Field Mission 5: Il Prigioniero, Part 3

[balancemod]

They had discovered one could grow as hungry for light as for food. NAVIGATION 1. THE FATE OF WONDERLAND A. CRESCENDO; FINALE The beauty of the sentient mind is that hope is hard to kill. Even living in illusion for so long, the Bureau of Balance as a whole believed to the end that a happy ending was possible in Wonderland. That's a good thing, even if an unrealistic dream. Without that vision, that hope, there's no way to succeed. You all know that, don't you? You knew it when you went back into the tree to save absolutely anyone that you could. Strangers some of them. Strangers most of them. It didn't matter. There's a happy ending to this story; everyone believed in it as surely as they carried out the innocent, as surely as they carried out each other. You knew it when you got crafty with needle and thread, trying to reassemble the cruel joke Wonderland made with those who lost their way and fell into debt. Nine bodies are saved — including Henrik's, Henrik whose soul is reattached to his body, Henrik whose shaking arms can finally reach out to hold his son. You knew it when you spoke to a dying Yggdrasil, Maya taking in the suffering and sickness of its years, listening with an open heart until, suddenly, as the tree's consciousness began to collapse, she was taken Somewhere Else. To speak with a man in a sharp suit with places to be. Things to do. Planar systems to devour. You know how it is. A poisoned arrow to Yggdrasil's open wound brought it down for good, leaving Shuichi to hurriedly plant the new Golden Leaf for a new World Tree; leaving Sayori and Angus McDonald to pick up the pieces of their dazed comrades. You knew it when you tricked the Mirror Maze into glitching apart, giving it quite simply too much to keep track of. The fact that you found a helper along the way certainly didn't hurt, but let's face it: this was genius. The reward is Niel, crystallized, encasing the Compact. Suffering, as he has been for a very long time. You knew it when three warlocks and a very angry wizard embarked on an ultimately suicidal mission, which just goes to show that the best-laid plans of mice and men sometimes lead to a 50% vore rate. A desperate attempt to keep Adrian distracted for long enough that the Compact could be retrieved was only able to delay him in the end. Just because success is possible doesn't make it guaranteed. Sometimes a fight with the villain ends in stalemate. Sometimes a fight with the villain isn't a fight at all. Sometimes it's an outstretched hand (or two, or four), and sacrifices from each member of the party, and pain, and . . . self-awareness. Sometimes the villain just wants to let go. Sometimes there are happy endings, but this time Niel — fused into the Tree itself, his life tied up in the dying Yggdrasil, extended by the Compact — just wants it to stop. He doesn't want to hurt anyone anymore. His friends are holding his hands as they take the Compact and make it stop. This isn't a happy ending. But that isn't your fault. Hope for a happy ending has, quite literally, saved the world. The nightmare is over. Wonderland slips away. 2. ON THE EDGE OF THE HORIZON B. THE PEOPLE And as suddenly as the myriad indulgences of Wonderland went to ... well, complete shit, there's something of a metaphorical blink of light. Those who were meant to be dead are - both your fellow Reclaimers and the Rolands who could not be fixed in time - but there is still many that are saved. Injuries knot back together at the slightest curative magic. Smog and negativity vanish like they never were, taking the last shambling monsters away with it. The souls of Shadowdale that you have returned to their respective bodies have a new life to forge. Things can be fixed. If only it were that easy. Shadowdale, for all intents and purposes, is uninhabitable. For the first time since the Bureau's mission began, an entire city population has lost its home, and must move on. No matter how much blame you may place on yourself for the way things turned out, whether it's guilt or hope that drives you forward, time, and the cycle of life itself, spins onward. And the people who live march on. To New New Aspen. Matthew has promised to bring the survivors of Shadowdale to his home, to give them a new chance. You have a couple of options here, if you would like to help them. You may serve as guard, helping escort the people of Shadowdale to New New Aspen. Super convenient for you, since it's right by the Moon Base! You may help them build and settle. The people of New New Aspen, only months away from Candlenights, are hard at work carving their annual ornaments. You may help the new residents acclimate - whether it's helping them work the fields, start a business, or take part in their new home's most coveted tradition. And you'll have a new ornament to bring home with you, too. C. THE FOREST The deadened woods you traveled through to reach Shadowdale at the beginning of this mission seem somehow even more silent, cloaked in demise, than when you first stepped in it. The madness is gone, replaced with double the silence, a stillness like nothing you've ever experienced before. It's almost as if your senses, save for however you perceive the light of the sun, are gone. At least, until someone speaks to you. A wood elf - he doesn't give you his name, but he does identify himself as someone who was trapped. Someone who, through your efforts to restore the Rolands, you gave life to again. And he does have a request for you. "This place has little hope for revival," he says, sniffing slightly, taking in the silence around you both. "At least, it has little hope in your lifetime. But I do have something to ask of you. Give this place life, the way you did for the people here. Even if you, or even I, for that matter, will never likely live long enough to see it." That's sort of an existential way of asking you to do some hardcore landscaping. But you will be provided with seeds of all sorts, and you will have the opportunity to plant them as you see fit. If you would like to build a shrine, or remember those who lost their lives here in some other way, you are free to do that as well. There's something else curious, though: literally anything you plant, regardless of what it is, will eventually produce a viable bud sprouting from the gray, dry soil. What does that even mean? If you plant a book of poems, are you going to get a poetree? Are you even going to live long enough to see it in full bloom? D. THE EXHAUSTION You might not be on Lucretia levels of exhausted (she is, remember, zonked, and will remain so all the way back to the Moon Base and beyond for a while), but this has not been an easy mission for anyone who dared to test this Grand Relic's powers. Whether you return from New New Aspen, or whether you finally catch a ride back to the Moon Base from the forest, you are now free to return home. This is your welcome home wildcard, a chance for you to try to recuperate, address anything at all before the next Lunar Interlude begins. You will find that the Moon Base has an awfully somber feel to it, from the inner members of the Bureau to the people serving the Reclaimers in the town. Word is starting to trickle in on what you all went through. blurb code by photosynthesis

