>>4017335
First for the beginning of the end

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>>4017335
Screaming inside and out

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>>4017335
All of our choices have led to this moment, /fq/-tachi. Remember why we're here. Remember why we fight. Make good choices.

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A reminder.

>>4017335
I returned to fuck quest for this moment

>>4017335
I DON'T WANNA

I HATE IT

I HATE IT I DON'T WANNA

I'm not ready

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Which one of you faggots went back in time

>>4017352
Based anon proven right 5+ years later

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Kay holds Johann the penguin underneath Guy's nose. "Okay, girl. Do your magic." She follows as Guy trots through the rubble with her snout to the ground.

Master and pet wind their way across the ruins, stepping carefully over corpses; some weeks old, some only days old. Venturing this far into the hot zone without so much as a hazmat suit is certain to give them radiation sickness. Not to mention that it increases their chances of cancer by something like 10,000%, probably. Well, it can't be helped.

The thin layer of ash that coats every surface stretches in all directions, like lunar dust -- and Kay's boots leave impressions in it like an astronaut's.

Because Vivian slept nightly with Johann for so long, Johann smells like her. And because that implant was inside Johann for so long, that implant smells like Johann. If A equals B, and B equals C...

Guy yips and paws at a spot in the rubble. Kay kneels, pulling chunks of concrete and other debris away. Guy keeps pawing, too, despite her owner finding the appointed spot -- doing her best to help her master dig. It takes a little doing, but Kay has all the time in the world. She tugs out singed bits of ceiling tile, chunks of stucco, and scraps of furniture, tossing them over her shoulder like a sailor bailing water.

As she works, she uncovers the half-mummified body of Renee Carte. Poor woman.

And close by, amid the powdery wreck, she finally finds what she sneaked past military blockades authorized to use lethal force, and deep into the Exclusion Zone for.

She pulls it out, careful not to damage it any worse than it already may be. Guy turns in excited circles, yips and yaps at her, hopping up and down on hind legs. Proud.

"I know girl, I know, Jesus," Kay mutters.

Kay turns the grain over in her hand, examining it. It's intact. She smiles.

"Hello David," she says. "Fancy meeting you here."

She stands again. She puts the implant in her pocket. She closes her eyes, and sighs to herself, as Guy runs in lemniscates between her legs.

Serendipity can smile on this ruined world yet.

Time for a road trip to Alaska.

SEASON 4 OP: https://vimeo.com/354421891
SEASON 4 OP (Creditless): https://vimeo.com/354421989

>>4017360
Kaybloom soon

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>>4017360
>Kay
Right from the fuckin' jump, eh?

>>4017360
>nuclear war confirmed
Holy fuck.

>no confirmation of Cerise's body
Worry. Ah-CHOO.

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>>4017360
>As she works, she uncovers the half-mummified body of Renee Carte.

You just had to twist the knife one last time, huh

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Its time to set things right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozWA1A4bUYo

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You thought having the full power of Camelia would give you the key to finding the lighthouse.

You were wrong.

You thought you could get there in a few days' time, walk in and hit the reset button, and make it all go away.

You were wrong.

It's been more than four months since that day, and you're no closer to what you want. Rather, the world has deteriorated -- war, war, and more war. Meanwhile, trying to use your newfangled implant left you only sick, sick, and more sick. You wear an eyepatch, mostly permanently. Every time you bare your evil eye to the world for more than a few moments, you're zapped for days -- vomiting, fever, chills, aches and pains, delirium. And every time you use your evil eye, it alerts Chloe to your location too -- her goons are never far behind when you open it up.

You and Rose live like animals... stealing to get by, squatting in cabins in the remote wilderness, and wandering across the Alaskan bush like nomads.

Every once in a while when the trail seems to have gone completely cold, you hazard the risk of using your evil eye again -- trying, like hell, to glimpse that elusive, falsely prophesied Xanadu known as the lighthouse. It's always a goose chase: sending you north by northwest -- no, east by southeast, no, due north, no, to the sea, no, towards Yukon -- the data stream is jumbled, corrupted, and unnavigable. You're lost. And there's no help coming.

>>4017360
>Renee
Goddammit OP you put her in jail, kidnapped her, killed her kid and made her suffer the stupidest death last thread but it just wasnt enough, was it?

>>4017360
Well, this is good news! Let's not get used to it

>>4017360
>Darkbloom's alive
Good

>>4017383
>alive

>>4017375
>You wear an eyepatch, mostly permanently
Time for punished Alabaster

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>>4017389
It doesnt feel like it after last week

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It's Whitney's birthday.

You and Rose are squatting in another cabin, this one so like all the others. Out-of-the-way, far from the nearest village, and abandoned for perhaps decades. You barely manage to get the furnace going with some lighter fluid and a few matches tossed on the damp blocks of half-rotted wood you scrounge from a corner.

Rose, knowing you're going to be in an especially downcast mood for the next couple days -- today Whitney, tomorrow Vivian... the Darkbloom sisters will be forever young -- volunteers to go into town and find some food. You trust her enough to send her. She has Tiresias, and she has her wits. She's done well enough before, on her own, and you're still recovering from the most recent attempt, last week, of using your evil eye.

She leaves under cover of dark. She takes until nearly dawn on the following day. Despite the trust, you were beginning to panic. And when she returns from town, she's empty-handed, carrying with her dire news:

"They're coming," she announces, and your gut does somersaults.

"How did they--"

"We have to go. Now."

You grope at your numb face with your numb right hand. "Did you lead them to us? Figures... I send you into town one time and this is what happens."

"This is YOUR fault," she counters. "Do NOT even think of blaming me. You got sloppy, Al--"

"Fine, fine. We'll talk about it later."

You send her to keep the car warm while you pack your meager belongings. When you're done, as you haul the duffel bags over your shoulder and brace yourself to make the short journey from the front door to the car, you consider the furnace again. You should go and put it out, that's the sensible thing. But you decide it would just be a waste of time. It's not your cabin and you'll never be back again anyway. Let it burn. Everything else is already burning too.

Out front, the headlights are the only illumination. The snow looks almost blue in their energy-efficient glow. You hurry for the passenger side, and Rose pulls a quick 180, beginning to turn even before you've fully shut the door.

Before she can go barreling down the snowed-over drive and back towards the pan-American highway, though, a figure steps into the conical beam of the hi-brites -- a figure you recognize -- hooting, jumping, waving both of her hands above her head like a castaway trying to flag down a distant ship.

Kay Vera, that sneaky bitch, somehow tracked you down. It was her who tailed Rose back from town, not Chloe's soldiers.

Maybe help has come after all.

>>4017395
>It's Whitney's birthday
OP CEASE THIS

>>4017395
>>4017399
We've finally come full circle. But we know trouble is coming soon after.

>>4017395
I can't believe everything's going to be O Kay

>>4017395
Having a harem with bloodhound noses paid off I guess. They can find the D after months.

>>4017395
Emotional whiplash, the post.

>>4017395
>Chloe has an army of goons and and can track down Alabaster whenever he uses his implant.

>Kay tracked him down with nothing but a gung ho attitude and a silly little dog.

Chloe confirmed for being a fucking chump.

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Kuso kneads at your shoes, stretching his back luxuriously at the same time -- basking in the fire's warmth. Guy peers at him suspiciously from inside the safety of Kay's purse. You never thought you'd see either animal again. Kay took them with her, figuring they couldn't survive on their own. As opposed to the bird -- she let Myrna fly free back in California. Somewhere in the ruin of bomb crater America, a parrot flies from town to town spreading the gospel of alt-right feminism and culturally sensitive misogyny.

