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]

The Seiten sutra flutters down from the ceiling and floats back to Koumyou's shoulders, settling back into its rightful place like a living thing coming back to roost.

"World Eaters, huh? Sounds vaguely familiar."

The Muten sutra, with its dominion over nothingness and destruction, and its Sanzo, Ukoku, who only feels alive when it's 'eat or be eaten'.

What a pairing.

"So did you win?"

[flatteries]

Inigo lets out a small sound as he exhales. He's still smiling, but something about the sound is more wry, like he hasn't had great experiences with this sort of thing.

"I don't think the train is ever going to be that generous. It really loves making us buy things seperately, or even just intepreting our orders slightly too literally so we still won't get what we want." He pauses, shaking his head. "It's never easy getting things on here. Almost like the train is actively working against us."

Maybe it's slightly too cynical a thought for someone Inigo's age, but considering everything that's happened in the months he's been here on the train, he can't think anything else.

[worthallthis]

Sounds familiar here, too, in the creatures hunting the train. Soldat is convinced they're related.

"No idea," they sigh. "I hope so. I was taken by the train right as we launched the missiles. So I don't know if they hit, or if they did enough damage."

[worthallthis]

"She," Soldat says. "Cassie told me the train is a she. And is bad at communicating." They might have every reason to be cynical, themselves, and maybe they are kind of paranoid... but Soldat is still, at their core, an optimist who likes people. They're willing to give the train the benefit of the doubt here.

They smile a little bit. "We had a portal. In Beacon. My last place. And unless you were really careful. You got some weird shit. Somebody ordered a specific kind of bullet, called a candy jacket. Instead, she got a bunch of jackets. With candy on them." They mean this as an example of why the train might interpret their requests literally. Sometimes communication is hard.

[fun_thementalist]

"Very well, very well. It's possible I might've noticed how you've sat before, my friend, and I didn't see that as a bug, but a feature," Gen gently teased. "But I suppose part of my job as a boyfriends should be getting possessive about who sees those rare glimpses."

[10billionpercent]

Senku gave Gen a bit of a long look, as though he didn't know how to answer that and decided that saying nothing was probably the better course of action.

"I don't really know. I think wandering around naked killed any shame I had for my body awhile ago." He waved his hand absently.

[flatteries]

".. I don't care."

Inigo's voice hardens as he says it. And yet not quite in the way he'd like it to - the hard edges of a warrior, a soldier. The front he'd like to pull over himself like a shroud.

No, instead there's pain in there. Like a hurt child lashing out.

"I don't care if it's bad at communicating, or what its intentions are. It still-- It still separates people from the ones they love all the time. Involuntarily. Whether it's by bringing people here in the first place, or randomly letting them go without warning. No matter what kind of excuse anyone tries to apply to it, that's still not right!"

[controlsthedie]

That... isn't very encouraging. They somehow still have missions despite that. Thanatos would almost liken it to being lead by the Three Fates, but... then at least his sisters are the ones weaving their threads. There's some kind of direction there.

"You've given me a lot to think on." Maybe the train isn't as cruel as he previously believed. Although, it ultimately changes little. He still here, and his world is suffering for it.

"Thank you, Devero."

[worthallthis]

They blink in surprise at the vehemence, then belatedly, almost like a double-take, flinch away from it. "Sorry. Sorry, I know it's. Hard. I'm sorry." They still miss Misty and Pudding every time they think of it. But they're also in the long-learned habit of obedience, and, well, missing people.

And they knew that most people aren't as used to it as they are, they're just not focused enough to use their goddamned tact. Now they've upset Inigo because of it.

[its_dad_sanzo]

There's that, too, which has also reminded him of the Muten's power to remove anything from existence.

The Muten wouldn't have left any traces, though. The train itself wouldn't be around, and Halo certainly wouldn't have survived long enough to speak to the small group who had found her -- Koumyou included.

"Well, I suppose there's nothing to do about it now, then."

Either the missiles hit, or they didn't. Either they did enough damage, or they didn't. And now Soldat's here, so--

"Wait, you launched missiles at something called a World Eater?"

Never mind, now he's curious.

[worthallthis]

"Well. We called them that. I don't know if that was their official name, or if they called themselves that, or if it just came because they ate life and made stars go out," Soldat says. "Maybe the scientist who summoned us to her dying world called them that because it sounded ominous."

They tilt their head back, looking up at the void through the greenhouse windows. "They were. Big. Dark. Sucked up light. Quadropedal, though we couldn't see exactly how many legs they had, so maybe hexapedal or something. Radioactive, maybe. Being too close to one made some of my hair fall out. Made some of the others want to hurt people. Whipped the spirits up into a frenzy of violence."

[flatteries]

Inigo can feel it. The familiar sting in his eyes, the threat of tears starting to well up. He hates it, tries to surpress it, because he can't keep crying every single time he gets upset, as if he's still that small child deep down.

Except the feeling on grows stronger when he hears them apologize.

"No, I--"

Inigo sniffs.

"Don't apologize."

It's not Soldat's fault, after all. It's none of their faults. It's all this dumb train's fault for kidnapping people, for putting people into harm's way, for constantly hurting them.

He rubs an arm along his eyes, trying to immediately get rid of any evidence of tears.

"You didn't do anything, and-- you're tired. I shouldn't have started." Not as intensely as that, anyway. But he couldn't help it. He's just too hurt.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Well, I'm lucky I didn't end up in that place instead of this place, then," Koumyou says cheerfully, "I imagine the Seiten sutra would be quite the target for them."

Being that it's the concept of light and creation itself.

[subcircuits]

"There's always going to be a trade-off," Devero says. "All technology has limits somewhere."

He glances up at Soldat and smiles a little. "It is a good arm," he affirms, "and it is yours." To him that's perfectly natural, though he's been around on the train long enough to realize how unique his outlook on technology is. But this thing is irrevocably a part of them; he's aware that it's important that Soldat is claiming it, instead of regarding it as some alien thing attached to themself.

"And if I can help you keep it in working order while we're both here, well, that would be an honor."

[worthallthis]

The number of things that have made Soldat cry are vast, Inigo, and they've had a lot of encouragement in expressing their emotions. They're not gonna judge. They do panic maybe a little tiny bit on what do do because they don't know Inigo all that well and touch is hard, especially after a startle.

They finally reach over and give Inigo's shoulder a squeeze, right where it meets his neck. "I still shoulda thought before I said something. I know losing people's hard."

[worthallthis]

"The Seiten sutra wouldn't have worked," Soldat says with a little shrug. "No light magic worked. It would get swallowed up before it actually lit anything. The only light we had were these--" They tap their lantern gently again. "--and the stars."

[worthallthis]

Considering it came from the person they hate most in all the worlds in all the universes, having positive feelings about their metal arm is a huge deal, frankly. They look at Devero out of the corner of their eye, without moving their head-- they can only just barely see him, but it's easier that way. Then (hopefully) they can't obsess over every little thing he's doing.

"You're safer than anybody else, so." Despite the explosion before, they think they've worked it out, and Devero at least knows how to keep himself non-threatening. "Yeah. When I can't do it myself, you're who I'll come to."

[strawberryprotector]

After putting his own load on the table, Ichigo looked at everything that Yoite had grabbed. "Ah, that's the baking soda. It's somewhat similar, but they aren't interchangeable. It should be a round container with a plastic lid."

[subcircuits]

"You're welcome," Devero says. "If you need any help with any of the other technical aspects of all this shit, feel free to ask me, all right?"

He doesn't seem to need much of an answer to that, though; with a nod and a wave, he leaves Thanatos to do that thinking, and continues on his way.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I can't imagine it wouldn't be quite the tempting meal, regardless."

It's a hell of a lot of power, and light's only the one aspect.

"And then I would have been obligated to help kill them. Which just sounds terribly troublesome! So I'm glad I didn't go there when I died."

[comefadeaway]

"Oh, oh okay." Yoite said with a bit of a nod and took the baking soda back and reemerged with the proper one.

"This one?" He asked, holding it up for inspection.

[flatteries]

He sniffs again, but doesn't seem to react adversely to the touch at all. Inigo just accepts the hand on his shoulder. If anything, it actually is comforting to him, since he's so fond of physical touch. And he can understand the intention behind it.

For a moment he's still unsure what to say though. It feels weird to not explain properly after an outburst like that, but on the other hand, they're tired. He doesn't want to keep Soldat here for too long. So maybe if he can just explain briefly and then shoo the other off to bed - that ought to be the best option here, right?

"I.. um. There was a guy on the train I got practically engaged to. And then he suddenly left one day. And we're not.. not from the same world."

So his chance of ever seeing him? It's virtually zero.

"So it's not your fault, it just.. made me think of that. It's fine." He wipes at his eyes again, trying to fully get rid of the tears now. No time to let others worry. "I'm okay. You ought to sleep, your room should be somewhere right up here."

Good to wrap here?

[subcircuits]

Devero glances up at him again, then away. Does a little color maybe some into his cheeks when Soldat identifies him as safer than? (Yes.) "Sounds good," he says, because he doesn't want to make a big deal out of it. Ducking his head, he focuses in on his work. He's gotta make a good impression now, after all, lest Soldat change their mind.

yes!

[worthallthis]

Soldat breathes out slow and just lets him work. No violence. They can do this.

[worthallthis]

Soldat snorts a little, amused. "Not everyone there participated in trying to kill them. But you woulda gotten a pretty big side-eye from people if you didn't help at all. We worked together, there. We were a. A community."