Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

Thank you.

For those inside the system the voices of the Great-Seasons ring out around them once the red mass has vanished and the blue plinth it was smothering is freed once more. They don't have all that much time to reflect on that before they find themselves waking up once more in their bodies around the tree trunks.

Or at least, around the tube that is the Great-Season they entered through. All illusions have vanished now, all that is left are pipes and metal.

The Great-Seasons allow them passage out from the centre, no sentries or pipes attack them this time. Everything seems to have been put to rights, the walls in the Autumn sector have stopped moving, there is no strange weather effects in the Summer Sector, no engineering problems in Winter and all the camaloid creatures in Spring are calm. Any Helpmates they come across are doing their jobs and no longer malfunctioning.

After a small amount of time, enough to check that all is well, their SCA's light up. All Passengers are to return to the Voidtrecker Express.

Considering the vast distances involved it is probably best that they use the evacuation function to return to the Luggage carriage.

Once all Voidtreckers have returned the train returns to the Void once more.

Comments

[unfavorableinstigation]

And Nita does her best with her mere two hands!

... She could probably cheat with a wizardry or two, in hindsight, but that wasn't really what either Kaseri or Amar were really after, anyway.

/If you want scritches in other places, you're going to have to move, you know! If I fall out of this chair, that means none for either of you./

Well, if they wanted to keep things fair.

[light_of_willpower]

"We're definitely holding on to this while we have it." With determination in his voice, tilting his head up to kiss her forehead too. Sealing it.

[nutkrusher]

"Yeah," Cassie says. "We definitely are."

She lets the moment breathe, lets them give themselves time to feel one another. Lean against each other.

Then, she pipes in: "I might...I think I'm gonna ask your mom to look at how void travel works. See if it'd be possible for us to...well."

[light_of_willpower]

"If anyone can do it, she probably could." Trunks murmured, with complete faith in his mom. "And if she can't, well... I'm going to hold onto my time here, and you especially." Nuzzling her forehead, before pulling away enough to lead her to one of the benches so they could cuddle there.

[nutkrusher]

"In the meantime, I might as well give it a shot."

And in the meantime, Cassie is all too happy to follow him to the bench, and cuddle with him for a very long time.

[magicurls]

"...I wish she hadn't been sucked into it, but with me gone. And Akemi-san was capable and strong, but Kyubey would need a new partner."

Mami still feels a twinge of guilt about that.

"I'm so sorry. I always wanted to reach her again...I miss her so much. And I wish I could've been there to guide Miki-san too. I was never the girl I could've been."

But she forces herself to swallow the tears. "Thank you for telling me all this. It's...better that I know I need to guard the gem with my life."

[magicurls]

"Yes, both...it seems. Madoka never seemed happy with him. She's seen things past my death...my second death, not when I became this."

A quiet admission. "I don't know if someone whose soul is shattered gets to move on. Probably not. But I'm still here now, and...I have a small slice of something to fight for."

[magicurls]

"...oh no, I could never."

That gets a tiny laugh from Mami.

"While I might not need proper nutrition...cake is rare and precious, given our supplies. I can't hoard all of it for myself."

But she does take a bite of bun. It still tastes as good as she remembers.

"Thank you, though."

[knifewithnoname]

Wow. Even when she was having a crisis Mami was still so... So good. Bright. Light.

It was almost sickening. Honestly if she had found out she was a lich she would have eaten all the cake she could get her hands on and stabbed anyone who got in her way. Yet here was Mami, still thinking of others.

"That do be being good of you. But I do be thinking no one will be begrudging you a little bit of extra cake."

[worthallthis]

It helps that what issues Soldat has left, they're very good at masking unless specifically set off by something. And Inigo hasn't had the chance to see that yet. Lucky Inigo.

"I was very lucky that the people in Beacon were kind," they agree soberly, and turn off the stove. The soup is plenty done, now, and it's time to eat. At last. "If they weren't kind, and didn't want to help me. It could have been very bad for me."

[controlsthedie]

"Might as well. The worse that can happen is that I don't get an answer." Thanatos doesn't seem very hopeful. It's feels dangerous to hope, and honestly, Thanatos isn't sure how much more he can take in such a short period of time.

And then Zagreus arrives.

[controlsthedie]

"... What's an AI?" Thanatos looks at Devero blankly. "Is that like a charioteer?"

If Devero hadn't figured it out already, Thanatos is from a time before most of this technology. There are some things he knows, but others....

[its_dad_sanzo]

And Koumyou's grabbed, and dunks himself under to shove at Otoha with both hands. Excuse you!

Though he's amused by it all, as evidenced by the way he laughs even below the water, bubbles racing for the surface.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Afraid so!"

Sorry Inigo, Koumyou has no problem looking like a total airhead.

[bakegarasu]

He's clearly laughing, too. He surfaces and keeps laughing before he finally manages to calm down a bit.

This is what firends are like, right?

