onceuponacomm | FINAL CHAPTER

FINAL CHAPTER

Final Chapter

Like the secrets that spilled out into the open, the night sky above Aira Niluc also seems to be running free; whatever part of the land you find yourself in at night, you'll find that the night sky has been painted with shooting stars. Watching them brings a certain comfort, the feeling of chicken soup on a cold winter day, the nostalgia of meeting an old friend again, a warm fuzzy feeling from your core.

A boost to your spirits is likely welcome at this point, and it seems be the only thing Aira Niluc has to offer you at this as no new locations open up to you this week. There's a certain energy in the air, but not all of that can be blamed on the shooting stars, given the explosion that happened this weekend. For now the chasm in what was once the fountain remains impassable, but who knows when that will change?

[[Welcome to Week 6! Feel free to make top levels at your discretion, and remember to note it in your header if you plan on investigating any locations. However, please try to keep investigations to Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday! You can also privately contact Hamelin at your leisure through Wednesday of this week.

Also, please note the shop's discount on magnifying glasses! ]]

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[Oh, right.]

Referring to the matter of Don Whitehorse?

My guild did pointlessly endanger his grandson, after all... He really isn't going to be happy to see me.

[Not that it's anything new to have the Don as an enemy, but directly getting involved like that isn't how he usually does things. He might be able to play it off like one of his goons did something dumb all on his own, but that doesn't mean the Don is going to accept it easily...]

I think it'll be best if I vanish for a little while, just to be safe.

Fair enough.

[...]

I think things would be decent enough for me, if they go as we've discussed. I don't know for certain, however; all of the issues that were present before are still there, and I have no more of a solution for them than I did before.

It...concerns me, somewhat.

[Yeager inclines his head a bit, studying the monstrosity but mostly considering Alexei's position. He doesn't know everything - hell, he probably doesn't even have half of the full picture - but he can understand why it would be concerning. It would be so easy to fall back into what Alexei was doing in their own timelines, because there simply isn't another option.]

I wouldn't offer you advice even if I knew everything; I imagine anything I'd come up with, you've already considered.

[Alexei's been at this far longer, after all. He's undoubtedly considered every angle.]

But you are quite the clever man, and I'm certain that even the smallest changes may cause things to differ in time - there's no telling exactly what that Terca Lumireis will look like. So who knows, a new opportunity may present itself.

[He tries very, very hard not to end on "and if it doesn't, you can just kill the Council and maybe things will be better!" but he's thinking it very loudly.]

Schwann has offered to help me, but I don't know if that's going to make enough of a difference.

[It might help keep him reined in, it might not; it might not actually make any difference at all, and it's simply arrogance and misplaced faith that's leading them to believe that it might.]

I appreciate the confidence, but I don't know if what I've been tasked with is even possible at this point.

[...He is not going to kill the entire Council, Yeager.]

[but killing people is the easiest way to solve your problems???]

It was saving the world, ja? Who decided to entrust that to one person? That's incredibly stupid.

[His profile may not have been entirely accurate as listing "the Empire" under his dislikes, but he really has not missed his time there.]

I can't imagine you're the sort of person who would simply let that go, but it's like they set you up to fail.

They did.

[It's blunt, immediately so; it's something he knows, something he's always known, and yet here he is anyway, still trying to resolve it.]

It's something my research was being used for, before the Emperor died. We were able to make great amounts of progress, and perhaps if he were still with us it would be different. But the fact of the matter is that those I was working with were killed during the war, and the Emperor passed, and now I'm the only one who knows or cares and the Council would prefer that I be dead rather than inconvenient.

I'm doing what I can with what I have. I'm not just going to abandon everything. It would be easier if I could; my life would objectively be better. But I don't think I could live with myself.

[...what the fuck, milord.]

Maybe you should just kill the entire Council and start over.

[OKAY IT'S A SHITTY JOKE BUT LIKE, WHAT DO YOU SAY TO THAT.]

[...anyway!]

I suppose I can understand that it isn't something you can give up on. Though I certainly don't have any idea how to even begin with something like that.

[But then again, he threw away ideals like that long ago. Yeager certainly doesn't care about saving the world.]

I wish you the best of luck with it, certainly, though...

[...Hmm.]

We'll have to see how things go here first, so perhaps we should focus on that for now.

Perhaps so.

[......]

Also, the notion of killing the Council has occurred to me, but I would be the first person they would look at if the entire Council is hit and none of the Knights are. Seeing as I do still like the idea of not being executed for treason, that unfortunately has to remain off the table.

[...OTHERWISE, THOUGH...]

