VoidTrecker Express Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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middleofsomewhere2021-05-15 04:59 pm
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2021-05-15 04:59 pm
What their Eyes See: Optional Ongoing
By day eight the Voidtreckers have made a good deal of progress in all their tasks but there is still a lot to do to help the people of the city.
It is around mid morning when there is a message on their comms. For those that want to help it is easy to either find Anan herself or ask for netpoints and scanners to be brought to them by Chiff.
Illusions have gotten worse, uncertainty and fear are rising across all tiers and the situation is becoming more chaotic by the day. Indeed especially on the first and second tiers it seems that the voidtreckers themselves are being targeted, with creatures stalking them and attacks on their minds to make them believe that what they are seeing is real.
Same inside the Spectura system, the vines seem to almost be on the offensive against the voidtreckers though things are getting better outside the game system as more of the vicitms are freed and wake up.
Almost opposite to the situation on the lowest tier, which is getting more chaotic by the day. Anger is bubbling over, people are frightened and in a place like this the only real way to express that fear is through anger.
There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot of work to do, especially as many of the voidtreckers have started to realise, this all seems a little too familiar.
It is around mid morning when there is a message on their comms. For those that want to help it is easy to either find Anan herself or ask for netpoints and scanners to be brought to them by Chiff.
Illusions have gotten worse, uncertainty and fear are rising across all tiers and the situation is becoming more chaotic by the day. Indeed especially on the first and second tiers it seems that the voidtreckers themselves are being targeted, with creatures stalking them and attacks on their minds to make them believe that what they are seeing is real.
Same inside the Spectura system, the vines seem to almost be on the offensive against the voidtreckers though things are getting better outside the game system as more of the vicitms are freed and wake up.
Almost opposite to the situation on the lowest tier, which is getting more chaotic by the day. Anger is bubbling over, people are frightened and in a place like this the only real way to express that fear is through anger.
There has been a lot of progress but there is still a lot of work to do, especially as many of the voidtreckers have started to realise, this all seems a little too familiar.
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He should take notes, pun intended. Now that he has an actual tablet for it...Anyway, his mind is on one matter and one matter alone, so he shifts, speaks low and with a sense of urgency. Like he doesn't want anyone else to overhear it between the two of them.
He only pauses to rearrange his thoughts, gather info that's always been stored in his head, before speaking once more, catching her eye. The most pertinent one, yes. He can start with that. The largest shadow, so to speak.
"...Have you ever heard of something called the world destroyer?" Roland goes, steady and sure. "It looks like a big, giant storm cloud. Bigger than anything you've ever seen. And all it does is devour. Sound familiar, maybe?"
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She's careful, she's a void scout. Anything is possible in the vast endless reaches of the void.
"You've seen one?"
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He takes a glance at Chiff for a second before he speaks once more. What did Tidus say, back then? That they couldn't remain idle? That they had to try something? And the thought of the world destroyer not even existing brings up a person long gone.
"Anan...Have you ever heard or visited System no. 1015?" A number he's committed to memory since that day. "Let me be more specific. Have you ever heard or visited a place in that system called Enrara?"
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She looked at him. "Is it a place you've been to? A place where you saw these world destroyers?"
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It's a huge gamble to say these things to someone like Anan, who Roland hasn't quite figured out how to feel about; if trust is truly worth granting given their situation. Approaching her one-on-one was his chance to gauge her for himself, without anyone else to influence his decision. Then again, he would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't just as eager as others to grant her this boon, to involve in their fate. They had been isolated without answers for too long, functioning at the mercy of circumstance.
"No. Neither of those things." He shakes his head. "Enrara discovered void travel even before they knew about going into outer space. The people on that planet...they loved it. The whole nine yards of void travel. They were missionaries, scouts, mercenaries, they even worked with the void ministry to access void-active worlds."
He tilts his head down, chin to his chest. The story comes naturally despite the passage of time. It helps that Roland isn't the type to stop thinking about these things no matter what else lands on his plate.
"We know this because on the planet of Nion, an Enraran who went by Captain Halo crash-landed into a hostile area. Our SCA's were alerted of her SOS signal for some reason, and our maps led us straight to her. Her ship, the Voidflash, was beyond repair." He unfolds his arms and sticks his hands into his pocket. "We learned a couple of things on that planet. Maybe to seasoned pros like you, they're no big revelation, but when Tidus said we were taken without our knowledge of the void, he meant it in all aspects."
That they keep going into things unprepared, in the dark. Blind and grasping for straws, rewarded by the train only with paltry new cars and half-hearted attempts to connect with its passengers.
"First is that if anything happened to the voidcraft we're tethered to, then we all suffer the permanent death. Halo disappeared before our eyes. Nobody had any idea that was the cost of void travel." His frown turns into a grimace. "Second is the concept of tethering itself. Others had their theories about our connection to the train, but seeing Halo confirmed it as a certainty. And lastly-"
Not quite last, but it's where he'll leave things for now. Allow Anan to take it in, to reassure, to help. If she can.
"-Halo's SCA was left behind and we were granted a final message. Knowing she wouldn't recover from both her wounds and her ship being destroyed, she told us the tale of Enrara, and how after traveling through a void storm bound for System #3, things changed. Suddenly, nobody knew who she was. Not even prior contacts in other planets. No, let me make that clearer." Where before Roland would make small movements to break monotony, now he is staring straight at Anan, unmoving.
"Suddenly, her entire planet was erased out of existence. Like it was made-up. The way you reacted now was how everyone else reacted to Halo's papers, her license, her ship. What's Enrara? Who are you? It wasn't an alternate based on her coordinates. She even went back to her home system and there was nothing. Not even a memory of her people across the void. You can erase a whole world, but can you do the same for those who remember where it once was?"
