[text] @keeper; cw: character death [open]

[beaconkeeper]

Heyyy everybody. I'm the LH Keeper. I know you guys probably got some questions for me but like sit tight first OK? I promise I'll answer eeeeverything you wanna know in just a sec. There's a couple things I wanna say.

The first one being, hi! I'm Robin. It's SO good to finally get to chat with you all, like jeez I've been hella bored over here. That party you guys just put on looked really fun. :( I'm sad I missed it! But that's kinda how it goes when you're the Keeper. Rastus said there's been a lot of talk about like fulfilling our roles and stuff, and this is mine! I'm in the lighthouse because it let's me do a bunch of stuff to manage the town and help keep the world safe, but it means I'm stuck out here all by myself and I don't get to do the fun stuff I want to do sometimes. Which is why I'm so so SO happy that you guys and gals got me hooked up to the network again! Thank you so much!!! ❤❤❤

Oh right, and you guys have had a lot of questions about what I'm protecting the town from, haven't you? Me and Will talked and he's super sure it's best if HE gives you the skinny on all that since he said he would and he wants to make good on his promise, you feel? So he's gonna do that after the ferry gets here so all the new people can get the info too. Sound good? Sorry you gotta wait just a liiiittle bit longer but there's something else I think we should talk about first...

The forest spirits are still reporting the numbers so I don't know exactly how many we're up to yet but... A lot of people went missing and probably died from how things went down after the party. I'll put all the names in the next bulletin (sorry I didn't do one this week btw! things have been kinda crazy...) but if you want to ask about your friends and stuff in the meantime, I'll do my best to tell you what I know. Maybe some of them will come back? We just have to wait and see.

But... you guys probably saw this in that post Rosinante and Riku and Peter did, but just in case you didn't: Captain Winters died, and so did Five. I didn't see what happened exactly but I saw the spirits starting to come for them all and I tried to stop them but they didn't listen. They get really angry about people coming to the lighthouse or me trying to leave, even the ones that are usually really nice.

I hope they'll both come back but I don't know if they will, so, just in case... Winters would want you all to take care of the town for him and move on you know? He won't be around when the ferry comes so make sure you all fill the new people in on what's happened and how to survive here. All that really important stuff he's been telling people is up to you guys to spread around now.

*BIG SIGH* OK WELL I don't want to end on that super negative note but now I'm all sad sooo ask me questions and stuff, and Will will tell everyone about what I'm keeping the town safe from real soon. It really is nice to meet you all!!

Comments

[beaconkeeper]

I mean, I wasn't hiding!

[The lighthouse beacon flashes once.]

[evulsed]

[ his eyes cut to the lighthouse from where he sits on the roof of the boathouse and don't leave until he starts typing again ]

You're the one pulling the strings around here, aren't you?

[beaconkeeper]

Uh, I guess? That's a way to put it, but I don't have control over EVERYTHING.

I didn't kidnap you and bring you here, if that's where this is going. Let me just nip that in the bud.

[evulsed]

You know what's going on. You're watching us. You control the resets. You can talk to the spirits.

You might have inherited your power but that doesn't change that you hold it all.

[beaconkeeper]

That doesn't mean I'm pulling the strings. It means I can see the strings and pluck them occasionally.

Buuuut tomato tomato, as they say. Lucky for you guys, we're all on the same team. I'm gonna use the power I have to help all of us.

[evulsed]

Are we?

You've killed everyone that came before us.

Sounds to me like you're on your own side.

cw mention of animal death, of all things

[beaconkeeper]

*BIG SIGH* OK sometimes being the Lighthouse Keeper is like reliving the trolley problem over and over again. Are you familiar with that one?

And sometimes it's like having a really old dog that you love a lot, but she can't live forever, and she's hurting and doesn't have a good life anymore. Sometimes the resets are a mercy kill.

[evulsed]

Never heard of it.

Mercy killing? Winters didn't make it seem that way.

How are we supposed to do what you want us to do if you don't tell us how to do it?

How do you know Light should be brought back to begin with?

All things return to the Dark. Maybe you should just accept this is the way things are, now.

[beaconkeeper]

The trolley problem is like... Okay, so you've got this train speeding along out of control on these tracks, and up ahead there's five people tied to the tracks. They're gonna get run over and killed by the train unless you do something.

But the only thing you can do is redirect the train onto a set of tracks with just one person tied to it.

So, like, the idea is, you either do nothing and a lot of people die, but you didn't interfere with the situation and like play God. Or, you can make the decision to just kill the one person and spare the five, but then you have to live with having chosen someone's fate.

There's no winning, is what I'm saying. Every time I do a reset, it's me making that decision. It sucks. I don't LIKE it, despite what some of you are implying! What the hell did Winters say to you guys???

But... That's something I've considered! But what does "should" even mean in this scenario? It's just the trolley problem again. Either we accept our fate and let stuff die or we make sacrifices to see if we can eventually break off the track entirely.

[evulsed]

He told us that you let us live as long as we're useful to you.

But maybe it doesn't matter. Darkness isn't something that can be defeated entirely. You can push it down, but it never goes away. Why fight it?

[beaconkeeper]

Oh! That's not how I would phrase it, but I see what he meant.

For reasons Will is gonna get into later, if you guys are gonna be in town, you have to, like, keep making progress! IDEALLY that's figuring out how to relight the world, buuuut I'd be happy with just figuring out a way to get me out of the lighthouse and finding a way for us to live here peacefully. This is better than no life, isn't it? I think so.

Well... We can live here in darkness, for sure! But there's other stuff (THE WILL THING AGAIN, SORRY!!) preventing us from just happily carrying on like this forever, and besides, there's gotta be SOME light. Like the bonfire and our lanterns. It's not ideal, but we can make it work.

I think we might have different definitions of "darkness" though. I literally just mean, like, how there's no light around.

[evulsed]

No. We're talking about the same thing.

[ But darkness, literally and figuratively, and inextricably woven together in Vanitas' world. ]

You have light in that tower of yours.

Is that why you stay there?

Is that where it comes from?

[beaconkeeper]

Huh. I guess.

Anyway, yeah, the lighthouse beacon is my lantern these days. I can't leave because the forest spirits won't let me, but mostly because I'd just straight up die if I went too far.

[evulsed]

Your lantern is that bright?

Why won't they let you leave?

[beaconkeeper]

It wasn't always. It just is now since it's, like, in the lighthouse. Or is the lighthouse. Idk, whatever you want to call it. I don't really know how it works, exactly.

I'm not allowed to leave because the town will fall apart without someone in the lighthouse. Like, permanently. The world will literally end! That would be bad news for them.

[evulsed]

And you don't think that's better than an eternity of loneliness in that lighthouse?

You say you want out, but I'm not sure I believe you.

[beaconkeeper]

Well, that's the thing. I don't want to be trapped in here forever. I don't want the town to NEED that, you know? We won't need a lighthouse or a Keeper anymore if we can figure out a way to bring the light back.

Or IDK do something else altogether. There has to be a way to get me outta here without it compromising everyone else.

But in the meantime? I'll stay here and do my job like I'm supposed to. I'm not gonna throw everyone under the bus just because I'm bored.

[evulsed]

You can always trick someone into taking your place.

That's what the last one did to you, isn't it?

[beaconkeeper]

Well, not really. He didn't trick me into anything. I wanted it.

It's not his fault I didn't really understand what I was getting into. But, even then, I stand by my decision. This is better than being dead full-stop, which is what would've happened had I not taken up the mantle.

That's also what would happen if someone took my place. I either do this or I die, so I choose this.

[evulsed]

Until the light is brought back.

Won't you just die anyway when the lighthouse isn't needed anymore?

[beaconkeeper]

I guess that's possible, but I'm more of an optimist. If we manage to find a way to bring the light back, I'm sure we'll be able to spring me outta this lighthouse, too.

That's what I'm counting on, anyway.