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.

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"Hmmm..." Tidus was somewhat forgotten for a few moments as Nell rummaged through cabinets, checking to see what ingredients were available, then looking for the right pots and pans.

She looked up briefly. "A smoothie? I've never heard of that, but I'm happy to try one."

She went back to pulling out ingredients and was mixing something up in a bowl after carefully checking a recipe and preheating one of the ovens

Well, she was in her zone! He wouldn't want to interrupt her, and he doesn't immediately, pulling out the blender and figuring what ingredients they had. But he does eventually call from where he is, asking:

"Nell! Favourite fruit or veg, worst fruit or veg!"

"Oh, I most never met a fruit or vegetable that I didn't like," Nell said. "Most any kind of berries are prob'ly my favorite - strawberries or blackberries. And I'm not particularly fond of, say, artichokes or brussel sprouts 'less they're cooked just right."

She poured her mixture into a set of muffin tins, checked the book again for the right temperature before sliding them in, and turned to him. "There. Just enough time to whip up a delicious omelette while the muffins bake. Speak now if there's something you don't like before I just get down to it."

Edited 2021-08-15 15:38 (UTC)

Strawberries, was it? Tidus just had the idea, a "Gotcha!" said and the mystery of what he would pick left in the air - unless she saw him coming back from the stores to grab the fresh strawberries and a container of coconut milk and the yoghurt. Some ice cubes as well, walking over to the blender with it all when Nell speaks up.

"Oh? Hmm- the yellow peppers. I just don't like the look of them."

They're so...yellow!

Nell nodded and went back to whisking and grating and chopping before adding a little butter to a large frying pan on the stove. It really was a wonder how fast it had heated up!

Some time later she slid a perfectly cooked omelette onto a large plate, then cut it in to uneven pieces, and slid those onto two smaller plates. The fresh baked muffins went into a basket covered with a cloth napkin and she brought the plates, the basket, and some butter over to the table. The omelette was fluffy with small pieces of bacon and red pepper showing through the yellow. The swiss and cheddar cheeses in it would give it a little extra tang.

"There," she said, smiling and feeling content at having successfully navigated the stove and oven. "A nice omelette and my Meemaw's honey muffins. Nothing too fancy, but tasty and will get your stomach ready for the day."

Tidus had less work to do. Slicing up the strawberries wasn't necessary, but he does anyway, getting rid of the green leaves and deciding, with a why not?, to go and get the slice of coconut he remembered seeing in the fridge. Grate that as an extra, but popping the fruits, milk and yoghurt takes no time at all.

There's a thrum as the ingredients are blended, and then again when Tidus adds in the ice to crush in. Large beakers come out along with a spoon for taste testing, an approving hum that leads him to take out the drinks with him as they set up their own small space.

But really, Tidus is smelling those foods Nell is whipping up before she even presents them! The washing can wait, since he's down to tucking in.

"This looks delicious, Nell!" Tidus compliments, and oh boy, he hopes his addition to their breakfast is as half as scrumptious as hers looks. "Thanks! Hope you like mine - I grated some coconut if you wanted it,-" and he nods to the small dish of the white flakes. "But, whatever you want!"

Do as you want, etc etc. Regardless, Tidus picks up a fork. "Time to get to chowing down?"

Nell nodded, "Yes, time to eat." She took a quick bite of the omelette and was relieved to see that it tasted just as it should, even with the fancy stove. Then she took a sip of the smoothie, eyes widening at the taste.

"Oh, that's delicious!" She tasted a tiny bit of the coconut and then added some to the drink. "This is quite good as well. But what a different texture!"

Tidus's first bite went for the omelette too, and he smiles at the taste, pleased. She could cook alright, no doubt about that. Chewing, he was cutting up another slice of the eggy deliciousness with the side of his fork when Nell spoke.

He beams, even with the food in his mouth, waiting until most of it was swallowed before he spoke, with a touch of embarrassment but a lot more glee. "Yeah, right? Smoothies are great if you're busy in the mornings but you want everything to start your day. I had them whenever I went running, or for an easy lunch." Especially since he had to deal with exercising in water.

Tidus points his fork at the omelette. "And this is great too. You won't need my help in that kitchen - you got the hang of it quick!"

Considering how self-sufficient she sounded the first day they met, that's no surprise.

"That blendy machine thing scares me a little," Nell said with a smile. "But I'll give it a try.

She tucked into her much smaller portion of omelette and nodded. "It did come out well and the muffins are good, but they're very basic things. I'll have to experiment for cooking a chicken or making soup or a stew."

Tidus does notice the omelette size, but he doesn't want to say anything straight away. Helping instead, "There's chicken, in the freezer. Don't know how much, but I remember that and a lamb being on the recipes? Plenty of soup and curry recipes too."

Some real bizarre ones, all to make coconut work.

"Oh yeah, and if you read those recipes and it asks for coconut milk, that's not the liquid in the coconut. That's like, the white stuff-" he takes a second to point to the white flakes in the dish. "--when you pulp it up. There's tins of it. I got confused by that the first time I tried making anything on there."

"Hmmm," Nell said as she continued eating. "I'll have to do some exploring and see just what I have to work with here. I know different teams are assigned cooking at differnt times, but I don't suppose anyone will object to another cook."

She took a pinch of the cocomut flakes to try on their own and nodded as she considered it. "I'll have to try the milk before I know what I could cook with it."

