FAREWELL LOG

[npc_kun]

Set from October 24th onwards:

Comments

26th - 27th, mostly 27th

[feathered_earth]

Bal was waiting.

Krile knew that it was. It might have been waiting for three years or for three seconds, she didn't know. If it had been three seconds, some more wouldn't hurt. If it had been years... well, what was a few more hours? She wasn't about to leave without saying goodbye to all of her friends, the ones who were still here.

She'd take her cats, and her box of mementos. Crochet could take up the Weapons Tree, despite the grumbling she'd do over having to work out the accounts. And she'd take her memories. So many memories... the first thing she would do after getting back to Bal would be to make sure Bartz was okay. But she knew that the world itself was, now. Bartz, Lenna, Faris, Grandpa. I know who you are now.

Because some habits remained, Krile had her spear with her as she walked through what had been the Wilderness, seeking her friends. Some would go to their own homes, some would stay here, but though she knew that goodbye would only last for a time, she wanted to see them.

[longnosedliar]

Sniper had spent all day saying his good byes, not only to the people but to the land itself. He never really realized how many people here he held dear until it was time to leave. Leaving these people behind, those who were small and large presences in his life, would be more difficult than leaving Syrup Village behind. But leaving Krile was a particularly painful notion, and he had therefore avoided her as best he could.

Eventually, however, good byes were inevitable, and this was one he had to say. He asked a few people if they had seen Krile around, and eventually managed to recognize her by that cheerful yellow ponytail that bobbed behind her, one that he wasn't to see again for a very, very long time. He swallowed past the lump in his throat, took a deep breath and then cried out, "Hey! Krile! Over here!"

[feathered_earth]

Krile hadn't been intending to leave until she'd said a not-so-last few words to everyone she loved. It was quite a broad category, but if there was a stop to the list (more of a rounded apex, really) Sniper would be there. It was getting a little frustrating, because he seemed to be difficult to find right now--

"Hey!" She beamed when he called her and ran over, not waiting before wrapping her arms around his skinny chest. "Usopp... am I saying that right? Or should I just stick with Sniper the Unflappable?"

There was an ache beginning from the knowledge that Usopp's life as a pirate would make him in particular difficult to find--maybe never again, a thought she stomped on as soon as it appeared. They would meet again. She'd find a way.

[longnosedliar]

Usopp laughed in spite of his sadness to hear Sniper the Unflappable said out loud by someone other than himself and returned the embrace tightly. "You can call me either," he said, "but yeah, you're pronouncing it right. Usopp - weird, having my name back again, huh?"

He surveyed Krile, not crying quite yet, but there was something undeniably melancholy in his expression. "Um, I'm leaving today." He ducked his head. "I'd ask you to come along if I didn't already know you have an entire kingdom waiting for you. I've just got my crew."

October 27th, evening

[stonyfaced]

The plan had been to leave a week after regaining his memories. One of his watchmen who were still undecided as to where to go and had no home to go home to might decide to come back, right? In which case, they ought to come with him, because he would be able to help them with lodgings and everything else they needed to start a new life. Anyway, he had been away for nearly three years. What was a week more to him and his city? Nothing.

But all too much, it turned out, because three days later he was aching to leave. To go home. He couldn't stay away for any longer, not when the possibility was right in front of his eyes. Sure, he'd miss everyone he met in Edensphere, but he knew where he belonged, and it wasn't in these clear meadows

[feathered_earth]

Krile had been telling herself that she'd been right to insist on hope when everything had pointed towards the Sphere and everyone in it falling apart. She'd told herself that it had turned out even better than she'd dared to think--they would be able to come back here and visit the people they'd known and even visit their worlds! She would have been grateful just for the chance to say goodbye, something she'd dearly wished for, for two and a half years. And now it turned out that it wasn't goodbye at all.

All of these things were perfectly true, but they didn't help a bit when she caught sight of Mr. Vimes waiting patiently by the glass curtain.

Krile stuck her spear into the grass and set down her own belongings, quietly asking her cats to stay where they were before making her way over. "Mr. Vimes..." She couldn't think of anything to say besides that, so she settled for hugging him tightly.

I have no proper icons for this!

[stonyfaced]

This was the sort of send-off that Vimes had expected from Krile, but it didn't make their parting any less sad. No, perhaps sad was the wrong word for it, but it certainly wasn't a happy parting. He squashed down his usual inhibitions when it came to showing public affection - for this, he would make an exception - and hugged her tightly

IT'S OKAY even for Krile it's tricky

[feathered_earth]

Krile let out a deep sigh as Mr. Vimes hugged her back. She did want to go home. Bal was just on the other side of that glass; her feet almost ached for the ancient, steady stone of the castle. But it would wait. If years here had been seconds there, it would wait... but now the years here were gone, dwindled to nothing.

