Into the Unknown Part Two

[voidtreckermods]

On day twenty-five of the month of Symphony, everyone is gathered together, at least everyone who follows the request for a meeting to be held.

One of the head scientists - named Till - stands before the group, a look of excitement on their face.

"We have found something, an anomaly in the void. We are not sure what it is exactly, but there is a lot of activity coming from its coordinates. More penitently, initial investigations have picked up readings that are constant with a void storm.

I believe from your own reports you have experienced void storms before, and you know they can be dangerous, but always fleeting, never lasting more than a few days. However, this storm seems to be static. It has not moved or changed since we first detected it.

We understand there may be people who do not want to venture into this storm, and we understand. The loops we have added to your tethers will allow you to stay on the base long enough for those investigating to return. You may experience some discomfort and disorientation during the time your craft is away, but it should only be mild and temporary.

For those investigating, we know little of what you will face. Every storm is different, and this one is already stranger than anything we have come across before."

The scientists stick around to reassure people and help them make their decisions. Those going to investigate are told to report to their craft in the morning.

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INTO THE UNKNOWN: PART 2

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SYMPHONY 26-29 ~ OOC POST ~ QUESTIONS ~ FIRST PART

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JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN

Those willing to go will leave on the Voidtrecker Express first thing the next day, with only warnings and well-wishes to be careful to go with them. There is an estimate for how long it'll take them to reach the anomaly, about half a day's travel by the train's clock, give or take. But there's no telling the true time it'll take, nor the effects of the void that will be waiting for them. Keeping away from the windows or putting up blinds is advised as a precaution, just in case, and to monitor each other's health.

"Warning: Approaching Voidstorm, please take precautions." The train warns as they arrive on the edges, all the usual train precautions have been taken, the lab cart has been shut down, the ovens in the kitchen are disconnected. The train begins to shake as it enters the first layer.

LAYER ONE: CHANGING SHADES

They first experience changes by sight - literally. Around them, objects start emitting an aura that's unique to each passenger, colouring it to match their mood towards that particular thing. Coffee machines? Amazing, paint that gold. A boring book? Ugh, the entire thing is turning grey.

It's a small effect at the start, yet objects aren't the only things being affected - so are the people on board. Their own moods are changing their hair colour, eyes, and skin, shifting more rapidly than the furniture's paint job. And as time goes on, passengers will be able to affect one another's colouration and aura, giving away how they may feel about that person at that moment, if their feelings are strong enough. Never noticed how fondly one feels about you? Now you do.

LAYER TWO: LOOSE LIPS

Going into the next layer, there's an itch that starts to gnaw at everyone - an itch to talk. To friends, to strangers, to anyone; you have a need to chatter, and it has to get out. Attempting to isolate yourself only makes the need worse, and you won't be able to sleep it away. It doesn't matter if you don't know what to talk about - you'll find something.

A good chat will subdue the need for a while, but it will eventually return. So while listening to others talk might help keep it at bay, it won't forever.

LAYER THREE: CONFESSION - I THINK YOU'RE OK

The changes become stronger, and with them the urges. Passengers will feel compelled to tell those they know their feelings for them, whether it's as simple as finding them okay, to having stronger inclinations of friendship, dislike, or even love.

These urges can be held back on for a time, but it's easy for it to slip out; and many may still be suffering from the previous layer, where they get the sudden need to talk.

LAYER FOUR: A CAKE FOR MY BELOVED

Talking is simply not good enough in this layer: actions speak louder than words. You want to create ways of expressing your desires, regardless of how creative you actually are. Building a shrine to your loved ones, challenging rivals to duels. You can't stay idle, and your hands and brain need to be at work! What can you manage on this train?

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EYE OF THE STORM

Finally, all of it stops. The colours, the emotions, the compulsion of dramatics; their minds go from being caught in the storm to completely calm (or, as calm as they ever are). It is much like waking from a dream, or going from one very noisy overwhelming place to complete silence.

A second passes, and then another, and then... there's a feeling. Fear, terror - even those who normally have no ability to feel the emotions of others can feel it, emanating from the train itself.