The word choice is deliberate. Everything Roland says is deliberate to invoke something. Anything. And finally, he winds down, turns his head away to stare at her computer, her set-up.
"All she could find was the odd mention of the so-called legendary Voidtrecker Express. And theories that she never lived to find out if they were true or not. I guess that's up to us to chase, now that we've got a lead."
He stops here, grows silent in wait. There's an itch he wishes he could scratch, not used to revealing so much in so little time, but they had none of the luxury of taking it slow.
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A few times she looked like she would speak but she didn't, let him continue talking until the end. It was best to have the whole story, everything he knew rather than distracting him with questions or clarifications.
Because Tidus was correct. They knew so little and that is terrifying. There's over a hundred of them, in the void, going to different worlds and they know so little.
A world removed from existence? Eaten perhaps by these world eaters he had spoken of? But to remove all knowledge? All memory?
She's very pale by the time he finishes. "That. That's a lot." An awful lot, she frowned.
"The Voidtrecker Express is a legend and one I don't know all that much about." And now she is seriously overthinking why that might be.
"I believe you though." That was important. "Not least because." She frowned. "Losing one part or even two parts of a tether wouldn't... It wouldn't be the end. It's a three part tether for a reason. Losing your craft is terrible and losing your craft and your travelling self is nightmarish. But to vanish and leave her SCA behind. Wherever she began, that was gone too." She closed her eyes. "It's terrible. I've never heard of... Even worlds that unfortunately get destroyed. People remember them. Did she meet no others? If her world was void active there must have been other travellers?"
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- he can't help but jump immediately for what she says, standing up straighter like a coiled spring come to life.
"A three-part tether?" Roland is on alert. "Her...traveling self? Hold on, you're speaking in tongues." He shakes his head. One at a time, he tells himself. Keep his level-headedness about him, one at a time.
"What do you mean the tether comes in three parts? Anan, walk me through what you just said."
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"The void is the between spaces. A different plane almost. Not a place at all. Rather the gaps between places. You can't travel it like you would an ocean or even space. Not safely. So part of you needs to remain connected to where you belong and a tether keeps the part of you that remains on your world, the part of you that travels and your craft interlocked." She twisted her fingers together. "So your travelling self is you. Here before me and you are connected to your craft. The Voidtrecker Express. But you are also connected to yourself, the part of you that does not leave your world. How that has worked with your group, who have entered the void unwillingly and without any safety protocols I don't know."
She shook her head. There are far too many unknowns.
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"That explains why the train's able to use points to buy things we know from home..." He shakes his head, not out of disbelief, but because it's all somehow coming together for him. And it feels violating to know he's been taken this way- that all of them have been taken this way, without choice, without warning.
He reels inwardly, but refuses to show Anan. He keeps going.
"Then how do you break the tether? Let's say you don't want to be a void scout anymore, let's say you want to retire early." Roland is more invested in the conversation than he was starting it, taking two steps around the table as he thinks out loud. "How do you get out of the game? How do you, Anan, go back home where part of you is waiting?" Without dying? Like Halo did?
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She sighed. "How you would get out is harder. How did you get in? How did the tether happen? Is it even a three part tether? There's so many questions. I'll try and find you answers but... It's hard to know where to start."
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It's a lot of information on his part too, which is why he stays silent until Anan finishes speaking. The more he explores the void for answers on their circumstance, the more Roland understands the depths of the train's crime. For what else could be worse than the total and utter intrusion of another force into your deepest, most private thoughts and desires? Fears? Memories?
And now the possibility of being tampered with; of his already fractured soul tethered without his consent, without his choice...
He sighs deeply. It is rare for men like Roland to express things outwardly, especially in the presence of virtual strangers, but in this moment, it doesn't feel that way. It's almost like Anan is the only one who understands, despite all his doubts.
"Anything you can provide is already more answers than the train ever gave us. That the train ever will." He eventually replies, his eyes looking across her set-up distantly. Chiff's little movements stir another thought in him, and he is want to chase it.
"Anan...This can't be coincidence. This planet isn't the first time we've had to talk about memories, or how nobody can remember the Voidtrecker Express. The woman I spoke of, the captain of the Voidflash, she had theories. She didn't exactly like the void ministry since they apparently police the multiverse, but it would be impossible to wipe out en masse. She mentioned passing a void storm too, and that's the closest we've got to one another." Roland closes his eyes briefly. "We once passed a void storm, and ghosts of past passengers appeared as apparitions inside the train." Memories.
"Would-" he hesitates for only a second before courage overtakes him. "Would it be possible that we're in an alternate void?"
It's the firmest theory I've got. Here's to hoping Halo was on to something.
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She frowned at his suggestion though and then sighed, giving him a small grin. "You do love asking the big questions don't you? Is this an alternate void? Just thinking about that gives me a headache."
She did seem to be giving the thinking a go though and she was quiet for a long moment.
"The existance of alternate voids is even more debated than the the sentience of void craft. I don't know. Maybe? But it would be a very very far out idea. I'm not sure I believe the void can be replicated in multiples. But as I said. I'm no void philosophers."
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"We won't have the answers between the two of us, I know." Roland walks around, a break in the monotony. "And it's clear we're not entirely welcome this side of the void." Chiff is nice enough to stay still as his hand rests against its cool exterior. He strokes its back as if it were an actual pet, but only out of curiosity for how it might feel.
"Let's go simpler, then." The fingers against Chiff rise, returning to curl up against his hand resting by his sides. "It's been debated, but I want to hear your thoughts on it. What do you think about us attempting to contact the void ministry for help? Surely if anyone in this universe knows how to get people home, especially when they didn't sign up for the trip, it'd be them. Right?"
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She sighed, "I can start looking into it though. Find out if they have a department that deals with this sort of thing."