randangonpa | ENDGAME/EPILOG

[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.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Minako's paged through her screen, found out that about three weeks after she got dragged into Nope's Peak all of her friends except Usagi are dead, what the fuck what the fuck, and apparently Haruka and Michiru are bad guys now, bracelets and all, ssssso she's not. Going to quit the Sailors and become an idol in Hiyori's world after all, looks like they need her AND it doesn't matter that she failed at keeping these people alive because she brought all of them back in the end, she's a true heroine.

She's going right back, of course, and then going right to the hospital where there are real doctors, almost all of whom are not purple pointy-eared child-killers. This is Juuban, she'll just tell the doc she had one of those weird fainting spells that go around every so often and woke up like this. Rei and Ami'll hear the real truth, this is more sci-fi than spiritual but still, Rei's good at dealing with shit. And also Minako's learned a lot about keeping burdens to yourself and can subtly rub her face in it about how it's way more mature to open up about these things. Subtly, mind you, she's not Usagi.

...And maybe she'll look up some dopplegangers. If Ichigo's single in her world, it's definitely worth introducing him to Makoto. It's not all that moral to get a normal boy entangled in senshi business but look, he's not that normal. And Minako is not that moral, not when love's on the line. Love's not the reason why she's going to look up Kaiba, though, anyone that interesting is bound to, like, resurrect an ancient dragon cult or something if he doesn't have real friends around to stop him.

She's got plenty of farewells to make before she heads off, of course, but overall, she's going to label this a happy ending. ]

[Yeah speaking of which:]

Hey! Don't go yet, we gotta talk!

Is it about your cool person list? I'd better be way higher than Ulaz by now!

Not quite.

Why did you kill someone? Was it the motive? Out of everyone here, I really didn't expect you to do that.

[ That's because she's actually good at keeping a lid on her negative feelings unlike most of you dumb shounens, gosh. ]

Well, of course! One person on my team back home dying would've been bad, but she wouldn't have forgiven me for killing someone like Illya just to save her.

Two people dying - the heavy hitters, at that - even if I got to go home at the end, that'd make all my friends and the entire world toast the next time Galaxia made a move! There's no way I'd let that happen!

Right, yeah. I figured you wouldn't kill if you didn't have to because of a motive like that.

...you did apologize for it though, right?

I want to, but wouldn't that be a huge insult? She's got that macho-girl warrior pride thing going on.

[...oh right.]

Yeah, I suppose that's true. The fact that you want to is enough anyway.

[He just. Wants to make sure people won't go out and murder more people needlessly.]

We said hi and nodded at each other, she gets it.

[He nods.]

You'll be alright back in your world, right? A lot of stuff happened here and all.

I've got plenty of support, I've got a cat.

What about you?

[if she wants to become a pretty dragon soldier though, the pay's real good]

Heading out?

I'm definitely not planning to stay!

[ Leaving's gonna be weeeeird after all this time crammed in with this bunch, but at least she won't be waking up to Raquelle's dulcet tones any more. ]

Don't want to become headmaster of the world's worst school? There's all the trash you can eat.

I spend as little time in school as I can already, it's gonna take all my willpower not to skip and play delinquent after this!

Stay strong. It takes a frankly ridiculous amount of money to get out of school attendance requirements, and repeating a year is unacceptable.

Yeah I'm not a good enough student to get away with skipping, either.

[ Ticking off all these reasons on her fingers ]

Uuuugh, and there's the volleyball team, too, and - eh, the Three Lights aren't actually all that next to Hiyori.

[ There's also a math test, which she has forgotten about completely ]

[pay umino or sth]

Either way, you've outwitted a building full of murderers; you can't let compulsory education get the best of you. Just think of the stories you can tell your buddies about your cool scar.

[Listen, Ichigo is always weird no matter what world he's in - so if he is in her world, then he's probably still connected to death and trying to stay out of whatever the hell the scouts are doing.

Regardless, the Ichigo she knows will be coming up to her with a smile.]

Getting ready to go?

[ He's lucky nobody's ever gone after his pure heart, because he's got a good one.

...Okay AKIRA ASIDE but that's a metaphor. ]

Yep!

What are you gonna tell people about your eye? You should have a good story in place, something cool but not too cool to believe.

[ Shifts weight onto one crutch, taps an unburnt area on her bandaged leg with the other crutch. ]

I'm thinking this has to be a cooking accident.

Ooh, hey, Minako!

[STEP CLICK STEP CLICK STEP CLICK soon mae will be home, and there will be healing magic, and she won't have to stubbornly hobble around on one crutch anymore, but that time is not now]

Did you want this back before we head out? [pointing at the hair ribbon, buuut not actually moving to untie it]

ENDGAME/EPILOG

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