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

He startles as someone picks him up, opens his eyes- it's Otoha. He sighs and leans against him. Otoha's got him. He's okay.

...wait, Otoha's usually injured, isn't he? He doesn't feel pain. He could be hurt and not know it. And there was fighting...

Trying to find words is like trying to wade through deep water - and gods he has done so much of that today - but he gets there eventually. "Are you okay?" His voice is quiet, barely audible, but he's still trying. The fact that Otoha asked him a question doesn't even process - he's thinking too slowly and too concerned for Otoha's well-being.

"It's a minor cut. I'll get someone who's not wiped to look at it. I... I promise. You just rest."

If he's not even awake enough to understand a question... "I think there's two bunks in my room that aren't being used. You can rest there." He gives Ryo a little bit of a squeeze without meaning to and starts walking, heading into triage. "And before you say it's going to be a bother, it's fine. I'll let Emporio know."

It's...it's a cut. It might not be bad, but...Otoha is hurt.

So he needs to help. That's how this works.

He reaches up, slowly and weakly, and lays his fingertips at the base of Otoha's neck - it's the first bit of exposed skin he can reach - and reaches for his magic, and-

Nothing. There is nothing.

(Had he been able to think, he would have been able to see a number of solutions. There are other healers on board who aren't exhausted and would be able to help. There are potions in the stores. There are a number of people with mana drives. There's basic first aid. But his mind is in a fog and his thoughts are slowed, and all he can think is-)

He's failed. He's supposed to be Otoha's healer, and Otoha is hurt, and he can't do anything. He has nothing left to give.

He curls in on himself a bit, pressing his face into Otoha's chest. "I'm sorry," he whispers. "You're hurt, and I- I can't-"

He cuts off, voice shaking. He doesn't feel the tears welling in his eyes until they start sliding down his cheeks. He's overwhelmed - he was overwhelmed even before this mission began, and it hadn't exactly made things better for him - and that sheer amount of stress and exhaustion is finally coming home to roost. Being unable to heal Otoha's injury because of it is simply the final straw.

He waits for Ryo to finish touching his neck before he shakes his head, picking up the pace so that they can get to his room faster.

"Like I said, I'll get it looked at. You are exhausted, and I wouldn't want you trying to heal anything right now anyway when you can't even walk. You need to heal yourself first."

He digs his ticket out and climbs the steps to his room, nudging the door open with his foot when it unlocks and closing the door behind him. There's a clean, empty bunk that he sets Ryo down on before going to take off the other's shoes so he can rest.

His voice softens as he does so. "You're just tired. You're welcome to rest here as much as you can - not want, because I know you want to get moving right now."

You need to heal yourself.

He can't think past the surface level - he can barely think at all right now - and he buries his face in Otoha's chest. "It doesn't work like that." He's thinking about his magic; he's not thinking about the fact that he is in dire need of sleep, and that that would provide the healing Otoha is talking about.

Otoha sets him down on a bunk, and the moment it takes for him to realize it's not his - it's a lower bunk, and the room is wrong - is the moment when Otoha moves out of arm's reach. He reaches for him, slow and too late, and pulls his arm back instead, clutching at the pillow on the bed and slowly curling around it. "I'm sorry," he says again, whispering mostly into the pillow, because he doesn't know what else to say. He can't take care of Otoha - he can't even take care of himself - what is he supposed to do if he can't help?

(Rest, is the answer, but he still hasn't recovered from the whiplash of anchoring strangers across that dimensional river, of being too stubborn to release anchor until he was sure everyone else had made it across.)

"Yeah, it does." He pulls a blanket over Ryo, tucking it around him. "... I'm the big brother, right? I'm supposed to help take care of you. Let me take care of you."

It feels like his chest is being squeezed, watching Ryo so upset. He pulls a water bottle out of his bag and sets it next to Ryo. "You have nothing to be sorry about. You did everything right. Now you need to rest. Please." He can barely stand to watch Ryo feeling so upset, but he's not going to leave the boy alone. Not now, especially.

I'm the big brother, right?

It rattles him, resonates in his core in ways he can't put into words and doesn't like, leaving an awful ache deep in his chest. His big brother is missing, and every illusion he'd run into had rubbed that in his face; he'd made a terrible big brother to Thanatos when they were caught in this mission's illusion; Otoha's his big brother - he is, and he isn't, but he is, in the same way Orion and Endon are-

And as far as they know, he's missing- he's apart from them too-

There are tears in his eyes again, and he reaches out and takes hold of Otoha's arm. "Don't go." It's barely above a choked whisper, but he means it - he can barely think, but he knows right now that, more than anything, he does not want to be alone.

"I'm not going anywhere." He sits down on the floor next to the bunk, leaning into it so Ryo can see he's not far at all. "I'm right here. I'm not leaving you until you feel better."

And even then he's not really leaving Ryo at all.

So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject