Recuérdame.

[riptorn]

[Those of you who wish to see those who passed on? You'll be directed outside by Zeus, where he raises his arms, and marigolds begin to float around him. They float upwards, and form into a bridge.

It's structurally sound, and it seems fitting that you can cross it.

Eventually, you'll see it. Elysium. The Land of The Dead. Gentle music plays as you cross over into the city.

It's...festive. It's always festive. The architecture is colorful and full of spirit, and your group seems to be the only ones...human in appearance. Even your old friends seem to be a bit more skeletal in appearance. You can spend as much time here as you like, but eventually, that bridge will disappear. And you'll have to leave.

But...they'll never truly be gone. Not if you remember them. And someday, you'll join them. But for now, you celebrate. You've earned your happy ending.]

(ooc: This is the last log for the three canon rounds of Foolish Mortals! Thanks for coming along for the ride - we loved having you, and we hope to see ya real soon!)

Comments

[bottlerockets]

... I don't know. I'm scared of what he's going to say.

[...]

But like, I guess I should? Abby... [And that stings for a moment, saying her name.] Abby would want me to, I think. Closure, and all that. And now that we're both here, maybe he'll even listen this time.

[chicken little, sweetheart...]

[terribibble]

[MmmmmMMMMM boy does he recognize that desperate optimism. That's always been his coping mechanism too.]

You don't have to right away. Dyin' is... I mean as a man who's done it twice now you have to get your feet under you first. You want to just rest a bit, you can.

[bottlerockets]

Yeah, I guess so.

... I know he did some really bad stuff, but I hope he's okay. At wherever my Dad has gone to avoid me now, I guess.

[Or if he's even here at all, but somehow, Chicken Little can't help but think that maybe his Dad is still disappointed. For not having been able to do anything at all for what happened, for dying and ending up here too...]

[terribibble]

[Hey what if he just kneels down so he's actually on this kid's level.

It... hurts. Because these are things he hopes that Tate might think about him, aren't they? He hopes that Tate, wherever he is, still has some fondness for his fuckup of a father.

He'd also like to think that while he's done some evil in his lifetime, he never did anything so awful as what Buck did. There's a line. There's a line you don't cross. And this poor boy...]

Listen. You don't owe him nothin', alright? If you want to talk to him, do it because it's for you, not because you figure you're supposed to or because this Abby person thinks you should.

[If Tate never forgave him... he wouldn't blame his son. He's closed that door already. He's made peace.]

[bottlerockets]

But...

[And then he stops, looking down at his feet. He's tried so hard to make his Dad proud, and look where he is now. Dead.

... He doesn't think he would have changed what he did though, trying to save him anyway. It was the right thing to do, no matter what sins his Dad had committed.]

... I'll wait for him to come find me, for a little longer. He's the one who should be doing that, right?

[As a Dad's responsibility and all, rather than having his son frantically crawling all over the Land of the Dead shouting for him.]

[terribibble]

[Fiddleford nods approvingly.]

Yeah. He's the one who should be doin' that.

[He takes fatherhood very seriously, probably because he's wanted to be one even before he actually had a child of his own.]

He's your dad. He's the one who ought to be lookin' out for you, not the other way 'round.

[bottlerockets]

... Yeah. I know.

[... You know what, let's not talk about Dad for now, it's getting depressing.]

Soooooooo, uh, who are you?

[terribibble]

Oh, ah. My name's Fiddleford. Fiddleford McGucket.

[He almost says 'I was in the game after your dad's' but it's... pretty patently obvious why he's here and it's over now. Everyone showing up here while still having all their flesh has to mean that. They won. It's time to move on into whatever new life (death?) this is going to be. Odd enough he's never felt less anxious in his life.]

I know it's a mouthful. Just Dr. McGucket's fine, not that I figure a doctorate means much now.

[But he worked hard for that degree and he was the first in his family to get one so it's not something he can just let go. It's important to him still.]

[bottlerockets]

It's nice to meet, Dr. McGucket. I'm Chicken Little.

[... Get it, because he's a little chicken, hahaha--]

[terribibble]

[Oh. Well, that's... sure. He can't point fingers at odd names, can he. I mean it'd be like being named Human Tall but, y'know. Different folks, different ideas of what's normal. He's getting better at that whole concept.]

You sure are.

... Boy, I bet you get jokes about the sky fallin' all the time, huh?

[Lord help him he doesn't know.]

