The Last of Our Sea-Sorrow
Preface
Hey, readers.
This is a story about Max and Chloe after the events of the Sacrifice Arcadia Bay ending. I know, original, right? It's, pretty explicitly, a Pricefield story.
However, I'm working within the rough constraints of the Life is Strange canon, at least from where the story begins. That means - no kiss at the end. Max and Chloe still haven't officially confessed their feelings when this story starts.
While this is a Pricefield story, it's also, in some ways, an Amberprice story. I'm loving Life is Strange: Before the Storm, and this story treats (at least one possible version of that game) as canon. Where LiS and Lis:BtS differ on canon questions, I'm going to side with Before the Storm because of the importance of those few days to this story. Chloe is still dealing with learning about Rachel, and I don't think those feelings just vanish because Max is back in her life.
This is a story about Max and Chloe, but it's also a story about Rachel, and about grief, regret, love, and going on a long road-trip with the person who saved you from the death you were probably supposed to have.
And it's also a story about those Maxs and Chloes that Life is Strange leaves behind in other timelines, forced to live the rest of their lives wondering if some other version of them got a better deal.
Feedback is appreciated, and I hope you like it!
what's past is Prologue
An ISLAND, amidst a STORM.
[enter PROSPERA – 19, magnetic, blonde-haired, attired in magical robes and armed with a staff. A hood encircles her head, and upon her face is emblazoned a dragon mask of glittering diamonds.]
PROSPERA: Welcome, dear strangers, to my lonesome rock
Cast adrift in this wretched, roiling sea.
It's been many moons 'ere I've seen a soul,
So rest your weary hearts upon my shores
And heed the words with which I drown your ears.
For such tales are not often understood
Save with the fanciful minds of children.
[enter RAVEN, alighting on a crooked tree branch behind her.]
RAVEN: Caw.
PROSPERA: Hark now, we are joined by a laughing thing
Who plays such tricks upon all souls on earth
That the devil himself must cede the game.
RAVEN: Caw.
[PROSPERA looks at the reader and smiles.]
PROSPERA: Our tale does tell of souls entwined in storms,
One ill at ease with words or darkness leaves
Her friend to suffer at the edge of hell.
Wildfires rage and many souls are lost
To lust and hate and greed below the earth.
RAVEN: Caw
PROSPERA: Hold on, good friend, my tale is not yet done.
[enter DEER, unnoticed]
PROSPERA: One girl fated to die from Caliban,
Lost in shadow and smoke and forgotten.
One girl who bent fate into something new,
And brought The Tempest down upon her home.
Now I cannot speak ill of her, despite
My love for the girl who was loved by Death.
They drowned the Bay in salt and screams and then
Left everything aside to bleed alone.
The curtains fell upon their tale at last,
And you all thought their story ended there.
RAVEN: Caw.
PROSPERA: True, true, no story ends without the last
third of the act the great teachers once taught.
Rising action, climax, and then the fall.
First act – there was the girl who lost her way
In love and joy and fire's scorching arms.
Then next – the friend returned and powers 'gained.
Secrets revealed, corpses unearthed, even
Time and space rent in a thousand new ways.
And now – the tale of how the souls survived
A year of storms and love and bitter dreams.
Their dalliance with time has not yet ceased;
Their fates not yet entrenched one way for good.
A lifetime, five years, five days, and then…what?
[PROSPERA whispers, inaudibly, to RAVEN. RAVEN flies away, out into the ocean.]
[end Scene]