middleofsomewhere | The Will to Fight: Conclusion

The Will to Fight: Conclusion

The battles rage loud and ferocious at the gates of the city and off in the ruined wastelands of Erda, and on the walls a struggle of a different kind occurs. The team who stayed behind at the towers are small but determined as they move stoically across the walls to right the stones that have become misaligned, even as their friends battle not too far away.

The city begins to hum. It's a quiet hum, not loud enough to be heard out where the others are fighting but it vibrates even through stone. The recovering monks assure them that it is done, the wards are back up and no demon will be able to enter the city.

Eventually the battle is won, all three battles. The demons fought back and killed, a major blow to their gate system that will keep them back for hopefully a long time. Those waiting in the caverns return to the city and by the time they get there the illusions are gone. Everyone can see the world for what it really is.

But despite the ruins of their world the people are relieved, the adrenaline of the fight coursing through their veins and the mood is one of hope. They will build again, their people will survive.

All Voidtreckers please return to the Voidtrecker Express. Departure will be in a few hours

It has landed not too far from the city, cloaked to make it unnoticeable to the citizens, for all the good that does. No one has been particularly subtle this last week. People can begin regrouping, packing up the camp and getting any wounded not already healed to the train.

However roughly half an hour later another message appears on their SCA.

Passenger Persephone has requested we remain on system System #86525656412355 for an additional day to further assist the people of Erda. The Voidtrecker Express will depart on the morning of Day Fifteen of the month of Kazoo.

The train remains where it is, so the voidtreckers can use its facilities. There is definitely a lot that can be done to assist those of this world and the citizens will welcome any helping hands.

After an extra day they finally depart, returning to the void once more.

(OOC Note: Once the wards are up any characters who are demonic in nature will not be able to enter the city either!)

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[She thinks about that for a moment.]

Something like them, probably - but my galaxy has an incalculable variety of life, and I've met sentient quadruped species with some regularity, so I try not to assume. With tens of millions of inhabited worlds where I come from, it seems the better method.

[But she does catch some of that feeling, that vibe.]

Have I caused offense?

It's not surprising to hear the first response. Cultivators don't seem to be common in worlds outside of his own. He's only seem a couple unfamiliar individuals using similar techniques but he hasn't talked with any of them.

At the mention of protecting the king, though, Wen Ning momentarily sets the tray aside and gives the man a proper bow. "My apologies, my lord. I-If I'd known you had such an important position I would have been more courteous."

Not that he knows who this king is and he doesn't live in the region he's in charge of, but a position like that still deserves the proper amount of respect.

"Oh, a friend?" Demyx asked, blinking a little bit. Who could Soldat know?

"Nobodies are...well I don't have a heart." Demyx said with a sheepish little grin. "Lost it."

"I'm not a nice guy." Demyx said, shaking his head. He definitely believed that, he couldn't qualify anything he'd done as nice. He was going more for harmless, over nice.

"Ah, I can summon a lot more than that." Demyx considered. "Well, that makes sense at least." He was much more comfortable with someone wanting to use him, over an accusation that he was somehow a good person.

Inigo looks embarrassed, which is a different sight than a guy who's ticklish to the feathering touches to his skin. But is it embarrassment, or is it actually worry? It's hard to tell with Inigo, sometimes--he'll let his mind go in crazier directions than Tidus's own goes. Like being worried about this stone he swallowed how many years ago in the first place.

But this calls for a change of goals, Tidus lowering his gaze to Inigo's belly with a soft hum between his lips, fingers searching around, soft presses now and then, until-

"--Ah?" Tidus blinks, his hand pausing. A finger carefully prodding at Inigo's stomach again; head leaning in, as if trying to get a closer look.

"Did you feel that? Right there...?"

Poke. Poke poke.

"Woah, easy," Zag starts when the batons are drawn, holding his hands up and clearly away from the giant sword strapped to his back. But the danger seems to pass quickly, and relieved, he drops his hands to his sides again.

"Heh. I seem to do that often enough," he answers, finding the term 'rust and ruin' to be oddly charming. It must mean something equivalent to 'blood and darkness', from context.

And then Devero voices his bewilderment, and that prompts a little snicker from Mort. Zagreus reaches carefully into Thanatos' hood and scritches Mort on top of his plush head. Wouldn't want to wake Than if he can help it. "I mean, sure. What else am I supposed to do, tie a rope around him and pull him like a balloon?"

"To whom?"

It's the first thing she asks when Merwen stops talking, in response to that last part. Because that lies at the core of what the other is saying, right?

"Not a single one of our fellow passengers is going to care." Alice doubts they even notice who's there in the heat of battle and who isn't, let alone judge people on it. There's plenty of people on the train who can't fight, anyway. "So to whom does it reflect badly on you? To yourself? To some higher power?"

Not long enough, if you'd ask me. [ After all, the amount of days they spend on the train greatly outnumber the days they spend on other places - to not even start about the times they're still practically stuck in a small space, like that one mission on the space station.

Not that Alice doesn't appreciate just being able to sit here instead, without having tons of people walk past her constantly. ]

But speaking of stretching our legs.. What have you been doing ever since the battles ended?

[ The girl doesn't exactly strike Alice as a 'helping rebuild' type, after all. ]

[ Thankfully Tidus has chosen the most succesful way possible to move away from the subject. Because Inigo - as ever - is more than willing to believe that Tidus is both thinking and talking with his stomach, as ever. It doesn't even stick out to him as anything too weird.

And it returns some sort of normalcy to their conversation, momentarily making the thoughts fade from Inigo's mind again, being replaced by thoughts of food.

(Maybe he, ironically enough, is kind of hungry too.) ]

.. Pasta's the stringy stuff, right?

