Let's Play A Murder (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
letsplayamod) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
letsplayamurder2025-08-31 01:13 am
letsplayamod) wrote in letsplayamurder2025-08-31 01:13 am
Entry tags:
Epilogue: A New Day
In the end, hope triumphed over hate. A new pantheon of gods, gathered from all corners of the universe, came together to unlock the ultimate power and it it flow over the land once more. They proved one goddess that her wisdom was correct, and another that her wisdom was keeping her trapped in a vision of the world that would never be.
You exit the temple of Olympus, battered and bruised, but more together than ever before. Athena raises her hand and drags it before her. In the distance, the keen-eyed will see the barrier that's long protected you finally fading away.
The sun shines down. Two months and you're finally, finally free.
Athena takes care to thank each of you personally. This was exactly what her and Fenyx had theorized was possible - not exactly, but the outcome is greatly acceptable. And now, Athena is bound by her oath to return you home... or wherever it is you'd like to go. You're gods now, you have the privilege.
Speaking of! Once everyone's rested and healed, Fenyx prepared a little get-together for everyone on the cliffs, with a special bonus: they can bring in any person you desire. Family and friends are preferable, but who are they to question if you want to smack your rival across the face for the first time in weeks?
They may react in confusion, however, if you tell them about the bits of Hope buzzing in the air like glowing fireflies. They're not gods, after all. They can't see them.
Dipping lower around half-day, you may peer over the side of the area and see far, far down into the valleys of ocean and cities. And beyond all of that, sailing in from the horizon, ships. Old ships of man-made nature. Sails billowing in a wind that no longer tears them asunder. Now that the storm has passed, life can resume picking up the pieces.
It will be messy, probably a disaster at times, but there's always hope. And if that carried you here, then maybe it will bring those people to the top of the mountain.
[This is the final post of Let's Play A Murder! Players are welcome to invite cast members to this log for the purpose of tagging out reunions (Fenyx and Athena will have personally greeted and asked to bring them here). You may tag this at your leisure, whatever last-minute endeavors you'd like your characters to get into will go here.
Thank you for playing.]
You exit the temple of Olympus, battered and bruised, but more together than ever before. Athena raises her hand and drags it before her. In the distance, the keen-eyed will see the barrier that's long protected you finally fading away.
The sun shines down. Two months and you're finally, finally free.
Athena takes care to thank each of you personally. This was exactly what her and Fenyx had theorized was possible - not exactly, but the outcome is greatly acceptable. And now, Athena is bound by her oath to return you home... or wherever it is you'd like to go. You're gods now, you have the privilege.
Speaking of! Once everyone's rested and healed, Fenyx prepared a little get-together for everyone on the cliffs, with a special bonus: they can bring in any person you desire. Family and friends are preferable, but who are they to question if you want to smack your rival across the face for the first time in weeks?
They may react in confusion, however, if you tell them about the bits of Hope buzzing in the air like glowing fireflies. They're not gods, after all. They can't see them.
Dipping lower around half-day, you may peer over the side of the area and see far, far down into the valleys of ocean and cities. And beyond all of that, sailing in from the horizon, ships. Old ships of man-made nature. Sails billowing in a wind that no longer tears them asunder. Now that the storm has passed, life can resume picking up the pieces.
It will be messy, probably a disaster at times, but there's always hope. And if that carried you here, then maybe it will bring those people to the top of the mountain.
[This is the final post of Let's Play A Murder! Players are welcome to invite cast members to this log for the purpose of tagging out reunions (Fenyx and Athena will have personally greeted and asked to bring them here). You may tag this at your leisure, whatever last-minute endeavors you'd like your characters to get into will go here.
Thank you for playing.]
no subject
It's her. It's actually her.
For a moment her throat feels like it might close up. Like her feet have suddenly forgotten how to move. ]
It...
[ It comes out in a pathetic gasp. She swallows another breath down, trying to refind her strength.
In the end it comes from concern. It surges her forward once again, rushing her through the remaining distance between them and reaching for her shoulders. ]
A-Are you all right?! You're not hurt anywhere?! Y-You can cry if you are, you know!
[ She didn't get the full story of what happened. But she got enough to realize the situation was horrifically familiar and start fearing the worst. ]
no subject
But the concern in Miyu's (i-is it Miyu now? Something happened here, clearly) voice and how careful she is reaching out for Aoi is so far from that, Aoi can't help but feel incredibly happy.]
It's okay...A-Aoi's fine now. [She sniffles, in part because getting permission to cry makes it a little easier.]
I didn't think I'd ever see you again...
no subject
Well, she shoves the thought down for now. Packages it neatly in a little box for later. She's gotten good at boxing up her rage like that.
