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]

[The first part gets a nod, but it's the latter that has her attention.]

I understand. I was worried about the possibility of him getting along with your employers, but if you aren't returning to them, then that severely limits what he can do. I doubt he can recreate all of this in an entirely different world.

[She isn't going to pretend she understands even half of what was said during that trial, but she at least understands that this setup isn't simple and easy. At the very least, the Professor won't have access to the funding he'd need.]

Knowing that he'll die there is good enough for me. As long as he can't cause problems for anyone else like he did us, that's what matters.

[...though if he gets ripped apart by zombies, she is totally fine with that.]

[fivestagegod]

We don't have the technology - or the magic - that would be necessary for him to do anything like that again. It was beyond me just looking at it, and I'm not really interested in aiding the whole petty thievery thing.

He seems pretty used to having an obscene amount of money. I'm admittedly pretty well off, but nowhere near what he's used to, and everything will have to go through me besides.

[So, yeah. He's not entirely sure he can contain the guy, but even if he can't Maelstrom is probably fucked given that he'll have a hard time getting established and he'll also have a bunch of undead to deal with.]

My world is probably one of the better ones to send him to. I get why the people from this world would want to keep him here, but I meant what I said, he feels like our business.

[shieldsister]

That's because he is our business. You were right; we were the ones he dragged into this, so we should decide what happens to him. They can't have an argument with containing him and preventing such a thing from happening again, and if he ends up dying in your world then that's hardly their problem.

[It totally works to their advantage even!! But she at least has the sense not to say that.]

You have my thanks for the explanation. I thought it might be something along those lines, but I wanted to make sure. I couldn't return home without making sure that this can't be repeated.

[fivestagegod]

Yeah. This isn't really... This whole thing isn't my brand of crazy, you know?

[He does a lot of Weird Shit, but not this sort of Weird Shit. He has standards.]

[shieldsister]

I didn't think it was.

[You spent the whole time going "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" at the Professor, so like. Yeah.]

I just want to be sure that nothing like this will happen again. Not to me, or Lif, or any of us here, and certainly not to my shield-brothers back home. I would find a way to track him down and kill him myself if he dared tried to drag them into this.

[fivestagegod]

[Oh my god. Listen.]

Trust me, I'd let you. I don't hate him like most of you hate him, but I'm not dealing with this shit again.

If he tries anything, I'm pretty sure I can take him, at least.

[shieldsister]

[looks birkin up and down.....]

I have no arguments with that.

[.........this feels like an insult to both of them, doesn't it.]

Very well. That's all I needed to hear. The others would have argued it more if they had no reason to believe that, but I wanted the clarification.

[fivestagegod]

...How much were you aware of, anyway? Obviously you saw some things, given that we're talking about this at all.

[shieldsister]

We were only ever able to see the trials. Considering what we saw in them, that was more than enough most of the time.

[It's wry, but it is also absolutely the truth. Your side was a total mess. At least until the majority of people ended up on the dead side, then we became the mess.]

[fivestagegod]

In our defense, no one was at their best there.

[We were not...always...that...]

[shieldsister]

I wouldn't know. Never had to experience one for myself.

[But she's sort of smirking when she says it, like it's a joke. It's fine, she's totally allowed to joke about her own death, that's not morbid at all!!]

[fivestagegod]

I'm pretty sure you thought I'd be joining you over there soon enough. Thanks for the stun gun, by the way.

[He actually did appreciate that much.]

[shieldsister]

I'm impressed you didn't. And you're welcome, I thought it might prove useful.

[fivestagegod]

Yeah.

[He didn't actually use it, but he carried it with him.]

I wasn't expecting you to leave me anything. Letter included. I kind of came to hate that sort of shit after a while.

[shieldsister]

That's certainly fair, given how many people died. I didn't like the idea of leaving nothing behind should things have ended poorly for me, but I hadn't stopped to consider how the rest of you might have taken it.

[aela continues to be kind of a walnut, okay...]

[fivestagegod]

No, I get it. And it's not really a bad practice to be in.

[Mmmm he still doesn't like talking about feelings...]

I just kind of prefer having you guys around, as opposed to stuff left behind when you're not, you know?

[shieldsister]

[...oh.]

Fair enough. Those letters weren't a good representation of me anyway; I've never been good at that sort of thing.

It's good to see you again, William.

[fivestagegod]

[shut up shut up shut up- ]

Yeah. Good to see you too, Aela.

[shieldsister]

[...heh.]

If you don't mind me asking, what happened in your world? From the sound of it, you died there and something happened to your family...?

[fivestagegod]

[It's somehow less weird talking about this with Aela, probably because she's so blunt about it.]

...You know how I mentioned the undead? It's caused by a virus, it brings a person's body back to life. They're not themselves anymore, though. The person's mind, or...soul or whatever, is completely gone, it's just kind of a shell wandering around. They tend to kill people just on instinct to try to eat them, because they don't really care what they eat anymore and people are as good a good source as any.

My employers decided to have me executed for doing something they don't like. I got shot a whole bunch of times with those guns I told you about. Apparently I got infected along the way, I was killed in my lab so there were contaminants around. So I died, went full undead and proceeded to kill my wife and kid before I was brought down.

[shieldsister]

[Draugr are kinda sorta zombies so she can follow this easily enough, and Birkin's always been good at keeping things simple and not getting overly detailed or technical about it.]

I see. [Yikes!!!] So you intend to leave with your family before any of that has a chance to happen, correct?

[Assuming that whatever we're using to go home and manipulate time like that, but why wouldn't it, after all the other bullshit that's going on here??]

[fivestagegod]

Yeah, definitely. I'm not too fond of being dead, you know?

Guess that's part of why I don't hate Maelstrom as much as I probably should. As much as I didn't like it, this whole thing kept me from dying. I'd already been shot by the time he brought me here.

[shieldsister]

It's different from what most of us have experienced, and this does allow you a chance to save your family as well. I can understand that.

[She's very firmly on team FUCK THE PROFESSOR but Birkin's situation is unique and he isn't wrong for not hating the Professor.]

[fivestagegod]

I'm pretty sure I would have been yelling for blood too if that weren't the case. As it is, I do stand by what I said - no forgiveness for the guy that tried to kill me and all.

[shieldsister]

Glad to hear it. I don't care if he doesn't end up dying horribly as long as he's prevented from doing anything like this again. If he isn't a problem for me or my shield-brothers, he can live out the remainder of his life in obscurity for all I care.

[...]

Though I am hoping the undead get to him eventually.

[NICE PEOPLE SAYING WONDERFUL THINGS...]