]

Yeah, just a bit. What about you?

[aitou]

Probably. We'll want to make sure everyone goes safely.

[


they won't kill dreamer after everyone leaves, but only because they don't want to fuck everything up again]

[fretbro]

Nice of you.

[...] Don't get stuck here, okay?

[aitou]

[Yasusada smiles, letting go but taking his hands instead and squeezing them reassuringly.]

Don't worry, we won't. Aruji is waiting for us.

[fretbro]

Oh, yeah. Your boss, right? Kinda. Tell him I said hi.

[holds those hands back...] Maybe you and Kashuu can come see us. Once we figure out what to do.

[aitou]

I will.

[But, ah... he hesitates for a long minute, but then he nods slowly.]

We'll ask. It sounds like your world is a little different from ours, [since even though they're both obviously from Japan, Yasusada's pretty? sure??? that humans don't have time travel powers] so I think it might be okay.

[Yasusada's more wary about this than Buzen or Kashuu--but that's because he's the only one among the three of them that's personally experienced the desperate struggle against the temptation to change history. He wants, very badly, to believe that they'll be able to safely meet again--but he's fully braced for the disappointment of hearing "no".

Still, at least for today, maybe it's okay to be hopeful. So, a little more cheerfully:]

Maybe if Aruji allows it, you can come visit us too.

[As if three swords weren't enough to handle already]