No Place Like Home: The Return

[voidtreckermods]

---

NO PLACE LIKE HOME: THE RETURN

---

a silence broken...

It's been a very difficult few days. Rocking and rolling into the void and out again. Watching their friends out of the window as they wander from world to world. Meanwhile those lost on worlds continue to wander unable to return to the train at all.

"All attempts at returning those who left have failed. This voidcraft cannot do it alone. It is lucky that unlike those that have left before them, I can still sense them.

But I cannot bring them back alone. This is perhaps too advanced for Voidtreckers, but you have done the improbable before. You say you wish to help. This is how you help."

Their SCA's light up with a message. Or rather, a series of instructions:

In the unlikely event a tether gets stranded on a liminal space platform or between their own world and the platform space, you should, in the first instance, contact the Void technicians who monitor their non-travelling self. However, in the case they cannot be reached or there is a mass displacement of tether, an anchoring procedure can be carried out.

Ideally, this will involve two fully tethered individuals to retrieve the lost tether. One should be a stationary anchor. They should be outside of their void craft, if possible, and in physical contact with it. The second should be a roaming anchor reaching to draw the tethers back. In situations of mass tether displacement the stationary anchor can hold mutiple roaming anchors but it is recommended to not exceed five. In this situation, it is recommended that anchors rotate between stationary and roaming.

To start an anchoring of this kind, those anchoring should activate their anchoring program. Those staying station should reach out to the tethers of those they plan to steady. This might cause some emotional upheaval, and they will need to stay steady, especially if connecting to more than one roaming tether. Roaming anchors then must hold the person they search for in their thoughts and move towards them. It is recommended that the lost tethers activate their emergency beacon to facilitate being found and returning but this is not a necessity.

Once the roaming anchor has found the lost tethers they must keep hold of them and guide them back towards their craft, the stationary tethers must draw them back, pulling them through.

There is an additional note at the end, in different font.

It is as Anan told you. Your minds should visualise it. Be strong Voidtreckers.

... a short-lived dream

The doors open and anyone who wishes to try this can leave onto the platform. It is empty, devoid of the figures they had seen before; and, beyond the fog, devoid of anything. But searching requires their SCAs, not a path, and as people get into teams, they can activate their anchors and begin.

For those who will roam, their minds become filled, visualising light, void, voices and chaos; their bodies feel less stable, like they might unravel if not careful. But for those who will stay, when they touch the Voidtrecker Express, they will feel more stable, grounded. The fog shifts, but the world moves around them without pulling them in.

Thinking of the person they wish to keep stable, a mental and emotional link will be established, and they will feel each other as the roaming anchor sets off to find their missing crew.

---

Outside the train...
For those that had left - either by choice or by strange happenings - they have found themselves back at their anchor point during Poi 26, regardless of where they were before. For those unfortunate enough not to have a world to return to, or those who were stuck between in the first place, they will find themselves alone, in a fog filled space where no matter how far they walk, nothing greets them.

All those in fog or back in their world receive the same message from their SCAs.

Hold fast. Press your evacuation button. Your friends come.

---

RETURNERS: FLEETING HAPPINESS

But it's likely before the message arrived, that something wrong has been noticed by those outside the void. More than the bizarre ability to travel between existences, an inability to move far from where they appear. Back at their anchor points, they may notice - in time - colours sometimes flash across the sky, streaking through clouds or making trails in a night sky. At first not much, something to be easily dismissed but it builds. People talk, wonder at what is happening.

For the colours aren't the only thing. Across worlds, in cities, kingdoms, villages, underworlds and space stations, people are dreaming. Bright colours, vivid dreams. Prophets spring from nowhere, people claim to know the future or to have seen the past. Some talk of places and worlds they could not have seen.

Perhaps at first it can be explained away, there are always such people. But more people talk, from urchin children to commanders, people dream and the colours dance.

ANCHORERS: A STEADY HAND

While the stationeries will feel grounded, they aren't blind to what's happening to their roamer. It's as if they're both linked, intimately, meshing together, and they will need to work to keep their feelings separate; hearing each other's thoughts, their feelings. Images of what the other thinks and memories shared between them.

