middleofsomewhere | Into the Unknown Part Two

Entry tags:

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

Some of the tension in Hythlodaeus also eases at the sight of Hades, present, there, not mysteriously missing.

"You're unharmed?"

A question that he'd usually not need to ask but looking right now is... not advisable. At least not when he can help it.

He does step inside the cabin, reaching to hold on to Hades's elbow, gently. To anchor himself, at the very least.

"I am well. Unharmed physically, though I fear the train this is putting on the minds of all us passengers."

It is a lot to manage, and while he has been on the train long enough to be familiar with the Void it is still beyond discomforting. Reaching out, he pulls Hythlodaeus' hand from his arm and instead holds it in his own, letting some of the tension fall from his shoulders.

"And what of you? You have not been here long at all - are you hurt? Wounded?"

Hythlodeaus's fingers wrap around the palm holding his hand, a little tense.

"I have not been hurt, but... even the briefest look with aethersight is... rather a miserable idea."

I can't See, more or less.

After a moment, his lips pull up slightly at the corners and he straightens a little. "'tis nothing that I cannot handle."

He'll just be... slightly more useless than usual.

It is a new tension - normally Hythlodaeus is so well at ease, but he cannot be blamed for uncertainty here. Even Emet-Selch himself is discomforted, just enough that he is frustrated.

"I am doing my best to not make use of such a thing. Perhaps it is best employed."

Frowning, he shifts, drawing his friend a little closer.

"It will not last, I am sure of it. These things oft do not."

Hythlodaeus takes the proximity gratefully, shifting a little nearer himself.

"Ah, that is reassuring to hear. Have the train's walls broken before? Who mended it?"

He has grown thankful, very much so, for the protection that the barriers did provide. And then there was the fear in that consciousness sharing.

It is easy enough to welcome his touch, his embrace, and Emet-Selch allows himself to release some of his own tension, breathing out softly.

"I am uncertain, but it is not the first time we have borne witness to the Void. I do not doubt it will all end with some measure of safety. If not then the many people here far too giving for their own good will take it upon themselves."

Because he, of course, does not help out whatsoever.

Holding and being held, that helps a lot. He can close his eyes and not have to stop himself from looking. At peace, if for a little bit.

And, of course, he does not help. At all, ever. Or make gardens beside Elidibus.

"Ah." This time, he sighs softly, and nods. "I am... glad that you are here. I might have worried myself into being unwise, otherwise."

It is an anchor indeed, to have Hythlodaeus back at his side, to welcome the familiar comfort. It eases his own troubles and relaxes his own concerns. If they are together then he has no doubt the two of them will muster some means of ensuring they come out of this well taken care of.

He will not allow history to repeat itself.

Huffing a little noise, he leans a touch closer.

“I am glad as well. As charming as it has been to be swarmed by our kin… They have done much in terms of demands. I would prefer we care for each other, not this strange void.”

And Hythlodaeus has no intent to repeat his own mistakes of the past, for all he would not have, and could not have, chosen otherwise at the time. To find a path forward, one must stave off oblivion first.

But it is not oblivion that faces them now.

"And take care of each other we will. Do you need rest, or should we seek out how we can help?"

Of course he would try, even as straining as it will be, just now. It might be possible to make it less difficult, even, though he is aware that is a optimistic stretch even for him.

"I do not need rest. I have done rather enough of that in my months here on the train."

In the times between when Elidibus and Pahja were making demands of his time in order to do some mission or another, of course, which was not as often as it might well seem from his sour attitude. It is simply who he is, despite the happiness that he feels from being so close with Hythlodaeus again.

There is nothing that might contain that joy, especially not from someone who has always read him as well as his partner.

"I will follow your lead. I know a little more of this place, true, but altruism is hardly my forte."

"Ah, but it is its own reward, one of these days you might consider giving in to it on your own now and again, my dearest."

The tease is automatic and completely fond, and he manages a small smile. Color is still slow to return to his face, but his expression is far more like himself. Still... He takes a small breath and shifts, to rest try to rest his forehead against Hades's shoulder.

"Sorry. Just... a moment longer. It's less daunting, having to altogether avoid looking..."

When they are like this.

Then he straightens, pulling himself together properly.