As for Samantha -- she stokes the fire. She rode with Kay the whole way, and kept her company. In more ways than one.

"How did you find us?" Rose asks. "Did you use Sand Reckoner?"

"God no," Kay says. "I used the old fashioned methods. I knew roughly the way you two were headed when it all went to shit... north... which isn't a whole lot to go on, admittedly. But I managed. Brought a couple pictures of you along with me, retraced your route. Asked around with locals on my way, and scouted out until you gave yourselves up." She puts a hand on her waist. "The old fashioned methods still work. Sand Reckoner is overrated. You start relying on it too much, and you open yourself up to getting hoodwinked. A good investigator never gets hoodwinked. Not in the long run."

"Did anyone else make it out?" You ask. You ask it all at once, gathering all your courage to do so.

Kay sadly shakes her head. You close your eyes, bite your quivering lip, fight back the too-familiar grief.

You knew that answer, already... but you wanted to believe that what the implant showed you, before you put the eyepatch on to block its visions, was a lie. It was no lie. The eye knows all.

"At least as far as I know," she adds. "I got lucky. Maybe some of the others got lucky, too. I could tell you the names of those I know for sure didn't make it. But you intend to fix this mess anyway, right? I wouldn't want to bog you down right at the finish line."

"Do you remember a girl named Rose2?" You ask her.

"...What?" Kay says. "Of course I remember Rose. She's right there." She points at Rose. "Did your implant make you loopy or is this just stir fever talking?"

"No--" you say. "Not 'Rose as well.' Rose two." You hold up two fingers. "As in the numeral two."

"He remembers us knowing a girl who was also named Rose," Rose says. "We called her Rose2, to differentiate her... apparently I hated her guts."

"She was my little sister," you say.

Kay furrows her brow. "No. Sorry. I don't remember any Roses but the bitch you're married to. ...No offense."

"None taken," Rose says.

"Samantha?" You ask.

She shakes her head, frowning. "I'm sorry, master... no, I don't..."

You put your face in your palms, and rub your forehead up by the hairline, roughly, with the fingers of both hands.

>>4017395
Like clockwork

>>4017414
She's not a silly little dog, she's a VERY GOOD GIRL

>>4017416
And now Alabaster remembers as well.

>>4017416
RIP Cerise for sure then. Fuck

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>>4017360
Jesus christ

>>4017416
So Camelia just gives us eidetic memory for EVERYTHING, not just trivia. Remembering red-headed Camelia hinted at it, this confirms it.

>>4017416
He remembers!

>>4017426
He remembered her before. She was mentioned in his Whitney flashback at the end of 13.

>>4017426
I'm willing to bet he never forgot, he only thought he had.
>>4017416
The gang is (mostly) all here then. Who's next?

>>4017435
It was on the fringes of his memory, but nothing came out for certain. Amber knew for sure 100%.

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"If she's another one we lost -- you can bring her back too, then," Kay tries.

"It's useless," you say bitterly. "We're never going to be able to find the lighthouse. Just mine alone can't do it -- we needed Penelope after all."

"Oh, you did, did you?" Kay says. "I thought so." She pulls a long, thin wire from her peacoat pocket, pinching it between thumb and forefinger. At the end of it dangles a grain. The light inside it is dead. The plastic casing is the dull gray of stormclouds ready to pop. "Weird that you left it behind, then," she tells you.

"Penelope..." Rose breathes. She looks up at Kay disbelievingly. "You got it back."

"It's turned off for the moment, as you can see. But there's a little switch on the power line, that should bring it back to life. Of course I'd get the hell out of Dodge as soon as you're done using it. Unfriendlies are bound to come knocking when they see it go active." Kay sets it down on the raw pine table in front of her. "Well, it belongs to you now. My part in this story is finished." She pets Guy in her purse. Kuso wanders off, miffed that the inferior animal is getting the love.

"It's no help to us, though," you say. "Even if we turn it on, how would we talk to it?"

"You could stare into it," Kay says. "That's worked before."

"No," you say. "Every time I use my eye, it makes me sick. And Chloe comes chasing after us. I'm not taking that risk if there's any other option -- we might not get another chance like this again."

"Risky option #2, then," Kay says. She takes the implant in hand and indicates the wire's pointy end by tapping it with her middle finger. "Jam it in."

"What?" You say.

"Shove this fucker into your tear duct so that it makes contact with the implant you've got. Penelope is a more advanced model than Camelia, so it should override it. Right? ...Maybe? ...Worth a try?"

"Oh, and turn me into a walking meatsuit for David Darkbloom, or whatever the fuck else lives inside that thing?"

"Let's do it," Rose says.

You exhale. "This is stupid. That's an even worse option than the first one."

"No..." Rose says. "This is exactly how it was supposed to work. It's what Alyosha wanted to do with you -- what Chloe wanted, too. Your implant is underpowered, but there's something special about it that Penelope hasn't got... put them together, and they help each other. Penelope gets the boost it needs, and Camelia doesn't mess your brain up trying to draw more power than it's capable of. We should try it."

"How?" You ask.

"Kay already said how," Rose says.

>>4017441
B-but, what's Option #3?

>>4017441
Ponos.

Vagoo.

>>4017441
I hate how much sense it makes. And hate that I don't have a better plan.

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>>4017441
This late into the story and Ally's finally going to learn how to dual wield

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>>4017441
>"Jam it in."

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You brace yourself by gripping the edge of the table and drawing several deep breaths. Meanwhile, Rose holds your other hand, as Kay kneels before you and snakes Penelope's wire underneath your eyepatch. Samantha, squeamish, lies on the bed hiding her face in the pillows.

"Do it," you say.

"Count of three," Kay retorts.

"Just -- fucking do it -- fuck--" You jostle your restless knees, up and down.

Rose squeezes your hand more tightly. And this helps calm you. Just a little.

Kay counts. "One. Two. Th

>>4017460
oh god oh fuck oh god

>>4017460
NO FUCK WE'RE DEAD NO

>>4017460
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

>>4017460
Surely this is fine.

I'm afraid

>>4017460
inb4 we unlocked a fun new character

>>4017460
THE END

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You are David Darkbloom.

When you wake up again, you're in a small, frigid cabin with raw wood walls and a fireplace in the corner -- the only source of both light and warmth. Rose and Kay are here; Rose is sitting directly facing you, and she has a gun leveled at you. Kay stands off to the side, arms folded. There's also that... strange but undeniably alluring bunny woman... who sits Indian style on the bed, watching worriedly.

"Please tell me you have not put me inside Alabaster's body," you say -- by way of introducing yourself.

"You'll be out of it soon," Rose says.

"God, you're hard to evict from that implant, huh?" Kay says. "You pay rent on that thing, or what? Hi David."

"Did anyone survive?" You ask.

Their lack of an answer is all the answer you need.

But you cannot let there be an iota of ambiguity... not over this.

"Vivian?" You ask. "Whitney? Renee?"

"Gone," Rose says.

You close your eyes -- rather, Alabaster's eyes -- and hot tears escape the shuttered lids.

"It's time to fix things, David," Kay says. "The lighthouse. Where is it? Can you see its location?"

"Hand me a slip of paper, please." Kay gives you one from a notepad in her purse, and a pen to write. You in return give them the coordinates. This might be the one thing in either of your lives that you and Alabaster can work together to accomplish, without any quibbles or in-fighting: and the two of you work together perfectly. Your linked implants can see that lone island in arctic waters just fine. How did that old cartoon catchphrase go again? By your powers combined...

Alabaster's probably about to gain access to all of Davids memories. He's gonna see that shit with the maggots.

>>4017481
OH FUCK

>>4017481
>You are David Darkbloom.
FUCKING KNEW IT

>>4017481
I H A T E I T

>>4017481
WELL FUCK

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>>4017481

>>4017481
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAA

>>4017481
>Darkbloom is on the team
thank fucking god

>>4017481
>How did that old cartoon catchphrase go again? By your powers combined...
God damnit, David.

>>4017481
>There's also that... strange but undeniably alluring bunny woman...
Ah, so this is the 11th hour pairing I never knew I wanted. Though I suppose we knew he liked bunnies, so it's not really a surprise

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"It depends on you now," you tell them. "I cannot say I trust in Alabaster, but I do trust in you -- Rose. I always admired you--"

"Do not," she says sternly. Then, uncrossing and recrossing her legs, scowling, she asks: "Did you murder Alabaster's parents?"

You rotate your jaw, and sigh. "Is this what you want to spend time on?"

"Answer me." She wags the gun at you.

"You would never shoot Alabaster. Especially not in your current state. In any case, I am prepared already for death. There is nothing left for me in this world."

"I can make you hurt," Rose says. "I know all of Alabaster's weak spots. Answer my question, David, you monster."

You run your tongue around the inside of your lips and teeth. Finally, you say: "Yes."

"Why?" Kay says.

It is time to say the truth -- the whole truth, and nothing but -- the truth that only you have kept for so long.

"The installation of Amber's implant went wrong, as you know. What you don't know is that she had awful side effects -- for months after. Seizures, narcolepsy, fugue states, violent outbursts and psychotic episodes... and more. Her parents were going to sue me, and go public with what I had done. I had them assassinated. Amber became an orphan. In secret I performed a second operation on her, in an attempt to disable the implant inside her. It didn't work. I thought it had. But years later, when Amber was a teenager, her implant turned itself back on. She regained her memories of what happened, at least enough to know that I had done these awful things to her. Her implant became symbiotically linked to mine -- and she learned, from my own brain, that there were two others who were her kin. Anna Healy, and Alabaster Soliloquy. She was going to go to them, and reveal the truth, and urge their families to go public. Their parents were the only ones who could confirm the story -- so I had them murdered, too. I hoped, then, that Amber would appear as a desperate schizophrenic to Alabaster and Anna, if she came to them telling her story. And she did. But she was able to convince Anna; and eventually also Alabaster."

"This is all because of you," Rose says. "Every bit of this suffering is on you. Your daughters are dead because of you. The world is dead because of you."

"I know," you say.

She stands. "Alabaster is going to fix it."

"He won't be able to manage it," you tell her. "Help him. He will need it."

Rose reaches for the implant and

>>4017509
and.....

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>>4017509
And there it is.

>>4017509
The truth finally comes out.
But there are still so many questions even he doesn't have the answer to.

>>4017506
Whitney got the double dose of bunny lust. It's only natural.
>>4017509
>oh David.
The first part was obvious. Everything after the second operation, not so much.

>>4017513
And... he turns off. That's what happens.

>>4017509
#DavidDarkBloomWasOkMostly

>>4017509
Oh. Also.

>You would never shoot Alabaster. Especially not in your current state.

Rose 100% confirmed pregnant.

>>4017509
>I know
oof. As funny as the man who was going to make anime real was, Darkbloom's a much more compelling antagonist in this timeline.

>>4017509
The man who thought he could play God finally admits his hubris, then exits the world in a pitiful manner.

I'd say the fucker deserves it, but he redeemed himself at times. ASSHOLE (mostly) is perfect for him.

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"Do you know the way?" Kay asks.

"I have absolutely no idea," you admit. "Rose?"

She shakes her head.

Kay goes to the bookshelf on the wall and searches. Finally finding what she wants, she pulls it out -- an atlas of the US. She leafs through it until she finds Alaska. She traces a route overland from your current location, and puts a little dab of ink at the spot in the sea corresponding to those coordinates. It's past the dateline, in Russian waters. "It'll take a few days to the sea if you don't stop to rest. Then you'll need a boat -- of course."

"Hold on," Rose says. "You're coming too, right?"

Kay shakes her head.

"But--"

"She's sick," you say.

"I don't underst--"

Kay takes her knit cap off to show her. Her hair is falling out in clumps. "You heard about the suitcase nukes, right? Palo's a hot zone. Rad readings through the roof. I've been puking my guts out the past few days... literally... I'd be nothing but a hindrance if I tried to tag along."

Rose closes her eyes and tilts her head, wincing in sadness.

"It's not fatal," Kay says. "I think. Just... very, very, very severe... tack on a couple more verys, there. Think I'll stay in this cabin if you don't mind."

"It's not ours to begin with," you tell her.

"There's nothing here," Rose tells her. "Not even food or water. And people will be coming to take Penelope soon--"

"I've got my gun," she says.

Rose exhales hard.

"And what about you?" Rose asks Samantha.

"I'm too stupid," Samantha says. "I can't help!"

"You helped, back then -- you can help again," Rose says. "You're not stupid, Sam."

"I want to stay with master Kay... she needs company... and I need somewhere warm... I believe in you, masters! Do your best for me okay! Bring them back!"

Rose nods.

"Thank you, Kay -- for everything," you tell her.

"No problemo."

"You too, Samantha."

"Yes!"

You kiss them tenderly. So does Rose. For one last time, the four of you enjoy each other's bodies -- but sometimes it's better to spare the lurid details.

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>>4017528
Godspeed, you crazy lesbians.

>>4017528
You did good, Kay. You did good. ;_;7

>>4017528
Man, Samantha still being around makes this *weird*.

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>>4017528
>Kay
>Guy too probably

>>4017528
Shine on you Kayzy diamond ;_;

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"What will you do with Penelope?" Kay asks from the bed, lying there naked, as Samantha strokes her softly beneath the covers.

"We should take it with us, right?" Rose asks. "Just in case."

You shake your head. "I would, but this could be my only chance."

"For what?" Rose says.

"I made Whitney a promise. That we'd keep David around only until we were sure he didn't have anything left to offer us. And that when I was sure, I'd give this implant a nice hard stomp for her. There's always a just-in-case -- but for now -- I'm as sure as I'll ever be."

You put the implant on the ground, and, using your bootheel -- you give it a nice hard stomp.

The silicon dust on the floor at the end of the wire glitters in the glow of the firelight. All that's left of David Darkbloom is rust and stardust.

You and Rose tell Kay and Samantha goodbye, and leave the cabin.

>>4017528
Dog bless, Kay

>>4017528
>fucking a lady dying from cancer
I don't mind if you never ever drop that pastebin.

>>4017552
>Destroying Penelope
KEEPING PROMISES

>>4017552
Alabaster finally joins Camelia and Kaa-san in the 'people who killed David Darkbloom' club

;_;7

>>4017552
I can't tell if that constitutes a noble death or not. I hope it's a death Darkbloom would be happy with, at least.

So I made the mistake of listening to R.E.M. before last episode and now I can't get them out of my head. This song is perfect for what I was feeling throughout the week in regards to this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7aHDm5dxhs

>>4017552
>>4017564
He did the very last thing he could to fix his fuck-ups. It's the best one can hope for.

