prologue

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on august 15th 2023, a conversation was had between lulu flint and her old cellmate darcy morris. they sat in morris’s kitchen, in a century-old home nestled in postwick’s countryside, which groaned back at the wind in its old age from behind creeping vines and sprawling rhododendrons.[break][break]

the conversation they had over tea was hours long. it covered aliens, avatarship, wars, dimensional rifts, the interdream zone, and more. it covered breakups, and family turmoil, betrayal and fears of failure, and eventually, words that perhaps she should not go back to hoenn; perhaps they did not deserve her help, anyways.[break][break]

“when i think about brothers killing each other, it makes me wonder if this whole world doesn’t deserve to end. people are dark at heart. evil, even.”[break][break]

“excuse me?” morris piped up, appalled. “who made you the judge? the world isn’t evil, and just because you haven’t seen the light doesn’t mean it isn’t out there! my wife, for instance: stops to let the duckletts cross the road every morning, and brings me nanab nut muffins on my lunch break! she’d never hurt a cutiefly!” she pointed at a photo on the refrigerator, then, as further evidence. “her son charlie’s six and wants to be a charizard when he grows up. does that sound evil to you?”[break][break]

morris's brow furrowed as she continued, “there are harmless, unfathomably good people in this world, quinn. you might have a chance to redeem yourself. shouldn’t you be worrying about that?”[break][break]

lulu thought about it, and it did not really change her mind.[break][break]

and then morris added, “i spent eighteen years in prison for something that wasn’t my fault. my kids grew up without me, so i know how it feels to be angry–but i’ve moved on. i found my happiness. that’s all you can do! the past is poison for people like us, and if you don’t go back to hoenn and figure things out, you’re going to die anyways for nothing at all–either by that poison, or by a bullet.”[break][break]

“find your light. let go, and do something good with your life for once.”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part one: wedgehurst[break][break]
august 2020

[break][break]

when the portal opened, it was in a library that was all too familiar to her. as she looked down at the concrete floor and smelled the cheap disinfectants, the realization was dizzying.[break][break]

no… not here…[break][break]

words caught her ear and she peered through a crack in the metal bookcase.[break][break]

“you took too long. that’s not good for me.”[break][break]

”i didn’t know she was getting out today, i-i swear!”[break][break]

lulu recognized the voices. one belonged to georgia cress, a burly woman who’d at the time recently defected from a rival gang to the dragons and was looking to prove herself. the other was darcy morris, quivering in her primeape grip.[break][break]

“you better hope they catch her,” cress threatened.[break][break]

“i’m sure she’s as good as dead,” morris choked from a bunched collar, hoping to soothe tensions.[break][break]

behind the bookcase, lulu’s heart sank, pained as she realized just how deeply and thoroughly orchestrated the attempts on her life had been. 'find your light'... you cowardly bitch.[break][break]

as she watched, it soon occurred her just how trapped she was, and a second wave of panic hit. how am i going to get out of here?[break][break]

looking away, she glimpsed herself walk past. her heart skipped a beat, and after the younger saoirse disappeared again without noticing her, she realized with dread what it was she had to do.[break][break]

oh no.[break][break]

after deciding there was no other option, she stole away to the laundry room and found proper inmate attire. an extra shirt was taken, ripped in spots, and, casually as she could manage, she proceeded to stalk the halls, back in the direction she had seen herself go in.[break][break]

eventually, the time was right.[break][break]

”what the–mmngh!”[break][break]

masked with a shirt with two uneven eyeholes, lulu clapped a hand over her younger self’s mouth, and dragged her into a custodial closet.[break][break]

“sh-sh-sh. stop, stop! i’m not going to hurt you. ah–!“[break][break]

there was a hard struggle. however, while the younger saoirse was built with harder muscle than she remembered, she was no trained fighter.[break][break]

as she finished with the last tie from the rest of the shirt, masked lulu assured, ”you’ll get out soon. sorry i have to leave you in here, but trust me when i say you don’t want to deal with what’s about to happen anyways.”[break][break]

when she emerged from the closet, the mask was pulled off and discarded. leaving the universe’s real saoirse quinn bound, gagged and hidden, she sidestepped the final murder attempt at wedgehurst prison, collected her old belongings in the lobby, and, properly released, left on the back of a corviknight taxi with no goodbyes.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part two: motostoke

