Day Twelve, Conclusion

[voidtreckermods]

All battles come to an end. Professor Chill and his henchpeople is defeated, the ice giant slain by the brave heroes of purple team. The townspeople led out of the tunnels and due to some extraordinary pun-hacking skills by Kaito the weather machine is de-powered.

Being a magical snowstorm the shutting down of the weather machine causes it to vanish, snow begins to melt and then evaporates into the air before it can become a larger problem in terms of a flood. The temperatures rise, going from dangerously cold to a warm spring day, warm enough that the voidtreckers will soon be too warm all bundled up as they are. The clouds disappear, the sun shines. Within a short period of time the streets are dry, the mountainsides are green and the trees are bright with flowers.

The streets are still a mess, property is damaged and the clean up operation is going to be intense but it doesn't look like there is any lasting ecological damage at least.

The ice labyrinth vanishes and those inside it will find themselves suddenly standing in the field below. For red team, the journey to the top of the mountain took four days in the blizzard but with the weather clear and going downhill they will reach the valley by the end of day eleven.

The army has arrived and mostly taken over gathering the injured and dealing with the more serious damage but there is plenty to do for those who still wish to help. Houses need put back to rights, streets and paths need sweeping of debris.

Help out, find your friends, swap stories. Celebrate a job well done.

Towards mid afternoon of day twelve a beeping from their SCA's should draw everyone's attention. The map leads them to a place just out of sight from the town and there is the Voidtrecker Express. It is time to leave.

Comments

Belated OTA

[really_sketchy]

Naminé watched the snow melting with a frown. She remembered the snow creatures and had known from the beginning that this was their fate. Did they feel it? Being melted like that? Her heart twisted uncomfortably in her chest as she followed a small group back towards the town. She had no way of helping but she did what she could.

She didn't want to stop and let her mind wander back to that snowy landscape.

"Huh?" Naminé turned when she realized that someone was speaking to her, her crystal blue eyes unfocused on the setting around her. "Sorry. What?"

[stealsyourheart]

"Just checking to see how you are, Miss." The messy-haired teen offers her a paper rose from... somewhere.

"Don't think we've met before - you new? I'm Kaito. Kaito Kuroba."

[really_sketchy]

Naminé turned and forced herself to smile. There was no reason to be sad about the melting snow monsters and she felt a little silly sharing her worries with those around her.

"Oh. Thank you." She smiled a little more earnestly at the rose, a light pink dusting her cheeks.

She wasn't used to getting gifts.

"My name is Naminé. It's nice to meet you Kaito. I just arrived on the train."

[stealsyourheart]

"Nice to meet you too! Well, it's not exactly the best place to meet someone, I guess. But I hope you're settling in okay?"

[really_sketchy]

"It isn't the worst place to meet someone." Castle Oblivion was the worst place to meet someone.

"I am getting used to it. This was the first time I ever saw the snow. It was beautiful, even if it was a little scary." Naminé wasn't a fighter but she had wanted to help.

[stealsyourheart]

"Maybe not! But not the best, either." He says wryly.

"First time huh?" He nods. "Yeah. We don't get much snow where I'm from - tends to melt quickly too when it does come down, except in the depths of winter. But I like how it looks when it's freshly fallen. All white and pristine."

[really_sketchy]

"Me too." She smiled up at him, her expression warming as the conversation continued.

Naminé paused thoughtfully and then briefly frowned. "I think meeting people on the train is the best way I have met someone." She hasn't met a lot of people and she didn't look back on her captivity in the Castle as a pleasant experience. Even if she had meet Sora and Riku that way.

"I haven't gotten to see many places before."

[stealsyourheart]

He raises an eyebrow.

"Huh. I suppose if you haven't been to many places, then there's not a lot of room to judge." He agrees. "Well, there are plenty of nicer places! I hope you get to see them."

[really_sketchy]

"Thank you. I hope I do too."

She paused briefly and then spoke her question aloud. "Have you seen many places? Do you mind telling me about some of them? I know there are things to do but I would like to hear, if you don't mind."

[stealsyourheart]

"Well, I've not travelled as widely as some, but I guess so."

He smiles at her. "Sure. What sort of places were you wondering about?"

[really_sketchy]

"Well, how about you tell me where you're from?"

She didn't know if they had to get back to the train or when but she liked meeting new people and learning about them. It gave her new views of the world that she might not be able to have recognized before.

[stealsyourheart]

"Sure! Let's see - my planet is called Earth, and the country I'm from is Japan, the city is Tokyo. We have got trains, and we've reached our moon, but we don't have actual spaceflight yet except in fiction. Japanese people mostly all look like me - dark hair, dark eyes - but dying your hair or wearing colored contacts to change the color of your eyes is popular is some sections of the population. We're an island nation! Tokyo itself is actually just a bit upriver from the sea. I can visit the harbor in a daytrip."

He wishes now he had his phone to show her pictures.

"We're volcanically active - our largest mountain, Mount Fuji, is visible from Tokyo on a clear day, and it is an active, although dormant, volcano. It's got snow on it's peak for a good part of the year, and we get earthquakes quite regularly. As a result, we're also famous for our mineral hot springs!"

[really_sketchy]

"That sounds like fun. I really like the beach." She gently touched a strand of blond hair. "I wonder if I should try and change my hair color?"