>>4017567
>timestamp
I haaaaaate it.

I'm watching chernobyl during the breaks to lift my mood, how about you guys?

>>4017570
Holy shit, I didn't catch that until now.

That makes it even better.

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It's a long, cold drive to Unalaska, fraught with difficulty, and you know that Chloe is in pursuit. One thing you don't have to worry about, though, is car trouble; it gets you across the state with hardly an issue.

You park near some docks at the edge of the sea. As you step out onto the gravelly lot, you realize that you will never drive this car again -- this or any other.

You stop in place, turn.

"It was such a dependable vehicle," you say. You put your hands in your pockets and shrug your shoulders to draw the fabric of your parka up. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but... I'm actually gonna miss my Volt."

"Yeah," Rose agrees, "my Volt was a really nice car."

You and her stand there together, shoulder to shoulder, peering at it.

"For the money I paid for it," you say, "I got a ton of use out of my Volt. Never steered me wrong."

"You're right," Rose says, "you paid so little for the use of my Volt, and it's really done wonders for us."

"I've been behind the wheel of so many supercars since we got rich, but somehow... somehow my Volt is still my favorite."

"Sentimental value," Rose says. "I totally get it. I really love my Volt, too."

You let her have the last word.

>>4017564
Since killing Mara, and since knowing his daughters and lover are dead, and that only Alabaster has any hope of saving them, I can only imagine how much he wanted do die right then.

>>4017552
David's dead... again. Wonder if he'll come back... again

>>4017573
>you let her have the last word
Whipped.

>>4017573
At least we avoided being stuck in a burning tavern. We managed to change the future after all.

And yet the more things change, the more things stay the same.

>>4017571
Probably gonna be some Stardew. Also catching a lot of new anime from the current airing season. A lot of potentially good shit airing.

>>4017573
Ah, their banter has gotten so much classier since going on the lam. It's a nice change of tone!

>>4017573
Heeh..
>>4017571
Smoking, drinking hard, writing harder; waiting for the end.

>>4017573
kek

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They try to intercept you at a local tavern by the docks. You had hoped to have the time to nourish yourselves, and gather some last supplies before venturing forth into the Arctic Ocean. Chloe's goons have got other ideas, clearly. Her zombified followers try to force you from the building with gunfire, and when this fails, they try to smoke you out with molotovs tossed through the first-story windows. You and Rose, in a dilapidated danceroom on the second story, scramble for a plan B... or maybe more like a Plan Z, considering how many of your previous plans have already fallen through.

"This isn't the end," Rose tells you.

"Aren't you chipper today..." You heft the pistol in your hand and consider the gathering mob below. It's about 50 to 2.

"It's not the end," Rose repeats. She sounds desperate to convince herself, more than anything.

"No," you agree, to reassure her, "it isn't."

She slowly approaches the window. Glancing back over her shoulder, she delivers her last instructions: "No matter what happens... we stick together."

"Together."

"Don't leave me."

"I won't."

"I love you, Alabaster."

"I -- I love you too, Rose."

You join your wife at the window and begin, again, to fight.

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>>4017573
>>You let her have the last word.

>>4017582
>>4017590
heh

>>4017582
>>4017590
YOU JINXED IT

>>4017590
welp fuck me in the ass and call me alabasterina, TENDERNESS

>>4017590
You're doing me a concern, Rosie!

>>4017590
>You and Rose, in a dilapidated danceroom on the second story, scramble for a plan B
Double heh.

>>4017571
Preparing to dump some stuff for when we're gonna be waiting on a choice

>>4017582
Do Eizouken if you haven't already, it has soul
>>4017590
No burning tavern he said

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You pick off hardly more than a couple before the heat racing up from below grows too intense to stay put. You'll burn if you try to sit tight. And under siege with limited ammo, your odds are awful anyway. Time, then, for the lateral pass attempt. You race back downstairs, holding Rose by the hand. This close to her, you aren't invisible to Chloe's men, but you aren't 100% opaque either. You don't know how it works, exactly, but they have trouble whenever Rose bequeaths a little of that Tiresias magic on you. It's far from perfect, and it also demasks her to the same degree that it conceals you. In a pinch, however, like now... it can buy you the breathing room you need to escape by the skin of your teeth.

On the first floor, Rose one-handedly blows a Chinese merc away who leaps up from behind the bartop to your left; you, at the same moment, nail one who turns on you from around a beam to your right. You and Rose, in the past months, have become a well-honed killing machine -- there's been more than enough practice -- and you can cover each other without needing to communicate verbal instructions.

You dodge a section of the wall that collapses on itself, amid swirling embers and awful clattering, and dash past the booth you sat in with Rose only moments ago, where her half-finished milkshake still sits, well past melted by now. Rose uses the butt of her gun to shatter a window, and together you scurry through. The window leads to the tavern's back, a short gravel-strewn parcel ending at a sheer embankment some ten or fifteen feet above the gray surface of the water. Men are here, too, lying in wait, but you slink to the cover of one of their Humvees as only a few of the most astutely observant ones give return fire. From under the chassis of the hulking vehicle, the two of you shoot some of the nearest soldiers in the Achilles. They fall, screeching. This draws the others to that location; and you use it as a distraction, to crawl free on the opposite side, then to run, for the docks a hundred yards away; over the corroded chain-link fencing, to the nearest boat you can find. You dump your duffel in, then hop aboard, and Rose undocks, and the two of you begin to row, chasing the setting sun across the overcast sky towards the international dateline.

>>4017612
There's no plot armor left, lads. It's anybody's game now.

>he pre-wrote the first hour
The absolute madlad.

Let's all do our best today, anons

>>4017616
something something "railroading"

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>>4017622

>>4017621
Making good choices!
>>4017622
I figured it would come to this. I'd rather be railroaded to get to the decisions we're anticipating than have everyone sit on their hands for three or four hours.

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You have nothing with you but guns and a rinky-dink GPS unit that runs out of battery by the second day on the open ocean.

No food; no water; no provisions at all but the clothes on your backs, poor shield indeed from the arctic winter. Rose knows a little about sailing, but this boat hasn't got a sail, and she's no rower. Neither are you.

You try a few times to catch some fish, an exercise that ends pathetically, leaving both of you wet, cold, mad and more hungry than you started. On day three, you force Rose to drink your urine to help her subsist; probably the least fun either of you have ever had doing that. The days are short, and hard; the nights long, and harder. You huddle for warmth, unable to sleep in waves just gentle enough to rollick you, and not powerful enough to carry you far. Your strength begins to leave, and you know, despite the insane risk it involves, that you will die unless you use your evil eye to render aid.

You bare your eye again, once more. It sets you on a northward trajectory, one you dutifully, despite the enervation, follow; but can you trust it? It makes you sick just as it always has, and you suspect it's leading you in the wrong direction. But what choice is left? The two of you row, silently, at a slug's pace, towards the nothingness on the indistinct horizon.

