voidtreckerexpress | Remember To Act Your Age [Open, Catch-all]

Remember To Act Your Age [Open, Catch-all]

Who: Open to everyone
Where: The entire train
When: Right after the Make the Clock Reverse event (Jelly 23)
What: Everyone is back to normal. Time to recover.
Warnings: In toplevels and subject lines if necessary! Definitely alcohol in some places, though.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but yesterday was exhausting. Maybe you were unaffected and took on the role of caretaker, making sure the new kids were fed and entertained. Maybe you were physically young but mentally the same, attempting to deal with the changes. Maybe you were a child again: frightened, or curious, or an absolute gremlin. Either way, there's a lot to deal with.

Are you helping clean up the mess, whether you caused it or not? Are you checking in with people to make sure they're okay? Do you have a lot of explaining to do to people that saw a very different side of you yesterday? Did you find the impromptu drinking party/circle happening on the top floor of the music car? Or are you just trying to rest and sleep it off? Either way, it was a long day yesterday, and it's looking to be just as long today.

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[I]

He'd already posted on the network to apologize, and a few people had responded. Otoha spends a large part of the rest of the day flitting from place to place, looking for people - he has a few bottles in his bag that he needs to distribute. Two are for him, but there's a certain pair of lovebirds he gave hell yesterday.

For everyone else though, there's apologies to make.

[II] (cw: alcohol use)

Otoha is not a social drinker - not usually. However today he has two bottles of beer and no food that's absorbing it. It's probably not going to take him a lot to get drunk, given his body weight - but that might be the point, in some ways.

off to work

Seto wakes that morning with a very abrupt flood of memories from the day before. How embarrassing---what all had he done? And how many now knew more than he ever wanted them to know about his life from back then?

He immediately throws himself into a place where he's reasonably sure it will be a little quiet: the laundry room. There are plenty of sheets to wash---and though it's not his chore this month, he sweeps up all the popcorn he scattered in the cinema car. His head is down and his shoulders are tense as he works---he really doesn't want to think about it!

it's all coming back

Later that day, cleanup's finally done, and he can rest. While he'd love to unwind in the bath, he suspects it'll be full of people who were on babysitting duty yesterday. They deserve the break. So he moves instead to the rock garden, taking a seat on a nearby bench. His emotions here are more soft and contemplative.

He'd reverted to his childhood---to the inquisitive and caring child he'd once been before darkening his heart. Sure, he's mostly clawed his way back from the darkness now, but he's different. If the boy he'd been had found a loving home for himself and his brother, if he'd been raised by kind people like the ones he'd met...

...well, he wouldn't be Seto Kaiba, king of a gaming empire. But he'd likely be a better person. It's weird to think about, so he simply sits, idly waving to passersby.

future dreams

Even later, he ends up in the gaming car, hunched over his laptop at one of the tables. You might think he's playing Theme Park Tycoon, or something like it...but no, he's working on something special. A virtual model of KaibaLand, and he's going to nail that corkscrew turn on the white lightning coaster this time!

The dazzling dragon car makes a dizzying turn. And Kaiba smiles a little, hitting save. Now to load that into his VR sets...

Edited 2021-02-18 05:33 (UTC)

I. What a trip

Demyx should, probably, apologize for flooding the gym. He would check to make sure it wasn't still flooded (it wasn't) and then move along, to walk towards the music room.

He was thoughtful, a little sheepish. He hadn't done it on purpose, but still it had happened. What was bothering him more was the flood of memories and the confusion he'd all but forgotten from when he was young and brand new.

II. Unfocused

It isn't that Demyx is moping, so much as he's thinking. Looking openly pensive wasn't normal for him, he'd rather pretend he was empty-headed to avoid expectations.

For, not the first time, he was wondering just what he was doing.

Having discovered the beanbag chairs, he invited himself to use one again so he could think. Besides it was quiet in the library. He was confident enough it would be fine to space out for awhile.

I need a drink.

