Captain Dolce of the [i]Plousios[/i] stirs, and wakes to a dance of glowing lights and fluttering petals. They sway, they swirl, against a canopy of bluest sky, behind a familiar snout and whiskers peering over him.

“Ah. Jil…at least you’ve made it to Elysium too.” He does not remember his voice sounding like this; so rambling and careless. The words spill out of him as soon as they enter his head. No room to stay still. “I’m sorry, I really had hoped you’d make it through. There’s your fearless world, at the end of the road. I wanted you to see it yourself.”

He tries to lift his neck, but can’t find it. The little lights, they hide him away, and all that’s left is the bone-deep weariness of a long day’s work. “Where’s Vasilia? She should be here. I don’t care if Zeus was disappointed, she ought to be here. Did you see her, Jil? Did you see her? She did it. I didn’t know how she would, but she did. She did it. Ah, Vas…” 

The lights, the petals, they dim beneath a teary haze.

“I’m so proud of you…”