middleofsomewhere | Enemy Unknown: Conclusion

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Enemy Unknown: Conclusion

The third night is as long and creepy as the others...

It might be that they found the engine room, solved the puzzles and found themselves in the hangar bay with no way out. It might be that they were still in the station hiding from the invisible monsters. Or it might be that they had been plucked from the mission and were waiting in their holding room.

Either way morning dawns on the fourth day...

ENEMY: UNKNOWN

DAY FOUR

the trapped. THOSE WHO SOLVED THE ENGINE ROOM SPENT THE NIGHT IN A LARGE HANGAR THAT DOES NOT SEEM TO HAVE ANY DOORS. Their SCA's are working, so they can still communicate with those in the station, perhaps talk them through the engine room puzzles or tell them to stay clear. As morning comes all the lights in the hangar come on. Brighter than any lights so far in the station, harsh white light after the eerie red of the rest of the mission.

Everyone still in the station wakes where they fell asleep - if they slept at all. It's not long after most people are up and about that they will hear a high-pitched beep from their SCA, and then a blue light will envelop them and those around them. It might be they spot their friends vanishing before they too disappear.

They arrive in the hangar, reunited with those who spent the night there. All their gear is with them at least, but that doesn't solve the problem of being in a hangar with no obvious way out. Nor are any of those who vanished during the last three days here, their SCA's still go unanswered.

the vanished. FOR THOSE IN THE HOLDING ROOM, THEIR NIGHT HAS PROCEEDED MUCH LIKE THE NIGHTS BEFORE. One of the screens showed the hangar, and those that had succeeded in completing the engine room task. The lights had dimmed for sleeping and turned on again bright in the morning. For those watching the screens they will see those in the station vanish in blue light and turn up in the hangar.

Around half an hour later a voice sounds in the room. "Please gather your belongings and prepare for release."

It's another ten minutes, allowing them to make sure they have all their things before their SCA's beep. They are then surrounded by a blue light, taking them from the room they had spent the last few days in.

REUNITED

reunion. AN HOUR PASSES AFTER FIRST ARRIVALS PASS IN THE HANGAR. Suddenly, there is another flash of blue light, and the missing eighteen Voidtreckers appear with the rest of their crew. They will find they had all their gear as well, including their missing weapons.

They are left to their own devices for a small while, a time for reuniting with friends, but not long enough to exchange stories before a voice rings out in the hangar:

"THANK YOU CREW OF THE VOIDTRECKER EXPRESS FOR YOUR COMPLIANCE. YOU MAY RETURN TO YOUR CRAFT."
There is a loud mass of beeping as everyone's SCA's flashes at the same time, holographic messages popping up too fast to be able to read them in their entirety.

Voidtreckers come in.

All Voidtreckers return to the Voidtrecker Express
Voidtreckers evacuate now

Voidtreckers do you read?

Layers of holographic messages pile on top of each other but a moment later everyone's SCA's glow gold and everyone vanishes from the hangar...

LUGGAGE CARRIAGE

return. EVERYONE ARRIVES INSIDE THE LUGGAGE CARRIAGE, PACKED LIKE SARDINES BETWEEN SUITCASES AND TRUNKS. There is no announcement, no warning of returning to the void; just a lurch that is likely to throw anyone on the train unaware of what has just happened off their feet, no matter the carriage they're in.

They return to the void at what feels like breakneck speed. Colours fly past the windows, and it is a good few hours before they seem to slow to their normal travel speed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I was serious!" If she was gonna lift up and make herself vulnerable like that, he would take ALL the advantage! Snaking an arm around her quickly, he tugged her into his lap. "Volume counts for a lot!"

It's a measure of her time to heal and her trust in him that the snagging doesn't even phase her. She makes a noise rather like a protesting cat and whacks at his hands without much actual force, laughing the whole while.

"Hey--I was doing something very important!" Persephone grins as she settles in his lap, "And volume means nothing with this. Just means you're more likely to be overheard. I don't think someone needs to hear that."

Considering he'd let her go at the slightest sign of legitimate resistance, she had nothing to worry about. And he was glad she knew that, not even secretly.

"Actually," he said, with a self-important grin, "everyone knowing how damn hot you are is super important. I want everyone to feel crushingly jealous."

"If they don't think I'm attractive, you spouting off about it is not going to change their minds." Persephone shifts on his lap to face him, hands up in his hair again. She's going to make him beautiful.

"You did look good in a suit you know." For a complete non sequitur in his eyes. Look she's thinking about his attractiveness, makes total sense.

"Of course I did. I got the same deal you got -- I'm so naturally gorgeous, I look good no matter what."

Modesty was for people who weren't Zetta.

Now pink flowers are being added to the mix, just for variety. It's boring to have all one shade, right?

"You make it utterly impossible to compliment you if you just act like I'm saying nothing you haven't heard." She kisses his forehead and leans back to admire the effect, "Is it not special to hear it from me?"