You get no closer. Hours stretch again to days with only the senseless squaws of seabirds to keep you company, and by your fifth sunset adrift, you lack the strength to row at all; you both do. Fear becomes anger becomes grief becomes a soul-rending hopelessness. At the bottom of your despair you desperately consider using the butterfly knife in your duffel to lop off the most strictly unnecessary parts of yourself, and feed them to Rose, but you know she would refuse. She will starve with you. Time crawls unceasingly. You pass into a daze, and spend the bulk of what's left to you in a dreary, shivering, half-consciousness -- hypothermic and hardly aware of the world around you. You think about what a lonesome death this will be, out here in the literal middle of nowhere, stuck in a doldrums where your corpses will bob and ebb for maybe months before at last becoming beached on a deserted arctic inlet where the gulls will pick away at what remains; or maybe the boat will become sunk, and your bones will scuttle across the floor of the silent sea. You cannot muster even bitterness at this vision, or at the injustice of having come so close just to fail. At least Rose's head is nuzzled against your chest right now, at least you have her and can hold her in your final hours. Her golden hair is so soft against your cheek... there are, in the final analysis, worse ways to slip into oblivion... Whitney, Cerise, Mom, Amber... I'm coming... I'm coming soon, you think. I'm sorry it happened like this...

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>>4017631
Now is not the time OP

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>>4017631

>>4017631
: ^ (

>>4017631
Ah, I see, our gymbunny Noelle was the real path to the lighthouse all along.

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When you wake, you half believe you're dreaming it, but no. A foghorn rouses the two of you, and through the mist appears a gunmetal gray prow with faded red trim. It's no surprise, and you can't even be upset. You knew that using your evil eye would entail this as well. Chloe has found you. This time, there is nowhere to run.

It's a container ship, the metal boxes stacked above deck like toy blocks in their muted rainbow of colors, bearing Mandarin in white block lettering across the corrugated sides.

They descend like demons from a hell above: Chloe on a lifeboat lashed to pulleys, surrounded by her slaves. The men shout in nasally Chinese; Chloe is placid. Smiling. It's the first time you have laid eyes on her since the day she killed every person you ever loved. Weakly, Rose reaches for the duffel -- it's a death sentence, but she's dead anyway -- and why not take Chloe on the way out the door. To the last, I grapple with thee; From Hell's heart, I stab at thee; For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee...

She tries to grip her shotgun, but Chloe barks a certain order, and the men scoop Rose well in hand, whisking her into the boat with them.

"Ala...baster..." Rose rasps.

You reach for your eyepatch, hoping somehow the power of your eye can overcome an impossible disadvantage. Another barked order, then, from Chloe; and you feel the hard rap of a rifle's butt against your neck's nape before you can uncover your trump card. You pass out.

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>>4017649
But of course

>>4017649
Yeah. I had a feeling.

>>4017649
CHOO CHOO

I kid but for real I'm getting real sick of how hyper competent this bitch is

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>>4017649

>>4017659
It's not competence, she just has infinitely more resources than we do. She has the technology to listen for every signal of us, and the money and troops to chase us to the ends of the earth. We have a rowboat full of guns and piss

>>4017668
Well, there's an element of competence to it too. She wouldn't have succeeded in her seduction otherwise.

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It's warm. In any other circumstance, this cot, underneath these fluorescents, would be the worst conceivable way to sleep the night away. But in your state, you may as well have spent a week at the Ritz-Carlton. You could roll over and pass right back out for another couple days.

Instead, you sit up, and shrug the rough woolen blanket off your body.

This room is drab and small, with only the cot along the blue-and-yellow wall, a small fridge and stovetop along the other, and a hard little table outfitted with a couple folding chairs, near the door. Chloe is seated at it; one of her men, holding an automatic rifle, stands by. You can feel only distantly the waves far below; you're somewhere in the cargo ship.

Chloe is reading, a Chinese translation of Kundera, but she sets her book down when she notices you stirring, and grins.

"I thought the smell might wake you," she says. "Hello again."

She stands and goes to the stove, where she scoops some food from a nonstick skillet onto a plate. Scrambled eggs, with bacon; and from the toaster, a few fresh slices, which she lathers with margarine under the stovetop's hood light.

"Where's Rose?" You demand.

Chloe turns and sets the plate down on the table. Beside it she sets a glass of orange juice. "Please come and eat with me."

"Where's Rose?" You repeat. You approach, and Chloe's guard takes a step forward. But she stays him.

"She is alive and unharmed. See for yourself." Chloe takes a remote control from the table. She clicks on a flatscreen mounted to the junction of wall and ceiling. You watch the grayscale CCTV footage: Rose, pacing around the perimeter of another room quite similar to yours, all by herself, agitated.

"Will you sit, please?" Chloe asks.

>>4017673
If the world's gone to shit, how is Chloe paying for all this?

>>4017673
>Kundera
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
I'm ready for the monologue now.

>>4017673
Time for this again, huh?

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Chloe looks the same as how you left her. Bleach blonde tips, skin tanned so darkly that she looks Filipino, clothes just this side of too revealing. She made Amber's heart doodle permanent, it seems; but the tattoo now surrounds a ghastly looking scar that striates the tender skin of her groin.

"I missed you," she says. When you do not reply, she adds: "Go on now. Eat. Save your strength."

You eye the man guarding her, considering options.

Chloe says: "I have read, Ally, that American prisoners condemned to die are allowed to choose a final meal."

"Is that a threat?" You sputter. Your voice is still hoarse. You remember them giving you a saline drip in the hours after they took you aboard, but your throat is still beyond parched. "Anyway, you didn't even let me choose this shit. I wouldn't pick bacon and eggs for my last meal."

"You are quite right that you did not request this meal," Chloe says. "Because you are not a prisoner, and you are not condemned to die." She nods at her own plate. You look down to find a half-eaten hamburger and some thick, golden-brown french fries atop it.

"I chose this meal," she tells you.

An awkward silence passes. Finally, Chloe begins again to eat; taking the huge burger in both her tiny hands, and biting into it.

If you're not a prisoner, that means you should be able to leave. You stand, but your legs are wobbly, and you instantly fall back to your butt again. Despite the humiliation of it, you'd better accept the hospitality. You begin to wolf down your breakfast. You've never tasted a glass of orange juice as sweet as the one you put to your lips now and down in two deep guzzles. She refills your glass six times before you've had enough.

>>4017679
The world is at war, but it's not like we're in the middle of an apocalypse here. And even if we were, she has personal control of thousands of troops who literally cannot be made to take orders from anyone but her (presumably)

>>4017555
She's only suffering from Acute Radiation Syndrome, she'll get better, but she might have issues a few decades down the line

>>4017679
It helps when you're winning the war.

>>4017687
We better make fun of her barren womb

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>>4017571
Chernobyl is great, although I certainly wouldn't classify it as mood-lifting.

>>4017700
It's all relative, anon.

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"Nice tattoo," you tell her bitterly.

"Yes, I agree," she says, not detecting the sarcasm. She plays her fingertips across it.

"Shame about your uterus," you say with a cruel smile.

"No shame at all," Chloe replies, unfazed. "I can no longer bear children. That means you can ejaculate inside of me with no fear of responsibility."

You grimace. "I will never, ever, ever -- fuck you again."

For the first time, Chloe looks hurt. You wipe your mouth with a napkin and toss it onto your empty plate. "What now?" You ask her. "You're the one with the guns."

"I will not keep you against your will, Ally," she says. "You can leave at any time."

You're already at the threshold when she adds:

"You would be making a terrible mistake."

You wheel on her. You point at her menacingly. "I'm done with you, you stupid cunt. If I can leave -- I'm leaving. And be thankful I don't kill you. The only reason I don't is because you're hiding behind zombie thugs like this poor fucker." You point at the tall, stoic, kitted-out bodyguard beside you.

>>4017711
Alphabaster is leaving the building.

>>4017712
Sure, but where are we gonna go? We're on a boat presumably in the middle of the damn ocean.

>>4017713
We've had a meal. We can row.