And then there is the search for their teammates, amongst the multiple of realities. Existences move past the roamer, threatening to lose them in the mess, but they must persevere, keep their thoughts on the individual, their stationary anchor to help them. Until finally, they appear - in a world they perhaps know, don't, the kaleidoscope colours of the void faint above their heads.

Speak to each other, keep each other focused, certain, and find who you came to save.

BOTH: HOLDING ON

Searching for individuals, the anchorers will find themselves at a character's anchor point; if they haven't moved far from here or another world, it will be easy to locate them. Now is the time to convince them to come back, and then the eventual work of doing so.

It can be in agreement, or force. Taking a hold of the person, the anchorer can pull them into the mass of chaos. Just like when they helped the guests return to their worlds from the false Diagad, all parties become battered by images, voices. Voices like sirens; 'Just stay,' the voices encourage. 'Just let go and drift into the chaos. It will be easier.'

But they must be strong, move towards their anchor and towards the craft. The crossing doesn't take too long, perhaps ten minutes each way, and once they get to the craft the person they are rescuing glows gold and vanishes. The anchors will know instinctively that they are safe on the train.

And indeed, the rescued will find themselves within the luggage carriage - exhausted, but safe.

TRAIN: AN INEVITABLE RETURN

Exhaustion is something all parties will experience, once everyone is returned to the train and the adrenaline wears off. Those who anchored will be hit with a total exhaustion, leaving them unable to do much more than eat and sleep for a few days. Those rescued won't be as bad, but if they decide to join in with the efforts, they'll too face the soul-tiring experience that other anchorers are.

There's likely to be efforts, to help soothe people over this time. And as people return to their life on the train, they will see the marks of the last few days for those who stayed behind. Broken ceramics, books out of order in the library; the ICPs in the standard coach, storage, sports and games carriages broken, and some damage to furniture.

But for the scars brought on by this event, surely, they will heal - eventually.

OOC NOTES

OOC post. Ask questions here. New second part OOC post here.

First phase of the event took place during Poi 22 to 25; the second phase takes place during Poi 26 to 28 (20-25th February).

VISITING WORLDS: While during Poi 26, it will be possible to go back to wherever they were, or other spaces. However, they will have increasing difficulty doing this, and will feel themselves getting more lost if they try world hopping too much over the next 3 (void) days. It's like something is trying to pull them back, or pull them, but into nowhere.

SCAs: The SCA's comms will not be active at this time.

Comments

K'zeka Tia | OTA

[catti]

[PANIC]

K'zeka is completely lost.

Not physically; physically he's back in Mor Dhona where he started. Mentally, he's panicking. At the start, all he intended to do was go back and check out how everyone was doing, how the world was faring without him. Just a quick trip in and out, and if necessary, he'd stay and not return to the train.

None of it went to plan. None of his friends could be found, strange and disturbing rumors were all over the town, and no matter what K'zeka did, trying to use the aetheryte network just flung him back to the platform or another world entirely.


[AN OMEN]

It's not unusual for Revenant Toll to experience strange weather, so when strange colors appear in the sky, it's not a cause for concern among most people. It's when those unusual colors stick around in an otherwise clear blue or dark sky.

The rumor mill churns again, this time telling of a surfeit of sudden prophets and K'zeka's reminded of similar events a world away.

Then his SCA--he still had it on just out of habit--beeped.

"This was a mistake."


[RETURNED]

Once back on the train, K'zeka jumps right in to trying to help his fellow passengers as best he can, whether it involves fetching things on the train, offering moral support, or retrieving people.

He's not sure how to do the last one, but he can follow instructions well enough in most cases.

"Is anyone in need of an...ah, anchor? Tether? Or...aught else?"


[WILDCARD]

Choose your own adventure! Hit me up on discord or plurk and we can start something!

[weifinder]

just a top level for closed starters, fingerguns

for sizhui

[weifinder]

He expects it to be Gusu Lan, when he reaches across all that lays between him and this son from a world that needn't be his own. Sizhui is Sizhui, whatever his iteration, and the stationary anchor might feel a twitch of heartbreak, a familiar face if they've seen Sizhui's before, without necessarily knowing it to be for Wen Sizhui, for a Lan Sizhui on a world no one but Wei Wuxian has seen.

