Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

Thank you.

For those inside the system the voices of the Great-Seasons ring out around them once the red mass has vanished and the blue plinth it was smothering is freed once more. They don't have all that much time to reflect on that before they find themselves waking up once more in their bodies around the tree trunks.

Or at least, around the tube that is the Great-Season they entered through. All illusions have vanished now, all that is left are pipes and metal.

The Great-Seasons allow them passage out from the centre, no sentries or pipes attack them this time. Everything seems to have been put to rights, the walls in the Autumn sector have stopped moving, there is no strange weather effects in the Summer Sector, no engineering problems in Winter and all the camaloid creatures in Spring are calm. Any Helpmates they come across are doing their jobs and no longer malfunctioning.

After a small amount of time, enough to check that all is well, their SCA's light up. All Passengers are to return to the Voidtrecker Express.

Considering the vast distances involved it is probably best that they use the evacuation function to return to the Luggage carriage.

Once all Voidtreckers have returned the train returns to the Void once more.

Comments

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Hmm?" Koumyou yawns into one hand and straightens up, before reaching to take Dev's arm down and start rubbing it between his bony hands under the water.

He's actually pretty decent at massage, even half-awake.

"I've always been bad about dozing off in the water," the priest tells him as he works, "Kouryuu was always worried I'd drown when I took a soak."

[bakegarasu]

He takes a step back, clutching his chest. Breathing is hard, sucking air in through his nose in short little bursts. His body feels prickly, like there's static in the connection between his soul and his body. He can feel his body shaking slightly, trying to hold it together. As much as he trusts Soldat, he still can't fall apart. It's not Acceptable.

"... Miss... him. But... don't want... to feel this... anymore." He can't cry. Not here, and he's not sure he's got any tears left in him. "If I... forget him... he's gone... but... why does thinking about him... hurt so much? He... he's dead. I... need to just get over... it..." He winces again as he feels his chest squeeze.

[subcircuits]

Oh. Oh. That feels quite nice. Devero lounges right back against the edge of the pool, humming a pleased sound in the back of his throat.

He cracks his eyes back open to watch Koumyou. "He was worrying after you? That's..." He about to say really adorable, but before he can, the memory of how upset Rich was with him that... that night... intrudes.

The pause is noticeable before he says, "What a good kid."

[sciencegirl]

"I couldn't be sure. What are your theories so far about it?"

She's been around, what, less than a month? She's barely got the chassis for her chores robot built. She still hasn't weeded through all the information yet. But Kaiba? He's been around for a while.

It makes it even more important that they record everything they can in these new worlds.

"Last guy I met that wanted to destroy everything said he wanted it in the name of 'peace'."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"He was always fussing over me," Koumyou confirms, noticing the pause but not sure what to make of it. More awake now, his massage actually just improves. Knowledge of pressure-points and how tendons and ligaments move is useful for this, too, and he doesn't really have to think about it.

After all, seiho is just another aspect of goho and juho.

"He was the best kid, but I'm very biased."

[nutkrusher]

"How about we set a date, then?" Cassie says. "Plan it out properly. Not that I don't love how we're usually spontaneous about it, but...I think it'd be fun."

[subcircuits]

That's all right, Koumyou, Dev doesn't know what to make of this yet either. Something for him to chew over.

"Of course you are," Devero says. "If I had a kid I loved as much as you love Kouryuu, I know I'd think they was the best kid too."

If Devero had thought he was relaxed before, Koumyou is rapidly proving him wrong. His arm is going limp in Koumyou's hands in the very best way, and he's definitely making the occasionally involuntary little sound of pleasure as the priest's strong fingers work his muscles.

[subcircuits]

By the time Soldat registers who it was who'd been leaning over them, Devero is no longer leaning over them. As soon as he saw the blade come out he'd backed adroitly off, and he stands with his hands up at chest height, palms out.

"Didn't mean to startle you," he says once Soldat seems to actually be seeing him and not a threat. "Sorry about that; should have thought twice. I just thought you might want to move back to your cabin if you need some shut-eye."

[subcircuits]

"Japanese?" he repeats curiously as he settles himself across the pool from the other man. "Is that where you're from?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou... hesitates for a second at that word. But only for a second, and then he's back to digging his callused fingertips in just so. Here and here, press and rotate and drag. Without having to think about it, the priest finds a knot and digs a knuckle in to release it.

"...Yeah."

Not gonna deny that word, even if he can't... use it so freely.

And he finally notices Devero's reaction to his work with an amused, fond chuckle. "You're turning into putty, Dev-chan."

[subcircuits]

Yeah, he's not convinced by that smile. "'Shouldn't be a problem' and 'isn't a problem' can be two different things, sometimes," he says. "It's okay to take as much time as you need to process what you're feeling, especially if what you learned was a shock."

[magicurls]

"I just hope other people aren't...scared of me."

She takes a deep breath and looks up at him, wondering. He's a stranger to her, but would he understand...?

"Well. I don't keep it a secret that I'm a magical girl. I use my powers to heal and protect, and that's important with how quickly people get hurt."

She folds her hands, the gem returning to ring form on her finger with a soft swirl of yellow magic. She lifts a brow, as if noticing how strange that is for the first time.

