washed away
The train ride to the lower afterward was a quiet one. Craggy was "borrowing" a train from another conductor (Scriff was already set to scold her about that once our adventure was over), but we had one last stop. Once we got the train into the station, she took hold of both Rakonto and Amark's unconscious bodies, and we headed towards the dried-up seabed at the edge of the beach. It wasn't entirely empty, there was a small reservoir of water from the next lowest afterward to ensure that water can get from the bottom all the way to the top. "So we just leave 'em here?" Scriff said.
"I... I guess we do. This is how Tammy ended up in the afterward, right? And this is how I ended up here, too?"
"How much do you think they'll remember?"
"If they're anything like me, next to nothing, but I guess we'll wait and see."
"Should we say some words on their behalf?"
"They... tried to ruin our story."
"Oh, right, um..."
I turned to her. "But it is great that you're thinking about people like that. That makes you a really good person, Scriff. Cherish that."
It was weird to lay them to rest. It felt very cold and ceremonial, like a funeral, but these were awful people that just needed their nastiness washed away in the trip up the pipes. "What about the other Watchers?" Emmi said.
"I mean, I'd hope they lose traction with Rakonto gone... but, yeah, I dunno... wait, hold on, I had an idea."
We turned back towards the dilapidated city and made our way back to Tammy's old apartment. "Simon, Richard, James... please tell me you remember this place."
"Yeah, looks like my aunt's musty old apartment," Richard said, "Only went there once, she lived all the way in Oswego so I had to take a flight from Portland all the way to Chicago and then catch a--"
That's not what I meant. I had them rifle through Tammy's old things, had them flip through a copy of afterward...please, just remember. "None of this is familiar?" I asked.
"Not a word," Simon said, putting down a discarded packet of red.
I sighed. "I guess... I guess we have nothing left to deal with on our trip. Craggy, let's go borrow that train one last time."
We made our way back to the train station, pausing just a second to stare out towards the small reservoir. "Please... whatever happens to you guys... may it be for the better..." were my last words to the former heads of the Watchers.
We boarded the train again, pushing past the former Conductor and nearly giving him a heart attack, and Craggy took the controls once more. The train slowly rumbled up the tracks back home. "I just feel like we could have done more for them," I said.
"ᗯᕼO, TᕼE ᗯᗩTᑕᕼEᖇᔕ? ᗪOᑎ'T ᗯOᖇᖇY ᗩᗷOᑌT TᕼEᗰ, I--"
"I... I mean the Retconologists. James, Simon, Richard... I feel like we could have done more."
"It'll be alright," Scriff said, throwing an arm around and then resting her head on my shoulder (to the best of her ability), "and if nothing else, I can help 'em out! I think I could teach the Lizi a thing or two about how to actually care for your human friends."
"That's really nice, Scriff, but... wait, Craggy, why are we turning?"
"Ｉ ｎｅｅｄ ｙｏｕ ａｌｌ ｔｏ ｋｅｅｐ ｔｒａｃｋ. Ｗｅ ｎｅｅｄ ｔｏ ｐａｓｓ ｆｉｖｅ ｓｔｏｐｓ."
"Five... Craggy?"
She slowly closed the door to the conductor's quarters, and we sat in awkward silence. "So... five stops..." I began, "wonder where Craggy is taking us?"
"Um, I think I should have asked earlier," Richard said, "is this—is this a movie set? Are you guys in costume? Where's the cameras?"
"You're in a book, Richard, and we're nearing the last chapter, I think, and you've had a pretty considerable amount of time on the pages," I said.
"Oh, so this is some sort of deep-immersion authoring style. Really avant-garde and experimental, but I think it'd work better as a film, or--"
"That's one stop," Scriff said.
"Now wait, hold on, why even go through all of this effort is this is just for a writing project?" Simon said, "To me, it's pretty obvious what's going on. This is one of those LARP things I read about online. I mean, think about it. We woke up in this strange place, an old man gave us a quest, we were saved by two twin warriors and a race of Dragonkin, and now we're heading towards our next mission!"
"If that is what's happening here," James said, "then I must applaud them for their costuming. This is far and above even theatrical-quality makeup on these 'Dragonkin'," he said, gesturing with air quotes, "and the two warriors? They're practically identical, like they wrote the role around them!"
"So who of you is the older twin, and who is the younger?" Richard asked.
"That's two," Scriff said.
Emmi and I exchanged glances.
"I'm older," I said.
"She is," Emmi said at the same time, pointing at me.
"Ah, interesting!" Richard replied, "and did the Dungeon Master write the role around you two being twins, or was this just a really convenient casting choice?"
"Three."
"Does LARPing have Dungeon Masters?" I asked.
"Rich, no, you don't get it," Simon replied, "LARPs don't have Dungeon Masters. The players collaboratively write the plot around real-world locations prior to arriving."
"I've ever LARPed, so excuse me for missing the etiquette," Richard replied.
"That's four."
"So where in the world are we?" Richard said, "From the looks of things, I would say... maybe Shaniko or Blitzen, one of those old ghost towns that Horizon paved right over top of."
"My money is on really big warehouse," James said.
"With trains?!" Simon exclaimed, "Look, I don't know who you think you are, but you have a lot of nerve to suggest they can fit a subway inside of a warehouse!"
"You've never seen the Horizon packing facilities," he replied.
"What the heck is even happening?!" shouted the terrified conductor.
There was a sudden pounding that killed this entire debate. "Craggy, this is the fifth stop."
The train slowed to a halt, and she pushed open the door. Craggy picked up the former conductor and placed him firmly in the seat, and she lead the group, and here I finally realized what was going on.
We stepped into the former office of the Retconologists, still defaced by Amark. "Ｄｏ ｙｏｕ ｔｈｒｅｅ ｒｅｍｅｍｂｅｒ ａｎｙ ｏｆ ｔｈｉｓ?"
"I... what the f--"
"--heck is this place?" Simon said, cutting off Richard perfectly.
"This used to be where the three of you would study the Watchers. We just dealt with the higher-ups earlier today, but there's gotta be tons more of them, and you all left notes about them here."
I scooped up some papers off the ground and handed them over. "Here, read this."
Simon placed the paper down on a desk and began to read. "'It can be assumed, then, that the Watchers are capable of strangling the story's flow from the outside level to prevent the narrative they're working hard to destroy from making it out, and give them time to write new entries...' This is... fascinating, it really is, but I don't remember any of this."
It suddenly occurred to me what I could do. "Sounds like the Watchers wiped your guys' memories, and they've also taken the last of the Retconologists. Someone needs to continue their legacy."
Richard grabbed a stack of papers and began to read through them. "This stuff is... actually, pretty creepy. There's a whole race of people living way underground, and they're trying to take over the surface?"
"And nobody knows about them?"
"Actually..." I began, "everyone who knew about them is everyone that's right here."
"So with all of this equipment, we can study them in secret, and nobody would know, and then we can present these findings as the Retconologists!"
"Sounds like a plan. The name's Richard."
"Simon."
"James."
"Let's get to work," Richard said before turning to me. "Thank you for your help; I hope your LARP goes well."
"Um, actually," I said, handing him a copy of draftware, "it's not a LARP."
He flipped through the pages. "Wait, no way... you're writing a book about your LARP! So I was right!"
"No way," Simon replied, "If it's based on a LARP, I was right!"
The three of them quarreled over this debate for a small moment, and we worked our way back to the station towards home. "I feel like I learned a lot today," Emmi said, "like, way more than I ever needed to know."
"Don't worry, a packet of the pink food will clear that right up."
"Oh, thanks for reminding me, I'm so hungry and have been self-conscious about sneaking a snack this whole time. I might have two of those when I return, that sounds lovely."
"You might just want to stick to... actually, half of one, Craggy can hook you up with better stuff," I replied.
Our last stop was the library, which was still kind of a mess. A tall after in a suit was standing in the middle of it, mortified. "Wh... what the heck happened here?!" he exclaimed as we walked in.
"Sorry, there was a bit of a fight in here. The Watchers had shown up, and things got nasty."
"...Well, when Memmi sees this mess, she's gonna--"
I stopped the man. "I'm sorry I had to be the one who told you, but Memmi is... I mean... she... I was the last person to talk to her, if that—if that makes sense."
"I... wait... no... what—what do you mean?" he replied.
"The Watchers got her, and that's why we had to square off here. Well, we squared off here because they were in here earlier."
"I... I think we should probably leave the library closed today," he said, "I was getting ready to open, but this... this is a whole lot more than I can stand... I need to go lie down. Did... did you deal with them?"
"We did," Emmi said, "We did it together, all of us."
The man stared at us for nearly a full minute, before sighing to himself and walking towards the back room. We stared awkwardly at him for a moment, and then figured we needed to leave.
I walked towards Bit's home. The residence was eerily empty, and once again I sat on her couch. What would happen to this place? I was already kind of sad over rooms and objects already, but now this one was just hurting me more than ever. I got up, and walked through the different rooms. A small bedroom with a large bed pressed into the corner, a small table nearby housed a lamp. A tiny storage space. A guest bedroom, adorned with all sorts of books and bottles, a kitchen that clearly saw next to no proper use. And then I finished my search in her personal office, many of Memmi's things mixed in with Bit's, to the point where you can't tell they had lived apart for two decades. I sat at her desk and sighed, ready to cry as I laid my head onto the desk.
When I lifted it up, a piece of paper came with. I grabbed the paper in both hands.
