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

[bakegarasu]

"... And there's no way to tell unless you see their porn stash or they tell you, right?"

Secret gays.

[firewalled]

"Oh, uh, sorry. The Man is like... society, I guess? The patriarchy, capitalism, discrimination, all the stuff that keeps us down and keeps the power in control of only a few people. Usually rich old white assholes, because America fucking sucks."

Does she know what America is? God, he hopes so.

"So basically, where I was from, I was poor, and bi, and had a whole arsenal of health issues, so my existence kind of just pisses those in power off. And so I made it my mission to make sure I annoy them as much as possible!" It's not like he can do much at his age, but still, he has hopes for the future.

[pleple]

"I wonder how surprising we can make it and still have it come out good..." She shrugs. "But we won't know until we try."

And see what the main ingredient is next time. Hopefully it's something versatile.

[springforth]

"They--they did what to you?"

Okay he has her attention. He had it before, of course, but now she sits on the edge of his plot, her full sympathy turned on him.

"Wait wait, so you were dying and they made you in the guardian of your city, which you probably agreed to because you were dying. Do I have that straight?"

[strawberryprotector]

When he answered, Ichigo made sure Yoite could see his lips to be able to understand him. "My Mom taught me before she died. And I taught my younger sister Yuzu when she was learning to cook. She ended up taking over all the cooking, and she's loads better at it than I am."

[springforth]

"Oh I guess so. Maybe Orisa could do something with it?"

She is quite large, compared to the rest of them. The conversation pauses as she passes through a door, holding it to make sure Madoka passes through too. Then, she tilts her head and looks back, suddenly unsure.

"Do...Do robots wear clothing? We don't really have them at home. Maybe Charlotte herself could use it? She has a kind of human body now?"

[bakegarasu]

"Yeah. ... I mean, we were trying to run away... to escape the life we were in. But the whole time I was alive, I never really... lived. If that makes sense..." Not much joy, not much emotion, just being a killing machine over and over and over to the point where he has... no idea how many people he's killed.

[worthallthis]

Soldat hesitates a beat, then gives Yoite's shoulder a gentle, careful pat before stepping back. "I need to get back to the kitchen. I'll come back for the plates, okay? And I'll look for you tomorrow. For your observation lessons."

[worthallthis]

"Yeah. The scientist was the last living person on Beacon. Sort of living. She was trying to get people to save her world for her." They nudge the lantern very gently with one foot, then curl said foot around it to bring it safely between them. "If anything happens to it. I die. If it's damaged, I am damaged. In body or mind."

(Fuck it, in for a penny, might as well go the whole dollar.) They lean down to scoop it up again, propping it onto their lap, and unlatch the metal shutters shielding the light. Most of it is warm and golden, but one pane of glass has a crack in it, and from the crack leaks green light. "Like this. This affects my mind."

[worthallthis]

"Yeah. It's not even been two weeks." They open their eyes again at the sudden smell of smoke, and watches with... something like envy, maybe. Rosinante had been sharing his cigarettes pretty regularly, back in Beacon, but they haven't asked anyone here yet. "It's pretty different from where I was last."

[worthallthis]

"It was to show the other spirits that I was a friend to them," Soldat says quietly. They may have carefully layered clear glue on top of the paper, to seal it, so they could keep it with them, out in the open, all the time. "It was also for me to remember them by. Because they knew they were going to leave me a few weeks from when they gave it to me."

[flatteries]

Oh, Senku! Please! Come on! Surely you can at least say someone you're that close to actually cares about you without blushing, right? It's only natural that Gen would care for Senku, after all. Or so Inigo thinks.

"Then maybe it's time to listen to him. Maybe not entirely, but.. just a little bit." There may be a teasing edge to Inigo's voice.

Because he knows he's being a hypocrite. After all, he knows Roland and Tidus and his other friends wouldn't want him to put himself at risk, and yet here he is, promising Senku to do exactly that - putting himself at risk.

"You don't want to make him too worried, right?"

[irrationally]

"Oh."

Maybe it's a bit of an understated answer to all of that, but Alice is really still thinking about it even as Rich is talking about it. It doens't sound too surprising to her - in fact, there are some things she immediately recognizes.

(It's the 'bi' part that has her stumped, though. He's bi.. what? Bipedal? Aren't most people?)

"I don't think that's only the case overseas. Things are exactly like that in London as well." See, at least she's heard of America. They're getting somewhere now, though very slowly. Just as slowly as they're heading towards the medical carriage. ".. did you go to a hospital for your health issues? Or were you not able to?"

Since he did say he's poor. Alice knows how that works out for most people when they have both health problems and a lack of money.

[happyends]

There's a soft 'thank you' when the door is being held open for her, so Madoka safely passes through without accidentally hitting her head against it. Though Persephone's words immediately make her sink back into thought again.

"The robots we have at home are.. um, well.. very different than the robot people here."

Certainly different than Orisa, that's for sure.

"But sometimes when people imagine the way robots may look like in the future, they do wear clothes! So maybe you could ask her about it..? You never know if she might enjoy it, right?" Leave it to Madoka to try and view things from an optimistic angle.

[10billionpercent]

"I don't like it when he worries." Senku agreed. "But at the same time I can't just give up pursuing things because it's potentially a safety risk. I think Gen knows that too. Some things are just bigger than how he feels about it. I don't usually take senseless risks though."

Notably, Senku never said Gen was mad at him about the SCA situation. He hadn't been. He understood what happened, where everyone else didn't.

"He'd rather babysit me to try and protect me instead. He and I fought together in the digital scenario or whatever that was."

[springforth]

"You never really got to enjoy life, is that what you mean? So--if this is too personal you don't have to ask. Did they save you from dying to be a guardian? Or are you not quite alive?"

She's really not picking up on the undercurrent here, though she can empathize. She's still caught up on the horror of what they did to him, less what he did himself.

[springforth]

"Ah, you're right. I should just ask. It's no harm if she says no, after all."

Besides the fact that this pretty but impractical dress might never leave the locker she's shoved it in. Annoying but not the end of the world.

"Someone has to want to do something with it, right?"

[flatteries]

".. This whole spirit business sounds fairly complicated."

Understatement of the year, but it just feels like the right way to sum things up here. Because the things they're saying are giving Inigo so many questions.

"Why were they leaving you?"

cw: mental/emotional abuse

[bakegarasu]

“... Sort of. I was never treated like a person my entire life except for the only friend I ever had before here.” He sounds... less mad than he should. “You wouldn’t say a sword or a gun was alive... that’s what I was to them. That’s what my father treated me like. He said I was a monster and should never have been born.”

Anyway. “I’m not... I act alive, my soul just isn’t in my body.”

[worthallthis]

"What is death to a dead thing." Soldat doesn't like the saying, but it's the basis of the explanation. "Older spirits got more dangerous. So some of the spirits joined the northern lights every year, before they could turn. Can't really say... killed themselves. They were already dead. It was a happy thing, for them."

[flatteries]

"Don't even talk to me about that. I'll get a headache."

Inigo even releases a breath that sounds like a sigh as he says it. That dumb digital scenario. So much happened back there, and his mind is still not done processing it. That whole world was just a little bit too much for one not-too-intelligent medieval boy.

"I'm glad you guys were together though. Things got pretty wild, didn't they?"

[flatteries]

This part is a little more understandable to Inigo.

But it still leaves him silent. He already got this idea a little from when he and Soldat spoke before, just by some slight mentions of the place they were in before this one.

"It sounds.. like you were stuck in a dark place before you got here. A rough place."

What else is Inigo supposed to think about a world that sounded like it revolved entirely about death?

[worthallthis]

Soldat smiles faintly. "I mean. You're not wrong. The whole world was literally dark and dead. Including me. The only light came from the stars and our lanterns. And the bonfire. It wasn't all bad, though. I learned a lot of good things. Had good people helping me."

They close their eyes a moment, thinking of Misty, Javert, Sora and Pudding. Rosinante, even. Then they have to open them hastily before they drift into sleepy confusion again. "Shoulda seen me when I first showed up there. Hardly talked at all. Looked for orders from everyone. Didn't hardly know what food was let alone. How to make it."

[happyends]

"Yes! And you'll be doing a good deed if you make someone happy with it!" Especially if Persephone doesn't seem to be doing too much with the dress herself. It'd just be a waste.

"You know, I actually have a really cute dress too.. But it just doesn't feel right to always be walking around in it here, you know? It feels like something I should save for special occasions, but they don't have a lot of those here.."

[flatteries]

"I can imagine," Inigo says.

Because he really can. Because he saw what Soldat must have been like, back when they first showed up there. Like that time he saw Bucky in a dream, his eyes empty, entirely unresponsive. Was that what Soldat had been like at first? In that case..

".. you came far." It must have been a true uphill struggle to get from that to the way Soldat acts now. If Inigo didn't know what he does about the other, he wouldn't ever have been able to guess they were ever anything but a normal person - metal arm or not.

The thought tugs up the corners of Inigo's lips.

"I'm really glad those people were there for you, you know."