middleofsomewhere | Conclusion

Conclusion

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.

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"Sure!" He'd been needing a distraction anyway. Casting a quick glance around, he points at a point on the wall.

"Pretend that's a goal, okay?"

Releasing the ball, he scoops it up with the side of his foot, kicks it up, and as it falls back down he kicks it to the side. It rebounds off the side wall at an angle and slams right into the spot he'd pointed out.

"It's been strange since I lost my sense of taste." Yoite explained. He didn't find it hard to say, but it was fairly traumatic in the sense that he'd always enjoyed food before, when he got it, and it was another sign that his time was coming to a close.

"I..." He looks back to his notebook. Thanatos knows that if he refused, Persephone is nice enough to probably let him be. It'd be so easy just to continue hiding away, trying to shove everything away. But does he want to?

"I... guess I could.... All right. It's just some paperwork." (Yes, "paperwork." Despite there being no assigned or reason for paperwork here.) He gathers his things, including his little makeshift sign, and tucks them under his arm. Mort remains on his shoulder, steady despite Thanatos's movement.

"Don't know what hot chocolate is though."

"I won't let you drown the flowers, I promise. Plant powers after all." She's could laugh at how serious he is about this, but she gets it. Doing something new is scary and unsure and no one likes to admit that they have no idea what they're doing.

"What have you got here..." She dips down to touch the soil, trying to feel out what's hidden beneath.

"So you keep that sign up all the time? Death and Darkness?" Has anyone told him he's got a flare for the dramatic? She lets him gather all his things, leading the way down the stairs. At least she's short enough to float and not bump her head.

"But, hot chocolate is a sweet drink, made with chocolate and milk. It's pretty tasty. Do you all have chocolate?"

"Oh. Hell, I'm sorry." Which means now Soldat is going to start... trying to find interesting textures to try and share with Yoite in particular. "No wonder eating's hard. How long has it been?"

"It was, I think a month before I came here or so. It got worse for a bit and then just stopped." Yoite admitted.

"Like my hearing." He explained. "It's caused by the same problem. And my vision's not as good as it was, but I've only gone blind a couple of times, and just for a few minutes."

"Just when I'm in there." And no, no one has really told him he's got a flare for the dramatic, but compared to some of the other personalities around, he is still tame. Which says more about the others than Thanatos.

Thanatos walks down the stairs but returns to hovering once they reach the first floor. "No, or if the mortals do, I haven't had any experience with it."

Ryo is walking the train, still decompressing from the mission. It's been hours since they'd escaped that weird other world, and he's still reveling in having his magic returned to him. He's been listening to his Sense as he walks, letting it guide him from familiar person to familiar person; at the moment, it's led him to Mami. He greets her with a smile, which falls nearly immediately when he sees her expression, and he takes a knee next to her. "Are you okay?"

"Well then you're in for a treat. If you like sweet things, of course. I love sweet pastry things. I'm trying to make some baklava at the next platform."

Surely he knows what that is, right? She looks expectant, hands tucked behind her back. Into the dining car, onwards and forwards.

"Hi, Snapper! Hopefully I can learn your scientific classification later."

She settles in.

"I... didn't see the inside of 'tree'." She makes quotes with her fingers. "Not for very long anyway, so I don't know how the fight finished in there. I don't know you very well, but you seem like the type of person to take critical stock of your surroundings."

She dangles her feet, her hair winding around a couple of bars in case she decides to move. "Sorry for the inconvenience, usually I take my own notes but I couldn't move normally in there and I'm not great at combat anyway."

"..." He knows about the gyros and fries that Charon sometimes sells in his stall. The red onions, pomegranates, breads, and drinks in the lounge. He knows some of what the mortals have to eat, much more limited than what the mortals in Persephone's world are used to.

Mort squeaks before Thanatos actually gives an answer. "... I don't spend much time on the surface."

Is this some weird self sacrifice thing? Not eating the delicious things one can make from the fruits of the mortal realm? She bites her lip uncertainly.

"Do you not have sweet things at all? Nothing from the mortal realms?"

"You're still new, Yoite." Raven said softly. "I don't think you're doing 'badly' at mission so much as you're still adapting. But you expect yourself to be perfect each time."

Mami is slow to react---noticeably slower than usual, like she's pulling herself out of a trance. But she smooths her pant leg with one hand and closes the hand holding her gem, changing it back into ring form.

"...it's not much," she tries. "I've just learned that I'm not really...what I thought I was. But I should've asked about the fine print, so I can't really complain."

A tired smile appears. "I can still heal, and that's the important thing."

"Yes, of course. If you're not careful, you end up dead and I don't want to die before I can go back and see Miharu again." Yoite explained, tilting his head, as though there was no problem with that logic at all.

"Not really... and nothing much from Olympus either. Lord Hades prohibited things like nectar and ambrosia." Thanatos looks at Persephone with confusion.

"Is that really so strange?"

Persephone hesitates once more. This isn't her world they're talking about.

"All the gods eat in my world. I don't eat meat or fish, but...I mean, I've eaten with Zeus and Hera, Hades, Artemis--My baklava is Hestia's recipe with a few tweaks. So it's a little strange to me."

"Yeah. Guy who grabbed me didn't seem bothered, and I missed anyway since I got moved so fast. I don't know what the hell he was. Ryo was... a little scared, but he. ... He knows I don't... intend to hurt him. Not a... not someone like him. Just..."

He lowers his gaze, trying to think of the right words. Words aren't something he's good at. "... Can't help but wait for the other shoe to drop, with people being nice. Took... Reiji like half a year of tagging along for me to get comfortable with the idea of him around me. To not think he was going to throw things at me or burn me or use me as target practice."

His voice is even as he speaks, almost conversational. There's not really much indication that he sees anything wrong with what happened. ... It's still hard to remember that there was something wrong with that treatment, that while he had preferred it not happen he'd just... accepted that, and that thinking like that isn't okay.

"... We're getting fish more often. Zag really enjoys--" Thanatos trails off for two reasons. One, he doesn't want to start talking about Zagreus in the hallway. Not now... Two, Persephone eating with all of those gods?

"Must be nice to eat with everyone like that."

Please don't laugh at him, Perse. He'll get scared off.

The seeds are at the right depth, after a little trial and error. They're not really sprouting yet, but he also only planted them a few days before mission and it's not like he had a chance to water them while he was on the mission.

"They're doing fine, you've done well. Give them a little water, just don't soak it. These don't like tons of water, I think. But you're doing well."

She floats up and gestures him on.

"You'd be hard pressed to kill then, just keep the watering light. They're easy to grow, don't worry."

I've just learned that I'm not really what I thought I was sounds like a life-altering event, and Ryo pauses for a few seconds, processing that. "That doesn't sound like 'not much,'" he finally says. "If you want to talk about it, I'm here. I can't promise I'll understand everything, but I can listen."

"...well, all right. Maybe you can help me work out how to explain it to the others. I think I'll have to, at some point."

She's a little visibly worried, still, but folds her hands in front of her.

"Are you familiar with the concept of the undead?"

What do you say to that? She looks up at him, worried and feeling a little guilty.

"Well, I mean, not at the same time. Hera and my mom are close so she invited me in when I came over. Hades was visiting. Um, and I was staying with Artemis, hard to not eat with her."

She wrings her hands behind her back, eyes falling to the floor.

"My mom is the one with all the connections, I just inherited them."

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Page 5 of 48

Conclusion

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in the dark

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cw: abuse because Otoha's life is Terrible

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