...that sniffling's going to get her to start tearing up too though if she's not careful. ]
I-I didn't think I ever would either... after you rolled that world back, I thought that was it...
[ She hangs her head. ]
To hear you ended up going through something like this too I... I could barely even think straight--
no subject
...Miyuki's been put through one of these too? Where somebody made you and your friends kill each other?
[It is a genre that people are fascinated by, so maybe it's not that shocking. But the thought of her best friend in one still hurts.]
1/2
[ And then she pauses. There was an annoying thought in the back of her mind when Fenyx and Athena found her, but she had ignored it when she realized what the situation they were describing actually was. It didn’t matter in that moment, what mattered was that somewhere, out there, a version of Aoi was alive and had been put in danger.
But therein lies the rub, doesn’t it. A version of Aoi.
She had dismissed still being called “Miyuki” as just Aoi being Aoi. Even though when they last spoke, Aoi had tried to use the new name during what little time they had left. Miyu would not hold it against her for struggling with it but now she has to wonder— ]
Wait… unless…
2/2
[ There are over two trillion different possible versions of herself that could exist out there.
And theoretically each of them would have their own Aoi. ]
no subject
[Oh. Yeah, that would make a lot more sense. As far as Aoi knows, her Miyuki is still in the freshly reset game where Aoi Mukou no longer exists. That the Miyuki she's seeing right now even knows who Aoi is means that she isn't the one Aoi knew.]
If your Aoi rolled back the universe on her own, God probably absorbed her data by now.
[She says it like an apology for confirming that question.]
Aoi's Miyuki was still a part of the game.
But you...something else happened. SOMEONE took you out of the game like THEY asked Athena to do to Aoi?
no subject
Right. Of course. Of course that would be the case. Of course it couldn't be that easy. She's reminded once again of how the first route Aoi she initially became friends with was also lost forever, only briefly brought back when the memories of the routes came together at the end. It was foolish to get her hopes up and believe she could get that Aoi back, that she had somehow broken free of God and wasn't just... gone.
...
But at the end of the day... Aoi is still Aoi right? Even if it's not her Aoi, it's still someone's Aoi. Someone loved this Aoi very much. Another Miyuki out there probably dealt with the heavy feelings she herself did, even if they never became fully aware.
They'd probably want Miyu to treat her well in their stead. She hopes so anyway. Because that's what she's going to do. ]
...Something like that. [ She finally takes her hands away from Aoi, folding them in front of her chest as she starts idly fidgeting with a ring on her right hand ] It's less that THEY asked and more... we just sort of ended up in that situation. I still don't know how any of it happened.
[ Though now that she thinks about it... she never really asked if THEY consciously had a hand in any of that, did she? She just took the Foundation at their word and if the documents the others found on them were to be believed there was a whole month missing in her memories where the connection wasn't even there. Had there been something else at play? Did it have anything to do with that "mark" Tannith talked about? She'll never know.
There's one thing she knows for certain though. ]
But THEY-- SHE... I know that SHE wanted to save me. Without taking away any of my memories. SHE wanted me to have a life where I had the freedom to decide things for myself, go wherever and be with whoever I wanted. To try living again… however that might look.
[ Because you can’t really call what she was doing in that world she tried making “living”. And even before that… she had given up on a lot when she realized the truth of her existence.
Even now she still thinks a lot about HER voice begging her to come back to everyone as she lay there about to be erased for good. Come back and try again. ]
And in the end... SHE did. SHE saved me and set me free.
no subject
SHE and THEY cared enough to make it happen.]
SHE must have loved you a lot. ...THEY wanted something like that for Aoi too. Being free...
Aoi's not sure about all the details, but...when THEY used the code to bring Aoi back, THEY made a wish for Aoi to get out of the game. The goddess in this world heard THEM. It wasn't supposed to be a world where Aoi and so many people died, but...we all still reached a happy ending.
[It wasn't easy. Miyu must know that if she went through the same thing. But if SHE managed to save her, then the results must be similar. Aoi wants to confirm it for sure either way, though.]
...is Miyuki happy?
1/? cw: mentions of sexual trauma in relation to totono's... everything
But that question... that takes her by surprise. ]
Me...?
[ She looks down a moment, collecting her thoughts. But truthfully it's the easiest question in the world. ]
...No. Miyuki Sone is probably not happy.
2/
[ A gentle smile spreads across her face. ]
Even though it was hard, even though I suffered so much and in the end lost my connection to HER forever... I'm happy.
The life I lead now is so fulfilling and like nothing I could have ever dreamed of. I live in a world that couldn't be more different than the one in the game - the technology is so behind, there isn't even indoor plumbing! But there's magic and dragons and all other sorts of things I would never have seen if I hadn't gone through all of that hardship before. I'm even quite the accomplished witch now, if you can believe it!
