The End of the Rosenblum Witch

[planetshown]

[ Restored to her normal shape, Elsa claps her hands. ]

If I may... I feel that we should all be present for this conversation. Would you not agree, Olivia?

[ Olivia snorts. ]

What am I supposed to do, El, stop you?

That's right, you cannot!

[ There's a rush as the candles, rather than extinguishing, flare up, and suddenly... you can see the dead. They're ghosts, of course, so there's some translucence, but you can see and hear them all. No more hauntings. ]

All right, get your reunions or whatever in, then we have to talk about making this work.

Comments

REUNIONS

[facultwist]

[ Want to do some quick reunion chatting before the final conversation? Go for it! ]

[trustheart]

…You guys can see and hear us? Seriously?

[ Chris almost can’t believe it. ]

Seriously, just stand there and don’t react if I’m wrong.

[curdle]

[ In no way did she want to be the one delivering this message, but she feels the need to! Chris was—is—just a girl like any other. The evil Thomasin projected on her might not be unwarranted, but she was never the grand inquisitor her mind furnished for her, only hotheaded and desperate for answers. ]

Nay, we see you. And we hear you.

[sweetsynergy]

[Oh god. She wasn't actually prepared for this. So many people here absolutely hate her, what does she even say-]

...Hey. Sorry, guess you guys aren't actually rid of me yet.

[Nailed it.]

[curdle]

I guess not. What say you, Vanity?

[shellhawked]

[There's a very strong few seconds where Hawke looks like she's about to burst into tears. She won't do it! She's holding it together! Look at that wide grin! Ignore how wet her eyes are!

She's so cool and tough right now!]

If wouldn't go straight through you and fall on my face, I'd be throttling you right now.

[rosewitch]

[Anthy is busy being frantic right now. But — but! In the midst of the chaos surrounding Vanity, she takes a moment to make eye contact and give an extremely covert thumbs up.]

[Seriously. Doing good, horrible girl.]

[bellpepperexercise]

--! Did it work?!

[Kana looks around. Tears mark her face as is expected.]

[iseedollpeople]

[Ghost tears.....]

The other side must be a strange place.

[thanoptical]

[Hey, Kana? Satsuki doesn't care if she can't touch you. She's like trying to get you into a bear hug.]

[rednails]

[Flatly;]

Sure did.

[thatsplato]

Hiiiiiii!

[curdle]

Hi, Misty.

[eternalfuture]

I promise I'll ask more important things later but someone please tell me that the kids made it to Isabella all right and in one piece?

[goldendoll]

[ ... well. this is awkward, with how she left things, but...

there hatsune is, probably standing near-ish to kohaku and looking... less burdened, than people would be used to seeing her in this place. ]

Thank you, Elsa. [ she glances towards the living and lifts a hand. ]

You all did great.

[protomartyr]

[ Lottie looks almost identical to the night before she died - there's no blood pooling out of her skull anymore! She has, however, braided her hair for yesterday's doomcoming, and thanks to the power of being a ghost, it's still intact.

Once the living start to acknowledge the ghosts, Lottie offers her first genuine smile of the trial, small and a little shy, but still warm. ]

Hi. Told you all we were here.

[lifegoalsorwifegoals]

Aaah...? You can actually see all of us? Really?

[ Rinne's hanging near Kana but seems like. More chill? Wild. ]

[ergine]

Thank goodness... I'm not sure how much more spelling I could take.

[ It's hard to tell with Kohaku, but... She does look genuinely relieved to see the living again. ]

[banishedfromparadise]

[Dorothy looks around, at all the eyes now able to look at her again, not through her. Tears well up as her eyes meet Mariko's, and then Dagr's. What words could she even say to express her feelings? She'd made them as clear as she could when she thought it'd be her last chance, and now she's at a loss.]

Hi...

[All she can do besides that is smile. And, finally, say something she's been meaning to to someone else.]

Satsuki. You've done well, even without me here. Good job.

[A slight darkening of her eyes even as the smile remains...]

... And you know I would have haunted you forever if you gave up on us.

BREAKING THE BOX OPEN

[planetshown]

[ Once everyone is good and ready, Olivia clears her throat. ]

So, here's the deal. If we're going to shape this truth, we need to do it all together, and we need it to be foolproof.

So you need to agree on what you're changing and how you're going to explain it. And remember - you'll be the only ones who remember this reality. As far as the world will know, all of this is impossible.

[trustheart]

[ Chris points dramatically at Olivia. ]

You! You have a lot to answer for, for killing me!

[ Chris stomps over…and also wraps her ghostly arms around Olivia in a hug, before pulling away. ]

A simple gas leak won’t explain me. We need to come up with something you tied me up with! And besides that…

…We need to find a place for you in our story too. No one deserves to be alone forever.

[ It’s left unsaid, but the meaning is clear. “I forgive you.” ]

[thanoptical]

I want everyone of us to be alive. For a version of you to be here, who remembers this stuff too.

...Maybe we found the underground pool, got really poisoned by some Vapors and then had a series of hilarious and traumatizing adventures. Isabella came back with the police and the 'living' are rolling on the ground and the dead are all wearing sheets walking around.

[rosewitch]

[Anthy doesn't bother with talking to anyone. Doesn't even hesitate before she gets into logistics. There's no time and too much to figure out.]

Yes. Listen. The gas leak story is flexible. It means more people can come out of Rosenblum Hall than went in. Who's to say that there weren't more people meant to stay over break than were listed officially? Maybe there was a clerical error. Perhaps other students, Mari and Elsa and Olivia, come out with the rest of us, and it's shrugged off as an unremarkable mistake. Records get lost all the time.

I think, if you want— [Elsa, Mari, Olivia.] —that should be part of the story. But I also—

[She swallows.]

I have a — a more specific question. About our other selves.

cw drug use

[bellpepperexercise]

So weird stuff happened, but nobody died? What people are saying about hallucinations can explain that, or I just took too many melatonin gummies and passed out for a while?

I already accidentally ate those mushrooms and saw a guy dressed like a bell pepper--Wait, who was that, anyway?!

[hootheart]

What happen to other animal? In headmistress room? Can also stay?

[This is a big sticking point for her, tbh!]