Singularity

"Singularity" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread started on [IRL DATE] and finished on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Green silk wrapped around him in protection. Small hooves inspected his face. Dark wings obstructed the sky above. Familiar voices reached his ears, but they were murmured, unclear, inaudible. 
A veil covered all his senses, and no matter how hard he tried, he drifted further into unconsciousness as the final sparks of magic dissipated from the tips of his fallen fingers.
—
The soft white scenery before him was a stark, yet welcome contrast from the heavy darkness he had been in mere moments ago. Hazy shapes of rolling hills stood in the distance, varying amongst different light hues, in pastels and desaturated greys, as a flat surface of water stretched in between like a mirror. Juro stood on top of it, unsinking and alone, his usual layers absent and dressed in simple cotton garb, feet bare and forming small ripples every time he moved.
It was quiet. Comforting.
There was a tiny sound of a droplet into a puddle, then a familiar, ancient, dearly missed voice from behind him, “おかえりなさい, 鶴ちゃん。”
He slowly turned to face the two people that appeared, although he didn’t need to. He knew exactly who they were without even looking. His amber eyes glistened so brightly, a lump in his throat growing as he tried to form his words.
One step. Then another. It was a careful approach that was too afraid to make sudden movements, lest it sent them away when he least wanted it to.
“Jii-jii… Jurou-san…” his voice was tight, feeling somewhat like Yun as his chest was overwhelmed with a multitude of emotions that he couldn’t put any names to. He reached out with a trembling hand, and both Elder and Mentor took it with familiar lopsided grins dancing on their faces.
“I’m sorry we left you alone, Little Crane…” Roku said, his brow knitted slightly with guilt, “You suffered for so long by yourself…”
Juro inhaled sharply, shaking his head, “It… it’s not your fault! I was the one who didn’t listen and trusted the wrong person. I knew how dangerous this magic is, and I couldn’t control myself and it ended up ki–” He gasped, unable to speak the words out loud. His Mentor let his hand go with a sad sigh, and placed it on top of his bowed head, one of the few people who ever towered over his lanky height and made him seem small.
“It was nobody’s fault but your abusers, Jin. They were evil, cruel people who took advantage of you, and you took all of the pain in silence,” Jurou spoke quietly, “We tried our best, but in the end we couldn’t do much for you. Our biggest regret was leaving you behind…”
Roku pulled the anguished man closer to him, coming only up to his chin in his old age, “We had hoped you would find liberty and hope despite our absence, and know your self worth, but…”
“I lost my way…” Juro rasped, knowing.
Jurou tightened his grip on his student’s head, wrapping him in a one handed hug as the Elder also placed a secure arm around the Bookkeeper’s shoulders, “You did, for a while…” They stayed in embrace like that for a moment.
“But now you found it again…” 
A teal thread slowly appeared, floating and twisting around them as a whole, the end of the line trailing away from them and fading into the distance, like a compass, a path to follow home.
Former Bookkeepers carefully let him go, stepping away from him. Juro tried to stay with them, but something pulled him back, gliding serenely on the tensed surface, the distance between them increasing.
“They’re good people, Little Crane. Let yourself live as you want to. Don’t hold yourself back anymore.” Juro called for them, but they were too far now.  Their final words were full of love, and happiness for him.
“Goodbye, Shou Lao Jin.”
—
His hand found wood as the last breaths of their names died on his lips, long slender hands clutched against the ink stained grains of a Bookkeeper table. Juro lifted his head, taking in the new scenery he was in, a familiar underground office that was set within the hills of Hakata, owned and used frequently by an Elder during his mundane bookkeeping days. The edges of the room faded into white, the ground still dipped in the same mirror-like surface, books and scrolls scattered in haphazard piles, reminiscent of his own organizational system.
Juro exhaled shakily, forlorn and bittersweet, yet happy with the encounter. He recognized pen and ink and journal from his childhood, some of which he had used, but mostly not as they belonged to the rest of his family, the Bookkeepers.
He felt a presence behind him again, and he made to turn, but he was stopped by a pale, ink stained hand on the back of his shoulder.
“Stay, Juro.”
His brow creased as he recognized his own voice, then he understood. He pressed his lips together, “You’re me. Your chain broke.”
It was a moment before the quiet reply, “…yes.”
His shoulders sagged with deep regret, “I–”
“Please don’t.” More broken Bookkeepers appeared. They watched the Original, kindness and understanding emanating from them, “It’s unfortunate, but… we have no regrets. We lived and we learned and we wrote, and we are grateful to you.”
They dissolved, fading into white in succession, “Live well.”
Juro whirled around as the last dredges of their forms dissipated. Through the fading light stepped another figure, another Bookkeeper, one hand coming up to tuck a long fringe under his ear as mirrored souls observed each other in their bright surroundings.
It was J who spoke first, brow furrowed moodily, “Why could I not tell Yun that you could control it if you tried?”
The silence was tense for a while, amber warring with amber, before Juro slowly replied, “It was an enchantment.” He leaned against the edge of Roku’s table, fingers woven and clasped before him, “I was unaware that I even did it… but I subconsciously cast it so that we would all forget that it was possible.”
“Why?” J’s voice was even.
“Because…” Juro hesitated, “Because I didn’t want to help myself. I felt that this was the only way for me to exist, and I wasn’t worth any other way. I thrived in the loneliness. It’s what I thought I deserved.”
Quiet fell around them again as Juro avoided his alternate self’s gaze. It was a few moments before J shifted in his spot, “I understand.”
