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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.. well, that's an easy answer to her question, now is it. There's no mistaking whether or not Nell is hungry after her stomach is making that sound. It makes Madoka smile a little, though she's really trying to hold it back. Nell seems embarrassed enough as is without someone laughing about it!

"Then come along!" Madoka says, already taking a few steps back so the other can climb off the suitcases. "Let's go to the kitchen. I think most people are either too tired to cook or are going to the showers first, so we should have some time to make something without it being too busy."

Nell carefully clambered down, holding onto the suitcases for support. "I think I'm hungry enough to eat a horse, but I might just curl up and go to sleep under the table once I've eaten. I don't know when I was last this tired."

"Oh.." That makes Madoka gaze at the other with a touch of concern. She supposes that it's not too strange if Nell is so tired.. After all, it does seem like it was a very tiring mission for most people.

But falling asleep under the table isn't.. exactly the best idea..

Madoka may be a lot younger than the other, but she's definitely making a mental note to make sure to take her back to her room after eating.

"W-Well, let's worry about the food first! I'm sure there will be plenty of time to rest later.."

'Definitely food first," Nell said. "And then a long night's sleep, I think. How are you doing? Were you lost in the illusions, too?"

Once the other has succesfully gotten off the suitcases, Madoka starts wandering in the direction of the kitchen, looking over to make sure Nell is still following. Rather than, you know, passing out on the floor asleep or something, judging by how tired the other is sounding.

The question gets a slight nod from her, though she looks a little awkward.

"Um.. Yeah. I was kind of stuck in them for a long while.." Hence the awkwardness. She's just embarrassed that she didn't snap out of it sooner. "If my friends hadn't helped me out of it, I don't know how much longer I would still have been stuck in it.."

"I didn't really want it to be an illusion," Nell said. "Or maybe I wanted all of it to be one. There and here and everything. My... the man I thought was my father helped me."

Nell sighed a little. He had been very kind.

"Thank you'un for watching out for me here."

"Oh, it's.. it's no problem. Everyone needs someone to help them sometimes, right..?" And Madoka is always glad to be that 'someone'. Helping other people is practically in her blood, and the thougth cheers her up a bit, making her thinly smile again.

"But.. miss, the man you thought was your dad.. Was that one of the other passengers on the train? Or was it someone from back there..?"

She can't help but ask, considering that the man who had been her father in the illusion had been one of her fellow train passengers all along. Even if she hadn't realised it at first.

"I'm pretty sure it was spmeone from the train," Nell said, "But I'd never met him here."

She sighed, "I never met hardly anyone here before I was there. Maybe I'll run into him here somewhere."

She thought she might like to see him again.

Madoka can imagine she'd want to see him again. If not just to talk about everything that happened.

But then.. maybe that's something she can help with too? Madoka has been here on the train for a long time, and she likes to think she knows most people here - if not personally, then at least just by seeing their face around a lot.

So after considering it for a moment, she pipes up with: "What do you know about him? His name, or um.. maybe what he looks like? Maybe I'll know who it is!"

"I just called him Father," Nell admitted. "I think his name was Wei? He was an Asian type man. And very kind."

"Oh.. Mister Wei Wuxian!"

She thinks so. There are quite some Asian men here, but that's the only one among them she knows with 'Wei' in their name. Besides, even if that's not the exact man Nell is talking about, she knows him to be kind enough that Madoka is sure he'd point her in the direction of the actual person she's looking for.

"Long, dark hair, right? I'm sure you can find him here around the train easily, he seems like a very friendly and chatty person!"

Nell nodded. "Yes, I think that is his name and yes, he has long dark hair."

She smiled at Madoka. "I do hope to find him. And everyone here has been very kind to me. It's made being dragged here from home a little easier."

That's at least good to hear. It's one of the upsides of life on the train in Madoka's opinion as well - the fact that everyone is so kind all the time, and so willing to help. It makes her smile.

"Yes, please make sure to find him and talk to him, as quickly as possible! I'm sure he'd make you feel at ease so much.. He seems to be good at that, judging by the time I talked to him."

