middleofsomewhere | What their Eyes See: Optional Ongoing

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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.

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"Is it really? Fascinating." Senku said grinning a bit. "Presumably, this would also be the planet your other part of your body is being kept on?" He asked.

"If so, we're looking for a world with nine hours of light and twelve hours of darkness." Senku told her easily. "Then we have six hours of enforced rest, including the displacement of our bodies regardless of where we are at the time."

He was only asking her for confirmation of the first part, not to find her training centre, but potentially where theirs might be.

"I agree with you, that time is weird. We're running a twenty-seven hour clock although most of us come from a twenty-four hour world. The time on board has become an interest of mine since we can't seem to get a clock to keep it." He quirked a smile. "Tidus just wants a clock that keeps time so he knows what time it is."

"Yes. That is where my non travelling self is." She nodded, "It would be likely wherever the craft is from has that day and night cycle, though if it came from a world with multiple planets, some use an average time scale if they are recruiting from different places." She shrugged.

"There's no standard to how these things work between systems." She chuckled. "Please be careful. You and Tidus could drive yourselves mad thinking about it."

Senku chuckled lightly. "No crazier than counting for thousands of years. I'll be fine." He grinned and waved his hand a little bit. "He's given me the puzzle to work on. Besides, it's boring on the voidcraft, it refuses to give any entertainment that's educational in nature and it may shock you but I'm not one for fiction."

He hummed a bit. "On a more serious note though, could you tell me a bit about voidsickness. What it is exactly, if there are methods to prevent it, and more importantly, how to treat it."

Counting for thousands of years? She raised an eyebrow. It seemed that being kidnapped by a voidcraft was not the strangest thing that had happened to this man.

"Voidsickness?" She nodded, "It's something that can happen if a tether is unsecure but also if you are in a voidstorm or if voiddust gets into your craft. Voidsickness is..." She pauses a moment.

"It's more an umberella term that a lot of different symptoms come under. Some are physical, such as dizziness or even nausea. Some are more psychological such as halucinations, memory loss and emotional instability, mood swings, that sort of thing. You lower your risk by good diet, exercise, keeping yourself busy. Sleeping well. It's the reason voidcraft have mandatory resting and light and dark cycles. The void is unnatural to us, some people don't take to it well."

She shook her head, "I guess you are all more in danger of it, as you've had no training and who knows what is going on with your tethers. Bed rest, lots of fluids and avoiding the light of the void are the best way to treat it on board a craft. If you have someone with voidsickness and you land on a world, get them off the craft, get them on solid planet ground, even if it's weird and not like their own world. Really the only way to 'cure' a bad case is to untether and retether. But..."

That's not an option here.

It really wasn’t, but Senku didn’t expand upon that for the moment. He would, however, if she asked.

He listened with a bit of a frown. Treating the symptoms was fine but if someone’s tether wasn’t connected properly, there was nothing they could do about that.

“Fortunately I don’t think we have any cases of voidsickness at present, and those symptoms are things I can handle.” He mused thoughtfully. “I wonder why the train doesn’t want us to know about voidsickness.”

He sighed. “Some of the things the train doesn’t allow for is arbitrary. No educational materials in the cinema car. A restriction on books we can order if they’re not from our worlds. Very unusual.”

Senku hummed. “I know there’s work to do, last set of questions.” He smiled apologetically. “What do you know about the Void Ministry? And…” He hesitated. “Should we really be afraid of them?” He was curious because as far as he knew, Anan hadn’t told them to contact them.

"I don't know." She frowned, "I don't know why it would keep information from you. Or..." She shook her head. It made so little sense. They knew some things but not others. It was a lot of the basics they didn't know.

Things they should have learned in training.

She smiled at him, gesturing to show she didn't mind the questions. If she had been kidnapped by a void craft she would have questions too.

She frowned though.

"I don't know." She shook her head. "I want to say no. After all their job is to keep all void travellers safe. But from their message... If they think you a threat."

She shook her head. "I don't know. I admit I am wary of involving them, until we have more information."

"We've tried asking about them, but the train basically tells us to avoid them at all costs, that we'll be tried and punished if we're caught." Senku said. "So it at least believes we're breaking some law. I couldn't tell you what the laws around void travel are either."

It was another gap in their knowledge really.

"Honestly, you're the first person we've met that works for some other faction. We tried asking about other factions after we were attacked on a mission, but we were denied that as well."

Senku frowned. "Best I can figure, we're being blocked from asking for help, or there is a genuine threat out there we're unaware of. It's not an ideal situation either way."

That was partly why it was so frustrating how many people were so complacent.

"And if there's going to be repercussions for talking to you, well, we're going to likely find out when we get back on board the train."

"You might be." She pulled a face. "There's a lot of laws. But I would like to think they would take into consideration your exceptional circumstances."

But at the same time, the last thing she wants is to get them into trouble.

"I hope there is not." She said, "Repercussions I mean..."

"See, that's what I would think." Senku agreed with Anan. "But for whatever reason, we're being warned away from them and whether or not that's part and parcel of the abduction or not because getting help would wrestle control of the train over us...or there's genuinely a serious risk, we have to be careful and measured. There are children among us."

He wasn't worried about himself so much, although that was clear to anyone who met him, he was a bit reckless. "I can't in good conscience invite horrible things onto those who should be protected from them."

Senku nodded at that. "I hope not too, but we'll find out one way or another. Either way, when we speak again, I'll let you know." He smiled. "If you're interested in indulging me in more conversation, that is."

"I noticed." She pulled a face. "That's concerning, you have a lot of young ones." She frowned but then smiled at him again.

"Of course, I am always open to interesting conversation."

And Senku was a very interesting person. "I just hope I can get through to you again." That was the main problem.

"Excellent. I look forward to working with you again in the future." He said honestly and put away his laptop and whatever else he took out to settle in and stood up. "I'll take that gear now to give you hand."

Senku considered that. "If the SCA doesn't work, the radio should and the four of us are still sharing that. Usually Tidus has it- oh, for curiosity's sake. I sent a message back. Did you happen to get it?"

"I did." She nodded. "If I can't get through on the SCA's I'll use the radio. How did you manage to get it to send a message?"

She dug through her bag to find some scanners and netpoints to give him.

"This world's help centre had a communication point." Senku responded with a bit of a hum.

"If we had the components I could fix our radio, but we haven't been able to get our hands on anything that has broadcasting components. Specifically, I'm sure, to keep us from contacting people."

"Perhaps. Communicating through the void is difficult at best, I'm surprised my message got through at all."

She frowned, "Also if you are broadcasting out you are easier found I guess. If your voidcraft believes you are in danger..."

"I believe it does." Senku agreed with a nod. "So of course it wouldn't want us to have broadcasting capabilities. It just puts us in a precarious situation."

"Yes." She nodded. "But I got through to you once so I am confident I can again."

Hopefully. She's trying to sound more confident than she feels.

"Good. Again, thank you for your help." Senku said. "I'll get on this." He held up the equipment.

"See you later, Anan."

"I'll see you later, Senku."

She smiled at him and Chiff beeped as he deptarted.

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What their Eyes See: Optional Ongoing

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