middleofsomewhere | Let's Get Down to Business

Let's Get Down to Business

Let's Get Down to Business

On day twenty two of the month of Llama a message comes up on the ICP's.

Voidtreckers have many questions about what happened on system #93426194992 and the entity that was encountered. Analysis shows that the entity on system #93426194992 was also present on systems #86525656412355 and #2207385.

Though it is not known what that entity is, it is clear that it possesses some level of mind influence and complex illusionary magic.

There is a void nexus on system #62138 inhabited by a religious order that, due to their close proximity to the void, employ mental techniques to help with such illusions.

We will be visiting system #62138 for three Days. The Voidtrecker express will remain with the Voidtreckers during this time and due to the nature of the void nexus it is highly advisable to sleep on board.

System #62138 is a wet world. All Voidtreckers will be safe but are advised to keep their SCAs on at all times. This should be the standard on all systems.

THE VOID NEXUS
From the windows of the Voidtrecker Express, passengers see the Void Nexus as a vast island surrounded by darkness, punctuated with rivets of colours running through the sky that casts a glow of blues and violets as they descend closer to the surface. The world faintly blurs the way one’s sight does when sinking into the depths of an ocean, the train manoeuvring around tall rocks that rise like digitates, a sea-green hue deepening over the rocky land outside.

The train doors open from each carriage, and luckily it’s not a flood that welcomes them but clammy air cool to the skin. They come out to a section of land sparse of more than tunicate-like plants under their feet, pools of silvery water otherwise sunk between small pathways that lead like bridges forward.

Which is likely their destination, a vast coral-like structure with a high opening awaiting them - and as they get closer, a being far taller than any of the Voidtrecker themselves.

ARRIVAL

They are met by a tall robed figure. First glance will show them to be a deep purple in colour with a domed head and long tentacles sprouting from their chin that sway slightly when they move. Still they nod deeply and their mouth moves into a shape that could be interpreted as a smile.

"Welcome to those of the VoidTrecker Express. Your arrival was foretold and we have awaited you. Please accept our hospitality."

They lead them onwards, explaining that outsiders are always welcome here but ask them to remain within the public parts of the temple. They further explain that their order is for the most part a silent one. There is no restriction on the voices of guests but they should not be insulted if the members of the order do not answer.

Once a small tour has been conducted the Voidtreckers are left to their own devices to train or explore as they see fit.

IT'S A TRAINING MONTAGE
Going through to the back of the temple will lead them outside once more, the gentle sound of falling water greeting them at what seems to be a distance. But yet - faint as it is to see, glistening in translucent silvers and pinks - the water is quite near and wide, spilling from the high mountain cliff that borders in an otherwise enclosed space. The pool takes up a large portion of this garden, of coral reef and circled stone pathways where every step must be considered, unless you’d like a surprise trip and dip.

Fortunately, the silver water here is light. Submerging yourself in it or sitting under its flow, you won’t find the hard rush of its weight over your heads and shoulders, and the same weightlessness follows you going under. You find that you can breathe and when you come away from the lake, your body and clothes are lightly damp at most.

Still, there is plenty of ground to walk along without going over the pool. However, the first steps of learning mental fortitude against illusionary obstacles will take you into...

[ MEDITATION. ] To combat irrationalities is to iron your own reactions to them. You are instructed to sit where you find it comfortable: those unused to mental training should keep to the shoreline, while the more intermediate may find taking the stone steps out to large limpet-shaped shells - sizeable to fit 3-4 people each - a better challenge. Those more daring should sit under the waterfall or to go into the water’s depths, where you at least don’t need to worry about breathing, or even getting that wet.

To get wet isn’t the purpose, fortunately. The purpose comes the moment you close your eyes - for as soon as you do, you feel. You sense. Some other, some thing, a presence your mind decides must be there. This sensation is lighter by the shore, but sitting above the water or submerging yourself inside it brings it stronger against you. In truth there is nothing there, no one but the other Voidtreckers, but the spell of the water - or is it the void within the water? - makes your brain think otherwise, logic not welcome company.

Being in groups can help ease the effects through the SCAs, but otherwise, true control comes down to yourself. Breaks are recommended, as there’s no point wearing down an already exhausted mind. Your mind is your defence. Strengthen it. Wield it as a weapon.

