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.

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Jingyi, who was at least somewhat shifting his weight as if he were actually riding, stretches his neck out to the side of Taiki's, nosing at whatever he manages to reach. That wasn't selling him on confidence, but also, he didn't have the energy to argue.

"Can borrow clean clothes if you want," he says instead, because he has all those things he doesn't wear (purple shirts, the cargo pants, the other sets of clothing he hasn't bothered figuring out [read: pyjamas]) stashed at the foot of his bunk. Which reminds him he'll need to mend his robes... somehow. He's having a hard time thinking forward to what he'll need to do that.

"Oh." He blinked at him, "That would be kind of you."

Clothes would make things easier, he could transform and get back to his room without having to navigate going downstairs, which struck him as more difficult than going up. Also he would be smaller, take up less space.

He doesn't want to hinder anyone who is just trying to get to their room.

Talking of rooms, they were in the corridor now and he found the room. "Is your ticket in your robes?"

Jingyi practically oozed off Taiki's back, not falling so much as floating to the ground at his side. With a look up and down the corridor, which was at least for the moment empty of anyone but them, he sighed.

"Yeah, let me get it." Likewise, he went from crouched as a dragon to a blur of silvered light, and expanding where he was more used to condensing down to human form. His ribbon was even more of a mess, but at least now he could reach for (and into) his robes, extracting what he needed out of one sleeve. It also allowed him to take them fully from Taiki, and with the afterthought of modesty, keep them at belly level, covering what was considered least palatable for public view. (To little surprise, perhaps, his tail managed to mostly cover other assets.)

All this to shove his ticket home and stumble through the door, by some miracle first of his three roommates to arrive. Which worked for him, though as far as he could tell at least half of them wouldn't care if he was underdressed; he tossed his tattered, bloodied robes at his bunk and went for the cubby where his extra sets of train provided clothing (ugh) have been stashed since he first emptied his rucksack.

"Come in," he said, figuring Taiki didn't need to change out in the hall like he had. He tugged out a set of vaguely dragonlike blue and gold pyjamas, then turned back to offer the clothing to Taiki.

"Here, these are clean."

He is fascinated, the transformation was similar but at the same time completely different to that of a kirin. So he watches over his shoulder until the small dragon turns into a teenage boy, close to his age.

A naked teenage boy, Taiki averts his eyes out of politeness more than anything else though from his words earlier it didn't seem like this dragon-boy was so worried about such things.

Still the door was open and Taiki followed him in, taking up most of the room in his kirin form. When the cloth was held out he transformed himself, a gust of wind before he was stood there, trying to not be embarassed about his lack of clothes.

"Thank you."

He reached out for the pyjamas and began pulling them on.

The wind tugs at Jingyi's hair and ribbon, and he grins, small enough with being tired as he is. "Hah, you don't work with wind too, do you?" Being the element nearest and dearest to his heart, he's loopily amused, only realising he's watching the poor qilin get dressed when he's tired staring and, well, watching Taiki pull on pants.

There's no real interest in his eyes, only the kind of once over that spoke toward being used to checking for injuries on people in moments before they were hurriedly dressing and checking for proper robe alignment before racing out doors for the next lesson, or to make the next meeting place as required; belatedly, he shakes his head and turns back to pull out the boxers he wears like shorts when sleeping, and the purple hoodie that gives him places to stash things.

"You're welcome. You can keep 'em too, if you want."

He's never worn them. Boxers on, and then he's tying off the band that goes over his tail, making sure they stay in place (though really, this is why he wishes he had more robes, this was never an issue with his innermost layers back home) before he pulls on his hoodie and finally, tiredly fusses with his head ribbon.

"Is it on straight?" he asks, having tightened the way it pulls across the back of his head, but not trusting the feedback from his fingers over the satin and embroidery of the clouds spreading across his forehead.

The pyjamas are quite large on Taiki, but he can tie the waistband in a way that makes the trousers not fall down and pull the legs up so they are not dangling on the floor. He gives a half shrug. "Kirin work with the wind I guess... When we fly we use the currents."

But they had no way of controlling the wind, or working with it in that way. He peers at the headband for a moment before nodding.

"Yes. It's on straight." He smiled. "Thank you... I hope you can rest well."

Taiki looks like he's drowning in cloth, and Jingyi would probably be amused... if he wasn't worried about his ribbon, exhausted, and two heavy sighs away from falling asleep on his feet. The reassurance that his headband's on straight merits a slow blink and a slower smile, his hands falling away.

"Good, that's good. Very good." It'd probably go crooked after sleeping, but having it in place, that's one thing right in this world. This train? In whatever, the Void. One right thing in the Void. "You too, right? Walk carefully, just... roll up the fabric, if you need to?"

He stumbles back a step, sitting down hard on his bunk and stifling a yawn. "Make winds for you later," he adds, recalling that earlier statement late. "Good for flying. Fun winds. Winds," he says, "Are my thing. Clouds too. Can make it rain."

Can flop right sideways on the bunk, drawing his legs up at the same time, tail curling over the sides of his legs and around to his front. "Rest well, okay. Good qilin."

He is definitely fighting keeping his eyes open any longer.

"Yes." He nodded and then bent down to do that, rolling the fabric up so it no longer trailed on the floor. Standing was a challenge, he swayed on his feet but he smiled at the words. It sounded like this dragon boy was very powerful if he could control the wind, the clouds and the rain.

He would ask further questions but the boy looked like he would fall asleep any moment. "Sleep well as well."

He nodded politely before leaving the room, luckily getting to his own only meant going down the stairs, for he was exhaused and planned to do nothing else but fall into his own bed.

So Familiar a Gleam: Conclusion

no subject

no subject

cw: mentions of non-sexual nudity

cw: mentions of non-sexual nudity

cw: mentions of non-sexual nudity

cw: mentions of non-sexual nudity

cw: people got dressed!!!

They did!!