[runsfast_rollsfar]

It was hard to say. The creatures that were mutated by the Malaise were unaffected by the darkness miasma that existed in the forgotten Sepulcher, but the Crypt Demon refused to enter and his bodies were absolutely chewed through. Felt a bit like a double standard if you asked Prisoner. Prisoner had no way of telling either way if the creatures slain were shades, though, so maybe?

Prisoner listened to what they were saying. There's a certain parallel at what they described as Beacon and Prisoner's own island. He reflected over this as Soldat continued. He looked to Soldat as they explained that the ones with the green eyes are what wanted to hurt them at Beacon. It was curious.

As much as I'd hoped that nobody had a similar experience to my own, there is a level of comfort in some of the parallels between Beacon and the island.

Once Soldat's had the opportunity to read that, he types more.

Violence I understand - the monsters of the island were relatively mindless, attacked anything that moved - but make you more like them as in transform you? Is that a thing they could do?

[luckydragonsfoot]

Both of them freeze.

They trade looks.

Kaseri's horn glows, and somehow, Amar's wool has become a larger cushion.

NOT FALLING OUTTA THAT CHAIR NOPE.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Ah, the smell of teamwork in the afternoon.

Nita tries to suppress her giggles.

/Thanks, you two./

The scritches continue in safety and comfort!

[firewalled]

It's enough for Rich to know that she's thinking about what she heard, so he gives her a careful smile, hopefully encouraging her to think about it. He assumes that if she has more questions, she'll ask them.

"Ah. I'm sorry it's the same for you." He feels like maybe he should stop rambling about his sad life, but he still shakes his head.

"Nah. I couldn't afford it, and my dad didn't really take that stuff seriously. I... that supercomputer that was in my head sort of helped? But it wasn't worth all the other crap it put me through."

[azrthmtrnznthos]

Raven gave a soft sigh. He likely wasn't even aware he was radiating very little but gloom and despair. And normally, she wouldn't mind except he'd been doing it for a while and it wasn't just like the usual 'background noise'-type emotions she could tune out.

"This way. What were you pulled from, when you arrived here?" Because she might as well ask, while leading him to one of the ICPs.

[irrationally]

"I don't think putting a computer in your head really sounds like a good solution to anything, anyway."

Not that Alice can fully grasp the concept, even now, but from her own experiences, she just knows she greatly dislikes the idea of anyone messing with anyone's brain. Nothing ever good comes of it.

If anything, she feels like the people at the asylum probably would have tried the same with her, if she had lived in a world where computers were actually a thing.

"Your mind should just be your own. As should anyone's."

[flatteries]

Even if Soldat may not be the same person Inigo knew before, he still can't help but offer up some silent gratitude towards the people in Beacon in his heart. No version of them should have to suffer - or suffer anymore than they have already, anyway.

But that's exactly what Inigo is trying to make sure of here. Even if said suffering might only currently be as bad as 'dropping asleep in the kitchen'. But still.

"There are a lot more kind people around than the world sometimes makes it seem like," he says, a small smile on his face.

Inigo knows what it feels like sometimes. That sometimes there's so much evil in the world that it feels hard to feel the light. But he won't stop chasing it.

"People must have been nice to you here too, right?"

[flatteries]

What does he even say to that.

Inigo doesn't want to seem like he's lecturing something much older than him, but.. But..!! He's pretty sure it's in Koumyou's own best interest to at least tell him this much!

"M-Milord, you really should be paying a bit more attention to them! Things can get really dangerous on these missions, you know? I wouldn't want you to be caught off guard." At least he does mean that last part. Inigo doesn't want to see anyone hurt, it's why he's saying all of this in the first place.

[happyends]

Madoka kind of wants to say that maybe they'll be here one day too, Kyouko and Sayaka. But she swallows those words up again before they can leave her mouth, not wanting to give the other girl any false hopes. After all, Madoka has been here for so long now, and Mami is the only person from their world she's seen during all that time.

So instead she just focuses on the last thing Mami says. The most important part.

"We'll keep it safe together." Because of course Madoka is going to help. How could she dump all this information on the other girl and let her deal with it by herself? She's so sure about this that - for once - she doesn't sound terribly insecure about it as she speaks up. "That's what friends are for, Mami-san. It doesn't change a thing to me."

[worthallthis]

Soldat reads the first, then unwinds the metal hand to pat Prisoner's wrist, lightly. They get that. The first time they realized someone went through some of the same shit they did, it had been mind-blowing, and horrifying, but at the same time a weird kind of relief. Probably hadn't helped that the first person they had that experience with was a kid, though.

"Technically, yeah. Because I'm tied to this." They pat their lantern, next, then tuck their arm back in under their chin. "When that is damaged enough. Or destroyed. I would become like the other spirits in Beacon, if the lantern was not recovered or repaired. So. We could have become like the green-eyes. They did. Experiments. It was bad."