[ Combat. ]

Though not exactly what they are here for Voidtreckers will notice that this order of void worshipers train in a form of martial arts. They train outside, using the watery air as part of their movement. Training is done in large group sessions and without weapons. It has a strong focus of listening to the world around them and fighting in a way that makes them one with the world, using the environment to their advantage.

Even though that might not seem the most useful to people who won't be fighting in an environment such as this world, it is at least a good form of exercise.

Any voidtrecker who is curious is welcome to join in the training and those that show especial interest can take more specific lessons aimed at beginners.

TRAVELLING THE NEXUS
[ OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE. ] While the lake and surrounding temple will help to strengthen one’s mental defences with perseverance and training, there is more that can be done away from the temple, and the island is free to be explored. The Voidtrecker Express is stationed where it dropped everyone off, and returning to it will offer everyone a mental relief regardless of the levels of their ongoing training.

The marshland continues beyond the train, one route mostly made by the natural stone pillars that rise up from the ground like stalagmites. Higher cliffs can be climbed by those who wish to, if just for a higher view, curiosity, or privacy. From wherever you look, this island gives off the same impression as most of it already has: sea-like.

[ PLANTS. ] Underfoot, there is not earth-like grass or flowers, but seagrass, kelp, algae and more. They grow along the stone, idly waving as if submerged in water and pushed by unseen waves. Strange blue plants with purple-tipped tendrils will wiggle if touched, while at the higher levels, small bulbs of some kind cluster around the size of a fist. Types of plankton make the gnats of this nexus, too tiny most of the time to be noticed as more than dots to the eyes.

[ CREATURES. ] Also, don’t forget the fish. As tiny as a pinky finger, as big as a hand, the size of a human; they swim through the air, not particularly caring for the Voidtreckers, but also not looking to engage with them. The larger of the fish travel higher than the smaller, and those as big as whales farther up than even the taller cliffs can reach. For those that have any ideas of hunting, they will know - mysteriously, as if recalling the thought - that they should go for the larger fish, and not harm the younger, smaller ones. Those are tastier, after all.

[ STONE FOREST. ] Travel low or high, the way will take them to what appears to be a forest that spans across a large portion of the central island. But as the rest of the nexus is, this is no ordinary, woody land. Its trees are stone, coral, rising high and jagged, the water in the atmosphere denser in this jungle of rock. It turns the world a sea-green to move through, with plants and coral everywhere to be seen. The air denser, thicker, leaving small droplets of water on skin and clothes.

There are no real paths than the spaces between the ‘trees’, but there are guides to find your way to somewhere: pink jellyfish, or something of the sort floating around. They are the shiri as the monks call them, and looking upon them will tell you they will help you find where you need to go, that they will aid you if you get lost and think of them. And for those whose thoughts lean such a way, they will know that harming them will bring a greater injury to the individual who does so tenfold, and they will find no guidance at all on this nexus until they have repented.

Read: Enjoy being stuck on the train for the rest of the stay.

[ CONCH LAKE. ] For those less destructive, a short travel through the stone forest will lead them to a lake, with what can only be described as a conch shell gazebo accessible in its centre. Bubbles float up and around, balls of water made to linger by whatever strange force controls this place. They can be made to bounce away and around with a touch, and respond to being thrown as a ball might. Just, watch out: They like to burst at random, no matter the force used, scattering as tiny beads all over the air.

The water here is different from that around the temple, its colour more blue, but closer to aqua than what many are used to. Yet diving into it will have the similar properties that allows one to hold their breath for much longer than usual, and to move with an ease, like floating weightlessly. There’s no worry if they close their eyes here, a peace radiating from the pool; like a refuge from the trickery that lurks no matter where you are in this nexus.

Climbing out of the pool will have you damp, more appropriately soaked than the temple’s lake. There’s nothing like towels or a great way to dry off, but you can sit and hang around under the conch gazebo if you like.

Or perhaps messing around isn’t what brought you here, but the four iridescent slabs of stone that stand at intercardinal points at the edges of the lake, that speak of the Trials to the mind when you look upon them.

THE FOUR CAVERN TRIALS

There are four caverns, four trials, with each slab suggesting their test. Upon deciding where you will go, a shiri will come to guide your character through the forest to where the stone trees part, and a half an hour walk will lead Voidtreckers to a vesicular cavern.

