Crosslink











Bryph, horrified, sprints away from Jutse

Jutse if you're still in there I'm sorry I called you a shitcat, please, I'm sorry okay!

SURELY YOU ARE NOT DEAF, BEAR. THERE IS NO CAT ANY LONGER.
I WILL NOT BE SO MERCIFUL AS HE WAS.


Bryph, horrified, sprints away from Jutse
I found a letter from Jutse. He meant to be killed by the laser, he never meant to survive!
I don't think that whatever happened was what he meant to have happen!

It doesn't matter, Cae. Jutse's gone. But Bryph isn't.
Bryph is still over there and that thing's gonna kill them!
You gotta save them!


Bryph leaps over a tentacle-like root that shot out towards him.
Where the hell is Cae??


But you-

If I could have done it, I'd have done it. But both of my arms are broken, and I need to protect Rimas.
I am in excruciating pain, Cae.

But Bryph can just-

Marcel, enraged, looks over his shoulder at Cae.
Bryph? Bryph can't do SHIT, Cae.
Bryph is going to die if you don't intervene, Cae.
The only one that can save your partner is you. You.
So, you better quit standing there clutching a sonnet from your secret lover, and get back in your car!
NOW!

Cae, furiously gripping his steering wheel as he speeds off in his car.
Cae hurriedly got back into his car and sped off towards Bryph.

How the hell did he know it was a sonnet?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a certain fox screams through the air over the Ephemeric Ocean.

Rimas stands in the middle of a large magic circle, glowing with magic power.
ADDIE:
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
*inhales*
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-

It, ah... Would seem she has taken the "screaming" part literally.
We'll come back to her when she's a little less preoccupied.

Cae driving his car, as Bryph teleports into the passenger seat.
So uh... Crazy day, huh?
Hah... It sure-

Shut the fuck up.

Jutse aims a magical attack at Marcel, his outstretched palm appearing to contain a large rock encircled with magical symbols.

DO NOT THINK YOU HAVE ESCAPED MY NOTICE.
SKUNK. WOLF. BREATHE YOUR LAST.

Reem... Is your spell gonna be enough?
Do you need me to buy time?

Yes, it'll be enough.
I only need thirty seconds.

Marcel kneeling on the ground, reaching out for his bat with his mouth.
Time to take a cue from my wise teacher and put my mouth where my money is.

Rimas looks at Marcel with genuine confusion.
Marcel, are you biting your bat?

Crosslink is a strength-multiplying ability with two important caveats.

Marcel holding his bat in his teeth, supported over his shoulder, with broken teeth and blood dripping down over his lip.
Mmrph!
Rharin... Whiriuh forf!!
[Crosslink... Million fold!!]

First: the user must have a specific action in mind when activating it.

Rimas looking over at Marcel, weeping.
Marcel, NO!!
You'll DIE!
I can't lose both of you. I won't!
You can't... Please! Please, don't die!

Second...

Marcel glowing with power, his eyes shining, and the bat heating up in his teeth.
The user must believe that what they are doing is necessary.
That it is right. That it is the only option left.

Rimas... I owe so much to you. You took me in when I had nowhere else to go.
You shared your family with me, even as I insisted you didn't need to go so far for me.
Your home, your youth, your joy... You shared all of it with me, even though I never asked.
I lived a good life because you decided I deserved to. Everything I accomplished in my life... It was all thanks to you.
I am so, so grateful... That at long last... I can finally repay you.
Don't talk with my mouth full... That's what mom used to say, eh Reem?
That's fine by me. I can let my actions do the talking.

Jutse rapidly switching where his attack is aimed.
THIS IS UNEXPECTED.
YOUR ATTACK WOULD OBLITERATE MY OWN. I AM SURPRISED! IMPRESSED!
BUT IT DOES NOT MATTER. THE RACCOON AND BEAR ARE VULNERABLE.
AND YOU CAN ONLY DO THIS ONCE, CAN'T YOU?

Jutse rapidly switching where his attack is aimed.
CEASE TO EXIST.

NO!!

WHAT. MY ATTACK... IT WAS AIMED PERFECTLY!
AT THE LAST MOMENT... MY ARM...
JUTSE... YOU DARE PERSIST??

Marcel throwing his bat and then hitting the ground face-first.
The rest...
is up... to you...