[Who's going to execute you if they're all dead, though!!!

But maybe this is not the conversation they should be having, he's going to convince Alexei back into opening the gates of ~~hell~~ Zaude like this. So he lets it go with a shrug, even though killing everyone on the Council would definitely help, probably!!!]

We'll see how things look once we're done here - we don't even know for sure that we can return to Raven's time, after all. So let's just take it one step at a time, ja?

[Alexei honestly isn't sure that changing the timeline won't still lead him back into opening Zaude and using it to kill everyone; he knows there's nothing else he can do about any of it, if there were he would have done it already, he just- ]

...Maybe.

[He's trying very hard to shake it off, it's just...not working very well.]

It's going to be on my mind regardless. If it's not that, then I'm thinking about how we're going to die here. I'm not sure which is preferable.

[...goddamn, this is so far above his paygrade.]

And that's why we're going to light this horrifying thing on fire!

[This monstrosity just keeps getting weirder and weirder. But surely it'll be satisfying to watch it burn!!]

...I don't know how to help, and even if I did, I'm not sure you'd want it from me.

[It's nothing personal, they're just vastly different people who barely knew each other before this. Even now he's not sure how well they actually know each other.]

But I am quite good at providing distractions, and maybe that will at least quiet those thoughts for a little while.

[That actually gets him to look up for a moment; incidentally, this is a truly shitty boat, it's more of an awkward raft that will hopefully displace more water than it takes on.]

Yeager, if you could somehow solve the Empire's problems within half an hour, I would have to be annoyed with you on principle.

[He shrugs a bit, though. Sets the shitty little contraption on the lake just to make sure it won't sink immediately. It doesn't.]

...I've never discussed this with anyone. Not with any of my men; not even with Schwann. Perhaps I just wanted to for once. I'm not sure.

[...]

I appreciate the distraction, either way.

[He watches the "boat" land in the water, shaking his head a bit at Alexei's words.]

You really need to find someone better equipped for these things, milord...

[It's wry though, and certainly not bothered any. Sometimes you need to talk just to sort your own thoughts out, and it's not like he's never done that to anyone here.]

Besides, I'm sure it's different with your men and Schwann. They need to see you a certain way, ja?

[They need to believe you know what you're doing, and you don't have doubts about it. Schwann doesn't need to hear that you aren't certain things will actually go well, even with a plan in place to try to avoid things going the same way as in their own timelines.]

But if you ever want truly terrible advice, you're welcome to inflict your thoughts on me. As long as you're fine with me inflicting my dreadful opinions on you, of course~

[Alright, here we go!! The monstrosity is rather large, but it's been carefully constructed to not topple off the raft immediately so he'll go ahead and get it set up... and moving to secure it just to be safe, of course.]

So! Are you ready to light it up?

[It's your turn to do the honors!!!!]

[do you have an accelerant to pour on it

...is it more booze

if you didn't bring peach schnapps he's going to judge you for the missed opportunity.]

[what kind of fool do you take him for, of course it's peach schnapps.]

[Oh, good, he can comfortably hate you for doing that.]

...Very well, then.

[Just...let him saturate the ugly thing and light it up with some of the matches that he just carries with him now, he supposes; out onto the lake it goes. The littlest viking funeral.]

[he wouldn't want to disappoint you! his sense of humor remains as shitty as ever~ ☆]

You even came prepared! It's like you expected I'd be doing something like this.

[Either that or you're just carrying matches now, and he's honestly not sure which is funnier.

Anyway, there it goes... This horrid thing with an ugly oni mask setting sail out onto the lake. Yeager raises a hand in a salute.]

Farewell, brave warrior, you shall never be forgotten.

[oh my god.]

[Do peaches even burn properly...]

We ought to be careful about what we destroy from here. My concern is less with the others and more with Hamelin and...whatever else we're opposing.

[we're about to find out.]

Oh, I know. If we end up having too much fun I'm sure someone will stop us.

[Probably Hamelin or whatever the hell's going on with the thing in the mirrors. But you never know, maybe McGillis will decide he's sick of our shit.]

It really was fun while it lasted, though.

[taps playing on a kazoo in the bg]

...It was, yes.

[...]

Thank you. For the distraction, and for letting me talk to you for a while.

You say that like I didn't drag you into building a boat. Come now, you hardly need to thank me for that.

[It's... kind of weird to be thanked at all, really.]

In fairness, I'm not certain we can call whatever I made a boat.

[looks back out at the disaster......]

Ja, "boat" might have been a bit too generous. Still! It floated and that's what matters.

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FINAL CHAPTER

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