You know as you approach the cave’s mouth that the shiri will guide you out if you need it, but they stay outside, leaving those searching for advanced training to journey on in themselves. Passengers descend, dots of light coming through the multiple holes above to illuminate the way as you go deeper into the cave.

And you won’t have to go far to find the crystals in any of the caverns, though there’s many pathways to go deeper in. Attacking the stones to break them won’t do much, but when you put your hand on one…

The illusions start, pulling in anyone nearby.

[ CAVE OF PERCEIVING. ]    Bend deceiving labyrinths into your own path.

What is real? What is not? This cave holds a large underground river flowing through it. The water is not too fast flowing or deep but it is cold enough to be a shock if anyone falls in.

Fall in they might for their task is to cross the river. The river is filled with stones large enough to hold a person as they cross. However not all of those stones are real, some are just illusions and if they step on the illusionary rocks they will fall through to the river below.

It is possible to get by on trial and error but the task will not be considered complete until they force their minds to see through the illusions are perceive the one true path.

[ CAVE OF ENDURANCE. ]    Wounds bleed and skin burns only to bodies that believe it.

This cave may differ between Voidtreckers. Sometimes it is a monster they must face or an environmental challenge to battle through.Perhaps the searing heat of a fire or the low altitude and freezing temperature of a mountain top. Perhaps a lizard with claws and teeth. The important part is not defeating the threat but to neutralise the damage. It's not real and the mind can overcome it.

All the caves are probably best faced in groups but this was especially so. They are unlikely to be able to make the damage unreal to start with and so there is likely to be a fight or struggle before they succeed.

[ CAVE OF HEART. ]    To accept crafted desires is to invite everlasting grief.

Here they are in a beautiful place. A meadow, a forest, a rocky beach. The weather is beautiful, not too hot not too cold. A little further in is something they want, something their heart yearns for.

They can't see it yet but they are sure they will, if only they go deeper into the grass, the trees, the water. It is there, just out of reach.

To pass this test they must walk away. Turn around and leave despite their heart calling to them to go deeper.

[ CAVE OF MIND. ]    Craft a weapon from your own vulnerabilities.

Fear does not have to be a weakness. The cave is filled with a lake and in the centre there is a bubble of water, it contains something they fear. They can't see it but they know it is there. Perhaps a person, a place, an object.

Facing a fear is one thing but this task asks for more than that. To accept the fear as part of them, to turn it into a strength to protect others.

This trial is the most personal and perhaps the most difficult. They must step into that space, knowing that they will face what they fear whilst also knowing that it won't be real and use that knowledge and acceptance to bring down the entire illusion, bubble, lake and all.

art sources: alien / landscapes / waterfall / caverns

OOC Information

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".. I believe it."

It's a little more quiet this time. And it comes after a pause. Because even though she doesn't blame Yondu, it's still a lot to think about. A whole bunch of children who hadn't done anything wrong, just.. being dead.

Not to mention that Yondu is blaming himself for it. It's so obvious. In the frantic way he speaks, in his tone. It makes the harsh self-criticism he sometimes displays more logical. He's blaming himself for this. He must have, ever since he found out the truth.

"But.. believing someone.. that's not a sin. When people are misled, the bad guys aren't the people who are being misled.." After all, wasn't it the same in her world? They believed Kyubey. All of them. And Madoka doesn't want to blame a single one of her friends for the choices they made, no matter how disastrous they might have ended up. "You.. You thought you were doing something good. It's not your fault that that evil planet mister lied to you.."

Edited 2021-06-13 18:44 (UTC)

He thinks about it all the time. It eats him up, the certainty that so much of it was his fault, that he was so damn pliable and idiotically self-assured. And there's a moment where, when she says she believes it, that he feels pretty damn guilty for asking it of her. He'd done so much wrong back then.

He was bad for being greedy and taking the job. He was bad for just not giving much of a damn at the time. No experience with kids, had no way to attach himself to them or care until he started getting to know Ego's. All the effort to keep them entertained and manageable for the trip changed his perspective. It wasn't until then that he cared enough to ask, 'what happened with that last girl?'

The way she calls Ego an 'evil planet Mister' hurts just because it makes him remember how absolutely decent she is.

But he's just sad now. He's not scared. The worst of the fear can't get to him.

"Alright, so I gotta go do this damn bubble thing. But I needed you to know, or else it was gonna keep diggin' it in." He squares himself up to deal with it.