He can smell it the moment he's walking through the music car. If the Centaurian version of god is real perhaps in this afterlife Yondu has atoned enough that he deserves a goddamn drink. He's not really expecting anything Jovial out of this drinking party, not like his boys planetside, not with everything people saw. But he doesn't much care and just wants to wet his whistle after all that.

There's a bottle of something he can't identify. Terran stuff. He doesn't care. It's going in his face. Is it poisonous? He doesn't know. It could be. Might as well scald out his insides in celebration of the world being slightly less wierd.

He pours himself a mug (yes, a whole mug that he was using earlier, that probably still has tea flavor in it) and wanders over to snag a couple of the earphones and review the music, see if there's any songs or names familiar to what he used to listen to. He's both missing Peter more than before and feeling guilty as hell about how that whole situation went. He could have done better, he's seen himself do better, and half of his crew were asshats really didn't deserve placating by him pretending Quill meant nothing to him.

Hindsight is bad enough in 20/20 but this shit is under a microscope.

"Hey, do you know what the name of this song is?" he asks someone nearby, before whistling a little of it. He just can't recall the name and right now he's really feeling it.

Edited 2021-02-18 07:56 (UTC)

[An Apple A Day]

Vexen had spent much of the previous day in medical, so it might not come as much of a surprise that he's there this morning, too. Unlike yesterday, however, he's not just filling in manpower. He's there, in his heavy black coat and yellow eyed again, alternating between pacing frantically and checking the vital signs of a teenage girl, unconscious in a recovery room. Unless someone makes a dramatic entrance to the car or shows up visibly sick or injured, he's unlikely to even acknowledge their presence.

[No Rest for the Wicked]

Eventually, someone manages to convince him to leave the medical car for a while. Normally, he responds to stress by throwing himself into his work, but this time he just can't focus. The books he's been trying to study sit open in a messy array in front of him, but he's not even really looking at them. At one point, he even slumps down and passes out with his face pressed to the pages of his notebook as exhaustion catches up with and overwhelms him.

After waking up from that, he roams the train largely at random, occasionally joining conversations on the ICPs, but mostly just...looking for distractions. He even tries playing the games on his odd looking smartphone at one point, hunched in a seat in the standard car, and pokes around the gaming car for the first time since his arrival. Nothing he tries on his own seems to hold his attention for long, though, before he grows agitated and moves on to looking for a new distraction.

"House of the Rising Sun," Soldat answers, sitting nearby and attempting to hook some of those headphones up to the tablet in their lap. They have a copy of that on said tablet, in fact, sung by some jazzy young lady. "I have it, if the ICP doesn't."

Then they look up, take in the size of that mug, and comment, "That is a lot of alcohol. Are you planning to get drunk. Or can you get drunk?" They can't, after all, and Yondu is an alien of some sort, so maybe his metabolism is different, too.

Yondu should be basking in relief. He's not. He's got all this shit he hates bouncing around in his brain, and now he can't even distract himself by feeling needed.

He's returning some of the borrowed medkits to the Medical Car when he sees Vexen wearing a hole in the floor. He's watching over someone, and that's vested enough interest that he's guessing somethin' personal is happening.

He quietly puts the kits on the counter and just starts to leave him to it, not disturb him. But something stops him. Just this little voice tugging at the back of his brain. Lights trace through his fin as he checks again without turning, noting that Vexen's still over there, dutifully by her side.

He does end up leaving, but he doesn't stay gone. In a couple of minutes he comes back with a cup of coffee, made how Vexen had been requesting it during his shifts, and he joins him at the bedside. "Hey, Hoss. You need a break. Sit down for a minute. I think if she wakes up she'll give you a holler."

He starts slightly as he'd addressed, then blinks at Yondu. He hadn't even noticed him come back, he'd been so busy staring at the monitors tracking Xion's vitals. Then the smell of the coffee registers, and he lets out a sigh as he forces his shoulders to relax.

"She'll call for someone, at any rate. She was barely in and out of consciousness earlier, so I'm uncertain as to how aware she is that I'm tending to her."

"That her? Your little girl?" He hadn't actually had a chance to see her yet. He hands off the coffee to Vexen, getting out of his way.

"Can't catch a break, can ya? Know what happened to her?"

"'House of the Rising Sun'," he repeats, starting to put it into the ICP to search. "Oh yeah, I'm plannin' to get drunk. Wouldn't take it otherwise. Lots of y'all probably feelin' it, too. I can't be the only one who needs some."

He takes a hard swig from the mug and makes a face. This is fine.

Satisfied with a few song choices he goes to sit by them, bringing his mug along for the ride.

"I'm real lucky the train forsaw the dumbassery of my fin design and made these so they don't gotta go over my head like Quill's did." He'd just wanted a fin that felt and looked like old Centaurian fins. Shows him for not thinking things through.

Edited 2021-02-18 09:04 (UTC)

He nods as he takes the coffee. He takes a long drink before answering, eyes now fixed on Xion's face, as if hoping her eyes are about to open.

"As far as I can tell, it's a form of mental overload. She spent yesterday mentally and emotionally as she was when I first created her...largely a blank slate. Since then, she's seen far more growth than I ever anticipated, formed an entire identity when all I'd given her was the most basic framework of a heart. Regaining all of that overnight...well, that's bound to be quite the mental shock."

[Sleeper 7: Cabin A]

Silvia had literally just decided to lock herself up in her room for the foreseeable future. It was fine, no one really knew where she lived right and Sleeper 7 wasn't even at max capacity so why would anyone go looking for her here? The other days events were just not something she wanted to think about. What had she even been talking about? She hadn't even been in costume, just in her nightgown.

Oh, gawd, her night gown, for all the train to see! Another source for embarrassment.

She curled up on her bed and just lay there ignoring the way Saqqara, her cat, was sniffing her wearily and circling her like she was a stranger.

[One Problem]

Unfortunately she had borrowed other people's clothing from the laundry car and she needed to return those items as swiftly and carefully as possible. As she walked through the various corridors, her head was down, shoulders slumped as she made a beeline for the aforementioned destination. She had a bundle of clothes in her hands that had hastily been wrapped with a sheet so they hopefully wouldn't be identified by their true owners in transit.

Then inside the laundry car, she hastily hung them back on the line.

"There- good as new... no one will ever know."

[Several problems]

Hiding in your room for eternity was impossible without a steady supply of food and water. Once again Silvia had left her assumed sanctuary to go to the kitchen car, there she was trying to procure a stash of imperishable items. What she wouldn't give to have someone she could confide in about all the strangness. A midnight call to Gylnis while she baked a batch of cookies would have been just the thing to help perk her up out of this funk.

What did any of this mean, who was she supposed to have been? Everyone she could recall speaking to just looked like younger version of themselves.

Had the spell, or whatever, worked differently on her?

Edited 2021-02-18 09:14 (UTC)

"Maybe she just needs the rest. Sounds like she had a bit much like any of us."

He's hesitant about doing it, like an angry stray dog around a sad stranger, but he puts his hand on Vexen's shoulder. A lot less rough than his previous friendly pats, just resting it there.

"Come on. You done enough. She ain't the only one who's wore out and needs to straighten their head out. C'mon."

Finally he notices that the man's ears are considerably pointier than the last time they spoke? His eyes have changed colors, but that registers as less strange.

Bustling into the laundry room, Silvia was too busy looking behind her to see what she was walking into, gripping a pile of clothes wrapped in a sheet. Thinking she made it here in good time and without being spotted she heaved a sigh of relief. Then she turned to look for the clothes line to get started only to spot the tall brunette and she shrieked, and dropped what she was holding.

Clothes in all manner of colors scattered over the floor: blues, purples, oranges, and reds. She clearly wasn't from those other teams and Kaiba would know that. Dropping to her knees and hastily started gathering them up.

