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

Persephone | OTA

[springforth]

A. Return

You know the best way to ignore that you hurt your leg? Float everywhere. After all, it's going to heal soon anyways and she's immortal. It all scabbed over in the time in the vr tree thing anyways. She pops back in to the train and changes into her pajama pants.

This ends with her floating through the train, vaguely towards the kitchen, backpack still slung over her shoulder, asking at random:

"Do you have a sewing kit?"

B. Around the Train

Much later, she ends up in the space between the garden and greenhouse, poking at the train shop, clearly trying to decide if she has enough points for--something.

Then, in the greenhouse, she does her usual post mission lookover of the plants, poking at things, bringing some to fruit, some to flower, some she just waters. For all her magical powers, sometimes you do need to water a plant. It's soothing, going from one to another, gentle and easy. It's easy to sneak up on her, even if you're not even trying to.

B

[bakegarasu]

Otoha's in the greenhouse, prodding vaguely at the plants that he's been trying to grow in the space that he and Ryo share. They're just flowers, though they're medicinal ones, and He's got a watering can, looking nervous. What if he drowns the flowers by accident?

Re: B

[springforth]

Persephone leans back from the strawberries that she's nudging into fruit and yawns, stretching her arms high above her head. This is restful, but murder on the back. And she's getting the feeling that her floating is going to move into tiring here soon. She glances around--then over at him, staring at the flowers like he's--like the wrong move is going to kill them. As if he could actually kill any of these when she pokes after people to make sure they thrive.

"You alright?" She hovers over, leaning against the glass when she lands.

[bakegarasu]

He jerks up, looking around until he spots her. "I... yeah. Not... gardening isn't... didn't get taught. Part of my role at home is treating... beings. So I'm trying to figure out how to grow medicinal plants."

He has never grown a plant in his life.

[springforth]

"Oh it's not hard. Stick something in the ground, water it--but I guess it's way easier said than done, huh?"

She steps over to take a look at the plants, leaning in.

"They probably just need a little water. I could help them along but sometimes people think that's kind of cheating."

[bakegarasu]

"I don't want to drown it, though." They're begonias and peonies, and they seem to at least be the right depth for each. The holes are filled in, but there's a distinct spot of patted-flat earth on top of each one.

"Cheating, huh. ... Plant powers?" It'd be what makes sense...

[springforth]

"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.

[bakegarasu]

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.

[springforth]

"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."

A

[happyends]

There are a lot of things you may have never seen before that you start to get used to very quickly on the train.

Like people just floating around, for one. Back home Madoka would have thought she was dreaming or something, but when she sees Persephone floating around like this, all Madoka has is a bit of awe in her eyes that it looks so cool. (And hey, it's distracting her from fussing over Persephone's leg, since it's harder to notice with the pyjamas covering it and the floating distracting from it.)

It doesn't take more than a moment for the girl to respond though.

"A sewing kit?" .. Madoka pauses, seeming to think. "I don't think so, but there's probably one somewhere around the train, right..? What do you need it for?"

Re: A

[springforth]

Just According to Keikaku. Really Persephone just wanted things easier to fix and to not limp or something that attracts attention. The fact that floating is distracting from it entirely, not just hiding it, is just a bonus.

"Oh I got snagged by a bird and a rabbit on the way to the tree, just need to fix my pants. If they can be fixed. I've never tried to patch up scorch marks..."

[happyends]

"Oh no, I'm sorry!"

Even though Madoka is sure it must have happened to a lot of people - she only barely managed to dodge the creatures thanks to a spell someone else cast on her, after all! - it's still not fun to hear. Especially since she can figure out what a scorch mark must mean happened, considering what those creatures were oddly capable of..

"I think mama back home always had a way to deal with those." Madoka frowns as she thinks about it. "I think you were supposed to soak the marks in something, but I think I might have forgotten what it was.."

[springforth]

"Huh--really? I never really had the problem before so I'm willing to take any help. I mean--I've patched things but mostly chitons so it wasn't this complicated. White fabric is white fabric."

Persephone frowns and taps her chin, "I could try listing off weird things to soak it in, see if it jogs your memory, but I don't think it'd work out the way we want. Isn't baking soda some big thing for taking out stains?"