Jutse being blown apart by the impact of Marcel's thrown bat.
A SPLENDID SHOW OF FORCE. SPLENDID, YET INCONSEQUENTIAL.

Jutse reforming into a giant tree.
YOU ARE MORTAL. I AM IMMORTAL.
THE OUTCOME OF THIS CONFLICT WAS INEVITABLE 'ERE IT BEGAN.

Panning shots showing the wreckage of Cae's rocket car, and Marcel's unconscious body.
I'm the only one left.
Marcel is out cold, Bryph and Cae got blown up, Addie is going to... She's...
And... Jutse is a tree. In the middle of a desert. That's fine. That's fine!
I've had enough of this. I'm so tired.

Rimas stands in the middle of a large magic circle, glowing with magic power.
I'm leaving.

Cae darling,

There is little else to be done now about our shared predicament.
By the time you find this, I will surely have done many foolish and destructive things.
I wouldn't dare ask for your forgiveness... What I am about to do lies beyond those bounds.
Instead, I ask only that you acknowledge that I did what I believed right.
I hope sincerely that on the other side of this, you and I will know freedom.

You are a beautiful soul and a lovely person, Cae.
I believe I will regret severing our ties when I am in the afterlife.
Should you survive what I am about to attempt,
(and I hope you do,)
please take care of Cleo for me, won't you?

You had told me once that no one had ever written poetry for you, is that right?
With my last act as your dear friend, I would like to rectify that.

A tragic lie once faithed, I now forbode,
Inevitable horror we'd endure.
I want this path to be solely my road,
so you may proceed elsewhere, footfalls sure.

The many months we've passed all side by side,
I know I'll miss you always, my dear friends.
But since this vile truth has now been spied,
My path leads to that bitterest of ends.

Let not my sacrifice be lost in vain,
instead walk surely, brighter skies ahead.
With blood my ink, I'll shoulder all your pain,
And if you find these words, then I'm long dead.

I tried so long to find a way to stay...
I failed. And so, I leave. With love, Jutse.



P.S.
I can't sleep. It's still before sunrise. I am scared, Cae.
Please wake up. Please. Please wake up and catch me and ask what I'm doing.
Give me an excuse to crumple this letter into a ball and toss it in the fire and say "nothing."

I want so badly to wake you up and crawl into your arms.
Bryph be damned for now, I'm planning to die today anyway.
If they see, they'll have cause to murder me, all the better.

I wish I hadn't written that in pen.
I wanted to erase it the moment the ink landed on the page.
Bryph, if by any chance you find this letter before Cae does,
you have my permission to slit my throat the moment you find it.
It will be much faster, and much easier that way.

Ever since those whispers slipped into my ear and infected my mind, I haven't been myself.
My sense of self was stripped from me like packaging tape from a box.
The top layer of the cardboard's come up. The tape won't go back now.
There's nothing for it now but to open the box and see what's inside.
It is maddening. Every thought I have, all merely the echoes of something else's mind.
To exist this way is torturous. To know that this is the nature of my life is worse.
It isn't too late for you to wake up. If you wake up now I can still turn around.

No. No, that isn't fair to you. I take it back.
You have no responsibility for what I am about to do today.
Feel no guilt, feel no remorse, should you find this letter take solace in knowing you did what you could.
I truly could not have wished for better friends than you all.

To Rimas, I leave my collection of medical textbooks and surgical notes.
To Cae, I leave my wealth and my apartment, you've lived with your dad long enough.
To Marcel, I leave my wood carving kit, in the hopes that it gives you some peace.
To Bryph, I leave my apothecary's tools and reagents. Someone will need to tend the wounds.
To Addie, I leave a pair of prescription glasses to make it a bit more bearable to keep your eyes open.
(I ordered them as a surprise, but if I try to keep the surprise now, you'd never know about them.)
To Compy, I leave the assurance that I always considered you just as real as us.
I know that sounds paradoxical given the present situation, but please know I mean it as much as I can.

I can't close the box again. I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't.
Maybe you're all real and I'm the only puppet.
Maybe I'm the only one who doesn't have free will.
If that's the case... Then what I am about to do is not suicide.
What I am about to go through is murder.
If you survive, I want you to find whatever did this to me, and to us all,
and I want you to kill it.


Character legend