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

[onefuture]

...Among other things, but primarily that.

[listen. nobody said he was good at this, and this was gonna be awkward if he tried to avoid it]

I did not make things easy, on all of you, and it was...cruel of me, to try and do such a thing.

[nothingcanstop]

Yeah, it sure was.

[ She's pretty casual about that. Keeps walking. ]

For a long while, I was pretty mad at you. For thinking that'd...make it easier, on all of us. Especially on Mira. ...But, you were pretty scared too, weren't you? None of that was anything like you expected. The trial, the rules.

[onefuture]

[Lif just...kind of goes quiet at that. Listening, not inclined to interrupt Della. Because she has ever right to be mad at him. ...Had? He's not going to assume she's not still at least somewhat irritated with him, and it's by the time they finally get out into the open air that Lif finally speaks up.]

...In a way, yes, but also no. The trial and the rules involved...they were not the terms that I believed we were operating under.

[Lif winds up just kind of looking out into the scenery, expression knit a bit in contemplation.]

It's hard to describe, but...scared isn't the term I would use for it. I don't think, anyway.