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.


paopuofyourlife: (131)

Roaming

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2022-02-22 08:00 am (UTC)(link)
Kairi was usually on the platform when she hadn't been exploring the many other worlds that were about. This was where she currently was as well. Worried about the situation that was going on.

Soon she waved as soon as she saw someone.

"Hey, over here."
motherofresistance: (Neutral)

Re: Roaming

[personal profile] motherofresistance 2022-03-06 08:11 am (UTC)(link)
Leia recognized the redheaded girl she saw through the fog, though she couldn't recall if they'd ever really spoken before. They'd have to speak now, though and more. She moved through the fog until she reached the girl. "I don't suppose you need to be told this by now, but something went wrong with the untethering," she said. "I can help you get back to the train, but you're going to need to hold onto me and not let go until we get there, no matter what happens, alright?" She held out a hand for the girl to take.
paopuofyourlife: (Screenshot_65)

Re: Roaming

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2022-03-08 08:10 am (UTC)(link)
"Yeah, I mean I assumed something was wrong fron the start when I couldn't get home." It was nice being able to see other worlds, but at the same time she really had things she needed to do back home unless that has been dealt with. Not that she knew what would happen in that case.

"But how to get back sounds simple enough, but yet I feel like it isn't at the same time." Holding on soune like the simple part but at the same time the wording of no matter what sounded like there was more to it.

But for now she went over to take the others hand.
motherofresistance: (Neutral)

Re: Roaming

[personal profile] motherofresistance 2022-03-21 12:38 am (UTC)(link)
"For your part, at least, it's simple, though the mechanism is complicated," Leia said. "But just because it's simple doesn't mean it's easy."

She took Kairi's hand, and Kairi would immediately feel a sense of both exhaustion and determination from both Leia and another, more distant anchor. "Remember, keep hold of my hand. Keep moving forward, and don't look back. No matter what." And with that they started back through the fog. And through the gauntlet of images and voices.
paopuofyourlife: (vlcsnap-00324)

Re: Roaming

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2022-03-23 10:44 am (UTC)(link)
She nodded slightly and she kept a not of what she was feeling and what that might mean. For the most part she figured after this she would at least ask for the other to try and work.

She kept her eyes forward not really having any reason to look back, after all she had mostly been on the platform or on other worlds. But she did have at least one question going through her head.

"Do you understand what is going on?"
motherofresistance: (Neutral)

Re: Roaming

[personal profile] motherofresistance 2022-04-12 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Leia moved forward with her, holding herself steady as they passed through swirls of light and sound and memory. Keeping them focused on their destination through the seemingly tenuous line of their anchor. "As much as anyone does," she said. "The attempt to untether people en masse failed rather spectacularly. The train itself was trapped by the consequences of this failure for several days, until recently it managed to regain control and initiate a rescue for those whose untetherings failed. It involves the same sort of anchoring we did to help people escape the false Diagad, which is what I and a number of others have been doing, and what we're doing right now."
paopuofyourlife: (angelkairi-14)

Re: Roaming

[personal profile] paopuofyourlife 2022-04-13 09:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Ah I see. I mean it kinda is bad for those who want to go home and not are unable to. It's bad for the train because well...consequences for trying to be nice. I guess it just means we have to try even more to solve the problem our selfs to get home, right?"

At least that was how she was ging to see it. She was positive of that at least because for her she did need to get back home at some point.