middleofsomewhere | No Place Like Home: Outside

No Place Like Home: Outside

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: OUTSIDE

HOME SWEET HOME

You find yourself not on a wide station platform, in the clothes you last remember, holding what you were when you went through the glas door. There's no longer a train behind you, no sound of its whistle, with no other passengers around you in similar style of clothing to your own.

You're somewhere familiar, or just - the last place you remember being before your life became tethered to the Voidtrecker Express. A field, a city, a kingdom, or perhaps even a space station. You should be nowhere, yet you find yourself somewhere, despite all odds.

People - if there are people - don't at first notice you; but attract enough attention to yourself, and that will all change. Friends, family - are they near, a phonecall away? It's either everything you wanted or everything you imagined (for good or worse), and it could seem unbelievably real. But it is real - you're off the train, back somewhere you know.

Finally - the journey is over...

...If only.
You're moving away from where you arrived, for whatever reason. Who wouldn't? You may be far from home, have business elsewhere, or want to go sightseeing. It's time to return to - and live - your life, and that doesn't include sticking to one place.

But you'll find that when you reach a point, the world becomes...foggy. A fog that you hadn't seen in the distance before it appears, and when you walk through it, you'll find yourself in a place some have already found themselves in.

Because for some passengers, there was nowhere for them to return, and so the barriers lead only to fog, and then straight back onto the platform. The Voidtrecker Express may be stationed, or there may be a blanket of fog where it should be; sometimes, it can be caught trying to leave the station, only to come back a few minutes later. The doors are shut tight, and the windows are obscured, showing nothing inside.

Those who came from somewhere can go back, should they go through the turnstiles again. And if they want, they can take people along with them, too...

But sometimes, they go to a world no one knows. They go through the barriers into nothing, a black emptiness. Not space, for those that know space, and it doesn't seem to be the void either. But it is a void, devoid of anything at all. Just a darkness so complete they will not be able to see anything at all, they will only know their companion is there through touch and sound. How they are breathing, how they are living at all, is a mystery; one probably answered only by the SCA on their wrist.

Being there brings an unease deep down inside them. This place is not natural, not somewhere that they should exist in. Not a place that should exist at all. Luckily they are never there for more than a few moments before they return once more to the station, fog covering them like a safety blanket.

A DIFFERENT CORNER: LOCATIONS

In the first couple of days (whatever that means, when time doesn't match up between most places), the only way to move to another's tethered location is by them leading another there. But after that, individuals will show up in other locations when they reach close to the distance limit. Indeed as time goes on everything gets a lot less stable. They may know their five miles perfectly but still one step to another leads them back to the platform. Attempting to return to their world leads them somewhere else entirely.

And there's quite a few places to end up.

SETTLEMENTS

Buddhist Temple, China ( Koumyou Sanzo | TL )
Rebel Camp, Lothal ( Hera Syndulla | TL )
Homestead, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA ( Nell Ingram TL )
Capsule Corp ( Trunks | TL )
School Grounds, College ( Idia Shroud | TL )
City Ruins, beach ( Najaran | TL )
Hakkei Palace, Tai ( Taiki | TL )
Gusu Lan, mountain sect (China) ( Lan Jingyi | TL)
Lotus Pier, riverside, China ( Jiang Cheng | TL )
The Endless Abyss, Hell ( Shen Qingqiu | TL )
Hyrule Castle Town ( Zelda | TL )
Haven Palace ( TL )

COMMUNITIES

Spaceport ( Yondu | TL)
Mobile Station Base ( Kiyoiri )
Arkwood, Town (Ryo | TL )
Techstead, Town ( Devero | TL )
Tatsumi Port Island ( Ken Amada )
Mor Dhona / Town, Mountain, Lakes ( K'zeka Tai | TL )
Hyrule Field & Lon Lon Ranch ( Link | TL )
Ishigami Village, Japan ( Senku Ishigami | TL )
Aether Paradise/Artificial Island/Natural Preserve ( Katsuya Jonouchi )
Nautilus ( Spark/Clef TL Clef | TL Spark )
The Underworld, Hades ( Zagreus and Thanatos | TL )
Sanctuary ( TL )

CITIES & KINGDOMS

Saillune City ( Zelgadis | TL )
New Mantle, City ( Ruby Rose | TL )
Brooklyn, New York City, USA in 2017 ( Jake Peralta | TL )
Azabu-Juban District, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan ( Usagi Tsukino | TL )
Hau'oli City ( Eva Iden'no | TL )
Gauig City ( Little One/Buttercup | TL )
Kyoto, Japan ( Masumi Sera | TL )
Shinjuku, Japan ( Yosuke Otoha | TL )
Kingdom, Evermore ( Roland Crane )
Garlemad, Kingdom ( Zenos | TL )
Kingdom of Knothole ( Mina Mongoose | TL )
Domino City ( Yugi Muto | TL )
Amnity Park ( Danny Fenton | TL )
Garlemald ( TL )
Lothal ( TL )
Los Angeles ( TL )
The First - Crystarium and Lakeland ( Elidibus | TL )

OOC NOTES

OOC post. Ask questions here.

