Die reached into his coat and withdrew a small white doll and 2 pins; one with a lavender head and the other with a yellow head.
"Vwhat are you doing vwith that? Is this vwhat you vwanted to showv me?" Cronus asked in confusion. Die handed him the pin.
"No. Just stick both pins in the doll. It will take us where we need to go," he explained. Cronus did so, gulping as the world around him and Die began to change. They were taken back to Beforus at night, with the moons shining high above a field of flowers. Cronus and Die were standing on the foot of a hill, and Die began to walk down the hill into the valley with the flowers. Cronus followed him, surprised that he was walking on solid ground rather than just hovering over it.
"Vwhere on Beforus are vwe?" Cronus asked. Die ignored the question until the pair approached a group of pews that had been placed in a clearing in the valley. They were arranged to face in a brown podium.
"Sit down and you will see," Die answered when Cronus took a seat in the back pew. Minutes passed, and finally Rufioh, Meulin, Kankri, Porrim, Latula, Aranea, Horuss, and finally Kurloz all showed up. Cronus realized what was going on when everyone was dressed in black.
"It's my funeral. I died vwithout Mituna, didn't I?" Cronus said to Die. The felt member shook his head.
"No. This is his funeral. Without you, he would have killed himself, just like he wanted to," Die explained. "Pay attention to what is said here." Kankri proceeded to the podium and waited on the others to stop talking. Cronus could hear the group whisper as Kankri took a long time to prepare the notes for his funeral speech, perhaps deliberately to give everyone time to discuss the deceased. Rufioh and Meulin were conversing on one pew, with Kurloz lying down next to Meulin, his face against the wall of the pew. The only activity he showed was when he raised his hand to sign to Meulin what Rufioh was saying.
"damara d1dn't wanna come. Sa1d 1t wasn't r1ght that she go to the funeral of someone she d1dn't know."
"(l-l) I understand. Purrloz is really sad about this. He and Mituna were meowrails, you know…"
"d*mn, the news must have h1t h1m hard. Tell h1m 1 feel for h1m, ok?"
Porrim and Latula were in the pew behind Rufioh, Meulin, and Kurloz.
"how do you know th1s guy 4g41n, g1rl?"
"I didn't kno+w Mituna. But Kankri did, apparently. He wanted to give the speech. Wo+rk o+n that so+rt o+f skill, yo+u kno+w him. I'm here to+ make sure he do+esn't get triggered by grief o+r so+mething."
"4h. Sucks h3 d13d b3for3 h1s t1m3, huh?" Cronus was surprised at the apathy in Latula's voice.
"She doesn't ewven care that her matesprit's dead! I knewv she vwas just using him." Die shook his head again, and Cronus could tell he had accidentally irritated him by accident.
"No! Don't you remember how Mituna and she fell in love AFTER they entered the Medium? In this doomed timeline, Mituna just had a small crush for her. She didn't know about that, and she never will in this timeline," Die explained. "Don't you get that this is what that is? A doomed timeline. You died in it, and so Mituna had no one to stop him from killing himself. You saved his life in the alpha timeline. And so in your timeline Mituna got to save you, and everyone else. But the trolls here don't know how important Mituna was to their session. They hardly even knew him personally. Listen," Die told Cronus. The two took a seat in the back pews, all eyes ignoring them and directed at Kankri, ready to give his eulogy.
"Friends, tr9lls, ass9ciates…we gather t9day t9 m9urn the death 9f Mituna Capt9r. His is a tragic end, particularly 6ecause 9f its cause: a suicide that n9 9ne saw and c9uld prevent. I understand that this is a triggering statement, 6ut such facts sh9uld 6e laid 9ut in the 9pen. I deeply ap9l9gize if I 9ffended any9ne with the usage 9f the w9rd 'suicide'. H9wever I will n9t dwell 9n this tragic cause 9f death—I 9nly wish t9 n9te it 9nce—and instead m9ve 9n t9 what can remem6er 9f 9ur dear departed Mituna."
"In his days as a gru6 he was praised 6y the matr9n tr9lls as an excepti9nally 6right individual, spending m9ments al9ne t9 c9ntemplate and harness his psi9nic p9wers. As he grew int9 ad9lescence he knew that he w9uld make a great technician, and thus he t99k it up9n himself t9 apply f9r a j96 at 6ef9ranet, 6ack 6ef9re the Techn9l9gy M9n9p9ly Act. Such details are irrelevant, h9wever; the p9int is that he had his j96 and did it well. 6ut then, tragedy struck in the f9rm 9f a recessi9n, and s9 Mituna was laid 9ff. This 6egan the series 9f unf9rtunate events that led t9 him taking his 9wn life yesterday."