"But what was secret even from me was that I gave up more than I thought to become this...of course saving myself from death would have a price. And I didn't, not really."

[subcircuits]

Good thing he's got Devero around to say it for him, as often as it needs to be said. Devero just smiles, as if satisfied with that response.

"Mm, and you're the one doing it to me, Hoshi-kun," he says, opening one drowsy eye back up a crack to watch his boyfriend as he experimentally drops that last bit. "I had no idea massage therapy one of the skills you learned at Sanzo school."

[subcircuits]

As she starts to talk, Devero settles in, shifting from his crouch to sitting with legs crossed beneath him.

He doesn't know what a magical girl is, that's a context that's lost on him, but he's gotten a lot more comfortable with the idea of magical folk in general in his time spent here. So he bobs his head a little, to show that he's following her so far.

His eyes flick to that little magical display, then back up to her. "What was the price?" he prompts her gently.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Goho is hard technique, like punches, chops, kicks. Juho is soft technique, like grapples, pins, throws. And Seiho," Koumyou emphasizes the word as he digs a knuckle into another knot, "is the use of those very same skills in healing technique. Same pressure points, same tendons, same muscles."

Context is key!

"If they didn't teach us how to do this, too, we'd have been too crippled by training to do anything at all."

[subcircuits]

"Goho, juho, seiho," Devero repeats. Koumyou's told him a little about the first two, but seiho is a new one to him. And just like everything to do with Koumyou, he wants to know and understand it.

He actually groans as Koumyou digs at the knotted muscle in his forearm. "I think I like seiho the best out of the three," he says, letting his head fall back against the tile rim of the pool. "Makes me want to start training in the martial arts you know, just to pick this part up."

[magicurls]

"My soul."

It's a somber, final statement. She's grimly resigned to her half-existence now .

"I didn't even feel it happening, but my partner took my soul and transformed it into this." A gesture at the ring. "Only magic is holding my body together now. Everything that I am is in this ring...and if it breaks, I die. I'm not sure if even the train can revive me..."

That's something to ask the doctors to speculate on, maybe. "All I wanted was to keep living..it didn't work out too well."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou's quiet at that. But his hands haven't stopped moving, and it's a thoughtful quiet.

"...Do you really want to learn the kinds of things I know?"

[worthallthis]

The tiny knife promptly disappears again into a pocket, Soldat's expression going kind of ashamed. Devero's another one of those people he doesn't want to scare. "Sorry. People keep walking into the cabin. And the talk out here is soothing." They run a hand down their face tiredly. "Didn't mean to nod off here, though."

(That's dumb. You know you nod off everywhere right now. Oh, are you awake now? Sounds like it.)

[worthallthis]

Soldat is not going to deal with the getting-over-it thing here and now. Challenging that is just going to make the poor guy fall apart-- and while that can help sometimes, maybe, Soldat didn't get to the point of breaking down for months, and even then only in front of someone they trusted more than literally anyone else in Beacon.

So what they do is pull their tablet out and extract the pieces of origami paper from the back of the protective casing. "Otoha. Look at me. I'm going to show you how I calm down. When I get like you're feeling. Okay?"

They hold out one piece of paper, dark purple in color.

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos isn't sure when he reached for Mort or if somehow Mort made his way to him. The hug from Ryo surprises him, making him jolt a little, but he doesn't try to push away. He's too busy fighting to urge to disappear, to run away even if he knows there's no escaping this truth. It'll follow him.

"No..." he says. "It is my fault. I did something I shouldn't have as Death Incarnate. Death is supposed to be neutral, not having a side in anything. But I..."

Thanatos doesn't know for sure this is part of the Fates' design. No one can truly know his sisters. However, if there was some cosmic punishment for going against what he embodies, this is it.

"I picked a side and risked it all." For his sake. "And this happens."

[springforth]

"It is not." Her voice is firm, rock solid in a way it rarely is. But she knows this, blaming yourself for making a choice, seeing in hindsight, worrying over something that might not even come to pass. She wraps her arms around him as well, grounding him in the only way she can, smelling of flowers and green.

"I can't... You are not just your purpose. You have a great role with amazing powers but you can't just be that forever. Am I supposed to be nothing but spring--if you let the world and the other gods decide who you have to be, you never get to be yourself. Every god has their own allegiances, the ones they love or hate, you're a being who can choose your own side and no one can punish you for that."

[fivemilesdeep]

Oh gods damn it all. He looks up at Thanatos, expression flat and tone...not quite frustrated, but certainly edged. "We talked about this. Your being here is the train's doing - it has nothing to do with your decisions back home." A pause, and then: "And there's nothing wrong with helping your friend!"

[sizedoesntmatter]

Kubfu looked over for a moment before giving what seemed to be a sagely nod.

"I don't know. Training is not something I've done before so I have no idea where to start... Though I know sparing doesn't sound like something I'd like." It would for the most part be him defending rather than it going both ways.

He soon paused as he tried to think it over. "I guess running might be a good start."

[bakegarasu]

"Oh." Right, different worlds. "Japan, yeah. Shinjuku, specifically." He shifts a little bit, cracking his neck. "It's a series of volcanic islands, so there's hot springs everywhere."