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

[bolderfell]

I won't see you later? After, I mean.

[After all this is cleaned up. After they all get where they're going, home or otherwise.]

[lovelikeyou]

I don't know how much I'll be back. There's a lot to do at home.

[Which is true, although the statements aren't exactly as related as one might assume.]

[bolderfell]

...Guess I get it if you don't want me to visit.

[He is, after all, still a thief, and he's not even sorry about it.]

[lovelikeyou]

[Rose winces.]

It's not that! It's just - [oh hey say goodbye to any sort of eye contact] - I can't...no one there can find out about...me.

[No one can find out in general, but that ship's sailed. Rose has started to wonder if Greg might not be as weirdly accepting of it as the people here; after all, he wouldn't really have the context to understand it either. But she can't lose the other Crystal Gems.]

[bolderfell]

[Blink.]

...Is that all?

[He glances back towards the lighthouse, then looks at her again, almost baffled. Knowing what he knows now, her fear makes some amount of sense, but--]

Pretty sure most in this group can keep a secret, you know.

[lovelikeyou]

I couldn't ask that of everyone.

[Literally - what if they said no?]

[bolderfell]

Well...

[Dot dot dot...

Eventually, he shrugs.]

Don't let me tell you how to live your life. Just figure there's one or two here you could trust on a visit. Probably.

[lovelikeyou]

It's not...it's not that.

[Except it kinda totally is, isn't it? She just doesn't like the way it sounds aloud - that she doesn't trust them. There's people here she'd trust with her life...this is just more important than that.]

It's just, I don't...I don't know what I would do. And if the Diamonds ever found out - [She lifts a hand to curl her fingers in her hair.] - they'd destroy everything.

[bolderfell]

...Got a lot to worry about, don't you.

[He nods.]

All right. For what it's worth, you'll probably do okay. No better or worse than anyone else. Let me know if you ever need a thief's help figuring things out yourself.

[lovelikeyou]

...thank you. That's very kind.