No matter. He's an easy anchor, so self-contained there's little he shares that isn't deliberate, and being connected with him is akin to being connected a general feeling of focussed motivation. With a mental voice that will travel back both directions, welcome to the lockdown compartmentalisation that is Wei Wuxian's life.

Still.

"Sizhui." He steps out from the light and chaos of what is the void, what he's heard talked of from Diagad when people anchored, when he was instead serenading Chaos, that time. "Bet you've figured out half of what's gone wrong already, ah?"

[deferences]

And it is Gusu Lan, just outside the main secured entrance where Sizhui had last been with Wen Ning, preparing for their trip together. He remembers it clear as day, readying to leave after his elders seeing him off, and then— well, nothing? Since that's when he imagines he'd fallen unconscious from silly train shenanigans. Nothing but fog, distorted colors, indistinguishable voices ringing wordlessly in his ears.

He'd grown tired of waiting to return, exhausted with standing about and, following soft, unhappy muttering to himself, decided instead to sit and meditate; it's more difficult at particular points, but he eventually finds some steadiness long enough to continue waiting.

Someone will come. They have to, right? The Voidtrecker Express surely won't abandon them inside these twisted, unstable in-between worlds.

‘Sizhui.’ The sound of his name, easy and familiar, draws his attention upward, eyes widening once he realizes it's someone he knows. Sizhui's instantly on his feet then, scurrying toward Wei Wuxian, one hand stretching out toward him, reaching to maybe grasp his shirtfront or an arm, except he comes up short, hesitating like he might put his hand straight through the man before him. A rough, mirthless laugh follows Wei Wuxian's comment, although Sizhui can't quite feign amusement in his expression, looking far too apprehensive for his humorless laughter. “You could say that, but regardless, it doesn't matter when it's clear none of this could last.”

for jin ling (crau)

[weifinder]

When it comes to one of his nephews, it's slightly more complicated. He knows there's some desire for trust, but he also knows the stronger relationship is between this young man and Jiang Cheng, or at minimum, the fox eared version of himself. Shared terrors cement relationships, just as shared joys can, but that's not anything he needs to comment on.

Only that he needs to find Jin Ling, that he has the young man in his mind's eye, that he crosses the chaotic swirling of voices and light and colour all telling him this isn't worth it, to let him leave, that staying is fine, as if the void is an endless appetite, yearning to be filled.

As if the void is what it is named, and he smiles, grim, thinking of Yiling, and the void that it was, in its dark-stained, decaying way.

The problem, perhaps, is where he finds Jin Ling.

"..."

Which is to say, wherever he ends up, he doesn't immediately see his nephew. So he cups his hands around his mouth, and calls out, "Jin Rulan! Where are you!"

hopefully this works!

[to_rise_above]

Complicated, is probably the right word for it. While Jin Ling, doesn't necessarily have issues with this Wei Wuxian, he hasn't spent much time around the other. Even more so, now that he's stuck in the fog, not able to find a place to go to. Maybe, he should have stayed put in Lotus Pier. At least, that is the most familiar to him, or maybe he shouldn't have been hasty and run off from Jingyi's world either.

Regardless, he's not sure where he is and with only his spiritual companion by his side, he wanders through all of this-- the noise being unbearably frustrating to deal with. Colors, voices, and other things. They latched onto him, as if trying to pull him back. He's holding on, and he's stubborn. He knows things like this happen and he certainly doesn't want to fall prey to their lulling. However, it's hard when he can only hear those voices and see these colors. It's as if all of this is telling him that he has nowhere else to go.

There is no home for him right now. There won't be in the future. At least, not if he is here wandering. He misses home. He misses his family and he certainly missed the more simple times in his life. Most of which, he knows he's taken for granted. If only he can--

The sound is faint but he catches a voice. It's different from the noise and it almost clears his mind of the thoughts. The wolf is fighting through all of this as well, trying to keep Jin Ling in check. Of course, he must say-- whoever the hell that person is-- they must really have a death wish for calling him 'Jin Rulan!' How many people here still address him as such? He's tired of it and doesn't want to answer it at all, but he follows kind of.

Who knows what is even happening anymore. Maybe, he's hallucinating all of this too!

Thanatos | needing rescue

[controlsthedie]

[[ OOC: In which Meg makes it easier for Than to get back to the train ]]

cw: death thoughts/awareness on a world scale for the roaming rescuer

Thanatos finds himself waiting in Asphodel. It's not the best place to be anchored too. The flooded, fiery River Phlegethon laps at the ground littered or consisting of bones. The sulfur hangs in the air along with the heat. It's almost as the river tries to warm the world but cannot reach the icy surface. Keeps the Underworld warm from Demeter's winter at least.

Death Incarnate floats above a solid bit of ground. He doesn't want to go back without having fully stabilized the world from his absence, but the choice is not his. All he can hope is that he's one of the last to be brought back to the train, to give his world as much time as he can. And then... the rest is up to those he's leaving behind.

"It's strange being the one collected," he says softly when someone wanders out of the smoky fog and into his view. Thanatos doesn't look happy but is resigned to leave.

Asagiri Gen

[fun_thementalist]

Returners - Fleeting Despair

Everyone is stone.

Everyone isn't everyone - the Perseus is gone, all of its crew are gone. And it's not just Gen's friends who aren't around. That scheming Dr. Xeno is gone; his lackey Stanley is gone; several of his henchmen with him. But enough are in the 'Corn City' in America allows Gen to know - everyone is stone.

The world was doomed once more. And Gen couldn't help but feel the obvious correlation, if not causation; Senku must have died. Something had gone wrong. No-one would be there to save humanity now.

No-one except him, alone.

Returners - Fleeting Disbelief [ OTA ]

Except.

Gen had started to scout for supplies - he needed to find out what he had to work with. Except, he couldn't seem to get too far out from the remains of Xeno's fortress. Trial and error had a bubble roughly 8 kilometers.

Then, noticing one thing strange - the sky began to flicker with colors quite unlike what he'd expect for the southern lights.

It's all a dream or an illusion after all? Frustrated, Gen shouted out to no-one - "You could've given me a nice fucking illusion, at least!"

Gen would press the SCA when prompted - and wait. Someone would find him sitting by the fire, a makeshift little hut of dried corn stalks and branches behind him. The Mentalist would give his rescuer a cheerful grin, completely false, and greet them merrily. "Why, hello! I'd give you a tour of my world, but there's not much to see at the moment - unless you like realistic statuary. Shall we go?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou Sanzo is who finds him, and his little hut. The latter gets a curious look -- he's roughed it more than a few times himself, after all -- before Koumyou's attention goes back to Gen himself.

His thoughts, briefly of the jungle of Nion and his own little shelters out of the rain for his impromptu camp-sites, are otherwise mostly still and calm. He hadn't known exactly who he was getting close to finding, but Gen isn't a bad find. That's in there, too. They haven't exactly bonded real close, but he'd rather not leave the guy to the void or anything.

"I'll skip the tour," Koumyou says mildly, and holds out a hand, "let's go."

CLOSED (Seto, Senku, Soldat, Leia.)

[mtsilver_conquor]

Good luck; Eva is one of the last to be rescued and you will need that luck. The Void plus psychic pokemon means things will get weird and be so from the outset.

Even with Senku as a handy Eva-waypointer, locating her in the middle of a city will be a pain. She's not at her anchor point. Nowhere near it. It's not impossible to find her, but it will be tricky... If they don't engage the local people, they should, for the most part, be fine.

That said, the locals people have noticed the colours in the sky; they have started to talk. Yet they aren't the only ones...

From the second the group makes contact with Eva's world, they will feel the prick of minds against there own, all four of them. The alien, inhuman minds are psychic pokemon. Instinctive and reactive. Sentient yet far from sapient. It seems the local Psychic pokemon can sense the 'intruders'. They don't, yet, know where they are, but their reactions have placed other pokemon on edge, meaning people notice. They're more alert, more on edge than they typically would be.

If the group can avoid the locals, they should be alright. Seto might even find he can talk to the group, or pick up on things they can't. Telepathtic chatter is useful, right?

It's merely a matter of getting to Eva...

[blue_ice]

Seto is trying his best to focus, but this is a painful test. He's still sore from having had the train in his head a few days ago, and now this whole group is piled in....but he can't let Eva be lost. He's too aware of what could happen.

He tries to project calm to all entities inside and poking at the link.

