middleofsomewhere | Event: Abort! Part One

Event: Abort! Part One

Until now there has been one mission in every month. The practice in Apple and since then one for each month. So for those that have been on the train for a while they will be extremely surprised when on the twenty fifth day of the month of Egret their SCA’s glow gold and a hologram appears. Another mission.

Strange or not preparations need to be made, the voidtreckers are needed, strange timing or not.

Preperations

As promised the dressing room is open once again and there is a collection of leggings, shirts and tunics. All are in bold, differing shades of team colours and are made of sturdy material. There are a couple of cloaks, like those they wore in the goblin world they look medieval in style but will keep rain off as well as a modern raincoat.

As usual they have about an hour of preparation time, to gather supplies, get changed and help those who need more help disguising themselves to do so.

Arrival

”We are now approaching world#27462947582. Warning: Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four,” Hopefully even those who are new know to hold on or sit down by now. ”Three, two, one.” A jolt and a lurch and the void from outside the windows disappears to show green grass and a blue sky.

The Voidtrecker Express has landed in a small dip between two hills. Tall enough to mostly hide it and once everyone who wishes to disembarks it vanishes.

The voidtreckers, on climbing the hill, will find they are inside the city walls, just. Here it is mostly farmland still but as they move towards the centre there are more houses and things become more crowded and bustling. The city is big enough that an influx of strangers doesn’t turn many heads.

Their SCA has a map, red team’s has a marker for the northern gate, purple’s show the position of guard posts. Orange and Blue’s shows the main gates that lead out into the kingdom beyond.

Red Team

Getting to the northern gate doesn’t take all that much time and they are let out without much fuss, though fair warnings about the monsters out there. It is clear that though this city is nominally guarded and walled, it has been a long time since there has been war here and people can come and go as they wish.

The desert is, much as can be expected. It is more a scrub land rather than rolling dunes of sand but the land is cracked and dry. They have to move at least an hour away from the city before they come across any monsters at all.

When they do they are strange almost-boar looking creatures. They are vicious and will attack on sight, charging with huge tusks and teeth that are far too sharp to belong to a natural creature. They are clearly intelligent, even if they don’t seem to have language. But they never come across more than five at once and there doesn’t seem to be any movement of them towards the city.

Purple Team

The guard posts are only have a few guards there at any one time. Though questioning any of them the voidtreckers will learn that there are other guards in the city, ready to come to the defence of the walls if the alarm is ever sounded. Those on the walls are there to keep watch.

It might take a little bit of persuading but there isn’t a huge problem with purple team being allowed up onto the walls. As long as they don’t seem to be causing or bringing trouble.

The surrounding countryside is clear. To the north is the desert but to the east, west and south there are rolling hills of green. The kingdom that this city is part of.

For them it is a few hours of tedium and anticipation. Watching the landscape, waiting for a threat. The other soldiers are curious enough that they could be coaxed into conversation or a game of dice.

Blue Team and Orange Team

It is very difficult to convince a city full of people who have not known danger in a long time that they have to pack up and leave.

There are difficult shop keepers, confused farmers, worried parents.

Some are able to be ready quickly and so can follow the Blue team out of the southern gates. It might take more than one group, with a few blue team going with each one. The kingdom isn’t particularly dangerous but who knows when that may change. Keeping everyone together and moving will be the challenge here.

For Orange team there are plenty of logistical problems to get stuck into. Animals need moving, people need help packing or wrangling small children. Older people need help finding carts to ride.

Not to mention the very stubborn ones who will take a lot of persuading. Those who were on the goblin world have had practice in this already of course, and hopefully have tips to share.

(OOC: Information about this event is here)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She can definitely pick up on that emotion in his voice. It'd be hard not to, considering how close the two of them are right now. And the moment she hears it, her grip becomes just the tiniest bit tighter, determined to not let go of him now.

Because.. in a strange way, it's like a slight relief. Of course she doesn't like the fact that Ignis is hurting. She doesn't ever want either of her dads to have to feel bad, no matter how unrealistic that expectation is with the way life is. But if her papa has to feel bad at all, she's at least glad that he can show it around her right now. Ignis is so proper, which is generally a good thing, and so withdrawn, which is generally slightly less good, but Madoka knows it must mean he has to keep these sort of things to himself a lot. It's just like Raven said to her.

But that shouldn't have to be the case. Sure, she may be young, and she may be his daughter, but she wants to be there for him at moments like these. Madoka gently nuzzles her head against his shoulder just a little bit, trying to be as much of a comfort as she can in this situation.

"It's okay, papa.." She makes sure to keep her voice soft, not wanting to startle him too much while he's so emotional. "I know things must feel really not okay right now, but they're going to be okay in the end, one way or another. I have faith in it.."

If there's anyone on the train besides Tony that can humble Ignis fast, it's Madoka. She is the heart of the two of them and her care, kindness and compassion can bring him to his knees quick as she's doing right now. It isn't intentional, but she still has the ability.

A hot tear slid down his face as she said she had faith. Well if his daughter had trust in things turning out to be okay, then Ignis would put his hope in Madoka. He didn't have any of his own right now of course. "Yes of course." It was all he could think to say right now and he was so grateful that she was here with him right now.

And as loathe as he was to move, he swiftly brushed at his eyes under his glasses before pulling back to look at her. "Would you like to keep collecting shells, or would you like to see what is in town?"