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Chloe follows you from the little room, out onto the deck, where a blustery wind batters you. The howl of it against the shipping containers is otherworldly. The foamy wake below dizzies you when you peer over the railing. More of Chloe's men stand at the ready, like toy soldiers, unmoving even in the strongest gusts, all along the deck.

"I am being quite honest," Chloe says. She has to shout to be heard over the gale. "I missed you terribly. I am so, so sorry, Alabaster, that it came to this. I have had so long to think about it now. I was jealous, you know, of the women who held your heart. I thought they were frittering away a precious commodity. That your love was quite limited. But it isn't, is it? You pretend to be the most coldhearted man in the world, because in reality you love more freely than almost anyone. It is all an act, your coldness, to cope with the coldness of this world. In reality, you give your heart to people, without a thought. You gave it even to me... and because I did not deserve it I ripped it from your chest. Can you forgive me?"

"Never," you tell her.

She cries pitifully, her small chest heaving. Sniffling, she resorts to begging. "Please don't go... please, please don't go..."

In the end, she's just a scared little girl with balled up fists, crying on the wet deck of this cargo ship, looking even tinier than she already is when set against the backdrop of the towering steel container boxes. And you hate her with such an unending viciousness that it almost makes you vomit. The way you hated David Darkbloom was puppy love compared to what you feel for Qiangxiang Xi.

Near you is a white railed staircase, that snakes upward towards the bridge, with some portals at each landing. You suppose that Rose is in one of those rooms, and so you turn, and begin to walk up.

"I have your sister too," Chloe blurts out.

You stop on the fourth step, turn, and peer at her over the banister.

"Would you like to see her?" Chloe asks.

>>4017711
Why didn't we just kill her?

>>4017713
To see the tradwife, obvs.
Although that's probably how Chloe intends to keep Alabaster here.

>>4017716
WHY IS SHE NOT FUCKING DEAD

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>>4017716
>"I have your sister too," Chloe blurts out.
HERE WE FUCKING GO

>>4017716
WELP

>>4017716
I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it I hate it

>>4017716
>She killed Whitney because she was jelly
>Cerise somehow not dead even though Alabaster looked with SR
Fucking fuck this dirty bitch

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She takes you to a room where Cerise lies propped-up on a bed, mute, and catatonic. She's connected to an IV and wears nothing at all. She looks physically fine, but she's gone -- she's as vacant as she was in the worst of her coma last year, and you know there won't be any rousing her from this one.

"They were able to retrieve her from the rubble, before the nuclear attacks," Chloe says. "I've been keeping her -- safe and sound, waiting for you... I never wanted anyone to die, Ally, my love."

You look away, unable to bear the sight of your older sister like this. "She's already dead," you tell Chloe.

"She will live again," Chloe says. "Her and everyone else. I know that in my heart. We will all live again... in paradise, together."

You shake your head. How can you reason with a girl as insane as her? How could you get across to her that it would have been a higher mercy to kill Cerise when they found her, and never mention it, rather than subject both of you to a torment like this?

"It is Cerise, who helps me track you," Chloe says. "She can see you whenever you open your third eye. And she whispers in my ear where you go. She wants you here with her."

But Cerise is non-responsive, and does not so much as flinch when you snap your fingers in front of her wide-open eyes.

"I have to go," you say -- to her, not to Chloe. "I'll see you soon... whole, and sound. I love you. I'm so sorry."

Chloe shouts as she follows you out: "Ally--!"

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Anyone else /season1episode1/ here?
It's been a wild ride but I'm glad to see that this is getting an actual ending. Whatever the outcome, fantastic work OP. The amount of work that's gone into this writing project is staggering.
Cheers /fq/. I'm already drunk as fuck so I won't be joining you all on the final episode live but it's been quite a ride. Rose has always been the best girl.

>>4017730
>"Ally--!"

Who the fuck gave you permission to use that nickname?

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Out again on the deck, Chloe's desperation is palpable. "I know you know where the lighthouse is!" She shouts. "You turned Penelope on again, and then destroyed it -- I found the remnants of it in the cabin you shared with your wife."

You feel a shock of fear in your stomach. If she was at that cabin...

Chloe must see this fear shadow your face, because she tells you: "Kay is fine, and so is that rabbit-girl Samantha. I did not hurt them. In fact, I came to a tender reconciliation with them... as much as they would allow... they hate me so awfully, but I passed on my regrets, which they took for what they were worth, and then I left."

"Why should I believe you?"

"Because... the time I spent in the Nail House, was the best time of my entire life... and I want only to set things back to how they were. You did find that promised place, did you not? ... You would not do this, you would not have come so far out into the sea, if you did not find what you were seeking! We are so close! I can feel it!"

"I did find it," you tell her.

"But look at you. You nearly died trying to get there... I cannot bear this... I want to help you, Ally! I want to go there with you!"

She takes out her dagger.

You wince, just seeing it -- but rather than do anything violent, she only hands it to you. She curls your fingers around it.

This is the dagger that killed Whitney, and Renee, and lord only knows who all else.

"I leave the choice to you, because it belongs to you. But you will not get there without me. I know you won't. You will condemn us both to this purgatory if you refuse me. You have the knowledge, but I have the means. You need me -- just as much as I need you -- and in time, I know, you will love me as much as I love you. Make the right choice, Ally."

[ ] Accept her help.
[ ] Kill her.

>>4017732
Your opinion will change.

>>4017736
I cannot tell which way this ruse is going. Please wait while I ruminate

>>4017730
... jesus fuck.

>>4017732
Here since the beginning, here for the very end.

Here's one for all of you fuckers out there.

>>4017736
I've known for a week it was coming to this, and I still don't know what to do

>>4017736
>[x] Kill her.

>>4017736
[x] Accept her help

>>4017736
How do we bottle her up and drag her with us?

>>4017745
>[x]Accept her help

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>>4017736
I knew this was coming.

Fuck this bitch through and through. I hate her and I want her to rot in a shallow grave. Later.

[x] Accept her help.

>>4017736
dammit dammit DAMMIT DAMMIT

[X] Accept her help.

>>4017732
I was shocked to find out OP actually came back. The Twitter account I made just to follow him got locked up, so I missed all but the last episode of season 2.
>>4017736
[x]accept her help
killing her now is suicide.

>>4017736
>[x] Accept her help.
We'll kill her in the rewrite.

>>4017736
I want to kill her so fucking bad.

So FUCKING BAD.

How the fuck does she always put herself in a position where she's always right?

>[x] Accept her help.

>>4017736
>[x] Accept her help.
Lighthouse now. Revenge later.

>>4017736
>[X] Accept her help.
I think there's some truth in her words, that there's something still hidden in Chloe.
BUT I'm one of the guys who trusted David didn't kill out parents... so maybe I'm just stupid.

>>4017732
I only made it in time for the last few threads of season 4, but I was there at the genesis. Crazy to think of how different things were.

>>4017729
Hey man, she's a communist. Owning the means of production is everything.
>>4017732
Ye. I was far too excited to see Mom's fat ass on the front page of /qst/ ten months ago and realize it was back. it's been a ride ever since.

>>4017736
>[ ] Accept her help.
What a bitter fucking pill.

>>4017736
[X] Accept her help.
what could she even do? If she could use whatever is awaiting at the lighthouse to achieve omnipotence, then were more likely than not good off too as we then are no more a threat to chinese world dominion. if not, then its all in our hands.

