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Entry tags:
FAREWELL
ALL GOOD THINGS
must come to a (golden) end
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.
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private conversations ✨ murder proposals ✨ curfew ✨ daemons ✨
private conversations ✨ murder proposals ✨ curfew ✨ daemons ✨
no subject
it's nice, to know that that never changed; that that little boy was still this ghost king, with his heart made of gold.
the ferret chitters softly as hua cheng pets him, and nuzzles his face into those thumbs, soaking up the attention happily. ]
... I am, too.
[ xie lian's expression is soft and fond. ] Though... I think perhaps I will not tell this other you much of our journey together in this place. I want to learn of him the way I've learned of you - even if it feels as though I get to cheat a little, in doing so.
[ hualian speedrun ]
no subject
... xie lian can keep looking, though. he'd gladly give him the heart of him, no matter how deep it ran - he knows he won't ask, but it's willing, anyways. from the most devoted believer to the only god who ever listened, whoever helped him. who ever cared.
he bends his head down, squishing ruoye's cheeks and touching their noses together. tanhua sighs softly where he rests, all of his tails giving a flick. ]
I did get to cheat a little, myself, so I believe it is only fair that Dianxia gets to do the same? [ a laugh ] Some things, I would like to keep as memories, but others I will be telling the Dianxia waiting for me. He would like to know of the people that an even younger self of his managed to help.
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he turns his gaze back down to tanhua in his lap, that happy little sigh he lets out, and strokes his hand gently over the top of his head, scratching him behind the ears as his expression goes quietly thoughtful. ]
...I suppose I have one more spoiled question, I would like to ask.
no subject
[ he straightens back up again, relaxed, easy. every xie lian is still xie lian - not yours, yoo joonghyuk had said. no. every single one is still taizi dianxia, the god who saved a falling boy who had been teetering on the edge anyways but had been too awestruck to throw himself down to the streets below. who gave him purpose.
xie lian is xie lian is xie lian. ]
What is this one?
no subject
...xie lian doesn't know how to put this question into words. ]
.. In your future. [ are things better? does it ever get better? will i be a god of misfortune and misery for the rest of my life?
will you know how you've saved me?
...
he bites his lip. ]
... You and I, are we...
[ happy? ]
no subject
[ to every unanswered question, to every unvoiced hesitation, hua cheng answers in only one, simple word. but he says it easily, the moment that xie lian trails off and seems to no longer have the words to say.
happier. better. easier. together. i know, i do.
at least one answer is a little different, though, which he expands on: ]
And you are a god of the people again.
no subject
the look on xie lian's face will be familiar to a hua cheng from eight hundred years from this one's future - just utterly, completely touched. awestruck. full of hope, when his hope has been crushed and stomped, when all that really awaits him is for it to get worse.
(many things await him, and none of them are kind. 33 gods who would mock him and taunt him into nothing. the white no face's cruelty. a temple, an altar, a hundred stabs with a sword. a terrible choice - and a much better one.)
... but to know there's a light at the end of the tunnel makes his heart swell. even ruoye stops, holding still for a long moment, before he shifts and buries his face in hua cheng's hand, nuzzling into his palm, letting off a starburst of warmth. ]
... I see.
[ his voice is soft, there - endlessly grateful. ]
no subject
But I would still give you the knowledge, and the chance to face them with strength, rather than grief.
Better to rise in hope, than wallow in despair - even if it's done with a little cheating.
[ hua cheng would burn every temple and palace and shrine to the ground again, across universes. he would chase down the white shrouded figure on a mountainside, he would raze the whole thing, would tear apart the shrine the altar the hundredfold that gathered.
but he will arm xie lian with choice. with free will. with knowledge to decide. after all, even across the universes that stand parallel, that is the reality of it - they have forged these bonds that will last them lifetimes, they have made their choices, and they have earned the right to make many more.
(and, it's not as if xie lian will be alone, this time. it's not as if he will have to spiral into loss so swiftly. he will go home, he will kiss his mother, he will make amends with his father, and he will have them for a time much longer than he would have.) ]
no subject
he smiles, again, gentle and soft, and turns his head enough to rest his cheek on hua cheng's shoulder. ]
I don't know how to thank you for all that you've done for me, and yet, you still do more.
[ ruoye chitters quietly and starts climbing up hua cheng's arm. up, up, up, until he can mush his face against where a heartbeat would go were he living, rubbing his cheek against his chest. xie lian himself isn't so good at words of affection or actions of it - and never will be - but ruoye understands, and ruoye says i love you, i love you, i love you without a single word. ]
no subject
easily, readily, he tilts his head to rest his cheek against xie lian's head, eye closing. ]
Dianxia saved us. [ and that isn't hua cheng answering, while still being hua cheng's answer.
tanhua's voice is a little lighter than hua cheng's while still being low, but somehow rougher, too, as if disuse has made it that way after all this time of speaking so very little when he's been able to all this time. his person makes no move to silence him, and doesn't react. xie lian could be forgiven for thinking that maybe he imagined things. ]
... whatever I can do, however I can do it, I always will.
no subject
hello ]
...Ah?
[ xie lian's eyes snap open at the little voice - he almost jolts, nearly accidentally bonks into hua cheng, head whipping down to look at tanhua, and then at hua cheng quickly.
???????? ]
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[ tanhua kicks hua cheng's leg with a back foot. they're working on being better about each other, but not meeting full success, just yet. ]
Everything is over - the restrictions with it. Watcher daemons could speak, but only to Watchers of the same side.
no subject
... I see.
[ this is like a whole new world of things?? wow... it's not surprising, really - it makes sense - and xie lian can't help but smile, thumbing fondly over tanhua's cheeks. attention. ]
How very clever, Tanhua. [ and dianxia saved us... well. ] In many ways, you've saved me too. I think... I shall miss you very much; even if I know I'll see "you" soon.
no subject
his person snorts. ]
... different. I'll be in his heart, not there for you to see. Have to teach him, too, he won't know barely anything.
At least "I" can probably be taught how to write better. You'll have caught me 800 years early.
no subject
... I'll teach you all that I can. [ that much would be easy. he likes the idea - it's a reminder of that soldier he saw in mt. tonglu, wide eyed and reverent.
xie lian corrects himself, after a moment, with a better one, turning his head back towards hua cheng. ] Or - perhaps, instead, you and I will learn together.
[ which honestly sounds perfect. ]
no subject
I've always liked learning with Dianxia. I always look forward to it. To get the chance to do it, to be by your side for far longer... [ he'd be jealous, if he wasn't going home to another xie lian that is waiting for him. ]