Please, mister Yondu, you just said a bad word!!

But that's not the priority here, so Madoka doesn't remark anything about it out loud. Of course he's still tense, especially since even after confessing this, he still has to deal with whatever illusion the bubble might throw at him. And while Madoka thinks Yondu is super strong, she did see how he reacted to the illusions during the mission.

She doesn't want it to be that hard for him again. So..

"I-I'm here with you."

Even though she's not sure if she can do anything to help. But being there - that's something she can do, at least.

"If that helps at all.."

Oh he's full of so many bad words. It's very lucky that one was the one that leaked out his harried head.

It's not occurred to him, yet, how seeing him at such a loss might have hurt the people that depended on him. Though he also greatly underestimates how much some of them depend on him, with his feelings that he's expendable and easily replaced.

"It's always helped. Probably why it's the thing I'm scared of losin' here."

Why the Madoka in that bubble obviously fears him to the point of needing protecting from him. Though it might have been more accurate if she knew the persona he had to wear to protect Peter. Not the tired one that no longer had to struggle to seem hard to survive. He doesn't know how this thing works, or what she'll see, but he advances on the bubble.

And inside of it, there is a cowering Madoka, arms around her knees, with Soldat in front of her. He can feel Siebren's imposing presence even before he sees it and he's very upset that his brain has made that something to fear after all his trouble to keep it from being that.

Madoka follows right behind him, though it's so odd to see the content of the bubble. Seeing Soldat and Siebren isn't so odd, considering she's seen their faces often enough around the train, but seeing herself there.. It is very strange. Even if she knows it's just fake, the idea that this place combined with Yondu's mind could conjure up another her is so odd.

Especially with the way she's looking. That's not how she'd react to Yondu - it's not how she'd ever want to react to the man.

She almost speaks up. Maybe she should comfort the other Madoka. Tell her it's okay.

But this isn't about that other Madoka, and she knows it. This is about Yondu's fear, and that's something he has to overcome.

".. you know it's not real, mister Yondu." She says, though softly, as if she doesn't want to fully distract him from the sight. "That's not how I'd ever react to you.. and the rest of them wouldn't either. I'm sure of it."

He nods glumly. The illusion, for now, is holding.

It says something about their characters is that when Madoka sees a frightened version of herself, her first instinct is to comfort herself. When Yondu was presented with his own dead body as a part of Cherry's hallucination, he kicked his own corpse with unrestrained spiteful hate. Madoka's heart is warm and kind and comforting and generous. Yondu's kinder aspects are reserved for most other people.

He can't really feel good about himself at the moment. He can't even convince himself that it won't happen.

"...I've lost people before an' kept goin'. If it happens, it happens." He tells himself.

So to that other Madoka, the illusion, the one that's acting mortified. "Sorry I disappointed ya." He doesn't beg like he might have done. He doesn't rage like he would have, insisting people listen to him. He just... accepts it. At least this kind of thing, he knows he can keep going after he loses people. It hurts like hell but he can.

"If ya did ever feel like her, I'd give you your space." He tells the real Madoka, so that she knows as much as he wants to fight to keep his people in any way that he can, he can also let her go. "...Sure as hell hope I never do." He adds on.

".. you've never made me feel like that."

Not that Madoka can think of, anyway. There are things that have frightened her on the train and during the missions - but she can't recall any other feeling other than happiness and the warmth of being protected whenever she was near Yondu.

And she thinks he probably knows that too. He knows she never really looked like that in front of him - and if she ever did, it wasn't for long. But since this is his fear, since this is what he's worried about.. She can't help but reassure him a little extra. It's not like that. It'll never be, unless something really bad and strange happens. Something entirely unlike Yondu.

"But.. I think it's okay to still feel sad when you lose people." Even if Yondu is strong, and capable of going on all the same, somehow. "I don't think this place is telling us to reject what we're scared of.. But, um, maybe.. Maybe to use these things to see the ways we're strong too."

Craft a weapon from your own vulnerabilities, the slab near the entrance had said, Madoka remembers.

"I guess that's what I mean. I can still fight when all I'm feelin' is that big hole inside me. Probably always the thing I could do best, 'cause I need my heart to fight." Like he'd said before.

And that's a pain in the ass to think about, just because it means finding a strength in it and a strength means finding a good in it and finding a good in it means finding a small good in himself.

