after vivarium

[fairsfair]

after vivarium!

It may have been weeks, months, or even years, but finally, everyone makes it out of the warehouse just fine. The authorities have broken in and let everyone out, or maybe the characters managed to escape on their own. Either way, Zero and Calhoun vanish without a trace and they still haven't been caught to this day. It's infuriating, but the important part is that they're now free. What exactly entrails after that ending though? How to Play: ✖ Make a top-level comment, either blank or filled with some info/prose. ✖ Tag others, whether it's shortly after the escape or much later. ✖ Action, text, video, whatever, it's all good. ✖ Have multiple threads? ✖ Done!

Comments

Jake Muller

[fairsfair]

[ Jake doesn't exactly... have anyone waiting for him on the other side, so like a loser, he's on his own after they leave the warehouse. Stand awkwardly in the midst of family members or something, but back to merc business with him. Feel free to text the loser, but he'll wonder how the hell you got his phone number in the first place (Hershel you better have not given his number out to people). Also idk he travels a lot so maybe he's in YOUR COUNTRY for some reason, hello??? ]

hmm yes a text out of nowhere

[detectiveofthewest]

hi jake

wow it took me a little while to find this one, good job

number 1

[puzzlinglad]

[Hershel was excited about this, so sue him, rocking on his feet at the train station as he waited for Jake to get there. It was cold, there were snow flurries and christmas music filtered through the area and people in long coats- pretty much as London Christmas as you could get. There were roasted chestnut carts on street corners. Imagine.

It was also pretty much the only time of year Jake came reliably around, hence the excitement. Christmas miracles and all. It was probably a couple of years after the warehouse so guess who was now the strapping twenty year old? This guy. Basically he was a little taller, shock of shocks. He actually aged unlike some people who won't be named.

He rubbed his hands together, breathing on them lightly to keep warm. Hurry the heck up, Jake, he had places to be.]

number 2

[puzzlinglad]

You know you never did tell me what your birthday is.

[and then a follow up a few seconds later:]

I'm not making a joke about your age either so don't be cross!

[not_that_sasuke]

[Heiji might be able to help out with this, but Jake is a far surer bet.

If he answers his texts in a timely manner anyway...]

This is Sasuke. Do you know how to defuse a bomb?

[Please, please, please answer soon.]

[vengefulyears]

[Suddenly Jake will get a series of texts from his most favorite person in the world while he's visiting Hershel for Christmas.]

jake!!!! it's clive :) happy christmas

i heard you're in town visiting your boyfriend, i was supposed to head over to his place too but i'm sick

so i thought i'd just graciously warn you to brace yourself for next year ;)

[blind_badass]

*Here, Jake, have a voice-to-text message.* --Got your number from Hershel. I do hope you are well. Also if you're anywhere near Seattle, I'll give you all the free coffee you can drink.--

uh does this work lmk

[skyentificmethod]

[there is a small cafe at the edge of the historic section of istanbul; nothing fancy, but it's inexpensive, out of the midday sun, and offers a great turkish coffee. ema's made a habit of stopping by afternoons and today's no different, except how when she approaches her regular table it is occupied by a leatherfaced young old man she hasn't spoken with in forever and seen in longer than that. and after an adequate amount of gawping she pulls together something to say]

...That's my seat.

Heiji

[detectiveofthewest]

After a relatively brief up to a year or so of dealing with reporters and family members and so on, Heiji opted to apply to a university in Washington state, where he'd already planned to take a rather eclectic variety of courses in psychology, physical science, and international law.

...But he still went home to Osaka for every long break, and made a point of keeping in contact with the others.

[blind_badass]

*Hope you don't mind a phone call at a random time of day! But maybe those times are special because that's when Snake calls.* Good...whatever it is over there, Heiji.

[not_that_sasuke]

[Sasuke was practically dragged off by a boy the same age who looked alarmingly like him (hmm, who could that have been?) though not so quickly that others wouldn't have had the chance to stop him for a chat. It seems like there's a group of people waiting for him, all in such plain, regular clothing, it's hard to make much note of them.

It takes some time, but he does eventually get back into contact with the others - either through letters if he has a physical address, or texts from a number that always seems to change. At least he has the sense to apologize and give his name whenever he gets a new phone for... whatever reason.

He's pretty tight-lipped about what's going on in his life, but with enough warning in advance, he may be able to meet up with the others should they wish to visit the Tokyo area.]

[detectiveofthewest]

sasuke come visit during golden week

[blind_badass]

*There's no name on this text but it's easy to tell who it is.*

I do hope your family is treating you well. Clover said it's not too late for you to move to Seattle and change your last name to Averly.

Hershel Layton

[puzzlinglad]

[Hershel, the exciting asshole that he is, got to go home to SCHOOL so he could learn archeology and things. He tried to keep his head down about whatever reporter hype there was, easier said than done but hey, he could dream. He even has a dorm and a weird roommate who would one day have a very cute son named Luke Triton and everything, what a life.

The point of this boring tag is you can bet your ass he's keeping in contact. People coming to visit? All about it. Visiting people? All about it.]

like two years later when they're in college or something

[detectiveofthewest]

Heiji's letter read as follows:

Dear Hershel:

I hope this letter finds you well. I'm writing to you about a rather odd series of events that I thought you might have some insight into.

Nah, I'm just kiddin'. I heard one of the professors at your university disappeared suspiciously so I'm coming over for break! Meet me at the train station at 2:15 on the 5th!