[bottlerockets]

[THE MOST AWKWARD LAUGHTER]

Ahaha...y--yeah, that's me. "Hey Chicken Little, is the sky falling again?" "Hey Chicken Little, been hit on the head by another acorn or a stop sign again lately?" Haha... ha...

[terribibble]

Well that's no good. Trust me, I got made fun of an awful lot for my name too once I left the farm.

[On the farm names like Banjomin or Ukelily were just fine. Less so in sunny California.

... though honestly what the fuck Buck Cluck why would you name your child 'Chicken Little' instead of like an actual name. You got an actual name. What the hell. His opinion of Buck Cluck's parenting is plummeting by the second, and he didn't think it was possible for it to sink lower.]

I know it ain't no fun.

[bottlerockets]

Oh, no, it's not really my name they make fun of so much as the whole... well. Being a total screw-up in general, and the, uh... panic I caused once when I thought the sky was falling? Which, I wasn't wrong, or not entirely wrong about in the end, but--anyway, it doesn't matter now, I guess.

[... That all came out in a huge rush of words, sorry Fidds.]

[terribibble]

[haha what]

... Oh my lord, you're actually--

Oh honey I didn't know, I'm sorry. It's just a story where I'm from.

[He figured your dad was just a fucking asshole. As it turns out he is the asshole, it's him.

And he could probably leave that there but he's learned over the past several months that if you wait, you lose your chance. This is something that resonates with him deeply. He feels pretty confident saying what he's about to.]

And-- and listen. From what I know of that story you were just tryin' to help and keep folks safe. So maybe it doesn't matter now but you didn't do wrong.

[YOU'RE TOO YOUNG FOR SELF-HATE YOU STOP THAT

That is not the point of the Chicken Little story but, you know what. If Ford can misinterpret Icarus then Fiddleford can misinterpret Chicken Little. That's on-brand.]

[bottlerockets]

It's... wait, you know about that? There are people who know about my stupid mistake in other universes?

[Sorry Fidds, Chicken Little might need a minute to process this holy shit even in death we can't escape our sins--]

[terribibble]

[He's hecking this so badly]

It's -- there's this thing called coincidental multiversal mirroring, where sometimes something from one universe shows up in another in some form, it's-- it's actually fairly common?

[This is where it pays to have Ford Pines in his life. Thank god.]

[bottlerockets]

But why... that, of all things to be shared and known about by everyone...

[terribibble]

Well -- well. I couldn't tell you. I bet there's a universe out there where all the mistakes I made are a story. They'd have to make a whole television show to cover it all, probably. At least two seasons.

The way I see it it's not the mistakes that matter, it's how you move on from them.

[Thanks, Naminé.]

[bottlerockets]

... They made a movie about mine.

[Like, in universe, not being cute and cheeky fourth-walling here, the townspeople literally had a movie showing in the local theater about how much of a fuck-up Chicken Little was for a little while there.]

[terribibble]

They what.

[bottlerockets]

A movie, about... about me, and how much trouble I caused everyone for that sky falling incident. They've had posters advertising it at our local theater for a while now.

[terribibble]

THEY WHAT? AND YOUR DAD LET THEM?

[Like... you can sue over something like that. He feels like you have to be able to. Or like... there's something with rights, and selling them? He doesn't know a lot about movies but he feels like there's got to be provisions about making a movie about a living person and needing to get some form of permission first.]

[bottlerockets]

Y--yeah? I mean, he wasn't happy about it and he complained every time someone mentioned the movie to him... or really mentioned anything about what I did, but since they had already written about it in the papers, and a book about it, and bumper stickers...

[God, he still remembers that comment his Dad said about that, how somehow that's worse because that stuff just sticks forever on a car to have to look at in front of him every time he drives around town...]

Dad said it was inevitable that they'd make a movie to show people too, so... there wasn't a point to stopping them?

[terribibble]

[Fiddleford McGucket's fucking pissed.]

Wh-- I just-- the worst that could've happened is people got a real bad scare and it turned out it was a false alarm, that's not -- you don't make a movie about that. That's not normal. Imagine if they made a movie every time someone accidentally leaned on a fire alarm or somethin'. What the hhheck [LANGUAGE] kind of petty people live in your town, to do that to a kid?

[bottlerockets]

[wow i can't believe you almost did a swear in front of chicken little]

I don't know? That's just how it was, and then it got worse after that stuff with Dad was found out, and... and honestly, I'm glad I'm dead if only so that I don't have to see what the movie of that was going to turn out like.

[which is a good sign of just how bad and meanspirited his town was if a kid has to be glad to be dead for a reason like that]