[Game 18] Endgame

[arsgoetia]

It's early morning by the time they tidy up the house and fix the windows—leaving it as neat as they'd entered it, Tristan promises—and head out. Tristan seems to be itching to just get away from the place, though they can't return to the church, and it's now New Year's Day—so they head back across the border to the house in New York. Even Sariel comes along—albeit reluctantly—at Tristan's suggestion.

"To my understanding," Tristan says, "the kid's with Sera right now, which I'm cool with. I was a bit rough on him, so he might be sleeping it off for another little while—and like you all said, he might be a bit freaked out to see a dozen people staring at him. So let's leave him there for now. I can send you all home." He pauses.

"But if you want to come back soon . . . I can bring you back. No agenda necessary. If you don't want to come—well, let me know, and I'll try not to bring you."

Comments

[troublebrewing]

Me too. Strictly speaking, it's better than the alternative... but...

[adropintheocean]

But that's a terrible qualifier to keep having to add to make yourself feel better? Last time was the same.

[troublebrewing]

Yes. It is terrible, and I hate it.

[adropintheocean]

[a long exhale]

How many times are we going to be called in merely to uphold an increasingly unstable status quo . . .?

[troublebrewing]

... I wish I could give you an answer, Red. And I wish the answer was "never again", but it may be like this for a long time. Our choices may often be between loss or stalemate, until we figure out how to tip the scales in our favor. It isn't fair... not to us, not to Zan, not to Madison, not to Tristan or Luka or Sariel.

But if we're always having to choose between the lesser of two evils, then we need to build something good to counteract them.

[adropintheocean]

[leans back against the wall, sounding calmer]

What's your idea of 'something good'?

[troublebrewing]

There are a lot of good things... so I don't have a single answer. I learn about more good things all the time. Love, and kindness, and compassion, and friendship... altruism, empathy. And maybe there is good in the things that can also be evil... desire, and loyalty, and recklessness, and lying... loneliness... it makes me think that there is good anywhere, if we look hard enough.

[adropintheocean]

[he's just . . . silent . . . a little broody-looking]

[troublebrewing]

Which isn't a great answer, I know... but it's what I'm working with, for the time being.

[adropintheocean]

[makes a dry half-laughing noise, looking up]

. . . it's not so different from Aather, after all.

[troublebrewing]

What's it like? I've only heard a little bit... about a land of fairytales, and lost memories.

[adropintheocean]

. . . those are both true, but it's also a . . . a scenario created specifically to save the universe from a dark overtaking force, through the power of bonds and positivity.

Which -- simultaneously feels like the biggest April Fool's prank in the universe, and -- rather terrifying all around at times, really.

[troublebrewing]

It does sound similar...

[adropintheocean]

It's as much of a mess, too, I think? Just . . . in microcosm.

[troublebrewing]

I wouldn't blame anyone if they wanted to just go home. I do, too. But... this is my home, now.

[adropintheocean]

. . . what made you choose it?

[troublebrewing]

I kind of didn't... it was by chance. But I'd wanted to stay here for a long time before it happened.

I felt that this world needed me more than where I was before. So many of my friends, my loved ones, lived here... and I missed them all, even when I forgot about them back in Camp. There was this ache in my heart I couldn't understand. I only really realized it here, that I was born to be a Hunter. Even if I've cast off that title, it's the kind of living that gave me a sense of purpose. What I can do, what I was meant to do... I believe it can be fulfilled in this world.

[adropintheocean]

. . . you've really thought about this, huh.

[troublebrewing]

I've had a lot of identity crises for someone my age.

[adropintheocean]

You seem to have come through it all right.

[troublebrewing]

I'd hope so.