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]

[...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...]

[fivestagegod]

I mean, I'm not going to tell people about that, but I figured you wouldn't mind it too much.

[shieldsister]

Smart move. Some of them wouldn't approve.

[see you get her!!!!]

[fivestagegod]

Some of them are apparently more merciful than me.

[NICE PEOPLE SAYING WONDERFUL THINGS.]

[shieldsister]

This way seems satisfactory for everyone, so it's not as though they need to know any more details.