Comments

[bu773rfly]

[1] Lingering scenes on trembling wings

[Alex brings Erika back to the moon, alive but unresponsive. It takes two more days for her to come around.

She's got some people to contact, and things to take care of.]

[[Catch-all for immediate aftermath CR things. HMU off-site to plan first pls.]]

[2] On my love

[Wonderland was a lot.

Like, a whole fucking lot. Too much to hit all at once. It'll overstay its welcome in small ways, as all bad memories do. And in the meantime, clocks tick and planets turn and life goes on.

Erika has never been a loud person, but she seems more somber now, once she's up and about again. Slower on her feet from the bruises and bandages left over from the fight with Adrian. Preoccupied - but that might just be that she's planning a late return to Cormanthor, having missed the first wave of replanting efforts.]

...Quantity or quality?

[It's the kind of day trip that requires a lot of planning time. Wherever she and you are, she's busy thinking about what to take along to plant. How choosy can you get before it becomes pretentious? And how indiscriminate can you get before it becomes tacky?]

2

[oculusriffs]

Depends on what kinda "quality" you're working with.

[Dave's being completely honest over here, though, sitting at the café table, head propped up in his hand, cheek appropriately smushed. he's not trying to be vague, he's just watching her in that muted protective way he does, and is bad at being reassuring in most meaningful ways.]

[but the desire to try is there. even if he's reigning poker face champion five years and counting, sincerity always manages to bleed through.]

I mean, my idea of quality is leaving astronomically shitty paintings all over the walls of Lyrabar. And I don't necessarily mean that as a joke, even if the walls kinda fuckin' look like one. My art's just shitty by default, regardless of the value I actually put on it.

[the fuck are you rambling on about, Dave.]

What is it you wanna do?