With it comes an invitation. Hard to describe, but a tugging at their mind. They can push it away no problem, but if they accept...

They are looking out. The familiar colours of the Void are all around them, but they can't turn to look. Ahead is a hole where space should be, nothingness curving and spiralling out from a point deep within that wound in reality, tearing and tugging at the unfortunate observer. The chaotic nimbus at the edge of their vision spins inwards to meet it, and vanishes at the edge of the hole. A void within the Void. And within that terrifying chaotic darkness there are shapes.

The train rocks as energy rushes past it, tossing the craft from side to side. It spins, lurching out of control, the connection snapping as everyone is thrown back into their own awareness as the train starts vibrating to at full speed.

But the tell-tale signs of movement isn't there, and a creaking of metal can be heard. The train shakes more as the view outside the windows shows them inching forward towards where the hole had been, and parts of the roof start to bend inward, water pipes burst and the electricity fails in multiple carriages.

Until there's a rush, a shaking and twisting, and the void flashes violently in the windows. The ever distant choral singing becomes a roar as a kaleidoscope of colours fills the interior of the train itself.

Then there is stillness. It calms, and there is no storm, no terrifying darkness. Just the void, as it ever is, ever changing.

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OOC NOTES

NOTES: They will be in the storm for three days, each layer takes about half a day.

Comments

Rezo Greywords | Red Team | OTA

[redprayer]

Layer 1 - Blue Priest

Rezo has only experienced voidstorms once in his time aboard the Voidtrecker Express, but he’d known from both that and word of mouth what to expect. So it isn’t a real surprise to him when people start remarking on the colors and auras, and he braces himself for his own audio hallucinations.

Except, as the morning goes on, he keeps overhearing people mention the color phenomenon and yet for him… Everything’s the same as normal.

It’s not that he wants to be hallucinating, but if he hears another remark about what color something is, he’ll… Well. There isn’t really anything he can do except stew in his own awkwardness, is there?

(Unbeknownst to Rezo, he is steadily turning a darker and darker shade of grey-blue as the morning goes on.)

Layer 2 - Library Loudmouth

Ah, socialization. Truly Rezo’s worst nemesis. In a bid to escape his suddenly chatty fellow passengers and to distract from his own alarming urge to open up, Rezo has headed to the library. Surely a book will keep him occupied, and surely nobody will be rude enough to interrupt somebody who is reading!

…Or at least, that was the plan. He’s only a few pages into a random novel when he hears somebody moving nearby, and before he knows it he’s lowered the book and opened his mouth.

“Have you read this one?” he asks. “The style is very odd.”

Layer 4 - Furor Scribendi/Furor Consuendi

It’s the second day of this very chaotic trip and Rezo has once again retreated to the library. This time he’s not trying to hide from anything however- this time he is a man on a mission. You see, Lioriley is the most wonderful, sweetest, lovable woman to exist in any world, and Rezo simply has to get down all the ways I love thee or else he feels as though he might burst from all the emotions.

So he’s claimed a table, normally meant for studying, and is trying to express his feelings through the time honored medium of the love letter. Or maybe three love letters. Or six. Or twelve. Or…

His hand is terribly stained with ink, there’s an increasingly large stack of letters piled next to him, and he shows no sign of stopping writing anytime soon.

But later, he will have stopped writing… Only to be struck with the inspiration for another project. And so Rezo is seated in one of the few free corners of the art car, surrounded by scraps of fabric, wads of cotton, yarn, boxes of buttons, spools of thread, etc. And he is hand-stitching together… something, at an almost alarming pace.

And if you’re someone who Rezo has been even remotely friendly with in the past? Prepare yourself for Rezo suddenly holding out one of his little creations in front of you. It’s probably a doll, or a stuffed animal, but it’s made from the most random assortment of fabric and lumpy body parts, so it looks vaguely reminiscent of the voidblobs some of you may remember from Ciyesia.

“Here!” he says cheerfully. “This is for you.”

Some Mild Turbulence

Rezo may not be able to see it, but he feels that chaotic nothingness prickling up his spine, and his ears ring with the sounds of the horrific chorus of the void.