We have a purpose. Save Eva, save this world. Keep your thoughts on her.

He's doing his best to contribute to this effort, remembering all their secret talks...all their little training tips. He misses her. Not that it's been too long.

Closed to Soldat and Sanzo

[knifewithnoname]

When she reappears in the kitchen of the inn she is confused. One moment she was with Devero and Yondu and the next she was back in Gauig. Was this it then? The train had finally figured it out?

But she didn't want to be back. Not like this. She had thought she had to be. But it didn't matter. No one here wanted her, no one had cared she was gone. She was just a troublesome brat.

More than that, how could she leave Devero alone? He had not wanted to leave the train and yet been kicked off regardless. He had lost Sanzo...

She clenched her teeth together. If she was back here, if this was for good then she couldn't be leaky eyed. Couldn't think... None of that.

Her SCA beeped and she looked it, reading the message with a frown. Hold fast. Press evacuation. She does that and then when she does not find herself in the luggage carriage, moves, to one of the large tables near the wall. She ducks under it and sits, back to the wall, knees to her chest. She doesn't know if people still can't see her but she doesn't want to risk it.

She could wait. She took a breath, settling into meditation. Prayer was too complicated. She had too many feelings about it. But she could meditate as she waited. Keep her mind in check. Anything to banish that final image of Sanzo... It was the price of family it seemed, this pain.

She has no idea what is meant to be happening, but she can wait for a long time, trained to stillness.

meanwhile back on the ranch

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou Sanzo is currently acting as a stationary anchor. He doesn't know a ton about this, having not done it at all on Diagad and instead only fought to cover everyone's retreats, but...

At the end of the day, he's suited. And he knows it.

So, he forces himself to be stationary, first, even though his fiance is out there, and his adoptive daughter, and his best friend, all of which last saw him die horribly. And also, pretty much everyone else this situation went sideways for -- which is... all of them. But someone will get all of them, it's his people he itches to go find for himself.

The priest sits down in full lotus, a tendril of the sutra reaching out and wrapping firmly around the girth of the entire damn train car nearest to him, and begins to meditate. (If he was supposed to press a button first, he did it too.)

Multiple people can easily use him as an anchoring spot. The priest who controlled two sutras with his will and focus for over twenty years is pretty good for this.

At the moment, if his thoughts bleed over, it's just a monotonous chant.

Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha, Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha, Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi Svaha...

Razzy Elric-Phantom | Rescuing

[dnaofahalfa]

Holding On
Razzy didn't need to be saved. There had been far too many times where she was brought into a fake world, tempted with delusions of peace and happiness, that the moment she noticed the problems-

Well, she was old hat at this sort of thing by now. Now wasn't the time to cling to home, now was the time to save people. Even if that meant dragging people kicking and screaming out of their dreams. It was just how this went.

And she was used to this process, used to moving between worlds, so it was obvious she should roam. She had started the process and there was a moment-

Unraveling, unstable, falling apart, falling apart, falling apart-

She planted her feet hard on the ground of the platform, focused. She could feel the gloves on her fingers, boots on her feet, and she visualized a book, the words written, and shoved away.

She survived unraveling for months.

All the more reason for her to go. She took a breath, let it out.

"Time to help people," she told herself and began the process to look for people to bring them back to the train.

Return
Razzy knew her strong points, and roaming was it. For several reasons. But once the job was done, it was done, and she no longer has the steadying point to focus on over the trauma of-

Dying.

The worst and first death she had experience, the sensation of unraveling, and once she's on the train, she collapses, changing into a human, starting to hyperventilate because that had been the longest reintroduction to that sensation as she's had in quite some time.

Shadow Link | Rescuing

[shadowcourage]

Steady
Nautilus was a strange place at the best of times and when the place itself allowed for wandering...there wasn't much reason to fight to stay.

His Hyrule was a non-starter.

People were Shadow's anchor and since their 'homes' were in other Hyrules, it was easy enough for him to find his way back to the train on his own.

And he is still trying to be a 'good person' or something like it, and that meant helping. At least if nothing else, he's real good at focusing on people.

He'll take a shift as an anchor, one hand on the train. "Don't push it. If ya need to come back, come back," he says to the roamer.

