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

[ Seto hesitates, looks out the window...but nods tersely. ]

If I get a signal from my anchor we have to go. But until then...

Thank you.

[There is so much relief in her voice as she thanks Kaiba. This is a chance she never got back when the train first took her, to say bye and tell people where she's going.]

Let's go, then. I assume there's not much time to hang around here. [She'll lead the way up to the room, in silence at the thought of leaving all over again.

Notably, Masumi forgets to make any effort to try and keep Kaiba out of the room, meaning that if he comes in, he'll see her brother alright, along with a roughly middle school aged girl.]

Right.

[ Kaiba watches quietly. He's figured out by now that he won't be noticed if he doesn't speak, so he can simply observe. Probably. But there might be a weird tall shadow in the room. ]

[Masumi, forgetting Kaiba's there for the moment, decides to just rip the bandaid off and say what's going on.]

Hey, bad news. My tether wasn't cut like I thought, so I have to go back to the train now.

[Masumi's cut off by her brother and mother questioning her, both shocked that she can't stay any longer like they'd hoped.]

Are you sure you can't stay?! [Her brother, Shuukichi, who had been worried about exactly this scenario ever since it became clear something wasn't right with the attempt to send Masumi home.]

Who told you that you have to leave? How do you know it's true? [And her mother, Mary, leaning into suspicion that her daughter is getting tricked into going back right after leaving. In her eyes, the train is suspicious, forcing kidnapped passengers into missions and trying to make them want to stay.]

I...it's someone I know wouldn't lie about this. Besides, have you seen the sky? Things are getting worse here, I can't leave Kyoto, my body is still in the hospital... [Masumi trails off, tearing up at the thought of having to go back all over again. It's Shuukichi who pulls her into a hug, Mary slowly joining in a moment later as she realizes that Masumi truly cannot stay.

Eventually, they let her go, tell her to try and figure out how to come home and to stay safe, and Masumi tries her best to suppress her tears long enough to get out of here without upsetting her family more.]

I'm sorry about this. I'll try to come back for real, but I guess it just didn't work this time.

[She turns and ducks into the hallway outside the room, not waiting any longer as she struggles to get herself together.

Nobody notices the shadow in the room, too distracted by Masumi having to leave.]

[ Seto watches all of this with a frown. It hurts so much to leave a family if they actually love you, he imagines. If he could've seen Mokuba...

No, he can't give up. He has to continue. He coughs lightly and steps forward. ]

I apologize for startling you all, but I'm her crewmate. I've been trying to monitor the situaton from the train since everyone left, and it's become dangerous. There's a real chance Masumi's soul will be lost forever if she doesn't go somewhere more stable. But this won't be the last time you see her---we're fighting to fix all this.

[Both Shuukichi and Mary are startled at Kaiba's sudden appearance, but Mary, in her paranoia, is openly suspicious of him.

It's Shuukichi who responds first, trying to get control of the situation and make sure his sister will be okay.]

Will she be alright, if she goes back? I was worried something was wrong with her return, ever since I confirmed her body was still in the hospital, but she'll be safe on the train? [Shuukichi's deeply concerned about this, but is helpless to do much besides hope for the best.

Mary, meanwhile, continues to glare at Kaiba, but doesn't say anything. She doesn't trust the train to actually let its passengers go, and is worried that the passengers - Masumi included - are being tricked into trusting it more than they should. She also doesn't like that Kaiba is in the room at all or how he seemed to suddenly show up, and that's putting her on edge too.

(Masumi is busy just outside the room texting her friends to tell them she has to go back. They deserve to know what's going on too.)]

She'll be all right.

[ How much did Masumi explain about what she's been up to? He struggles to find an explanation. ]

I'm sorry it didn't work. No one should've been unwillingly drafted---I was planning to stay so that everyone could leave, and then it failed. I don't know when she'll be back. But we're fighting for everyone to be able to go back, to end the instability in the void for good.

...And how can you know for certain this train will let its passengers go at all? [Mary finally speaks, still staring Kaiba down with a look more intense than an apparent middle schooler should have.] It's reliant on having people to do its work, what incentive is there to permanently return people and not drag them back again?

[Shuukichi sighs, glancing at Mary before turning back to Kaiba.]

...She's got a point. I know Masumi says that the train wants everyone to be happy, and you want to help get people home, but what if she can't come back? [It's a tough situation for Shuukichi and Mary, having to let Masumi go back to a place she might not return from.

It's now that Masumi, finished messaging her friends and feeling ready to go back into the room, steps back in. Needless to say, she overheard this whole conversation up to this point.]

Look, I promise I'll come back for good one day. We're all looking for a way to do that, and I'm sure we'll find a way.

No Place Like Home: The Return

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