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

[philoxenia]

Oh? I'll keep that in mind.

[ ... she's perhaps a little too cheerful when she says that but you know, It's Fine. ]

... So, what happened after she regained her consciousness?

[pimpplan]

[ Again, he's not too worried about it if she somehow did it but MAN is that ominous – ]

What didn't happen? We ended up starting to work to separate the two worlds permanently, which backfired massively. Then it turned out Colette was suffering from a disease that threatened to turn her into a Cruxis Crystal or whatever, so we had to go take care of that.

[ He wasn't glossing over the plot of the second disc of the game because he was purposely trying to avoid talking about things, it's just... a lot to cover, and he's not really sure how much of this she actually wants to hear. He knows she's just being nice, but he's not looking to lose her completely.

He's already trying to figure out how to word what comes after that. ]

[philoxenia]

That's--

[ Turn her into one? ... Yeah, there's that horrified look again. But she shakes her head regardless, and she crosses her arms as she watches him. There's no judgment, just a quiet curiosity, a desire to listen to what's weighing on him.

Softly, ]

You took care of it, I'm guessing... but that wasn't the end, was it?

[pimpplan]

Yeah, she'll be fine now that she's got something for it.

[ He pauses. Oh boy. ]

As far as I know, the others were heading to go take on the kid with the dead sister so they could reunite the worlds. Beyond that, not a clue. Woke up in the simulation around then.

[ Okay, now Zelos is glossing over things because he doesn't want to talk about it. ]

[philoxenia]

[ The pause tips her off, at first. And then the answer. It's the type of answer someone gives when they would rather talk about anything else. It's vague, but... well. She won't call him out on it.

But the look she gives him before she glances out toward the ocean is sharp, perceptive. ]

Hmmm. [ It's considering, and she nods. ] Do you think they were able to do it? Since you've been here, they've probably at least made progress, right?

[pimpplan]

[ Ugh, he's been trying not to think about that. He knows that there shouldn't be any cause to worry, Lloyd and the others wouldn't just give up like that. But given where he left off with them, and what he knew was inevitably coming, it was hard to say with any degree of certainty.

And not knowing kind of freaks him out a bit, honestly. ]

They better have. With how I left them, I don't know if it'll happen if they haven't by now.

[ Maybe Kratos would've been able to help? As much as it pains Zelos to say it... that seems like the only way it'd work out. ]