LOCATION TOPLEVELS: Since it'll be easier for players to engage with settings presented by those offering them, when we see a toplevel for one of the above locations put up, we'll add it to the list! We've also included the OOC comments for settings to the side, so any questions can be left with the player, as well as extra details. Please always speak with the player first if you intend to do anything drastic to the setting!

A REMINDER: Time of log is Poi 22-25, but time within worlds can last up to a maximum of two weeks. Minimum is whatever you want it to be.

During Poi 22 and 23, characters will need to be led to a location to be able to access it. From Poi 24, people will show up in locations regardless of invitation.

The second half of the event will go up during 20th to 25th February (Poi 26-28). But as always, play around in here and do as you like!

If your character's setting isn't above, link us to it in the Questions post, along with your toplevel! We'll add it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I'm the one person in this room who doesn't hurt him," Koumyou says just as plainly, "And no one here will ever again."

The outsider -- (she seems to think he'll be offended by that, but he's amused, she has not idea how outside he is) -- unfolds his arms.

All he does is pull a pair of cigarettes from his... gaudy arm band? In a flash of golden light?

He lights one with a fingertip, then holds it far back behind himself in offer.

"Say the word, and I'll shut her up," Koumyou says to the man behind him again, still not taking his eyes off Valdana. Still smiling that peaceful smile. "And I won't hurt the guards. They'll just have a little nap in a cute little nap pile, it'll be adorable."

Edited 2022-02-18 22:24 (UTC)

Valdana rears back like she's just been struck. "Excuse me?" she snaps, eyes narrowing at Koumyou. "How dare you!"

Devero steps into the rectangle of stronger light spilling out of the workshop past Koumyou and takes the cigarette with fingers that barely tremble. He puts it between his lips, cups his hands around it, and inhales. The bright moment of glow from the ember end lights up his face despite the hood.

"Thank you," he murmurs to Koumyou. He retreats a step, but not more than that, and looks over his fiance's shoulder at Valdana. Madame. Her.

Just being in proximity to her again has his heart pounding in his chest and his throat threatening to close. The space Koumyou has made between them helps; if her hands were on him, he'd be on his knees already, he knows it.

He draws on the cigarette again for strength before saying, "He knows about us." It was supposed to be a firm assertion, but it comes out in a whisper.

She hears it anyway, and her glance bounces back and forth between the two men. She doesn't like what she's hearing. She doesn't like not knowing what's been going on with Devero all these months; likes even less that he's apparently standing before her now when she knows he's still unresponsive in Dr. Armaceau's care. She doesn't like his insouciant companion, whose eyes are dark and sharp and untouched by the smile on his face, who just made cigarettes appear out of thin air somehow, who obviously knows things he shouldn't.

First things first: "If you touch me," she says to Koumyou, "you will regret it. You can't threaten me in my home, and especially not with an absurd accusation like that. Now, I don't know what you think you've heard about-- us, but clearly there's been some miscommunication."

Her eyes lift to apparently-Devero behind Koumyou. "Hasn't there, Devero?" Her voice gentles and she reaches out a hand in entreaty. "Have I ever hurt you?"

Above the understanding smile, her eyes are hard and she holds Devero's gaze locked with her own. Generally, all it takes is a look to remind the man of his place and the agreements they've made, and she expects as much now. So when Devero meets her gaze and says, "Yes. You have," she's not remotely expecting it.

The shock and dismay that flash momentarily across her face are obvious and almost comical.

Koumyou can't help but smile for real at that, overflowing with his pride for Devero. He sticks his own cigarette between his lips and lights it with a finger-tap, too, taking a nice long drag and holding it for a moment, eyes sparkling.

When he lets the smoke out in a long exhale, all he says is, "I don't threaten."

Valdana takes a very deep breath and visibly composes herself, looking once again between the two of them. Devero sticks his cigarette between his lips and raises a hand to grip Koumyou's shoulder.

A hand? His left hand. His engagement band catches the light and her eye.