And then- the thread snaps and Rezo stumbles as the train begins its violent rocketing about. Rezo swears, loud but easy to miss in the chaos, and tries his damndest to keep his balance even as it feels like everything is falling apart.

If you’re significantly smaller than Rezo you may find him suddenly grabbing and leaning over you, operating on instinct to protect from any objects that may go flying during all the shaking- let alone anything that may drop out of the ceiling once it starts buckling.

Some time later, when everything has calmed down, Rezo will be making his way through the train cars, stopping to check on each and every person he comes across. He’ll ask “Is anyone hurt?” as well as distribute blankets and towels to anyone who seems to need them.

Wildcard

[[HMU if you want a custom starter, or feel free to throw one of your own at me. Maybe you want to confess your UNDYING HATRED for this man!]]

Layer 3

[gathersnomoss]

Zelgadis and Rezo have generally worked out ways to avoid each other on the train, despite the size. It often means knowing the other's routine pretty well. Zelgadis has spent the last few hours stewing because he has a strong feeling that he needs to tell Rezo how much he dislikes him. Despite knowing the last time, they both got yelled at for making too much noise.

He holds out until his annoyed wanderings of the train actually bring him to the same car as Rezo. "Rezo!"

[redprayer]

Rezo is in the greenhouse car when Zelgadis finds him, tending to the flower that Zelgadis may remember from a few platforms ago. But hearing Zelgadis speak- and calling his name in that specific tone- immediately makes him tense up, and he nearly drops the watering can he’s holding.

As it is, he sets it very deliberately down and forces himself to impassivity when he turns around.

“Zelgadis,” he says. “Is- Is something the matter?”

Because maybe the reason Zelgadis is here is because there’s some sort of mazoku-related reason that he wants Rezo to do something about. Or someone is injured enough that he’s willing to go to Rezo about it. Maybe.

But Rezo realizes that this is not very likely. Not with the way things have been lately.

[gathersnomoss]

Sadly, no. Zelgadis is riding high on the effects of the Void Storm; and whatever regrets he has later, they will be a problem for later. "Do you have any idea how much you piss me off?"

[redprayer]

Ah. Rezo thinks he has a pretty clear idea of what’s going on here now.

“You have not made it a secret,” Rezo points out. “You have tried to attack me several times in the past.”

[gathersnomoss]

"And do you know why?" Zelgadis said. Rezo's calm is being noticed, but it's just giving Zelgadis more of a head of steam.

Yes, he expects that Rezo knows, but he wants to hear Rezo say it.

[redprayer]

Rezo is the calm, ever regal and ever rational great sage. Not at all the sort of person you would expect to scream and destroy his own laboratory out of anger and despair over a failed experiment.

“Yes, of course,” Rezo says. “You have also told me of that before. So what is the point in speaking of it now?”

He knows that this voidstorm has been having peculiar effects, making people open up, but…

[gathersnomoss]

"I don't know!" Zelgadis meanwhile, while capable of calm under other circumstances, is failing now. "I don't care. You derailed my life for your own stupid, selfish ends, and if I hadn't been pulled onto the train with someone who could fix it, I'd be stuck like that forever. Not to mention your own hubris unsealing Shabranigdu and getting Zolf and Rodimus killed, or that copy you left in your lab in Sairaag, or putting us through yet another fight with Shabranigdu, or all the fallout from Taforashia... I have more than enough reasons to hate you."

oh man, i forgot that rezo doesn't know about what happened with copy rezo :'D

[redprayer]

Rezo tenses, just a little, as Zelgadis begins listing off his various crimes in this place where other people may hear. There’s a dreadful irony in that, when Rezo had first arrived, he wouldn’t have cared at all what anyone here thought about him. But now that he’s been here for a few months…

And then Zelgadis will get another reaction out of Rezo as, the moment Zelgadis mentions the copy, Rezo jerks back, clearly stunned. How the hell did Zelgadis find out about that? Even if Zelgadis had thought to investigate Rezo’s old haunting grounds in Sairaag, surely Erisiel hadn’t kept the thing around, had she?

