[center][h3]Twilight Post-mortem[/h3] [img]https://i.imgur.com/bJegdrl.png[/img][/center] A single ray of light pierced the darkness of the great auditorium, cast by some nebulous mechanism above the double-door entryway that droned in an incessantly old-fashioned manner. That ghostly luster reflected off the enormous screen that hung above the grand hardwood stage, blank except for momentary smudges or scratches on the empty film reel. Overhead dangled heavy, dark curtains, their gilded tassels agleam in the spectral light that cast long shadows over the curved staircases, elevated gallery boxes, and many rows of empty seats. Classical columns supported a vaulted ceiling, so high that visitors would need to crane their necks to see it, if only the theater had any. Instead this room was still as a grave, and but for the muted rattle of the projector, silent. The visitor hadn’t entered through those stately double doors, but nevertheless, she was here. She awoke slowly, heavily, and irritably, like someone roused from the very cusp of a deep, peaceful, and velvety-soft sleep into which she’d gently been sinking. Dreadful memories of horror and pain, almost suppressed and forgotten, returned quickly. She knew what had happened, but she did not know where she’d arrived. Was this strange, grim theater part of the vicious cycle to which she’d supposedly been returned? Though she knew she must have died before, she did not remember this place. Something didn’t feel right–maybe it was her. Cracks ran along her body -her original body, before all the changes- that shone with soft, prismatic light, and grains of similarly-colored sand leaked through them, as if through small cracks of an hourglass. Whatever this place was, she wouldn’t be here for long. After a moment, the empty screen changed. A film began to play–her film. She could see herself in Smash City Alcamoth, the Sandswept Sky, Split Mountain, Midgar, and a number of other places that she had never been. Visions flashed of vast armies clashed in a war-torn battlefield…peaceful respite in places of incredible beauty…her fingers intertwined with another’s. Lives were flashing before her eyes. The princess was briefly transfixed by the images on the screen, but had enough will to raise up a hand inorder to inspect it, running a finger across a glowing crack on her palm. Then she glanced down and with a sigh said [color=Aquamarine]”Really? Still?”[/color] with regards to her still being stuck in her impish form rather than being restored to her true one. If what was on display in front of her was anything to go by, then it was as if the system considered this cursed body more worthy of scribing over and over than her real one, which was rather insulting, she felt. Still, her self examination was enough to confirm that she was on some sort of time limit, her body bleeding seconds away like a broken hourglass. What time running out would mean, she didn’t know, but if who or whatever had put her here for a bit expected her to just sit still and watch one of these oversized screen things till that happened it had another thing coming. She pressed both hands to the armrests, and moved to push herself up into the air inorder to take a drifting explore of her environment. After a moment, a spotlight snapped on from above. Its light cone shone down on a lone figure seated in the middle of the theater. The fashion of his armor was familiar, but instead of cherry-red, its plates were a dull gold, adorned by a white cape rather than black. A [url=https://i.imgur.com/5NrQbyp.png]helmet[/url] with a tall crest lay in the chair at his opposite side, so while Midna could see nothing but a head of dark brown hair from her current vantage point, circling around would give her a closer look at the man’s face. When he turned to look at her, he appeared to be a normal -fairly unremarkable, in fact- Japanese man with dark eyes and rectangular glasses. The sight of Midna seemed to sadden him somewhat. “Good morning. Hah, if only it was.” He held out a bowl full of various gummy and hard candies, including chocolate, and put it on the seat between them. “Please, help yourself to some snacks. It might seem like you’re…uh, crumbling away, but that merely reflects that your presence here is transitory. So really, there’s plenty of time to think, talk, and decide…um, about what comes next.” He sighed, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I know you just made a hard choice. You are brave. Selfless. A heroic warrior. Everything antithetical to Moebius. You don’t deserve this cruel World of Light–nobody does. And yet, this is our lot. That’s why, though it pains me, I have one more choice to offer you. The fact that you’re here means…well, there’s an opening.” His tone lowered. “And a chance, to take back one more inch that Moebius has stolen away.” [color=Aquamarine]”I think that might have been more Urbosa than it was me, in the moment”[/color] the princess admitted, pausing for only a moment before deciding [color=Aquamarine]”but I don’t regret it”[/color] She’d approached him with caution, but by this point, this close, it seemed that this man really was the enemy of her enemy, color coded for her convenience and everything. That said, if she was being cynical, that didn’t necessarily make him a friend. As such, she did not copy him and set down her own helmet on a chair, keeping that artifact of her people donne just in case, regardless of how little it would help if he was as powerful as his opposites, but other than that, she was willing to sit and hear him speak. She did so by picking up the bowl, and then sitting herself on the armrest of the chair it had been sitting on, letting her face him with her feet set where the bowl had been, and said bowl sat in her lap. Better that than crane her neck the whole time, or risk getting lost in the distracting visions of her past lives. [color=Aquamarine]”So, I-”[/color] she began to say, before thinking again and adjusting the assumption she had about what he knew, and saying [color=Aquamarine]”-guess that this not having sound might mean you don’t know my name? Princess Midna, if not.”