[break][break]

”to motostoke, please,” she’d requested. ”the space station.”[break][break]

the air got colder as they flew north. what few tears she couldn’t stop were obscured by her goggles, and the pilot positioned in front of her wasn’t looking anyways. when eventually they arrived past city limits, it was not far to the expansive storage facility.[break][break]

the corviknight taxi landed near the peeling sign out front. there was a rusted u.f.o. that jutted outward from it, with a friendly green alien giving a thumbs-up about the unit rates.[break][break]

she paid the pilot and assured them she would be fine. she could locate her unit, and yes, she had a ride.[break][break]

when she slid the door to the unit up, behind it was an old sedan, and several hard black cases. she sat in the car for a few long minutes, and angrily considered her options.[break][break]

i’m in an alternate universe. i can do anything here, she eventually concluded, and the engine roared to life. she rolled out onto the road.[break][break]

after twenty minutes, she pulled down apicot lane. she had stopped by her old apartment in the past, but only because rinc hadn’t been home yet.[break][break]

however, when she got close enough to see the front door, she saw him–and her. a woman leaned in to kiss him goodbye.[break][break]

stunned, lulu nearly wrecked the car, before she kept driving on past and left. she knew her old lover had little time before he would die, executed by her pursuers for not knowing where she had run off to.[break][break]

her driving became aimless, and less careful. tears fell with no effort to hold them back, until numbness settled in. when cops with their sirens blared past, she was already dried up. she drove through a whole city, trying her best to think of nothing at all.[break][break]

despite herself, one particular memory crossed her mind, ever-haunting and capable of causing a spark. fire caught, and it grew.[break][break]

she continued further north.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part three: circhester

[break][break]

the estate was so large that they hardly heard the boom when her turtonator exploded through the far outer wall. after shifting the rubble, she returned the pokemon, and drove the sedan gingerly over the shallow ditch, through the makeshift gate.[break][break]

the car picked up speed as it climbed towards the courtyard with a determined growl. it ripped up pristine grass on the way, and then careened wildly through the garden, back and forth over the many flowerbeds, its driver cackling hysterically until she eventually miscalculated a turn and spun off into a hedge.[break][break]

the engine revved once. twice. chunks of sod spat out from the tires, but it did not release.[break][break]

after a string of curses, she shot up out of the driver’s seat, rounded to the trunk, and ripped it open to reveal a familiar tommy gun sitting on the rotting carpet. she grabbed it with an unhinged grin, and as her chest heaved with adrenaline, marched towards her old front door.[break][break]

b-b-b-b-boom![break][break]

it burst open.[break][break]

“mom! dad! i’m home!” she called in an almost sing-song voice. ”don’t you want to say hello?”[break][break]

“saoirse!” her mother gasped as she came around a corner, soon followed by her equally startled father.[break][break]

lulu’s fireball eyes homed in on him, as she pointed the gun in his direction. “you never told us we had a little brother,” she said darkly.[break][break]

”what’s she talking about?” her mother turned to look at her father incredulously.[break][break]

”he’s a liar, mom. you both are. you’re perfect for one another!”[break][break]

”saoirse, stop this! we can talk–”[break][break]

”talk? talk?!” she thundered and shook. ”what about all the years you could have talked to me, about anything?! anything at all! it was like i didn’t exist! it was always cillian, and you didn’t even like him! you hated him!”[break][break]

she took steps towards them. her father flinched at the gun still aimed at his head.[break][break]

”i’m not blind! i was never stupid! i know what you did! i know what you did, over and over, you piece of shit, but you, you… you have no idea what you’ve done!”[break][break]

”saoirse, wait! please–!”[break][break]

”FUUUUUUUUUCK!”[break][break]

when she fired, it was not at her parents, but rather all around them. bullets tore through paintings of already dead relatives and exploded priceless heirlooms. they pierced walls, and cut scars into the beautiful banister.[break][break]

she spun, tearing apart the room, until she heard her mother scream, and turned to watch her father fall to the ground, blood pooling.[break][break]

”dad?” her rage faltered in shock.[break][break]

boom, boom, boom![break][break]

all went white, and she fell to the ground as well.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part four: tattoo[break][break]
a nightmare

