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middleofsomewhere2022-08-20 08:40 pm
voidtreckermods) wrote in middleofsomewhere2022-08-20 08:40 pm
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.
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.
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 SHADESThey 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 LIPSGoing 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 OKThe 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 BELOVEDTalking 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.
no subject
oh man, i forgot that rezo doesn't know about what happened with copy rezo :'D
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
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
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
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."
no subject
“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?”
Going with one season = 1 year
And while some of that (a lot of that) could be due to Shabranigdu's unsealing and Lina's defeat of him, the level of magic Lina threw around when pressed probably meant that it had been a matter of time before one of her spells would have kicked the metaphorical beehive. Having the triggering incident to reveal 'Lina can call on the Lord of Nightmares for spells' be Rezo's attempts to heal his own eyesight just meant that Zelgadis himself kept being dragged into it.
"Having a piece of Shabranigdu unsealed for the first time in a thousand years, then killed in a matter of days by humans, brings all sorts of things out of the woodwork."
seems about right to me~!
“Three years…” Rezo murmurs. Not a lot in the grand scheme of things, although Zelgadis alludes to a great deal of upheaval. And of course there would be; everyone knows that when Lei Magnus awakened as the Demon King of the North it birthed numerous monsters unto the world, so of course further disaster would have happened as a result of Rezo’s final failed attempt to heal his eyes.
The obvious thing to do is start demanding more information, to find out exactly what happened in his absence. But then again, there isn’t much point to it, is there? He’s dead, he’s not going to be able to live in his old world ever again.
“I see,” Rezo says. The bewilderment in his expression filters away, leaving Rezo’s demeanor subdued.
Sairaag is gone. Did Erisiel die too? It’s foolish of him to be shocked, he knows, when he’s knowingly done equally or worse destructive things. But perhaps that’s why it’s hitting him, the reminder of just how far-reaching the consequences were, outside of his own predictions.
Re: seems about right to me~!
"Did you really not consider what would happen, or did you not care as long as it didn't affect people you actually knew? You certainly never cared what would happen to me when you decided to use me as a subject for your little experiments."
no subject
Rezo’s head droops, and he languidly lifts a hand to rest it on his forehead and cover his eyes.
“...I believe I had some idea that I would be able to keep Him under control,” Rezo admits. “You know how well that turned out.”
Perhaps he should keep silent, or stick to bland non-answers. And yet he finds himself wanting to say something, anything, of more substance than their usual exchanges. Of course, what comes out is pathetically self-piteous:
“You may as well yell at me and call me a damned idiot. I won’t deny you.”
no subject
"You're clearly not an idiot, just arrogant, selfish and short-sighted," Zelgadis said. "An idiot wouldn't have been nearly as dangerous."
no subject
“You clearly haven’t known enough idiots,” he says. “And short-sighted is something of an understatement, don’t you think?”
And after that little inappropriate joke, Rezo looks faintly embarrassed, insomuch as his face can be seen under the hand over his eyes.
“...I’m sorry. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act around you.”
no subject
"I don't know either. I don't know how much of what you did to me was because you had a piece of Shabranigdu inside you, and how much is because you're just an asshole. I don't even know if that's a meaningful question. Was the 'real' Rezo the man who raised me or the one who decided his grandson made an ideal test subject before he tried to use chimerism on himself?"
That was far more than Zelgadis had meant to say. Because it was dealing with the fact that things would be so much easier if Rezo was a stranger, and Zelgadis could just hate him, without feeling betrayed by the grandfather he'd loved and admired.
no subject
“I don’t know what the answer you want is. But it is a question I have been asking myself ever since my first death.”
He’d had a lot of time- three years, apparently- to think over himself, and his life. The things that he’d done, for better or for worse, and the implications of the fact that Shabranigdu had been with him since before he was born. If he’d rather be a monster or the puppet of a monster. Wavering over every what-if.
“...In the end I think it may not truly matter. A habitual drunkard who assaults someone during the depths of a binge does not get to plead innocence when he sobers up. If I was influenced by Shabranigdu, then I am still at fault for failing to resist that influence.”
(The means and the reasoning matter not. You must live with the consequences.)