The fear isn't stabbing him anymore. Sad isn't afraid. Sad isn't helpless. It's just what it is.

He finds himself outside the cave, holding the stone from working through the thing, opening his fingers and the urge to angrily smash it is definitely there. But he won't, just because Madoka's been there with him the whole time. She just helped him struggle through that. He doesn't want her to think that the struggle doesn't matter (even if, in the shadow of that sadness, he's pissed off).

So he just looks at the rock in his hand.

There's such a contrast in mood here.

Because while Yondu is silent, just staring at the stone, Madoka instead lets out an audible noise of surprise when they suddenly find themselves outside of the cavern once more. She looks around them, like she's trying to process what just happened, and then she realises she's holding something in her hand.

Madoka looks down at the crystal, her jaw dropping, and then she happily jumps up and down.

"Mister Yondu..! You did it! You were so amazing!"

Sorry to ruin your sad-angry-quiet mood since this childish excitement, Yondu. She can't help it.

Her voice does shake him out of his thoughts, and he realizes just then that she got something for helping him. Which puts her one step closer to an accomplishment (and maybe will spare her her own pain in there, he knows she has it).

"I guess if you help out a few more of us you'll get somethin' good out of it, won't ya?"

He says encouragingly, 'cause the other caves were easier. At least in his case. He has a whole other sense that helped him figure out the discordance in the Cave of Perceiving. He has enough experience with training simulations that he could write off the damage of Cave of Endurance. It hurt, but he's well practiced in ignoring things that he wants in the Cave of Heart.

This one was hell. But at least he got it. And for some unknown reason she really doesn't seem to think less of him after that.

"Ah.." Madoka's gaze drops for a moment towards the crystal she's holding in her hands. It doesn't seem to make her excitement fade all the way, though she does stop jumping. Still, when she looks back at Yondu, it's still with a smile on her face.

"I guess!"

And sure, she wants to gather these crystals if they're useful. But that doesn't feel like it's even the most important part here, hence why she answers that way.

And why she continues, smiling at him.

"But the most important part is.. um, well, it feels like I was able to help you a little, mister Yondu.. Or I hope I did, anyway! That makes me really happy!"

"You did," he assures her. "Thank ya for that."

Because he probably would have been thrown out of that cave time and time again if it weren't for her reassuring him like she did. He might have been a little afraid of the real her by the time he was done, repeatedly trying to bash his head against a problem that he couldn't fix on his own, and that wouldn't have been fair in the slightest.

"You really ain't upset with me?"

Maybe she's not had enough time to think on it, yet. Probably too soon to ask. But there's still that insecurity.

"I know you said you didn't hate me for it but now that there's not all that pressure, figured I'd ask again."

Now the smile drops. But it's not in a sad way, mind you. No, instead the smile makes way for Madoka starting to puff up her cheeks in the most childish pouty way. Clearly not upset, but just really determined to make a point clear to Yondu.

"I wasn't lying to you..! I can't believe you're still doubting yourself, mister Yondu.."

Please, it's not like she said what she did back there to placate him. She spoke from her heart, and she does the same thing now.

"Someone misled you. And the moment you figured that out, you tried to protect the child you were supposed to bring to them instead..! What's so bad about that? Why would anyone hate you for that? I know I won't..!" You can't make her!!

"I lost my team because of it," he says. But then cringes. "...But like I said before, I was an asshole about it." He's not being an asshole about it now, though. Maybe because it's Madoka, and it's exceptionally hard to be any kind of mean to Madoka. For anyone, really.

Though it might explain why he misses the man that saved him so much. And how he lost him.

"Alright." He'll leave it at that. That way he can stop thinking about it himself. But he offers one of his blue hands again.

"C'mon let's.. go get some fish or somethin'. I don't know. I just don't wanna be by this thing."

Maybe it's for the better that he moves on, because Madoka could do this quite literally all day. Even with as insecure as she is about herself, she's apparently not going to allow anyone to talk themselves down in front of her, even if it's because they're feeling guilty about something they've done.

But if anything confirms that she doesn't think of him differently after all that, it's the fact that she grabs the hand being offered to her without hesitation, keeping the crystal she earned tightly clutched in the other.

"Don't worry, we can go fish.. I'm sure it'll be fun!"

And hopefully it can get Yondu's mind off other things.

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Let's Get Down to Business

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