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

[gotyourbach]

A. shadowdale

[Once the Relic has been recovered, once it's all over, Kaede collapses where she'd been fighting. She's not hurt badly -- her sleeves are tattered and torn, a little bloodstained from where shadowy claws had slipped past her defenses and nicked her skin -- but she is overwhelmed by a surge of emotion.

So much suffering. So much death. So many people who'd died, both before the battle and during the attempt to recover the Relic. They'd succeeded, hadn't they? There's no time to dwell on it until she's checked on everyone she can, so on autopilot, she forces herself shakily back to her feet to find her friends and help with the wounded.

Eventually, though, once the triage and worst of the damage has been taken care of, she collapses again, this time tucked against the side of one of the ruined buildings. She buries her face in her arms and cries.]

B. text; un: akapassionata (moonbase)

I'm sorry.
I said a lot of really awful things to everyone, and about Niel-kun especially.
I wasn't acting like myself... I'm sorry.

C. moonbase

[Kaede's back in front of the piano in the music room; it's as if everything's gone back to normal. It seems like she's composing a piece, playing a few notes, writing them down, scribbling them out, playing them again. It almost sounds like carnival music. It's hard to write an upbeat tune when her heart hurts so much, though. She looks exhausted, physically and mentally, like she hasn't slept since the return to the base.]

D. Wildcard!

[feel free to use this prompt, or hit me up @ jaderhade!]

B; un: kinghorse

[slieght]

You sure did.

[gotyourbach]

You tried to tell me, Oma-kun, but I didn't want to listen.



I'm really sorry.

[slieght]

Are you? Are you, like, aware of what you're apologizing for, really? It's pretty easy for someone to go "yeah that was bad sorry" and not really understand why they're apologizing, you know. And those kinds of half assed apologies are worse than just not apologizing at all.

c

[doberge]

[Ann has always sort of been the forward type, who usually nudges her way next to someone to try to cheer them up. or wedge her way onto a piano stool, as it were.]

[but something's telling her to hang back for a moment instead, just watching from a distance. maybe she gets the sense that this is how Kaede helps herself. or maybe it's partly because she knows there's not really anything she can say that can fix ... well, any of this.]

[but Ann is here to try anyway. whenever she thinks there's a break in the writing, she pipes up:]

Hey...

[gotyourbach]

Oh...!

[Kaede jumps, startled. Normally she'd be able to hear someone coming, especially when she's just trying to compose instead of losing herself in a piece. But she's just so tired, her reactions are slowed. She glances up, blinks a few times, then musters a smile.]

Takamaki-san... what's up?

[Normally she'd ask if she's being a bother, or if Ann wants to use the piano, but right now, selfishly, she doesn't want to really give it up.]

[doberge]

[Ann, for her part, smiles apologetically for the accidental jumpscare. they're back, er. home? home. now, the last thing she wants to be doing is spooking people.]

I thought I had heard music, so I came to see who was playing. [and, you know. pep talks if needed.]

Are you writing your own music? Sorry if I'm intruding ... I mostly just wanted to listen, if that's all right.

B, un: jdenvH8r82

[rockymountaindie]

You weren't the only one
Are you okay? It was Wonderland, wasn't it?

[gotyourbach]

Alex-kun...
How are you feeling? How's your eye?

I think so.
At the time, the stuff I was saying...
I really believed it.
I hate it.
I hate that that's the kind of person I could be

[rockymountaindie]

I'm me again, it's back to normal

I did too
Every bit of shit coming out of my mouth I wholeheartedly believed
Like the part of me that should've worried about that was removed
I'm not gonna hold any of it against you
I'd be a fucked up rotten person if I did
But I understand hating it

B, un: belladonna

[gambolshroud]

You're your old self again now, and you had the presence of mind to apologize.
That's what really matters.

Are you okay?

[gotyourbach]

I don't know
All the people I argued with, they're right to be upset with me
Just saying "sorry" doesn't seem like enough, but I don't know what else I can do
It's not like I can take back anything that I said



Has Ferran-kun talked to you about me at all?

[gambolshroud]

Moving forward from something like this won't be easy for any of us, but our friends are still our friends.
Try to focus on that part. It's hard, but it's important.


He hasn't. Actually, every time I mention your name, he changes the subject.
Was it that bad?

[She doesn't know for sure that they fought, but she can guess.]

A

[unrecovered]

[Once things have settled - once the last of the monsters has fallen and both Relic and Director are sent safely back to base - Wash starts a sweep of the city. Anything useful gets collected; anyone hurt or frightened or lost gets led back to the group, for medical care or comfort or whatever they may need. It's a long, solitary process, but Wash doesn't mind it; he can appreciate the silence, now that it's not hiding monsters.]

[It doesn't hide crying well either, and Wash follows the sound to find Kaede, hidden in the shadow of a building. He hesitates for a moment - after the way their last conversation ended, she may not want to see him - and moves past it, sitting down next to her. That's a risk he'll just have to take.]

[For the moment, he doesn't say anything; just stays with her. If she needs him, he's here.]

[gotyourbach]

...

[She can hear Wash approaching; his armor is pretty distinctive, after all. She sniffles, trying to compose herself, but she just can't, can't stop crying, can barely breathe through her nose.

