middleofsomewhere | No Place Like Home: The Return

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The train is finally allowing them to do what they've insisted they need to do. Seto is somewhat relieved, but he knows it's going to be a long road ahead.

And one of the newcomers is facing this task with enthusiasm and purpose. That's somewhat comforting. But he needs to understand and so he tilts his head slightly.

"What do you mean keep us in order? Counting to make sure we're not losing anyone?"

"I am keeping a list." She confirmed with a nod, pulling out her journal with a series of names and team colors already written down, along with a few other details scribbled beside them (distinguishing features, current emotional state, their intentions for the mission if they cared to give her any detailed responses). "And intend to do frequent - hourly, if possible - rounds to assure we are all accounted for and well enough to continue our missions. As well as keeping track of all those we retrieve." It didn't look like she had recruited anyone else for this task, and since no one had volunteered, she certainly wasn't going to try and force them.

"The passenger roster helped a bit, but who knows if it can be relied on."

Edited 2022-02-20 22:29 (UTC)

Seto briefly peeked at the list and nodded. So many missing...it was a daunting task ahead of them, but he couldn't leave them behind.

"If you saw any names in gold, we might not find them. Those people tend to be lost---they vanish at the next platform stop. But everything's especially unreliable right now."

Everything else she said, though...despite all that, he felt the drive to be on the job. "I'm going in. I have too many people to find."

"Ah. That is good to know." Jotting that down real quick. She would have to check the roster again later to be sure she adjusted her own list accordingly.

"Understandable. Do you intend to go immediately, then? The instructions suggest it to be an emotionally daunting task - I would recommend not lingering for long periods of time."

Seto brushes his hair back and nods. He definitely looks rumpled and rough around the edges, but he has to do this.

"I've done it before, but this version sounds more complicated. It requires strong mental focus, I know. But nothing can stop me from finding them."

He certainly isn't the only one looking disheveled. It's been a weird and hard couple of days.

"I admire your determination. Who exactly are you hoping to find - ah. And what is your name, if you do not mind?"

"Yugi Mutou. His best friend Katsuya Jonouchi. Ken Amada. Eva Iden'no. Willow, so many more...I'll go out as much as I need to. I know most of their faces."

Do they need to know the person well to be able to find them? He's slightly concerned for some of the newer passengers if that's true.

After a moment: "And I'm Seto Kaiba, you can check me off."

Edited 2022-02-21 03:02 (UTC)

All names written down and quickly checked against the long list she had replicated of the roster.

"Thank you. My name is Lioriley, for the record." And noted his was, her dark eyes quickly flickering up to his face, pausing for a moment, then just as quickly shifting back down to the page of her journal she had opened. "There are many you wish to retrieve. Can I count on you to know your own limits? In such stressful situations, sometimes we are prone to...forgetting ourselves." Master of that that she was.

Kaiba hesitates a moment, trying to puzzle out what the limits are. He wants to go headfirst into finding them all, but he really can't...fine. What can he say instead?

"...I'll get checked after every mission. Fair?"

"Do I have your word on that?" She asked, knowing full well he could just, you know, lie and be done with it. But she would hold him to it, if vowed. "I am not your keeper, of course. But we should all have an...understanding in such a dire situation."

Kaiba swallows. He hates making promises when his instincts are telling him to push himself to the limit, but...if they really do rescue everyone, how will they feel about peeling him off the floor? Maybe he shouldn't subject them to that.

"All right. We're counting on you to organize so that everyone is truly rescued and the rests rotate. But...you're in that rest rotation."

"Of course." she replied, seemingly to both suggestions. This man did not know her nor her habits of overworking herself, but she knew she would rest...eventually. So it wasn't a lie. "I will be sure to check back in with you soon. Do you have any questions or anything you wish for me to look into." a beat. "Anyone, perhaps?"

Seto thinks about this for a moment.

"...Yondu Udonta. I don't think he meant to leave, he said repeatedly that he wouldn't. And given his situation, I'm worried."

Some people had chaotic homes....some had no home to go back to.

"Thanks, by the way."

A quick glance at her journal. It was a name already set with a question mark — location and intent unknown. She would make a point to search for him though.

She shook her head; dismissive. "No need for it. Thank you for your cooperation. Take care, hm?"

No Place Like Home: The Return

rallying the troops

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