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

[nell_of_soulwood]

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

[happyends]

"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_of_soulwood]

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."

[happyends]

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!

[nell_of_soulwood]

"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?"

[happyends]

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."

[nell_of_soulwood]

"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?"

[happyends]

"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.

[nell_of_soulwood]

"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.

[happyends]

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_of_soulwood]

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."

[happyends]

"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!"

[nell_of_soulwood]

"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!"

[happyends]

"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.."

[nell_of_soulwood]

"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.

[happyends]

...

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."

[nell_of_soulwood]

"Wish they were back home. I s'pose you don't have werewolves or things like that either." It was more a statement than a question. "We got a whole variety of things. Including witches ranging from white to black and everything in between."

And whatever Nell was, yinehi or some such Jane Yellowrock had thought.

[happyends]

There's a slight nod from the girl at the statement about the werewolves - those are something just from stories too.

And while she's pretty sure her world's witches probably aren't like the ones in Nell's world - if they have vampires and werewolves too - she can't help but still be a bit more interested in that as she gets started on the food.

"White and black.. do you mean good witches and bad witches with that..?"

[nell_of_soulwood]

Nell nodded. "Yes. And some work with different things, like weather or earth or the moon. I don't know a whole lot about them, though my church just thinks anyone workin' magic in general is evil."

She stopped. "Not my church. Not anymore at least."

[happyends]

"That's a little strange.."

Especially since it's not like Madoka has much experience with faith back home, so she can't easily see how someone would arrive at that conclusion. Sure, she thinks all witches from her world are bad, but that's for an entirely different reason - it's since they attack people and kill them!

"I mean, shouldn't the only thing that determines whether you're good or bad be whether you're doing good or bad things in the first place..?"

She's almost done with the food now though, even as she's talking!

[nell_of_soulwood]

"You would think so," Nell said. "And I'd agree with you. But the church... they'uns would not."

Nell was quiet for a moment, then couldn't help but giggle a little. "I can't imagine what they'd do if they ended up here."

[happyends]

Madoka tries to imagine it. If they thought magic was evil..

.. well, there's a whole lot of that here, isn't there?

"They'd probably be.. very confused," she slowly says. "I don't think they'd be able to believe what they're seeing here, from what you're making them sound like.."

Somewhere between the people casually using magic, the train that can travel to different dimensions, all the alien-looking people..

[nell_of_soulwood]

"They'd be highly offended and shocked," Nell said. "And they'd want to get rid of it all, but they wouldn't be able to actually achieve anything."

She smiled. "It would frustrate they'uns a lot."

[happyends]

"Well, then it's a good thing that they aren't here."

Though Madoka does suppose she can't completely deny the idea that they might show up here one day after all. The train doesn't seem to be too picky when it comes to picking up people for these missions..

Madoka hums, putting the food on a plate and putting it down in front of Nell.

"Here you go, please eat! So you at least won't get really hungry while you sleep later."

[nell_of_soulwood]

"A very good thing," Nell agreed, then smiled at the plate Madoka put in front of her. "Oh, this smells delicious! Thank you!"

She tucked in, realizing that she was quite ravenous, and for a few minutes all she focused on was the food. When she finally came up for air, stomach sated a bit, she realized she'd completely ignored Madoka as she ate. "M'sorry," she said. "I guess I was even more hungry than I thought and your food was so good..."