Goodbye Log

[legionnpcs]

Who| Anyone that wants in
What| Goodbye log
Where| Legion's Briefing Hall
When| After an award's ceremony at the temporary UPgov building on Earth
Warnings/Notes| N/A

Legion World has been restored, thanks to the Miracle Machine. The Miracle Machine itself has popped off to a new dimension, possibly to the hands of a new Metron. Chronoblivion is dead and so are Its eyes and the remaining Heralds, who exploded to dust in prison once their master was gone.

The awards have been given by Madame President and yes there was a parade.

Time to go home. The Time Trapper left them all with a gift, however, that'll let them return. Strange glowing brands on their bodies that will let them access different dimensions, using T-gates in the Legion's universe as travel hubs, for those that want to want to keep in touch. For those that don't, like the ones that want to run off and make a new criminal life somewhere, they have a chance to grab a T-gate and split before anyone has a chance to stop them, but they'll have to make any goodbyes fast.

Once the Legionnaires walk through the gates to their home universes, their timelines will be locked to the time of the latest person from a particular world -- except for those that are from subtly alternate worlds from each other; they can go home and change the timeline without worrying about changing the past for others. Those walking home to certain death aren't out of luck, either, as the Legionnaires have their ways of faking a death - with fake hologram-disguised bodies, even.

Most of them have retained their powers, though that situation is finicky and strange. In some universes, they'll retain their Legion powers, in some they'll have no powers at all, and for those who had powers back home, they may find they're back to their full powers whenever they're in their home universe.

The native Legionnaires are grateful as anyone could be, especially those trapped for seemingly timeless months in the crystal dimension, who watched the displacees on its crystal walls and actually had hope because of everything they did.

All the displacees have been granted the statue of honorary Legionnaire, and any that feel like they'd like to stay on the team, well...it certainly wouldn't be unwelcome. The Legion needs to get on its feet and the crystal dimension Legionnaires are out of practice and need time to recover. Those that don't want to be Legionnaires but want to settle in the United Planets are welcome to stay as well, and the entire team is to be granted full UP citizenship so that they have dual citizenship with countries in their homeworlds.

Also, surprisingly, the last anon meme that some of them will see went up and instead of cattiness or people judging their coolness, it was filled with one very simple thing: close to thousands of pages of people saying "Thank you, Legionnaires," and giving their heartfelt goodbyes to those that don't intend to stay.

Shock. Awe.

It's the happiest ending they could've asked for. But it is an ending. And now it's time to say goodbye.

Comments

[unrecovered]

The parade had honestly been the weirdest part of this, in Wash's experience. Destroying space cthulu with sheer stubbornness, he could handle - it was basically Tuesday around here. A parade in their honor still tipped his scale of weird.

Of course, he's thinking about that because it's easier than thinking about anything else right now.

He knows that right now isn't necessarily goodbye for everyone - a good number of these will be glorified see you laters. That said, that doesn't stop them from feeling like goodbyes, and he'd hated those long before he'd had to deal with Epsilon's baggage.

But that doesn't mean he can avoid them - that's not fair to anyone, including him. And he doesn't have to leave just yet, either. He knows he'll be dropping back into the middle of a battle; he may as well take the time to set his mind right and tie up loose ends before he does. For once, the war can wait.

He's still in armor, but his helmet is off and locked to his hip and DC is perched on his shoulder, yawning widely. Despite everything, he looks fairly calm.

[isthisapidge]

"If you need someone to train DC for combat, I know a good lion for the job?"

She herself has a war to go home to, and knowing Wash, he'll find a fight to get into if he doesn't have one already. It's entirely possible that she'll never see him again.

That is absolutely the last thing she wants to think about though. So she smiles at him, helmet tucked under one arm, trying to work out how to say thanks for everything without breaking down.

[unrecovered]

Wash can't help but smile. "Pidge, have you ever tried to train a cat? They don't make it easy." Leash training is simple enough and DC is mellow enough to allow it, but combat training?

