After eight long, difficult weeks of fighting, you've finally done it. You've put an end to Neo Metal Sonic's dreams of conquest and with it, you've saved not only this world, but all worlds. Perhaps not everything is wrapped up as neatly as some of you would like, but you've done what you set out to do, and now you can breathe a sigh of relief.
In the hours that follow the immediate aftermath of Neo Metal Sonic's defeat, Tails sets about figuring out how to control the Egg Fleet and recall them to where Neo Metal Sonic had them stationed. Sonic heads out into the city - and then even further beyond - to ensure that the people are starting to regain their senses without anyone to suppress their free will anymore. Knuckles escorts you back to the base, then takes a ring to hop into the Void to let Shadow and Infinite know what's going on.
As for you all? You aren't expected to do any work, because you've done so much today. Take a load off and take the time to rest - you deserve it.
For those of you who can't wait to get home, you're welcome to grab a ring from one of your colorful friends and head straight back, but for those of you willing to take the night off and regroup in the morning, you'll find that said colorful friends have put together a party for you - or, well, they tried their best. The decorations are store-bought (or not) and simple, Sonic seems to have thought confetti is the best way to throw a party and there is so much of it getting showered on all of you the moment you walk into the room, and someone obtained a sheet cake that did not have any sort of message on it, so an awkwardly scrawled message of "THANKS FOR HELP" is written in bright green icing that clashes with the cake's soft pink and red color scheme. An attempt was made.
You're welcome to hang out here - both in the new base and in this world as a whole - for as long as you'd like. Permanently, even, if you don't have any intention of going home. After all, you've more than earned it. Sonic and friends will gladly help you figure out a way to get settled here.
If you do choose to stay for any length of time and head out into the city, you'll find that people are indeed starting to return to their daily lives. They don't really understand - or remember - what happened, but they do recognize you as someone they have some innate fondness for, regardless of how startling your appearance may be to them. The city itself has seen better days thanks to the spread of Eggman's chroma, but thankfully the natural elements are recovering from that just fine. The buildings, streets, and the like will not naturally recover, so it seems Chicago's going to require some pretty intensive rebuilding...
But for the time being, everything is going smoothly, and you've done everything that was asked of you. You're free to return home. If you do, your shard may eventually come loose and simply fall off, ridding you of both the shard and its powers. Or maybe it won't, and you'll have that memory of your time in this world forever, along with the power innate to you and the ones you can activate from your fellow shardbearers whenever you're near each other.
Congratulations, shardbearers. You've done the impossible, and maybe even formed some new bonds along the way.
( Welcome to the final log of Shardbond! With this, you have successfully navigated your way through the Sonic friendship game and no one died! Hooray!!! For this final log, you may do whatever you'd like - if you want to use this to do an immediate aftermath top level, go for it! Party top level? Sure? Post-game top level? Have fun! You want to bring a castmate in and NPC them or have someone else play them? Also cool! Generally speaking, you are now free to do what you will with the setting as a whole - your fuzzy little friends will be hard at work making sure that you all are able to get home and/or get settled just fine, and they'll also be keeping an eye out for one (1) Neo Metal Sonic. And also Infinite, I guess, unless someone wants to take that stray jackal with them but like, no one needs that. )
[Viktor made the telltale hitching metal sound of quiet and tired laughter, stepping closer to sit on the edge of the bed and leaning his staff against his shoulder.]
'When every equation was solved, all that remained...' [Just as he had on the beach, he spoke in the tone of echoing a recollection. Another's words, yet not quite someone else's.] '...were fields of dreamless solitude.'
Progress and innovation necessitates mistakes. It is how we learn and improve, iterate, evolve. So we must never confuse stumbling points for unsalvageable failures--nothing is ever so far gone that it can not improve.
[His eyes flick to the side, to where the golden mask sits against the desk. All he has left of Lhikan. But it's brief.]
Mm. Regardless of the cost.
[There is no bringing back the dead. No taking back the scarring left from choices already made.]
How I wish I could toss this into the sea and be done with it. That I could just feign ignorance. It is all that is responsible for what little peace my people have for now, but if it ever ends up in the wrong hands...
Too many beings in power know that it exists. The Makuta himself would have levelled what remained of our city to take it away again, and it was only when I threatened to destroy it that he finally gave some ground on a stalemate.
The last time I lost it entirely, he immediately attempted to kill me where I stood when he found out. If he were to find out it was gone again under my hand, then the brutality he would unleash on our people would be immediate. He would have no reason to stay his hand.
Given that I won't be a Toa for much longer, we would have no protection.
I only managed to negotiate one single year of peace with the Makuta. And I have spent nearly a quarter of that here, rather than with my people.