Juro looked up to see his soft, familiar smirk back at him, blonde locks falling loosely over slanted eyes. J tilted his head, a finger placed on his lips in thought, “I would have done the same thing.”
“I’m waking up now. I have something very important to tell someone,” he turned on his heel after a while, and approached the door at the far side that Juro didn’t notice before. He stopped before passing the threshold, adjusting the scarf around his shoulder, “Thank you, to you and Yun, for saving us.” He glanced back with a grateful smile, then left.
Juro wasn’t sure how much time ticked by when Rou appeared before him.
The half-bare Bookkeeper came right up to him, leaning in far too close for comfort as a crane embroidered robe slipped off his shoulders, “I’ve always wondered how it is to get with my clone.”
Juro blinked, then chuckled, unable to help himself. He was slowly coming to understand who he was bound to meet in this dream space, and began to slip back into his charming demeanour, yet now it was more genuine than a facade. Perhaps it was because he was talking to himself, in a sense.
“I do not. At all,” he gently pushed Rou back by the shoulder, widening the gap between them by a little, “Are you waking up soon?”
Lined amber eyes met with his. Rou’s face split into an intoxicating smile, “Yes. I have visitors that I very rudely kicked out. I…” he paused, “I’m going outside to find them. I can now.”
Juro’s mouth opened slightly, before his face split into a wider smirk, “Of course.”
Rou returned the grin, then disappeared.
Seconds and minutes were irrelevant as more of himself appeared in the liminal space.
A hooded Bookkeeper stood very tall and serious, merely announcing his intentions then leaving immediately. One with extremely platinum hair and an unsettling smile asked of Yun’s condition, then disappeared. Next was a blindfolded man, who spoke to him with the prettiest tones, ringing low and clear even in the small confines of the pseudo-Library. Then another who was identical, save for the blindfold, and replaced with heavy circles under his eyes instead–Juro sent him off with some amused concern. A pirate, then a nix, and a very tall, majestic crane half breed. A very enthusiastic, well kept Bookkeeper holding a pastry in his hand as a gift, promising more extensive lists of a bakery menu for the database. He could’ve also sworn he saw one with tears spilling down his cheeks out of the corner of his eye, but that version was gone before he could speak to him.
Laughter rang out in his little room as twin sets of feet pattered on the mirrored floor. They took each of his hands in theirs, their boyish faces wide with excited grins.
“Will Yun come to visit?”
“Will he come see us?”
Juro squeezed their hands in reply, a small smile dancing on his, “I’m sure he would.”
Jin and Ren nodded, satisfied, then went back out the door they came from, each receiving a gentle pat on the head with slender hands swathed in the finest silk robes as they passed. He approached Juro, slow and elegant, long hair tied loosely over his shoulder as he regarded the Original over thin spectacles.
“Lao Jin,” the Emperor smiled.
“Lao Ren,” Juro returned.
“Your Milae is waiting.”
“So is yours.”
A small laugh escaped their lips.
“I will be taking my leave, then,” the Emperor’s voice was tender, as he, too, vanished.
The quiet that remained was present, not heavy, but it was difficult to ignore. He didn’t meet them all, for more than half of the millions were duplicates, offshoots, the same soul with a slightly different path. Still, he was visited by many.
There was one more left.
“You’re the last one.”
Juro’s tone was low, careful, but gentle, and kind, and melancholy. He was staring at his hands as a black combat boot came into his peripheral, and his face twisted into a small smile, lifting his head slowly as amber locked with amber.
They stood across from each other, nearly identical at first glance, although Jin was a touch more slender and a touch less rough. The Original and the Worst, Bookkeepers at opposite ends of the multiverse, yet the most similar to each other amongst any of their alternate selves.
“I’m sor–” Juro attempted to speak, but Jin tilted his head in interruption. The corner of the former’s mouth quirked up, and stopped his thought there. There was no need for any form of apology, from anyone.
It was Jin who broke the silence this time, “How’s Yun?”
“He’s resting.”
The sniper’s shoulders relaxed, crooked grin wide on his face, no longer hiding his fondness for the seidkonur, “Did he kick her ass?”
“…yes.”
“Was he cool?”
Juro nodded, returning the smirk, “Very much so.”
Jin hummed in satisfaction. Then he asked, “Are you waking up soon?”
The Original raised a brow. He was the first to ask him, instead of the other way around. Juro lowered his lashes as he spoke, “I don’t know if I can…“ Faded lines ran up his right side.
"Don’t give me that shit.” It was curt, “I didn’t come here to see you give up on yourself again. Not after the incredible stunt you and Yun just pulled.”
Juro silently pressed his lips together as the sniper continued with a stubborn smirk, “I’m not waking up until you do. And you know Yun will be extremely upset if I don’t, so you better get your crap together.”
He laughed genuinely, his voice clear within the silence of the dreamscape, “Yes sir.”
“Good. I’ll be waiting,” Jin’s voice echoed as their surroundings intensified, brighter and brighter until Juro’s vision went completely, overwhelmingly white, and they all disappeared.
—
He wasn’t quite out of unconsciousness just yet, he could tell. There was a tent, several cots, the touch of borrowed clothes on his skin as he rested, the fatigue in his entire left side laying very heavily on him, while feeling absolutely nothing on his right. His ears picked up on sounds, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what they were.
Save for a single voice, twanging in Wildersouth Caprinae accents.
“Really a fuckin’ mess, ya are. I’ll take care of it. Just say hi to Goat Dude for me.”
Then she was no more.