[ Look, he's getting there. He's getting there, okay, just.. very slowly.. ]

Wait, hold on, she had enough energy to make all the plants grow here, and then still made dinner afterwards?! [ Sweet Naga, it suddenly feels like the two of them are slacking off, even as they're trying to get this piece of wood nailed down in this very moment. ]

"Okay then..!"

Madoka won't question his answer. After all, it's Piccolo. He's practically the designated Responsible Adult of their team, right? If he wouldn't be able to take care of himself, then who among them would be able to?

Besides, Piccolo can do anything. Doing this much is probably nothing to him, even after that much fighting..

"I think we're almost done with breaking down camp. Some of the bigger tents are just a bit harder for me to take down by myself.." Especially since she's so tiny. She can't even reach the top, please! "Like that one over there."

She points it out - one of the last tents still standing.

[ Too late, Kyoko. You're caught. You're rising in Madoka's assessment of you! Just look at the smile on the pink-haired girl's face - it's just written all over her face that she's added yet another positive traits in the mental list of friends she has. ]

Well.. I think you've been a good big sister today. [ Not necessarily to Madoka, though she thinks the encouragement was sweet. No, instead-- ] Just look how happy you've made all those kids.

[ She gestures over at the children in the distance. Apparently they were so taken by Kyoko and Madoka's own dance that they all started waltzing together too now, looking like they're having the time of their lives. ]

[Kyoko watches the children dance with a small smile on her face.]

...You know, I first learned how to dance from my Mom. It was a simple little routine, but I loved it instantly. I used to listen to all sorts of music to figure out how best to dance to it. I wonder when it became something I didn't want to do in front of others?

The touch surprises Tidus, wondering for the first few seconds what it is Madoka's doing, what it means. A hug? A game? Using him as a rest and surface? But then he gets it as it continues a little longer - and it's cute, reminds him absently of that time back in Terra with Inigo. Makes him glad a the same time she isn't getting to where he's been getting an awful knot from using a blade.

"Mmm. I guess so." It takes him a second to think about it, her point, and he can't say she's completely wrong. Even if: "But, I'd be happy if they weren't in trouble in the first place. We could just hang around and chill out, and the towns people would be living their lives with no worries -- nothing that needs us saving them."

Something dull and mundane, but completely out of reach when you're stuck on a train. Except for in the movies, glimpses of life between whatever plot the story was following.

"What if we got to be like them for a week?"

Wouldn't that be nice? Just...normal.

So, so much better. I'm really glad we came here and could. Could help.

[Soldat is fervent about this. Being mind-controlled (again) is the worst thing they can imagine, and nobody here deserves that. Nobody.

Also, they can't quite resist the advice:]

Uh, try angling that nail a little less, it'll go in smoother.

"Ah. No. I was." Experimented on. Tortured. Subjected to a lot of shit that didn't actually work before the real thing. He settles on the most careful truth. "Injected with an experimental supersoldier serum. And then given extensive training. Where did the spider thing come from?"

The kid with the webs, maybe? Was he bitten by a spider?

Soldat nods, glad they'd remembered that right. Sora's experience had been... fragmented, a bit, but apparently he'd been right about that much. They considers a moment, unsure now if the experience really does equate to what they went through with HYDRA. Then they ask, "Do you know someone named Sora?"

Soldat shakes their head a little. "There was nothing anybody could've done. One of the demons got their claws on my lantern before I could get out away. Didn't even. Wasn't a normal kind of death. I shoulda gotten out of the way faster." Taking claws to the chest is survivable, for someone like them; taking claws to the lantern, apparently not.

"Yeah, he is. He's a jerk." Ken was trying to sleep.

"I'm just... tired of all of what they're doing. And SEES is... I'm not saying the Dark Hour is a good thing, but it's the only way we survive. And if they kill all of the big Shadows, apparently the Dark Hour will end. And I don't... know what to do."

"I'm bad with names too, or I'd offer to try and think of one for you." Raven said, with a hint of apology in her calm voice. But she did reach out and pet the little ghost. It wasn't any more awkward than with Silky, right?

"Madoka, from what I've seen, you always do your best." Raven said, honestly believing it too. "It felt close there, a few times...but you were right."

Does he look strong? Perhaps he does to someone Romeo's size. Or perhaps the kid is just being kind. Wen Ning has never been particularly muscular, and his height didn't do much for him when he spent so much time trying to make himself look small and unnoticeable. Things are different now, though. He's more confident. His physical strength might come from being a puppet, but it always helps when he knows he can rip someone's arm off if he has to. That probably helps with the strong appearance.

"Thank you, but there are other people who have expended more energy than me." He'll eat when those who look like they might collapse have been taken care of. "What about you? I hope you kept yourself safe during the fighting."

Was that- You know what, he's just going to leave that alone, assuming it was all an earthling thing and push past it. "You seem to have remained in one piece." Vegeta's not quite sure what her team had been through yet, not that it truly mattered since they had clearly succeeded in whatever they had faced.

Okay, that pulls Ken up straight.

"The darkness in your world - can end?"

That's......not how it's......supposed......to work, and yet. If there's a way to bring an end to all the threats........

Or is Amada-kun talking about something else?

[Asriel grins, clearly both pleased and a bit embarrassed. Furry as he is, his flush is only sort-of-visible on the tip of his nose, where his fur is thinnest.]

Ha ha...thanks. I can do it again!

[Bolstered by his success, he makes a more complex pattern this time. Bullet patterns, as an entire concept, are designed for living opponents, people who might try to dodge. They're there to be tricky and fun. Now...well! Maybe he can aim for multiple targets at once? Maybe he'll throw in some colors! Green is the one he's best at, and also the safest, so he mixes in some of those this time!]

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The Will to Fight: Conclusion

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