"I.... I uh... I was.. on my way here... and... I... you see... I.. other people....needed.. some things washed... too?"

Edited 2021-02-18 09:21 (UTC)

"I suppose. It's just difficult not to worry, when so much is reliant upon mere speculation."

He shakes his head and, with visible reluctance, steps away from the bedside to leave the recovery room.

"She does, at least, appear to be physically stable. If there's anything biologically wrong, it's beyond my ability to detect with the equipment available here."

"Look, I woulda killed for a medical team like y'all got here. You're good, but you got more than equipment monitoring here. The other docs'll be comin' through, with all their unique machines, with all their magic abilities and energy abilities and all that, and they're gonna see what you can't right now. And if there's somethin' they'd tell ya, 'cause you don't keep a daddy waitin' when that daddy knows where you sleep."

He lets his hand slip off to walk along beside him.

"So you just up and made her? And she had to sorta grow a heart." He motions in front of his own chest, wondering if he's understanding it right. Most people are built off their experiences, but they've gotta go through all kinds of uncomfortable physical stages. Explains what he meant when he was talking about her age, though.

"I have a quite sophisticated magical scanner of my own, but so much of what she's dealing with is far beyond the scope of the original project."

He starts down the stairs to the first floor of the car, still visibly wound up.

"She was...the most successful prototype of my Replica project. At its core, it was a project to create living beings that emulated various properties of existing people. Xion was meant to be an emotionless doll capable of using a rare type of weapon, more an automaton than a person. I...wasn't able to observe directly, but I'm given to understand that a combination of circumstances caused her sparse framework of a heart to develop on its own. As thrilled as I am to see what she's become, however...it's so different from what I expected that I'm not entirely certain what else I ought to expect."

Otoha does not have a beer for Vexen, but he does pass through the standard car and pauses. He clears his throat so he doesn't take the other man by surprise.

"Uh. Hey."

He's not sure if the guy caught his broadcast earlier, but it still feels like he should apologize in person.

Ken looks through the train for Vexen, a little concerned. Going through each car takes some time, so it's mid-morning by the time he finally checks upstairs in the medical car. He glances at the floor to see if the scientist's pacing has worn a hole through.. nah.

He walks over and is surprised to see Xion in a bed. He hesitates a moment and then slips his hand into Vexen's, squeezing it carefully.

He blinks at the sound of someone clearing their throat, then lowers his phone and looks over. He looks tired, but also visibly tense as he rubs his face.

"Ah...hello. The...child from yesterday, correct? I seem to recall a message to that effect, at least."

He's been distracted all day, so he isn't entirely sure he remembers the face clearly, but he thinks this is the right person.

"That's right." He probably didn't need to make that post, but he felt like he did. "... Sorry. For being... so weird and freaky."

He really doesn't know what else he can say. He just needs to make sure that the apology is out there.

His pacing abruptly stops as Ken grabs his hand, and he looks down with a tired, uncertain smile.

"Good morning, child. I take it you were looking for me?"

He flinches at being called 'child', but he's not going to push it right now.

"... I was worried. ... Are you okay? Is she okay?"

He shakes his head and slides his phone into his pocket.

"I've dealt with stranger. My eldest child was nearly mute when he was around that age, and incredibly difficult to read. I was simply angry on your behalf."

"I'm simply...tired. There was a medical emergency late last night, and I woke up to Xion in...this state."

He sighs and rubs a hand over his face.

"Physically, she seems to be fine. I believe she is experiencing a mental overload from regaining her entire lifetime's worth of memories and emotional development at once. She will likely remain asleep for as long as it takes her subconscious to process the change."

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Page 1 of 22

Remember To Act Your Age [Open, Catch-all]

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seto kaiba | ota

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Yondu Udonta | OTA

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[An Apple A Day]

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Silvia Leafe | OTA

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off to work

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[No Rest for the Wicked]

[An Apple A Day]

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