middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

Time to leave!

There is not much of the city left, but the park is holding together as those anchoring help those who are not voidtreckers through back to where they belong. Monsters continue to attack and a little further out there is a battle of hearts and minds being fought with the mass of colours and chaos.

Eventually, after the bulk of citizens had been evacuated everyone with SCA's on would hear Jin-Roh's voice after a few frantic beeps, as Chiff aligned everyone's SCA's. "We are almost done here, if you are with anyone not tethered to a voidcraft get them to the evacuation point, as quickly as possible."

Anan pulls out of the anchoring point to call out to any defenders in the park. "Come on! Anyone who isn't a voidtrecker! It's time to go."

Luckily those off fighting the entity headed the message and made their way to the park as Jin Roh spoke again.

"Everyone else get ready. When we call it you need to leave. If you don't have your SCA on then get to someone who does."

As the last people rushed to the park Anan calls out again, through her SCA and outloud to the park. "You need to unanchor, before you can evacuate. Everyone be ready."

She goes in again though, because there are some last people, those from the large battle, getting through as another message was called.

"Almost there. Be ready. On my command..."

Anan unanchored again. "Quick everyone unanchor."

"NOW" Jin Roh's voice came through strong on their SCA's. Hopefully those with SCA's would grab those without.

There is some outside help as well, the train pulls anyone who is unconscious or still under the entity's control, forcibly evacuating them. This includes Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Zagreus.

Luggage Carriage

There has been a mass evacuation before and that was crazy enough but since then the population of the train has almost doubled and now it is an extremely tight squeeze as everyone crashes into the luggage carriage at the same time.

The train jerks and rolls as they enter into the void at breakneck speed and again as they seem to slow, rather than speeding off though the void.

There's a crackling from their SCA's. "Voidtreckers? Voidtreckers come in!" Anan's voice. "Please tell me you made it..."

There's only a few moments of signal and soon they are flying though the void again, away from the strange non-world, the entity sealed for now. To new adventures, but first hopefully some time to recover from all that has happened.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yes. It's... it always has a very nice flavor, actually. I can get an assortment, I assume... some of it's very good for sleep. And... well. The nutrients in a body aren't being used anymore anyway... it might as well go to something positive. Especially if they were terrible."

Some of the most terrible people made teh best tea, from what Caduceus had told him.

"......I don't wanna be a drink."

That's. That's what Tidus is going to say, the conclusion he comes to - not actually all of it, but that's the part he's going to let out of his mouth to cover his bafflement as Caleb just going ahead and saying that.

But he raises his hands, happy to totally keep on and not linger on that. "You tell me the words to stick in, I'll order! Share with friends." Tell them it's grave tea. Don't share with him!!

(He is so glad he can't be tea food....!!!!)

"Well, you're not terrible, so you'd probably not be very good tea." He smiles a little lightly and chuckles. "Anyway... that's... all right. Just ask for a selection of Caduceus Clay's teas and it'll be right. ... The... eh. Other thing I was thinking of... it's not the same if someone else tries to make them."

He glances aside a little awkwardly, leaning into Frumpkin. "It's one of those sorts of things."

There's a small 'heh' that comes from the reassurance(?), and he can accept that. But as Caleb admits to his other request, or want, Tidus hums a bit thoughtfully.

"Like your pie by your favourite baker, huh?" Or, you know, he'd use a more personal example, but let's not accidentally step on bad memories. "I...wonder if you'd get it if you tried buying it anyway? Worth a shot. You know... I buy things from a place that doesn't exist. Stuff that shouldn't stick around. I don't know what the train can't get."

Why not your favourite baker's pie, then - or whatever it is Caleb's thinking about.

"I..." He looks away at that. "I don't know. The person who made it died quite a while ago. And I don't know if the train can reach into the past like that."

And if it can... no. No, he can't do that. Or maybe he could go back, but he's not so sure if he should. Not anymore.

There's a moment Tidus takes, where he can answer, but what they're talking about makes him want to consider his words. A sentiment he wants to express.

"You can try, but... you know, sometimes, it's not about getting the food just right, but what it meant to you, sharing it with people you care about. The memory, you know? It's up to you," he makes sure to say.

"But you said you have someone you know here, right? Sometimes - it's just about sharing."

"I... that's true. I suppose that's true." He can't really argue it, in any case. "And neither of them have had it - we grew up in vastly different places." Sure, apple tarts are universal as far as he knows, but apples are very different.

"... I suppose it doesn't hurt anything to try."

"Things get crazy 'round here," he says, waving out a hand, "especially on missions. But if you're stuck here, and you know, things aren't so great where you are... I say, make the most of it. That's what I tell everyone. Try new things, old - do things you wouldn't be able to!"

He turns that hand into a clenched fist, positive, smiling.

"Might as well, right?"

"Things are... better than they were." At least for now. "But you're... not wrong. I might as well try. I suppose I might be afraid the nostalgia won't hold up. It's been over a decade and a half since I had those particular apple tarts."

Even saying it out loud hurts, but he keeps it from his face. He does give in and rub his forehead, though.

"Ah... that mission was worse than the last though, wasn't it?"

"Hmm, it was bad for a lot of people," Tidus admits. For himself, it'd gotten rough at the end of the last one, but for everyone who was an anchor this mission... "I'll probably shout at the train and tell us to give us a vacation or something later - we could do with it. It's just been illusions after illusions after illusions!"

And then there's a pause, and suddenly-

"Oh yeah - weren't you married?"

Ohhhhh yeahhhhh.

"I - um. I was, though we're not actually married. Or together. We are... friends?" That's the only solid relationship status he has with Essek. Even if either of them wish for more... he's not sure how well that'd work.

"Oh? Oh! So they're from the train? Or did you end up with someone from your world?" He asks, since- "Someone else said they met their cousin there. Weird, huh? They got lucky!"

At least, for them. They were pretty thrilled to see family after all this time.

He's not sure he likes this line of questioning but it's better than some alternatives. For now.

"He's from my world, but he is also here on the train. I knew him before."

There's another 'ohhhh'. "So a new friend. I remember you mentioning 'bout a Beau..."

Or something. But. Give him a pause. Then, a smiiiiile.

"And your kid?"

"No, we're friends in our world. And Beau and I are... practically family. As for Eight... no, she's not from my world at all. She's one of my roommates, however."

So that's. Something. "But we hadn't really spoken before this."

"Eight!" Aha, there we go, that's what he was looking for - a name! And he grins with recognition. "How 'bout that! She's fun, known her for a while. You ever been in that one big quiet room? There's a bunch of drawings on the walls in there - she drew a lot in there. Wanted to make a memorial since she was missing home."

And for other people to get the homesickness out.

"I have. I didn't realize that was her work. My drawing tends to be... mostly spell diagrams, to be honest. It's pretty much nothing but that and other parts of spells to work on developing them."

Edited 2021-07-26 19:28 (UTC)

"Oh, I...think I've seen that before in other magic. Senku does that, doesn't he? And we had this girl before.. but I'm no artist. Don't have a drawing bone in me! Eight can make you ink if you need it though. She's actually an octoling! No good around water, so if you end up hanging out or in a mission together again, watch out for that."

A wet Eight's a no good thing.

"It looked similar, but not the same. And for scrap workings that's fine, but I need specific ink and paper for copying things into my spellbook. ... Being a wizard takes a fair amount of coin if you keep wanting to work on new spells."

He'll keep the water thing in mind, though.

So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

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