COMMENCE VOYAGE

[bathymetric]

Fun Fact: Did you know the Atlantic Ocean has a surface area of 41.1 million square miles? No reason.

...

There's something uneasy in the air as you come to.

Well, "come to" is an interesting word in this case. It implies waking up, which is not exactly what happens. None of you are in beds, nor are you really asleep in the traditional sense. One moment you're somewhere else, doing something else with your time, and the next? You're somewhere on board a massive cruise ship - maybe lounging on a deck chair by the pool, maybe getting some Gains in the exercise room, maybe enjoying the tasteful décor in the buffet - and you have no idea how you got here or how you might get back. This is not your beautiful house. If you have a beautiful wife, she isn't here.

What you do have, apart from 25 other unlucky souls, is a small smartphone-like device in your pocket with only a handful of things on it: a clock reading 11PM, a pdf of a ticket in your name on a special Atlantic Liners New Year's Eve Cruise, an app labeled Passenger Profiles with some basic information on your traveling companions, and a message:

Welcome aboard, passenger! Please feel free to partake of any of the facilities while you wait for the big event! Remember: when midnight comes, you better make your way to the theatre at the back of Level 1 for the main event! The Captain and the First Mate will be there to take care of you all personally, and to help you ring in the new year in style!

Well, that's a start. But what you do until then, it seems, is up to you!

Comments

[guffawsungraciously]

[Jasper has been doing a reasonably good job of trying to keep his levels of panic to "mild confusion and frustration," because despite... everything, it's how he's coping. Keep... that stiff upper Heliodorian lip. Try and keep your levels of panic under control.

Don't try to think about why... he looked so cold, which was not unexpected, and why his hand was going for the sword at his side and you were certain--

Well. The presence of someone who was there and who participated in kicking your ass beforehand. Just kind of. Brings it all back.

He looks up sharply, looks at the fucking clown, and...

...

Steps away from the rail and begins walking away quickly.]

[hypnowhip]

[Well that sure wasn't the reaction he was expecting.]

Jasper, wait!

[He sounds far more shocked than accusatory as he gives chase. He doesn't want to fight, jeez...!]

After everything that- [ugh] I just want to talk!

[guffawsungraciously]

Oh, is that so?

[HE IS NOT TURNING AROUND.]

Unfortunately for you, I absolutely do not feel like talking at all, myself!

[hypnowhip]

[Wait.

Sylvando nearly falters in his pursuit. Jasper's decidedly less purple now, too. What on Erdrea...?]

Why? Surely you want to know what became of your Master?!

[guffawsungraciously]

[The mere mention of his master causes Jasper to freeze in his tracks and turn around in confusion.]

What...

[...]

What are you even talking about? Have you all even figured out who he is yet, or are you simply throwing some wild guess?

[...]

It is not as though I... did not make it obvious, I suppose.

[He turns away in shame because hoooly shit, what did he expect, begging for his life like that? Why would he expect any mercy?

...

He had... hoped that...

...

...he feels a little sick, so he leans against the railing of the deck.]

[hypnowhip]

[Jasper isn’t the only one who is completely confused here. Of course they figured it out! Jasper should know that! So what is he saying...?

No. As Jasper turns away, Sylvando inwardly asks himself what he was saying. Even if there wasn’t something strange going on with their memories here, that wasn’t the right thing for him to ask Jasper to get him to stop. In his last moments, he...

Tentatively, Sylvando joins Jasper at the railing.]

I’m sorry, Jasper. That was uncalled for on my part.

[Because even after everything Jasper did, he knows what led to it. He knows there was still some hope for him, if things hadn’t had to go they way they did.

That’s what makes this encounter so astonishing.]

Are you saying we don’t know yet, from what you last remember?

[guffawsungraciously]

[WHY'S HE APOLOGIZING. WHAT IS GOING ON. He wants to recoil away but he's...

...it's nice to talk to someone who is actually offering help, even if it's the fucking clown, but what's his agenda, he's got to have...

...

What else does he have to lose.]

Yes. Well, perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps you all actually managed to put two and two together. The...

[...fuck, he's too shaken to be smarmy about the whole DaAaAarkspawn thing...]

Your little leader seemed to suspect you were being followed, at the very least. Did you know, or...?

[hypnowhip]

[That pretty much confirms that something very strange is going on here. Not just the fact that Jasper can even be here standing next to him, but in terms of his own memories.]

Are you talking about back at Yggdrasil? [He shakes his head.] No... We hadn't the faintest clue back then. You completely caught us off guard. That's when Mordegon revealed himself, and...

[He trails off. That really was their darkest day.]

Jasper, are you trying to say things went differently for you?

[guffawsungraciously]

I...

[...yeah, what the fuck is going on.]

"Back then."