She just curl more into herself when he sits, though, curling up as if to make herself smaller. If he listens, very very closely, he might be able to make out a tiny whisper through her sniffling tears.]

I'm sorry...

un: deku

[shootstyles]

...You should be sorry.

[gotyourbach]

[Deku... Kaede can't even imagine him being angry. He's always seemed so sweet.

It only makes her feel worse. She has to pause, try to collect herself, before she can even begin responding.]

I know.
I wish I could take it all back, but I can't.

October 17

[napstar]

[ It's redecorating o'clock! Or decorating o'clock, considering Minato never decorated the unit that he's been in since Faerun-January. They've been at it for a while now, putting up the decorations they've been picking up throughout the week and then switching their places, and then taking some down to put others up instead, and then putting the originals back up. But once they get it right, they won't have to change anything around again! At least, that's what Kaede tells him. He doesn't have much choice in the matter. Not that he's put up any kind of fight either.

The living area is a musical nightmare. Treble clefs and eighth notes line their walls holding candles and storage cubbies. A piano shaped bookcase stands against the wall loaded with sheet music. There's a rug now. There's a corner with a more normal shaped bookcase lined with mementos from each of their adventures, with one shelf dedicate to the violin that Minato broke when he traded his life for Cocoa's back on Maru. It's the only thing of Minato's in the room because it's the only somewhat decorative thing Minato owns, despite Kaede's best efforts.

But they finally finish for the day, hopefully, and Minato sits down with a sigh. Decorating is a lot of work!! But he takes a look around and... It's nice. It's obviously not a theme he would have picked out, but it screams out his friend's favorite interest, so he likes it. Kind of annoying that the ramen cups were put in the cupboard instead of left out in easy reach though, but he'll live with it. He opens the bag of cookies they picked up from a shop in town earlier that day and takes one, offering the bag to Kaede so she can have some too. ]

[gotyourbach]

[To someone else it might be a nightmare, but to Kaede, it's perfect. It's tastefully decorated with things that are relevant to them both, and if Minato had wanted more of a say in her choices, he had plenty of time to speak up! She had at least tried to keep some things in line with what she knows of his tastes, though; she'd passed up the light pink rug in favor of a deeper blue one, and picked out a few more furnishings in darker colors. But yeah, the bulk of it is her doing.

She collapses back on the bed beside him with a tired sigh, flopping back in weary elation at a job well done.]

Doesn't it look good? It makes it feel more like a home!

[She props herself back up high enough to snag a cookie with a grateful smile.]

What do you think, Arisato-kun?

C

[erlebnisse]

[She can't pretend to really be upset about the way things have gone. What's one more death? She just feels glad it's over with and they can all just...focus on moving on. Moving ahead. One step at a time.

She knows who's in the music room before she even arrives, but she doesn't even know herself why she approaches in the first place. She has no talent for comforting people. This should be Shuichi's job, but he's... Recovering, in his own way, she thinks. She hopes.

Maki takes a deep breath, crossing her arms over her chest]

I don't think my healing can fix this. Get off the piano and go to sleep.

[Blunt...]

[gotyourbach]

...Huh?

[It takes her a second to realize someone's speaking to her. She's used to being startled when she's focused on playing a piece, but her mind tends to wander when she's writing one. Hence, it's easy to hear people coming. Not so this time. She blinks a few times before turning a tired gaze to Maki, brightening just a bit in an effort to look cheerful.]

O-oh, no, I'm okay, Harukawa-san! [She's not.] I want to try to finish this as soon as possible, so... don't worry about me!

c

[eastofeden]

[ Of course he'd already apologized in writing to everyone, but Aziraphale had been worse to some people than to others. Kokichi's friend, he's sure, deserves something in person.

He listens for a while, waiting until she pauses in her composing to approach. ]

That sounds lovely, my dear.

[gotyourbach]

Oh... you think so?

[Kaede squints at the page, pencil hovering over it before shaking her head with a sigh and rubbing her eyes. Her writing is messy from being erased and scribbled out over and over again, but that doesn't excuse how hard it is to focus on it properly.

Instead, she gives the older man a smile. She'd seen his apology, and honestly she wasn't acting like herself either, so... it's all water under the bridge to her!]

Do you play, Az...Aziraphale-san?

[She stumbles briefly over pronouncing his name, but does her best.]

D TEN THOUSAND YEARS LATER SRY

[hxppythxughts]

[As Sayori considers the poem she's written for Niel, wondering again and again if it's good enough, she hears the footsteps of someone else in the forest. When she looks up and sees that it's Kaede, her eyes widen with some surprise; Wonderland was exceptionally cruel to them all, but the spectacle made of Kaede and Minato has stuck in Sayori's mind. Being part of a show for an audience you don't understand...

She calls out, clear concern in her voice.] Kaede?

I'LL WAIT TEN THOUSAND MORE IF I GOTTA!!

[gotyourbach]

Sayori-san...

[Kaede looks exhausted, mentally and physically drained by everything Wonderland put them through. But she still musters a smile as she approaches, a few pages of sheet music clutched in her hands. Someone like Sayori shouldn't be worried about her, after all!

They all have too great of a burden to bear after Wonderland.]

Hey... do you mind if I hang out with you for a little bit?