FINALE

[whimsicalism]

End of the Tale

It's... over. Mostly, anyway. A decision has reluctantly been made by the group about the doll that started this mess and it seems that, perhaps, it's time to at least get a grip on what's going to come next. Not just for you but for everyone here. Nanami has cleared the way to the Academy and the Little Brothers are there to lend hands if needed against any stray monsters.

Take a deep breath of sea air. It's been a stressful seven weeks but maybe you'll be able to put all this behind you for good soon. It might take days, weeks, months, or even years yet... It's a small comfort but when the night comes it's a moonless night.

It seems the game of the Kaguya Doll is truly over for good.

OOC

Thank you for your participation in Round 2, everyone! This is your golden ending log. You may celebrate, cry, mock Kakuya or Father. Father is still in his cube and the sheep aren't exactly happy with him and will bring him up for you to throw water at. This is a post purely for Round 2. Tomorrow at 12 PST/3 EST we will be posting a reunion post for R1, R2, and castmates either played by other players in this game or NPCed by them. We hope you've enjoyed this round as much as we have.

Comments

[curdle]

[ It's over. Finally, truly, it's done. Kakuya has been bested, and the devil's hold on her is merely figurative. She is damned still, but if she never returns to the ruins of the farm -- and she never will, she knew that even before she died -- that creature can never touch her again.

She wishes the knowledge could cheer her. She wishes she felt safe, or relieved, or anything at all but hollow.

Idling, however, will not fill the emptiness. So she packs what few things belong to her, changes clothes now that she can change them, and then goes out searching for Flora the goat. Her hair hangs down her back in a long blonde braid, and she is wearing her uniform pants.

At the memorial wall, a small warmth comes to her when she sees the drawings of gingerbread, which only lasts so long before the sight of the wax figures freezes her to the marrow. She grabs them quickly, then realizes she has no idea what to do with them. After a sullen pause, she unwinds the string from around the Edward poppet and the tie from its face, then sets it unceremoniously back where it was.

The goat, however, she stares at for a very long time. If any of the survivors catch her at it, she has just one question. ]

Please you, how did it work? The magic of thy belief.

[ For anyone at all, however, at any time of day and whatever she happens to be doing, there's another question. ]

What now?

Memorial Wall

[violence_ensues]

[Of course Adorabat's at the memorial wall with Thomasin.]

Oh, we just thought something was true. But, um, it was more like you had to have more people around thinking the same thing in order for it to work.

So you like the drawings?

[curdle]

Aye. Luz's I do remember, but the rest... 'tis too great a number. I am glad we've need of it no longer.

[ They are crude drawings, perhaps, but well-meant. How could she expect any of them to understand that the wax dolls would be enough to have her hanged, whence she came, or that some goats will always fill her with dread? She had never told the living any of it. Also, Adorabat is five. ]

Didst draw them thyself?

[violence_ensues]

nnmmmm, Not the owl, the bow and arrow, the bread or the goat, but the rest of them, yeah.

I'm really glad I don't have to add any m-

[Adorabat suddenly pauses in the middle of speaking. She's silent for a moment before getting out a permanent marker and writing down "DANCE STEWDIO MONSTIR" and drawing a phone next to it.]

...That should be the last one.

[curdle]

[ Doing the mental math here re: the drawings... you know what, she's not going to ask, she doesn't want to know, she's just moving on!

Squinting at what Adorabat scribbles down, she uses all three weeks of her kindergarten-level Ira Academy spelling lessons to try reading it aloud. ]

Dance... stewehdio?

[violence_ensues]

Oh... Yeah, it was during a monday night. I wasn't there for it, but it seemed like every monday night, there was a smaller game Kakuya was playing. Hunter, Anya, Yasu, and Fret met this monster in the dance studio and got the Heartscape object from it. But when they went to leave, Kakuya killed the monster there. And the phone to talk with y'all we found was also in the dance studio, so I'm guessing the monster liked the phone.

[bellabellabella]

[Well, this is awkward, and he would really rather be doing anything but this. He keeps his distance on this occasion, not sure what to do with his hands to seem least threatening when he had killed her with them. But it felt like this was something he had to do.]