Holding On
And of course, he might as well use that familiarity with the multiverse to try and find people himself. Switching things up was important when people were getting tired, and he was harder to get tired then most.

He is. Less then thrilled with the destabilization feeling, but it isn't the first time he's felt less than substantial and his will is strong enough to keep himself together. His sense of self was important to him, so its something he can focus on as he tries to find others who need to be brought back.

Return
The exhaustion hits like a truck. Noticeable as he losing his coloring. Purple hair and tan skin turn more and more black, the blue of his eyes fade to white, looking more wispy, but at least he doesn't look translucent.

Exhaustion just sucks.

[longforgottenpromise]

Rescue: Tidus, Lea and Inigo

Despite every barrier Taiki had been doing his best to do everything he could to help the people of Tai. Messages, forged documents, attempts at finding allies. It's difficult, there's a limit to what he can do, getting supplies out was impossible as nothing was leaving the palace. Messages less so but the missing phoenix's had been noticed and Taiki had paused on that, lest he get the aviary keeper killed. He was not naive enough to not believe his actions would lead to more deaths but he was doing his best to limit damage.

Whatever was happening was not stable enough to keep him in one place. He often ended up back on the platform, in other places when he tried to get to Tai. Worrying too were the streaks of colour in the skies and the overheard conversations from ministers, worrying dreams, strange happenings.

He was used to being pulled around and so he wasn't completely surprised to find himself back in the courtyard. He's seen it so much it has lost his shock value, though his heart still aches, still breaks every time he sees those bodies.

He glances at his SCA to see the message. His friends come? Press evacuation... He doesn't want to. He doesn't want to go back. He needs to stay. To do what he can.

He can't just leave.

Aftermath: Lan Jingyi

He is quiet after returning, retreating as soon as he can. He's exhausted. Drained emotionally and dealing with anyone, even his friends is far too much.

He has a shower and finds fresh clothes. He remains in his room but not on the bed, instead he clambers up to the bench above, sitting there crossed legged, notebook in hand. He needs a better plan, they need to find a way to leave this train for good and once he does he needs a way to actually save Tai.

It feels too big, but there's no choice but to try.

Rescue

[hotheadwarmheart]

It had been a rough trip getting there, but eventually Lea stepped out of the chaos and back onto solid ground, hoping his fellow searcher wouldn't be far behind. He didn't feel far behind but Lea was still getting used to this whole business. At least it was a bit easier to think clearly, now that he was back in a more normal environment.

Well 'normal' being a relative term at the moment given the streaks of color he could see across the sky. They reminded him of the fake Diagad, and he was certain that they were neither natural nor a good sign. Fortunately, he could see something- or rather someone else too; namely the friend they'd been searching for standing right in front of him. "Taiki!", he said. "Man, I'm glad we found you. There's not a lot of time, but we need... to..."

It was about then that other parts of the scene began to register, causing Lea's words to trail off mid-sentence. Not so much the buildings that vaguely resembled what he knew of the Land of Dragons back home; those he'd been expecting. No, what brought him to a halt were the skeletons staked out in the courtyard they were in. What had happened here?

after the math is calculated, we end up with a zero sum gain

[jingyeets]

Jingyi strides in because he's grumpy, and because he has a list of checkmarks in his mind that goes: some of my friends are better at finding ways to address how they feel than others. While he'd slate Inigo in as likewise being the sort to hold things in, and Tidus must have been unnerved, and Idia probably was torn between whatever he'd realised back home and what he gained for his sheer curiosity in returning to the train, and—suffice to say, there are many people who can flit through his mind, but one who he argued with over suicide, murder, and locking himself down.

His roommate, perched now with pen and notebook, trying to find answers an immeasurable distance away from the heart of his consuming problem. A too familiar reality, for too many of those he knew on this stupid voidvessel.

"Taiki," he says, after standing there for a moment. "Will you finally allow yourself to grieve?"

kyoko sakura (au) | three closed and one OTA

[wishalone]

1. for jiu
Kyoko has absolutely seized dibs on rescuing her roommates. There's no way to dress it up in anything other than the truth: She wants them back. She wants back the normalcy she's found in them, that she hadn't even realized she'd gotten attached to until it was gone. And she doesn't even feel like she has to feel selfish about such thoughts, because being here on the train is better than being stuck out there in the void, or whatever the hell else could happen to them out there.