“How do you know about the copy?” he asks. And perhaps it’s a peculiar thing to focus on, when Zelgadis is here unloading all of this, but the shock of it stands out amongst all the vitriol that Rezo has been aware of all along, but pretending not to notice.

It just occurred to me when I was writing it out that Rezo also wouldn't know about that

[gathersnomoss]

"Eris decided to put out a bounty on our heads after you died and apparently having a copy of you she could control was too damn useful. Or else she was just unhinged. He got free and was partially merged with the Zanaffer beast sealed below the city. He also blew up most of Sairaag. Which surprisingly didn't completely ruin your reputation, O Great Sage. Must have been because there were relatively few survivors."

Yes, Zelgadis is bitter that Rezo is still seen as a good man, and he doesn't mind seeing if he can jam the knife in.

/tosses in some hc while we're here

[redprayer]

Zelgadis bringing up the copy had been a shock. Everything else? He can’t even process it right away.

Rezo had spent a great deal of his life living in and working in Sairaag. The city had existed even before he was born, and he’d vaguely assumed business would continue there as usual

“That can’t be right,” he says. “Eris is an intelligent young woman, surely she would have destroyed the copy once we were done with it. And to put Sairaag itself in danger-”

-except Erisiel, much like Rezo, had been willing to endanger and harm others if it was necessary for an important goal. She had helped Rezo with the Taforashia project, because she believed that the research they were doing with the Hellmaster’s Jar and the disease was important enough to be worth any deaths incurred before Rezo was able to put the civilians in stasis.

But what could she have possibly sought to gain from putting a bounty on Zelgadis and his allies, as well as pursuing such destructive ends?

“There's no reason for any of that. That can’t be right.”

Re: /tosses in some hc while we're here

[gathersnomoss]

"This isn't something I'm going to lie about." It also is taking the wind out of Zelgadis's sails. Rezo is a lot easier to hate when Zelgadis doesn't have to remember that he was also the grandfather who raised him and given Shabranigdu's influence, Zelgadis can't figure out how much was genuinely part of who Rezo is as a person and how much was external influence from having to live with that.

He can still find the man irritating as all hell, and self-centered, and dangerous. "It was probably easier to blame me, and Lina and Gourry, than admit to herself that your death was entirely caused by you and Shabranigdu, and we were just the ones on hand to clean up your mess."

[redprayer]

No, Zelgadis isn’t one to lie without a good reason, is he? Rezo stands there, his usual cool demeanor slipping bit by bit into bewilderment as his mind races.

“Why would she…” Rezo falters.

Had she truly sought to avenge him? Eris had been a dedicated assistant, and now that he thinks back, had been upset when he’d packed a bag and left Sairaag for good. He’d barely noticed, had been too consumed by the need to get away from the site of his innumerable failures to cure himself, and to find his last hope in the Philosopher’s Stone.

“She didn’t need to do anything like that,” he says.

He’d assumed that, with him gone, she would move on to her own research or a new place of employment or something. Insomuch as he’d thought about it at all. What signs had he missed while his mind was so focused on his cure?

Rezo’s grip tightens on his staff.

“What happened while I was gone?” he says, voicing a question that has been plaguing him. “How long was I in that jar?”

U know I'm here for layer 4

[invigorates]

Lioriley could not sing. This was a fact she knew and accepted about herself long ago. But something in her told her she had to sing - had to write a song about her beloved priest and sing it as loudly as she could to him so he knew the depths of her feelings. She had managed the lyrics (quite good, actually, because written words were her forte), and all she had to do now was to find him and sing her heart out.

The library seemed as good a place to start as any, and it was with her leylines bright and pulsing, oddly enough, pink instead of their usual blue, she came across him, smiling bright with her song clutched to her chest.

"Rezo, my love. Do you have a moment?"

OH BOY

[redprayer]

Rezo has been deeply absorbed in his writing, such that he doesn’t notice her approach until she actually speaks up. He startles, turning to face her. She may notice that he has somehow gotten a smudge of ink on his cheek, as well as having stains all over his fingers.

“Lioriley?”