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bartók: music for strings, percussion and celesta, sz. 106[break]
3. adagio

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the light narrowed, until it became a thin glowing thread wrapped tightly around a new moon. she gazed up at its shadowy face as she drifted down a river on her back. the water felt viscous against her skin, and she raised her arms and pulled herself quicker along its current.[break][break]

soon, she hit her head on what she assumed, at first, was a rock.[break][break]

“ow!”[break][break]

turning over with a splash and rooting in the riverbed, she righted to waist-deep, startled by what she saw. more silhouettes rose from the inky depths like round river stones.[break][break]

slowly, and not all at once, their eyelids slid open, red waterfalls cascading off the folds of their drooping old skin. the eyes, large like pumpkins and still half-submerged, all stared at her unblinkingly.[break][break]

near the closest one, a cadaverous hand also rose from the water, presenting to her a glowing lantern.[break][break]

“your light,” it whispered from a mouth unseen, holding it higher towards her. the round handle was clutched in long, meandering talons.[break][break]

“thank you,” she said softly, reaching to accept it.[break][break]

as talons splayed to release the handle, one sliced her thumb clumsily, causing her to gasp. blood dribbled down the lantern’s glass and into the river in drops.[break][break]

the creature’s arm withdrew at the pace of something ancient as it continued to stare up at her, unapologetic, before eventually it lowered back into the inky depths again too. the rest of the eyes followed suit.[break][break]

when they’d all disappeared, the voice from before returned, though quieter and more distant, and with others whispering too…[break][break]

call it, call it, call it…[break][break]

gradually, they got louder, a chant that became more urgent and sinister over time.[break][break]

call it call it call it call it…[break][break]

they were monsters rattling cages at the peak of their crescendo, before stopping abruptly, all at once.[break][break]

there was an ominous moment of silence. then, a single eldritch shriek ripped through the darkness, and she saw it in the distance: the undulating body of a giant serpent on its way towards her. it cut the river in half, sending crimson waves high up on either side of its massive body.[break][break]

the voices chanted it on, find it find it find it![break][break]

soon, it was close enough for her to meet the terrible gaze between its wings. it was some horrific evolution of a dragonair, black-scaled and thousand-toothed, its jaw agape to eat her, lantern and all.[break][break]

“no!”[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part five: the hospital

[break][break]

beep.[break][break]

beep.[break][break]

beep.[break][break]

”no!”[break][break]

her eyes opened, the darkness fading, replaced by the white glow of a hospital room.[break][break]

”chansey!” a nearby nurse noticed and chirped happily, waddling over to the door and alerting others that her patient had awakened.[break][break]

lulu glanced up at a television screen that had been left on. breaking news rolled on mute, a banner at the bottom reading in white: five dead and after shooting at quinn court.[break][break]

she saw a bird’s eye view of her childhood home, its garden destroyed, grounds overrun by authorities, reporters and onlookers at the crumbled gates.[break][break]

footsteps entered the room from the hospital hall. the curtain was pulled back to reveal the face of a slightly older woman, her warm smile thinly veiling her exhaustion. her scrubs were printed with adorable baby cat pokemon.[break][break]

”welcome back. you’ve been out for a while.” she said.[break][break]

”what happened?” lulu asked, still in the soft clouds of sedation.[break][break]

”well, you were shot three times, and had open-heart surgery. almost didn’t make it–but here you are! it’s one of the more impressive things we’ve seen around here this month.”[break][break]

the nurse smiled and paused a beat, before she continued with the bad news, ”unfortunately, you have paralysis in your left leg from damage to the sciatic nerve. another bullet tore ligaments in your right shoulder; you’ll be able to move it, but the range of motion will be severely limited.”[break][break]

”i’d count yourself very lucky, all things considered. if it hadn’t been for that audino they found you with...”[break][break]

”right,” lulu managed softly, still staring at the screen. finally, the nurse noticed, and jumped to change it.[break][break]

”no, wait–“[break][break]

”heavens, i’m sorry. not sure why this is on. really just don’t know what’s going through peoples’ heads sometimes…”[break][break]

the nurse flipped channels and landed on a televangelist, pacing the stage of a tall cathedral with his blue-white smile. ”there.” she placed the remote just out of reach on a machine, and began to head for the hall again, assuring over her shoulder, ”i’ll be back–“[break][break]

