FAREWELL

[grigori]

ALL GOOD THINGS must come to a (golden) end

WELCOME TO THE LAND OF PROSPERITY

Morning comes, and the world is alive.

Rays of warmth gently reach out to a place that has never seen the sun, bringing with it more vivid color than the world has seen before. The sky is clear, free of clouds and smog and gray, a picturesque scene to welcome a new day, a new life. The voices of the harpies welcome the dawn for the first time with a soft but joyful song, their voices light and sanguine as they take to the skies to sing of freedom from the powers they've always feared and served.

Drawn out by the familiar voices of the harpy, lifted into something beautiful, something heartfelt, are the ghosts that were hidden within the caves. Despondent, hopeless, beaten down for aeon by the harpies, they peer out into the open world that the bomb's explosion created. They watch the sun rise on the Land of the Dead - a sun many have not seen since time forgotten - and there is new hope. Slowly, one by one, the ghosts of the long dead and recently dead alike, those that have been ferried across to the resting place created by the Authority, begin to walk out into the sun.

And, just like that, they begin to fade to Dust, smiles on their faces after so long in the dark. The gold drifts in the air, to rejoin the world anew. Free will, intention, knowledge - soul.

The Tree of Knowledge thrives in the light, the last of the Dust of angels a perfect fertilizer to make it grow and stand tall over the participants of a competition they never chose to join, its branches blooming with flowers of white. And the participants themselves, all of you...

You, too, are alive. The icy touch of the ghosts has faded into something more natural and warm. Color returns to faces, and even without the touch of magic, all wounds are healed. You are alive. Your story will continue, and your happy ending awaits.

It's just across the river, and Charon is ready to take you there, through clear air where the mists have lifted. And when you finally arrive...

...Your souls are here to welcome you home. Even those who have lost that part of themselves will find it again, waiting at the docks to find their way into your arms the very second you step out, another second away simply too much to bear. And at last, your daemons shift, one last time, to settle on a form you may or may not have seen before - and you know, in your hearts, that this is a good thing, something natural, something to celebrate, no longer the herald of trauma or some misdeed.

Beyond the docks, the suburbs buzz with an energy it hasn't seen before. The ghosts, like your own, feel more warm and solid and real. The lost and misguided have a spark of hope in their eyes, their delight at the changes in this world unmistakable as they point to something, a little further out. Follow their gazes, and you'll find the source of their excitement easily.

A window to another world. Two - three - and more. As one person reaches out, a city on the other side slowly changes to a field of flowers. A small village changes to a desert market, through which the merchants wave people to come in, come in, they'd love to see you. Through another window, an empty and barren world littered with rubble shimmers to instead show a world filled with water and memory, perfectly intact, and someone new steps into this world to embrace a familiar face among the crowd.

The windows stabilize, allowing everyone to come and go as they choose. The Land of the Dead is no longer a prison, after all - merely a waypoint, just another stop along a journey that need only end when wanderers are ready.

What some might call an end, after all, is often a new beginning.


Welcome, travelers, to your golden end.

Dead and alive both have been revived, injuries healed, and powers returned to normal. Your daemons have all returned to you, though they will settle into one form, and will no longer shift - though this form does not have to be one of the three taken over the course of the game, and may yet be something new entirely.

Keep your coins! A new symbol has taken the place of the clock face or comet that marked your teams - a great, blooming tree. With that, you will be able to return to the Land of Prosperity at any time, and visit any other world that you wish to see.

Your characters are free to continue their stories however they choose - in their own world, or another.

full navigation ✨ locations ✨ statuses ✨ profiles ✨ audiences ✨
private conversations ✨ murder proposals ✨ curfew ✨ daemons ✨

Comments

[perspire]

[ Idi preens into the pets, tiling her head to get more while Bertolt stands there, reaching out to grab Akira's free hand as he pets her. ]

I could hit you harder, if you want.

[bloodread]

[ His hand is taken and Akira huffs. ]

Yeah? Like this again? [ Raising an eyebrow. Are they just going to keep doing this help. ]

[perspire]

Practice makes it better.

[ sobs they really are i hate this ]

[bloodread]

You're on. [ A beat. ] But not here, it's too crowded.

[ Are people perceiving them or are they successfully blending in with the curtains, Akira doesn't wanna look. ]

[perspire]

[ gy peeps are probably cheering?? but hopefully everyone else isn't paying attention. rips to them ]

Before we head home.