"The two of you had better explain to me what's going on here," she says with careful deliberation-- and control-- of her words. "Right. Now."

"You don't need to know," Devero says, though he has to swallow to be able to get the words out. "Just-- leave, Administrator, please. For your own good."

Koumyou reaches up with his own left hand to give Dev's on his shoulder a squeeze, his right casually minding his cigarette.

"You really ought to do what he says."

Edited 2022-02-18 23:08 (UTC)

Another ring catches her eye and her stomach turns.

"I'm not going anywhere until I get some answers," she says. "Devero, I have been worried about you! Why won't you tell me what's going on?"

He looks away from her. "Have you?" he asks.

"Have I what-- been worried?" She huffs. "Of course I have! You've been unconscious for months, neither Adís nor Dr. Armaceau have the faintest idea what's happening to you, and then you start showing up in-- in two places at once with these outlandish strangers, with this--"

"Have you been worried about me?" he asks again, the interruption of his deep voice so unexpected that she shuts up to stare at him. "Or have you just missed your obedient fucking toy!?"

The last few words roar out of him accompanied by smoke and his fingers on Koumyou's shoulder grip hard. Valdana rocks back a single step and then glares at Devero, taken aback.

"Don't you dare take that tone of voice with me, boy," she snaps. "Who do you think you are? Who do either of you think you are?!"

"He is the better man, who wants you to be able to leave on your own two feet. That is, if you can do anything your big fat ego doesn't enjoy."

Koumyou takes another long draw from his cigarette, holds it a moment, and then blows casual smoke rings at her. He's fucking beaming, now.

"I'm the one who would prefer to remove the cancer before it can spread. But for Devero's sake, I'm giving you the chance to run away, first. So..."

He makes the gesture with one hand, "Shoo."

Valdana absolutely swells with affront, rage sparking behind the ice chips of her blue eyes. "No," she says calmly to Koumyou. "You can't tell me what to do in my own damn town."

"Administrator--" Devero starts.

This time, she interrupts him. "I don't want to hear it! If neither of you is going to cooperate then we'll let the Guard get the story out of you." She stalks forward through the dissipating rings of smoke and brings up both hands to shove the infuriating pale-haired stranger back out of the doorway so she can get to Devero.

Devero lurches almost into Koumyou, reaching past the priest to try to halt her before she can make the contact. "Madame, no!" he cries. "He'll kill you--!"

Koumyou waits until she's almost close enough to grab at Dev's hands, thrust past him as they are.

Then he lifts one leg, knee bent, plants the heavy tread of one train-issued boot against her stomach, and straightens his knee. Just slow enough to not knock her on her ass. Barely.

His smile for her is as cold as the grave, and there's a delight sparkling in his eyes, like a kid seeing all the presents waiting for them on their birthday.

"Devero," Koumyou says gently, his expression twisting into an understated, quiet grief, even though Dev can't see it. Not grief for Valdana, oh no, but grief for Devero. And for what he's sure this will do to their relationship. "I think this ship has sailed, my love. Let me take care of this."

Edited 2022-02-19 12:35 (UTC)

Valdana staggers back as if she's been pushed much harder than she was, shock in all the usually-elegant lines of her body. She looks between the two of them and laughs, the sound a little unhinged.

"He'll kill me?" she repeats incredulously, and laughs again. "I'm the Administrator of one of Gov's most valued sources of technological innovation! Imagine the consequences!" She narrows her eyes at them both, her rictus grin showing teeth.

"If he means anything to you," she says, pointing at Koumyou and addressing Devero, "you'd better not let him do anything that you'll both regret later."

Behind Koumyou, Devero straightens up. He catches the priest's shoulder again, his restraining squeeze asking for one more chance. "Valdana, you have no idea where I've been or what I've seen," he says, looking down his nose at her. "You have no idea who this man is and what he's capable of. You have no idea who I am anymore. Maybe you never did." His voice goes a little quiet on the last few words, but is otherwise deep and resonant and firm-- the way Koumyou's heard it get on missions when Devero's directing people in the middle of chaos.

This is the voice of the World Guard sergeant who'd been well on his way to lieutenant when he first caught Valdana's eye. Present right now is the power she'd wanted leashed to her service, the steel she'd contrived to maneuver out of the Guard and into her hands. She'd put years into taking that power for herself, shaping that steel to fit her grip exclusively, and now he stands before her with his head held high and disrespect on his lips. How dare he?

And yet she can't help but listen, as if compelled, as he continues. "I am begging you, if you ever held any real affection for me, turn around and walk away. Please. If you push this any further, you will die."