"What's special is what you do." Like that little forehead smooch right there? That totally had him giddy and holding on to his dignity was actually a bit of effort. Hell, just having her tucked close in his lap was really, really something. "I'm an action guy, after all!"

Oh, well that's fair, isn't it? She adores touch, sitting on his lap or hugging out just leaving on him. Words are nice but this is what she'd been missing for months.

Her hands slide down to cup his face, tilting his face up just a touch. She kisses his forehead once more and then softly on the lips.

"This better?"

If Zetta was the most badass Overlord in the freaking cosmos... what did that make Persephone, who at this moment has said Overlord completely and totally wrapped around her little finger?

"You... can make it difficult to be too loud," Zetta admitted, with a little grin that nobody else had ever seen and probably would never see. He might not even be aware of it himself.

A wave of pride and affection washes over at this grin. She'd been trying her best to cheer him up and the success is as pleasing as the kiss. Not that she'd admit that to him.

"Well I do my best." Another kiss. They're short and sweet, being in public, but her quietly loving expression is very intimate.

Obviously, Zetta wouldn't hesitate to kiss her till her toes curled, although hopefully stopping right before she exploded into butterflies again... but hey, sticking to what she wanted had been working out surprisingly well so far! "Heh, your best is terrific. Sure does it for me!"

"Aw, look at you, giving me compliments that aren't about my looks. I might faint from the shock of it all."

She's teasing, because he makes it easy, because it's fun. There's no bite to it, though it perhaps is slightly too on the nose. Never let it be said that she doesn't know who she's dating.

"Hey, I can give you plenty of compliments that aren't about your looks! It's not MY fault your looks are also freaking fantastic!" Zetta pouted a little, but only a little. Persephone was picking on him, but that was what she did, and he kinda liked it...

"Oh yes, on my kissing. I'm sensing a theme." She teases just a little more before kissing him softly. Just once and just brief.

"I can't say I mind it too much though. It's nice to be wanted. And no--" She presses a finger to his lips, "That's not a request for a list of ways you want me."

Welp, she'd anticipated and countered his next move splendidly, before he could even begin to make it! Having been so effectively cut off, Zetta nonetheless arched his eyebrows suggestively. Why list what you could imply?

She's been dating him for months and if she's learned one thing, it's that he'll take any chance for innuendo. Well. Mostly. At his arched eyebrows, she raises her own and removes her finger.

"That still counts, you know. You're thinking it."

Look, if she weren't so fantastically hot...

"You can't stop me from thinking it. That's not possible!"

"Perhaps, but I could silently judge you for it."

Persephone settles her hands on his shoulders, then looks thoughtful. The question is a little out of left field but that happens with her sometimes.

"Are there Overladies or are there just Overlords. Is that a gender neutral term?"

"Gender neutral," Zetta said, resting his hands on her waist just above her hips. "But you can also get another title or modify it. Pram's 'the Oracle', for example. Dark Lord Valvoga is the Star Overlord. Dragon King Babylon, God of Overlord Zenon, it goes on like that."

"We don't have such things. God and Goddess are who we are and only kings get titles. Their wives become queens but that's all. Not a lot of room to make names for yourself like you do."

It's all very patriarchal. It's been a fact of life but she wonders just how fair it is. Zeus spearheaded the fight but her mother did just as much work. How fair is it?

"Do you get to pick the title or is it more something someone bestows upon you?"

"There's a pretty complex title system in the Netherworld. A lot of people try to complete sidequests or supplementary achievements to try to earn one they like, but..." He tilted his head slightly, shoulders lifted just a bit. "It's earned even if it's just by nature. Like Pram is 'the Oracle' because she's an Oracle. And Bablyon is the biggest and strongest dragon in history. And I'm the most badass freaking Overlord in the entire cosmos because I am."

A more boring language might just say 'strongest Overlord', but where was the style in that?!

"So there's no sharing with marriage right, if it's earned? A spouse of an Overlord is just that?"

Persephone curls her hands around the back of his neck.

His own hands began to slide around, the better to meet in the small of her back.

"Right, though a second title can sometimes come along for the ride. Like a King's wife would end up a Queen, that's just how it works. But 'Overlord' isn't shared."

The questions were starting to get harder to answer, primarily because of a certain goddess's increasing closeness.

Persephone is dimly aware that he's distracted but these are pressing questions! Well not really, but he's only made her more curious.

"Well, I guess that if two Overlords marry each other, that wouldn't change their titles. If two have ever married each other." Her fingers curl into the hair at the nape of his neck. "I suppose it wouldn't change their individual power and status the way it does for queens and kings."

"Well, yeah and no. I mean, if two Overlords married, they'd have each other's back, right? Steady alliances aren't really a demon thing normally, so that'd give people some pause."

Because he was an idiot, Zetta had thus far completely failed to put anything into specific context, like what happened if a certain goddess and a certain Overlord became a long-term thing. He was just answering generic hypotheticals!

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