middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

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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.

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At first he wonders if maybe Jingyi is choking right under him. It'd make sense, considering the way his body starts to weirdly shake - and, therefore, shakes Inigo's body right alongside his own - and those odd sounds coming from him.

But then the sounds get louder, and it's very obvious exactly what they are. He's laughing. He's laughing.

"I broke my back and you're laughing!" Inigo says, managing to somehow sound indignant and flustered all at once. He's probably wheezing mid-sentence, because his fallen body is being jostled all around here by the other's grip on it. "I-- By Naga, I can't believe you're laughing about this of all things..!"

Was the trick to making Jingyi laugh all this time just pulling something like this? The sort of thing that'd make a toddler laugh? Please.

Having a two year old's sense of humour when he's this exhausted might be stretching it. Or, no, exactly right, and he does try to stop, but it's just so ridiculous.

"Your back's not broken," he says once he's not turning into an asthmatic wreck, gasping for air--welcome along for the ride, Inigo. "Just your pride. I told you, I'm heavy."

This is why it's better to be on top than squashed below. He lets go and sort of dead fishes under Inigo, breathing slowly regulating, and wipes the back of his wrist unsteadily across his eyes. Oh, he can't even remember when he last laughed like that, the near hysterical self fueling kind instead of excitement over interesting things or new foods. He's even more tired than he realised, he's moving to the kitchen, the train can transport him home later--if he curls up as a dragon, couldn't he sleep under a sink?

Then, with a slow, blighted blink, he vocalises his belated realisation.

"Inigo, I can just shift. You can carry tiny dragon me," he says, ignoring the fact Inigo has decided his back is broken now.

"I don't know if I can ever walk again!"

Sorry, Jingyi. You came to the circus, so now you have to expect the clowns.

And by 'clowns' I mean the fact that Inigo is still just on top of the other, like some sort of paperweight, and still whining about his supposedly broken back. Which, you know, looks fine. And considering he isn't screaming like he's dying, he's probably just entirely fine. He's only got a case of the Whinitis.

"My career is--" He pauses, as if he's now - yes, only now - realising the other said something. It finally makes him move, scrambling off the other so he instead ends up kneeling on the floor right next to where Jingyi is still strewn about. ".. Wait, why didn't you suggest that earlier?!"

Jingyi makes a slew of small sounds as his friend scrambles off him, most of them some variety of grunt. There's no good answer, and he could white lie, if his sudden spike of energy from hysterical laughter wasn't already tapering off entirely. He turns his head, peering sideways up at the younger man.

So, more honesty. More very silly honesty.

"I forgot. 'N it's tiring." He uses energy to shift, it's not a free process. Did he even register the clowning theatrics, we've yet to know. He closes his eyes, and his whole form... silvers, his features lose sharpness, he becomes a very localised silver sun that's hard to look at not for the light, but for something uncomfortably fluid about it. It's a matter of two, maybe three heartbeats, and the mass of him reduces, his cargo pants and hoodie collapsing in a gentle billowing exhalation around the smaller body no longer capable of filling both.

Then he wiggles, his head looking back up out of the hood, fur positively ruffled every which way. He's still on his back, so the wiggling continues while he continues to work himself free through the neck hole, his ribbon slipping down to partly cover his eyes as he goes.

... He gives up once his forelegs are free, tucking his paws up against his chest, talons curling in to the centre of them. He stares. Stares at Inigo.

And instead of asking for help, points out, "Told you your back's fine."

Said, and I cannot understate, in the absolute driest way possible: "This is all temporary, born out of my willpower to save you. The moment I bring you back to your room, I will fade into dust for all eternity."

He can keep up the dramatics forever, dude! Don't you dare question it!

But he can be dramatic and helpful at the same time. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, which is why Inigo is already reaching out to try and help free the little dragon from the robes before Jingyi only manages to entangle himself further up into them. Though Inigo doesn't fully gather the dragon into his arms right away, instead putting it down on the ground next to the robes for a moment as he starts to gather the robes, throwing them over one of his arms.

Because Inigo is so not going to dump him back into his room naked, no matter how comfortable Jingyi apparently is with showing off his body to the entire world.

"Wait a moment, once I have all of this, I'll pick you up too."

Edited 2021-07-29 19:19 (UTC)

"Oh." A longer pause. "Can I watch? Haven't seen anything other than a statue crumble to dust before."

He sounds more dead tired than deadpan, himself, but he goes limp doll and only starts moving again to gather the trailing ends of his ribbon into his mouth, too tired to try and wind it back around his horns or tie it off in a bow, or any of the other solutions he's been finding since being stuck here. Into his mouth it is.

