There's always a lighthouse

[wheremst]

And just like that, you wake up in the basement of a lighthouse in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. There's a circle of 25 pods in the middle of the room, and two more in a room off to the side, and you can imagine who is in which.

An elevator to the side of the room leads up to the ground floor (or to the first sub-basement, if you want to check out the machine that brought you here), where you can for the first time in weeks look out a window and see the sky. Its a beautiful sunny day, with a strong breeze on the grassy ground of the island where the lighthouse stands. Have you ever been this happy to hear seagulls?

You're free. Whatever comes next, you're free and you won. Take some time to relish your victory, won't you? Reunite with friends you thought you had lost, go forth and just... well, enjoy this.

Comments

[shieldsister]

You proved me right, didn't you? Not a scratch on it.

[She is still handling it very carefully despite the relaxed tone.]

[bolderfell]

[Good. She can handle it carefully. It's not his problem anymore. Get outta here, friendship rock.]

Probably because none of it was real. Though don't ask me how that works.

[shieldsister]

[look it's fine, now you never have to think about the weird friendship rock ever again!!]

I gave up trying to understand everything that was happening here some time ago. I'm not going to pretend I understand even half of what you all discussed with the Professor.

[it's too much for us simple fantasyland people...........]

[bolderfell]

[He mastered toilets and that's enough for him!]

I didn't, either, and I was there. If Rin hadn't explained some of it to me already, and Angel hadn't shown me how the... game things worked, I might have just put my head down and slept through that part of it.

[shieldsister]

For awhile, Lif and I had to figure things out on our own. I'm sure you can imagine how well that went.

[...in fairness, they did figure out how to play DDR all by themselves! But is that really an accomplishment.]

You still pulled your weight in that trial, so well done.

[bolderfell]

...Thanks. You know. Didn't much feel like dying in there. Got a lot of unfinished business waiting for me back home.

[Though he did, somehow, get rid of that Fool's Bangle in the weeks since she saw him last.]