.. though Madoka pauses, seeming to remember something.

"But first food and a nap, right?" She hasn't forgotten how tired Nell is!

"I will look for him," Nell assured her, "But yes, first food and then a nap. Or more than a nap. A very long sleep, I think."

She smiled at Madoka. "Was there something else you had wanted to say?"

Madoka shakes her head.

"Oh, no! I was really just filling up the time until we'd get to the kitchen.." There's a touch of awkwardness to her tone, as if she's now worried that she bothered the other with her talking. She just thought it was better than walking together in silence, but..

".. I get that it must be hard for you to talk if you're so tired. I'm sorry if I'm tiring you out even more."

"You'un is fine," Nell said with a smile. "I'm not so tired that my mouth doesn't work yet!"

Her stomach growled again. "But I will be happy to get some food in me before I sleep. Are we close to the kitchens?"

"Yes! In fact, it's right over here.."

Madoka presses the button to make the door open, and it does indeed lead right into the kitchen.

"Just take a seat for a moment while I make you something! Is there anything in particular you'd like to eat right now?" Sure, the options aren't exactly unlimited, considering how the train only gives them some specific ingredients each month.. but Madoka could probably figure something out, she thinks.

"Something simple is fine," Nell says. "Maybe some eggs and toast with jam if they have it here?"

She was willing to eat almost anything at this point, but something simple and familiar might be best if she was going to sleep right afterwards.

There's a faint moment where Madoka seems like she has to think.

But then again, she's so used to this kitchen and its ingredients by now that she has an idea of things she could make virtually any month - and this should very much be possible.

"Yeah, just wait a moment!" With emphasis on a moment, since it shouldn't take so long to make some toast with jam.. Which is a good thing, because otherwise Nell might just pass out to sleep before she eats even a single bite. "I'm glad that food from where you're from seems to be similar to where I'm from.. I don't know what I would've done if you told me about some food I never heard of before!"

It's followed by a giggle - one that's perhaps slightly awkward, but mostly just happy and good-natured.

Nell's eyes got wide and then she had to giggle too. "I never even thought of that!"

She shook her head. "I still have to get my ownself used to having people from every which of a where."

"Yeah, it's really strange, isn't it?"

Especially since Madoka already had to bridge the gap between the Japanese food she is used to and the more western food more people on the train seem to be used to.. But at least that still involves actual food she knows. It's way harder when even the ingredients are totally foreign to her.

"One moment you can be talking about something that's super familiar to you, only for the other person to have no idea what you're talking about!"

"I feel that way about almost everything here!" Nell said. "I aint - haven't - seen or even heard of half the things people talk about here. The transporting things and magic and, well, just so much!"

"If it helps, magic isn't really normal in my world either.."

Not that she's saying it doesn't exist at all. Madoka suddenly found out about that only a few weeks before ending up on the train after all. But that's exactly why it's not normal - only a few people know about it, and they're desperately trying to keep it hidden from the rest of the world.

"And so far nothing you've told me about your world feel really strange to me. Maybe we're from really similar worlds.."

"I guess it's kind of normal for my world. In a way." It was hard to explain.

"I guess I could say there's lots of magical stuff in my world, by my church doesn't hold any truck with that sort of thing - vampires and witches and all that. They think they should be burned at the stake." Nell sighed. "Which is not the view of most of the world, mind you, but it's certainly why I don't have much experience with it."

Except the sort of nature 'magic' she could do.

Edited 2021-08-15 15:57 (UTC)

...

Ah.

That makes one thing very clear, judging by the surprised look on Madoka's face.

"I-I guess.. that our worlds aren't very similar after all then.." After all, even though some wild, wild stuff has apparently existed in Madoka's world all this time and she had no idea of it, that wild stuff doesn't involve stuff like vampires.. or the kind of witches Nell must be talking about.

Those are just horror story monsters.

"None of those odd things exist there. Vampires.. they're just creatures in stories."

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