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

Kaiba's here draped over a chair, though Yondu might have to look a little closely to register that he's conscious. He's barely moving. Someone might've pushed himself too far in his rescue attempts.

He lifts his head weakly when he hears that excitement, though.

"...had a good trip?" It's hard to read a tone other than 'tired', but...as distressing as this was, he's glad the man has something to be happy about.

He remembers how, after the trip to Diagad and the number of crossings he made after, he flat out lost conciousness. He'll offer more effort himself after he has some recuperation time, but he does have to admit that the discoveries? Not so bad.

"I thought I lost everyone and everything. So it wasn't so bad to find out. Someone had cared, in the end." A lot more people cared than he expected.

"So I reckon it's about as good as bein' locked out can be. You doin' alright?"

Seto barely manages a smile. He's glad for him, truly.

"Over the last few days, I thought I'd lost everyone too. It wasn't a picnic. But...I'm glad we found some of you."

His face darkens a little as his thoughts shift. "Last time...I walked people close to other worlds. And we were told to find you by thinking of you, so I tried to find some of the lost ones while I was there."

He clenches a fist. "It caused this feeling of emptiness to overtake me. No light, no trace...nothing."

That is not great news. But it is keen of Seto to think of given the circumstances. A chance that they might not get again.

"Considerin' sometimes the train finds us again, maybe it just means people are far away. Maybe it means they ain't in a state to think back to ya- after all, usually people ain't conscious for leavin'. Don't mean we need to give up on 'em."

He comes over to Seto, joins him with a heavy sit-down, a physical acknowledgement of what that kind of knowing can do to a man.

"Thank ya for not givin' up on me. I might have found out somethin' good but I guess I also realized this is the only place I got left where I can live with people who want me around." Being wanted in death is something else. Being missed. But he sure would have liked to have that while he was up and walking around.

"I won't. I swore I wouldn't. But...the train's hurting without them too. I tried to reach it while we were stuck and it was shutting us out, and I got drawn into its mind for a moment. I felt all the pain of loss at once." Seto's usual conviction is there, even if he's rather sleepy. And sore.

He blinks slowly over at Yondu. "You won't be stuck. We'll get you traveling."

He knows he has friends, but he also thinks of himself as an acceptable loss. It was Devero out there that made him think people would definitely be trying to get them back, that he wasn't the only mistake stuck outside.

But it does occur to him, then, that Seto was probably trying, too. And trying for him. And he went through somethin' real damn rough because of it.

"I guess that turns down my theory that this was a set-up to discourage us from tryin'."

Yondu doesn't make him get up, but he crouches beside him and puts an arm around his shoulders. No hug was invited, but it's one of those gruff old-man hugs, which should be acceptable. A 'dad' hug as that's his default. But it's grateful, because he knows Seto tried for all of them, and for him. And anyone that invites shit upon themselves on your behalf deserves credit where it's due.

"It hasn't forgotten them. It didn't want to lose you all to that fate too."

Seto shifts his head slowly, wondering what the man could be doing. What could be on his mind....?

And then he feels a tug on his heart, with the strange feeling of an embrace. He's been subjected to them over and over since boarding, and he doesn't hate the closeness as much as he once did, provided the people touching him are friends. Or family. He's come to appreciate Yugi's steadfast love, his sisters' teasing. But the one gentle touch he'd never thought he'd feel was a parents'.

Della had been soft but mischievous, her feathers often tickling him til he laughed. Siebren's hulking size had ensured he engulfed almost anyone he held, and his hugs had been warm and secure.

Yondu...is gruff and awkward, much like Seto. He cares deeply, despite outward appearances. And he's probably someone who could use some reassurance that he's wanted.

So Seto gathers up what's left of his strength to lift an arm and complete the circle. It's an awkward motion as he has trouble gathering enough strength, but he tucks his head against Yondu's shoulder for a brief moment.

"...I'm glad you made it back."

"Maybe next time there'll be some chances with willin' test subjects. And more like actual testin'." He doesn't want to give up on it, even now. And at least the strange hug doesn't linger for two long.

It is nice to hear, even little words like, 'I'm glad you made it back'. Because there was that little part of him that wanted to stay out there. That wanted to send messages to Stakar and beg him to come get him. There was even a part that wanted to let go of his anchor and turn back.

But it's little moments like this that remind him that he really needs to ignore that part of himself, the one that wants to relive the past better, or give up on a decent future, instead of acknowledging that he's made use of some stuff now.

"You know what? I'll make sure ya get some food or somethin' if ya want it. When I tethered way back I ended up so hungry and so tired I ate curry out of an ice cream cone. I don't wanna condemn you to the same fate. You did good, by the way. You did real good."

That he went as far as he did says so.

Seto blinks up at him once more. Even with how exhausted he is, he can summon up a little smile for that mental image.

"...the cone might not be the worst idea, if my motor coordination remains poor." A little joke. "But...please. Thank you."

All humor fades, and he's left looking...pleased? Yeah. It's not too often people tell him he did well. He feels another surge of affection for the man, and he'll have to think about that more later. For now, he's just happy to be here with everyone.

He'd probably be glad (or perplexed) to know Yondu'd also talked him up elsewhere, out of earshot, knowing there was quite a bit that the young man could do that could help out a lot of people here, if they just asked. And Kaiba deserved to know that his skills were needed and appreciated.

"I'll go heat ya up some leftovers. I ain't the best cook but I can manage that and some juice."

He'd get a beer for himself but, well... that time is up. He's gotta go back to the slim responsibilities he has on the train.

No Place Like Home: The Return

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