So she grits her teeth against the tiredness threatening to creep into her bones and dives out into the void again, this time firmly holding in her mind thoughts of the fox-boy. She'll bring him back. She is determined.


2. for vegeta
It's done. There are still people to save, but the rest of the Voidtreckers are working on that. Kyoko has pulled back four of her own -- four... friends -- and discovered two more that made it back without her. She would throw herself back out there again, even for people she doesn't know, but... She can't fight it any more. The toll of anchoring has come calling, and it's impossible for her to keep staving it off. Her job is done, she's clocked out.

But she refuses to succumb to the sleep that's calling her yet. There's someone she feels like she owes. Vegeta's been there through it all -- He's helped her bring her people home back. She'd seen him around the train before this, of course, and known that he's friends with Yondu, but she'd never talked to him before all this. But when she saw his attitude about this anchoring business -- the closeness required of their minds -- She knew that's who she wanted to work with. If Yondu trusts him, then she can trust him, and if he's cranky about the intimacy of it, well, he'll be in good company. Kyoko wants to be better at expressing herself, but she didn't like the idea of having to connect with someone like this. But it was a cost she was more than willing to pay to do what needed doing -- To do what she wanted to do.

Kyoko searches the train for him, holding a plate of food in each hand with two drinks tucked into her jacket pockets, hoping he hasn't retreated to his cabin yet. The least she can do is bring him something to eat.


3. for sylvia
The cabin is starting to feel better now. It's been downright fucking eerie -- Kyoko knows there are cabins that aren't entirely full as the norm, but she's never been in one. And this cabin in particular... Any time Kyoko has spent in it during all this, she couldn't help but think about the people who should be in those empty bunks.

But fox-boy is back, and Sylvia is back. Yondu, Elidibus, Idia, and Nozomi are all home back on the train, too. It's... It's going to be okay. Yeah. She can finally start to feel like it's going to be okay.

And as the urgency and adrenaline fade, the exhaustion settles in. And in the middle of the day, Kyoko finds herself so tired that she doesn't really want to climb up into her own bunk. So she ends up flopping onto Sylvia's lower bunk instead, arms sprawled up over her head. But, even as much as she could fall back asleep... She's hungry, too. So she goes fishing around in her pockets for something to snack in.

Better hurry, Sylvia, or else someone's going to end up eating in your bed.


4. wildcard, aftermath
Exhausted or not, Kyoko doesn't want to curl up in her cabin. She wants to be out in the carriages as they fill up with life again and return to the normal hustle and bustle. It's easy to turn around, in any populous carriage, and find Kyoko in a seat, snacks in hand and just people-watching, or outright passed out asleep right there despite the noise.

3.!

[storms_eye]

It had been a confusing month, or was it only a few weeks? Either way the experience had left Sylvia conflicted and tired. Sure she had managed to see some familiar faces but there were still absences, and the gaps in the timeline seemed to have taken their toll. For a little while, she had thought she could return home and ease her family's worries about her absence but it was temporary, and nothing was really solved. Plus, she couldn't imagine why when her father must have been informed of her disappearance that he didn't make the trip out to Japan to join the search.

That just didn't sound like him. Had something happened to him on the dig site? Was she not the only missing person in the Leafe family? It also forced her to accept that her parent's relationship had been strained lately. Her father could have simply abandoned them..

.. but she refused to believe that was possible, whether it was denial, intuition or wishful thinking on her part. Why would this man who had doted on their family all his life, suddenly turn his back on them? Why would he have sent her this precious artifact?

Then there were all the other worlds she visited just trying to get back either to Domino or the train. What a trip it had been. All she wanted to do was sleep for about 15 days straight. Maybe her roommate thought the bunk was empty since Sylvia had thrown the covers over her head to drain out the rest of the world, but it wasn't. The sagging of the mattress from the additional weight was jarring enough but when the limbs flailed out haphazardly and accidentally struck her, Sylvia yelped and sat up swiftly. She reached for a pillow to smack the intruder with it, when her eyes focused enough on the form to prompt hesitation.

"Kyoko?!"

4

[redmeguca]

Hey.

