Field Mission 5: Il Prigioniero, Part 3

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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

[janthony]

[A pang of remorse hits Crowley when he sees the unshed tears wetting Aziraphale's eyes. It's enough to make him pull his head back enough that their noses aren't practically touching, although he doesn't go so far as to take a step backward.]

I'm not suffering.

[Because there's nothing he can do to refute actual deeds he's done.]

[eastofeden]

[ There was a time when Aziraphale would have rejected this assertion wholesale. When he would have been unable to conceive of the fact that it might be true. Crowley had been rejected, cast out, cut off from the ineffable fount of goodness and love - how could he not be suffering, every moment of every day?

But he knows better than that now. He knows Crowley, has seen the joy he takes in the world. The joy he takes in -

He drops his head, reaches out with his free hand to take Crowley's, and stands there, hands linked in a circle, just the two of them. ]

You've suffered on my account.

And I'm sorry.

[janthony]

[Crowley lets his gaze drop down when Aziraphale takes his other hand. The aggression fizzles out of him, staring dumbly at their hands linked together.

So much so that he almost misses what Aziraphale says. Or at least, falters for a second before replying.]

...Don't worry about it, angel. You didn't know any better.

[It was mental of him to keep throwing his heart into the woodchipper anyway and expect different results.]

[eastofeden]

[ Aziraphale hesitates, not quite sure what to say. There's still so much they haven't talked about. A month. He'd forgotten Crowley for a month. He doesn't know how to begin making up for that.

He doesn't try. What comes out of his mouth instead is something else entirely. A murmured, quietly desperate plea. ]

Please don't die again.

[janthony]

[At the soft, quiet desperation, Crowley squeezes Aziraphale's hands.]

Wasn't planning on it.

...Don't you for a second think you have a free pass to even the score, either.

[Don't die.]

[eastofeden]

I would never.

[ There's silence for a moment, the two of them just holding hands. And now there's nothing left to distract himself with. Aziraphale looks up, into Crowley's eyes, their positions so similar to that day in Wonderland just before Aziraphale had stepped forward, one hand on Crowley's cheek.

May I, my dear?

He doesn't step forward this time. He just waits. A long, drawn-out moment, balanced on the edge of a knife, before his nerve fails him all at once and he blurts out, breathless.]

Should we go get lunch, then?

[janthony]

[Crowley's chin tilts slightly, when Aziraphale looks up, and while he does meet his eyes briefly his eyes also fall to Aziraphale's lips.

He knows what they feel like, now. He knows what those lips taste like.

His head tilts just an inch, his lips part and he takes in a quiet breath.

But Aziraphale loses all nerve just before Crowley can find his, and he straightens back up.]

...Right. Yeah, lunch.

[He glances away.]

Didn't make it to the gardens for that walk, did we?

[eastofeden]

[ Aziraphale shakes his head, both disappointed and relieved. He's been through so much today already. He doesn't know if he could take any more.

But... ]

Perhaps another time.

Perhaps...perhaps soon?

[janthony]

[Crowley lets go of one of Aziraphale's hands, just because it's more conducive to, you know. Walking.]

Sure. 'Course, angel. Anytime you like.

Maybe take a picnic.

[eastofeden]

I would like that very much.

[ Aziraphale smiles at Crowley, eyes shining, and they turn to walk back towards the buildings and lunch. ]