A Controversial Ending
01.6.920
Endergaln
Flashbacks:
- Rhun Enkerig, prophesied since birth to be the savior of his people from the slavery of the illithid, tries to pull a sword from a stone and fails; the reaction of the watching crowd grows ugly
- Ashen comforts the grieving mother of the zombie girls, saying that clearly they were loved and were lucky to have been loved so
- Peach tries to create a Tiny Hut, and just creating a small hanging pod that she goes invisible to climb inside and sleep in
- Sav bribes Rose-Quartz with a warm coat to teach them her accent
- Ethan, hairy and wild, waking up outside a cave/rockfall that he’s delving into
- Bax, traveling north after Aelorean’s Crossing, accidentally kills a Swan when the Swan tries to capture him. Panicking, he runs back to the tiny settlement the children are staying at; Ethan is the first to find him and helps him get out of the manacles, and they end up leaving
Present Day
A page from the South Town Gazette hits Bax, which has an illustration of some kind of altercation around a glowing figure and the simple caption, “Can the Returned be trusted?” There is no attached name or article.
Sal disappears.
In the third act, Orphan Blue’s town is decimated by the Angel of Inciting Incidents after his research touches on the nature of the White Tower and magic itself. He flees to the forest, where some of his surviving friends, including Golden Dancer (who was always a redhead) and Hammer Man, a carpenter who loves stories, find him, and three people (two sisters and a young boy) come through a rip in the world. They say they’re from another world and their people were enslaved by the black tower, and they came to warn this world.
Orphan Blue and the rest travel to a nearby temple to take shelter, but the Angel of Ill-Timed Catastrophe finds them and destroys them all. The Angel says that all of Orphan Blue’s research now belongs to them, and that they will use it to change the very world and make it perfect for them.
The Narrator says that hearts hang heavy when tyrants rule, and that if this story rings false, then create your own. The curtain rises to reveal just the Angel dangling, waiting, staring.
The audience doesn’t take well to this ending, and a shower of fruits and boos assault the stage before people start to filter out, grumbling. Gwin leaves, and Peach follows. Bax and Sav find Ethan backstage; Bax says dinner and the story sucked, Sav says it was brilliant. They all return to the balcony, where Bax ducks out to check on Gwin and Peach, leaving a very awkward Sav and Ethan with two very silent giants.
On returning, Peach lights into Ethan with her critiques, namely that the story doesn’t really end, what ending it does have is unhappy and a real downer and that it’s inaccurate. Ethan says that was intentional, because discontent breeds remembrance, and if something is off, irate nerds will write in to correct them (indeed, a letter gets delivered, one of the ones that made it past Mira Verlaine’s filter of interest). (This particular one says that the age of the White Crown doesn’t match up with some geological records from silver and gold mining.)
They head to the afterparty, where Bax plays with the kids, Peach mingles with the caterers trying to teach them the real recipes from Shepherd’s End, Ethan does the rounds with the cast and crew, and Ashen and Sav stand awkwardly in separate corners. Xander Quillwick approaches Ethan and thanks him for the inspirational material; he feels his creativity has been reignited, and the next one won’t take years.
Ethan and Sav go to fetch the Um Actually letters from the office, where a burst of wind scatters papers and a terribly old and in terrible condition Esmund appears—starveling-thin, missing his right arm and eye due to heavy scarring on that side of his body, left eye milky and near-blind, straggly unkempt white hair and beard, no shirt and just pants. He demands to know what date it is, which Sav provides after a second. “There’s still time—Omen—the frost—”
He grabs charcoal and begins to scrawl on the wall, fragments of formulas that stop and start halfway through, as Sav tries to Guide him (finding him physically present and tangible) and Ethan removes tables to give him better access to the walls. “I remember—we were so close—Ava and—we didn’t—it’s too late for me. It always was. Not for you. Not for me. You don’t have much left—you have some—there will be—I’m sorry—”
He collapses and disappears.
The writing remains; Sav assesses it and realizes it relates directly to their study of the aasimar Confluence. What’s more, with the line of thinking on display, the way things are constructed: these are their own formulas.
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