I know this is selfish, and what I did is beyond forgiveness. I won't ask you to forgive me. But I... I did want to tell you that I'm sorry for what I did. I never really... apologized properly.

[Which is probably because he can't, really, and he is miserably aware of that.]

Is there anything I can do for you? Or... provide...?

[curdle]

[ She doesn't start at the sound of his voice or the sight of him, anymore, so there's at least that. But there's also no sign that anything is striking home with her. Why is it that men -- for in the end, he is just that, and not the devil she thought -- only apologize to her when their deeds have been done?

(Forgive me, Kate. Forgive me, Thomasin.)

She levels a hard stare at him. ]

You took my life from me. You judged it and thine own of less worth than hers. [ And he was right to, is the worst of it, in her own mind. She deserves nothing but shame and iniquity in this life, and everlasting hellfire. That she fought against that is more proof of her own corruption. ] No, I've no desire of thy provisions. Just answer me this.

Wouldst thou not do the same again, if it were her life as the cost?

[bellabellabella]

You want to know if I've learned my lesson, is that it?

[He smiles grimly, and there is a cold edged loveliness to that as well, fallen angel or devil, physical lures to make him appeal to his prey. He doubts the answer he has to give will be the one she wants, but although he could lie easily enough, he is an excellent liar, he feels that she deserves better of him. He had already murdered her.]

I'm afraid not. If I was offered the same choice a thousand times, I would do the same thing every single time.

I'm not a good person, you see. But I would gladly spend an eternity in hell to spare her, because she is. I know you do not know her, have never seen her, and all this probably seems hopelessly inadequate to you, but Bella is good, and whatever I can do to spare her from undeserved torment I would.

You deserve better than that, I know. But I did not want to lie.

[curdle]

Speak not to me of what I deserve. Thou know it not. 'Twas my own damned soul set me after thee. All the while, I was a-thinking, better it be me.

[ Perhaps she'd have left her room with more selfish intent if the threat had, instead, been a promise. If she had seen Caleb, who was good, or Father or Mother, and been told they'd be restored to her if she took a life, it might have been different. But it was not, and she doesn't care how good this girl she'll never know is, or isn't. Good people die terribly all the time. Speaking of which! ]

And if 'twere Dylan, standing there? Adorabat? Would any of us have escaped that night?

[bellabellabella]

[He flinches slightly at the words, as if they are a slap, but his eyes stay on hers.]

No. I do not expect any of you would have. Not unless I was killed instead, which still would have fulfilled my purpose.

[He forces a small, apologetic smile]

You see, it is as I already said. I am not a good person. But you are wrong, I think. You deserved better than to be killed by me, whatever you thought when you followed me.

Belief

[canreallymove]

Hey Thomasin.

[Fair enough to ask, honestly.]

Well, we just focused on believing that what we wanted was real. It only works while we're in Closetland, though. And it didn't give me back all my speed, or power up the Power Stones like what woulda happened back home. And you gotta really believe in what you want. You can't fake it.

But it's something.

[curdle]

Well-met, Sonic.

... Aye, that is some thing. [ she pronounces it as two words! even though she's definitely used the word something as a compound and knows perfectly well how it works! ] Dost think... would it still work?

What now?

[holyironmade]

I have no idea.

[She's in her ridiculous new outfit not far from the memorial wall herself.]

I said towards the end of the trial that my former comrades can never know about this. The X-Laws will kill Kakuya. At the very least they would have to be subdued in a taxing magical duel. I cannot let that happen.

[curdle]

[ She nods, like she gets what it's like to have a whole group of magic users ready and willing to kill an evil doll ghost for your sake! She does not! ]

What shall you tell them instead?

the vvitch spoilers briefly alluded

[holyironmade]

I am... very close... to deciding that they shall never know.

[Her arms hang very loosely at her sides.]

Just as the parcel mocked your damnation, so too for me. A slip of paper that had not been the main reason—it said the basis for their worship of me was false. Isn't it better to be thought a martyr... than fallen?