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

Thankfully Inigo's reflexes are pretty good, which means that the moment those hands start swatting at his own, he's already pulling them right back before Soldat could hit them.

And despite the instant awkward feeling that kicks in - right, wasn't Bucky always so wary about sudden touch too? Though this was an emergency! - Inigo tries to surpress it the best he can, not wanting to make them feel bad. Instead he just tries to smile.

"Ah.. Don't worry. Forgive me for suddenly touching you like that, it's just that you seemed right about to topple over. I didn't want you to hurt yourself."

"Sorry." They sag again against the counter and scrub their face wearily. "Post-mission recovery. It's normal. And I'm not great with people touching me. When I don't see it coming. You're okay?" They don't think anything actually connected, but better to ask than to assume.

"More than fine," Inigo replies, dismissively waving a hand. The last thing he'd want is for them to feel bad for their instinctive reaction, when there's really no way they could have helped it. "I didn't get hit. But even if I did, it wouldn't be a problem. I'm not so weak I can't take a hit."

Even if it would definitely hurt if it was Soldat's wrong arm. But Inigo would take it if he had to. He'd even try to smile after to cover up the pain.

"Really though, you should sit down. You look like you won't be able to stand upright for much longer without falling over."

"The soup is almost done. Then I'll sit," Soldat promises. "Talk with me. That helps." Can't nod off if they're talking. This has been a workaround before, carting supplies around while in this state. (It's been a while since I've thought about Ellever... She was a good kid.)

Subject. Other than Beacon or sleeping. "How did the mission go. For our team." Since they were off with the red team and all.

Talking? Well, that much Inigo can do. And it means he can linger around here for a few more moments to make sure they really do sit down once they're done with all this.

"Relatively well, I'd say?" No one got hurt, after all. At least, not in any serious way. It seems a few people got off much worse at the end of the last mission. "If anything, I would say the first half of the mission was just really mind-numbing. We had to traverse such a huge place to get to that tree, and the ground underneath us was constantly shifting, and walls kept popping up out of nowhere. It was more of a maze than any kind of battle."

"Yeah? Ours was. More exciting than that." They shift to take up the wooden spoon again to stir the soup. "Energy fields. Heat, cold. El. Electricity." It's hard to force the word out, even with their emotions numbed down by weariness as they are now. "And hologram things that kept trying to attack us. Shorted out the arm once, until I learned not to punch through them." They tilt their head, then allow, "There was a tree too, though."

"Oh, yes. We had that too-- the.. the 'hologram things', that is." Look, the odd way he says it is in no way a problem with how they're choosing to call them, it's just that Inigo has never said the word hologram in his life before. It's an adjustment, but he's trying, even though it kind of makes him sound like he's seventy years old rather than seventeen. "And the tree. The walls just stood out to me the most since they were so annoying."

It probably says something about him, huh. More inconvenienced by weird modern technology than by having to fight. The latter is just normal at this point. Expected.

"Did you get through it alright though?" He says, instead turning the attention back around towards them. ".. You know, other than being tired."

Since that part is very obviously visible to Inigo.

"I'm okay. A little scuffed up, that's all. And I heal fast." No damage to the lantern which, frankly, is the most important part here. There's some tune-up work they need to do on the arm, and some buffing to get rid of the scratches, but nothing got broken, not much worse than some bruising that's already starting to fade, entirely hidden under clothes.

Then, with their own tally of hurts, they realize they haven't asked about Inigo. They try to rouse themselves to look him over more thoroughly. "You come out okay?"

Inigo isn't so sure how much to believe those words coming from them, but on the other hand.. they mostly look alright enough. And they're still able to stand and walk around, so even if there's some wounds, they can't be seriously threatening. And as long as that isn't the case, Inigo can still accept it without fussing over them.

(.. Well, without fussing over them too much, either way.)

Inigo is very much the same, anyway. As far as is visible, he doesn't seem injured at all. He doesn't even seem to be showing any signs of fatigue.

Instead he just smiles.

"I told you before the mission, right? I'm always fine." Or just very well-practiced at looking fine at all times. "I've fought worse things than what we saw during the mission. Especially those Helpmates weren't much of a threat at all compared to what we have faced on other missions."

"Uh-huh." They still don't sound particularly convinced, but they also sound like they're not going to argue about it, since he's moving around without any real signs of pain, and all. They don't quite know him well enough to prod and pry enough to find out how much pain he's successfully hiding.

Instead, they shake their heads. "The helpmates weren't programmed for battle at all. No tactics. Just durable and unpredictable. They got nothing on the spirits back in Beacon."

"Spirits?"

Inigo is almost tempted to talk about the Risen back home. In fact, he almost does it - but then he immediately remembers all the things Bucky told him about himself. Things that must surely be true about them as well. And people being resurrected and turned into mindless zombies who only fight would most likely hit a little too close to home.

So Inigo doesn't, instead just seeming interested in what Soldat has to tell.

"What were they like? Were they just.. ghosts?"

"Oh, god, no. They were." How do you even describe the spirits? "They were like anything you could imagine. One of them looked like a typical ghost, but that's because she wrapped herself in sheets on purpose, she never said why. One was a giant. Crab thing. One looked like a skeletal dog. One looked like a whole hill that just kind of... moved. One looked like a man with an owl's head and talons. That one gave me this." They slide their lantern over a little on the counter, turning it to show the little charm of folded paper and feathers, the tips of the feathers painted with glitter.

The moment that little item is on the counter, Inigo is already leaning over to take a good look at it. He looks a little surprised - but interested at the same time. It's nothing like anything he has ever seen before, not back home, nor here on the train. He can tell it does look like some sort of charm, but even so, one with feathers like that is new to him.

"It's kind of pretty.."

Inigo is definitely a person for crafts, after all, so he can admire the simple beauty in little things like these.

"What is it?" He glances back up at them as he asks that question. Inigo can't quite tell if it's merely decorative or serves some greater purpose, after all.

"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."

".. 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?"

"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."

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?

Edited 2021-02-08 20:38 (UTC)

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."

"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."

It helps that what issues Soldat has left, they're very good at masking unless specifically set off by something. And Inigo hasn't had the chance to see that yet. Lucky Inigo.

"I was very lucky that the people in Beacon were kind," they agree soberly, and turn off the stove. The soup is plenty done, now, and it's time to eat. At last. "If they weren't kind, and didn't want to help me. It could have been very bad for me."

Even if Soldat may not be the same person Inigo knew before, he still can't help but offer up some silent gratitude towards the people in Beacon in his heart. No version of them should have to suffer - or suffer anymore than they have already, anyway.

But that's exactly what Inigo is trying to make sure of here. Even if said suffering might only currently be as bad as 'dropping asleep in the kitchen'. But still.

"There are a lot more kind people around than the world sometimes makes it seem like," he says, a small smile on his face.

Inigo knows what it feels like sometimes. That sometimes there's so much evil in the world that it feels hard to feel the light. But he won't stop chasing it.

"People must have been nice to you here too, right?"

"Oh, yeah, they really have been," Soldat agrees, holding the soup bowl to their mouth rather than fussing with a spoon. That would take too long and be too much effort to deal with given his current brain capacity. "I don't. Trust easy. But people here make it hard to not trust."

"Yes, they're like that, aren't they."

Judging by the smile on his face, Inigo understands. Although he's definitely a bit easier with the trusting than they are - but it's still hard not to see how nice everyone here on the train is.

(Like Inigo here, who is nice enough to not mind at all that Soldat is drinking that soup like a barbarian.)

"I've heard some of the people on the red team tend to be a little.. eccentric, but I'm glad you seem to have had an alright time with them all the same."

(They're starving and half-asleep, let them ignore manners just this once.)

The idea that red team is "eccentric" brings a small smile over the soup bowl rim, though. "They're not so bad. Maybe I'm used to eccentric." It's not like they don't have a wide, weird array of friends from Beacon. The people here aren't exactly tame, but they're not too shocking. "Do we know how the train picks teams?"

Inigo shakes his head. "Not for sure, I think."

But then again, it's not as if the train shares a whole lot of information with them in the first place, so he's entirely unsurprised by the fact they haven't found out, even after this long.

"I assume it picks people by what task they'd be most suited for. Orange has a lot of people who are either smart or can't fight, and they often get the parts of missions that involve the least fighting. While the red team usually has the most fighting to do, but they have a lot of really strong people."

Inigo pauses, then sighs lightly. "Though even that doesn't go for all individuals in any given team." Which makes it so murky and hard to grasp.

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