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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'll take care of the recording part, then," Devero says, and puts his Interface back on. "You just talk to me, Yondu. Tell me what you want to tell them."

Spur of the moment as this is-- and as reticent as Yondu's been-- it seems best to start immediately. This feels important, and he doesn't want Yondu to talk himself out of something he seems to need. Devero pulls up the camera functionality and triggers it immediately, then gestures. "You're on. Go ahead."

"Alright, I'll uh... I'll do Koumyou first." He knows he's going to end up rambling, as becoming a rambly old man is something he does. And it'll be odd to mention Dev in front of himself. So he chooses to not look at him, just look somewhere off to the side that ain't him.

It's a survival tactic he's learned to make good use of.

But he starts talking. "Never thought I'd meet someone what had me figured out right off the bat. We sure did that. I didn't think I'd have that. Funny thing is, somehow despite what we got alike, we ended up differ'nt enough that mine was mostly a life wasted and yours was a life well spent. If either of us get to go somewhere after this damn train, an' it came down to one, I hope it's you.

"I don't know where that fog leads, but I want it to go to somethin' good. But you hang in there, an' I hope you and your man finally get away from your old life. You get somethin' that's yours an' don't be afraid of havin' it. You're strong enough to defend it. You've got that much fight in ya."

Alright, well. That bit's out. And he figures Devero knows even better how Koumyou expects bad things to come of caring.

Onward, though, best get these out while he's got the momentum. "Nextun' is Soldat." He winces a little. The man's lost enough, he doesn't know if it'll hurt more than help. "If it seems like he cain't take it, don't give it to 'im." He doesn't want to make it worse.

"I ain't ever had someone invest that much time an' energy into makin' me feel like I belonged. I ended up shook by it. Never figured out how exactly to pay it back, an' I don't think I did a decent enough job payin' it forward. But you did make a difference." He's never had someone go so far as to try and learn his language even.

"I meant it when I said all of you was good. Every last one in your head. I loved every bit of it. First time bein' loved back, too, as far as I know. Thanks for the memories. If I keep goin', I'm always gonna have a little bit of what a good kinda life feels like in me." Which he never had a chance for before. He gestures to himself. "Don't give up on bein' a person 'cause you was so damn good at it. If I get to keep goin', I'm gonna miss ya."

Alright. He's said that one, and that one was heavy as hell. It's followed with an exhausted sigh.

"Don't make fun of me for this one." He finally looks at Dev, away from that far off place. "It don't matter, this one is stupid of me. But I'm gonna say it' 'cause maybe sayin' it'll get it out of my head."

Alright, onward ho. Where's that far off place he's used to lookin for. "This one's for Siebren. Sanzo told me to write you a letter an' both me an' you know I'm no good at words. I'd get around you an' I'm pretty sure what was left of my braincells would jump ship 'cause they wouldn't wanna watch what happens." He laughs at his own joke, just this tired chuckle even if he knows it's not all that funny.

"I uh... I just wanted you to know, I wasn't afraid of ya. That's a big matter with me. Right from the start, I felt good around ya. I know a lot of other people got that with ya too. I guess you could even call that 'gravity'. But it was more than that. Had this kind voice, an' these eyes that always looked clear an' keep. They creased up nice when you smiled."

Okay, he's gonna stop saying the nice things in front of Dev. Or at least keep them to something less embarrassing.

"I was too chicken shit to say that to your face but you take it an' keep it now. Do me a favor an' keep bein' the man you are. That's all you gotta do to mean somethin'."

He rubs his hands over his face. Alright, he's getting there. "This one is for Raven. Sorry I couldn't stick around to be more of what you needed. You made me proud, though. You're so much like Peter an' nothin' like 'im at all. He had them Ravagers ready to just eat 'im up- figuratively, not literally. He was sure it was literally though. But you had your peaceful temple, all detached an' shit." It's a difference in a way of life he could barely imagine.

"You both had your fathers what gave you your physical strength, but somethin' differ'nt givin' y'all a softer side. I was lucky to see both. Hell, I was lucky to meet both. But I didn't get to meet as much as I woulda liked to in you." He's cluttering up his words to nonsense, he knows. So he has to sort that all out for a moment before he continues.