>>4017736
>[X] Accept her help.
Hang on to the dagger for safe keeping

>>4017736
Really strange though. She could've just gone for the mind control route. Or was that disabled ever since DA blew up?

>[ ] Accept her help.

>>4017736
I do not want this girl within 8,000 miles of us, however I also do not want to die in the middle of the ocean. So, I guess it comes down to
>[X] Accept her help.
But if possible keep a gun trained on her 24/7

>>4017736
You guys are such fucking suckers. She's not gonna allow herself to die, one of the goons will stop us.

Don't be such weak shits.

>Kill her

>>4017732
Episode 1. I was there in the trenches fighting in the great whitney/cerise war. But that was a long time ago.

>>4017755
Randomly found season 2 while remembering FQ completly out of the blue one day and looked up dirtycerisefags paste bin and saw season 2 episode 1 in it. And then right back on the train, but I haven't been active in many threads because of work.

>>4017732
Been here since day 1, haven't missed a single thread. Renee best girl now and forever.

>>4017736
>[x]Accept her help
But tell her to stop fucking using that nickname. She killed everyone who had that right.

>>4017767
She couldn't control Alabaster once he got loaded up with the total package.

>>4017767
They aren't peers anymore, Camelia is a fully loaded platform and answers to nobody.

>>4017736
>[ ] Kill her.

>>4017769
How is this any less true in this moment than in a future moment?

>>4017732
I can remember our mustard stained jeans, even now.
My shins hurt.

;_;

>inb4 she has Super Saiyain God Super Saiyan implant and only needs the lighthouse's location
I will spread the ash that was OP Studios to the four winds.

>>4017736
>[ ] Accept her help.
We do have intersecting goals

>>4017732
I've been here since season three, after a friend of mine mentioned FQ and I decided to check it out. I didn't expect anything out of it, but I got hooked pretty quickly and binged the first two seasons in a few days.

I've followed the quest live every since.

Whatever happens, thanks OP, you absolute madman. This has been a hell of a ride.

Renee is best girl, by the way

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>[x]Accept her help

You nod. And then you tell her the coordinates.

Exultant, she buries her face against your chest, and clutches your parka with her little fists. She inhales your scent, deeply, and sways in place -- like you're just a couple of lovers and she just received your confession.

Grunting, you shove her back -- and then you cut her across her tattoo, opening up the scar again. It isn't deep -- but it doesn't need to be. She bleeds profusely. She gasps and shivers as she clutches at it. She looks back and forth from your face, to her newly reopened flesh wound, and the dripping dagger in your hand.

You toss the dagger overboard. It sinks below the surface, never to be seen again.

"Get away from me," you tell her. "I don't want to see you for the rest of this trip. And never call me Ally again."

"I'm... sorry... Alabaster..." she stutters, tears rolling freely down her cheeks.

"I'm going back to be with my wife," you tell her. "Where is she?"

Chloe, with a bloody and tremor-wracked hand, points to the third landing of bridge. You turn and go, leaving her standing there bleeding on the deck of the ship.

>>4017798
I can't wait to do worse.

>>4017798
>You toss the dagger overboard. It sinks below the surface, never to be seen again.
C'mon, Ally, that's not very genre savvy of you!

>>4017798
Acceptable. But there's going to be a snag. She's the only antagonist left on the board.

>>4017798
Punished Alabaster is a smooth operator.

Just for fun:
>Chloe is reading, a Chinese translation of Kundera, but she sets her book down when she notices you stirring, and grins.
S3E1
>"Yes, I have time. I was merely contemplating the Nietzschean concept of the eternal recurrence. I've been reading--"
Could Vivian and Chloe have been in the same book club?

>>4017805
You're forgetting about Blue Camelia.

>>4017798
>still feel bad for her even after everything she's done
Stupid caveman brain

>>4017798
>accepting her help

anons why

>>4017807
She was always compared to Vivian when we first met her. A Vivian Alter, if you really think about it. Except her obsession ran far deeper in far more dangerously.

>>4017810
She was just a deepfake of regular Camelia though?

>>4017798

>"I'm... sorry... Alabaster..." she stutters, tears rolling freely down her cheeks.

I refuse to believe for a moment these tears are genuine. She is a murderer who kills for no other reason because she believes it to be expedient to do so.

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Rose practically leaps on you when you enter, clutching you as tightly as she ever has, kissing you.

"Let's go!" She hisses. "Did you find a gun? Where is she? How many people does she have? Were you followed? Come on!"

You gently nudge her back, sit with her on her cot, and explain the situation.

She's distraught, even worse than you -- but she understands that circumstances are desperate.

"Cerise is here?" She says softly, when you're through.

You nod.

"Can I--"

"You don't want to," you tell her.

"I have to."

You bring her there. Rose cries bitterly, kneeling at Cerise's bedside, and tries to rouse her awake. It's no use.

Finally after many long minutes, you tell her that it's time for her to say goodbye.

She tells Cerise that she's sorry for all the trouble she ever put her through; says she always loved her deep down. And then she goes.

And then pillow in hand you end your sister's suffering.

>>4017818
We'll make her unexist when we rewrite it all. Or subject her to some worse kind of hell.

Or rewrite things so she never turns out the way she does, but still stays on the other side of the fucking planet and never hears of us. But I totally, 100% understand if everyone is too vindictive for that kind of mercy.

>>4017825
You're a dead man.

>>4017732
I can't remember if I've been since day 1, but I started when FQ was still on /a/

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>>4017825

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>>4017825
Oh.

... oh.

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>>4017825
I HATE IT VERY MUCH

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>>4017825
I know that was the right thing to do, but

fuck

that hurts

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>>4017825
Every time OP kills one of the original harem my heart breaks more than I thought it could.

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>>4017825

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>>4017841

>>4017732
Monsoon dick anon here. It's been a long, wild ride.

>>4017846
YOU'RE NOT DEAD HOLY FUCK

>>4017846
You're a blessing in these dark times.

Whatever happened to DirtyCeriseFag? And DirtyWhitneyFag?

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>>4017825
Woof.
>>4017818
Because a rowboat will never make it. Because, despite her bulk, Rose can't steer a freighter.
Because I hate Chloe. Because I want her to understand the depth of that hate by living it.

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It hurts.

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You stand with Rose at the bow, peering out at the ocean with her. Chloe's men are far off, still all motionless, but at attention. The ship groans weirdly in the ragged seas.

"They didn't do anything even when you stabbed her?"

You shake your head. "They're on her orders. And she didn't care what I did to her. She was even going to let me kill her."

Rose sighs. "I guess they think they're going to paradise, too. You're too essential for that, for them to kill you."

You shrug.

A long, contemplative silence passes between the two of you.

"I just have to ask," she finally says. "Back in high school... in the student council election. Did you cheat?"

You reflexively begin to deny it. But what difference, at this point, does it make? So you just nod and say: "Yeah. I cheated."

"I knew it," Rose says. "How did you do it?"

"Whitney got ahold of a bunch of blank ballots and stuffed the ballot boxes."

"Of course... I thought so."

She's quiet for a little while, and then she adds, in a half murmur: "I cheated, too."

"How?"

"Changed votes... and found ways to bar people from voting who I thought might vote for you."

You huff. "Why were we so shitty to each other?"

"I don't know. I wish I knew."

There are whole galaxies of regret and sadness in that answer, and the way she says it.

>>4017846
Damn, what's up dude. Your idea was shit but I respect the commitment.

