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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

There were details that Tidus knew about Allen's history to figure what steeled his heart about these illusions. Maybe they were the same in that regard, what made this trial painful to the heart, but easy to turn away from. After all:

"It's hard to get tricked when you know you can't have something, huh?"

He says it lightly, as if commenting on some menial matter, but it was the sorry state of affairs. And even Allen had said he couldn't go home, or not without being hunted for deserting everyone there. Even if it wasn't his choice - and never his choice where he ended up.

And Tidus didn't want the fake, as warming as it was to see the faces of his friends. It's the reason he can walk, until the mouth of the cavern finally comes into view, leading them out -

and with a small shard each in their hand.

Allen pondered the words for a moment. It's hard to be tricked when you know you can't have something. He knew that to be true to an extent. He couldn't all things considering.

"It is, but at the same time it's hard to be tricked because you know it's better to not have them around." In his own way it was a combo of both really. He did miss them, but he knew that sometimes it was for the best. But someday...

He soon looked down at the shard that was in his hand. Considering the others this one to him seemed a lot easier.

"I guess walking away really was the answer."

"...Huh."

Oh yeah, look at that. Tidus opens his own hand to see his shard, tilting it some before picking it up between forefinger and thumb. Really? That was pretty easy...

"I guess that's the trial for people who act first, think later?" ...which can be very Tidus, except for under this circumstance. "I wonder if there's a harder test you can do? I mean...it wasn't exactly challenging."

And aren't they newbies at this?

Allen soon firmly gripped his own shard before going to put it in a pocket. probably the best place to have it right now anyway.

"Probably, which would explain how we managed to do it easily." Because Allen was also someone who would usually act first and then think about it way after the fact, if at all.

But he soon nodded. "Oh, I am almost certain the next one will not be easy. The ones I've seen so far have seemed to have slight increases in difficulty...Kinda like in those video games on the train the further in you go the harder it starts to become."

But as to what the next one would be, he honestly hadn't a clue. But that also made him more than a little worried too.

"But that just makes me worry, honestly."

"No need!" Ever the optimistic, Tidus pipes up cheerfully in the face of worry, a confident tone expressed with his features. "We've just gotta remember what we're here for! And how hard can a test like Endurance be? ...okay, maybe a little tough--" he'll give it that, for being called 'endurance', "--but so we might be on a timer. And I know me and I know you, and we're no quitters!"

Were they really going to be the kind to give up easy to any kind of endurance? Tidus doubted it!

"And I can take a lot physically for me to be able to figure out what we actually need to do." Even if they are illusions if it's possible to actually get hurt, he knew he could at least take it.

"The one I'm dreading is Mind." he wanted to be optimistic about that one, but he was worried at what the hell that could even be. At least the others one could figure it out possibly by the name alone.

"Hmm, mind..."

He's following the shiri towards the centre point of the forest with Allen, thinking about that particular trial.

"That's got to be something like...breaking out of a illusion going on inside your own head?" He puts his hands on either side for illustration. "Do you remember what the stone said?"

Did Allen bother to read it yet? Tidus hadn't - but this place does have some weird things with things just...getting inside their head. Like when they try to read those stone tablets...and the jellyfish!

"That's always possible, but makes me wonder just what an illusion like that would be. I assume it would be something personal to the person themselves much like Heart was."

He chooses to ponder this for a moment before pausing, he even stopped for a moment.

Remember what the stone said? Allen soon rubbed the back of his head, awkwardly chuckling as he did.

"I didn't even read it. My reading skills aren't great." Plus who has time to pay attention to such things when things need ed to be done?

A personal illusion again? Guh, there was always the chance, but maybe they'll get lucky and it'll be less intimate and just more annoying. Tidus wonders on the thought a bit (with a frown), though he breaks out of it as Allen goes on.

"Oh? Well, no problem. You hear that voice thing in your head anyway, right? 'least that's what I heard when I ended up at that one just now." He points a thumb back in the way of the trial they just came from.

"But okay - let's see which stone we get to next! Then we can choose the next one that way."

Just walk up to a stone and there we go.

"Ah, yeah." Considering the amount of stuff that goes on in his head, he didn't even think about that fact as he looked back slightly. But soon looking over at the other. That for Allen would normally be the thing he would do but...

"Don't you want to take a small break first?" He was at least trying to be considerate for a change.

"Huh?" He blinks at that offer, mouth tugging aside as he thinks with arms folding.

"This isn't the kind of break where I go sit and you keep going, is it?"

Because he knows what you're like, Allen. Though, he's doubtful the guy would have asked it and not just suggested and go on.

He shook his head slightly.

"I'm not the type to try that. I'm actually genually trying to look after myself a bit better." trying being the word, but hey it's something at least.

"Plus not sure how long you've been doing this for yourself, but I know I might need the mental break at least."

Well well well!

"Good for you!" Tidus chirps. Not much of a thing you usually congratulate a guy for, but hey. "Sure, alright then. I'm not here to mess myself up with those trials. Plus we have three days, right?"

And the area around the pool and the conch shell is rather relaxing to enter towards; as if something about the location suppresses some unknown effect in the rest of the land.

"I'm wondering about the best way to get some of those big fish. They're so high! I wonder if we can get a net."

'Tidus, we have fish at home'? Not giant fish!

"We do which is why I figured to try and take it a bit slower. If this was something where danger was a possibility I would probably... do what I normally would do." And get people annoyed at him for it because that was always the case.

He soon stopped walking going to look up at the fish. Looking up at fish really was a strange thing to him. This world tho was unusual in general. But after a moment he seemed surprised looking at the other.

"You want to bring back to the train the big fish?"

"Sure!" Tidus looks excited about the idea at least, enthused as he confirms his idea. "We can use it for the mission preps! Pack it away so we have a bunch for later!"

And Tidus wouldn't grumble about having multiple lunches of fish. He's a sea boy, after all.

"Would there actually be any room for it? I mean not sure how big the fish is since we are seeing it from further away"

That was his main issue currently, the space. Plus not knowing the size made it hard to know how much they could make w8ith it even if they did.

"No problem, we'll use the arms bands!" Tidus explains. "That's what we wanted them for, for storing food. And that'll mean guys like you with big appetites'll be well-fed too!"

And that would be handy. There was the bread, but it helped to have other food as well. He didn't want there just to be the bread and nothing else.

"We'll need to cut it up before we stick it inside though. I don't wanna try letting out an oversized fish in the kitchens."

"But how are we going to cut it up if we get one?" He had to ask but he could see one thing as a possibility, but that thought causes a frown to appear on his face.

"My sword will not be used as a chopping instrument. That is not its intended purpose." It was also his arm, sure blood and stuff don't usually stay on the thing, but he didn't want to risk it smelling like fish or something.

That would just not be pleasent.

Tidus exhales, a slightly exasperated expression crossing his face with the shake of his head.

"Do you have to fuss over everything? We don't need you to chop it with your sword. Chopping's gonna be the easy part."

The bigger pain was getting to where the bigger fish were, and hopefully not having a difficult time from there. Who knew what taking big fish out was actually going to be like. Hopefully, easy.

"It's not fussing it's actually thinking over things."

Because in his mind if you need to cut down a big fish to back it up then a small knife wasn't exactly going to cut it. At least that was his thought process.]

"We are talking about big fish and the need to cut it down. If the fish is that huge then a knife would take ages to chop through."

"I know that." Geez. "We have more than swords or the knives in the kitchen. Give me a lil' credit here."

'Cause it sure sounds like Allen thinks he's going to go with some ridiculous ideas before he even gets to saying. Tidus waves out his hands, takes a few steps towards the direction of where the train is.

"You stay here if you're just gonna worry. Leave it to me! You said you should rest more anyway."

"Though that has made me curious. What else do we have?"

Considering Allen is use to people who has ridiculous ideas or at least makes a lot of crazy robots they shouldn't be making that equal ridiculous things happening it is just sometimes his first go to.

"Eh? Well... we have powers! People who can do all kinds of stuff!" The many, many talented people on the train!

"Spider's always got a trick or fifteen in her webs - I can ask her. Or just anyone around. S'long as it's not too big, we've cut up bears before. A bear-sized fish would be easy!"

"I guess that is true but... When did anyone cut up bear before?" He assumed he really was not paying attention to what people were doing at that time to even notice something as big as a bear ever being on the train.

"You don't know? I did, with Inigo. He got a bunch back in Irivar. You... were you with Purple Team that time?"

Was that when Allen started team-hopping more often? So he probably didn't hear about the task. He didn't seem like he cared much for the comms.

Let's Get Down to Business

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