He chuckles. "Nah. Everyone's always skipping their team job to come over and do cooking. Which, fine by me! Better the people who know how to cook be around for that, you know? It's a bigger disaster than being bad at cleaning."

Especially if they're meant to eat it.

Tidus takes another bite of the omelette, swallowing first before- "So- weird first mission, huh? They don't usually go like that. How...did you feel about everything? 'specially at the end there?"

"I don't mind cleaning," Nell said. "But I do like cooking more sometimes, so it's good to know I can cook when I want."

Her fork went still for a moment as she considered what to say. "It... It's a little hard to think about because up till the end it was such a good thing. I was happy. I had a job I loved. I had friends and a family... I haven't had those things in a long time. I didn't really want to let it go."

She set the fork down and clasped her hands together under the table. "And then when I knew it was all an illusion I really hoped that meant that the whole train thing was part of it and when I woke up I'd be back home."

"...Sorry," he starts; for a life she had, that she wanted, but that wasn't really real. And there wasn't anything he could offer or suggest in place of it - the train wasn't a place of stability.

"Wei Wuxian though... he asked me to come see you. I would've anyway," he adds with a shake of his head, a small smile. "--So I think you don't have to worry about losing everything you got out of it. He seems like an okay guy."

"S'okay," she said firmly. "I got a lot of good memories from then, even if they weren't really real."

She smiled at him, "He said he would still like to be my kind of father. He says he's my 'spare dad'. I can call him Wei-qianbei."

It wasn't quite what she wanted, this life here, but it was something. And something wasn't nothing.

Tidus laughs at that. "'Spare dad'? I'd call him that! Tell him if he doesn't do a good job, you'll replace him with another dad! Tell him he's gotta be on his toes."

But it's sad with a grin, joking, a fun threat.

"If you want a spare little brother too, I know the kid. Perfect little guy. Ever met Romeo?"

Time to adopt half the train, Nell.

Nell laughed. "He's already better than -" she stopped herself, not wanting to say it even if it wsa true, "better than I could ask for," she finished a little lamely.

"Anyway, I think I'll keep him," she said lightly.

"Oh, Romeo! Yes," Nell said. "He's such a nice boy. I didn't think about him being a spare brother, but he's certainly a young friend."

Nell had no objections to adopting half the train if the occasion arose.

Tidus doesn't question the small stumble, just smiles and nods his head to her decision, and moves on easily to Romeo. A small laugh let out.

"Oh, just wait. I mean, I'm not an adopting guy, but even I wanna ruffle his hair and show him how to play a ball game or five. If only he'd stop calling me Mister Tidus! Can you believe it? He makes me sound old!"

It's feigned complaining though at this point, even if he does die, a very little amount, each time he hears 'Mister' before his name.

Nell giggled. "Well, as a respectable widow-woman, it's only right he be respectful to me. Might be if you were more respectable it wouldn't bother you so much," she teased.

Romeo was adorable and Nell was very grateful that she seemed to have sort of adopted her.

"One," he says, a forefinger coming up playfully, "I'm plenty respectful. Two-! ...You were married?"

Because either that's the case, or 'widow-woman' means a very different thing to her than him.

"Not respectful," she said with a chuckle, "respectable. Not that you aren't, but you can be a bit of a rogue, I think."

Nell smiled at him, but there was a hint of something there that didn't quite make it to her eyes. "I was," she said. "Got married when I was twelve. My husband, John, died about five years ago when I was eighteen. He and his other wife, Leah, saved me from what would have been a bad situation. Been livin' alone since he died, in a big empty house meant for several wives and their children, so being here with all these people is a bit overwhelming."

Well, he can't say there isn't actually something very complimenting when she describes him that way. But there's no room for saying anything as Nell answers, explains her - previous? - situation. Tidus is too stunned to really show much of anything at the reveal of a twelve-year-old bride.

It's...far from what he was expecting though, and it takes him a second to speak, but-

"What...happened to Leah? Did she move?" Move, or die too? He isn't sure how to feel, at any of that. At her being left behind, on her own.

"Leah died just before I turned fifteen," Nell said, feeling that lump in her throat that just never seemed to go away when she thought about Leah. "I took care of her the last couple of years before she died. She and John were much older than me. I took care of John, too, before he died."

She hesitated then decide to just say it. "It may be un-christian of me to say, but I think it was hardest to lose Leah, even though losing John left me all alone."

He can't really say how he feels about what he's hearing, understanding of it, but more important than what he feels about certain details - he sees Nell's sadness, no matter how much of it might be contained, pushed down. And this is a breakfast table (or, breakfast time).

...really, it's Nell herself that matters, and the pinch of his mouth comes with a sympathetic dip of Tidus's brow.

"I don't know anything being christian, but you feel what you feel," he says, eyes on her, the hold of his lips turning to a small smile. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It sounds like you were thankful for them both. Just...you got along with Leah better, right?"

She nodded. "She was almost... The marriage wasn't a love match or anything. They saved me from something much worse, but in the process I, well, I haven't spoken to my family since. So Leah..."

She'd almost been a mother figure to Nell. Much older than Nell, a bit sharp-tongued, but kind in a way that John had never been. Not that John had been unkind really and perhaps he had loved her as you come to care about a member of your family, but when Leah had died and Nell took up her wifely duties she'd felt very alone.

"She was kind to me," Nell finished. "John was a good man, but it isn't a husband's job to be kind."

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