ENDGAME/EPILOG

[pandatreasure]

[In the control room, the raccoons float quietly in their pods; none of the wild cackling from before, no raucous mocking—Where did those pesky animatronics go, anyway? Maybe not every question has been answered, but...how much does it matter? The lost souls are back, tangible and whole, though marked still by whatever's done them in. Maybe those scars and aches won't fade, either.

A metric fuckton of experimenting has gotten us to the answer of how to get back to where we belong: the first control room console makes it easy to find the thumbnail of your world, and, when selected, it automatically brings you to twenty two days from moment you were kidnapped from. It's easy to see an image where you should be there and aren't, and simply select it. The program confirms that you'd like to initiate the transport process, and directs you to stand on the glowing platform; have someone hit the button to shut the process down, or it will time itself out in five minutes.

Is the moment you were brought from not good enough? What about the rewards you were promised? It seems as though specifying those offers or threads isn't quite possible, but the console has two options, each manipulable independently of each other: you can control the date and time, allowing yourself to return as though you hadn't been kidnapped at all. You can also use a slider at the bottom to control the quality of the universe you're brought back to, sliding from the carrot to the stick side: A world where everything that possibly could have gone right for you and those you'd want it for does, where every choice and chance resolves in your favor...or one where there isn't a single moment that isn't conspiring to work against you.

It should be that simple, but...none of those are your universes. Trying to go to any universe but the one marked for you, and/or at any point but that three-week span you've been gone, prompts a warning message about a duplicate version of anyone belonging to that world. It asks if you'd like to proceed, and warns you once more by giving names of potential "doppelgangers"—but will not stop you from stepping onto the platform as it twinkles blue light, regardless. Is improvement worth interfering, maybe destroying, the life of another you?

That choice is up to you. For the first time in a long time, these choices are yours.

It's over. Happy graduation day.]

Comments

[loveandwillpower]

...Oh, I guess.

[ It's not like she's married to the bomb idea ]

So were you really dead or just - [ vaguely waves hands ] what was going on there?

[purrtagonist]

[you know what]

I'm not exactly. . . sure? Remember the library Akechi burned down?

We were stuck there. As ghosts, who could only touch and interact with inanimate objects. There wasn't really much for us to do except read and throw coffee beans at each other.

[loveandwillpower]

So you couldn't touch each other? Well, that sucks.

[ He read that letter she doesn't need to spell it out ]

I'd have gone stir-crazy if it'd been me!

[purrtagonist]

[he sure did read that letter she absolutely doesn't have to spell it out]

You've heard of cabin fever, right?

Picture that, only worse. So yeah, we all did go a little stir-crazy.

[loveandwillpower]

[ They're totally gonna be the last ones out so they can bang, aren't they. Destroy this hellscape with the power of love, that's the good stuff. ]

We've all got school fever, if you ask me.

...Man, I'm excited to get back home, but it also sucks that I'm never going to see any of you again!

[ It'd be one thing if she was leaving the country or something, but crossing worlds is like - ehh, it's weird, it's like it's almost not her choice to lose all these bonds she's built up over the last, okay, three weeks, but an intense three weeks! ]

[purrtagonist]

[how do you know they haven't banged already by now]

School fever doesn't have the same ring to it.

[nice try, though]

[his expression softens significantly when she brings up the fact that they'll likely never see each other again]

Yeah. That does suck.

[inhale, exhale. . .!]

But that doesn't mean we'll just forget about each other, does it?

[loveandwillpower]

[ because Ichigo's not back to limping is why ]

We should have yearbooks or something, like they do in America.

[ Minako's the kind of person who's very into mementos. Memories might have to do, in most cases here. ]

[purrtagonist]

[THERE ARE MANY WAYS TO BANG A SHINIGAMI]

You're big into arts and crafts, aren't you? There's always the art room.