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

"You've already watched everything in the theatre?"

Jingyi looks mildly impressed... and mildly disbelieving, because he'd think Idia would probably avoid it to more hide himself away.

"Hm?" Idia asks then considers it, "I doubt it, I only used to go there when it was quiet, which was at night, and you would shout at me so," Ending it in a shrug. They both knew what that resulted in.

"I prefer to watch stuff in my room with my headphones on, but I haven't grabbed everything from the theatre to watch yet. I normally like doing something when I watch stuff, rather than just watching something. Why?"

"You feel things really loudly," he says, as if he also does not feel things really loudly. Or think things really loudly. They both do, on completely different topics.

"There's a lot of that stuff available there, I know 'cause they have romances too. The art styles were different enough I had to adjust? Some were like. The people all looked wrong."

Turns out some aesthetics are just hard to adapt too when they go too much into the Clannad styles of facial distortion for visual effect.

Hm, Jingyi was most likely not used to films and the like, right? Short of some surprising technology that may had been hidden in the brief look Idia had gotten of his world via his memories, so it makes sense it would look weird to see people on a screen. "Eh, cameras don't capture light like the human eye does, so things will always look different. Got different lenses which can help with it, but that, plus editing on top of it with color correction and stuff, it can look weird at times."

Oh, wait, or is it something more simple than that? "Or do you mean how everyone looks like they're perfect in films? Like perfect hair and skin and make up and all that?"

"... No, I mean whoever drew these people never saw what an actual person looked like, or at least never looked anyone in the face. Including themselves, in a pond, or pool, or mirror."

The weird perfectness isn't so strange to a man from cultivation as a background, considering they all get great, pure skin as part of their cultivation. It's an effect, he assumed, because he knows the moving stories aren't usually true at all, but that was the least startling.

More strange were the clearly not teenagers playing teenagers, but that's fine, right? Weirder things happen, and people look all different ages. He just assumed that was the case in those films, too.

Ooh, "Oh, you mean how stuff is over stylized? Oh yeah, I get that. The history behind how it's developed is actually really interesting." It's interesting to an otaku like him, and no doubt Idia can give the full history on animation and anime and how it's developed over the years and it's origins. "Short version, someone did it and their style got a lot of attention, so everyone started copying it and adapting it to their own thing."

He stars at Idia for a long moment, then rolls his eyes.

"Can no one be original?" He was, clearly, not a fan of whatever particular style of over-done whatever he'd come across.

"Those aren't your favourite kinds, are they?"

"Not until someone goes all counter culture on it, then that becomes the thing, then people try to go against that, and rinse and repeat." Come on, Jingyi, that has to be a thing in your world too. That art follows a trend then changes and everyone follows that instead.

"Plus originality doesn't sell. Even if it's cool." Experimental media and all that. Some of it was great. Some of it was just weird.

"Hmm," Idia thinks for a moment before answering, "I like to try everything and not get stuck in a trope or style. There's so many topics that manga and anime and gaming covers. I like some better than others, but I try and understand them all. Broadening horizons and all that." A shrug to go along with it.

Into the Unknown Part Two

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