Then again, it's entirely possible Pidge is avoiding the elephant in the room, and he can't really blame her for that. To that end, he hauls DC off his shoulder and gently places the kitten on her shoulder, where DC takes a moment to find his balance and promptly begins nosing in her ear.

[isthisapidge]

Pidge smiles. Reaches up to scratch DC on his on head and chuckles. Realizes there are tears in her eyes-Oh, shoot.

She keeps her voice surprisingly steady in the circumstances. "I dunno...Couldn't be any harder than training Dipper and me, right?"

[unrecovered]

Of course she's going to try to soldier through it. The least he can do is not call attention to anything she's trying to ignore. "Hey, training you two was only like herding cat; it wasn't actual herding cats."

But the conversation can only stay light for so long, and he puts a hand on Pidge's shoulder, expression softening a bit. "If you need anything, let me know, okay? I don't think we can radio each other directly between dimensions, but we might be able to use Legion World as a waystation."

[prettycoolguy]

The parade had definitely been weird. John didn't say it so much as just adopt that characteristic uncertain-but-polite stiffness that was usually code for experiences he'd never had. There hadn't been time for this during the war, and when the war ended? He was way, way too far away to see any of that celebration.

They've done it. That wasn't just a mission accomplished, that was everything. Chronoblivion is gone, and all the problems they have from now on are going to have other sources.

Problems.

That golden feeling of a job well-done is ephemeral. All the problems he'd worried about before this have nothing to keep them away, and now there are new ones too. John has spent his life ticking along from crisis to crisis, and the return to pattern is strangely steadying. ...Even if one of those problems is that an endless string of assignments isn't as appealing as it once was, and having people he would like to be able to see again.

And one of those especially.

"I don't know how long I'm going to be," he's telling Wash. "Something was happening. Maybe the Didact. We weren't sure."

[unrecovered]

Wash just shakes his head and puts his hand on John's arm. "I get it. You've got a mission." He's Master Chief. He always has a mission. "You don't have to explain it to me. Just keep in touch, okay? Send the occasional message back here and let me know you're alive."

This is just about the only downside to success; everyone going back to their own times and dimensions. Sure, there's a Master Chief in Wash's dimension, and there may well be an Agent Washington in John's dimension, but they're not the same and they both know that. It makes things complicated.

Fortunately, they're both pretty good at complicated.

[captainbuzzkill]

His old clothes were too small. He'd had to ask the Athramites to essentially copy them, making them in a slightly larger size. The height difference is something he can explain off as a growth spurt over the summer, and hopefully the bus driver won't notice, but he might think it's weird for him to have changed clothes in the middle of the ride home from Gravity Falls.

He's not swimming in the hat Wendy gave him anymore, either. When he'd first gotten to Legion World, it'd been contaminated with something from Phelolu and by the time he'd gotten it back from being cleaned, it'd felt weird to wear it in the day to day. It made him think too much about Gravity Falls, and home, and those were things he'd had to put out of his mind.

Now, it feels weird to go back wearing one of his baseball caps. Those are Legion baseball caps, some of which were worn during superhero fights. It feels right to take them off for now, as he leaves it all behind. He's taking them with him, of course - and his uniform, too, because Kid Q refused to take that away, just like she'd let him keep his flight ring, but it's all going to be folded up and put in a box somewhere in his room, left untouched for another day.

Or rather, for another year. Because he knows he's not coming back to this next year. Or the year after. Or maybe even the year after that. It's going to be a while before he's ready to be a superhero again.

And that's okay. There's another adventure waiting for him and Mabel back home. Growing up. It's time to get back to that one first.

And so he stands there, hands in his pockets, looking like the young teen he is instead of the adult he kept trying to be.

"Hey, man." He shrugs a full shoulder shrug and looks down at himself. "Check it out. The exciting return debut of Dipper Pines, average teen."