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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That makes sense. Machines are like that. I'm actually impressed it showed gratitude!

"If I'd been able to take better observations I'd love to analyze what that corruption might have been. It didn't exactly act like a virus. My only comparison was the organic spread of mind control chips that I observed on my own world. People would isolate and infect. But even that's not quite right. It's very curious."

She kneels by Kaiba, looking at Snapper, wiggling a lock of her hair in front of him. She's saying all this while tipping her head, looking intently at him.

"Do you know if the biosphere was intended for settlement? If so, maybe it's supposed to house one of the destroyed location's inhabitants in the future. It seemed to be primed for populating."

"It was under construction and it appeared it would've had everything to sustain life when completed, so it's likely---but I didn't get the chance to ask."

Kaiba throws a towel over his shoulders and grabs for the water bottle, watching with some amusement as Snapper watches the hair intently. How strange---!

Kaiba has to abruptly pull her back from trying to chew on it.

"No. We play nice. Heh...sorry about that, she's a pouncer. Young dragons usually are."

"That's alright. I can't feel it. I'm not really experienced with young dragons so I'll make a note of that."

Snapper is very cute, though. Entrapta sits up a little straighter.

"Senku seemed pretty worried about the ministry being after us. There are probably a lot of recordings of us in the Overseers, depending on how much data it retained after purging its system."

Now, Entrapta isn't worried. She does acknowledge, though, that her survival instincts are never her highest priority and perhaps she should ask someone else their take.

Kaiba frowns---yes, he should've thought of that. It complicates things.

"He's right. If the ministry catches us, we'll be arrested and punished severely. But I don't know if that's enough to follow us...we'll have to ask next time if void travel is linear or not. I don't think it would be, to the point that we'd leave an easy trail...but again, not enough info to be sure."

Snapper finally settles on his lap, and he pets her gently. "How did you leave the inner system before we finished, anyway?"

"I wasn't very good at fighting in digital form. I'm not much of a fighter anyway, and without my hair to help me get around I was practically paralyzed. So I was swarmed and overwhelmed and kicked out.

"Then I spent my time collecting scrap from the machines broken during the fighting."

She shrugs. She's not proud of not being able to handle the combat part, but she knows where her strengths are. That's their job.

"It would make a lot of sense if it wasn't linear. We could be fixing something that will be necessary later. There's some way she knows where these incidents happen, and the best way to do that is to know the future."

"...it's fine. That's why I'm here. I had some casual training in the gym at home, but I'm not trained for extensive combat like many of the others here. The powers helped, but not enough---so I'm subjecting myself to our more experienced combatants once my speed is up."

Kaiba's a little self-conscious about that, judging from the way he rubs his arm---he has the muscle to back up what he's saying, but it hasn't done him much good on the battlefield so far.

"Right. The train has limited time travel ability...some awareness of what in the multiverse needs fixing could be part of that. Unless it's instinctive?"

It's actually good to hear she's not the only one.

"I'm pretty good at dodging and hiding, the hair helps." The climbing rack was proof enough of that. "But I'm really lucky there are some good fighters on the train. I want to build a robot to help them train eventually. It would be great to collect data on different types of magic, too."

She considers that. "Instinctual programming or biological components would be so fascinating."

Then she adds a, "Don't feel inadequate, alright? It was pretty obvious you were competent when I first met you. And competence is far more effective than strength alone."

Kaiba is glad to have the speculating. It's a welcome break from the sweat, though he knows he'll need to get back to that soon.

"There's so much more...but the train's trying to tell us whatever it can, through the places we end up. We'll add this to the logs of where we've been."

But that's for later. For now...he shakes his head and straightens his posture, trying to look as dignified as he can under the circumstances. Definitely should've done the laundry first.

"I don't think inadequacy's the word. I'm more...in flux with my role. Tech support isn't as glamorous as I'm used to, but it needs to be done. But the techs keep getting put in combat situations, which leads me to this. If we can get those helper bots up and running, I could use the test."

"We could also use the additional support on combat missions! Imagine, if a combat robot trains off some of the trains best fighters, and then we take it out into the field to do patrols? It would be beautiful." She does little jazz hands with the word, her hair joining in.

"She'll take a lot of work, though."

But she'll get help. She'll build her up. She may never be able to do more than skillfully get around, but she can make things that can fight.

"The very first thing I wondered about was if that location was meant to be a future home to the people that lost their world. But who knows, it could be important to someone we encounter later. Maybe this was where people important to her were built, or they're technological cousins. Every possibility is interesting."

"I'd love to see that. I specialize more in the internal programming, but I'll give what I can."

Kaiba pauses to think about that, bouncing Snapper on his lap to keep her from getting too restless. She's a tricky one.

"It definitely looked like a colony in progress. But do the rest of the void-aware worlds even know that worlds are being erased? No one remembers the train's original world, and if being erased erases all evidence of their existence...I'd wish someone was aware and taking refugees, but I'm not optimistic."

"I couldn't be sure. What are your theories so far about it?"

She's been around, what, less than a month? She's barely got the chassis for her chores robot built. She still hasn't weeded through all the information yet. But Kaiba? He's been around for a while.

It makes it even more important that they record everything they can in these new worlds.

"Last guy I met that wanted to destroy everything said he wanted it in the name of 'peace'."

"I don't think so. If erasure can erase the memory from all except those who lived it...how could anyone track that, unless they already knew something was missing?"

He leans back against the frame, hooking an arm around one of the bars.

"It's technically true that there can't be conflict without the existence of life...but it doesn't surprise me. Power and excessive love of one's own ideals can lead someone down that road."

"He saw himself as perfect so he cloned himself and created a hive mind. Usually someone that full of themselves wouldn't let anyone that could challenge them exist."

Her expression cracks, that enthusiasm muffled as she thinks back. If whatever it is is sentient, she would guess that it could only be on the same level as Horde Prime. Utterly assure in its actions.

"I was friends with one of those clones. An 'imperfect' one," she scoffs. "I could reach him... He also wanted to reach out to me. He was scared and angry from being rejected- I'd want to think there are others beside the train that want to push away from accepting that. Those that might know, anyway."

"Ha. Sounds like my ex-father."

It's a quick aside, but he re-focuses soon enough.

"People are so more than what they came from," he says quietly. "We choose who we are. I think most of us support that."

"Ex-father?" She'll take that as meaning Kaiba disowned him.

"What happened? How did you get to finally choose? Or at least feel like you could choose?"

She's curious. Not just because it might help Hordak, but it might help Adora to know. They seem close in age, and honestly Entrapta's faults with empathy have made her advice lacking.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Conclusion

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