"Let us look who is in need of assistance by... walking along the train, then. I'm afraid it will have to be that way rather than taking a short route, courtesy of the Void. I'm sure we will find someone before long."

Say, like Elidibus.

"I can give you all the moments you best please," Emet-Selch admits, especially if Hythlodaeus is to continue to offer him such gentle words, such warming gestures of affection. He is weak to it, even now, especially at the glee of their recent rejoining.

Shaking his head, he reaches out, drawing Hythlodaeus a little closer once more, allowing himself to relax into the embrace, to let himself feel this warmth once more.

"Whoever it is that might best call upon us for aid might well wait a few moments more. I know you, Hythlodaeus, and for all that you say that you might well be ready a few more brief minutes will not harm the train. It may, however, harm you."

Emet-Selch shifts, resting his head on Hythlodaeus' shoulder.

"I can carry your burden, at least for now."

"O-oh." Hythlodaeus's voice hitches as he's drawn back in, and after a moment of being nearly overwhelmed with the wave of affection and adoration for this man, his arms tighten, warm, around him.

He turns his face to place a lingering kiss on his temple, before resuming his own respite with forehead against Hades's shoulder, closing his eyes as tight as his Sight is, and just breathing, matching the rise and fall of Hades's chest out of long, long-standing habit.

"You do know me." Perhaps it is a sign of how much he did strain, habit nudging him to Look, over and over again, until the pain got the message through, that he doesn't even try to deflect, to deny that there is aught amiss.

Instead, he is just... grateful.

"So many ways you show your love, like this. That I may only hope to find ways to let you know, in turn." But there is none of his self-biting inadequacy in his tone. Just, truly, hope, and wonder, and love.

It is easy, without question, to hold on to Hythlodaeus and offer him warmth and comfort. It would be so even if they were not in the midst of the chaos brought on by the train and the Void, because he knows his spirit and his soul as well as he knows his own. Hythlodaeus was another part of him, a missing fragment that had been gone for too long, and Emet-Selch is only now beginning to recover from that loss, that grief.

It is easy to let himself hold on, to settle into the embrace, to feel his dearest friend there, because to do anything else would be near enough a betrayal of his very self.

"I could not forget, even in the great distance between us. I could never forget."

His voice is hoarse, and soft, and he grips Hythlodaeus all the tighter even as he speaks.

"Oh?" There is, perhaps, a waver in his voice, a hint of concern, of worry - that what he feels in his heart is broadcast so surely, without his words professing it. A side effect, perhaps, on the strangeness of the train or only Hythlodaeus' Sight. "You read me like a book, even now. I can hide nothing from you."

He does not register the magnitude of the moment.

Hades was ever better able to express himself via his actions than his words. Hythlodaeus has long prided himself, not always all in privacy, that he could fluently understand him.

Over the long, long time on the moon, whenever he drifted somewhat closer to wakefulness, there were times when he agonized if he might not have been wrong. If he might not have taken what was not actually given to him, but instead assumed that it had been, and Hades did not correct him as it was too much bother.

But from the moment they reunited here on the train, such questions and doubts have dissipated. He knows Hades's longing to be a match of his own, even if, to his joy, he can see the entangling of Hades's aether with Pahja's also.

And, by the same token, he can hear the waver, the uncertainty, in his voice now. Instead of confusion or even frustration, it only makes Hythlodaeus feel more warmth.

"I will find ways to show it, too, I promise. Until then, words will have to suffice - I love you too, Hades." It's soft enough to ensure privacy, even in the cabin, but it is clear and loud enough that Hades cannot possibly miss it.

The words have been so close to the surface over the last days, and he has certainly implied them without hesitation, habitual learned reserve making way to storm-loosened tongue.

But this is different. It is a matter of saying it because it is true and he wants to say it, no external force making him do so.

Emet-Selch can well admit that he has oft been reticent to share his deeper, innermost thoughts with anyone, be it friend or otherwise. It takes to the end of his emotional strength to even begin to consider it, but here, in this moment, vulnerable and influenced by the weight of the void, he feels somehow more able to put to voice the weight of his own heart.

The weight of Hythlodaeus' words feel close enough to have him shedding tears. It has been so long, and he has been alone for so long, that the notion of drawing himself out and allowing such warmth and joy to smother him makes him anxious, almost afraid.