>>4017851
Whatever happened to that oppai loli guy?

he can stay gone desu

>>4017851
I like to think they're still here in spirit

>>4017854
If only they hadn't spent four years in an awkward limbo of sexual tension and hatred and instead rape fought each other in high school...

>>4017848
I catch up the day after nowadays usually. OP's running times aren't very compatible with British timezone

>>4017855
honestly I kinda cringe thinking about it nowadays

>>4017860
My headcanon is that oppai loli guy is the same guy constantly advocating for fat Rose. If that's true, I hope he speaks up.

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"When you get to the lighthouse, are you going to hit the reset button?"

"Of course," you say. "Why wouldn't I?"

What she says next isn't said like it's an argument against, but rather just an observation, a fact to consider among several: "It'll reset everything. All of this -- us -- everything we've had."

You nod slowly.

"Will you love me again in the next life?" Rose asks.

"Yes," you say, firmly, and without hesitation.

She clutches the fabric of her parka near her chest. "I'll love you, too," she says. "No matter what I say or what I do... I'll love you, too. Try not to forget. Please don't forget..."

She's crying. You stroke her cheek and wipe the tears away with the broad pad of your thumb. She refuses to meet your gaze.

"Are you okay with that?" You ask. "It's the only way to get them all back. Cerise... Whitney... our parents. And everyone else. Will you be all right with that?"

She doesn't answer.

"Rose--"

"I'm pregnant," she tells you.

You take a small step back. Still she can't look at you.

"I shouldn't have said that," she mutters. "I'm sorry."

What would have been joy is tinged with a nauseated sadness. "How long?" You ask.

"Not very... a month, maybe two."

"How do you know?"

She stares at the ground, and then down at herself. "I just do. When you know... you know."

You reach out and put your hand on her tummy. Although there isn't even the hint of a bump there yet, even though you can't discern any outward signs of it, as soon as you touch her you somehow know it's true. She was right, as she usually is: when you know, you know. Rose clutches your hand with both of hers, and holds it there. Her hands are so cold. But her belly is warm.

"So if I do this," you drawl.

You don't finish the thought and neither does she. You both understand. Going back to the beginning will erase this, too. And who knows whether it will happen again in whatever configuration of the universe this hail mary creates? Who knows if it would happen again even if you reset the universe a hundred billion times?

But could you live in the ruins of a shattered reality, eking out a meager existence on the run with Rose and your child? If not from Chloe, then from Russians, or Americans, or, or... and with nothing else -- nothing of the life you once knew and didn't stop to cherish until it was gone?

[ ] We have to reset the world.
[ ] We have to stay.

>>4017871
Is he the couchanon of /fq/?

>>4017732
i don't remember if i was around for episode 1, but i did get on board the train very early. ep 3 at the latest. it's been a helluva ride. ups, downs, sideways. i don't regret a second of it, though.
i wouldn't say i'm too partial to any girl, although most of the new girls don't do anything for me. except chloe. shame we couldn't mind control her with our dick.
i don't drink, but cheers, anon.

>>4017874
>[x] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
Are you fucking kidding
>[x] We have to reset the world.

>>4017871
It was me who wanted chubby Rose too

>>4017874
>[ ] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
>[x] We have to reset the world.
We don't have a fucking choice. We can't raise a child in this broken fucking reality. Even if she somehow carried to term, the kid would never be able to live the life they deserve.

Fuck that's hard to say.

>>4017874
>[x] We have to reset the world.
The only thing worse than dying in a nuclear apocalypse is living in one. We have to bring them back already just because we fucking have to, but also no fucking way are we raising a kid in this doomed world.

>>4017874
>[X] We have to reset the world.

ROSE IS NOT WORTH THIS.

>>4017874
>[x] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
Reset the world. Also soon as I started reading this this soundtrack started playing in my game and it felt fitting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isZhOCyajFI

>>4017886
You're a man with a vision, I have to admire that much.

>>4017874
This ain't an easy call by any means, but everyone deserves a second chance. I'm sure we'll meet Rose again, somehow, some way.

[ ] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
what the fuck kind of choice is this
[x] we have to reset the world

every woman we've ever loved minus 1 > one unborn child

>>4017874
>[x] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
>[ ] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
>[x]We have to reset the world
Shit is too fucked to stay here. You tried OP but this is horribly imbalanced.

>>4017874
>[x]we have to reset the world
We're too far past fucked to keep going as things are

>>4017874
>[ ] We have to reset the world.

Why raise the kid in a world consumed by nuclear war? And it's not like we can't pump dozens of kids into Rose after we reset.

>>4017874
>[x] We have to reset the world.
Turning back at this point would be a chotto bit silly, a-durr

>>4017874
>[ ] We have to stay.
I get waifus and all but this option is unironically much more interesting

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>>4017874
>[X] We have to reset the world.

>>4017874
[X] We have to reset the world.
I'm certain there's a future if we stay, but we're too deep in this.
And, if we end only moving timelines, we'll reset and stay at the same time.

>>4017874
>[ ] We have to stay.
Protest vote.
I'd do it. I'd do it in a fucking heartbeat. But OP has me tense bringing up Kundera.
I don't think he would, but, the entire point hinges on eternal recurrence not being a thing.

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>[x] We have to reset the world.

"This will happen again," you tell her. You say it confidently, because you believe it.

"How can you know that?" She asks softly. She wants to believe it, too.

"I just do. When you know... you know."

She doesn't seem convinced.

"How could it not happen?" You try. "You and me. The red string of fate ties us together..."

Rose makes a disgruntled purr. "Are you quoting anime cliches at me?"

"Yes I am."

"Goddamn it, Alabaster."

You lean in and kiss her, with her chin clasped delicately in your fingers. "It will happen again," you tell her. "To everything a season... our spring will bloom again."

"When did you become a poet, huh?"

"I guess fatherhood does that to a person."

She nods, although she can't stop crying. "Okay, Alabaster. Okay. If you promise -- if you promise me. Then okay."

"I promise."

"Okay."

"I promise you--"

"--okay--"

You kiss again, and again, and again.

>>4017886
I always imagined Rose as slightly chubby

Also, honestly im predicting the world resetting is gonna lead back into fq s1.

>>4017919
>the red string of fate ties us together
I bet Alabaster looks like a cat's cradle of red strings

>>4017926
Alternate FQ 1 with the new girls.

>>4017926
I thought so too, but now I'm starting to believe we're not coming back from this.

>>4017933
Don't get ahead of the script.

If we reset the world, How far are we going back?

What shall we do with Mara Darkbloom and Aloysha Kerimov?

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>>4017942

>>4017917
Eternal recurrence doesn't mean that we hit the reset button and get the exact same thing. It just means that if we hit the reset button infinitely many times, eventually we will get the exact same thing again. Or at least, that's been my understanding.

Maybe it's inevitable that any world we reset to will eventually lead to someone hitting the reset button again. But even so, that's not a reason to stay in this world. In fact, it assumes as a premise that this world will eventually be reset, so we might as well do it ASAP -- and with us in control.

>>4017926
On the other hand, are you sure you want Ally to be trapped in the endless cycle of Fuck Quest, doomed to repeat itself every time?

>>4017874
>>4017919
I like the other girls and all but nothing can beat reboot Rose. She's far and away best girl

>>4017945
Dad?!

>>4017926
I saw her in canon as just being "thick" - just a little more give in the butt/thighs. I thought of "chubby" rose as having a cute muffintop and grabbable tummy. Think Erufuda in the earlier chapters of Elf-san wa Yaserarenai.