robowest | [ DEPARTURE ]

DEPARTURE

It's time to go.

Most people are on the train by now. Settled into their cabins and among friends and loved ones. There are only three new arrivals left to board and once they do, Hal pulls a conductor's hat out from underneath the bar, tugs it on, and steps around it to the middle of the train. He opens his mouth to talk, voice filling the train.

"It's time to go. Stops happen once a day until everyone's departed and I already have your stopped listed. If you'd like to be prioritized, let me know, otherwise we'll go in order of death. Settle in and enjoy the ride. If there's anything you need, don't hesitate to ask, folks."

This, of course, means that those who died earliest (Manfred, Higekiri) will depart first while those who died latest (Barnham, Damian, Percy) will depart last. There's a stop for everyone, though those who want to get off together are more than welcome to. Hal pulls a notepad and pen out of his pocket later and people will notice that he goes around the train confirming stops with everyone. Whatever feeling Hal may have had to a character back in town isn't noticeable here -- he is simply a robot assigned with a job.

After that, it's all a matter of settling in and enjoying the ride. If that's possible for you, at least.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ "The chances of the final survivor benevolently granting everyone their wishes after however many months of killing and betrayal are pretty much zero."

"People are selfish. Even more so the person who manages to come out on top of a killing game."

And yet here they are. ]

Little bit. I wasn't really following everything, but it seemed like you had a lot of help by the end.

Guess I did. Not sure how it worked out that way and I'm still not convinced all of this was even real, but it worked in my favor. I was hoping maybe it wouldn't be me for once, but here we are.

Is it the ending you wanted?

Not sure what I wanted, to be honest. I was expecting a very different kind of game than what this turned out to be. I don't know that there's any way it could've played out that would have left me satisfied.

I'm not going to complain about heading home, though.

Trust me. There's a lot of other things I wish I could have fixed about the game that were out of my hands. I'm mostly satisfied but I still wish there was more I could have done.

Going back home...you and Jack, right? If you're really dead back there what comes next?

Well, ideally I won't be dead once I get there. If I am there's not much next.

I promise that wasn't a weird question. When we die where Annabeth and I are from there's still a whole other process. [A shrug.] You could maybe also ask Hal to put you back at a different point in time if you really wanted.

I see. Well, I've had my fill of afterlives for a while, either way. I'd like to go back living. If that means getting dropped off before I died, or in some alternate universe or whatever, that'll do.

I'm pretty sure you can do that. If Hal gives you any crap for it, tell him I want to use some of my merit to alter the terms that people can be dropped off whenever they want, too. [He looks up to the ceiling.]

Pretty sure he'd be glad to hear you're going back to your executions in your town anyway.

Maybe. Though if he and his employers were happy with the sort of violence they could get just watching us on Pandora, they wouldn't need to set up this whole kind of thing. Pretty sure at this point they get off on toying with people more than the killing in particular.

Hal told us that his employers feed off of the pain and suffering that comes from the game. So you're not that far off. The game's going to keep running after this but at least we won't be involved.

Just saying. There's plenty of pain and suffering happening even without this game. Like I said at the beginning, if that's what they want, they could just walk into any bar on Pandora.

You think it's special because it's here? Or because they caused it?

Definitely the latter. Gods like to admire their own work way too much. It's why they couldn't just leave us where we were. They had to see the results themselves.

In which case I'm not sure they'll care much about my executions regardless. But you never know, maybe they'll drop by sometime to see how it's done.

And then I can show them how the law works in my town.

I figure it's like...they cared enough to be impressed and put you on the roster. I don't care what Hal says, there's still a reason all of us were chosen out of everyone else from our worlds.

And no offense, Nisha, but I'm sort of glad you weren't actually around for most of the executions.

I will take that as a compliment, kid.

[ She smiles at that, in a way that's actually mostly friendly and only a tiny bit unnerving. ]

[After everything? He'll take it.]

Good. Pretty sure it was meant to be one. [He tilts his head.] I'd say it was good working with you, but that also just sounds weird. But it's kind of true.

You weren't too bad either. Who knows, you might have an interesting future ahead of you.

Interesting is definitely a word I'd use for it, sure. It's not executing people and keeping law and order in a town, but let's just say being here has actually helped for the next step.

Yeah? What's next for you?

Well...[Man. How to explain...] Annabeth and I are going back to the darkest part of the Underworld to finish sealing the Doors of Death to make sure the dead stay dead. Then it's off to finish killing the giants and the earth goddess that's trying to destroy our world. So, you know, kids stuff.

[ DEPARTURE ]

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