[...okay. He'll just breathe a second.]

How long ago do you mean.

[hypnowhip]

Goodness, it was a while ago.

[Weeks? Months? What are JRPG timelines.]

Yet you speak of it like it just happened. Is that true?

[guffawsungraciously]

...yes. Yes, it is.

[what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck]

You... you somehow overcame me, with some sort of...

[...he laughs in that haha, what the fuck, I don't kind of way...]

Well, the Darkspawn thing was really quite ironic, given whatever that greatsword he had was, but...

...you mean you remember me winning there, then.

[hypnowhip]

[THE FEELING IS MUTUAL, JASPER.......]

Y-Yes! You had one of the orbs, and we couldn't even land a scratch on you!

[He just shakes his head in disbelief and offers the dark ocean waves a dazed stare.]

I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. The Luminary certainly didn't have a greatsword with him, let alone one that could defeat you.

This is- How have we experienced completely different events??

[guffawsungraciously]

...

So... I was not...

[He stares out across the sea, completely...]

...I do not understand. How did he get that sword? More than anything, it looked like something that would genuinely belong to the Lord of Shadows. Did he just...

[...]

Did history go differently somehow?

[hypnowhip]

I certainly can't think of any other explanation. And on top of that, I experienced that moment in the Heart of Yggdrasil much longer ago than you.

[But wow, beating Jasper back there would have changed everything. Would they have defeated Mordegon as well, before the calamity could even happen?]

I suppose this must be the work of whoever brought us here...not that it makes this any less astonishing.

[guffawsungraciously]

...This does not even look like Erdrea in the first place. I suppose there could easily be different versions of the same world, if there are different worlds to begin with.

[...it's making a little sense on that end. but. he still sounds really drained when he says it, and even more so when he asks his next question.]

...

So what happened, then. Aside from the obvious.

[hypnowhip]

Well... After you weakened us, Mordegon revealed himself and took the Sword of Light for himself, along with the Luminary's power. [...] He destroyed Yggdrasil and brought a terrible calamity upon Erdrea.

[That day is still difficult to talk about, even now. So many lives lost...

At least he gets to follow it up with something positive.]

But it wasn't enough to stop the Luminary for good.

[guffawsungraciously]

Yes, yes, I figured as much. As much as you try to exterminate them the rats always return somehow...

[GRUMBLE GRUMBLE.]

Can you not skip to what you brought up before? Everything is over already, is it not?

[hypnowhip]

Goodness, as abrasive as ever...

[But no, he'll skip to the end. Otherwise we'd be here explaining an entire act.]

It is, yes. We had defeated Mordegon not long before I found myself here. That is why I'm...very shocked to see you here, truthfully.

[guffawsungraciously]

...

So in the end, things are the same for me. It merely takes longer in your end of things.

[Maybe the Luminary's gang killed him instead of Mordegon.

...

God he hopes it was just the Luminary and not Hendrik.]

[hypnowhip]

[Sylvando doesn't answer right away, merely nodding to confirm Jasper's suspicions. Yeah...Moredgon definitely wouldn't have been happy if Jasper failed back there. Doesn't make it any easier to think about, though.]

I don't expect you to believe me, but I truly wish things could have gone differently with you. That you and Hendrik might have reconciled before it was far too late.

[guffawsungraciously]

As though that could happen.

[He says it very sharply, as though the mere mention of Hendrik's name just set him off...]

In any case, he was not the only reason I made my decision. I thought...

[...he doesn't want to admit out loud that he wanted to think he actually believed Mordegon cared whether he lived or died to anyone, much less this fucking clown, so he shakes his head.]

...

It does not matter now.

[hypnowhip]

[He winces a little at Jasper's response, though it doesn't exactly surprise him. His and Hendrik's relationship really did seem like a complicated mess, and it only began to clear up a little bit near the end.

...actually.]

Does it not? I mean...you're here now, aren't you?

[That has a lot of possible implications.]

[guffawsungraciously]

[Jasper remains silent for a moment before shaking his head.]

...what even is there to go back to, really? Regardless of who is carrying it out, I am certain that all that awaits me is execution.

[hypnowhip]

Well... If it hasn't yet happened for you, it has since come to pass for me. You could, I don't know...see if you could come back with me?

[He feels ridiculous for even saying that aloud. If anything, there is someone far more deserving of this opportunity than Jasper, and this Jasper has yet to even have that interaction with Hendrik that might have changed everything.

But still...]

Ugh, it really isn't me who should be having this conversation with you. But I know Hendrik would be thinking the same thing.

[guffawsungraciously]

...on top of everything else, the idea of taking the place of a dead version of myself sounds unnecessarily macabre, so I will have to think on whether I really feel like doing that.

...

And you say that as though he thinks of me at all.