middleofsomewhere | Into the Unknown Part Two

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Into the Unknown Part Two

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.

INTO THE UNKNOWN: PART 2

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

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?

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.

OOC NOTES

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

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It's not that Jiang Cheng isn't hungry; it's the fact that his last discussion with the junior almost offended him beyond reason and he is still juggling that. It's only the fact that he does want food that stops him from being completely sour.

Reaching out, he takes the chicken.

"Are you going to sit down?"

"Are you inviting me?" He perks up, looking pleased at the idea, though part of that is the pleasure of having his chicken offering accepted and, presumably, getting to witness its eating. And knowing it's good (thank you, he's good with his vegetables and chicken, even if his vegetables would leave Jiang Cheng wincing over their comparable plainness) he's also anticipating witnessing Jiang Cheng's enjoyment.

Congratulations, you're courting his good friend and in various ways his sect leader, but also not the man who raised him, old man. You're inheriting another friend.

"Would I have said it if I wasn't?"

Isn't that a clear enough invitation? Jiang Cheng scowls, crossing his arms and trying not to let himself seem quite as sour as he actually is. He's still getting used to this situation, and having people aware of his intentions with Lan Xichen... It is unexpected, but not necessarily unwanted.

He likes knowing that they are something of a pair, after all.

"Sit down."

His tail flicks to the side and he seats himself, posture relaxing as he does.

"I don't know, you say one thing and mean another, it's one of the annoying things about you, Jiang-qianbei." Sect Leader Jiang, certainly, but look, the man is with Lan Xichen, so that has to mean something. (Apparently, it means relaxed forms of address.)

"Not that you hold back, which is also good. Lan Xichen does, probably too much." His tail tips left, then right, almost catlike in the back and forth motion. He helps himself to some of the chicken he's carrying, versus what he's already presented to Jiang Wanyin.

"A Lan thing."

Says the Lan who does not, by many appearances, hold back much.

Jiang Cheng's eyebrow practically twitches at the address and the commentary on his person.

A small part of him is glad of it, because it does mean he is being accepted by Lan Xichen's Sect and family, and given how close Xichen is with his juniors at heart it is probably a good thing that Lan Jingyi is being this way. It doesn't mean that he isn't irked, however, and his expression tightens before he forces himself to relax and calm down.

There's no need to get too frustrated, even if it's likely coming off him in waves thanks to his Empathy.

"Yes, he does." Jiang Cheng manages to eat a little chicken, frowning. "I always thought he was similar to his brother, but that isn't the case. Hanguang-jun is more open, in a way, than Lan Xichen is. Neither of them say what they mean, but you can see it on their faces."

The easy hatred is one thing that has always been obvious on Lan Wangji's face, anyway.

The frustration at least tempers him a little, because he's not assuming to generate more of it right now, and Jiang Wanyin isn't being the version of himself that begs for talking back.

(He's not insulting anyone Jingyi cares for. Very easy mark to miss.)

Behind him, his tail gently continues it's back and forth tailtip swish.

"Mm. He's known to be friendlier, but that's how he smooths things over. He hides everything behind that smile, like Teacher Lan hides things behind his sternness."

Lan Qiren being a less flexible man who had to step up when his own elder brother so failed the sect and any duties that even his eventual children were left in his brother's care.

"It's good that he's telling you anything more than things meant to placate, huh? Having opinions that aren't easy for everyone else to swallow."

From the one who loudly shares his opinions, but still barely anything acceptable social limits.

The fact is that Jiang Cheng is so clearly trying that it's hard to do anything else - it's much easier to fall into the irritation and the grumbling than it is to let himself bare himself. Especially to someone much younger, who sees him as a Sect Leader rather than a man.

He dances around the real part of the conversation, his deep affection for Lan Xichen, and scoffs instead.

"I've known them both long enough to know," he admits. He and Lan Wangji had a decent enough relationship, once, before Wei Wuxian's death.

Before everything went wrong.

"I think... It is difficult for him, when we're so much older, and we've experienced more. But I want to help him."

If anything, the fact Jiang Wanyin is courting his friend version of his sect leader, a man who has not raised him yet, and who won't raise the Lan Jingyi sitting next to his paramour, helps bring him from Jiang Sect Leader to Guy who Also Is Jiang Sect Leader. For Jingyi, there's still the degrees brought in by generational gaps, and it's amusing on some levels: because it's what Jiang Wanyin is admitting to seeing too.

"You already are, if he's choosing to be with you." A hummed note, with all this chicken around being just a nice punctuation mark on scent he enjoys. Oddly calming, that. "So thank you, okay? For courting my friend properly, and caring about him truly. If one more person was going to tell me Lans are weird for loving like we do, like we make everyone else do the same thing, I was going to drag them to that new pool carriage and toss them in."

He lifts his brows, looking over at Jiang... Cheng.

... No, still weird, Jiang Wanyin. Okay, that's better.

"Would you help me?"

Toss in people being rude over misunderstanding Lan Clan cultural oddities. His tail starts to curl upward, like an interested cat.

It has been a complicated situation for Jiang Cheng since the moment he realised the strange, budding feeling inside of his chest was attraction and not just admiration or respect. He had spent a great deal of time with Lan Xichen before he had ever dared give it a name, and he had never considered it until nudged by Wei Wuxian. The notion had taken some time to settle, and after that came the political complications.

They are both Sect Leaders. They are two prominent clans. They are of different ages and, because of the train, of different time periods. It seemed far too complicated to even fathom the notion of a proper courtship, let alone something with the intent for a lot more.

Glancing over at Jingyi, he scoffs quietly.

"I have known enough Lans to understand how the process works." And he's met enough Lan Wangji here that have wedded his brother to recognise the seriousness of a courting process for them. It wasn't as if it wasn't a serious matter for the Jiang Sect; it was just different.

That did not been bad.

Raising an eyebrow, he tilts his head.

"You are the dragon. Aren't you strong enough to do it yourself?"

He grins, using his now half eaten chicken bone to indicate in the direction of the pool carriage relative to where they sit now.

"The fun," he says, "Is in tossing someone in together."

Leave it to Lan Jingyi to sound like the practical jokester of Gusu Lan. Mostly because he was, relative to his fellow disciples, but now he's simply doing his bluntest best to include the new addition to his clan's chosen members.

Jiang Cheng just looks at him, with a raised eyebrow.

There has never been anyone who has seen Jiang Cheng as playful, or a jokester, or anything like that; he is a Sect Leader, he has a fearsome reputation, and he would surely be sooner killing than teasing. All the same...

"If you can find someone suitable, I suppose."

A momentary pause, and then his offer of a name:

"Wei-qianbei?"

That, at least, makes Jiang Cheng's face twitch, as if he might end up smiling.

"I could be persuaded."

Jingyi grins, a spontaneous blossoming of a devious and clearly amused expression across his face.

"Sizhui'd help. He'd never see it coming!"

"It is the sort of thing that he would enjoy."

Jiang Cheng can say that with confidence, having raced the boy to the top of a mushroom once.

"When?"

"Three days from now?"

This is his hopeful expression. Three days is entirely enough time to pull this off, right? Right!

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Into the Unknown Part Two

layer four

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