The expression of uncontrolled fury that twists her face is raw and ugly; he's never seen her like this. Then again, why would he have? She's never been out of control around him. He's always been her good boy, hasn't he?

Valdana reaches behind herself and produces a device very like one of Devero's tac batons in its inactive, collapsed form. "Oh Devero," she says with an oily false sympathy, activating the baton with a flick, "I hate that you're making me do this."

Two things happen simultaneously, then. The first thing is that Valdana lunges at Koumyou with the baton, electricity snapping between the prongs of the extended rod.

The second is that Devero takes Koumyou's nearer hand in one of his and places the holy scroll in it with the other, and then turns away.

Koumyou calmly holds up one finger on his other hand, and suddenly Valdana is locked into place mid-lunge, baton crackling inches from Koumyou.

"I'll be with you in a moment."

He follows Devero into the hangar, shutting the door between the enraged woman and the two men for a minute. The priest actually has a more pressing concern than murder, and that's making sure his man's implant won't be on the fritz when he takes out the cameras. "Devero? Can you get into Babysitter and seal the door without reinstalling the core yet?"

Valdana's shriek of thwarted rage penetrates even the closed door, but nothing else does, for which Devero is grateful.

He's still in Sarge-mode when he looks down at Koumyou. He thinks about it for a moment before answering honestly: "Probably not. Without the core, the suit shouldn't have any function at all. Why?"

Koumyou sticks the sutra back into his back pocket, and pulls Babysitter's core out of his ARMs band, holding it out.

"How long to reinstall this, and then climb in and seal it?"

He takes the big metal cylinder, weighing it thoughtfully in one hand. "A few minutes?"

"Maybe pop it out of the... cradle? Is that the right word? Too. You'll know when it's safe to climb back out."

Koumyou doesn't linger after that, heading back to the door and back into the other room, closing the door again. He stands there for a second with his palm against it, sighing as he sets in a sealing spell.

When he turns back to Valdana, he's all cheerful again, clapping his hands together. "Now! Let's take this from the top, shall we?"

Koumyou actually steps around the baton, takes her by her shoulders, and turns her around. "You gotta have momentum again, you know? One second."

He sets a timer on his SCA. Ten minutes. That should be more than plenty for Dev to get in the suit and get it released from the possibly still vulnerable tech holding onto it, right? If not, he can always cut Babysitter free once this is done.

That taken care of, Koumyou moves a few feet away from Valdana, then lets the spell drop off her.

Having been frozen with one leg in the air as she lunged, Valdana stumbles and nearly faceplants when she has control over herself back. She whirls right back around to face Koumyou, raising the baton defensively in front of her.

"What did you just do to me?" she demands imperiously.

Koumyou hasn't forgotten about the cigarette still dangling from his lips, he takes it with one hand and casually flicks the ash off it. It's almost gone, of course.

"Oh, it's a very simple muscle paralysis that leaves all your life-supporting bits free to keep working for the duration. I'm pretty good at it, huh? It used to be a specialty of mine, I guess it still is."

He takes a long drag off his cigarette, which... is the last of it. Holding the smoke in, he pulls the filter from his mouth, frowns a little at it, then flicks it at Valdana.

When he speaks, it also releases that lung-full of smoke. "So, we doing this? Or did the primitive outsider disrupt your homicidal rage -- tantrum -- by giving you a widdle time-out?"

Edited 2022-02-19 22:56 (UTC)

"I don't-- how--" she sputters, swaying up on her tiptoes and trying to peer around him as if he's concealing some rational explanation for what she just experienced behind his scrawny back. She flinches when the butt of the cigarette bounces off her shoulder, and retreats from Koumyou again.

She let affront take her again (so much better than fear) when he launches those questions at her. "Homicidal?" she repeats with a sneer. "Me? I'm not a monster, which is apparently more than can be said for you."

Her eyes flick to the door out into the main hangar, then back to Koumyou. "With a record like his, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised he's fallen in with bad company, where... wherever it is you two appeared from." A little hitch of uncertainty there, that fear of what's happening clawing through.

Koumyou turns that skinny back, unconcerned about her little zappy stick. Just gonna casually go to every door out of this room and tap them, laying on the sealing spells. They won't last more than a few hours without his undoing them, in case he forgets.

The talk of Devero's record sets him into an actual laughing fit, "Oh, yes," Koumyou says around his mirth, as he seals the last door. "His eight kills, all vetted to be what was it... without recourse? Unavoidable? Whatever. What a terrifying man! Truly, unhinged."

Koumyou turns away from the last door, and slowly approaches Valdana.

