middleofsomewhere | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is rare that Emet-Selch has felt any sort of urge to be beyond his natural levels of truthfulness.

He is honest as it is, at least to a certain limit; he will dodge the truth and dance around the realities, but he will rarely tell an outright lie. There is little to be gained from it and it is better to find a means of simply avoiding the conversation.

At the moment he doesn't have much of a choice, the words bubbling up in his throat as he storms through the train to try and find both Pahja and Hythlodaeus, peeking his head around and relaxing in his shoulders when he sees his dearest friend.

"There you are."

Pahja doesn't hold things in, and therefore the previous layers were easy to deal with -- there's no point in hiding how she feels on a normal day, certainly not to her nearest and dearest. That there is a sudden, pressing need to confess would be obnoxious, but she's already done that. Being forced to do so, however, is no doubt uncomfortable for someone she knows, so following the itch, the desire to seek out those she cares for will take her exactly where she needs to be.

Brightening up when she sees Emet, Pahja slides into his personal space and stands on her tip-toes to press a kiss against his cheek before waving to Hythlodaeus. "Perfect! How nice of two of my favorite people to be in the same place."

Sorry, not sorry.

"It is quite lovely, isn't it? I quite share the joy."

Hades's personal space it certainly is, Hythlodaeus's arm coming solidly around his back even as he leans in to press a soft kiss to the top of Pahja's head. She will get an arm around her back if she leans a little in his direction, too.

"Have colors have been kind to you two? I think some people were somewhat upset about those."

And, as ever, the primary way he expresses, confesses his affection: concern and care about his people.

Emet-Selch's immediate response is to, of course, roll his eyes and try to act as sour as he is possibly able, but that does not last long. Instead, he simply allows himself to settle down - and let his eyes gaze over them as a gentle kiss is given to Pahja's head. It inspires little in terms of jealousy; only a touch of surprise and a sort kind of contentment.

How odd it is, to be here, to be sharing this, to be wanting this.

"I have no desire to talk about it," he scoffs. He doesn't want any more honesty to be pulled from him, no more than he is willing to give himself, of course, even as he leans into the personal space of his companions.

It is not as though they need the colours to best understand him, but it is the principle of the matter.

She does lean towards Hythlodaeus, and is more than happy to settle into his side as well, tail and ears twitching happily with the press of a kiss to her head. Surprised, yes, but she certainly won't say no to such open displays of affection from those she cares about.

Emet surely has been having a worse time of it than either her or Hythlodaeus, and the thought brings an amused bubble of laughter from her. "No, I think the point is to display those unspoken thoughts for all to see so you don't have to talk," a small tease, before she nods at Hythlodaeus. "As well as any. I don't hold much by the way of feelings close to the chest."

Something she can see he shares.

He does share it, for the most part, the feelings he hides rather most often directed at himself. The colors are merciful, that way, attracting way less scrutiny than he would be willing to endure.

But, no, he does not need this change to understand Hades. Even with how much information he is yet missing, he knows his heart, and he knows the prickly shell he builds around it. So the answer doesn't quite surprise him - he was merely asking to see if Hades has been upset by any unexpected revelations, or aught like.

"As you wish. And, no, not many - 'tis easier without it, I think. Though 'easier' isn't usually quite as ... literal." And, because it is only fair to answer his own question, "I have barely known any of the people here enough to form opinions strong enough to be expressed. Present company and a small number else excluded."

Emet-Selch looks between the two of them, his expression soft, briefly, before he allows some of the tension to fade, pushing it away from himself. He can allow this; the knowledge that the two people here he cares for the most are safe, they are unharmed, and they are content to enjoy one another's company. He could hardly be dissatisfied at that.

Shaking his head, he does what he can to try and feel less sour about the broadcasting of his emotions - as if either one of them was somehow unaware of the shape his feelings might have made previous to this.

"There are some who might inspire it simply by who they are and how they feel," he replies. He thinks, of course, of Elidibus, of Zenos, of the other Warriors. "But it is not as though I have made a great deal of friendships here. I am quite unlike the two of you."

That's fair enough, and Pahja grins at both of them before trying to usher them both out of the main corridors of the train so that they're both afforded some sense of privacy and not blocking the main thoroughfare. That way at least Emet can be saved some mortification lest someone come across them.

"It would seem that we balance each other out most excellently," she says, though she had her suspicions on that for far longer. Since Elpis, even. "There are some here I do like, and care about, but you both are perhaps the biggest."

There's no shame in admitting it, at least not on Pahja's behalf.

If either of them ever wonders about the color Hythlodaeus sees his or her soul in, now is the time to know.

He is glowing with his smile, himself, following very easily with Pahja's direction towards privacy. Although, he hums thoughtfully.

"I have not been through these... storms, before. Has aught alike happened on a previous occasion?"

It seems very... dynamis, to him.

Emet-Selch is already waving his hand, trying to hide his scowl as he lets himself be pushed and moulded into a space. Settling down is easy enough, and it means there is room to spare for his two companions to sit wherever they best please - and he is already well prepared for Pahja to clamber upon their laps and make herself comfortable there.

Leaning back, he closes his eyes for a moment; he's sure that the brightness of his own aura, whatever it may be, is glaringly obvious to the two of them, baring how he best feels.

"There has been one before, I believe," he replies eventually, voice slow and easy. "Though nothing of this temperament. I think this is far stronger - the train has been struggling for some time with its passengers and the tethers."

Into the Unknown Part Two

layer three (ft pahja)

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