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

[knifewithnoname]

"You can be eating though, because you did be doing so before."

She frowns and then tilts her head up at Mami. "If you do no be needing to be eating then you can just no be eating the boring food. You can just be eating cake and it will no even be mattering."

The important things, clearly.

[bakegarasu]

"... Which one is non-binary? You listed a lot of things." He's so out of his depth. He sinks a little bit further down into the water, suddenly feeling very stupid.

[fivemilesdeep]

It's not working - she's still blaming herself, and they're coming up on things he doesn't want to talk about, and gods, he did not handle this well, did he.

But...he also doesn't know Persephone all that well, does he? Not enough to know the right thing to say here - not when they're in this deep. Maybe...maybe this needs to wait, for when they know each other a little better - for when they're not both so raw from the experience.

If she doesn't decide he's not worth the trouble before them-

He buries the thought as best he can and shakes his head. "It's okay. I'm sorry I-" Handled this poorly. Made you think it was your fault. "-scared you," is what he goes with - hopefully it won't send the conversation in circles.

But if he wants to be sure of that, then he needs to try to get things back on track - whatever that had been. "But...this isn't really about either of us, is it. It's about Thanatos." It's imperfect and feels forced to him, but gods he hopes it works.

[controlsthedie]

"... There's a way to speak to the train?" Thanatos looks at her puzzled. "Is there some special ritual needed?"

He doesn't know of any way someone could possibly help. Death needs to return home, to stabilize the cycle of life and death. Maybe he could try explaining his situation to whoever is in charge, get them to understand.

[controlsthedie]

"My concerns are for those on my world." How bad as it gotten already? He knows what it's like after a month, and that had been before Zagreus started escaping the Underworld.

However, Thanatos can't be more specific about why he worries. There's a secret he needs to keep about the reason why he worries so much. (And yet if anyone knew the myth of Sisyphus capturing Death, that secret would be out in the open.) It's too dangerous to have carelessly revealed.

[sizedoesntmatter]

"About as ready as one could be. See how far I can go and then work on doing better next time."

At least that was the plan as he went to the starting point. To him it was probably the best way to go about it without over doing it too.

"Just need to remember to make a mental note of how many times I go around."

[firewalled]

Rich takes the hoodie gratefully, slipping it on over the tee he had available. The sleeves definitely are long enough to drape over his hands, but Rich doesn't seem to mind that too much.

"Mm... that's a lot better." He actually isn't shivering any more, so that's a much better sign.

[bakegarasu]

"Good." He pats Rich on the back carefully. "... Do you still need my jacket on top of that? I don't want you to overheat." He knows that's an issue for him sometimes, since he can't cool down the same way.

[firewalled]

Rich is very glad he didn't give the Helpmate his name. Hearing it from that robotic voice might have been enough to send him spiralling. Either way, he'll leave it to its work, hopeful that whatever he learned can be somewhat helpful to someone.

[comefadeaway]

Yoite tilted his head a moment and looked at them curiously. He followed the instructions and picked up a cracker, put a piece of avocado on it and a piece of cheese.

He took a bite.

The cracker was crunchy and the avocado was soft, the cheese was a bit chewy. It didn't smell very strongly but it was different.

"...It's good, I think."

[10billionpercent]

"I mean, we can find something I'm allergic to and test it." Senku said, mostly because he didn't care if he got exposed to allergens.

"If we do that, don't tell Gen." He quipped with a bit of a smirk.

"I don't think he likes it when I just have reactions because I don't really care." That was an understatement, although his last reaction was completely accidental, and then Gen wasn't too mad.

[springforth]

What a puzzle Ryo is. He's so calm--well not calm, but he's easy with Thanatos. But he's scared of her, she thinks, in some way she's not sure she can control. And he says he scared her--no let's not get back into circles. If he refuses to accept her apology without one of his own, they're getting nowhere.

And he's right. It's not about her. It's about Thanatos. She flops down beneath the tree, leaning back against it and pretending she's anywhere but the train. Some peach tree out in the forest.

"Yes, it is. I'm just...I don't understand how someone can see that happen to someone--young or otherwise, and then turn it back on him, like it was his fault, like he needs to make up for it. Like the role of god of Death, like Death is all he can be." She pauses, "I know it's not about me but--I've been pushed to be one thing my whole life. Just this one thing, hidden in plain sight, hidden behind my mother. So--I can't believe in another world, someone did the same to him, pushed him into a single role, into being that every second of every day. If you need more help, you get more help. You don't work someone every second of their life."

[irrationally]

Alice starts moving the moment he does. If not just to make sure he doesn't just fall over - and make her fall in turn, considering how he's still holding on to her.

Usually she would say something like 'take your time', but that feels a little like being too openly nice, especially in combination with everything else she's doing here. So Alice keeps the words to herself, instead perhaps showing the sentiment by not rushing him with her movement speed at all.

"I think you better prepare yourself for a scolding, depending on who is staffing the medical carriage today." Alice can totally imagine Wen Qing scolding someone for being dumb enough to get themselves sick like this, at least.

[flatteries]

"Spirits?"

Inigo is almost tempted to talk about the Risen back home. In fact, he almost does it - but then he immediately remembers all the things Bucky told him about himself. Things that must surely be true about them as well. And people being resurrected and turned into mindless zombies who only fight would most likely hit a little too close to home.

So Inigo doesn't, instead just seeming interested in what Soldat has to tell.

"What were they like? Were they just.. ghosts?"

[happyends]

"Are you sure you wouldn't mind?" Not that Madoka views Persephone as someone who gets angry or scolds others easily. Not at all, really. She thinks the other is very kind, but that's exactly why she doesn't want to disappoint her in the first place by accidentally getting her clothes all screwed up!

"Wow.." It's said more quietly, like Madoka really is - if not just a little bit - in awe about something. "You always deal with these sorts of things in such a cool way.. I really admired that, you know."

[happyends]

"I.. I don't know if it makes you feel any better, Mami-san.. But Sayaka-chan really admired your ideals of justice."

Especially considering Mami's question - which certainly doesn't have a happy answer, as long as Madoka doesn't want to lie to the other girl - is so heavy, she figures she may as well start with something that's relatively better news.

"She wanted to protect them.. I think that's why she clashed so much with Kyouko-chan. She wanted to honour your legacy."

So even though Mami was dead, a part of her still lived on. She wasn't entirely forgotten - not by Madoka nor Sayaka, anyway.

"But.." She can't avoid the question, huh. Madoka bows her head a little, staring at her shoes. ".. I'm sorry, Mami-san. But Kyouko-chan died fighting a witch.."

[happyends]

"What do you want to eat?" Because of course Madoka is going to ask it like that first. Sure, she isn't too picky herself (although she sure does like sweet things..), but she'd prefer eating whatever would make Ple Two the happiest anyway.

Hopefully this will end in some responsible food choices, rather than them eating ice cream.

But while they're heading out of the luggage carriage like this, Madoka is sure to keep holding onto Ple Two's hand, even when it's no longer necessary to guide each other through the crowd.

[pleple]

The answer, if Ple Two just blurts out what's on her mind, is indeed ice cream - which is why she pauses for a moment as they walk. Holding hands. Holding hands the whole way. Now that's distracting her from her answer, even if it's also giving her warm fuzzies.

"Ah... well... what do you... want, though?" she asks awkwardly, putting off using her brain for another moment.

[fivemilesdeep]

Thank the gods, it worked. He pauses to retrieve his peach from where he'd left it, dusts it off, and joins her under the tree. It's...fine.

He's quiet, listening to her, thinking. Different people, but the same story across worlds. Divine or not, it seems people are still people. "I can believe it," he says quietly, looking at his peach. "If you see someone as their role long enough, it's easy to forget there's a person in there too. You don't think about what they want or need - you just think about..." He shrugs. "That role."

Very few people in Eloe had called him by name - it had only ever been the curse. It's easy to hurt someone if you don't see them as human.

"I think that might be what happened in Thanatos's world." He doesn't like the gods of Thanatos's world, but he's also not about to ascribe malice when negligence might be the case. "To the point where I think Thanatos might have forgotten too." Or he'd never learned how to be a person in the first place, which is equally horrifying, just in a different way.

"I wonder if Zagreus is the only person who didn't forget." There's a reason Thanatos had gone against his role to help Zagreus. Dropping everything you think you are for the people who make you realize you could be more...

Well. Ryo can certainly understand that.

[light_of_willpower]

"I don't have a 'you' back home either." Trunks murmured, leaning his head against hers. Leaning more into the embrace too, with his own arms settling around her hip and shoulders. "You've been very little but good to me, Cassie. It feels like I should be doing more to earn this, or something."

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"It's a message on the ICP, when it tells us about what month it is, and the chore list, and stuff. It asks for feedback. You could try using that. No special ritual needed."

[nutkrusher]

"Well, continuing to be the kindest, sweetest, and most in-and-out beautiful person I've ever been with should do the trick," Cassie says.

A warm sensation creeps up her spine as his hands settle around her hips.

"When you find something that's...rare and unique, you've got to hold onto it for however long you've got it. You can't just count on another one coming along."

[springforth]

Well that's a loaded way to put it, if he isn't actually dead. She's heard of those who came here in the moments before or during death, but never quite so blatantly. How did he learn anything after death? Shades aren't known for their emotions and thoughtfulness.

"I...I see?" She hesitates, "Well I'm glad you got to learn it nonetheless. It's a skill not many people learn, to let something grow in its time."

[strawberryprotector]

"Whole milk if we have any, and butter has some good fats in it, too. Avocados, the food of the month, are full of all kinds of good fats. And they're really easy to peel. I can slice one up for you to snack on while I make the muffins if you want."

[bakegarasu]

"... Right, I should probably... uh. I got sort of turned into a guardian of my city. I'm not alive in the same way, but I'm not dead." He thought he was going to be, but he isn't. "There's a good chance I'll live a few hundred years."