𝒯𝑜 𝑀𝓈. 𝒮𝓊𝓏𝓎 𝐸𝓂𝓂𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃, 𝑜𝓇 𝓌𝒽𝑜𝓂 𝒾𝓉 𝓂𝒶𝓎 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇𝓃:
𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒽𝒶𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒹𝑜𝒸𝓊𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓌𝓇𝒾𝓉𝓉𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓊𝓃𝓉𝒾𝓂𝑒𝓁𝓎 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝓂𝓎 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔. 𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝒲𝒶𝓉𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓅𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝓈𝒾𝑔𝓃𝒾𝒻𝒾𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝐼 𝑔𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓂 𝒸𝓇𝑒𝒹𝒾𝓉 𝒻𝑜𝓇, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝐵𝒾𝓉'𝓈 𝓅𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔, 𝐼 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝓂𝑜𝓇𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒𝓇𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓂𝓎 𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓉𝒽. 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒹𝑜𝑜𝓇 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓊𝓈, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝒹𝑜𝑒𝓈 𝒷𝑒𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓂𝓎 𝒻𝒾𝓃𝒶𝓁 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒, 𝐼 𝓌𝒶𝓃𝓉 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒾𝓉, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝓌𝒶𝓎 𝓌𝑒 𝑔𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓅 𝓎𝑜𝓊. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓁𝓎 𝒶𝒹𝓂𝒾𝓇𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒶𝒸𝒾𝑜𝓊𝓈 𝒾𝓃 𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝒷𝑒𝑔𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒸𝓇𝒾𝒷𝑒, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓉 𝓌𝒶𝓇𝓂𝓈 𝓂𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝒶𝓇𝓉 𝓉𝑜 𝓈𝑒𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝑜𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓇 𝓅𝑒𝓇𝓈𝑜𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓅 𝑔𝑜𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒻𝓇𝑜𝓂 𝓁𝑜𝓈𝓉 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒸𝑜𝓃𝒻𝓊𝓈𝑒𝒹 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹, 𝓉𝑜 𝒹𝑒𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒶 𝒸𝒽𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒.
𝐼𝒻 𝓌𝑒 𝒹𝑜 𝓂𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃 𝑜𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒲𝒶𝓉𝒸𝒽𝑒𝓇𝓈 𝒽𝒶𝓋𝑒 𝒷𝑒𝑒𝓃 𝒹𝑒𝒶𝓁𝓉 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽, 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓂𝓎 𝒹𝑜𝑜𝓇 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝑜𝓅𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝒶 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝓈𝓉𝒶𝓎 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒶 𝓃𝒾𝑔𝒽𝓉 𝑜𝓇 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓉𝒶𝓁𝓀 𝓉𝑜. 𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓈 𝓈𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝒾𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓉𝒶𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒 𝑒𝓍𝓉𝑒𝓃𝒹𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒹𝑜𝓅𝓅𝑒𝓁𝑔𝒶𝓃𝑔𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝓈𝒽𝑜𝓊𝓁𝒹 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝒶𝓇𝒾𝓈𝑒. 𝒲𝒽𝒶𝓉𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓊𝓉𝒸𝑜𝓂𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒿𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓃𝑒𝓎, 𝐼 𝓃𝑒𝑒𝒹 𝓉𝑜 𝓂𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝑒𝓍𝓅𝓁𝒾𝒸𝒾𝓉𝓁𝓎 𝒸𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓇: 𝐼 𝒶𝓂 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓊𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒽𝒶𝓇𝒹 𝓌𝑜𝓇𝓀, 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝐼 𝒸𝒶𝓃𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓃𝓀 𝓎𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝒻𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓃𝒹𝓈 𝑒𝓃𝑜𝓊𝑔𝒽 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝓀𝑒𝑒𝓅𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓎𝑜𝓊 𝓈𝒶𝒻𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒾𝓃-𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑒. 𝒴𝑜𝓊 𝒶𝓇𝑒 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝓇𝓊𝓁𝓎 𝓈𝓅𝑒𝒸𝒾𝒶𝓁, 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝒯𝒶𝓂𝓂𝓎, 𝓈𝑜𝓂𝑒𝑜𝓃𝑒 𝓂𝓎𝓈𝑒𝓁𝒻 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒷𝑒 𝓅𝓇𝑜𝓊𝒹 𝑜𝒻.
𝐼 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝓌𝑒 𝓂𝑒𝑒𝓉 𝒶𝑔𝒶𝒾𝓃 𝓈𝑜𝑜𝓃, 𝒷𝓊𝓉 𝒾𝒻 𝓌𝑒 𝒹𝑜 𝓃𝑜𝓉 𝓉𝒽𝑒𝓃 𝓅𝓁𝑒𝒶𝓈𝑒, 𝓉𝒶𝓀𝑒 𝒸𝒶𝓇𝑒.
-𝑀𝑒𝓂𝓂𝒾, 𝒶𝒻𝓉𝑒𝓇𝓌𝒶𝓇𝒹'𝓈 𝓇𝑒𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓃𝓉 𝓈𝒶𝑔𝑒
I set the letter down, and cried some tears of solemn joy. Emmi, who was still wandering around the living room and had turned on the heat lamps, turned as I walked towards her. "What's going on?" she asked.
"Memmi gave us a place to live. A permanent home."
"Where is that?" she asked.
I glanced down.
"Wh... Oh, oh! Here?"
I nodded, brimming with tears once more. 691Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ3n19Fw63Hz
"Can we invite our other friends?" she asked.
ns 15.158.61.5da2
