voidtreckermods: (voidtrain)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2022-02-20 06:09 am

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.


nell_of_soulwood: (Worried)

Returning

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-22 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
Being rescued

Nell found herself back where she had first arrived in her woods, not able to move more than a few feet from it. Things had gotten strange in the last day or so. Colors dancing in the sky, dreams so vivid she'd have sworn she was awake, unease in the woods.

Then a message to evacuate from the train. On the SCA she'd barely realized she was still wearing.

To leave her world, especially knowing what she now did about her family? How could she go? How could she leave her woods again?

But her heart and her gut knew what even the woods were trying to tell her. Something about this world had always been wrong. Didn't make it any easier to push that button, though. Even if she knew it was the right thing to do.

Back on the Train

Nell was devastated by the loss of her new-found family, pulled once again from the woods that made up part of her soul. She'd try to help the others the best she could, putting a brave face on, but inside it felt like her heart and soul were dying. She might be found tucked away in some quiet corner overwhelmed by grief, cooking comfort food she couldn't make herself eat late at night, or just sitting with little Selene in her room or at the library as she stared blankly at a book.
obliviouspatriarch: manhua (pic#14329001)

back on the train

[personal profile] obliviouspatriarch 2022-02-23 04:56 pm (UTC)(link)
While he didn't leave the train to go back to the hellscape he'd left from, Wuxian does understand the feeling of being pulled away from new family and family he'd reunited with. It's always painful, but it's better to be back on the train where things are less crazy, usually.

"Are you doing okay? You were one of the ones that needed rescuing, if I recall."
nell_of_soulwood: (Worried)

Re: back on the train

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-23 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Nell looked up slowly and managed to put on a polite smile. "I was, yes," she said.

Her smile wobbled a little. "I'm, well, I'm sure I will be okay eventually. It's just.. it's hard leaving again."
obliviouspatriarch: manhua (Default)

has Nell met the other Wei Wuxian yet? Since this is the fox version if he's been mentioned by him

[personal profile] obliviouspatriarch 2022-02-25 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
"Leaving the ones we love and miss behind is hard, but you have people here who feel the same about you I'm sure?"

An attempt to console, knowing the feeling of having left his nephew behind once. But then offers a hand with a kind smile.

"I don't think sitting around does any good. Making food from home always helps, why don't we go make something to distract from all this?"
nell_of_soulwood: (Default)

He's her Diagad father, but he hasn't mentioned a fox version of himself

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-26 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
"I do," she agreed. "There are a lot of people who care about me here. It's just, I learned some things when I was home that I just haven't managed to process yet."

Nell let him help her up. "I don't think I can eat anything, but I'll come along and help you cook if you'd like."

Even if she really just wanted to just stay tucked away somewhere.



obliviouspatriarch: manhua (pic#14330158)

ahh gotcha! this'll be interesting then. btw, both versions are voiced by the same person

[personal profile] obliviouspatriarch 2022-02-26 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
He keeps the kind smile, softening it even as he nods. There were certain things he's sure he would have found out had he gone back that he wouldn't be able to process.

"That's alright too, you don't have to make yourself eat but I would try if you can. I can make us some tea, or another drink."

His tone is fatherly almost, having a son of his own in Sizhui, so he can't help but soften his voice.
nell_of_soulwood: (Default)

So they sound the same, but look different, yes?

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-26 03:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Tea might be nice I guess," she said. His voice sounded awfully familiar, but she couldn't quite put a finger on it.

"It's very nice of you to take the time."
obliviouspatriarch: manhua (pic#14330158)

exactly that!

[personal profile] obliviouspatriarch 2022-02-26 07:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Tea always helps to eas the nerves and calm anxieties, in my experience."

Once both are up, he motions his hand toward the kitchen where he can at make some tea for the two of them.

"Of course, shall we? If it helps any, would you care to talk about your home?"
nell_of_soulwood: (Default)

Re: exactly that!

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-03-01 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
"I think... I'm not quite ready to talk about home," Nell said quietly. "Maybe some tea first and just some quiet company first?"
weifinder: (wait | be my shelter)

to the rescue!

[personal profile] weifinder 2022-02-23 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
There's something to be said in having a firm control over himself, in having lived in the essence of compartmentalisation so long that the struggle of keeping himself and his stationary anchor separate was, as it were, not so much of a struggle. Sharing back down that line so mutual awareness was established had its own oddities, but what came off him stayed neutral, focussed.

Perhaps that also helped.

Going for Nellnell was a heartbreak of its own, and he knew his stationary partner would feel the bleed of that sorrow. I'm sorry, he thought, and perhaps that was heard, perhaps it wasn't.

But there she was, and there he was, in a wood he didn't know, unfamiliar entirely for its trees and shrubbery, such as any exists. The sky visible beyond twisting, reaching branches dancing with the light of broken colours, as vibrant and distracting as what he'd already heard in plenitude during the crossing to here, and imagined he'd be hearing again as he strove to bring her there, to the train once more.

It didn't make it easy. Standing there in train uniform because he still owned nothing but the train uniform and one shirt from Aquafir, Wei Wuxian lifted a hand, waving to her as he stepped through the trees.

"Nellnell," he said, dark eyes even darker with the apology that wasn't his to give. He still would, anyway. "I'm sorry. The Voidtrecker Express didn't manage to untether any of us. The longer Trainlings are staying on their worlds, the more unstable those worlds are becoming."

To save everything she loved, to save what needed her here, they would have to go.
nell_of_soulwood: (Worried)

Re: to the rescue!

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-23 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
There was a strange disturbance in Soulwood - not exactly that of a person in the woods, but a presence nonetheless. Nell turned to see... "Wei-qianbei?"

The sky roiled above her and Soulwood shuddered. "I..." She looked back through the woods towards where her house lay. Memories flooded her of Sister Erasmus' bombshell information, all the lies she'd lived with unknowingly, her world turned upside down by the knowledge. "I didn't even get to tell my mother, my father that I -"

She turned back towards Wei Wuxian and took a step towards him. "It's destroying the worlds, isn't it? We're not supposed to be here."
weifinder: (smile | are dishonest men)

[personal profile] weifinder 2022-02-23 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
He nodded, just the once, keeping his hands down and body posture as relaxed as he allowed himself. Nell was a smart young woman, and he knew she'd see the impossible difficulties of their present situation. None of it was made easy or easier, just more blatant, obvious fact as the worlds those who'd stepped off or been cast off the Voidtrecker Express further and further unraveled. Bursts of colours across their skies, collapsing senses of stability, contradictory elements...

"It was a first effort. Not our last one, ah? The Voidtrecker Express doesn't have the trick to safely untethering us yet. We're meant to be in these places, just not now. Not in this moment in time."

Here, he held out a hand, then two. An offer for an embrace as much as a means out, without taking further steps in her direction.

Nell was a smart young woman. He'd give her the time she needed.
nell_of_soulwood: (Crying)

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-24 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
SHe looked at his outstretched hands and wanted to go to him - and she also didn't. She looked back towards her house and up at the trees of Soulwood, silhouetted against the wildly changing colors of the sky.

"I don't want to leave my home," she said, feeling as if it would tear the heart out of her body to leave. But she took a step toward him.

The hurt was so strong that she felt it in her bones. "I'm afraid if I leave that I'll never get back. But if I stay..."

Nell reached up to try to brush the tears from her face, but they were falling too fast. She touched the tree beside her, then put her arms around it. The feeling she got back was blurred, uneasy. Even Soulwood knew it was wrong.

She stepped away and then reached out to take Wei Wuxian's hands.
weifinder: (ask | broken on the way)

[personal profile] weifinder 2022-02-25 06:15 am (UTC)(link)
He waited, simply listening. He understood not wanting to leave a home, and Nell was bonded to hers in a way that was different and yet in ways similar to what he'd known in Yiling. Taking herself away from here was an ache that wasn't made up for in the process, but staying? Staying was equally impossible. The safety of her home relied on her being there, but also on her leaving.

So he waited, as she hurt, as she protested, as she brought her tear-stained fingers to bear on the bark of a tree, then wrapped her arms around it. Parting wasn't easy.

When her hands met his, he folded his fingers over them, nodding to her once.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Next time, we'll make sure you come back here in the way you're meant to be. Right now, ah... Did you anchor on Diagad?"
nell_of_soulwood: (Crying)

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-26 03:10 am (UTC)(link)
When his hands closed around hers the tears she'd been trying to hold back began to fall in earnest. "Next time," she said. If there was a next time.

