EVENT ★ SEASON FINALE

[futurologists]

ZYMANDIS CASTLE The castle -- no, the entire world, small as it is -- is too peaceful. It isn't the atmosphere one would associate with a villain's lair, even with it looking as sinister as it does. Crumbling chunks of earth float in the air, threatening to hit anyone who isn't paying attention to where they're going. It is quiet around them, like the castle is entirely without life. Cassie, Cherenkov, Crowley, Dagny, and Uruz stand beside Audentes, proud that their sister team has come so far. Each of them have offered words of encouragement, even the cats... in their own special way. Cassie is short and sweet: “Give 'em hell.” Cherenkov and Crowley have combined their efforts to create regeneration nanobots that whisper positive messages to one's psyche and gifted them to the entire team. Dagny says, “I couldn't be prouder of you!! You have done much good, and come so far, and your future is so very bright, and -- oh, may I please hug you?? I'm going to hug you now!” and sticks gold star stickers on the foreheads of various team members. Uruz says, “Pull through, Audentes! You've always been brave, headstrong, and united! This will be nothing for you lot, nothing at all. But be careful, if only for me. I want to see you all again after we're through.” The group pushes forward. The moment they do, a loud, brassy sound blares throughout the castle grounds. The world comes alive again. Enemies begin to scale down the castle walls, pop out of windows, and burst through the doors, which slam shut behind them. A dragon circles above, raining fire down upon its enemies. A small squad of goblins brandish swords. Some enemies look human but pale, frenzied, hungry; they're out of control. Others resemble Qorral bandits. The enemies call back to their past missions in some way. A way of letting them know Zymandis had been one step ahead every time. ALASTAIR was simply the cleaning crew, picking up the mess they left in their wake. Halfway through the battle, a small, pale creature with inhumanly large eyes manages to make his way through the crowd (mostly) unscathed, waving a white flag he seems to have fashioned himself out of his own clothes, judging by the large hole in his shirt. He looks too thin and too tired. He falls to his knees. “Please, o Holy Liberators!” he exclaims, kissing the ground near their feet slavishly. “It does not want to be here anymore. It wants to go home. It has information the Liberators must want. It will give it to them.” ALASTAIR strikes a deal with the creature, who reveals his true name to be Edgar, although Arbatel -- the Leader -- refers to all of his servants as nothing but 'it'. Edgar draws a childlike map to a mine entrance not far, and explains that the mine itself connects directly to Arbatel's laboratory. “It has-- I... have cleaned it many times. Master was captivated by the mines. Master had men in the mines day and night.” His voice drops to a whisper. “The Liberators need be careful. The mines claim many lives. Master does not care if they are dangerous.” With that, the group has a new plan. Some of the other teams stay back to distract the rest of the fighters, but Audentes and Kittypaw continue on. After all, Audentes is their little sibling team. Even though Audentes has been a full-fledged team for two years now -- time certainly flies! -- they've still got to look out for them. It's time to head to the mines. THE MINES The trek to the mines is a hard one. The group has to be careful to avoid lava geysers and giant, seemingly bottomless chasms, as well as panicked, violent animals. By the time they finally make it to the mines, there's a good chance their legs are aching, but there's no time to rest. Dagny has brought along a few potions she brewed herself that will help dull the ache, however. Inside the mines, no one has to worry about lava geysers. However, vision is obscured, and there's a feeling of gloom hanging over the area. After all, the mine did claim many lives. Some might even pass some bones, if they're unlucky. Arbatel isn't interested in sending corpse clean-up crews. The danger of the mines becomes apparent when Audentes and Kittypaw meet their first challenge. The twists and turns of the labyrinthine mines begin to break up the group. With the teams separated, Audentes will find themselves feeling... angry. Perhaps vengeful. As if there were spirits influencing them. They will begin to turn on whoever they're with, deciding now is the time to air their grievances. (This can affect all characters in a thread or just one.) Only once characters are aware they're being controlled will they be able to resist, and only once they are able to strongly resist will they be able to break the spirits' hold on them. But be careful: if you stick around too long afterwards, the spirit might try to take vengeance on you. Audentes and Kittypaw