[It was the primary reason he hesitated in coming in the first place - why Sonic had such a hard time trying to convince him.]
Onewa has probably convinced the others I am dead at this rate, but... we have too much to do, and far too little time to do it, for me to linger any longer than is needed.
[A silent nod is the only response at first. No one could rip him from this decision now.]
...I plan for tomorrow night, if only to let the little ones have their goodbyes. But I have no desire to make a show of it.
[His notes, save a precious few, would remain here, and what memory of him stayed behind would be fleeting. He had done his duty for this land, and he could do no more.
A beat. His words falter slightly.]
...When... all is said and done, Viktor...
...Should the Great Spirit be kind, I would like our paths to cross again someday.
...Bold of you to think you have a choice in the matter, my friend. [A small laugh, more human than hitching mechanisms.] It may take some time, but I am not so easily rid of. Even less so, if my connection with the arcane should reestablish itself.
...The shards have served their purpose, it's true, but... do you think the arcane could reach back to you in a place like this?
[It's not meant as a rebuttal - more that he's trying to figure out how it would work, perhaps to soothe his own anxiety for what might happen to his own powers. Were the shard to override indefinitely, then Vakama was in a lot of trouble.]
[Viktor looked to his own hand as if seeking out something only he could see to begin with. Carefully turning it over, moving metal fingers as if experimenting.]
But if I had been cut off from the arcane--or whatever equivalent force may exist here--entirely, this body would have ceased to function a long time ago. This shard alone could surely not replicate the Hexcore's energy generation, much less in a way that would have gone unnoticed. My current assumption is that such things will return in time, whether here or elsewhere.
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'When every equation was solved, all that remained...' [Just as he had on the beach, he spoke in the tone of echoing a recollection. Another's words, yet not quite someone else's.] '...were fields of dreamless solitude.'
Progress and innovation necessitates mistakes. It is how we learn and improve, iterate, evolve. So we must never confuse stumbling points for unsalvageable failures--nothing is ever so far gone that it can not improve.
no subject
Mm. Regardless of the cost.
[There is no bringing back the dead. No taking back the scarring left from choices already made.]
How I wish I could toss this into the sea and be done with it. That I could just feign ignorance. It is all that is responsible for what little peace my people have for now, but if it ever ends up in the wrong hands...
[He exhales, frustrated.]
I will need to find a way to hide it. Somehow.
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Too many beings in power know that it exists. The Makuta himself would have levelled what remained of our city to take it away again, and it was only when I threatened to destroy it that he finally gave some ground on a stalemate.
The last time I lost it entirely, he immediately attempted to kill me where I stood when he found out. If he were to find out it was gone again under my hand, then the brutality he would unleash on our people would be immediate. He would have no reason to stay his hand.
Given that I won't be a Toa for much longer, we would have no protection.
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[To say the least. Viktor thought the matter over, coming up with inuriatingly little in the way of solutions.]
Is there anything I can do to help?
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Not unless you have some way for thermal power to be detected without any other energy source required.
There is plenty that I wish I could ask for, my friend... much I wish we could still talk about, were I not already running on borrowed time.
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[Even chemtech was a form of energy, albeit one he estimated would be the least difficult to maintain.]
Are things truly that dire, for you to be in so much of a hurry?
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I only managed to negotiate one single year of peace with the Makuta. And I have spent nearly a quarter of that here, rather than with my people.
[It was the primary reason he hesitated in coming in the first place - why Sonic had such a hard time trying to convince him.]
Onewa has probably convinced the others I am dead at this rate, but... we have too much to do, and far too little time to do it, for me to linger any longer than is needed.
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[Unfortunate, but it really couldn't be helped if that was the case.]
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...I plan for tomorrow night, if only to let the little ones have their goodbyes. But I have no desire to make a show of it.
[His notes, save a precious few, would remain here, and what memory of him stayed behind would be fleeting. He had done his duty for this land, and he could do no more.
A beat. His words falter slightly.]
...When... all is said and done, Viktor...
...Should the Great Spirit be kind, I would like our paths to cross again someday.
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[It's not meant as a rebuttal - more that he's trying to figure out how it would work, perhaps to soothe his own anxiety for what might happen to his own powers. Were the shard to override indefinitely, then Vakama was in a lot of trouble.]
Did you feel any change, going home for Jayce?
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[Viktor looked to his own hand as if seeking out something only he could see to begin with. Carefully turning it over, moving metal fingers as if experimenting.]
But if I had been cut off from the arcane--or whatever equivalent force may exist here--entirely, this body would have ceased to function a long time ago. This shard alone could surely not replicate the Hexcore's energy generation, much less in a way that would have gone unnoticed. My current assumption is that such things will return in time, whether here or elsewhere.