[/color] The man nodded, smiling. “Midna. It’s nice to meet you.” [color=Aquamarine]”I have a pile of questions that you can probably guess, so let's start by you answering the obvious ones”[/color] she, wanting to skip past any back and forth. Plus, it would give her a little time to partake of his hospitality (she naturally knew better than to talk with her mouth full) which she did by picking up and tossing a piece of chocolate into her pointy toothed maw. She made an appreciative little [color=Aquamarine]”Mmm”[/color] as she enjoyed one of the few upsides to this entire nightmare Galeem had made by mixing infinite worlds together: the infinite banquet of different kinds of food that the resulting reality stew had on offer. Her new acquaintance breathed in deep. “Right. Well, I gave up my name when I took this job. Just part of the ritual. It’s led to some funny stories, but, uh, those are tales for another time. Nowadays they just call me T.” He sank into his seat, staring up at the screen. At the moment it happened to be portraying a part of the Sandswept Sky replaced by the Twilight Realm, in all its dusky glory. It was a sight that Midna could not help but be drawn to, the facade of confidence she was putting on briefly breaking as homesickness struck her heart. Then she steeled it with iron clad duty, and turned her gaze away once more. “Before all this, I was a humble guidance counsellor. Doing what little I could to make lives better, one kid at a time. My reality could be, uh, cruel, but it could be wonderful, too. The World of Light is the same, but where I come from, few had the power to change the world, and that’s not the case here. Sadly, those who seized power in this world chose to make it worse. A hellscape where they toy with countless lives on their way to the meat grinder.” For a moment T paused, his head held in one hand. “This job, it…it simply attracts the worst kinds of people. The sociopaths, the hedonists, the sadists. People full of hate, greed, selfishness, and fear. Capricious gods…and people with god complexes.” He chuckled dryly. “Faced with death, immortality is a tempting prospect. But perpetual life tends to get old, so to ease the tedium of existence, they turn to ever more creative means of entertainment. It has to end.” He looked at Midna, somewhat sharply. “But destroying the World of Light isn’t the answer. Galeem was wrong to do what it did, but what’s done is done. This world is home to nigh infinite souls, all of whom deserve to live peaceful, happy lives, and snuffing them out would be an evil greater evil than birthing them. It’s not a crime for us all to exist. The true evil is Moebius, or more specifically, the despots who make it up. If that can change, the world can change.” He clasped his hands. “And, believe it or not, we’re making progress. You’ve already heard about P. She accepted this position out of despair, but she’s not a bad person. She’s already trying to make a new kingdom, one without suffering. A handful of bad Consuls have already been dealt with, like F, Y, and M, that last one courtesy of S, another lost soul I plucked from the flow. Depending on your allies, three more spots may be open before noon. It won’t be long before more monsters succeed the fallen. Unless those spots are seized by good people first–people willing to bear this cursed existence for the sake of everyone, and slowly change Moebius from within, so that this broken world might be redeemed.” [color=Aquamarine]”So that’s what this is”[/color] she replied, glancing up at the screen briefly as she tried to compose her thoughts. Upon it she saw the world of light from high high above, some past her having traveled to the heavens on some unknown quest. In that moment, something crystalised in her mind, and it was a somewhat simple though: [color=Aquamarine]”It’s so small”[/color] [color=Aquamarine]”However many hundreds of worlds, all stolen and used to make just one. Not even a world really, just a continent if everything important being on it is any indication”[/color] she observed, before asking what she thought was the key question [color=Aquamarine]”So where’s the rest of it? Where is everyone else? Sure Galeem seems to have put all the ‘important’ people on it given that you can’t go ten paces without running into a legend in their world. But the common people? If they were here the world would overflow with them. So where are they?”[/color] [color=Aquamarine]”and when do they get to live?”[/color] “They’re out there,” T told her. “Somewhere. Some time. This world is vast, far more than just this continent. This just happens to be the locus where all the most prominent elements are funneled. But it’s true, it’s impossible for everyone to live at the same time. Instead, the citizens of the world cycle in and out. Sooner or later, everyone gets a turn. Nobody is ever truly gone.” He cleared his throat. “Ahem. I wish I could tell you more, but there isn’t a lot of…um, comprehensive science about the world’s geography or, uh, population dynamics, but if we ever manage to put an end to all the war, it’d make for a fascinating field of study.” Midna didn’t look convinced by this lack of concrete details, but she set aside that unknown for now to poke at what his victory would look like [color=Aquamarine]”So you replace all the bad consuls with good ones, flip everything from red to gold. What then? How much of this world can you really change? The clocks demanding the churning of lives, the forgotten pasts and endless parade of nightmares Galeem seems to love to spit out? How are you going to hold onto the crown, and stop anyone else from shattering it?”