She'd learned quickly not to take anyone for granted. Going out cheerfully one morning could end with anguish that afternoon. Not even that--she had seen friends vanish in the space between words as she spoke. Mr. Vimes, though, had never disappeared. He'd died once, but he'd come back as... as there as ever, ready to give her a whack upside the head for a truly terrible joke or bring her a thermos of hot cocoa when she was feeling low. It didn't seem real that he was going somewhere much further away than the page of a journal

[redhead_rabbit]

The redhead sighed. His memories had come back to him, every waking moment of his life, ever face he'd ever taken. To record the unspoken history of the world, the Bookman Jr simply took on a role and a name, living life after life, taking on identity after identity. But this time, just as with the order, it felt personal. He was taking part in history, and it was an odd history.

He planned on staying here in the remains of the fishbowl. He didn't have anywhere to go, as far as he knew. Last he remembered, he was falling off a tower, fading into nothingness.

He stood on the walkway, gathering the remains of books that were knocked about in the final days of the Fishbowl. Not much left, but the history wasn't lost. It was all in his head.

whenever! He's staying, so... whenever other parties are leaving.

[crimson_seeker]

All things had their time. Even a dragon was mortal, a creature bound in time. So had Edensphere been, for all that its last hour had brought about a new beginning.

For Hawk-he had gone so far as to declare his intention to use his own name now, but it was taking its time sticking-these last whirlwind days had been oddly peaceful, though punctuated by partings. There weren't so many people whose departure he gave thought to, but those that mattered were all the more wistful for it. It was now clear that one could walk into a thousand worlds and back again by crossing the places where the Sphere's Glass had once risen. One day, he would as well. For now, he was settling.

Someone to keep an eye on things, he had said to Vimes. It didn't seem a bad task to shoulder.

27th - hope you don't mind one more thread to add to our load <3

[longnosedliar]

One of the first people Sniper thought of to say farewell to was Hawk. It was odd, really - if asked exactly when he had gotten so close to Hawk, Sniper wouldn't be able to cite one specific place as he could with his other friends. But Hawk was not made any less close for it. If anything, it was even more sad to leave this still budding friendship behind, their easy camaraderie and so many stories yet to be exchanged. One day, Sniper promised.

For now, it was time to see him one last time. When he saw him next, it may be years later, Sniper knew, for that was just the way of being a pirate. Somehow, it was even more difficult to leave this place behind than Syrup Village was. He jogged forward, waving a hand in the air. "Oi, Hawk - Kouei, I mean!" He slowed in front of him, expression both happy and sad all at once. "Hey."

He shifted his bag over to one shoulder, a bit fuller packed than normal, but not so very large for carrying his home on his back.

27th, in the Wilderness

[crimson_seeker]

Hawk turned from his contemplation of the horizon-it was strange to even think of the Wilderness as having one now. The great, jagged glass fragments from the Sphere's Glass caught and refracted the sunlight up ahead. Many of them were too big to be moved, but he had been contemplating that all the same. They were a touch dangerous to leave lying around.

"Hey there." He smiled to one side, rather more subdued than his usual grins, but no less warm for it. The bag bouncing on Sniper's shoulder bespoke his friend's business clear enough. "It's fine. I get tangled in the names myself. I'll sort them out in time."

27th, in the Wilderness

[longnosedliar]

"It doesn't look like I've got any time at all to get used to them," Sniper said with a quiet chuckle underneath his breath. It was difficult for him to sort out exactly what he was feeling right now, but at the very least, he would not quickly forget Hawk, no matter his name.

"But I'll try," he said. "I want to be able to tell people about this place."

He allowed his bag to slide off his arm and land in a heap on the ground and took off his bandanna to run his hand through his kinky, tangled hair, more of a nervous twitch than any wish to neaten it. He looked down at his bag, and back up at Hawk. "I guess you've already figured out why I came over here, huh?"

27th

[longnosedliar]

Even with Cooro's announcement that they could easily glide between worlds, Sniper couldn't help but feel sadness dig deep into him at the prospect of leaving. He had to leave. He wanted to see his crew again, after all, and though he tried to stay chipper over the journals, he was worried sick about his crew. They had suffered a terrible failure. What had happened after he disappeared? What would they have done when he didn't show up to the Saobody Archipelago three days later? Where is it that he was sent? He knew that wherever the portal was, if one indeed existed, may very well be in some obscure part of the Grand Line, or worse, the Calm Belt. Even if it took years and years, he decided, he'd come back to visit someday