[not_that_sasuke]

[They had already made plans to meet up during Hershel's visit to Tokyo, but it isn't until later on that Sasuke is able to dig up some definite information. The text he sends is short, and from a number that Hershel won't know, but he can probably guess easily enough who it is.]

I found a place you might be interested in visiting in Tokyo.

It looks like the people there were her friends.

[He won't specify who. But who else could he be talking about?]

because we didn't have enough threads going on

[fairsfair]

[ assume this is some years later when hershel is well into his college years. jake doesn't have work for another month, so he figured that spending time with hershel was a good way to pass some time. of course, that isn't so easy to do when there're classes to attend to, but no worries there. jake will just follow hershel to a lecture or two. he hasn't been in a classroom environment since he dropped out of high school (merc business kind of does that), so this is a nice start again. ]

[ ... if this wasn't so boring holy shit. ]

[ with arms crossed, he leans over to hershel and whispers: ]

Just how long is this?

i have no fucking patience to wait for a thread to end so here

[fairsfair]

[ Another year, another Christmas break. Last year, it was something about Hershel's insecurity over his hat and some nonsense. This year, it was probably going to be something else. Jake can't really look into the future and he isn't a master at predicting things, but he kind of had an idea what would happen. Losing a leg kiiiind of made new conversations with old friends predictable. ]

[ Throwing his bag over his shoulder, he grabs both crutches and makes his way carefully off the train. Since it's a somewhat recent injury, he hasn't really done much besides grab himself a pair of these so time to see Hershel and prepare for motherhen clucking. ]

Hey, long time no see.

[ hahaha trying to act like nothing is wrong ]

Some time later...

[blind_badass]

*It was quite an honor to be allowed to go to Oxford for a physics symposium, with him as just the lowly post-doctoral PhD of the group. At the same time, it did give him a chance to visit Hershel and Clive. Also, England was so very civilized. He couldn't wait to share a proper tea time with Hershel.*

some years later i guess idk

[skyentificmethod]

[communications from ema were never particularly regular, the odd email or postcard interrupting long, long stretches of radio silence. so maybe it's a surprise when there's a knock on the door and it's a visitor with pink glasses and a bottle of something]

Happy birthday?

[is it even the right season for this, should she have brought a pizza, is he even wearing pants, it is a mystery]

3AM text notif

[skyentificmethod]

i think it would be like really awesome if scientist could genetically engineer manatees to be like the size of goldfish so i could have one in my fishbowl and be like FUCK YEAH TINY MANATEE

3:02AM text message

[fairsfair]

okay you know what. iPhones need to stop autocorrecting all my fucks into ducks. it's making all my strong worded texts look harmless and adorable and i got something important to send to someone at 3 in the morning without this garbage

ps: ema is one shit drinking partner

Clive Dove

[vengefulyears]

[Not long after escaping the warehouse, Clive dives right back into work, but now he has even more to do than ever. On top of continuing where he left off investigating into the matter of his parents' death, he also has to hunt down any leads regarding Zero's whereabouts, the true meaning behind the Nonary Game and why they were chosen as test subjects in the first place, whether or not the quarantined subjects are still alive, and oh right, he also has to write and publish that article detailing his experiences in the warehouse and exposing all the terrible shit that Zero did to them, along with all the other articles he has to pump out on a regular basis in order to keep his job.

Basically he is working pretty much all the time, to the point that the only people he spends time with on a regular basis are coworkers or other people who are helping him with his work. Sometimes he'll even ignore texts, not return missed calls or intentionally ignore his phone altogether simply because he doesn't have the energy or time to dedicate to miscellaneous conversations. Even Hershel and Alfendi will have a hard time trying to see Clive in person - well, maybe Alfendi will have better luck since he's probably doing about the same thing Clive is and they can meet up semi-frequently to compare findings/help each other out, but otherwise yeah. Even if you just go directly to his mansion, he won't even be there most of the time.

TL;DR CLIVE IS PRETTY HARD TO GET A HOLD OF, HAVE FUN TRYING]

[puzzlinglad]

[This was the third time Hershel tried finding Clive this week- trips to his mansion proved fruitless, visiting his work didn't pan out. He finally tried Clive's workplace again, and only after pleading with a more sympathetic coworker to help him find the other man was he allowed into Clive's office.

His exasperation was palpable.] There you are, you've been ignoring your phone again. [He came in, a bag of some sort in hand. He placed it on Clive's desk where there was room, pulling out a wrapped up sandwich.] Here, you need to eat.

[He's pretty sure Clive hasn't been properly, so there you go.]

Snake

[blind_badass]

*After taking a month to be with his family, Snake took up the thesis for his PhD from scratch, concentrating more on the physics of sound. As to where he'd ultimately start his career in physics...it depended on Heiji. Wherever he went, Snake would be too. So while also working on his thesis, he was studying Japanese.

*He'd most likely shared his numbers with the others and could certainly read e-mails and texts with his text-to-voice software. He also didn't mind trips to visit those closest to him.*

let's do it let's do the space needle

[detectiveofthewest]

As they rode the lift ever upward, Heiji leaned over to watch the skyline fall away from them. He rested his chin on Snake's shoulder as he did so. The gesture was easy, natural, and never mind that only a few years ago, Heiji would never have even considered it.

"This is pretty neat, but I don't see why we had to dress up to see it. It's not like there's a press party or anything."