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

[hardnosed]

[ Once again, she catches it with the kind of fluid, melodramatic flair you'd expect from a particularly well-animated kid's cartoon sequence! Or something. ]

Not yet. [ charismatic as ever....... ] Until they actually wrap their heads around that machine, it's not like we're going anywhere.

[bolderfell]

Right, right. I meant--after him. Unless he escaped to another world. Guess that's a possibility.

[Transdimensional cop Jasper, pursuing justice across the multiverse...!]

[hardnosed]

[ Yeah, that's definitely what she's pursuing!! That is absolutely it! Also she for sure didn't completely fail to even consider that Maelstrom might have just skipped dimensions in her thirst for retribution, and certainly isn't only thinking over the possibility starting from the moment Therion mentions it...! ]

Maybe. But he thinks too highly of himself — and they wouldn't have taken us at all if dimensional travel wasn't risky. He probably thinks he can hide from us without going anywhere.

[bolderfell]

Yeah. He's got an ego like a tower. Bad trait in a thief. [And a very common failing among them, too. Therion is no exception.] I don't think he'll evade your search for long.

[hardnosed]

I know he won't. [ ... ] Not unless William beats me there and carts him off to his garbage universe. Everyone's a little too comfortable with that idea, if you ask me.

[bolderfell]

[Little shrug.]

Neither one sits wholly pretty with me, if I'm being honest. Don't exactly know how to weigh in when it comes to punishing thieves. So I don't.

[Even ones that have, uh, significantly wronged him, yeah.]

[hardnosed]

... makes sense.

[ She spent a while considering it before speaking, though! ]

It's not because he stole us, though. Not for me.

[bolderfell]

What's it for?

[He doesn't sound like he's taken aback or anything. Just curious. Genuinely interested.]