Meaning he's now outlawed from speaking anything sensible at all, and so he answers with a drawn out groan while what's left of his clothing (train provided, and at least half of that's back in the room, he doesn't lounge around naked, thank goodness) is gathered up. Dead weight at his present size isn't hard to handle, just a bit floppy, since he doesn't have a set centre of gravity so much as a long distribution of muscle and limbs.

"Mrph mumph mm."

.. the floppy part is a bit of a challenge.

Mind you, not enough to stop Inigo from gathering the dragon in his arms all the same.. but it kind of feels like carrying a snake. It feels as if it could curl around your everything any moment now, or that it threatens to droop right out of your arms. It takes a few moments until Inigo is absolutely sure he's holding the other securely, and won't drop Jingyi somewhere along the way like a total moron.

Which is why he finally dares to take the first few steps to carry the other back to his room.

And it's exactly at that moment that Jingyi lets out perhaps his most eloquent saying to date.

Which requires an intelligent response, obviously.

".. What?"

Usually, Jingyi is a more active participant in being carried. Much like a snake, he holds on with his own strength, less of a droopy noodle that flows a little too smoothly between limbs. He could ooze, at this point. Slither unintentionally to every floor and lay there in a pile of body and limbs.

The transformation did further exhaust him, and so his attempt to follow his eloquence with further eloquence earns one twitch of his tail, and even more mumbling. Could be grand poetry. Could be grand complaints.

"Mmfng."

Nothing.

"Duzz thnkng no mrr vrrms."

Just thinking no more dreams.

A fruitless, but hopeful, wish.

"Wow, you think I'm an amazing guy?"

That is so not what Jingyi said. But since Inigo has no clue what the other just said, that clearly means he can just interpret it any way he wishes, right? Isn't that how it works?

(He's mostly joking anyway, considering none of his self-important talk is ever meant in a genuine way. But it's often a good way to insert some levity in situations, like right now.)

"That might just be the nicest thing I've ever heard you say!"

This is apparently the price Jingyi has to put up with in exchange for being carried.

If he had any energy, he would drum up more than a roll of his closed eyes, but he's limited to a grumble about, "Remeeme to aay oo auck for thiz sumtim."

Remember to pay you back for this sometime. He can entirely figure out enough silly ways to compliment himself when carrying someone--will next platform's flight count? Oh... oh he can work with that.

He's very tiredly plotting meager captive audience vengeance... and falls asleep. While being carried.

... And starts to drool.

At first he doesn't even realise Jingyi has fallen asleep. After all, the snake-like dragon was already pretty much like putty in his hands, even with Jingyi still being very much awake.

It's only when the other has been quiet for a few moments that Inigo starts to realise that something might be up.. and then even moreso when he suddenly feels a gross, sticky substance on his hands.

Ah.

Great.

Is this the payback already, Jingyi? Because it sure feels like it.

At least Inigo is nice enough to let the other sleep - he figures he can use the rest. Or rather, he's nice enough to do that until they reach the other's room. Because Inigo sure isn't going to be able to get in here himself - he's just standing in front of a closed door. So he starts lightly shaking the dragon, trying to wake him up.

".. hey, we're here," he says, trying to at least keep the volume of his voice somewhat down.

The shaking has him try to curl tighter at first, which is the most active he's been in being carried, and it's that as much as being spoken to that penetrates the fog of his tired mind. When he lifts his head, thin line of drool painting down over his scales and some fur at his jaw, he blinks incomprehensibly at Inigo.

Slowly turns his head to the door.

Equally slowly turns his head back to Inigo. Squirms just enough to contort one of four legs free, temporarily holding his mouth stuffed ribbon so he can speak instead of attempt charades or waste energy with wind manipulation.

"Hoodie pocket."

Where his ticket is, so that he can open the door. He does carry the thing on him now, that first time realising he was locked out by ignorance a learning moment of the train needs better wards, and to keep the thing with him.

Inigo is so proud of Jingyi, look who's learned from his earlier mistake.

And this way of communication also manages to prevent a lot of circus-level antics. Instead Inigo can just shift the load in his arms a little so he can actually reach the hoodie pocket - it's a lot when you're trying to juggle clothes and a dragon at the same time. Even if it's a miniature dragon. But after a moment of fiddling around, he manages to dive his hand into it, pulling the ticket out a moment later and using it to let them in.

Once he's stepped into the room, Inigo just heads straight over towards the bunks, before lowering the dragon down on one of them. Inigo hopes it's the right one.

"There you go. Brought all the way back to your bed by your loyal knight Inigo!"