"While we kn9w little 9f this individual, 6ut his death is an example t9 us all that suicide is quite a tragic and triggering affair, 69th in the way in ends 9ne life 6ef9re it's time and stuns the rest 9f us. Particularly th9se wh9 are survived: Mituna Capt9r had a m9irail, Kurl9z Makara, and his lusus, 6icycl9ps. They, al9ng with the rest 9f us, must answer 9urselves the great questi9n 9f h9w we will live with9ut the c9mf9rt this tr9ll 6r9ught. And n9w, t9 prevent further triggering regarded the deceased, the eul9gy is 9ver. Feel free t9 depart 9r stay and pr9vide c9mf9rt. 6ut rest assured that Mituna, wherever he is, is happier n9w in his new afterlife…6ut perhaps filled with regret." And so the mourners dispersed. Meulin had to get Horuss to remove Kurloz from the pew, but after even he left, constantly looking back behind the podium. Cronus noticed this and asked Die:
"Is the tombstone back there? Can I see it?"
"Sure. They can't hear or see you," Die told him. So Cronus went back behind the podium and glanced at the headstone.
Here lies Mituna Captor
28-34 AS (6 sweeps)
"…That's it?" Cronus asked. The stone was rather small, thin enough to be hidden directly behind the podium, which explained why he couldn't see it before. The brevity of the words on it troubled him.
"Most gravestones don't have a lot on them, you know," Die reminded him.
"I knowv, but…it seemed like Kankri didn't care. None of them did. Did they care at all that he had died, aside from Kurloz?" Cronus felt anger stirring inside him. "Howv could they say they mourned him and just left him here like that? And what did Kankri say? 'Vwe know little of this indiwvidual?' And he said he didn't want to dwell on the fact that he killed himself? That's the vwhole reason they vwere there in the first place! That eulogy was horrible because it vwas fake. They had to fake that they actually cared! Mituna sawved them in another timeline, but vwhen he dies here they say a little bit and go?! He deserwved something better than this!" Cronus was shaking with anger now, kicking the tombstone, not caring that his foot was getting sore in the process. Die pulled him back and dragged him away.
"There's one more thing you need to see," the Felt member told him. Cronus suddenly found himself somewhere else.
Looking around, Cronus found that he was underwater. He recognized his hive nearby.
"I thought you said I vwas supposed to be dead in this timeline," Cronus asked Die. "And if I'm dead then howv can I be right here?"
"You from the alpha timeline is here, and I'm going to show you from this timeline. There can be two of the same person in a timeline," Die explained. "But enough about that. This is the last thing you need to see."
Cronus was led behind his hive to a lump of sand. Die dug with his hands until he had unearthed Cronus' dead body. Seeing himself dead was a surreal experience; Cronus found his face scarred with his own blood, his hair completely shaved, his horns pierced into his chest, and his gills—most humiliating of all—chopped off and stuffed into his mouth.
He wasn't sure how to react to the mutilation of himself. Cry? Scream? Vomit? Those were all great possibilities, but rather than pick any of them Cronus fainted in horror. Die caught him and placed the purple and yellow pins back in the doll, sending him back to his own timeline. Cronus found himself in his Prospit bedroom, with Die standing over him. Cronus, realizing what had happened, sheepishly got up and asked Die:
"Vwhat happened? To me, I mean? Howv did I die…Die?" Unamused by the use of his name, Die responded:
"You never remembered Mituna, so you never went up to look for him. You wallowed in your depression for a few sweeps, until finally you decided to do just as Mituna did. But you couldn't bring yourself to do it. So you did the next best thing; you went on land and had some people do it for you. The same trolls Trace showed you earlier. Except they killed this time. They were so happy to have done it. Revenge, one called it. The other called it a reparation. You let them do whatever they wanted, and so they killed you in the most brutal way possible. I'm sorry I had to show you that. I didn't want to. But I had to do it anyway." Die hung his head at this last sentence.
"I agree. I—I had to see vwhat I vwould hawve become," Cronus said. "Thank you for ewverything. And tell Trace thanks for me, too. Seeing all that I sawv—it makes me vwalue my owvn life more. It made me realize that, despite all my svweeps of isolation and depression, I still mean something to someone."
"It's great that you've figured that out. You know, I once wondered what the point to my life was, especially after my boss—hired me. But then my co-workers became my friends. It wasn't much, but we're all like a family now. We all mean something to each other, Cronus. Don't forget that. Ever." And with that, Die disappeared.
Cronus had wanted to ask about this "boss" of his, and why getting a job made Die question the meaning of life. Cronus then wondered a little more: who were all these green exiles, anyway? Were they game constructs? But then they wouldn't mention having a job somewhere? Or was their boss a game construct? And if their boss was ordering them to help all the players, then why did they not seem to like him? Well, Die didn't seem to like his boss. Trace hadn't said much about the matter. And that girl troll in Cronus' memory? Trace said that she "served her lord, as do I." So they were working together. But who was that girl, anyway? The Handmaiden, Trace had called her? Cronus had heard that name before, but he couldn't quite remember where.
But maybe it didn't matter. Whoever Trace and Die were, they had saved his life and taught him to appreciate it. Before he went off Cronus felt his gills on his face, just to confirm that they were still there. They were. He could feel the scars from when he had been attacked, but now they were faded.
"I'm still alivwe."