”i need a phone,” lulu croaked after her weakly, loud enough to catch her before she made it out of the room.[break][break]

the nurse paused a moment, thinking about what she’d been told. no phones. let them know when she was awake enough – but this woman on the bed had clearly had it rough. paralyzed. family dead. home overrun.[break][break]

”i’m not really supposed to do this… but here.” she pulled her phone from her pocket and set it near lulu’a left hand on the bed. ”i’ll be back in a few minutes.” with a wink, she left on her rubber clogs to tend to someone else.[break][break]

lulu grasped the phone, feeling weakness in her wrist from whatever drug was flowing into her veins from the iv. she swiped across the phone’s screen to find no passcode and searched for the number of a friend with her thumb.[break][break]

eventually, she found him: dr. erasmus barrett, sleep specialist. pressed call with a numb finger, and it rang and rang on speaker phone, but there was no answer.[break][break]

when his recorded voice requested a message, she left one.[break][break]

”erasmus,” she began, slow and weak, ”my name is saoirse quinn. i’m from the future, where we are colleagues. i know about the lab, and the core. all of it. i need you to break me out of circhester royal hospital, before they realize i’m not the one they think i am.”[break][break]

she ended the call and waited. hours passed. nurses came and went, occasionally joined by doctors, but none the one she was hoping for.[break][break]

until she heard commotion in the hallway.[break][break]

”sir? sir, you can’t go back–hey! security!”[break][break]

there were hurried footsteps into her room before her curtain was thrown aside. she caught a glimpse of a familiar face, accompanied by a kirlia, before the bright flash of a teleport whisked her away.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part six: the crown tundra

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he laid her on a bed in a room not unlike the one she’d been in prior, with similar instruments and all to support her. though it took her time until she was healed enough to move around normally, it was made quicker through the help of his kirlia.[break][break]

“you said you’re from the future. i knew it was possible, but how?” he asked her once in those early days.[break][break]

“dialga, i believe.”[break][break]

“incredible! though, i have to admit i’m a little disappointed. i was hoping my theory might have been correct.”[break][break]

she knew the theory he referenced: that the dream state connected one’s consciousness to the fabric of the multiverse, and with the help of certain exotic matter, one could amplify the connection between themselves and the quantum realm, rendering the boundaries of alternate universes permeable by the human mind.[break][break]

he’d gone so far as to claim it would help achieve time travel. however, his research had been controversial after attempts at human experimentation.[break][break]

while exotic matter grew at ‘the core’ – an incredibly cold chamber within a secret lab beneath the tundra – he had all but disappeared from scientific circles.[break][break]

“it still could be,” she’d reasoned. ”alternate universes exist as branching timelines. we know that dreams are related to time, at least through the memories we see in them.”[break][break]

erasmus smiled at her the way he did over and over as the weeks passed, and her portal back home never came. they shared and debated theories, as they’d done in another universe, only this time she sat in a wheelchair.[break][break]

one day, he pulled her from it, closer to him. pushed hair out of her eyes, which had grown a starburst of blonde at the roots, and told her, “i have an idea.”[break][break]

“what’s that?” she asked him, with her good arm on his shoulder.[break][break]

his lips brushed hers, “let me help fix you.”[break][break]

”fix me?”[break][break]

“yes.”

he found her brilliant, beautiful, and interesting, and if it worked, surely she would love him as much as he loved her. she would stay in his universe, and they would live happily together forever.[break][break]

no one else in the world knew that she existed, so he felt assured that if something were to go terribly wrong, no one would ever look for her anyways.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part seven: the experiment

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erasmus was a neurosurgeon turned neuroengineer – though he’d become more of a hobbyist. he was a man who believed humanity could only achieve true progress by pushing the boundaries of the mind.[break][break]

together, they altered a neural chip which had previously been set aside as a failed project of his – and a distant relative to some of the technology used in universe 820’s dream machine.[break][break]

the chip’s new goal was to restore signal transmission from her brain to her muscles, bypassing nerve damage, and allowing her to walk again. they worked on it tirelessly for months, until the day came to see if they’d succeeded.[break][break]

though it failed the first test, nothing bad happened – but they agreed to keep trying. once the chip had been installed inside her head, however, erasmus found himself thinking of other possibilities, and of what she’d said to him about dreams, and time, and alternate universes…[break][break]