This is why you need the internet, she thinks to herself, or books on cleaning and things. Resources she didn't fully use and appreciate before.

[happyends]

Madoka really seems to be thinking here! She's frowning a bit, hands pressed to her mouth, looking like she's trying to summon absolutely every last brain cell to help to try and figure out this thing.

"I think it may have been that." It doesn't sound unfamiliar, at least! ".. Or maybe vinegar? But even if we narrow it down to those two, I don't want to accidentally say the wrong thing.. What if it ruins your clothes?"

She'd never forgive herself!

[springforth]

"Oh it can't be that bad. Why don't I start with vinegar, then work to baking soda? OR both?"

Doesn't that make it fizz? Fizzing action might be needed to lift the char? Or not needed.

"Besides, if it doesn't work, I'll chop off the bottoms and make shorts. We go to some warm worlds, right?"

[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."

[springforth]

A flush starts up on her cheeks as she plays with her hair, curling a little wisp around her finger. It's both awkward and nice to be admired. She never really expects it, let alone to be treated like the cool older sister or something. She's barely got her life together.

"It's not a big deal--I mean, I just know I wouldn't want to waste them. And they're kind of pretty ruined already. It'll be a miracle if I can get back to wearable as it."

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.

[springforth]

It wasn't a joke that sleeping was difficult for her. Fussing beneath the peach tree, she barely registers his presence, coaxing a blossom into fruit. She's been craving a nectarine but this will have to do. When she turns around, a bit already taken out of it, she blinks and waves until she's finished chewing.

"We really need a thing to do when you can't sleep, huh? Did you want one?"

[fivemilesdeep]

He waves back, still weighing the pros of starting a conversation against his anxiety, and it's a relief when she starts it for him.

"Yes please." He hadn't considered it to be an option, but evidently that's the upside of being friends with the goddess of spring.

(Being friends with...he ruminates on that thought for a moment, then puts it away for another time.)

"I'm usually awake around this time of night as it is."

[springforth]

"Yeah, I have a hard time getting to sleep and staying asleep. Hence, out here. No point staring at the bottom of a bunk for hours."

She reaches up, a limb bending under the sudden weight of a ripe peach. Holding it out, she takes another bite of her own.

"Feeling alright?"

[fivemilesdeep]

"Thank you." He takes the peach, takes a bite, and then takes a few moments to savor it. He's had peaches before, but getting them is generally a matter of timing and luck, so having one fresh off the tree is an experience.

"Yes, I was just...thinking about last night. About that conversation. My world has three gods, so hearing about worlds with gods for everything is.." He trails off and shrugs, staring down at his peach. There's evidently a Persephone in Thanatos's world too, which makes him wonder just how similar Thanatos's and Persephone's worlds are; if he criticizes Thanatos's world, is he insulting Persephone too? He doesn't want to do that - he doesn't want to cross that line - but he just doesn't know.

[springforth]

"Really--only three? We have--hundreds of gods. Generations of them."

Persephone sits down on the edge of a plot and takes a more aggressive bite.

"Leads to a lot of drama and nonsense. Evidently more so in other versions of it. You are not missing anything."

[fivemilesdeep]

...that is too many gods.

Ryo ponders his options for a moment, then sits down next to her, quietly relieved. It's fine, right? If he has an opinion about it?

"There's drama and nonsense in my world too, but that's mostly.." He shrugs. "People." Generally the gods-level drama happens when people bring it down on themselves. He has a healthy fear of spirits for a reason, after all.

He looks down at his peach, then back up at her. He's still a bit nervous to be bringing it up, but... "Does Thanatos's world sound especially bad to you?" Because it certainly does to him.

[springforth]

"It..."

She shouldn't judge. Judging is bad and what would Thanatos think of parts of her world? But the anger from last night boils back up.

"It's different from my world. The gods in my world have home lives, they go to work, they fall in love, have kids--even cthonic ones. Thanatos in my world was taking a train to work so he obviously has his own life! I can't believe that they treat him like... Like an automaton. It would never--" She throws her hands up. Gods, she wants to talk to his Hades so badly.