the final week

[airlockedmods]

[Eight weeks. Eight weeks of friendship and love, death and loss, hope and despair all muddled together in a cocktail that's too sweet on the tongue and leaves an acid-y pit in the stomach. With nine of them left (ten counting their dear but lone surviving host), things look darker than ever. Come Sunday morning the last of the Champions missing memories will be returned to them while they sleep. For some of them this will reveal answers, for others it might just be a fate worse than death. They could even be death.

But how does the song go? "It's always darkest before the dawn"?

There are no announcements from PAL this week. Not even morning and evening announcements.

Sunday Monday Tuesday



[ooc: Welcome to endgame, everyone! We're all very proud of you for making it all the way to the end. As you can see this is going to be a short IC week but we promise things will not be going down until this weekend (7/7-7/9). On Tuesday we'll be unveiling the OOC post for what to expect during the final investigation. There is no official AC this week, just a check-in and as mentioned above characters will be at their true canon points on Sunday morning.

Buckle up, kids, the ride's not over yet.]

Comments

[scourgingstars]

...Arianna.

[Quietly, with a hand dropped light on her shoulder.]

What is it?

[daughterofthemark]

[She doesn't answer.

At least she isn't crying?]

[scourgingstars]

[do you want a hug arianna]

[because he is right here and the option is very open]

[daughterofthemark]

[She very much needs a hug, yes, and she's going to take one please.]

[scourgingstars]

[i guess just being team dad is his life now.]

...It's going to be alright. Whatever's happened--we're here for you.

[daughterofthemark]

[She's quiet for a long time.]

We

We fucked up.

[scourgingstars]

[we're all so proud of your new vocabulary]

I'm listening.

[daughterofthemark]

The Calamity. We fought it.

[scourgingstars]

...Was that not advisable? Usually things with names like 'Calamity' rather need to be fought.

[daughterofthemark]

That was what we believed--knew. [She still doesn't doubt that much. The damned tentacle tree thing needs to die.]

And we believed we had defeated it, but then...

[serrata]

[ Yuuri's quiet for a while, just stroking Arianna's hair as she listens. ]

Did it come back...? Or... whatever you did wasn't enough to finish it off for good.

[daughterofthemark]

[She nods.]

The moment we let our guards down.

[scourgingstars]

Things like that tend to have that effect. You can scarcely blame yourself, after having fought to rid yourselves of it.

[daughterofthemark]

[...]

Most of us were struck down instantly.

[scourgingstars]

[Shit.]

Oh--Arianna, I'm...so sorry.

[serrata]

[ She stops stroking Arianna's hair and instead she holds Arianna just that bit tighter. ]

... That... after all you did... That wasn't fair. Not after you'd all come so far.

[daughterofthemark]

He... could still win. The Fafnir Knight. If he took the opportunity to run... come back with stronger allies...

[serrata]

... and do you think he would?

[ If he's one of Arianna's dear friends... then she thinks she might know the answer already. ]

[daughterofthemark]

...he would never consider it for a moment.

[The Conspicuously Unnamed Guild, by that point, had become a family as much as the people in this room.]

[serrata]

That's what she thought.

[ She doesn't say anything else -- doesn't have to, really. She just hugs Arianna that bit tighter. ]

[daughterofthemark]

Only two of us remained. I intended to...

[She takes a deep breath.]

Distract it. So he could get away.