So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

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.

Comments

[subcircuits]

"You are definitely not grotesque," Devero assures him with a grin and-- fingerguns, Devero, really?

"It's not about scaring anyone," he says as Zagreus returns to the pool; apparently he's been thinking while the prince is away. His eyes are downcast, expression thoughtful-- at least until he lifts his gaze and sees the prince's, ahem, shapely attire.

So maybe his eyes light up a little with appreciation. So what? "--It's, uh, about consent," he manages, giving himself a little shake and looking away again as Zag enters the pool. "Not everyone consents to seeing, you know, jennies, and we ought to respect that, even if we don't care."

Oh yeah, he feels the way the water heats up, watching with interest as the water actually spits and steams away from Zag's feet at first. (He's never going to get enough of watching magic at work.) That interest is still evident as he meets the prince's gaze. "I'm almost afraid to ask, but what are your rivers made of, then?"

[dyingpro]

"Thanks, I'll be sure to tell Theseus that the next time he calls me hellspawn." Zagreus does his best to mimic the fingerguns motion, proving that no matter how dorky Devero acts, Zagreus is willing to act that way right there with him.

"I can concede that point. Though sometimes it's just so nice to... not be clothed, you know? I suppose that's the only good thing about all of my bunkmates moving out, now I can wear whatever I want without making the others uncomfortable." As much as he still doesn't get it, he's really not trying to make anyone feel nervous! It's just so hard to keep up with mortal customs when there are so many different ones, and so many of them are completely different from your own. Zagreus does sprawl out a little on his end, and if he notices Devero's wandering eyes, he certainly doesn't seem to mind. In fact he'll wiggle his toes a little, watching himself as little bubble tornadoes begin to form from the movement of his feet in the water.

"Well the one that enters the Underworld from the surface, the river Acheron, only stays water until it reaches the Temple of Styx. Then it branches out into the Lethe, the Phlegethon, and the Styx. The Styx is made of blood, and also thousands of lost shades who attempted to swim to the Underworld instead of pay the ferryman Charon for a ride into the Underworld. The Phlegethon's called the river of Flame for a reason. It's made of magma, and I think it connects to a lot of mountains on the surface, because occasionally I think humans have talked about seeing it as lava? And the Lethe is the river of Forgetfulness - take a drink of its waters and you'll lose your most painful memories, bit by bit. Repeated drinks will take your memories until there's nothing left, and you can start anew in the Underworld, if your memories are truly too painful to last you all of eternity. There's also the river Cocytus, also called the river of Wailing and Lamentation, but I've never actually seen it with my own eyes... though I do hear it on a quiet day - or night? - from the balcony at the House. It's where all the mortals' mourning songs come into the Underworld."

As Zag is explaining, he's drawing the general layout of the rivers in the steam surrounding the pool's edge. Not a terrible map, really, but it does leave much to be desired in detail!

[subcircuits]

"Preaching to the choir, mate," Devero says with a laugh. "You'd better take advantage while you can; bet you'll have roommates again after the next platform."

Once Zagreus is settled, he stretches his arms up and over his head and then sinks down into the pool again. He props his head on the edge, folding his arms behind for a pillow, and listens raptly to the prince describing the rivers of his homeland.

Automatically, his mind starts doing the science thing: if the river of flames is actually magma, then clearly the rest of the rivers must have a mundane explanation as well. Iron ore in the river of blood? Some kind of natural narcotic or hallucinogen in the river of forgetfulness? But the River of Wailing stumps him, and after a moment he realizes how ridiculous he's being. Zagreus come from a mystical world, not a mundane one.

Chuckling at himself, he sits up so he can take a closer look at the map Zag's been making-- possibly to no use, since his big body sloshes enough water around to potentially disrupt the delicate diagram.

"How fantastic," he murmurs with obvious appreciation. "And-- sort of grim, I suppose, but. Death so often is, isn't it?"