[bu773rfly]

[Dave's best quality, in her opinion, is his ability to hold down a thoughtful conversation. She's sure he doesn't see it that way. Certainly, at some point, she would have drawn a distinction between serious and strange topics. These days it's just a comfort, to know that she can bring bring him a problem or an absolute piece of garbage and get patience and sincerity in response no matter what.

Not that this is garbage.]

It's not like space is at a premium in Cormanthor. You could plant any and everything and it wouldn't be a waste. [She's not playing with her food. Not eating it, either. Just regarding her soup with a thoughtful stillness.] But I want to plant something deliberately that'll mean something in the future. I know it's romantic.

...But there's no way to guarantee what'll be meaningful, or how. That's not up to us.

[Bluuuuugh she's agonizing.]

[oculusriffs]

[so that's what this is about. he does understand, even if his experiences have ... pretty different connotations. his own very complicated feelings about his bro aside, the guy's death was still meaningful enough that another version of Dave thought he ought to be buried. Rose's — their — mom was obsessed with funerals to a kinda fucking weird degree, but Rose eventually decided that she meant well, even if her intent didn't really translate.]

[two parents who had their own (in one case, incredibly fucked up) ideas about meaning. two kids who lived on, went to the future, and found the meaning there, even if they didn't quite understand it.]

[which is kind of why, when he lands on something to say, it comes out like:]

Yeah, probably. [bluuuhhhhh. hang on.]

But, like, I highly doubt anybody's got better ideas on what's meaningful than you do. Even if you pick something wildly unorthodox and plant a stuffed whale, [SALAMANDER, DAVE!!!!!!] and you leave something there that means a lot to you personally, then someone else is gonna see that.

And they'll also have a stuffed whale.

[bu773rfly]

She's a salamander.

[Memetan doesn't even fucking exist anymore and it's still automatic.

She slumps very slowly onto the table under the weight of her own agonizing, fretting idly at a sleeve.]

Apple tree. [Since present company.] Nothing to misinterpret. [Her hand drifts towards the little cluster of assorted junk that sits on all restaurant tables, and bothers free a packet of sugar.]

[oculusriffs]

[Dave will remember salamander on the first try one day, he believes it in his heart of hearts!!!]

I'm gonna go ahead and fully endorse that. You could make a whole fuckin' apple orchard out there.

[it's kind of funny to think that a year ago at this point, he was hoarding apple seeds to see if they could grow the freshest food a space station in an entirely different universe had seen in decades. now, as a baby druid in training, when the mood strikes, he can just majyyks an entire apple via Goodberry.]

[which, the mood does strike. Dave sets one (1) Goodapple on the table.]

[bu773rfly]

[That hand leaves the sugar packet alone, crawls to the Goodapple, and vanishes into the lumpen pile of Erika upon the table.

The pile says something quiet to begin with and further muffled that sounds kind of like "Whamff by murmf gawleelee?"]

1

[rockymountaindie]

[ Before Erika comes to, Alex visits her. It’s not like he can be far from the med bay himself, with lingering infection from his collection of burns. But he pays special care to see to her condition, almost annoyingly so. It’s poor timing, poor luck, that when she wakes up he’s already dealing with his own bigger problems.

A day or so after, once he’s up and about and not in the process of resurrection and recovery, he stumbles back to where she’s been set up...and the sight of her sitting and aware floods him with relief. ]

Erika. You’re awake.

[ Dumb, obvious—he’s a little skittish, it seems? More than she’s seen him. ]

[bu773rfly]

[The waiting clueless and resting while information trickles in and in and in is an intimately familiar step of this process. Erika bears it with too much patience. At this moment, she's propped up half-lying half-sitting and scrolling through her bracer with a non-expression. It, too, is something familiar.

She looks up.

An expression develops rapidly. Brows up, eyes wide, one of those visible series of realizations as she takes stock of memories and counts and compares and turns over another puzzle tile to reveal a little more of the full picture.]

Oh. [There is the crash-sigh-furrow of profound relief with a touch of confusion. Too many questions piled up, mouth hanging open a little and voicing none of them. She holds her arm out off the bed, palm up, instead, expectantly.]

[rockymountaindie]

[ It's a strange reaction but this is a strange situation. Alex just takes a few timid steps toward her, so relieved to hear her speak and see something other than that blank, unnerving stare. ]

I- I was so worried, thank god- sorry I wasn't here sooner, some- some things came up, and...

[ Until he's right beside the bed. ]

[bu773rfly]

[She just shakes her head, shakes her head, tired and apparently not interested in the particular words he's saying. Doesn't quite grab at his hand, but there's a general kind of grabby motion that suggests what she might be after and suggests she might want him to meet her halfway.]

[rockymountaindie]

[ Oh? Okay. Okay, he reaches back, with his remarkably healed and usable hand. ]

When did you wake up? Are you feelin' okay? Dizzy, or...

[bu773rfly]

[Her arm bends at the elbow to reel his hand in; she raises the other to clasp it between hers, and it's like a pressure-release valve, her whole demeanor melting with relief.]

I'm alright so just, [she continues the sigh through her nose and finishes it out her mouth, a shaky, diverted maybe-thinking-of-crying noise,] take a breath or something and tell me what happened b-because I know parts but what we did is all [swallow] fuzzy.

1-ish

[petsthedog]

[He did come to visit her in the medbay, once. She was unconscious and he lingered a couple minutes, saw someone coming out of the corner of his eye, and left. It's harder to reach out to people now that the magic is gone; there's still a part of him that says it's better if he keeps his impact on people's lives minimal, overall.

Instead, he works on straightening up their room while she's gone. Laundering the sheets and blankets (surprise, he does know how to do it), neatly rearranging any things that might have fallen to disarray in the midst of a project before they left for their mission. There's new food in the fridge and a couple of nonperishable snacks quietly left in boxes on the countertop nearby. He even vacuumed.

He's ... not quite napping, but laying down on his bed when Erika finally walks back in, and he sits up slowly, casually raises a hand in greeting as she comes in, coupled with a "hey" in his usual mild tone. Things are fine here, things are normal. He thinks she'd probably appreciate a space for that.

Maybe she'll comment on that, or the state of the room, or the slight wobble in his step when he stands up a moment later, probably to go make himself scarce as he often does, which is pretty rude when you've only just woken up from your minor coma, really--

Except, no. He doesn't leave, or give her a chance to comment on any of those things, because he stops in front of her instead, and does something unexpected.]

You wanna watch a movie or something?

[Welcome back, I'm glad you're okay.]

[bu773rfly]

[Physically, she's fine. A few days' recovery for a few days'....pseudo-consciousness. Healing for the last of the battle wounds. Monitoring for the memory problems she impulsively feared. All clear, all well.

Emotionally, the shape of the world has changed again. For the...fourth time? Here she is, alive and new, remembering her way around the moonbase but having to relearn the feel of each place on her skin. She opens up her room with a certain kind of curiosity and trepidation, ready to have to sort through a close stranger's leftovers.

It's strangely clean inside.

Erika stands in the doorway for a little too long, looking in as though nothing about it is familiar to her. Shinjiro included - but there's an intensity there, that awkward scraping stare she uses.

Something here is off.

...Not unpleasantly so.

Erika tips her head back to really look Shinji in the eye, appearing to search over his expression and think about the request.]

...Yeah.

[Not enthusiastic, but unguarded and sincere and open to the contact. Thanks; I'm back for good.]

What movie?

[petsthedog]

[...He hadn't thought that far ahead, he realizes. What movies were there on Webflix, anyway? He rarely makes the time to check, what with everything else usually going on. Oddly enough, the first title that pops into his head is Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, that dumbass movie from the first Zarves incident, that Mista had been perhaps disproportionally fond of. He's seen that so many times now though he's not sure he can watch it intentionally by choice . . . . ]

What're you in the mood for? I ain't picky.

[bu773rfly]

[Oh gosh. Erika's eyes widen a bit. She doesn't seem emotionally prepared to make this choice.]

