15strangers | SING, O GODDESS

SING, O GODDESS

[The place that Zagreus brings them to is an abandoned house. Like the rest of Greece, at first the grass and plants are dead, withered. But only at first.

As everyone files into the garden, it starts to slowly come to life. flowers begin to bloom. Fruits and vegetables start to sprout from the soil. The trees begin to grow once more. Wheat stalks slowly pop up out of the ground. Wherever this is, it's clear that life is returning-and the gods are awakening.

It's probably best that they don't return to the underworld, to the House of Hades-but, if anyone wishes to, Charon has arrived with the dead from the previous rounds-now alive-and little baby Ayame. If anyone wishes to go there-though, why would anyone ever willingly go back to the House, knowing you-know-who is probably awake by now?-they can.

But for those who stay here, there is food and drink, wine and bread, fresh meat and ripe crudités. Talk. Plot. Say your goodbyes before you are SHIFTed back to your homeworlds.

Who knows? Maybe there are still some surprises left to be had. But, either way...it is a good day. The new moon will pass. The sun will rise.

The Game-or at least, this variation of it-is over.]

((OoC: And with this, Round 7 is complete! Thank you everyone who participated-we hope you enjoy the aftermath, and stay tuned for the SHIFT Meme and HMD!))

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And knowing that this expansive web of worlds lays out here has not changed your drive? You could always flee, if you wished.

[She blinks up at him for that comment, honestly surprised.]

No I couldn't....

[He nods, not seeming surprised]

Good. I just wanted to be sure. Did the idea really never occur to you?

[It's possible that she considers it, but if she does it's only very briefly before slowly shaking her head, looking up a little curiously.]

I guess it was always a possibility. I mean, I did talk to you about coming home with me.

But even if I didn't have anything that I had to do after, I guess I still need to make sure the box gets opened.

But even after that....

What use is being able to fight for something if you just decide to run away?

[His look brightens eventually into a full smile]

I suppose you are right.

[She hums softly, happily, and lays backwards in the grass and looks up at the blue, blue sky, and doesn't ask Hubert about his plans. Or she wouldn't, but....]

You're still coming back with one of us, right? I hope you're not just going back to your home again to die.

No, I will not be returning to Fodlan. I... wish to live as long as I can, for her and my own sake.

[She smiles dreamily at that, but doesn't press further, not right now, though her hand moves just a little to rest against his, gentle, comfortable.]

Good. I think that's what she'd have wanted, for you.

Yes, I believe so too. Though I will admit I am... at a loss what to do with myself now. Service has been my entire life. My purpose, my religion. I may as well be a new born pegasus with how knockkneed and lost I feel.

Well....

I know it wouldn't be the same. I won't pretend it would be. But I could always use more help. And I could always use a friend. So the offer is still there, if you want to come back home with me.

...

I... would like that, I think.

[She turns, at that, and smiles up at him, though after a moment the expression drops down, a little uncertainly, and there's a touch of concern in her.]

There is one problem, I guess.

I... I don't know if I'll survive, yet.

But if I don't....

I don't know. Maybe it will be like I never even met you. So maybe it won't matter. But if not... you might die too. Not every time, but... some of them. Is that really okay? I've been trying to figure out if there's some way that everyone can follow me and arrive... after but I'm not sure if it works like that.

[he nods, and as he talks he fiddles with something in his pocket, eventually taking out the ball of yarn Charon gave him. It's not magical in any sense Hubert can tell, but it DID come from the underworld, so it certainly is Different in some unfathomable way. He threads the end of it between his fingers]

I expected as much, from what you have told me. A sprawling web of possibilities, as many disastrous as there are good. Likely more. Suffering on top of suffering I may or may not remember.

[like what Aoi went through]

Yeah.

[She smiles, just a little, more to comfort him than anything.]

Honestly it would be more of that, after. You wouldn't remember it, I don't think, not this time. But that's all time is, isn't it? A web of possibilities? Humans stumble their way through it, walking along one strand of that web, every path divided by others that were taken a different time, which lead to different outcomes.

We'd make it eventually. Some version of us, at least, even if there were others that would be lost.

[he keeps twisting the yarn around until he makes a cat's cradle]

Indeed. And even if I never remember... I have been gifted this preemptive hindsight. I wish... to live so that any me that dies can do so with no regrets.

[She smiles at him, then pushes herself up and leans on him, putting her arms around him, loosely.]

Thank you, then.

And I love you.

[He smooches the top of her head, unable to return the embrace due to his fingerwork]

And I, you. I will protect your path as long as you have need of me.

[She positively beams up at him, at this total victory of Hubert now not simply grudgingly accepting but actually reciprocating such displays of affection, and then carefully reaches out and pinches the yarn in her fingers before pulling it off his hands and spreading her own to display the soldier's cot.]

And luckily not everything is different.

[She holds her hands out towards him, yarn held tight, in a silent invitation to come play.]

[He smiles at her taking the yarn, delighted that this game has crossed over worlds, sliding his fingers in to join in, starting to form Candles]

Not everything, that is true.

And... mmmm.

It's... possible that I might be able to help even more than most people would. Since you got a vision.... mmm. It's hard to know, but you might be a reciever. Things don't work quite like normal here, but, well, I guess everybody is to some extent, regardless.

[She holds her hands still as he plucks the yarn from her fingers in it's new configuration, and then sets to pulling out the manger from him.]

SING, O GODDESS

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