The Will to Fight: Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

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!)

Comments

[spikelet]

It would be okay, if I changed a little. [ After all, the a-Qing who hid and watched as Song Zichen was cut down... Who survived, when everyone else died... she can't say she likes that part of herself. If she got a little stronger, would it be so bad?

She manages, through some wiggling and setting her fox's back legs into the folds of her hoodie, to free one hand. It immediately goes to rest over Alice's. ]

I don't think you've become someone messed up. Alice is admirable, someone I want to be like. To survive, doesn't everyone have to do things they don't like? And even then, you're a good person...

[irrationally]

[ She looks down.

This is so hard. Because there's a bit of a point to it. That is how surviving works, but it's not a fate she wants for A-Qing. It's not a fate she wants for any child out there. It's not how the world should work, even if it's often how it does end up working.

So rather than saying anything like that, there's something a bit more desperate in her gaze as she looks up at A-Qing again, staring the other girl in the eyes. ]

Don't be like me.

[ No matter what happens. ]

I'm really not as good of a person as you think.

[spikelet]

Big sis is smart, and strong, and wants to keep us safe. No matter what you say, I want to be like that. [ Isn't that enough? Doesn't that make Alice good?

Eye contact is still so strange, she's not quite got the hang of it. But she persists, meeting Alice's wilder gaze with hers, pale and hopeful. ]

Don't be mad. Let's go have tea, okay?

[irrationally]

.. I'm not mad at you.

[ It's said softly, almost a bit embarrassed. She doesn't want A-Qing to feel that way, even though Alice definitely was scolding her a few moments ago.. But most of her anger lies with this whole situation. With the circumstances that would force an innocent girl like A-Qing onto a train where she's murdered, where she has to fight and face dangers. Where she has to make things hurt.

For a moment she almost just gives in to let them walk off and have tea, but she pauses for a moment. And then, without saying anything, she draws the girl closer, wrapping her arms around A-Qing and holding the girl against her for a moment in a hug.

She wishes things could always just be this simple. That she could hold the vulnerable of the world in her arms and keep them safe that way, even though she knows it's not feasible.

Alice momentarily closes her eyes. ]

[spikelet]

[ Eh? But... ]

You sounded mad. [ But it's a complaint with no teeth, and it's softened further as she lets herself be pulled against Alice. If she was about to say something, which she's not totally sure she was, it's discarded in favour of pressing her face into the dip of Alice's collarbone.

She isn't the person Alice thinks she is, but she wants to be. A thought occurs to her, and she tilts her face to the side, so she can be heard. Just in case, ] Being mad at yourself is no good either.

[irrationally]

[ Hearing the first part isn't much of a surprise.

But hearing the second part most definitely is. It doesn't make Alice force the other off her, instead still just holding A-Qing in place, but it takes a moment or two before she's formulated an answer to that. ]

You really are too smart for your own good.

[ Figuring out that that is what's up with Alice so easily. After all, it may go completely over the heads of other kids. But A-Qing.. It always sounds like she's been through a lot. And having to deal with people like Xue Yang must mean she's had to figure out how to read people, just to get by.

Alice releases a slow breath, and then admits: ]

I don't think it's going to be so easy to quit that, however. [ She's been angry at herself for a long, long time now. ]