Given Jingyi doesn't bother course correcting, it's either the right one, close enough, or he figures he's small enough his roommate can shove him over and deal; at least Jingyi's bed is made and only one night's worth of sleep used. Clean enough for sharing, he thinks.

"Very loyal," he says, once he has his ribbon out of mouth and claw, letting his chin fall to the bed like the rest of his floppy form. "Thank you."

For having hauled him back here, and his clothes, and for the not entirely forgotten rice bowls needing cleaning, still. His eyes are at half mast again when he adds, wonderingly, "What makes you a night Inigo instead of a day Inigo?"

Yeah. What indeed is with that.

He's just in the middle of trying to fold up Jingyi's clothes neatly - or, well, neatly by teenage boy standards - when he hears the other say that. It instantly makes Inigo look away from the clothes and right over to the dragon.

His jaw has dropped, his mouth hanging open slightly.

"Are you.." He starts, then stops. Unsure. He doesn't want to hurt Jingyi's feelings here, but that question feels so odd to Inigo that he can't help but wonder if he's being pranked here. "A-Are you.. joking?"

Is that what this is? A joke?

Jingyi slowly cranes his neck, which makes his head come around, skimming over the blanket. Very snakelike in motion, meaning nothing else of him has to move to get a better eye on Inigo.

Is this supposed to be obvious? Jingyi blinks, slowly, heaves in a breath, and exhales long and slow after.

"Is it your hair?" He has no idea. "When you were born?" There are whole structures based on things related to the characters of a person's birth, if it wasn't so relevant to either of them. "Are you more of a moon guy?"

Versus a sun... guy...

It's apparently Jingyi has zero idea what possible joke is going on here.

.. well, that settles it. Inigo is pretty sure no one can keep up the joke this convincingly, so he's pretty sure that Jingyi really has no idea what Inigo is talking about. And there do seem to be a lot of worlds represented on the train that don't have knights, but he was really hoping Jingyi's world was more similar to his than that - especially since it has dragons! And people turning into dragons! It felt like the most similar thing to Ylisse he had seen in this place.

But it turns out it's different all the same. It's a little disappointing, but Inigo's surprise still fades into a smile all the same when he replies.

"No, a knight is.. It's a title for someone who protests someone else, usually a ruler of some sort. They are very noble warriors."

He figures he ought to stick to the simple explanation. Jingyi is already tired enough.

He gazes at Inigo blearily, grunting out a, "Huh," followed by a, "So like Dragon Guards, in all the palace stories. Or actual palaces, in the kingdoms."

Outside of his region, where things were overseen by cultivation clans, but kingdoms (and empires, at some point) existed in other regions. He let his eyes fully close, not bothering with further movement.

"Cultivators... are noble warriors too." An easier shorthand than the full inflection of what they were, but there was some shared concepts. He still had the word wrong, 'night' without the silent 'kay', but he huffs out what might be a laugh. Or a wheeze?

"So the day's your ruler. The one who lights up the night, 'flecting off th'moon."

"Okay, mister sleepy poet," Inigo says. Though his tone doesn't sound offended as much as it sounds amused. He figures that Jingyi probably isn't thinking entirely straight, considering just how tired the other is. Why else would he have fallen asleep like that in Inigo's arms earlier?

He shakes his head, moving to gently put some of the blanket over Jingyi. Even if it's a little harder while he's still a tiny dragon, but look, he's not entirely putting it over him. The goal here is not to smother.

"Sounds like it's bedtime for you when you start talking like that."

Jingyi is so loopy right now he might as well be fully coiled up, and still have loopiness to spare. He barely offers a twitch when the blanket's partly over him, and he makes a whining tired sound of objection and acknowledgement, eyes fully closed.

"'s naptime, always naptime. Annoying." His ears flick forward, then tilt until they're pressed back against his skull. Annoying was a full body effort at expressing the feeling, his exhaustion earned, but it's lingering not welcome. This feels more like recovering from something than simply being exhausted, and he has to think it's the cost of all that time wading through the not-river.

He shifts and curls himself around enough that his face ends up being partly buried against his side. He won't bother shifting back. Sleeping like this will be fine.

"Work on the memorial later. Won't forget. Mister Night."

Inigo lets out a breath when he sees Jingyi like that. Just a little dragon, all coiled up.

It's weirdly cute, and he smiles as he gives him a gently pat before heading towards the room's door. It opens, and Inigo is about to exist, but he leaves just for another moment, just long enough to say:

"You know, there's a k somewhere in that word."

Have fun figuring that one out when you're more awake, Jingyi, because Inigo is already gone.

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So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

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