"I know you'll watch out for people. I know you'll take care of people. It's what you do best. That's the real you, not what your father intended for ya. You ain't nothin' like that. You will do the right thing. I ain't got no doubt in my mind. An' people respect you for the real you. I just wish I coulda been your daddy a little longer."

And then he just gestures. "Alright, I think I'm outa steam."

As Yondu starts to let it out, Devero sits patient as a stone against a lapping tide. He does the other man the courtesy of pretending he's someone else while Yondu talks to Koumyou, but for the others he's more responsive. He murmurs an affirmative to the request not to show Soldat their video if they don't seem like they can take; he promises he won't make fun of Yondu for what he says to Siebren. And when the other man is done, he makes a gesture of his own, stopping the recording and archiving the footage to his Interface.

"I've got them," he says. He leans towards Yondu, offering his hands. Whether the Centaurian takes them or not, he says, "Thank you for letting me help you with this."

Yondu looks stupidly at Devero's hands. And despite what he did earlier, he just gives him a funny look.

"...I don't got nothin' on me."

Like Devero was expecting him to give him something. "I don't even got my collection."

What. No, seriously, "What?" He's baffled, but he does pull his hands back. It takes him a minute to realize that Yondu's probably talking about... payment? Vice and virtue. "No, I-- vices, I hate money." He shakes his head. "I don't expect anything."

He stands, unable to suppress a groan that brings Beepers right back to his side. "Do you still want some company after that?" he asks him directly. He's pretty sure he would, after filming emotional goodbye messages for the people he's close to on the train. "Koumyou and I have one of those private rooms, you'd be able to get away from the rest of the train a bit?"

"I didn't want company anyway, I wanted food." He says outright, but then admits. "I didn't mind the company, though. I appreciate it."

But he's not minded at least spending time in private with people.

"Can't promise I won't nod off eventually." Even if he's slept for a full fucking day. He actually really wouldn't mind seeing Koumyou again. "I keep seein' colors every time I blink."

"Me too," Devero says, his voice suddenly very soft. He's a resilient guy and he didn't go through quite the emotional wringer as-- most other folks on the mission, but he's still pretty shaken by some aspects of it. He forces a laugh and a smile. "And I'm still nodding off anywhere I sit for more than a few minutes, so it probably won't be just you."

This time when he offers a hand, it's obviously a hand up. "Come on."

That hand also gets a 'what am I supposed to do with that' face. But finally he just takes it and helps himself up.

"I ain't that old yet," he teases 'cause he can. The other joke would have been about Devero treating him right princely, so he had to pick a direction to go with it.

"I'm sure some folks on the train'd say differ'nt."

"Well, some folks on this train are kids," he says with a wry laugh. "They probably think I'm old, and I haven't even made it through my first half-century yet."

He collects Sir Beepers with a gesture, the little drone coming to hover over its owner's shoulder, and heads for the stairs. "How old do your people get?" he asks as he goes, peering over his shoulder at Yondu. "If you don't mind talking about it."

Edited 2021-08-05 20:19 (UTC)

"I ain't sure." He says with tragic honesty. "I've never seen any as old as me." He's seen other species his age, sure.

But otherwise, he just rarely sees them out in the universe, here and there every once in a while, younger than him doing their thing. And no other Centaurian slaves were what you'd consider 'old'. Maybe a few stood out to a man in his teens and early twenties, but not to this Ravager decades later.

So hell, he can't goddamn tell.

Oh no. That is tragic, and Devero looks away quickly so Yondu doesn't see his expression crumple. He doesn't want to other man to think he pities him for not knowing that-- he doesn't, he just thinks it's sad.

"Well, how old are you, then?" he asks, trying to redirect slightly. "I need to know if I ought to start calling you grandpa."

"Well now I sure as shit ain't tellin' ya how old I am!" He feists right back at him. But it sounds that playful sort of mean rather than a real sort of mean. Especially since his age is on the roster.

"I just got around to acceptin' the idea of bein' someone's daddy in name. I ain't ready to graduate."

Damn it, stonewalled! "Fine, fine," he concedes with exaggerated reluctance, before turning to grin over his shoulder at Yondu. "Guess I'll just have to snoop the roster." You know, like a dick.

