middleofsomewhere | No Place Like Home: The Return

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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

preparation/pairing

Kaiba's already done single anchoring, and he'd been prepared for that, but the extra dimension of pairing with someone else has him slightly wary. He's not sure he's in enough control of his emotional state to hold it all back in an anchor pair right now, but for everyone's sake, he needs to try.

He's paused at the door to steel himself, and perhaps seek a partner.

"...this might be chaotic." Understatement of the week.

rescues

Seto's going off a combination of his own memories and Lioriley's list, trying to call to mind every face he knows. There's some emotion he can draw on to find them, right? It's painful, pushing through all the chaos swirling around him and holding himself together, but he's on a mission. People need him.

If he should find a crew member, he'll yell out. "Over here! Everything's destabilized, we have to go!"

As serious as the words are, there's a glimmer of relief that people are alive. But he's determined to save them.

...and the non-rescues

As the procedure goes on, Seto remembers something he'd learned during their past anchoring test. He'd been able to walk so tantalizingly close to other worlds, is it possible he'd be able to latch onto former crew who'd likely become void ghosts too?

He'll try to recruit a stationary anchor. "Do you know how many rescues we have left? Wondering if I have time to try something."

sleepy reunions

Eventually, Seto is forced to rest. He'd thrown himself too hard at the problem early on, as usual, and he's almost unconscious by the time he lumbers back onto the train. He's draped across a chair, barely moving, but just barely awake.

He might manage to lift a hand in greeting. "You made it."

Edited 2022-02-20 22:36 (UTC)

Ken doesn't want to be here. Not in this location - but he can't move too far from the alley where his house used to be, where his mother died... where Shinjiro nearly died saving him. He hears a voice and looks up.

"Seto?" He moves towards the voice, ignoring the sudden pull he feels to stay and reaches out his hand, struggling to move towards the voice. Something must have gone wrong... he can't imagine Seto had put together a craft this quickly.

"The tethers didn't sever all the way. The train can't leave, and it's glitching."

He pushes forward as much as he can, seizing Ken's hand the moment he's in reach. He might be squeezing just a little too tight. But before they step into the chaos he takes a moment to take Ken's face in...relieved to see him, but also worried about what might've happened in such a creepy place.

"Hold onto my hand no matter what. If you let go, you'll become a void ghost."

The setting around them is a little foggy, but Seto will see an alley as Ken grabs his brother's hand. There's something about the darkness in it that feels oppressive, even if there's no one there but Ken.

"Got it. I won't let go." He moves towards Seto, ignoring a girl's voice floating out from the darkness.

"Ken... you belong here, with us." A boy's voice, harsher. "You're just going to leave us? I thought you said you were going to take care of us."

"I'm not - I'm going to find a way to fix what's going on with you!"

"Don't give up. There might be another way...the train's just not strong enough yet. We need to get back to it now."

Seto holds tight as they walk, his love and worry flowing freely. It had been a terrible few days, after all, and he can't let Ken slip away again.

He can't help but start to cry, especially when he starts to hear a dog's voice whimpering and howling.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry everyone..." He sniffs, until another boy's voice comes across, faint but warm.

"Go, Ken. I'll help keep them safe." "Mina... to?" He looks around and nearly stops in shock, but Seto keeps drawing him forward. "... Okay. I trust you."

That's so hard to hear. Seto squeezes Ken's hand tightly, offering what comfort he can through their connection.

"You'll be back. We just need to keep working."

kaiba | anchor | ota

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