Something uncomplicated? With a happy ending? [...uhhhhhhh. She shifts from one foot to the other, then points at him.] You pick. I'll be back with snacks.

[And scoots away.....

brb.]

[petsthedog]

[Ah.......there she go. Time to...scroll through Webflix and hope inspiration strikes.....

By the time she's back, he's got the movie picked out and loaded up: Air Buddies. This is not a surprisingly soft choice for someone like him, shhhshshshhh. Just enjoy the puppies.]

[bu773rfly]

[SHE RETURNS WITH:

- Fucked-up nachos.
- Some elderflower macarons.
- Magic Oreos.
- Normal Oreos.
- Potato chips and melonpan.
- Banana treats, wrapped up on their own with something mysterious scribbled on the napkin.
- A thermos of nice tea.
- Caramel popcorn.

It's all loaded up into two grocery sacks, one of which she sets by Shinji for him to unload.]

Here.

[She unwraps the bowl of caramel popcorn from hers first and starts munching on it as she gets the rest out...]

1 i can change it if it doesn't work!!

[feytality]

[ when she comes to, she won't be alone. one hospital bed over is maya, who pulled strings to get closer to her. nick junior is on her lap as she's idly fiddling with her bracer, and he caws to signify that erika is away, causing maya's head to snap over so fast she almost gets whiplash. ]

Erika! You're awake!

[ thank you, captain obvious. the relief that washes across her face is almost tangible. ] How are you feeling...?

[bu773rfly]

[Her return is unceremonious. One moment she's just lying there, awake but not there, and the next her eyes open and focus and her breath stops while she starts to adjust to being back in reality.

She twitches at the voice and looks over reflexively, and there is blank disorientation written all over Erika's face. Most of the pieces in her hands, and none put together - Maya is Maya and the fight was the fight and this is a bed that's not the bed she was just in but what any of it means is a void of mystery.

(On the little table between their beds, Huizi flops over, first sign of life since Beaky brought her out of the tree.)]

Uh? [She sounds goopy. Very "just woke up". The next sound out of her mouth is a slurred "what're y'doin'?" that turns up high at the end, nonspecific and extremely confused.]

[feytality]

[ nick junior just circles around both erika and huizi, probably further disorienting them both. but they're awake!! good news!!! ]

[ honestly, it almost looks like erika's waking up from a particularly long nap, sluggish and disoriented by being asleep. ... if not for the coma, and the fight. maya only knows what she gleaned from alex, which is: it was bad. ]

[ still, erika's awake now. she tries to tamper it down as not to alarm the other girl. ]

Good morning. You're safe now, you were resting.

[ in one sense of the word ]

[bu773rfly]

[It doesn't feel a thing like waking up. It feels like...something else. Resting doesn't fit with the other puzzle pieces. The illusion - her reinforcement of it - the fight - the blank part of the timeline between then and now, and her worries about what happened in that interval.

Safe now. Resting. Her memories are all right here, in this body that was damaged. Known potential consequence. Her thoughts are so fucking scattered. One branch of them is frantically tracing back Maya's actions through Wonderland; another is trying to figure out what the hell she's doing in Tokyo. Erika lifts her hand clumsily but sluggishly, and stares at it, and the IV line attached to it. Resting???]

Resting. [She lets her head fall back and stares at the ceiling.] No. I wa- I don't remember. [Her head turns to Maya again.] Whhh...ere did I come from?

[feytality]

[ huh, is this just the regular disorientation one might face after waking up, or is erika... lacking memories? she doesn't seem alarmed to see maya particularly, so she probably remembers her, but.... well. ]

Do you remember Wonderland?

[ honestly it might not be such a bad thing if she doesn't. ]

Um... from there, but it's over. We got the Relic.

[ maybe that will help. ]

[bu773rfly]

[From Wonderland?

To here.

Oh.]

Oh. [In a tiny voice, strained with revelation, eyes gone wide:] Ohhhh.

[Oh holy shit it was completely one hundred percent an illusion.

And the part before that was real.

Probably.]


...Oh, fuck.