onceuponacomm | EPILOGUE

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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[Edelgard sniffles a little, wiping tears from her eyes. Oh god, now she's getting emotional.]

I...

Yes, I would like that.

Is it overstepping if I ask for another hug...?

You needn't ever ask permission.

[ Yuri gladly welcomes her into a warm hug. ]

[She wraps her arms around Yuri and holds her tight. She has a lot of feelings, a lot more feelings than she's used to allowing herself to feel. Relief being a big one.

One of Edelgard's biggest problems is that she is constantly in her own head, recontextualizing everything in terms of her own beliefs about the world and herself. Hearing that she is cared for... That she won't be left behind.

It's important to her.]

...I have... friends. Back home. But... none of them know the extent of who I am. Or they're... contractually obligated to follow me, even to care about me. I want you to know that you are important to me.

...In a lot of ways that I don't know how to articulate.

That’s all right. I don’t always have the right words - or the right emotions either. [ Sometimes Yuri doesn’t feel anything at all, and that is something she’ll have to learn to navigate when it comes to other people. Still. ] We’ve time yet to learn them - or find them.

[ She closes her eyes and presses into Edelgard. The difference in physical power between them is massive, but Edelgard’s gentle heart - fiercely beating - is something she can provide support and stability for in this moment. She’d like it if she could be there for her many more moments in the future, too. ]

Or maybe we don’t need to do either. I can feel a good deal from your hug already. It’s a good hug. That’s enough for now.

And... I hope that one days your friends will be able to tell you their honest feelings. I don’t know if it’ll be what you expect - maybe the complete opposite, for good or ill.

...Maybe. I am admittedly good at using that reason to never speak at all. And yet, I feel as if you understand all the same.

[But she, too, can feel Yuri's heartbeat, and she wants to communicate that she's not a story any longer, that she's alive, and human, and all these many embarassingly long monologues that say everything and nothing at all. All at once.

She is so starved for affection, for care in this way, not weighed down by guilt or responsibility... She hasn't cried since Rika's death and before that she hadn't cried since...

A long time ago. And now she can't stop the tears from reaching her. She isn't weeping. There's nothing to mourn. All she has to cry about is what she's gained.]

I hope so. And when it does happen... they'll choose what is right. I just have to make sure that's what I am.

I want to walk with them. With you – and everyone here as well. I will have my wish without any God or Demon to hand it to me. I believe that, and I believe we can all achieve that too.

I have no plans of leaving just yet, perhaps tomorrow morning, perhaps later. Hubert must be worried sick. But still, I wanted... [She presses herself into the hug further, a small bittersweet laugh escaping her lips.] I cannot bring myself to thank that creature, but all the same I think this all might have helped me more than I could have predicted.

That creature did not give you anything, so there’s isn’t a need to thank her. [ Yuri will never not be petty about the Beldam, that’s just how it’s going to be forever. ] You merely claimed what was before you, and what was before you, though some small part of it was incidental to her plan - everything else was ultimately paved by your own hand - by the choices you made, the words you spoke.

You wish will come true. You will not have to do it alone; you will be the right choice for them as well. I hope from now on, you never feel that you are alone in this again.

[ Though, occasionally, she might feel lonely, as one does. ]

If my lady is staying a day or two more, will you help me build a home here? And perhaps... a room of your own? So that when you leave, you’ll have a place here to come back to - may you never again have reason to forget there is someone waiting for you and wishing for your happiness always.

[She chuckles. Yuri gets it.] Indeed. I'm against thanking gods in general, least of all disgusting monsters that devour children. But I also can't take all the credit, can I? I might have fallen to this game if I didn't have friends by my side. [Or a promise to keep.

She feels her chest tighten at her words and she breaks into a smile not weighed down by the melancholy that follows her like a rain-cloud.]

...I'd like that. [One day won't make much of a difference, the indulgent child in her head whispers. But she shakes her head.] But I shouldn't keep Hubert waiting. Not knowing what happened to me... it must be destroying him. I will stay tonight, and then depart in the morning. But I can come back some time this week, perhaps after my business in concluded with my duties as the Flame Emperor and Leader of the Black Eagles, [AKA when she's supposed to be sleeping.] and we can create it then?

[ A week to build and fret over Jack with Hamelin before Edelgard visits. A week to perfect the portals and maybe teach McGillis some magic. Hm. Doable? ]

We’ll make it work. And, yes, of course, you must assure them of your safety.

[ Which is, maybe, hypocritical of Yuri to say when she has no plans of contacting anyone from her own world. She just can’t afford to get too close to Fate right now; if it were to chain her to its will again... Perhaps one day she will see Melissa and her friends again. But she has made some peace with the idea that it may only happen in the far, far future. ]

You’ll tell me how everything is going when we meet up again, surely.

Of course, my friend. I'd be a poor host if I allowed you into my world without alerting you of the state of my homeland.

[She just hopes that Arundel didn't get tired of waiting and decide to replace her. At least Ferdinand, Lorenz and Dimitri are pretty far from their reach.

The thought is giving her anxiety. And hopefully Jeritza listened to Hubert while she was away. And hopefully Hubert didn't do anything too horrible in his quest to find her. Or worse, order Jeritza to do.

...Yeah, okay she has a lot of things to worry about.]

...Do you have any plans to make contact with anyone from your world – your friend, at least? [... Time to change the subject from what she is dreading.]

[ Yuri rubs Edelgard’s back when she notices her tension spiking. ]

... Eventually. [ Because she doesn’t want to say good-bye to Melissa, though it would be a lie to say she cannot say good-bye to her. She can, she can - she just doesn’t want to. ] But not yet.

I admit I’m... worried that if God or Fate or whatever we’d like to call it - that if it senses me, I’ll get drawn back into that world. And it’ll be like I’d never left.

Before I can contact the people there, I need to find a way to protect myself first - selfish as that sounds.

[ She can’t and won’t risk it. ]

[Edelgard is silent for a few moments, before withdrawing slightly from the hug and putting her hands on Yuri's shoulders.]

I won't allow that to happen.

[Her voice isn't loud, or harsh, but it's firm. Like even if it's impossible, even if she has to kill God with her bare hands, she'll do it and she'll do it happily because Yuri is not going back to that shit, thank you very much.]

I believe I speak for many people here when I say that. But I mean it. I won't. We seem to have the keys to a lot here, a truly absurd amount of power at our fingertips once we learn to utilize it. And I will personally storm your world and slaughter God myself if that is what it takes. Understand?

[She might be a little dramatic.]

EPILOGUE

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I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING

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