How can he be permitted to have something - anything - like this?

The words are soft, and he lifts his head to embrace them.

"Oh, my dear friend," he leans close, to touch their foreheads, to close his eyes, to cling to this moment for as long as eternity might allow them to have. "Please, do not ever leave me again. Do not move from my side, do not... Do not leave me alone. My heart could not stand it."

Hythlodaeus shifts easily to follow Hades's direction, his arms only tightening, one shifting to let his fingers ruffle lightly the puffed out hair the back of Hades's neck, different in color and even texture and yet he will not call it strange.

Ever has he been fond of Hades's changing forms, after all, and even if this one must have had its price, it is still Hades's.

His lips curl up slightly, even as his eyes remain closed.

"I will not leave you. Even before coming here, I would have sought you out; either way, I will hold on. For your heart's sake, and mine." And Pahja's, he suspects, even if he suspects she has more people to wish close, too. "Whatever is yet to face, we face together."

He chose to make sure that Hades at least could live, in the only way he knew how, then. But looking back, and he has spent the days considering, perhaps it may have been wiser to seek out knowledge, as there had been some to find.

So he is going to try harder now. Fight harder, so Hades will not have to hurt so again. Ever again.

The touch is gentle, grounding, and more than enough for an Emet-Selch who has felt the weight of his burdens and the intensity of the world so surely upon his own shoulders. The notion of being anything but trapped here in this moment is beyond him and he cannot separate himself from Hythlodaeus; would not be able to even if he had the desire.

Gentleness and warmth softens them both, but there are still words that must be said, something unspoken but surely well known.

"I did not doubt it. As soon as we were rejoined in spirit I knew that nothing would tear us apart. Ever have I missed you, and ever would I have longed for you were we not given a second chance. I know it, as you do."

Leaning back a little, his eyes are soft, warm, tender - but he shakes his head.

"I would kiss you, I would keep you, but words must be said to another first."

It would be unkind, he thinks, to sink into intimacy here with Hythlodaeus and not inform Pahja first.

Hythlodaeus nods, very slightly, and yes, he knows down to his bones that while the reassurance is necessary, the tenderness is necessary, the words are necessary, there is also the full awareness that Hades is. Tired. Worn thin. And so not much would be overwhelming, and Hythlodaeus does not wish to add to his burdens.

He's done that enough, even if he did not know that would be the effect.

For now, he hums slightly. "I do. I know it."

He chases slightly the lean-back, but only to bump his nose against the tip of Hades's, eyes barely blinking open, a little more of the tension easing from his face with a brightening of the small smile.

"I will not go anywhere. And it is good that you have grown close enough for this." Oh yes, he knows whom Hades means, and is glad. He has cared about her from the very first, after all, seeing not only similarities but the differences with her counterpart they had known for so much longer, as well. For herself, as the time spent with them here on the train has reassured him Hades sees in her, as well.

But also, his eyes crinkle so very slightly as he straightens up his own head, a gentle tease rather than a worry. "You don't think she'd mind, do you?"

After so long, after being isolated for such a length of time, it is difficult for Emet-Selch to feel any sort of idea of being worthy, of being welcomed into such warmth and affection. The fact that both Pahja and Hythlodaeus have seen fit to give him such tenderness is beyond his rationalisations, because he cannot fathom it when he has done such ill work.

Necessary work, there is no denying it, the kind that he would gladly do again, but ill all the same.

Hythlodaeus reads him, however, and he breathes out a soft noise.

"I do not know," he admits. "I do not think either of us imagined anything of the sort might build, given my ending, but we are here all the same. A strange story indeed for the Warrior of Light, but I will speak with her all the same. I will do nothing to hurt either of you."

Anymore, at least.

"Oh, Hades."

Hythlodaeus cranes his neck and presses a soft, soft kiss between his brows, beneath the third eye, before nudging slightly so their foreheads lean against each other together again.

"We will not hurt each other, either, I am confident, nor will we hurt you.

"It may take a little while for us to know each other more thoroughly, too, but I rather suspect it will be better than good, eventually."

And yes, he does believe Pahja will at least give this slight complication in the emotional connection that his appearance is providing a chance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Into the Unknown Part Two

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject