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

To be fair, Devero probably wouldn't have to crane his head back as far as most other folks on the train to be able to address Thanatos; he measures in at a more-than-respectable 6'4". He's a big dude for a human, his height matched by the breadth of his shoulders and chest and the bulk of muscle that he carries with unconscious, athletic grace.

Regardless, he appreciates the gesture.

"That's me," he says with a nod. He looks up at the other-- man?-- with a gentle expression on his face. "Guess I don't have to ask you if you got the abilities you were missing back?" The hovering gives him away.

Thanatos is big for a human but oddly small as a god. (Though not as small as Zagreus. He's still half a head to a head taller than him.)

"I have. My abilities from being Death Incarnate, hovering, and shifting locations have all returned." Thanatos doesn't know for who's sake he strains to keep his voice steady. Just that he does. He sweeps an arm out, and his large scythe appears. He gives it a small spin before letting it vanish again. "My proper weapons as well."

Devero steps back a respectful step when that weapon appears, letting out a low, impressed whistle. "That's a hell of a thing," he remarks, even as Thanatos disappears it again.

He looks back up at him. "...When you said you were Death, out there on the mission, I'd assumed you meant that as a euphemism," he says slowly, with that careful air of someone navigating a totally novel interaction. "You didn't, did you?"

"I meant what I said. I am the God of Death in my world." Thanatos stands tall, rigid, like he's trying to project the image of an awe inspiring god. Someone to respect and fear. But even as Thanatos attempts that, there's no hiding or forgetting what had happened on the mission. Thanatos froze in terror. He was anything but Death Incarnate then.

Devero regards him with his head slightly tilted, his expression contemplative as if he's busy comparing the Thanatos that he sees now with the Thanatos he met back there on the 'battlefield'.

When he finally speaks, it's to say quietly, "You're having a hard time adjusting, aren't you?"

"My concerns are for those on my world." How bad as it gotten already? He knows what it's like after a month, and that had been before Zagreus started escaping the Underworld.

However, Thanatos can't be more specific about why he worries. There's a secret he needs to keep about the reason why he worries so much. (And yet if anyone knew the myth of Sisyphus capturing Death, that secret would be out in the open.) It's too dangerous to have carelessly revealed.

"You're not the only one," Devero says sympathetically. "It seems a lot of folks on the train left behind big responsibilities." Not him, he's a nobody-- but he seems to be about the only nobody on the train. Everyone else here is so important.

"If there was something I could tell you to ease your mind, I would, but our situation is what it is," he continues-- i.e., tethered to the Voidtrecker Express until (or if) it decides to cut them loose. "But you're definitely not alone in worrying about the people back in your world. You've got a lot of company."

Thanatos would be adjusting to the train a lot better if his presence (or more specifically the lack of it back home) didn't also spell ruin for his world. He's not the jealous type nor does he hate his job, but he's never wished he was someone other than Death Incarnate than he has since being on the train.

Not for his own sake but for everyone else in his world. For Zagreus's sake.

"That only makes me question the train's motives even more."

"I don't know that the train even has motives," Devero says. He sticks his hands in his back pockets and half turns, looking out over the clean, orderly lines of the garden. "Sometimes I think the AI that runs this thing is a lot simpler than all of us like to give it credit for."

"... What's an AI?" Thanatos looks at Devero blankly. "Is that like a charioteer?"

If Devero hadn't figured it out already, Thanatos is from a time before most of this technology. There are some things he knows, but others....

Charioteer? Hoo boy. If he didn't have an inkling before, he does now. He thinks quick, and finally offers, "Think of it as if the chariot had-- had a spirit in it, that a person had made. The spirit can drive the chariot, but only in the ways that the person who made it designed it to. That's what an AI is."

...Kind of.

There's a long period of silence, almost like he's not going to respond. Something like a spirit... but something made... Perhaps like those helpmates, but Thanatos still isn't sure he understands those.

However, Thanatos realizes that there is something from home he can draw a comparison to. "... Like Talos? He was a giant of bronze forged by Hephaestus to protect the island of Crete."

Well. That's not a lot to go on, now is it? Devero's acquaintance with classical Greek mythology is passing at best, given that he didn't even recognize Persephone's name as that of a goddess when he'd first met her. So he doesn't get a fourth-wall bending cheat.

But based on Thanatos' description, he feels comfortable enough to nod. "Probably something very similar. Say that Hephaestus put a set of instructions inside of Talos, telling him how to act. 'Do this when that happens', like that. Those instructions would be the A.I.."

And so they are at the mercy of something that can't think for itself very well, just following directions without any real consideration to who it's affecting. Thanatos doesn't like how... familiar that sounds.

"So, the train is a lead by a simple AI. And... what exactly? We're just along for the ride? For however long this takes?"

"Apparently," Devero says sourly. "Presumably it's programmed to work with a captain or a conductor of some kind, but it doesn't have one right now. If one of us could figure out how to assign ourselves that status in its system we might be able to get somewhere with it, but until then? Yeah, we're just along for the ride."

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."

"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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Conclusion

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject