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]

"And you raised a son that you saved from a river, while he bought a child that looked like you," Devero points out. "You have similarities, I know. But Koumyou, even if it's cold and distant, the moon still produces light. It illuminates. It gives. What does the sucking void of nothingness give to anyone?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Not its own light," he notes quietly, "it doesn't create anything, it just reflects it from the sun. But..." Koumyou relents with another sigh, "I get your point."

It's really pointing out the difference in their kids that does it, more than anything.

"You know, that kid doesn't even have a name? He won't give him one, and I guess he didn't have one before... or he doesn't remember it."

One's just as likely as the other, since the young boy had been out selling himself on the street.

Thinking about that, Koumyou adds tiredly, "My world is really, really bad, isn't it. Valdana would fit right in if she didn't just get herself killed immediately."

[subcircuits]

Devero turns on his side and drapes an arm over Koumyou. "I would get killed immediately," Devero says, "and I'm considered a hardened soldier where I come from." What with his eight kills and all. (Yes, he does realize how insignificant that is, now.)

"Your awful world has shaped you," Devero says, "but you still care. You do. You've been-- crippled, in how and when you've been able to act on it, your ability to care stunted, but you never lost it.."

He props his head up on his fist and tries to meet Koumyou's eyes. "--Your muichi motsu wouldn't bother you so much, otherwise," he says with a flash of insight.

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou looks up at him, his expression creased with thought. "I guess I was just fooling myself with that," he admits, quietly. "Until I couldn't anymore."

Until death had come for someone he absolutely couldn't stand back and watch die. He couldn't.

[subcircuits]

"You needed it," Devero said, just as quietly. "It was the only way you could survive what you were enduring. But any wall will come down if you hit it hard enough, won't it?" Virtues know that his have been crumbling and collapsing since he'd first boarded the train.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I think... part of me was ready to go, when I died. Even if I didn't want to do that to Kouryuu."

It's not something Koumyou's admitted out loud before, is it? He can't remember, if he has.

Certainly, it wasn't the time or method he might have picked for himself. Given the choice, he'd have lived until Kouryuu was grown and off doing his own thing, not thirteen and rooted in place by Koumyou's chi while his father's blood went everywhere.

But some tiny part of him might have been relieved to not be the one stuck standing there watching, this time.

It's not a part he likes.

"I'm just... I'm so relieved he grew up," Koumyou can't help it, his eyes are suddenly brimming with tears. "He grew so big without me. My strong boy only got stronger, I-- I'm so glad he made it. Devero, he made it."

They've only been back on the train for one sleep and this conversation, so he hadn't really... processed this yet.

[subcircuits]

"Oh Koumyou," Devero breathes, brows drawing low over his eyes. He uses that arm draped over the priest's thin waist to scoop him closer, and then closer still when Koumyou continues. "Oh, Koumyou."

He wraps the priest in his arms and tries once again to curl up around him. "He did," he confirms. "He made it, and he might be the most contrary, ornery fucker I've ever met." Despite his words, despite the fact that he personally liked Koumyou's grown son about as much as an ingrown toenail, he sounds-- approving.

Genjo Sanzo is obviously a fluent speaker of his world's language of blood, and what he uses it to say is 'Fuck you'. Knowing what Devero knows about their world, and Kouryuu's history, and Koumyou's death, and just being a Sanzo priest in general, how can he help but admire the kid?

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou wraps his arms around Devero, too, holding on tight. "I'm so proud of him. I'm so relieved. And I'm so, so proud. And I got to tell him that, too. I got to tell him!"

He's weeping now... but it's not all bad tears, at least!

"He even has a kid he looks after now! He's... he's okay!"

As okay as it gets on his world, at least. And for a Sanzo.

[subcircuits]

It's a qualified okay, sure, but Devero's not going to lay here and dispute Koumyou. Right now, his standards don't matter. What matters is that Koumyou's boy made it, and he's more than tough enough to keep making it.

"Does he?" he asks, lips tilting in a smile. He gives Koumyou another squeeze. "Sounds like he takes after his old man, then, eh?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I told him when I was alive that he might hear a voice someday, like I heard his. It seems that he did."

Koumyou manages a (wet) chuckle.

"Maybe I'll get to meet him someday on one of these weird missions."

[subcircuits]

"I hope you can," Devero says softly. "If that's not proof that you did right by your son, I don't know what else possibly could be."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I guess," Koumyou murmurs, unconvinced. It'll take a lot more than this to make him believe he's anything but a failure.

"I guess I could have done worse."

It's a start?

[subcircuits]

He'll take it. "You could have done a lot worse," Devero affirms. He shifts one arm to cup the back of Koumyou's head and presses his lips gently to his forehead, just above the chakra. "Despite everything else that happened back there, I'm so happy you got to meet him like that."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou gives a watery smile at that, and reaches up to play with a bit of Devero's hair. "Me too. And he seemed to like you well enough."

Yeah, Dev. That's what Sanzo liking someone well enough looks like.

[subcircuits]

Devero's smile turns wry. "Did he?" he asks, his voice dry. "I figured I'd reached 'grudgingly tolerates' by the end, but nothing more than that."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"He let you use his gun," Koumyou points out, "That's big."

[subcircuits]

"It is?" He'd noticed that Genjo had been possessive of the thing, but chalked that up to it being valuable because of its magical properties.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Very," the priest confirms, "apparently Kinzan temple was attacked and burned to the ground the night after my death. That little revolver might be the only weapon left on our world that I personally blessed."

[subcircuits]

Well. That gives him a very different perspective on Genjo's possessiveness of the weapon, then, doesn't it? He settles down a little heavier in the bed and makes a quiet, thoughtful noise. "No wonder he didn't want to hand it off to me at first."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Well, there's also the fact that I never... taught him magic," Koumyou adds, teetering back on the edge of his 'wow I'm a fucking failure' chasm.

"Though even if I had, he would have had to chant to use it. Jikaku, Ukoku, and I are the only ones I've ever heard of who could use chi without that lead-up."

[subcircuits]

Devero smooths a hand up and down Koumyou's back, perhaps able to sense the presence of that chasm yawning open. "You also aren't the only one who could have," he points out as gently as he can. "You're not the only one who knows how to use magic on your world."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"But I'm the one who should have."

Sorry Dev, Koumyou's not letting himself off the hook that easily.

"Sanzos are always hunted, but a Sanzo with two sutras to look after? I knew what he was inheriting. I should have actually trained him."

[subcircuits]

"You don't teach," Devero points out. "That's another defense coping mechanism that you had to develop, to be able to get through your past intact." He continues stroking, up and down, the movement steady. "And where I come from, caretakers don't teach and teachers don't caretake anyway. They're separate roles for a reason."

Sorry Koumyou, Devero's not letting you stay on that hook without a fight.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I teach now, apparently! I should have tried for him, too."

Koumyou curls himself up a bit, hiding his face in Devero's shoulder.

Yes, he knows there's a difference between teaching a tiny child for whom you are the only safety, and trying out teaching with your six-foot-four beef slab of a boyfriend. Even if said beef slab is riddled with his own trauma.

But, still.

[subcircuits]

"You teach now because you're here," Devero persists. He cradles Koumyou, letting him hide once more. "Because you feel safe enough to try."