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

[worthallthis]

That's practically poetic, Prisoner. Soldat can imagine it vividly, and for a moment they simply do that, picturing and placing themselves there instead of on this cramped claustrophobic train, before blinking back into focus and actually parsing the first part, as well. "I mean. You're not far off. It was a dead world. Only dead people could live there."

They pause, wrinkle their nose, and clarify, "For a very specific definitions of 'live'. You know." They already explained the whole lantern thing. Kind of, anyway.

[knifewithnoname]

She shook her head, she didn't know lich or revenant but she understands the explanation. Someone who is dead. But whose soul stayed with them because of magic.

"Yes. But you did already be knowing that, right? You did be being dead but you do be being on this train. Your soul do be still being here because... train magic."

Same as Tony. Same as many people. But Mami hadn't been upset about that before?

[worthallthis]

They sag a little against the counter, giving Otoha a little smile. "That's a kind thought. I feel like that a lot, myself. But most of us are used to a little pain, Otoha. Me, I'm used to even more than most. I promise, I'll be fine."

[bakegarasu]

"..." He lets out a long, slow breath. "I... okay. Just... you can back out at any time." He knows he's a lot to deal with. He's already being a lot to deal with.

[strawberryprotector]

"I'm not skimping on the fat, either. Gotta get some meat on you somehow." Ichigo made sure Yoite could see his lips as he talked, then pulled the teen to his feet.

[controlsthedie]

Again, Thanatos pauses as he thinks. He tries to order his thoughts and words in a way that doesn't sound like he's not worrying all day or night about his world back home.

"I'm still getting used to the technology. There aren't trains where I'm from."

[worthallthis]

Seriously, this guy's handlers have done fucking number on him. He's worse than Sora on Sora's worst days. Soldat wants to be angry again, but they're too tired for it right now. Maybe later. (Yes. Don't like it either, huh, Asset? Yes.)

They push off from the counter and approach, slow and cautious, to put the flesh hand on Otoha's wrist if the man lets him. "Thanks. That's a real nice thought. But pretty sure I'm not going anywhere."

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos nods his head, and with both of them going for their drinks, he follows suit. Mort is placed by his mug, and Thanatos grabs his own. It has cooled a lot. How long had they been talking?

He sips his cocoa, still not entirely certain how he feels about the drink. "... Thanks."

[bakegarasu]

He doesn't pull away, and doesn't flinch. "... Mm." Maybe he says that now, but...

"... I interrupted your meal."

[worthallthis]

"Yeah. And you probably won't be the last person to do that, either." They curl their fingers around his wrist gently, a grip warm but loose enough to pull out of, then let go and meander back to the rest of their toast. It's cold now, but frankly, they don't care.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Mmhm," Koumyou just sort of... lets the green and white paper of the sutra drift up off his shoulders and into the air high overhead, unfurling into a straightish line and then just... hovering.

"The Seiten sutra. It can easily imitate the sun." To put it very, very mildly. But if Koumyou keeps the Light of Creation extremely toned down and still almost entirely inactive, it can certainly mimic the distant glow and radiation of a single burning star.

It made all of them, after all.

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"You're worried about what's going on back home. That's understandable." It was a leap of logic, but it was one Raven felt confident in making. Especially considering her Empathy was backing it up. Just with what he'd been feeling unshielded and unguarded. "This is a lot to deal with."

[sizedoesntmatter]

Yugi at least understood warming up. PE he had to even if it was not at all his favorite subject in school. Mostly due to the fact that any team before he ended up with would lose because of him.

So Yugi made sure to at least do a decent amount, though he wasn't certain if he was doing it correctly.

"So you've pulled muscles. Is it in part because you overdid it?"

[firewalled]

"Ah... well, I guess if you don't mind grabbing one." It's better than them just sitting in Otoha's luggage, collecting dust, right? And he definitely is still shivering.

[bakegarasu]

"I'll be right back. Try to at least drink some tea." He gets up and heads towards the sleeper cabins. It won't take him more than ten minutes or so anyway, so hopefully Rich can manage to eat a little by the time he gets back.

[firewalled]

That... could all be flowery mumbo-jumbo, but Rich has no way to prove that. He frowns and tries to think how else he's going to get anything worthwhile out of this thing. Thankfully, that's when he finally connects the dots.

"Wait, uh, when we got here, we had a... ID number read out to us. Do you know about those? Do the planets you mentioned have ID numbers you can tell me?"

Really, Rich doesn't know if he'll remember the numbers any better, but someone here probably has a log of the places they've visited.

[magicurls]

"I suppose..."

Mami rolls the bun in her hand.

"But apparently I was like this even when I was supposedly alive. It's been more than a year, and...I just didn't realize what had happened."

She stares at the gem on her finger.

"This is me. Everything I am...is in here."

[voidtreckernpcs]

"This system is also known as #2207385 in the Void Ministry's database; it includes the planets of Sumar and Omotah as well."

The helpmate waits patiently; if Rich needs a moment to write the number down, or asks for it to repeat the answer, it's perfectly capable of both.

[springforth]

"Of course." Persephone sipped casually, tapping one foot on the ground absently. Then her gaze goes toward Mort's mug. And how the level is lower. Despite them all talking and not drinking for the past few minutes. She tilts her head and finally finally asks.

"So I have to ask, is Mort alive or enchanted or..."

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose. She had been dead for a year and hadn't known it? That sounded weird. She had died before the spider monster had eaten her?

She wrinkled her nose at the gem. "In there?" She thought about what Mami had said before, dead but their soul stayed tied to them.

"Your soul do be being tied to you by that?"

[runsfast_rollsfar]

The way Soldat wrinkled their nose to clarify made Prisoner shake in a motion that, if he had a head, would have been a light laughter. It was a strange sight on a headless corpse that didn't need to breathe, but apparently some habits from before Prisoner was made to whatever this is carried through. It might be a little grim, but grim was what Prisoner was used to before here.

Forgive me, I'm used to speaking to others. The darkness of the Forgotten Sepulcher was so suffocating it'd desecrate my bodies if I couldn't find lanterns to cut through it. Maybe it was some kind of magic. I don't know.

What was it like? The world you were from? Clearly dark, apparently windy. Were there towns of the dead? Monsters?

[controlsthedie]

"My absence from my world causes chaos." A lack of Death in the world does not bring about an everlasting paradise. It ruins the natural order and causes additional hardship on those already suffering. Thanatos's thoughts on the matter run dark as Night but without the beauty; he's seen the aftermath and felt the pain during. It's bad.

"To fix one world's problem while allowing my own to fall into ruin is concerning."

Around the Train

[fivemilesdeep]

It's the day after hot cocoa and conversations with Thanatos, though it's still that same late hour of night, and Ryo has found himself in the greenhouse car. He knows Persephone is there - he can't not know, with the way his Sense reacts - but he hasn't sought her out yet, instead checking on his and Otoha's patch.

It doesn't take long - there's not much planted there yet - and he moves on, pausing as he passes by Persephone. He wants to talk to her about that conversation, but if she doesn't want to talk about it, then he's putting her on the spot, and-

He's a little stuck.

[worthallthis]

"Huh." Soldat eyes the paper with a kind of sleepy interest. There was a paper witch back in Beacon, they remember. Made them a very complicated paper star. "Why would that freak people out?"

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"I suppose my saying there's nothing you can do about it, while on the train, wouldn't help." Raven's calm voice was serious, sympathetic. "I wish I had answers for you."