Before..whatever happened here.

The moment he pulls back to look at her, Madoka makes sure to have the absolute warmest smile on her face. At least it's a lot easier to shove down her own worries and insecurities when she has to be there for someone else. She's so focused on Ignis and his wellbeing that all she can do is try to be as reassuring as possible for him.

"Let's go look and see what's in town."

Maybe that'll be a good distraction for him? She leans forward slightly to press a kiss onto her papa's cheek before taking his hand.

"Come on, let's go!"

He nodded, worried she might be getting cold as well. But then Madoka kissed him and it warmed his heart. So he took her hand and they walked towards town. The walk on the way looked pretty quiet and the two talked amicably as they ambled towards their destination.

Somewhere along the way, Ignis saw something of a shimmering light as the walked. A hand went up over his eyes and another woman appeared, this Lady with quite the regal bearing. The other one in the sea foam coloured silken dress on the beach did as well, but this one was definitely different.

His steps slowed and he let go of Madoka's hand for a moment as he got a better view. She wore a golden type crown with a white veil draped around it and her brown hair seemed to be pulled back, but he really couldn't tell if it was simply short or not. The rest of her outfit was white and she had a timeless classic look to her and the advisor couldn't find it in him to speak.

She held a peacock feather in her hand and spoke in the same language as the lady on the beach or so it sounded to Ignis. He couldn't understand what was being said, but suddenly she too disappeared and the peacock feather remained in his gloved hand. As his green eyes examined it, he took out the pink seashell he'd received on the beach.

What was going on??

Madoka may have been a little too distracted by the shells back there on the beach to have noticed what was happening there, but this time it's harder. After all, all her attention was on Ignis while they were walking and talking, so the girl can't help but be a little surprised when he suddenly lets go of her hand like that.

But when she notices what has captured his attention, she mostly just looks confused. She doesn't know who that lady is.. maybe just someone from this place? Madoka doesn't want to interrupt, feeling that it might be too rude, but a slight worried frown appears on her face anyway as she watches...

.. until the lady is suddenly gone.

"P.. Papa? What was that..?"

Gold glitter seemed to notate the Lady's leaving, kind of like the gold light that dimmed when Lady Lunafreya's life had left her. But he heard Madoka's voice which was a gentle shake out of wherever his head had just been.

Turning back to her, he shook his head. Why was he receiving gifts and kindness? He felt as if he deserved none of it. After all, the man he loved wasn't by his side so he wasn't sure what to do. However, his daughter was here with him and he showed her the feather.

"I don't quite know or understand. But it was the sort of same way I received the pink shell."

"It's pretty though.." She says while looking at the feather. It really does look like something you'd get from a randomly appearing mysterious person - like something that would happen in a fairytale. "Just like the shell."

(Granted, Madoka prefers the shell just because it's pink and she's very biased, but that doesn't mean she can't acknowledge the feather is pretty too.)

"Maybe there are people here who want to give you gifts..?" Even though she has no idea who that person just now was, especially with her suddenly disappearing like that.

Emerald eyes stared at the feather. "It is rather lovely. I have to wonder if it..well if it sort of means anything." This was a puzzle that Ignis was working out in his head, to figure out if they were symbols of anything.

Turning to Madoka, Ignis just blinked for a moment. "Gifts for what purpose I wonder." He didn't deserve gifts, especially after what happened not long ago. But still he sighed. "Whatever they're for..I suppose it's rather in bad taste to question them."

And that's when he looked pointedly at his daughter with a smile.

Madoka could suggest some ideas as to what the purpose of the gifts is. Or, well, mostly one. It seems a little farfetched, but who knows, maybe something in this place can sense that he's sad and could use a boost?

It's not something she wants to bring up out loud though. She doesn't want to make him sad all over again, after all, especially not when he's showing her a smile like right now. So Madoka just smiles right back up at him.

"Maybe they're just giving you gifts since they know you're great," she instead opts for, adding a bit of a giggle to show she's lightly teasing. (Though the compliment itself is entirely genuine, of course.)

Ignis smiled, delighted that his daughter missed the point of his pointed stare about gifts. She was after all one of the greatest gifts that he'd ever received. He laughed however at her words. "Yes I suppose that's true." He'd decided to try to mimic Tony here, but seriously there were times he downright wondered how their whole bed wasn't taken up with Tony and his ego.

It felt like their time to chatter was dwindling so Ignis nodded. "Let's go find something to eat at least before our mission starts." Feeding people was important, and where Madoka was concerned, it was more so.

Yup, that most certainly went about fifteen miles over her head.. It's not that she doesn't at least know she means a lot to Ignis - she does! - but it's just hard to understand that joke when thinking of herself as a gift is still so far off with Madoka's terrible sense of self worth...

This joke, however, Madoka instantly gets. It's just a side-effect of spending any time at all with Tony. It makes her smile and grab Ignis' free hand.

"Okay. Let's go, papa."

His thoughts were interrupted by the smile and his hand being taken. Well time to shake off the darker mood and just try and be with his daughter. Half of him still wished Tony was with them, even if just for Madoka's sake. The two of them should be spending time like this together too. But it wasn't like that and he had to suck it up.

So they meandered down to a little shop and Ignis grabbed a menu for Madoka. Handing it to her, he nodded. "Get whatever you'd like."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event: Abort! Part One

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject