Afterparty

[brokenhabit]

[ After the reunions have been had Lebkuchen finds a moment to compose herself, clearing her throat to get everyone's attention. ]

I think we ought to leave this place before our pathetic excuse of a Titan rears his ugly head once more. We can recuperate and mourn our losses... but also celebrate our win, [ She gives Aoi another squeeze to make it clear who she means ] before we move on to whatever happens next.

Give me a little time and I'll prepare something in the eatery for everyone.

[ It feels weird to have one of these not in the bar (even though her ass was almost always somewhere else after these ordeals) but she's certain it would feel even worse to be in the bar with Quark not there (even without her knowing that's where their bodies were found).

And so true to her word the eatery is eventually full of the usual spread of homemade treats Lebkuchen has been know for. Some of them were made the day before she poofed but are still perfectly good, however eventually some fresh ones do appear as well. Some of them have some leaves stuck to them though... probably because the kitchen is full of Lebkuchen's vines hard at work making everything for her. Oh well, it's extra nutrients!

She's also brought up several bottles from the bar because dunno about you but she's going to drink. ]

Comments

[literarybehemoth]

I did notice that, yes. I feel there are things going on in his world that I... do not know what to do with...

[pariunt]

It's a dying world, from the sound of things. He told me of some beast called "Sin", created by the powers that be of his world. That summoners sacrifice themselves to stop it, only for it to return.

Because the point isn't to finish it off once and for all; it's to keep the populace in line.

[literarybehemoth]

That sounds approximately correct, yes. But you would think the solution would be... to destroy the thing, would it not? I am certain it would be difficult, of course. But there's presumably a way.

[pariunt]

I'm certain there is.

[He's not sure what, though. Preventing the ritual from happening? He didn't exactly get to ask Seymour about it.]

But the people in charge don't want that. The whole song and dance is a farce.

Seymour was a summoner. I believe the goal, his mother's intended goal was for them to die saving the world. I can't tell you the details, but he did tell me that a summoner dying would stop Sin, for a time.

I suppose she thought it would be the only way for him to be accepted.

[He clenches his fists.]

He was the God of Salvation, but couldn't save himself. What a joke.

[literarybehemoth]

Well. Those sorts of institutions should be destroyed, really. I feel the desire to find some way to destroy it on principle.

...

There probably are those who would accept him. There always are people who want to do right, even in the face of society telling them otherwise. He simply had the misfortune not to meet them.

[pariunt]

I agree.

But something that's so ingrained into a culture? It would take revolutionaries to pull something like that off.

[or one plucky teenage boy from a dream]

If only he'd met people like that, in his world. Even one person.

[literarybehemoth]

Or an outsider without the baggage, perhaps. Though that could bring its own problems.

[...]

Indeed. Or perhaps if he had opened up to people more prepared to deal with that sort of suffering.

[instead of, like, the other jrpg villain (honorary).]

[pariunt]

[Zvei completely blew it. Astarion is still angry about it, though mostly for reasons different from everyone else.]

I wonder if he'd ever considered such a thing?

We know so precious little about his world, and all of it is information colored by his experiences.

[He sighs.]

...It's pointless to speculate. He's gone, unless we're able to find a way to bring everyone back.

[literarybehemoth]

Well. He could certainly be thinking about it now. I do believe Aoi's return suggests that is quite possible.

[pariunt]

I suppose he could be.

[If anything, from the conversations he'd had with Seymour, Astarion figures he was probably initially devastated to not sink into oblivious.]

Perhaps it would be possible to contact the dead once more? We likely don't have much time left, before Typhon makes a move.

[literarybehemoth]

I don't see why we shouldn't. There was no real downside to the last attempt, was there?

[pariunt]

Surprisingly, there wasn't. Perhaps it wasn't something particularly important to Typhon?

[It does seem to be the sort of thing that would slip his notice because he doesn't care.]

...or this mysterious wildcard let it happen.

[literarybehemoth]

He is extremely overconfident. I'm sure he ignored it because it could not possibly threaten him.

[pariunt]

It's his loss, isn't it?

Because we know now they're still present. They haven't been whisked off to this world's City of Judgement.

[literarybehemoth]

And they continue to persist at all, really, which I did not take as a guarantee.

[pariunt]

It's a strange thing to consider.

Clearly, they're being kept for some purpose. We just don't know what.

[Though, if this world's god of death is dead, there might not be anyone to actually claim any of those souls.]