[/color] “The Flame Clocks can and must be destroyed,” T told her. “Interlinks are the key to breaking them. To anything born of the system -of Moebius- they are inviolate, but when two people become one, something new is created, and that is the fatal weakness of Moebius. I believe there is a logic, a sort of director, that governs who appears and where.” He held up his hands. “Think of it like a water valve. Moebius has set it one way, but we can set it another, and stop the flow of nightmares. Once the clocks are gone, and the evils diminish, nobody will have to fight just to survive. People can come together, form communities, and help one another. As for how...” He sighed. “I don’t know for sure. It’s an enormous undertaking, and there’s no one right answer. No such thing as a perfect world–I know that better than most. And human nature, which drives us all to repeat our past mistakes, cannot be changed. But still…” He gritted his teeth, his grip tightened on the arm of his chair. “I have to do something. Anything, and everything, I can. Not just to make amends, but because it’s the right thing to do.” [color=Aquamarine]”Believe, but don't know. Which is the problem with all of this”[/color] Midna said, before resting her exposed cheek on the palm of her hand and musing that [color=Aquamarine]”but I guess the only way to find out would be to go through with it, wouldn’t it? Claim all the crowns, and then in victory then try and find out if you can right all these wrongs, or if the system is irreparable, and that being lords of Galeems kingdom is a trap. You’d fight just as hard to preserve it after all. Harder, maybe, even, given you believe in it.”[/color] She sat up then, and brushed her hand towards him in a vague gesture as she asked [color=Aquamarine]”How’d you end up getting one of the crowns anyway? Also does the gold getup mean anything, or are the rest of them really that committed to dressing in bloody red?”[/color] “Uh…” T looked down, somewhat sheepishly. “Heh, well, this one’s…custom. These colors are, um, sentimental? Or maybe just a grim reminder of the weight I’ve chosen to carry.” His smile thinned. “My own position was offered by C. I don’t know what his true goals are, or if he truly has any, and I would not count him an ally, but it seems he’s willing to do whatever it takes to keep things ‘interesting’. No matter what that ends up jeopardizing. If I tried to psycho-analyze him, I feel like my head would explode…” He looked down, his expression dour. “As for the system…if it really is irreparable, maybe nothing [i]is[/i] better than an irreparably cruel world. It’s a depressing thought. One I cannot indulge. I have to bear the torch, no matter how long it takes. Even if I bear it alone.” T breathed in through his nose, a determined look on his face. “I believe in people. That there are many more good people than there are bad, and that given a real chance, everyone can live good lives.” The Consul stood, then turned toward Midna, his hands clasped behind his back. “I know I’m asking too much of you. Changing Moebius and the World of Light will be a long and hard road. But I believe its the only chance we’ve got. If you would rather return to the cycle, and hope to rejoin the campaign…that is your choice to make.” He paused, clearly not happy. “I plan to lend whatever help I can to the Seekers’ efforts to eliminate the other Consuls, but if a day comes when the world is about to end…I will have to stand up for what I believe in.” He smiled wryly, then looked up at the screen. It displayed a path that led up from the stage toward a hill, at which point it forked toward the left and the right. The only difference between them was that the sunset shone above the right-hand path, itself a celestial, winged shape that Midna knew well. [color=Aquamarine]”The end for us, maybe, but maybe not for the people we are copies of. Organization 13 certainly seems to think they can do something after Galeem is done for, though Roxas says they can’t be trusted one bit.”[/color] Midna suggested, before asking [color=Aquamarine]”So is that a metaphor, or am I going to be walking a literal path into darkness or the light at the end of this?”[/color] “There are two roads set before every individual.” From the gravity that T gave those words, it could be surmised that they weren’t his own. “The left. The right. If you’ve thought things through, then…it’s time to go.” [color=Aquamarine]”I guess it is”[/color] Midna replied, picking up the bowl and passing it back to T, but not before taking one more treat [color=Aquamarine]”for the road”[/color] Then she hopped out of her seat, and without any sort of transition hovering above the path that had been displayed before her. She paused there, popping the candy into her mouth, chewing it as she indulged in a fantasy about climbing the hill between the paths purely for the sake of spite, before sighing and going through with the choice she’d already made [color=Aquamarine]”Into the jaws of the trap it is then”[/color] she said, raising an arm up to shield her eyes, and drifting rightwards into the light.