[ She looks up to the sky, continuing to smile as so many memories come to her mind. ]
But it's not just there... I've been to so many places now. A version of ancient China right out of a Wuxia movie, a world where everyone lives in perfect harmony with creatures they befriend and have fight by their side, the real Japan... my tiny world has been expanded into an entire cosmos to explore at my leisure and each day is a chance to experience something new, no matter how small.
[ She softly shuts her eyes, head still tilted up. ]
None of that would even matter if it weren't for the friends I made though. And I have so many of them now. There's the ones I have in my new world of course - comrades that I briefly camped with and fought alongside. One taught me magic, another how to use a sword... I even started picking up healing at one point. I fit in so naturally with the whole group just by being myself, my actual self... no one cared that I was blunt or kind of bitchy, because most of them were too! I felt valued as a member of the party and a companion just the way I was, and even though that journey's over now I still think so fondly of them all and the bonds we shared.
But the ones I met during those two months of captivity... they're special. I wasn't close with everyone in that group but the ones I was... to call us friends feels like an understatement. They didn't just see my true self and accept me, they... heard the truth of my existence. Found out about the way that I... we had been used and hurt, heard about everything I had done... and they didn't look at me with a single hint of disgust or judgement. Instead they saw my pain and self-hatred... all of that loneliness I had bottled up inside and ignored for so long... and promised to never let any of that happen again. They listen to me. Respect me. Believe in me. They know how capable and strong I am, but they still want to protect me. And most of all, we have fun. All those new sights wouldn't be anywhere near as meaningful if I wasn't with them. It makes me feel like I finally found my people.
3/
And uh... well. There's one person in particular... the one who offered to take me home with him when we finally escaped that place. I...
[ Even before the next words leave her lips... Aoi knows this side of Miyu. She's seen it before in her Miyuki - the higher octave, the flushed face and the unexpected softness. A delicate maidenly center usually protected by the hardened shell... ]
4/
[ Oh and she is deeply, deeply in love at that. ]
More than I have ever loved... anyone. Even more than both Shinichi and HER... he's my everything.
I've never met someone like him before. Someone who doesn't just accept me but understands and relates to me. We're so much alike, our experiences so similar, we just... get each other, in ways nobody else can. I don't have to censor or hide any part of myself when I'm with him... even the ugly sides I don't usually like others seeing.
He's also probably the first man I've ever met who I know cares about me for more than just my looks or sex... if I told him I didn't think I would ever be ready to have sex again after what happened in the game I know he wouldn't even question or push it. He's always so... considerate of me and my agency like that. Asking what I want to do or how I feel about something and respecting all of my choices. Our relationship is built on... so much of that. Respect and trust.
And I do trust him. With my very life even. I know he has my back, and whenever I've lost my way in these big, new unfamiliar places he always comes and finds me. He's told me over and over how he won't let this or that happen to me, or leave me behind, and I... I can believe it, when he says it. Because I just... think he's so incredible. He says I'm the one shining, but he doesn't even realize how much he is too, like the brightest star in the sky, guiding me through the night.
But besides that I just... love every moment I'm with him. He makes me smile and laugh, he's there for me when I cry, he reassures me when I need it, we get angry on each other's behalf... I suppose you could even call us partners in crime sometimes with how well we work together. We spend almost all of our time with one another - a "package deal" our friends have called it. Even just being here without him is driving me crazy. I can't wait to rush back to his side and kiss him all over his stupid handsome face and tell him I love him 10, no, 100 more times, if that can even convey back a fraction of how loved he makes me feel.
5/7 this is the one with cw: sexual trauma mentions
...Because y'know when I met him I... I was at my lowest. I saw myself kind of like how you used to - just a doll made only for sex, something rotten and filthy and doomed to never being happy. And the more I was around "real people" the more I hated myself, the more I felt like I could never truly belong with them. I had to stay focused on the goal of getting to HER just to stay sane but... it really wasn't just HER that saved me. It was the words he said to me after finding everything out that made it all begin to change... when he called me "real in every way that matters". That made me start to believe again that I was... more than that. Realize that real love is about more than the way a person uses your body and what choice they make when they climax. He... all of my friends, but him especially... they made me real.
6/7
He... he's my home. And I'm not letting any force in this universe tear us apart now that we've found each other.
...It's almost a little funny, you know? Just as I gave up on it, I finally found it... the eternal love I wanted so badly for so long.
7/7
So yes. I am happy. The happiest I could ever be.
[ She truly is shining. Radiant like the moon in the sky reflecting back all the love it receives from the sun - her beloved, her friends, her companions...
...from HER, even when so far, far away.
After all, to be real is to be loved, right? ]