No Place Like Home: The Return

[voidtreckermods]

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NO PLACE LIKE HOME: THE RETURN

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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

[calmness]

"It seems that even the train did not know it was a falsehood," Xichen says with the same smile painting his features. They can ask, but if the train is unable to answer then they will be lost again.

He moves over, making more room for his brother to settle comfortably. "I did." He had gone back, hoping to make right of the mess he left behind.

"You, a-Yuan.. both in need of tending to as you heal." The truth, a painful admission. Back home, Lan Xichen's body lays in rest as his brother heals from punishment and his nephew is left without a parental figure once again -- even if it is a stand-in for the time being.

[eternalinquiry]

"Indeed. Many seemed to be saying their final goodbyes." Wangji nods, "Though I have to admit I was surprised to hear from the train itself. The idea that even such a powerful entity has things that are beyond it is humbling."

He listens as his tea steeps, waiting for the exact colour of his preference.
"Ah." He is hit with understand when his brother elaborates, realizing what time he must belong to. "That must be hard for you to accept."

His brother has never been one to shirk his duties.
"How long has it been since the punishment?" He knows that he himself will not notice Xichen's absence for a while after, having been mostly unconscious. "Has A-Yuan met Jingyi yet?"

[calmness]

"Barely months," Xichen says after a moment, then shakes his head. "A-Yuan has only recently moved out of the infirmary and into my quarters."

It had been a rough transition and he knows that the sudden loss of a new familiar caretaker would have regressed the progress they'd made. "My absence will make affect both of your recoveries."

[eternalinquiry]

Wangji has to swallow a lump at the mention of his son, so young and small and vulnerable. He nods,
"I do not remember much of that time but A-yuan is something. It is distressing to picture him alone without us." More than that, the idea that his sect is missing their leader and himself if a daunting one.
"I can see why you would be anxious to return home."

He looks up at his brother with sad eyes full of understanding.
"Thankyou for trying to get back. And for trying to be there for us both."
It won't help Xichen to feel less guilty but it should be said.

[calmness]

"I was raised to be there, to lead." To be a better sect leader than their father was. Here once again, knowing what it costs their sect the longer he is away, he feels that he has failed them in that.

He offers his brother a gentle smile at his words, though he does not nod. "It is the least I can do."

[eternalinquiry]

"Yes, but it is not as if you have chosen to leave your duties behind. They would understand that." Wangji does his best to soothe.
"It would take some explanation but I would understand, I think." The explanation had better be a very good one, but eventually they could get there.

The smile is a familiar and loved sight. Lan Wangji smiles back, a little more open than perhaps seen before.
"You do much more. Had much time passed there since you boarded the train? My own world seemed to have moved by mere hours."

[calmness]

"You have always been biased, Wangji," Xichen says with a soft smile, perhaps the closest to teasing he can manage in the moment.

It is refreshing to see Wangji's own smile, one he had not seen on his features in the months leading to Nightless City. This smile is more open, different. This man isn't the brother he knows either, he knows, but familiar enough. "No, not much at all," he says with a frown, shaking his head. "It was hours as well. Little had changed and yet, I felt out of place."

Then a pause. "Where did you return to?"

[eternalinquiry]

"Hm." Wangji grumbles. "It is not bias if it is true." He can tell his brother's heart is not in it though.

"Perhaps when you return, it will not have been long and there will not be the adverse effects you fear." They can hope at least, Xichen deserves a break.

At the question of his own home, Wangji hums, drinking his tea and coming to rest next to where Xichen is. This would be an interesting explanation.
"Much as you did, I returned to Cloud recesses in one of our lecture halls. I fear you would struggle to recognize it were you to visit."

[calmness]

Xichen knows this version of his brother is one who has lived through more than he has, beyond what the others here have lived through. He nods, brows furrowing but then after a moment still asks with a sincere smile reserved for Wangji. "I would like to hear about it, still. What becomes of our home?"

[eternalinquiry]

Wangji takes a moment to think, pondering how to condense hundreds of years into a sentence. He can't. So he opens with,
"The majority is a museum now, Uncle's quarters are on display as part of a tour guide experience." That's going to be shocking enough for a warm up.
"It is several sect leaders since he lived there, but it still feels odd."
He smiles, "The rabbits still thrive, the specific breed is endangered so they are to be left to roam freely with impunity."

As for himself?
"I am a teacher now, giving lectures on historical events and practices. The part of Cloud recesses that is not preserved is a small university."