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]

"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."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"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]

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.

[subcircuits]

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."

[its_dad_sanzo]

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."

[yondu]

At least the back of his annoying fin can fit between their two pillows. He squirms around between them in order to get his feet up, pulling off his boots over them rather than sitting up to do it.

He tosses the boot off to the side, and then the other. And with a pair of standard looking socks underneath, blue train issue ones, that also get thrown off. And the funniest part of that is that his feet are the same shade of blue underneath.

"Fine, but if I poke one of y'all with my head it's your own fault," he jokes off-handedly.

[subcircuits]

"You should be more worried about Koumyou's elbows," Devero remarks, watching Yondu's acrobatics with a smile on his face. After a moment he hauls his feet up to actually remove his own shoes as well, leaning to drop them over the edge of the bed one at a time. After a moment, his socks follow too, and then he's wiggling un-self-consciously down into the nap pile from his seat at the end of the bed.

He pokes at one of Koumyou's feet with his own. "No socks allowed," he declares, knowing he's being absolutely ridiculous and not remotely caring.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Are too! Or my feet will turn into ice cubes, and you know it!"

That's right, it's a fight.

[yondu]

It's a little odd with Devero because he doesn't know him as well. But the arguing makes it a little more tolerable. It eases tensions by being mildly annoying in a fond way.

If one can describe little bothers that way.

"He ain't got no meat on his bones, let 'im have 'em." He puts his arm over his eyes.

[subcircuits]

Devero makes a show of considering it, and then another show of relenting. "Fine, fine," he says, tossing one hand up into the air. "But only because I know that those ice cubes feel like, and it would be rude to subject them to our guest."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Like I wouldn't reach over Yondu to freeze your legs with them instead," Koumyou teases, "ice, right up the pants leg. It's the least you'd deserve for making me lose my socks!"

He wriggles around a little against the wall, getting comfy, and reaches over Yondu for a second to ruffle Devero's hair.

If he thinks about it, it's going to be weird to be in a pile like this. But he's just not going to think about it.

[yondu]

The funniest part is that Yondu lets these antics happen over him and doesn't even uncover his eyes for it. What he does do, though, is squirm between them until he's a little more comfortable.

Maybe it's that he's tired, but it's comfortable and warm (despite the claims going on around him) and at least out of the two of them he offers some padding.

"Y'all good or am I gonna have to intercede?"

He has no intention of doing a damn thing.

[subcircuits]

"As long as ice-feet over there sticks to threats and doesn't follow through," Devero says, trying to grumble and failing when Koumyou musses up his hair. He laughs then, so very fond. "But I'm letting keep your socks, so consider your threats effective."

Once Yondu's made himself comfy, Devero settles down against him. It's... a tight fight, three grown folks on this bed, no matter how skinny one of them is, and Devero's ass is sort of half-hanging over the edge on his side. He reaches an arm across Yondu to anchor himself, but hesitates before fully committing to the flop.

"This all right?" he asks.

[its_dad_sanzo]

And Koumyou's as squished against the wall as he can manage. Even a double bunk is tiny on the train!

He doesn't really hesitate to add an arm to Devero's flop, though of course if Yondu doesn't like it he'll take it back.

[yondu]

"I figure you might fall off if you don't. This train really wanted to make sure these was for only two. Be a damn shame if they ever pick up a polygamous species." He mutters, before he gives up any pretense of self-defense (honestly, logically, he knows it's not really necessary in the situation) and moves to put his other arm under Dev's pillow, so he's taking up less space. Which means both arms are out of the way and would be difficult to bring down quickly if he had to.

Which, Koumyou could also appreciate. Like an old kicked dog baring its stomach.

[subcircuits]

"You figure right," Devero says, and lets his weight settle against Yondu. Not too much-- the bare minimum that's necessary to keep him feeling like he's about to topple-- and he lifts his head so the other man can get his arm positioned with ease.

He chuckles as he settles down again. "It already has," he points out. "Humans are polygamous."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Oh, Koumyou gets exactly what that is, Yondu. He scoots down a little and rests the side of his head on the alien's shoulder. In for a penny, right?

"I have no idea what you two are even talking about," he notes sleepily. It's fine, he's used to being confused on the train.

[yondu]

"I was about to ask if that was a general rule or somethin' but it sounds case by case..." Yondu finally moves his arm to look down at Koumyou with a slightly scrunched expression. But then he covers his face again.

"Means folks that marry more'n one person." Theres a few species he knows that do it on the regular.

"Judgin' from how Quill talked I thought y'all were either monogamous or loose. Y'all are confusin'." Just stated matter of factly.

[subcircuits]

"I mean, we're that, too," Devero says, just as matter of fact about it. "At least on my Earth, folks can be monogamous or polygamous; they can be in long-term relationships without getting married or have one spouse and other intimate partners simultaneously. Some of them just want to fuck around casually, without the emotional intimacy. Hell, some humans don't want to fuck or hook up romantically with anyone at all."

He pauses, then cracks a crooked grin and admits, "It's very confusing."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I'm a human and I'm confused," Koumyou sounds half-asleep, "we need a manual."

He cracks an eye open and peers at Devero, "So what are you?"

It's a long list of things Koumyou's never considered one way or another. But Devero knows enough about this stuff, he probably knows where he himself falls on all those... options.

[yondu]

Yondu, being unable to see, just assumes that he's a part of that question and realizes he can't shrug without causing discomfort. So he just snorts softly.

"Never had the time or the opportunity to worry about it, so I just took what I could get or what I could afford. Nothin' what stuck. Don't reckon there's a name for that."

There are a few words for it but they're not often used kindly.

cw abuse trauma and sex-negative language

[subcircuits]

Even queer Devero from the queer future doesn't have a kind answer for that one. He sobers a little, peering at Yondu from his-- well, kind of awkwardly close vantage. "Hey, you're not dead yet," he says gently. "Who knows what could still happen?" He nudges Koumyou with the hand draped over Yondu. "Just ask him.

"As for me," he says with a laugh, "I'm just a--" he starts, and then his throat kind of closes on the word his tongue supplies next: slut. He is, of course-- why else would he be so willing to fuck anyone Madame paired him up with? And so eagerly, too, his body so exquisitely responsive to certain stimuli. And he'd had a lot of casual relationships in the Guard, hadn't he?

He craves sex. He'll fuck anyone who looks at him and beckons as long as Madame says it's okay. And how lucky he is to have her guidance, lest he just fall into bed with anyone, lest he lose control over the predator inside of him, lest he take advantage or get taken advantage of.

He's just a slut, and sluts need a guiding hand.

All of that careens through his mind in an instant, one of those mental landmines detonating. But he-- he can't melt down right now, not with Yondu here between them-- this is supposed to be for Yondu's benefit, Devero, don't you dare fucking ruin it--

"Polyam," he gasps out, because he has to say something and it's the closest to slut. "I'm polyamorous."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Okay, what Yondu just said sounds... lonely. It makes Koumyou kind of glad he'd never had to give the topic a second thought until recently.

But Devero gets a concerned look from the priest, brows furrowed. It's the shift from a laugh to hesitating to gasping an answer out-- Koumyou knows those signs. Something mean is going on in Dev's head. Almost certainly something shaped by that woman.

He takes the hand draped over Yondu, and squeezes it gently. Hey, he's right here.

"...I am obviously the best question-asker," Koumyou says to them both, sounding a little apologetic, "it's alright."

[yondu]

continued here