[The Kyoko of the blue team sits down across from her counterpart, just as snack-laden as she is, and with Momo the Growlithe quickly hopping into her lap. She watches the crowd a bit before speaking up.]

So. I figure, if we're going to be staying here, we might as well learn to get along.

jiu is number 1, true facts

[foxyou]

The fox-boy she's looking for is currently holed up in a tiny cave in this freezing wasteland, gazing forlornly out at the changing sky above the creepy-looking trees. How does he leave? Is he trapped here forever? Will he ever get to see B—

Wait a minute is that Kyoko? Jiu doesn't say anything at first, but his ears have noticeably perked up as he stares off in her direction. Is it really her or is he just starting to hallucinate his roommates for some reason? Important question.

2

[renegadeprince]

Vegeta hated every part of this. The idea of having others in his head, having his thoughts and feelings, which he often kept very buried, on display. It was horrible. Two things had helped; his training he had been doing since their stop at the Void Nexus to strength his mind, and that his partner for these anchorings herself was rather reserved. It helped to have someone who wasn’t wanting to go pushing beyond their personal bubbles or be overly excited or have a dominating mind. To just understand this was work and it needed to be done.

And it was also was a chance to learn she was one of Yondu’s close people on the train.

Really Yondu, he’s going to start comparing you to Piccolo at this rate and his ability to gain children. Just in a different color scheme.

Vegeta finds her after having a break to get cleaned up during the down time, curious to see her carrying a couple of plates around, he planning to move to the side so she could get past him and to wherever she’s off to with them.

Reunion (closed to Koumyou)

[subcircuits]

The next several days pass for Devero in a haze. He stumbles from the scene of Koumyou's death, clinging to Buttercup like the girl's an anchor until the vagaries of their malfunctioning fucking tethers separate them. He's alone then, and no matter how many times he tries to evacuate back to the platform he finds himself drawn home.

Home. What bullshit. Techstead doesn't feel like home anymore-- not swarming with guards as it is, not with Valdana "missing", not with Koumyou lying broken and bled out in the mud on a lonely riverbank in Shangri-La.

Eventually, Devero gives up on trying to get back to the platform or anywhere, when he just gets spit back out in Techstead. Numb, he stumbles into the thick, tangled forest surrounding the town; wounded, he manages to pitch the tent stashed in their ARMS band; lost, he curls up inside around a haphazard bundle of indestructible paper tendrils and a pair of rings and a gaudy gold bracelet and he--

He--

That's where he is, some elastic passage of time later, when he realizes there's a message on his SCA. Hold fast. Press your evacuation button. Your friends come.

He wants nothing more than to return to the train, but he's-- he's afraid. He's afraid to press that button, and to return, and then to find out that his Sanzo's malfunctioning tether had snapped when the Muten sutra, the very essence of nothingness, had run him through.

Techstead is no longer his home, and if Koumyou Sanzo's not there, neither will be the Voidtrecker Express.

But eventually, inexorably, his fingers find that button on his SCA and press it. They are pulled by the weight of if, by the possibility that maybe-- that the tether-- that he--

He presses it, and holds on to 'if' as tightly as he holds the Seiten sutra and their rings and Koumyou's ARMS band.

[its_dad_sanzo]

It's another indeterminable amount of time before anything happens at all, although it's certainly no longer than several hours.

First, the big, unwieldy bundle of the Seiten sutra starts to shift around, slowly and subtly at first and then like a ball of writhing snakes as it slowly, gradually, painstakingly, resolves itself from an incalculable number of tendrils down to a calculable hundred or so. From there, down to ninety. Then down to eighty, then down to...

Eventually, there is only one long tendril. And then it carefully starts to roll itself up into that standard scroll.

This is not how it usually happens. When Koumyou does it casually on a daily basis, and even at least one time right there in Devero's hands, the shift into scroll form takes less than a second. Less than that; even a slow motion camera from this technologically advanced world, slowed down, would find that it's entirely instantaneous.

Not this time. Slowly, and then a little faster, but never super fast (almost like someone is concerned about hands being too near to fast-moving indestructible paper edges), it rolls itself back up into that compact, familiar shape, complete with wrapping a tie around itself and knotting it into the typical form.

And then... it just lays there. Maybe they just do that, after a while? Slow like that, for some reason?