EPILOGUE

[faentasy]

Epilogue

After all is said and done, in the wake of the void and sprinting through one final door.

You come out into light. Sunlight actually, a backyard in what appears to be a typical suburban town, if you're familiar with those. The sun shines cheerfully overheard, blissfully unaware of what everyone has went through. And this is everyone, as faces you haven't seen in weeks tumble out in one pile from a basement door.

Happy Saturday, everyone.

There's plenty of reunions and catching up to do, but you've utterly left Aira Niluc behind you after seven long weeks. And through the window of the house which looks like it has seen a better seen better days is one wall mural that reads "And they all lived Happily Ever After".

[[ Happy Golden End everyone, you've earned it! There's still the matter of sorting out where to next, but everyone is whole and alive and without button eyes. Using the knowledge from the object Phil had and the beldam's magic, they can also now world hop only one side effect...the portal that opens to everyone else's worlds here? Is made entirely of pixie dust. Everyone's powers will also restore fully over the course of the next few hours. ]]

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Comments

[ideismo]

I know you well enough. That still doesn't change that it's an utterly useless goal, even by your standards.

[scythegun]

I also set things on fire for no reason, so I think you're overestimating me a bit~

[He's the very definition of useless, thanks!!!]

[ideismo]

Trust me, I know.

[God.]

It's going to be tempting to just take that little object lesson with me into the nobles' quarter. I couldn't get away with it, of course, but...

[scythegun]

Good news for you, then! Starting today, Leviathan's Claw will now also take on arson contracts! We'll set anything you want on fire, for a price, of course~

[Is this a joke or is he serious...........]

[ideismo]

...You're ridiculous, you know.

[scythegun]

Ja, I certainly am. You wouldn't want me to be anything else, admit it~

[ideismo]

I'll admit no such thing.

[You tried, though!]

That said, I'm not ruling out the possibility of doing business. It depends on how willing the Council is to behave for me.

[He's definitely not asking Schwann to deal with them.]

[scythegun]

[wink!!]

Leviathan's Claw will always be willing to accept contracts from the Commandant himself, for the usual price of course~

[He runs a business and he's not going to make money if he gives discounts on assassinations!!!]

Should you ever have need of my services, you know where to find me~

[And if you don't because he's in hiding from the Don, you can easily track down one of his dudes. They're very distinctive!!]

[ideismo]

Oh, don't worry about that. The Council still tightly oversees my budget and contracts; in the end, they pay for themselves. The most I do about that is make sure they don't realize it.

[Jesus Christ, Alexei.]

[scythegun]

Using the Council to fund their own murders, how devious... Though I wouldn't expect anything less, at this point.

[ideismo]

Said as though they might not deserve it...?

[scythegun]

Oh no, I have no doubts they deserve it.

[He doesn't know the whole story, but he doesn't need to. He's seen enough that he doesn't feel the need to ask.]

After all, you wouldn't have reached out to me in the first place if you didn't believe that - and that's good enough for me.

[ideismo]

Of course.

[...]

Thank you. For everything that happened in there.

[scythegun]

I'm sure you aren't thanking me for the arson. [Probably.] I only ever did exactly what I wanted, so I don't think there's much to thank me for.

[ideismo]

[........]

It may be at least partially for the arson, actually.

[scythegun]

[LIGHTS UP IMMEDIATELY]

I didn't think you'd actually acknowledge how much it helped!

[Like, obviously it helped, because sometimes you need to set things on fire. That's totally normal.]

Well, I will take full responsibility and credit for that one~ You're welcome, Alexei.

[ideismo]

...I didn't think you'd be this pleased about being helpful for once in your miserable life.

[jesus.]

It's not quite how I would have thought to solve my problems, admittedly, and I'm not sure it actually solved any of them in the first place. But it did help to some degree.

[scythegun]

I'm delighted because you acknowledged it, not because I was helpful.

[He helps and hurts as he will, and it just so turned out he wanted to help more than hurt this time.]

It doesn't solve anything, but it works wonders in venting frustration, ja? And for someone like you, I can see where it did a lot~

[Alexei needs a break and he will never get one, so clearly destruction is the next-best thing.]

[ideismo]

...Both of you seem very intent on the notion that I need to stop working so hard or I'm going to either break entirely or just snap one day.

[why this all the time.]

[scythegun]

[tries VERY HARD not to bring up zaude........ or case 5............]

They set you up to fail, so ja, I do think it's quite important for you to find some way to take a break every now and then. And since you aren't going to take a break on your own, then sometimes someone's going to have to drag you into stupid shenanigans.

[ideismo]

[Zaude is DIFFERENT and NECESSARY largely because he wants to save the Empire but also at least partially because he's so fucking tired of everyone fucking him over all the time so you know what maybe there's a point to be made about Zaude.]

...Our problems aren't going to simply vanish once we return, you know. The Empire is still going to be what it is, and I can't afford to lose sight of what I'm after.

But maybe I wouldn't be opposed. Occasionally.

[scythegun]

[this is why he didn't say it!!!!!]

See? This is exactly why someone else has to drag you into it.

[sigh!!]

But I'll take that. Occasionally is better than "never" after all~ And besides, now that you've learned the joy of starting fires, I doubt you'd want to stop entirely.

[ideismo]

Occasionally is all I can afford. People will start noticing otherwise.

[...]

I still have an abhorrent amount of candies and magic bought from the shop, incidentally.

[scythegun]

Oh, how dangerous... We'll have to be sure to put those to good use at some point, ja? I still have mine as well!

[ideismo]

I'll have to contract whomever crafts some of your stranger weapons. I want to see if we can replicate that horrid konpeito.

[Like yes we have smoke bombs and crap but we absolutely need something you can throw on the ground that will both blind and deafen the shit out of everyone in the immediate vicinity of it. This is exactly what the Empire needs to have its hands on, this is the lesson Alexei took from Phil dropping one indoors.]