Rezo quickly leans his elbow against the study desk he’s been working at, trying to casually block his writing from view. It’s not ready yet!

“How may I help you?” he asks.

[invigorates]

She giggled softly and reached out to gently press her thumb to his cheek, wiping the ink from his skin with a quick flash of water magic and a swipe to the right. "If you are not busy, I wished to whisk you away so I may, um. I have something I wish to perform for you. A song."

[redprayer]

His expression softens after Lioriley wipes the smudge off his cheek, a little embarrassed but as always, a fool for her touch.

“A song?” he repeats, surprised. He doesn’t think he has ever heard Lioriley sing before. Still, he sees no reason to object to her odd request, although he’s a little preoccupied at the moment.

“I will need a moment to, ah, pack away my work, but then I will be ready for you.”

[invigorates]

"Yes. I wrote it for you." She chirped, nodding her head and humming. "Do you need any assistance?"

[redprayer]

“Oh, not really,” he says, hastily bundling his papers together. “It’s not ready to be seen yet.”

As soon as he has the mess of papers- and he prays the ink hasn’t smeared too badly- in some semblance of order, he tucks them under his arm and rises to his feet.

“Anyway,” he continues, “You wrote me a song? I did not know song writing was among your considerable skillset.”

[invigorates]

"No?" She was tempted to ask what exactly it was he was working on, but ultimately decided that if he wanted to tell her, he would. Hopefully it wasn't some strange secret plan to get his eyesight back or something- and if it was, that he would tell her about it.

She pushed those thoughts away to focus on the true reason for her being there. "Well, usually not. But I was very inspired, and all I could think about was you, so..." this was going to be horrendous. "Would the quiet car be all right?"

[redprayer]

All I could think about was you.

If he hadn’t already packed up and promised to come with her, Rezo might have had to scribble down several paragraphs in response to the surge of emotion Lioriley’s little aside provokes. But he has and he will, and instead he takes her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.

“The quiet car would be perfect.”

[invigorates]

"Wonderful." She said, tugging him out of the library and down the corridor, even willing to use a transgate to get them there faster. And when they finally arrived and she hurried them into a booth, she was glowing so bright she could have illuminated the car herself. "Here. Sit." sit sit sit! She had to siiiing.

[redprayer]

It is an utterly bemused but obedient priest that Lior is able to drag along to the quiet car. He may not be able to see how brightly Lioriley is glowing, but every other sense is making her excitement obvious, and he’d have to be the most recalcitrant man imaginable to not go along with her. And thus Rezo is sat upon a bench.

“Alright, I’m here,” Rezo says. “Do you need me to do anything or…?”

[invigorates]

"No, no. Just listen." She said with a smile heard through her words. She stepped back once she was sure he was settled, cleared her throat, and started to sing.

Her song was about him, yes, but primarily overly flowery words of love an adoration that would make a unicorn vomit. Sweet words about his kindness, his heart, how much she cared for him. And maybe it would have been beautiful...if she could hold a note. Unfortunately, for all the heart she put into it, she was not very good at singing.

[redprayer]

Rezo listens.

Rezo listens, even though it turns out that Lioriley cannot sing worth a damn jot. It’s sort of impressive, actually, how the poor woman fails to hit even a single solitary note in all of the song. A stopped clock is right twice a day, but a singing Lior is evidently wrong every single time. It had occurred to Rezo that he had never heard her sing before and, well, now he knew why. Curiously, his ears feel very warm, and he’s not sure if that’s a flush from secondhand embarrassment or if they’re just bleeding.

He wonders, briefly, if this is some sort of attempt at a prank, but ultimately decides against it. Lioriley is the sincerest person he knows, and is clearly trying very hard and putting her heart and soul into this impromptu performance.

Which is why, when she’s done, Rezo gives her his most cheerful smile.

“Thank you,” he says. “That was lovely.”

Because if Lioriley can find it in her heart to write and perform a song expressing nothing but sincere love for a terribly flawed man with a sordid past, then that same man can certainly lie about her singing abilities to spare her feelings. And Rezo is an excellent liar.