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

"I remember, yeah. It was kind of weird to realize everything wasn't real." Rui admitted with a thoughtful look.

"I can't really heal anything. It's more Utsutsu's thing."

She couldn't fathom what Alice was thinking, of course, she was also not a mind reader.

"Well, if everything back there was fake, then.. so were our powers."

Though Alice's own power had mimicked something she had actually experienced back home before - maybe the illusion was, in some way, trying to work off her memories when trying to imagine a power for her. It could be that the same was the case for Rui, considering she is mentioning that someone else she knows from back home had those kinds of healing powers.

She lets out a slow sigh, realising that maybe this conversation isn't naturally going to flow into the territory she wants to discuss. It makes her frown slightly as she speaks up with: "I have never really had such a life before."

"That's true." Rui said with a little nod. "Since mine are more electric based."

She considered her with a blink.

"My life was really different there too. I was living with family, and I haven't done that in a long time." She didn't get along with her family. "It was really different."

Alice is quiet for a moment. Almost like she's looking for something in Rui's answer, turning it over inside of her head, but unable to find what she's looking for. Different, after all, means practically the same as what Alice said.

But it doesn't tell her--

"And how did you feel about it?"

-- what she's really fishing for here.

"It would be nice of some of the things there were true." She murmured softly. "But they aren't, so that kind of...sucks."

It was a bit of a blow. "At least for the short time, it was nice having friends and family."

Her family was horrible in her opinion and she was ever so glad they weren't in her life, but it was a lonely existence.

"Don't you think it feels.." She pauses for a moment, as if she's trying to look for the right word. Usually Alice is incredibly blunt, but that doesn't feel right in this situation. But since she can't fall back on that usual bluntness, it means that she's instead standing here, thinking, trying to figure out how to put it in a way normal people might.

".. odd?" She settles on.

"Knowing that we were friends like that back in the illusion, but that it was all fake?"

"Oh." Rui responded, considering that. "I suppose you have a point there. We had a whole history...in the illusion."

She thought for a moment. "It was kind of nice."

'Kind of nice'.

It's one way to put it, and Alice doesn't think it's entirely wrong. It did feel that way - back in the illusion. But thinking back on it, she can't help but feel like the memory is tainted with something awkward right now as well. Knowing that it was all fake. Just something that was implanted in her memory by something else.

"I.. suppose," she says. Though Alice's voice is slow, like she's not entirely sure of what she's saying. "But that person I was back there in the illusion.. That wasn't me."

Alice isn't like that. Sure, she's spoken with Rui a few times before, but that friendship had been so.. easy. So casual. She acted like a bunch of regular teenage girls together with the other.

When has she ever done that before in her life? Never.

"So it leaves me entirely unsure of how to view anything that happened back there."

"I guess that would be distressing for you then if you didn't feel like yourself." Rui said softly, considering that. It had been nice, it wasn't like Rui had close friends.

"Well..if you want to just have it...be an experience and just letting it go at that point..." She trailed off, giving Alice the opportunity.

At that Alice lets out a sigh.

"That is exactly what I'm not sure about."

Exactly the point that feels so difficult to her. Because it hadn't been a bad experience! Even now, looking back on it, she really didn't hate any moment of it. Being close to someone had been nice, having someone to laugh with and to share pain with had been nice, but..

It still feels complicated, and Alice frowns.

"I mean.. I am fairly sure you have already noticed, but I am a.. rather gloomy person." That sure is one way to put it, Alice. "Would it not be tiring for you to be friends with someone like that?"

It hadn't been a bad experience, they could agree on that.

Rui considered her protest and blinked. "I'm not exactly a ball of sunshine myself." She murmured.

She was someone who struggled a lot emotionally, so she kind of understood that gloominess maybe. Perhaps. "I don't think it would be tiring, although I'm not normally so cheerful either."

When Alice thinks about it now, she does realise that she doesn't even know a whole lot about Rui. If anything, she knows more about what the other was like in the illusion, rather than what Rui is usually like. Sure, they've spoken a few times, but it's never been in depth about anything too important - or at least, never about enough facts that she could string together an entire idea about Rui's personality.

"Well, if you don't seem to mind.." Because she thinks Rui doesn't, judging from what the other is saying here? "Then I suppose we could at least give it a try."

Being friends.

Even if Alice isn't entirely familiar with the concept. But then again - what does she have to lose?

Rui was honestly relieved.

No, they didn't know each other terribly well, but that was alright. Rui didn't think anyone knew her that well.

"I don't mind uh, as long as you don't." She offered her a small, nervous smile.

Minding is a big word here. Alice honestly isn't too sure how she feels about anything that involves social interaction, let alone friendship.

But like she said - she can at least give it a try. If she wants to make her life better, then actually being open to new experiences has to be part of that, right? Otherwise she's just going to keep staying stuck in the same cycle over and over.

So she nods.

"I would not have offered if I minded." At least that much is true. Alice isn't that generous. "So.. let's have tea together sometime."

(Listen, this may be the only friendship activity Alice knows.)

"Okay." Rui said with a gentle smile. "We can have tea together."

That seemed like a rather inoffensive friendship-like activity. Whether that was what friends normally did, she didn't really know.

Her so-called friends didn't really hang out with her.

So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

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