”let’s try to build your machine together,” he suggested one day over dinner. ”we need a break from what we’ve been doing, don’t you think? and besides, things are starting to happen in the world. in hoenn, and here in galar, just like you said they would.”[break][break]

they had been trying to restore her movement for seven months with little time off. meanwhile, the megalopolan war had happened, among other alarming things. they did not often discuss the news, but the end was clearly coming, as it had in her old universe.[break][break]

though surprised and a little hurt, she was inclined to agree with him.[break][break]

so, over the following year, they attempted to build some version of the dream machine, that would connect via a direct neural link. in lieu of tera crystal or seal stone, the exotic matter would be tried as the catalyst, in hopes it would allow them to experience the open dream world as a bridge across the multiverse. from there, they would go to the future, and find the answer of how to escape their world’s impending doom.[break][break]

however, as the machine neared completion, they ran into a maddeningly simple problem: they did not have the resources to create another chip. though briefly discussed, they both agreed that reworking the one already in her head was off the table.[break][break]

at least, until erasmus’s curiosity eventually got the better of him.[break][break]

recruiting the help of his faithful maid, who’d doubled as saoirse’s nurse during her time of healing, extra sedatives were administered to her water one evening. she was then teleported to the laboratory via kirlia, and moved onto an operating table.[break][break]

the next day, she had no knowledge that the chip had been removed, and each night after, when she’d fall asleep, erasmus would go into the lab and work late into the evening on it.[break][break]

over that time, they became distant from one another in their waking hours.[break][break]

”when will we go back to trying to fix my leg, erasmus?” she began to ask.[break][break]

”soon,” he’d tell her. he was just tired.[break][break]

”might as well.”[break][break]

and just as she was becoming increasingly frustrated with him, the night came. same as last time, in her sleep, she was transported to the cold of their shared laboratory, and the chip was reinstalled.[break][break]

”i love you,” he told her peaceful looking face, brushing back blonde hair that fell down her shoulder, before he pressed a kiss to her forehead.[break][break]

”tonight, you will show me the future.”[break][break]

pulling on the dream simulator goggles, he flipped a switch, and the machine whirred to life.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part eight: the dining hall

[break][break]

beethoven: piano sonata no. 14 in c-Sharp minor, op. 27 no. 2 "moonlight": 1. adagio sostenuto

[break][break]

“what do you suppose is the meaning of life?”[break][break]

she sat at the long end of a table across from him, in an expansive but unfamiliar dining hall. he was too far to discern his expression in the dim, atmospheric lighting.[break][break]

there were many empty chairs between them.[break][break]

”what?” she asked from across the room.[break][break]

”you have seen more than anyone in this world, and you are utterly brilliant. one could argue no one else is better equipped to answer the question. so, lulu flint: what is the meaning of life?”[break][break]

”i don’t suppose there is one,” she answered, feeling strange.[break][break]

”really? not at all?”[break][break]

she sat quietly for a long moment, pondering all that had happened in her life, and all that she supposed might happen after.[break][break]

”no,” she answered simply, and her heart felt simultaneously as heavy and weightless as it ever had. a single tear fell down her cheek, onto her dinner plate.[break][break]

she jumped then, as she felt a hand on her face. the maid wiped away the wetness, and leaned in to whisper, ”i’m not supposed to do this, but here.”[break][break]

a note was placed in her lap. she unfolded it, and it read: there’s poison in the water. he’s been killing you.[break][break]

she looked up at the maid, the nurse who had helped her before. then, her good hand reached for the knife on the table, and she stood to stab it into her neck, before ripping it out again.[break][break]

the nurse fell to the floor with a thud, and blood quickly pooled around the legs of her chair.[break][break]

at the other end of the table, erasmus sawed into his steak quietly, not seeming to have seen anything.[break][break]

slowly, she paced across the floor towards him, knife still in-hand.[break][break]

like the nurse, he did not resist. in fact, he appeared to never notice her at all. it was as though she was a ghost – but he too fell to the floor, the rug turning deep red at its corner.[break][break]

dropping the knife, she then left the dining hall. it was linked to the laboratory, and also to the core, deep under the ice.[break][break]

she decided she would try to build a time machine instead. she was ready to go back, to move on.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part nine: the bridge

[break][break]

in the laboratory, she dreamed, some twisted thing between memory and fantasy. then, she began to shake violently, saliva running out of her mouth and dribbling down her chin.[break][break]

”no!” erasmus screamed, rushing over to unhook her from the machine.[break][break]

”saoirse! it’s okay, it’s okay, sh, sh, sh…” but it was not okay. she didn’t stop convulsing until minutes had passed, and she eventually fell limp in his arms.[break][break]

”no, no, no…” he wailed and sobbed as he pulled her off the bed, stumbling onto the floor to hold her and cry into her shoulder.[break][break]

”i’m sorry… i’m so sorry. i didn’t mean to…”[break][break]

there he stayed with her for a while, until it was time to move the body.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

part ten: the end of the world

[break][break]

on march 31, 2022, during an experiment attempted by the infamous neuroscientist erasmus barrett to see the future through the dreaming mind of saoirse quinn, she suffered a seizure and died.[break][break]

the universe’s saoirse quinn that had been wrestled into the custodial closet at wedgehurst prison had been discovered that next day, and set up with a new release date with police escort. however, she never made it out of the prison alive.[break][break]

hoenn never knew saoirse quinn, or lulu flint, which changed some things.[break][break]

oscar clayton and Miles Sharp still collaborated on the infinity machine, but were joined instead by colleague Amor Rose. when miles left team rocket, the two remaining worked together to develop an ultimate weapon, powered by the life energy of pokemon.[break][break]

team rocket was ruthless, led by Cillian Quinn, who had become twisted after the loss of his entire family, including his husband Tempest Quinn during the battle for petalburg – which they won. with no one left for repercussions to fall upon but himself should he fail, he tried and succeeded in killing declan walsh, via bullet to the head.[break][break]

after dahlia goode’s similar assassination on live television, a final battle ensued which inspired global concern for the league’s use of primal energy as firepower, harnessed from the crystal by head professors Eva Morales and illeana reyes.[break][break]

with team rocket’s ultimate weapon, however, they were able to win the war, just barely – only to then be challenged by galar, and later sinnoh, when it became a political ally of the former.[break][break]

many rockets came from kanto to defend rocket’s occupation of hoenn. meanwhile, phenomena grew worse worldwide, with talks of the origin point.[break][break]

scientists on either side, such as the league’s professors, and team rocket’s Naomi Sato tried to save their world, alongside valiant efforts of strong heroes like kyle lopez, Melody Miro, and Katherine Fairburne, and many other hoennians across the region. however, in the end, they could not stop the destruction of society itself, which gradually burned down to the ash of a post-war dystopia.[break][break]

when it arrived again, there was little left for necrozma to take. the world was starved, ravaged by war and by alien anomalies – but the devourer still picked clean its bones, stealing what light hid in the crevices from the long night, before moving on as always.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE

a portal opened in universe 820. she walked out of its blue glow, and into her old laboratory. there, it was quickly apparent that almost no time had passed at all.[break][break]

she felt each step as she ascended familiar stairs, before leaving out the front door of her home. cool sand shifted beneath her feet on her way to black ocean waves.[break][break]

there was an oddly comfortable emptiness inside she had never known herself capable of before. at ease, for she no longer had so many things to worry about.[break][break]

the world was still ending – but it did not deserve so much of her energy to help save it. she had better things to do than kill herself for redemption, or whatever she’d been doing it for.[break][break]

“i’m no hero.” she told the breeze, as though the weight of such responsibilities slid off her shoulders with the words.[break][break]

instead, she thought of space, worlds, and realms yet explored. i’m a pioneer, she thought instead, saving the words for herself.[break][break]

she reached the water, taking a deep breath of the salty air that she’d missed under the ice of another universe. it was good to home, however briefly.[break][break]

”thank you, dionysus.” for showing me, when i didn’t want to look.[break][break]

it didn’t sound terribly grateful, however, and as she gazed up at the full december moon, she wondered about the gift she’d asked for.[break][break]

[attr="class","ooc"]FW: BRANCH AND BAUBLE