Endgame Log: The Ice Planet

[hadrielmods]

Who: The characters accompanying [Name] to the ice planet
What: The closed event log for the virus upload
Where: On the ice planet, at the Null communications array
When: June 15th
Warnings: None

It's time. There's a plan that needs to be put into motion, and you're the ones who volunteered to do it. You know going in that it's going to be dangerous - but there's no other choice. This is the end, and it's you or the Null.

Upon arrival, you have a little time to prepare. The Null don't know you're there at first, and once they do there's a delay of a few hours before they're in position to fight back. Now's the time to set up defenses or anything else that might help you stay alive. You have to know the fight will be hard, because they know their lives are on the line, too.

Then, the Null attack. With everything they have, they try to stop you, try to beat past your defenses to get to [Name] and stop it from uploading the killswitch. Fear helps out, and the sky goes dark, but it won't last forever. When Fear flees, that particular defense is gone... along with any chance of getting out of there. Here's where those without courage might break, because it certainly looks like it could be a last stand. It doesn't help that Hope can't reach you here either, that any deaths will not be resurrected during the battle.

But it does end. With very little warning, [Name] completes its task. It goes dark, and as it does, the other Null see their end coming. They cannot stop it, they cannot escape. They crumple to the ground, all consciousness and animation gone from them.

And then you're alone on the ice planet. Tend your wounds, mourn your dead, and hope that someone will come for you before the cold does.

► This log covers June 15th
► Please tag headers of threads with content warnings where they apply
► As this log takes place away from Hope's influence, any deaths will not be resurrected until people and gods are able to travel to the ice planet again. Have fun!

Comments

[sciencelizard]

[It's been a long time since Alphys' SOUL really reached out in this place. There was once, to Sans just before he left, sitting in an imaginary football field having drinks at sunset, the connection to a best friend. There was Lup, at the Gyftmas party, a happiness that bubbled in her to exploding out. And now... Aqua may be able to see it, if she looks. A thrum of a little white upside-down heart, centered in her chest, trembling as their hands touch.]

I thought I had failed. It still-- it's so hard to believe that everything's going to be okay when it d-didn't, turn out, you know? We did a lot but it's not that, that ending where everyone gets to live, and...

[She takes her free hand, wipes the sleeve across her face, sending her glasses askew over her snout.]

I don't feel right feeling good. Because other people had to get hurt for me to get here.

[caeruleae]

[For a moment, it's unnerving that Alphys can put what Aqua is feeling into words so easily, as if she's read her mind. And then it's comforting. Neither of them are alone.]

I know exactly how you feel. Exactly.

[She turns her head and blinks a little at the faint, unexpected shape—she's not sure what's prompted that. But she doesn't need to.]

But we keep trying. We keep believing in people. No matter how dark things seem, there will always be a door to the light.

[sciencelizard]

[She isn't used to being able to reach out like this at all. For all the times Alphys has tried to connect to people, she feels like she falls short so often. To have this kind of connection and know she didn't mess it up- to have a bond stronger than ever because of it- makes her heart swell even as tears spring back to her eyes.]

Okay. I'll-- I'll believe that. I'll d-do everything I can to believe that. I want to, uhm... be the kind of person you believe I am.

[That's all she's ever wanted. To do some good, some measure of success that isn't locked to her own anxiety. But if Aqua is feeling the same... perhaps it wasn't just her all along.]

Thank you. For everything.

[caeruleae]

[Aqua won't cry. She won't, even if her emotions and her body are very much in agreement that now is the right time for tears. It would just be too close to giving up, even if that's not why they hide behind her eyes, and she won't allow that. Alphys' belief in herself is a flickering light in the darkness, but sometimes one light is all they need.

So instead, she'll sit here with her friend, believing and holding her hand and waiting for dawn.]