[ Oh, hm. That raises something that he wants to talk to Akira about ]

[bloodread]

...right, home. [ You ever do your best to both studiously ignore something but also keep it in the periphery of your vision the entire time? Akira doesn't even know how to begin to start, so this is gonna be left up to Bertolt. ]

[perspire]

[ spoilers: they still not good at talking but HE'S GONNA TRY.

idi pulls away from akira to start nuzzling at bertolt and that gives him the courage to at least start this conversation. ]

I need to go back home. Reiner and Annie need me. I can't leave them.

But I don't want to stay there.

[bloodread]

[ He has questions usually when he doesn't have any and he has things he wants to say, but always in moments like this he's direct (for better or worse). ]

So what do you want to do? [ In the back of his mind home makes him think of the one person he's been avoiding thinking of lately, as much as one can avoid knowing the sky is blue. Nagako pulls back a bit, slowly beginning to pace a circle around their group. ]

[perspire]

I want to go back home and save them. Then, I'll find someplace new for all three of us.

[ he sounds sure of himself there ]

It's going to be hard. Reiner is mentally unstable right now and Annie is encased in crystal. [ bertl what ] But I won't stop until I save them. Then, I'll just need to find someplace new for us.

[bloodread]

[ What is he even hearing, he will ask later even if I have to ratshake it out of him. ]

Got it. [ Does he? He's quiet, a bunch of thoughts clashing in his mind, Nagako circling faster. ] You're still holding my hand.

[perspire]

[ why is aot like this, i ask myself constantly

but he looks down at their joined hands and back up to akira ]

I am. I don't want to let it go. [ squeezes it ] Not... for a long time.

[bloodread]

Huh? [ ... ] I can't go with you, I need to get back to Ami and my aunt. Hazuki too and... Amanome.

[perspire]

I won't ask you to come. I wouldn't ask anybody to come to my world.

[ biting his lip and idi is getting tired of this and just shoves bertolt SPEAK YOU IDIOT. he looks back at her and she just angrily grunts back at him. ]

I... Like I said, when I save them, I want to find someplace new for us... [ and he trails off there IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK? ]

[bloodread]

[ Idi!?!

Please hold while Akira uses his one gay brain cell. After the jeopardy theme song plays. ]

...are you asking if you can come to my place?

[perspire]

[ if idi could say FINALLY she would ]

Would that be alright?

[bloodread]

You won't fit in my apartment. [ Why are his initial answers always like this. ]

But yeah if you wanna crash in my world, yeah. [ A perhaps not so subtle hand squeeze. ]

It's 1999 there? And our cellphones are big or whatever. It's pretty normal besides me and spirits.

[perspire]

I don't even know what a cellphone is.

[ but he lets out a relieved laugh. why was that so hard to say when hearing the answer was so easy. he squeezes his hand back ]

But that's fine. I can find someplace for us to live close by to you. I want someplace normal. It'll be nice.

I think you'd like Annie, by the way.

[bloodread]

[ He won't say this out loud but he is relieved Bertolt has no idea what a cellphone is since he's way behind in the tech area compared to almost everyone else here. ]

I don't know if I can do normal cause pretty sure my apartment's still haunted, but it'd be nice. [ That settled (how easy was that when they use their words), Nagako flops against Idi as best she can. ]

What's she like?

[perspire]

[ bertolt will definitely be someone who just uses cellphones for calls and texts ]

Well, it'll still be more normal than my home. [ idi takes this time to drop down to her knees and curls around nagako ]

She's small, but she's a fierce fighter.

She can even flip me over.

[bloodread]

[ Looks at Akira, same. ]

So like Alisaie?

[perspire]

A... lot more reserved. She barely talked to other people.

[bloodread]

...like me?

[perspire]

Yeah.

[ i'm sorry that akira is just a combination of his types for guys and girls ]

... Actually you'd either get along well or hate each other.

[bloodread]

I know how to get along with people, I just usually don't bother. [ ...also his temper. ]

I get along better with girls, I guess. [ ...it is hard not to acknowledge this fact looking at the past eight weeks. ]

[perspire]

Then you should be fine.

--It'll be good to have a normal fight partner. [ bertolt's eyes just glance down at their hands. still joined together. ]