"Clearly, he needs someone to manage him, hm? Break him down from the inside out? Poison his mind and heart against him, train him to think he's worthless, that he can only be rendered safe by a firm hand and a heavy leather collar?"

The priest pauses once he's only a few feet away again, the coldness behind his eyes replacing his earlier mirth more and more with every word.

"That giving consent when he was fragile and hurting, means consent to anything, ever, forever? You sure did a number on him, politician who's ego is too strong to let her retreat even a step, even when her former victim begs her to for her own safety."

She turns to watch him as he makes his circuit of the doors. His apparent unconcern for the weapon in her hand is alarming and she definitely doesn't want this man going behind her back.

--Okay, forget alarm. The weight of fear that's formed in her gut grows colder and heavier with every word Koumyou says, until she's rooted to the floor and her skin's broken out in a clammy sweat.

"Who-- who do you think you are?" she asks, shaken enough that it takes her a moment to reclaim the facade of the insulted queen. "How dare you judge what you obviously don't understand? Victim? Pah!"

She draws herself up, finding her righteous anger again. "Someone like him does need a firm hand and he knows it! He could have ended our relationship at any time, but he stayed."

She brings the baton up again, pointing it at the center of Koumyou's chest. "He stayed, because he needs me."

"Right, because brainwashing is super easy to turn off, especially when you're isolated from everyone outside of the situation, and you've been eased into hell like the slowly boiling frog. Wrapped tighter and tighter in someone's control, someone's willful manipulation."

Koumyou's smile is at perfect odds with his words, with the freezing rage in his eyes.

"And why? For your ego. And so you could use him as a bribe, for all your little friends. It's extremely convenient you found him right after he was discharged from the Guard, isn't it? At his lowest point in his life... before you dragged him lower?"

Still, that absolute disconnect between the soft smile of a priest and the hard eyes of a killer.

"Besides, he told you to get lost, and your reaction was to take out the love-child of a taser and a club, and come right for me."

Slowly, he steps in closer, not the least concerned with her zappy stick.

"Also, I'm not sure you realized this, because you are pretty dumb, but all your nasty little looks at him over the top of your politician smile? I was looking you right in the face for those, too. You know, standing in front of him? Clear, unobstructed view? And I saw how surprised you were when he didn't grovel for your forgiveness. You know exactly what game you've been playing on him, and you're just too big a coward to admit it out loud. Ego's that fragile, huh?"

She laughs, the sound shrill and, again, a little unhinged. "Brainwashing? You have no idea what you're talking about. I have no idea what you're talking about."

She waves the baton at him again, raising it with a jerk to aim now at the approaching man's throat. "I brought this in case I needed to defend myself," she says, voice tight in her mental scramble for control and poise. "Obviously it was a good instinct. With Devero talking nonsense and threatening my life in the company of some-- some teknull stranger of dubious civility, can you blame me for wanting to neutralize the dangerous parties?

"Now you're talking all this nonsense too," she continues. "The two of you are clearly very sick and need care, so--" Her eyes harden now as she gathers herself.

"Let me help you with that!" She lunges again, jabbing the baton forward as quick as she possibly can.

Koumyou almost lets it connect, making direct eye contact and smiling his little smile, and right at the very last instant--

He side-steps, and puts a booted foot in her path.

"--So, as I was saying."

Like there was no interruption at all.

"Breaking him down like you did, loaning him out to your friends as a bribe? Was that part of the firm hand keeping him in check? You know, in the uncivil land where I'm from, we call that sex trafficking. At least Dev's eight kills were just bodies, you kill far more important parts of your victim. Or victims? Was he even your first?"

Valdana trips over that boot and goes sprawling, the tac baton skittering out of her hand and away across the floor. She starts to scramble after it on her hands and knees, until Koumyou's continued words stop her dead.

She flips over and surges to her feet, backpedaling away from him until she butts up against a worktable. She braces against it with both hands, gripping the edge so tightly her knuckles are white.

"You're deranged," she tells him, voice trembling with rage and fear combined. "These accusations you're making are absolutely ridiculous; you obviously don't know anything about the kind of relationship Devero and I have. They must not have kink where you come from, if you think the kink in our relationship is sex trafficking." She makes herself scoff.

Splitting her attention between Koumyou and her Interface, she reaches out and taps her open conversation with Ioleya. Get control of this, she types rapidly, or starts to at least. And get the guard here NOW.

"That's not very convincing," Koumyou tells her, following her retreat. As soon as she starts moving her fingers, he plucks the interface off of her ear, and--

Edited 2022-02-20 06:22 (UTC)

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