Nell took a deep breath and let it out again. "I did," she said. "Is this the same thing?"
weifinder: (ask | is deafening)

[personal profile] weifinder 2022-02-26 07:02 am (UTC)(link)
"Mm, or close enough. I hear the pleading might be worse," he said, but he smiled. "Trust in yourself. All the voices, all the words you'll hear as we travel through that space, they don't matter. To get you home in the right way, the lasting way, we need to get back to the train."

For the whole of it, those uncomfortable minutes that stretched out to a tiny eternity, through the riots of rainbows and voices and not so much a river as a flood that wished to swallow them whole. He tightened his grip on her hands, a squeeze of reassurance.

"Are you ready?" Have you said your goodbye, as much as we get one, in these limited times?
nell_of_soulwood: (Worried)

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-02-27 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
She nodded. "Don't let go of me. Even if I try to stay, don't let go. I know I have to leave, but..."

It was going to be hard.

Nell took another deep breath. "Okay. I'm ready."
weifinder: (respect | you can come in)

[personal profile] weifinder 2022-03-04 11:30 am (UTC)(link)
Another squeeze of his hands around hers, and he started walking. Around them, the fog that'd been within the trees, that strangeness of dancing coloured lights weaving through, the sensations of emotions and memories, became stifling.

He held on and walked, anchored back to the train and allowing his determination to flow both directions, compartmentalising everything else away. Nell could feel along that connection, be aware of them being grounded to the train, feel whatever Wei Wuxian was letting himself feel, but it meant she was open to: that when the voices called for her not to go, when they asked why she would leave, why fight, why not let go, they were in voices she knew, familiarities of hers.

Wei Wuxian didn't have to speak, though he still did. "You leave to come back later, in the right way. Don't forget why you need to truly be home. Not like this, a spirit outside your body."

Onward he walked, trusting in that anchored sense of himself, wondering what it really meant when quite likely this was a projection of spirit, rather than his spirit, doing all this collecting of her. Just how fragile were their tethers in present circumstance?
nell_of_soulwood: (Crying)

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-03-06 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
She walked with him, feeling his determination and only getting glimpses of other emotions through the connection. Her woods called to her as she went, pulling at her, not wanting to lose her again and she could feel the tears running down her face as their pull tugged at her heart as well.

How could she leave them again? How could she go away?

She knew she had to leave, knew her presence was disrupting them and the world around them. She knew her body was lying unconscious in a hospital and could almost feel it through whatever this was.

It took everything she had to close her eyes and stumble along with Wei Wuxian, trusting him to lead her, forcing her way along even as her heart broke. But she went.
weifinder: (smile | from the cold)

[personal profile] weifinder 2022-03-09 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
Reassurance, and he mourned with her, the grief of partings, the way one is caretaker of a land, that one is to stand with a place and make it better, stronger, to purge it of a century of ills and let it live again. A mixing of Yiling, the Burial Grounds within his past, and her woods, and their love for her.

Warmth, affection, support: what he can send her way as he walked them onward, through the chaos that was the void, until the Voidtrecker Express gained a sense of visibility, a sense of destination, inevitable.

Foot on steel, or some other metal, and then they're there: the train, the two of them, and someone else, but for Nell it wasn't meant to be a lingering impression. Spirit returned to its tether midpoint, everything faded to golden light, before she would be standing in the luggage carriage, perhaps around others recently regained, perhaps alone.

Her woods, a world away, hundreds of worlds distant, would wait, even as her heart broke, even as it wept with a forest's ancient means, cast in shadow.
nell_of_soulwood: (Crying)

[personal profile] nell_of_soulwood 2022-03-10 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
She clung tighter to his hand as it all pulled at her, trying to demand her attention, break her focus, keep her here. His calm and reassurance, the light of his spirit, led her as she walked blindly, afraid to open her eyes to the movement in the woods.

And then she was tripping on metal, on the platform, barely keeping her footing, sensing the train and Wei Wuxian with his edges suddenly crisp again and someone else she couldn't quite put a finger on.

A step, a breath, and suddenly she was standing in the luggage carriage - dazed and confused with a vague sense of others further down the carriage. Her legs went right out from under her and she let herself sink to the floor, crying again. She didn't know if the tears were from the loss of her Soulwood or the relief of being safe on the train and no longer damaging her world.

Either way, for now she was just going to sit with her head in her hands and give herself the time to pull herself back together a little.