Naminés eyes brightened as he continued. "A volcano! Really? What's that like? I've never been to a hot springs before. Is it really hot?"

[happyends]

"Oh, I-- I was just asking if you were okay!"

Madoka seems a little flustered about repeating what she just said. Not because she's annoyed to repeat herself or anything - she's so not the type - but she's worried that maybe she bothered Naminé while the other girl was thinking about something..

"It kind of seemed like you were thinking really deeply about something.. So I just wanted to make sure that it wasn't something bad or sad."

[really_sketchy]

Naminés expression softened into a sweet smile as she found herself facing Madoka. "I'm alright. Thank you. I was just thinking and I got lost along the way." She didn't want Madoka to worry about her.

"Are you alright? A lot has happened."

She paused and glanced around. "Which team did you go with?"

[happyends]

"Ah, that's good then.."

Being lost in thought after a mission isn't all that weird, after all. And it doesn't sound like they're bad thoughts from what Naminé is saying, so the answer does seem to calm Madoka's worries enough for the girl to smile just a little bit again.

"Um, I was with the blue team. You were too, right..? I heard Romeo say that you made friends with some of the monsters."

[really_sketchy]

"Yes but... they're gone now." She looked back at the area around them as if she was trying to spot a little clump of melting snow. "I don't know how they were born but I hope they were able to return home too." 

Naminé looked back at Madoka and smiled. "I'm sure it's okay." She hoped so.

"Is it weird for someone from another team to join with you. I didn't think I could help the orange team and I wanted to make sure Terra was alright." He could probably take care of himself but Naminé felt better being around someone she knew.

[happyends]

Madoka hopes the same for the monsters, really. Especially after talking about them with Romeo. Maybe at least there won't be any monsters born forced to be bad because of the bad guy now...

But the latter question the other girl asks her draws Madoka's attention more, and she shakes her head - pretty quickly too, as if she wants to reassure Naminé as soon as possible.

"It's not weird at all! Tons of people go along with different teams. Either because they think they could be more helpful somewhere else, or because they want to be with people important to them." Madoka is just in luck that some of the people most important to her here are right in the blue team with her, even if it's not all of them. "Is that a friend of yours?" Terra, she means.

[really_sketchy]

Naminé felt her cheeks warm at Madoka's question. "Ah. Yes. He is the only one I know from before the train. He met briefly before and I felt more useful with him and the blue team. I didn't think I could help my own team. I don't know a lot about machines or snow."

It felt like she was trying to justify herself but she wasn't sure why.

"I'm glad that everything is okay though. I don't want to accidentally upset someone. I don't really understand the colors."

[happyends]

Aw, Madoka thinks it's rather sweet that Naminé at least has someone with her who she knows from before.. It'd make sense that she would rather want to go along with him.

Hence why she doesn't think it's a problem at all that the other girl came along with them. She can't imagine anyone thinking that. Most people on the blue team are so nice, and Ignis is the leader and super understanding.

"Really, you haven't upset anyone..!" Which is why she's so quick to want to reassure Naminé. Madoka knows all too well how it feels to be so unsure, and she doesn't want the other to have to feel that way. "And-- b-besides, if anyone is mean to you.. Just tell me! I won't let them!"

Yes, Madoka. You and all of your fourteen year old tiny girl-ness will stop mean people, clearly.

[really_sketchy]

"That's good." Naminé smiled back at Madoka and without warning, gave the other girl a tight warm hug. "Thank you Madoka." She gently pulled away and tried to not act all that awkward about it. "I just- I haven't had a friend like you before. I will tell you, if anyone is mean. Thank you so much."

She was only getting used to having friends and the feeling was, at times, over whelming.

"And you tell me too. I want to keep my friends safe." Naminé wasn't all that threatening either but if it means she can help her friends then she wants to try her best.

[happyends]

The hug does catch Madoka by surprise. She just didn't see it coming, really. But thankfully the surprise doesn't linger for too long - not when it melts into something much warmer so quickly. Because it always feels nice to be hugged. And Naminé is calling Madoka her friend. What more could she want at a moment like this, really?

"A.. Ah, really?" She smiles at the other girl once Naminé pulls away, her cheeks only faintly pink. "I'm sorry that you haven't had friends like me.."

Especially since Madoka sure has. She's pretty sure Sayaka would have had even more to say about what she'd do to people who were mean to Madoka, really..

"But.. that just means we can make up for it in this place, right? As long as we're here together, I'll gladly be your friend! And we can help each other out when we need it."

[really_sketchy]

Naminé shook her head. "It's not that exactly. There are some friends that I still need to meet and I haven't had the chance yet." She didn't want to believe that she didn't have friends, not after replica Riku had given up so much for her. One day they'd meet again and they'd be friends.

"But I'm glad. Oh. I should find Terra and help." She'd been spacing out for a minimum of an hour.

"Have you seen him? I don't know if you've met. He's tall and has dark brown hair that's short."

[happyends]

"We haven't really talked before, but I think I know who you mean.."

It's not hard to at least know the faces of the blue team after spending so much time with them, after all. Madoka is already glancing around to see if she can spot him.

"I don't think he's here though.. Maybe he already went ahead to the train?"

[really_sketchy]

"I can go look." She paused and looked around them. "Where is the train? I had jumped off before."

Naminé hadn't taken the time to look for the train.

"Is it on the map?" She lifted her wrist and looked down at the high tech orange watch that was there.