finally manage to meet back up when the paths converge once again, but their luck does not last for long. Cassie leads the group fearlessly ahead, but is forced to stop when a shadowy figure crawls in the darkness. And another one... and another one. The large beetles and spiders who live in the mine have come out of hiding, surrounding the team from all angles. Their bites are venomous, and they spit acid that burns to the touch. Their skin is hard, like metal, and nearly impossible to pierce. It's no wonder so many miners lost their lives down here with these monsters preying on them. The numbers are too overwhelming and the creatures too strong. The group has no choice. They have to run if they want any chance to get to Arbatel and the TIMELINE.exe. The creatures follow in fast pursuit, hungry for their next meal now that Arbatel is no longer sending miners to their dooms. The more they run, the more apparent it becomes that escape is futile. It seems there is only one option left: become these monsters' food. At least, that's how it seems; the group stops, barely fighting off their attackers, and Cassie says, “Go, now!” She reaches into her pocket and shouts, “Hey! Over here!” as she runs in the opposite direction, diverting the creatures' attention long enough for the team to get a head start. She takes her hand out of her pocket and raises it, holding an explosive. “Eat rainbows and die!” Flamboyant as ever, her explosion causes a beautiful, swirling rainbow effect, knocking Audentes over. When they regain their bearings, the area where Cassie and the monsters stood is caved in. Cherenkov, Crowley, Dagny, and Uruz are quiet for the rest of the walk. The group finally comes across an area of the mine that is significantly more sculpted than the rest, hollowed out around a large, glowing crystal. Around the crystal is a catwalk, with a ladder leading up to it. On the catwalk are tables containing various arcane items, blueprints for inventions, computer parts, and other strange materials. This is certainly Arbatel's lab. Now it's time to find the man himself. FINDING ARBATEL The castle is falling apart on the inside, too, despite the servants he has put to work. Some of them resemble Edgar, but others seem to belong to other species; some are even human. All of them are pale, malnourished, and cower in Audentes's presence. None of them appear to have any sinister motive or put up any sort of fight, although they're all too afraid to speak as well. The castle is full of oddities: a bookshelf full of books in languages no one has ever heard of, paintings with colors no one has seen before. It's worth it to inspect everything. In fact, one inspection in particular is particularly lucky -- one removal of a book from a bookshelf causes a wall to slide back, revealing a set of stairs that ascend upwards. Hey, all secret lairs need a secret door. Start up the stairs, and a woman in gold and white armor appears at the top. She waves her hand and the wall quickly slides back into place, blocking the staircase again. Except, unfortunately, for the two who happened to be in front: Jon and Loki are now trapped on the other side of the wall with the mysterious woman. No matter how many books are removed, shuffled, or shoved back into the shelves, the wall won't open again. The team will have to find another way to get through. Meanwhile, Jon and Loki are left alone to confront the woman, who introduces herself as Hagith. She is Theodor Arbatel's younger daughter and, unlike her long-dead sister Ophiel, completely loyal to Zymandis. Enhanced with cybernetic bones and organs, she is gifted in magic and is a dangerous foe even for Jon. While they're engaged in battle, an older man appears from a door just beyond the landing. Loki, sure this is the man they've been looking for all this time, wields his sword of truth at the ready... As for the rest of the team, poking through the rest of the castle will eventually find a small passage behind a painting -- it's six feet up and roughly the size of a ventilation shaft, so the only way to get up there is teamwork, and the only way to get through is by crawling, one by one, through the pitch black labyrinth. The passageway conveniently ends right on the other side of the wall, where -- luckily for the claustrophobic on the team -- there is a lever that will make the wall slide back again, revealing the hidden stairs. It's just in time, too: a wounded Jon stands over the dead knight, her windpipe crushed, watching as Loki needles a distinguished-looking man with Gram, the sword of truth. It's a disquieting scene, but it's necessary: the man is Arbatel, the Leader of Zymandis, and he owes ALASTAIR some answers. “This blade is doused in Dragon’s Blood,” Loki says as he turns the sword in Arbatel’s wound; “it forces someone to tell the truth. It always hurts.” Arbatel gazes at his daughter’s body as he answers all questions posed to him, both from Loki and from those shouted from the expedition: His true name is Theodor Arbatel, and that has always been the truth. He comes from a world that he has long since forgotten, his lifetime lengthened to thousands of years by personal experimentation with a sort of proto-magitek. The longer he lived, the more chaos he saw in Zymandis’s attempts at solving the Cataclysm; it would be better, in his eyes, if the entire multiverse were purged and purified, allowed to start anew, instead of simply bandaging an already sick and chaotic thing. And when he updated the TIMELINE.exe machine, its new calculations only proved what he thought: the universe would start again if ushered to a total collapse. As the rest of Zymandis followed his machine’s update, he rose through its ranks to become the Leader; those who didn’t believe in the truth were executed or run out of Zymandis until a faction that would become ALASTAIR stole an earlier version of his creation and fled. Including, he notes with distaste, his daughter Ophiel. His quest to end this tainted universe and usher in a new, better universe had millions -- possibly even billions -- of casualties, he estimates. He recalls all the miners he remorselessly sent to their deaths in the pursuit of the temporal crystal in his laboratory. Arbatel has studied such crystals for centuries; there are many types, he explains, but only one of this particular kind. It is the only one capable of undoing all of Zymandis's work. His life's work. He would send ten times as many miners to die if it meant protecting that crystal. He would have killed his own daughters. As Arbatel’s confession continues, he becomes more and more affected by the blade of Gram, as to suffer this blade is to suffer the truths one has denied. The way he has twisted his own nihilism into being the only truth, refusing to look for other alternatives, ignoring the pleas of his elder daughter. As Loki told him, the truth hurts. And in this case, the truth has killed Theodor Arbatel. He falls to the ground, lifeless. With this bloody business done, there's a few minutes to rest and patch any lingering wounds. The rest of the expedition begins to filter in at this point, missing a few of their number and looking a little rough around the edges. From the ex-Zymandis agents' wristwatches, the Ophiel AI speaks: the TIMELINE.exe is in the next room. TEMPORAL STORM Behind the door, now unguarded, is the Mechanical Room -- a gigantic warehouse stuffed with cables and gigantic computers and hundreds of CRT monitors. The room is warm and there's a constant whirring of machinery, ever present but quiet enough that it can fade into the background like white noise. Upon entering the room, recruits will be greeted by the monitors all flashing threatening messages in unison: GET OUT and INTRUDERS and ALERT, among others. Outside the door, Arbatel and Hagith's jewelcomms beep frantically: the TIMELINE.exe is asking for assistance that will never come. Thankfully, the corrupted TIMELINE.exe machine has no actually effective means of defense, so ALASTAIR is free to do what must be done: upload TIM's new update, the ver. 1.0.03 file. Installing the update is a simple task, but will require every ALASTAIR recruit's participation: extend one's jewelcomm toward the TIMELINE.exe, and the magitek will do the rest. The interfacing is ephemeral and beautiful, strands of visible code streaming through the air like beams of sunlight. It only takes a moment, and once it's done, the TIMELINE.exe's screen go dark. And then, a second later: Hello World ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ It's a success: Zymandis's machine has been overwritten by TIM. Without a leader or their destruction-focused TIMELINE.exe, Zymandis is dead. But before there can be much excitement, TIM uses his new monitors to explain that there is still the matter of the impending destruction of this world and its universe, owing to the temporal crystal deep in the mine under the castle. The temporal crystal must be destroyed. The energy it saps simply to sustain its own existence keeps the universe fractured; when all of the research conducted by both ALASTAIR and Zymandis scientists is combined, TIM is able to hypothesize that shattering the crystal and releasing the energy into the universe will cause a surge large enough to charge a merging. After the Cataclysm, each universe continued to split into thousands of fractured universes, all nearly identical save for small differences. The energy meant to sustain one universe was now split across thousands, ebbing and flowing and never quite enough. The merging, however, would combine each of those identical universes into one... allowing them to run on full energy. In short: destroying the crystal should merge the fractured universes, allowing them to sustain themselves without ALASTAIR intervention. The solution is simple, but will require a lot of elbow grease: using materials found throughout Arbatel’s lab, create a positronic bomb and detonate the temporal crystal. The resulting explosion, as Arbatel said, will be the opposite of destruction. Once the bomb is all set, it’s probably a smart thing to head topside before its detonation. Don’t worry about leaving TIM behind -- his consciousness in this machine is linked with the machine in Oska, so he won’t be harmed. The same is not exactly true for the rest of the expedition. When the bomb goes off, there’s a blinding blue flash and a deafening silence. The world -- the universe -- no, the fabric of reality shakes and trembles; the sky swirls; the ground churns. It only lasts a handful of seconds, but the turmoil seems like an endless epoch. And then everything clears; the ravaged, once-crumbling world is still and silent. Though the platforms of earth still sail peacefully through the air, there is no more lava and no more shaking. The destruction of this universe has been halted. More than that, though, the instability of the multiverse has been halted. Instead of a sprawling, infinite multiverse filled with infinite timelines, the minutely different universes have been merged. This may result in some nausea or confusion as the expedition’s own minutely alternate realities meld with their own, though there won’t be any identity crises or conflicting memories. You’re still you. But more importantly, this means the multiversal energy crisis is over. ALASTAIR can use its rift machines without needing to conserve precious energy. You can go home, if you’d like... but you might want to head to Oska first. LATER... After what might have been the longest day of their lives, the group returns to Oska for a well-deserved celebration... after any injuries are tended to. They are, of course, commended by the rest of ALASTAIR for their bravery and dedication. There's a feast, but considering how tired everyone is, there's no wild party. Just quiet contentment. An older ALASTAIR member, a man with dark hair and a prim demeanor, stands up to give a speech. “For thousands of years, we have endeavored to right the wrong caused by the Cataclysm. Tonight, we have finally achieved that goal. ALASTAIR's purpose was solely to maintain order as best we could, even in the face of impossible odds. Now, that is no longer necessary. This is a beginning of a new and better multiverse... but it is an ending, too. I suppose it is time to disband ALASTAIR, once and for all.” The crowd murmurs. It's all a blur of words, but the general gist can be picked up. Should they really disband ALASTAIR? Could they? There isn't anything left for them to do, after all. We could all go home to our families. “This is not a loss. This is a win. I vote that today be ALASTAIR's last official day of operation. Those who agree with me, raise your hands.” A large majority of the crowd raises their hands. “The matter is settled, then. Tonight, we celebrate. Tomorrow... tomorrow, we go home.” He sits and resumes speaking to those sitting beside him, and it seems the discussion is over... until a red-headed girl barges in through the double doors, eyes wild. To say she looks frazzled is to put it kindly. “You guys have to hear this. The merging? It worked. No more energy being drained. But the universes, they're... having trouble adjusting, I guess. Look.” She projects her magitek onto the wall, showing clips of protests, fires, war. In one world, two queens vie for the same crown. In another, dinosaurs seem to roam the earth again. “We've gotta do something, right?” The room quiets. For a moment, it seems no one is going to answer her. Finally, a woman answers. “We've done all we can. It's time to stop interfering with other worlds. I'm returning home.” Others grumble in agreement. A select few disagree. The girl scowls. “Oh, please.” She gestures to Audentes. “You just saved the freakin' multiverse. And it's all gonna turn to crap if we don't fix it. So...” She smiles sheepishly. “What do you say? Partners?” OOC NOTES And that wraps it up for Season 1 of Futurology! The action portion of the log will last roughly five IC hours. If you have any questions about this log, please direct them to the dossier. We know it's a long one, so don't be shy! For those of you who will be staying with us on to Season 2, will be releasing a calendar on what to expect for the next two months sometime in late November. For those of you who are heading off at the conclusion of Season 1 or those who have dropped already, thank you for participating in our game! Futurology is what it is because of every single one of you. NOTE: HMD and AC will be posted on schedule (18 November and 1 December, respectively), so don't forget! Participation is mandatory if you would like to remain in the game.

Comments

[grunehexe]

[This is the courtyard where she found Ban drunk after Nalawi. This is the tree under which she had often sat and read when the weather was fair. This is the stone she often tripped over on her way to the greenhouse. This was the corner where she'd listened to Alice's lute playing.

Every corner of Oska seems filled with memories suddenly, seems more precious than it had been.

Finally she turns to Graham, fingers lacing somewhat anxious in her lap.]

... does Oska feel like home to you?

[Did it feel like that to her, after all this time?]

[dishearten]

( does Oska feel like home? it is a complicated question for a man that has not had much opportunity for anywhere to feel like home. he is silent, and reflective... finding his own answer before he speaks again. )

There is much I have enjoyed about my time here, but I wouldn't call it home.

( home was a place you wanted to be, a place you got to make your own. Oska was a place he was forced to exist in, and while it had good moments as well as bad... it would never be his home. a place he can build, a place he can feel is his own. )

You know there's nothing wrong with it, if you have started to feel that way.

[grunehexe]

[Had she?

Sieglinde doesn't reply at first, staring still out at the courtyard more so than at Graham himself. Despite all the time they had spent together, she knew there were still things she had not told him about herself, and he her. What had she been thinking?]

... My home is ash and dust and ruin.

[And built of lies in the first place, so perhaps she was wrong to somewhat miss it. But it was all she'd ever known, so perhaps that was fine.]

Sebastian told me that in his time, perhaps my future... I live in a grand manse in London, and Wolfram is there with me, and I have all the money and time in the world to work on my projects.

[But-]

But it does not seem possible, in a way. I do not think it right to return and all things simply flow on like that.

[dishearten]

( he's heard a little of her home. he knows of her guilt, her responsibilities, far more than a girl her age should be forced to carry. the heart Graham has now feels a little lighter at the thought that one day she'd have a home outside of that. a mansion, someone she could trust. freedom to explore her interests. he wants that for her, even if she's uncertain whether she's ready to want it for herself. )

It will not be simple, I imagine. You will have years of memories, things you've learned, things you've seen. Reconciling them will be... Difficult. ( he'd know about the difficulty in reconciling two varied lives, actually, though he has no hints for managing it. he's still trying to understand it himself. )

I think when you are ready to return, you'll know. I know. ( it's a segue, of sorts. a truth she needs to hear, though he hates telling her. Sieglinde has lost so many, and now his name will be the next on the list. )

[grunehexe]

[There were things she thought to say. Things about how long it has been since she's seen Wolfram. Things about how she still did not know how he truly felt- he had betrayed the others to save her, but he had still lied to her for her entire life with the rest of them, and what was she supposed to say to him? Things about how she couldn't really understand the idea of a future in the world she left behind, despite Sebastian's words to the contrary.

But then Graham's last two words register, and instead of any of that she looks up at him silently for a moment, brow furrowing, searching... before her gaze falls away.

She remembers how it went. The way Kida's voice had sounded when she said "I must speak with you", the way Achilles had said "I have news to share". It's the same way Graham sounds now, though the words might be different each time.]

... you know.

[He deserved to be able to.]

[dishearten]

I know.

( to be frank, he'd known since the day he arrived, he just hadn't been granted the choice then. Graham is a man that has had his choice taken from him time and time again. no matter how many times it happened, no matter the intention of the theft, it never got any easier.

perhaps, if he had been given a choice from the start, it could be different. Graham wants to figure out the man he is now, and to find a way to make up for who he'd been when he couldn't help but be a monster at the beck and call of an evil queen. he may have welcomed the outlet offered if he'd been given the chance, he just never had been. and in all those years he has never forgotten, no matter how many connections and attachments he made.

still, that doesn't make it easy. he knows that Sieglinde has been a part of this team as long as he, and that she has mourned every loss harder than anyone might expect of a girl that was so desperate to convince the world she was too adult for such things. ) I know that I want to go to a place where I'm free to be my own man. No matter who calls things, I doubt that will ever be so here. It isn't you I want to leave, Sieglinde, I need you to know that.

( usually for these talks, he's blank and rather impassive. that's not a possibility with a heart back in his chest. the words are heavy and his heart is heavier, and the evidence of that is weighed in his tone. )

[grunehexe]

[She cannot look at him. Not because she is angry, or even because she feels tears beading in the corners of her eyes that she wishes to deny. She doesn't think it fair to look at him right now, not when she knows her expression would be begging him to stay. Would be reflecting how hurt she'd be by his leaving, when it must be selfish to feel that way.

It had been years now since they met the first time, in that dark wood in Chantes. She'd met so many people in that world. Gilgamesh (gone), Masamune (gone), Kidagakesh (gone), Eren (gone), Rin (gone), Riza (gone), Olivia (gone), Alice (gone), Merlin (gone), Saber (gone), Archer (gone)... so many she might think she would lose track, if she didn't know her own memory well enough to know she'd never forget. The first people she'd truly met from outside her own village. Her first friends, first caretakers, first fanciful loves, first makeshift family. As if she could ever forget that?]

I know that-

[It wasn't personal. She knew how important it was to him to have regained his heart, to be able to return to his world like he wanted. She was happy for him, truly, even if her shoulders hunch and her voice hitches slightly.

But Graham... he had carried her through sunny days and stormy ones. He had shared his Brother with her. Broken bread with her. Protected her. Spoke to her of his love. Copied letters and collected herbs under her watchful eye.]

I do-

[He had held her hands, when she'd been bedridden after rebreaking her feet, and implored her to understand that she didn't need to make herself suffer to make up for the things she had done in her short, dark life.

And soon he would be gone.]

[dishearten]

( she knows, and yet that doesn't make it any easier. he's seen as many people come and go, though he hasn't truly been able to connect to them or mourn them. Sieglinde has done both with more names than he could count, and those were simply the names he knew about. he wasn't disappearing home to die, she'd seen to that, yet would that make the absence easier?

return of emotion is a two sided coin, and while one side is bright and new and young and hopeful, the other is corroded and black and ugly. supposedly when you flipped a coin, there was an even chance of getting either side, yet emotions didn't seem to rely on statistics. Graham all too easily found the ugly side of his feelings now that he could properly reach them, and this one was one of the ugliest of all. there was no one he'd say goodbye to that had meant so much to him as Sieglinde, and caring about her as he does makes it all the more painful to know he'd be leaving a new wound in her heart, one she was notorious for letting fester over allowing it to heal.

He's held her many times, carried her more than he can count. when he reaches for her now it isn't for practicality, it's an apology morphed into movement. he holds her tight like he'd never let go, but the fact is, he has already decided he has to. )

I'm sorry. ( for leaving her, for being the one to walk away. for so long he'd thought his fate was sealed and that ALASTAIR was all he had left. she'd given him the chance to dream for more, and yet that meant saying goodbye. )

[grunehexe]

[If only things were as bright and pure as they'd hoped them to be. Graham, and his emotions, and Sieglinde, with her dreams of the Outside World. How she had longed to see it if only once, how bright and magical it had seemed when it was but an impossible idea.

But here she is, and though once she had hesitated to hug him, seized by some strange dread that all the people she'd ever embraced had died...

She embraces him in turn, burying her face in his shoulder and unable to say "it's alright", or that she forgave him. It was alright to hug him- she knew better now.

The people she embraced like this didn't always die. Sometimes they just left.

So before then, she'd have to memorize how this felt, and how he sounded, and smelled, and looked. Photographs were a wonderful invention beyond her time, and those she had... but it wasn't quite the same, now was it?]