"Guess I gotta trust the train to get my age right, though I don't know if that's in train years or me years considerin' the time difference."

'Me years' in this case actually meaning the passage of time on Hala, not on Centauri IV.

Devero makes a thoughtful noise, absently navigating through a doorway, then says, "My age is right, so my guess is it'd be your years? Unless the train's native clock is real close to Earth years. But we already know the days run longer..."

He could keep going with this. Hell, if Yondu doesn't distract him or change the subject he might just open a calculator in his Interface and work through the calculations with dancing motions of his hands as they walk.

Regardless of whether it's math or small talk that gets them there, they arrive soon enough (especially with the assistance of the transgates in the standard car and sleeper one). Soon enough they're at the end of the doubles sleeper, Devero knocking on the door to announce his arrival even as he uses his ticket to unlock the door.

"You here, babe?" he asks as he steps in. "I've got company."

Edited 2021-08-06 19:09 (UTC)

Koumyou is indeed here, dozing lazily on the bed with an open book on his stomach. He stirs, blinks his eyes open, and peers at Devero. "Company?"

This is new, neither of them has brought a third party to this room before! But he isn't complaining, just very curious. "Who?"

Because yeah, he can't see whoever's behind Devero's giant frame just yet.

"Hey, Sanzo." Yondu says from behind him, completely not sure of what to do with himself. He doesn't even fully know why he's here other than 'tired' and a little braindead.

But Koumyou's already seen him in this state. So he just waits to be let in.

Devero steps inside and nods over his shoulder at Yondu. "Do you mind if we just chill in here for a while?" he asks Koumyou.

"Of course not," Koumyou replies to Devero first, and then smiles tiredly at both men. "Hello Yondu. As long as you two don't mind that I might fall back asleep."

He does, at least, remember there's a book on his stomach, and he tucks it up his sleeve to vanish into the ARMs band, and then scoots over further into the wall to make what space he can for sitting.

He steps inside and looks around for a place to sit. He chooses the edge of the bed then, wondering what it was that Koumyou was reading (honestly the library is so scarce that at one point Yondu even was grabbing romance novels).

"Nah, I need entertainin'. Don't you dare doze off." He says it in that way that a friend bothers another one, meaning exactly the opposite.

Edited 2021-08-06 23:20 (UTC)

"Yeah, see, I did my turn entertaining," Devero says, jumping right in on the tease. His voice is dry but his smile is very fond. "So I get to nap while you hang out with Yondu."

"Hmmmm," Koumyou taps his chin with a finger, looking 'thoughtful' "I think... that... you're both wrong!"

And then quick as a thought, he rolls forward the little bit needed to hook an arm around Yondu's waist, and then he hauls him up onto the bed properly. "Help, Dev!"

Get him! It's going to be a tight fit for three guys on one bunk, but Koumyou and Devero had managed it with the single-person bunks, so squeezing three into a double is possible.

With, you know, squishing.

Yondu grunts as he's rolled into the bed, sliding over Koumyou so one leg's hanging over the other's hip and he ends up on his back. Another fully clothed paranoid-ass person in the bed.

The sad part is, he realizes, that it had been decades since someone playfully manhandled him or he let them do it. Not so much an aversion to touching as much as that he not only stopped trusting people to be kind, but that he couldn't look soft enough to tolerate it.

But he lets him, even if he doesn't state the significance to that.

Devero swoops right in to help, although Koumyou's mostly got it handled on his own. Still he scoops Yondu's feet up and adds his strength to his Sanzo's in chucking Yondu up, and then piles right into the bed next to him. Three fully-clothed people in the bed, now.

Devero scoots himself across the bunk to put his back against the wall. He attempts to toe off his boots, but they're too well attached, so he taps on one of Yondu's instead. "Shoes off?" he asks him, then invites, "Make yourself comfy."

Koumyou, of course, finds this whole situation terribly entertaining. Mostly in how he and Dev are just effortlessly teaming up on poor Yondu.

Though he would understand some of what's going through the guy's head; Koumyou doesn't initiate this much contact with just anyone, typically. Outside of a combat situation, certainly.

"You're stuck now," the priest tells him, "no choice but to just nap with us."

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Longest tag in the world.

and loaded with feels

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