voidtreckerexpress | [ OPEN ] "would you calm down a little bit"

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[ OPEN ] "would you calm down a little bit"

Who: Tidus and You!
Where: All over! Armoury, standard coach, training gym, sports gym, and games car
When: Merriment 16 - 20
What: Supplies moving, setting up games and exercise equipment, watching that sports game Tidus is really into and also catching a case of ~~home~~ lifesickness!!
Warnings: Last prompt has connections to death/disappearing, but nothing to do with suicide or negative thoughts.

[ DAY 16 ; armoury car ]

"Heyyyy. Uh, so it looks like the train added the lockers I was hoping for. Since Light left, and Tobes's been gone for a while...," Tidus adds with a mutter, already not sounding that pleased, "--I'm puttin' everything from the supplies into them, 'kay? The healing, shields and weapons. There's a tablet with a list of what everything does and how to use 'em. It's voice-automated too.

So...yeah. That's it. See ya."

It's far from confident, the usual casual-sounding that's Tidus been heard over the ICP, but it's on par to whenever he talks about supplies. Lightning's leave already has his mood down, which is an evident sight to anyone who comes to the armoury, where he made the call (and then switched off, not interested in holding a conversation over the thing). There's nothing exciting going on: just suitcases on the ground with their lids open, the array of healing and weaponry waiting revealed inside that's to be stuffed away.

Maybe you come because of the announcement; maybe you're just passing by. You might hear a "shit!" hissed when one of the finger-sized bottles go rolling towards the other side of the carriage from where Tidus is. His movements are sluggish, and he wears an unguarded, doleful look, uncharacteristically quiet. Unless he notices anyone lingering, or just catches someone's eye -- then he'll pull on a smile, and give a simple "Hey."

Or, he's just taking a second to look at locker and its supplies once it's filled, his back to another locker, sitting on the floor. And you might hear him say-

"Hope you kick that god's ass, Light."

[ DAY 17 ; training gym - standard coach ]

( a: treadmills ~~cw cw inigo don't look~~ )

But he's being better by the next day, or seems to be. In the early morning he's in the training gym, pulling odd square containers out by a wall, with what appear to be bars curled around the sides. To anyone whose attention he gets, he offers cheerily: "Hey, how about a go on one of these?"

It takes some pressing in the right places, and then, the 'box' stars to unfold, turning rectangular while the bars raise - and it turns into what's essentially a treadmill.

"Ever seen one of these?"

Or, he could already be running on one, while the second sits there, a spare waiting to be used. Hop on! Tidus won't stop you.

( b: standard coach - blitzball )

There's a few close CR he might push to join him, but if you're friendly with Tidus and you happen to passing through, he might usher a hand, stop you from where you were going.

"Hey, hey! Wanna see me in a blitzball match?"

He's at a table, a device rolled out and a picture taking up the entire 'screen' and an energy drink open. There's footage similar to this to behold (note: without city destruction), with Tidus perhaps present an outfit like this, and his hair blond. Or, you might even get a chance to see him a year younger, in an outfit the same the rest of his team -- and with his hair a brown.

"Oh man!" He says through a laugh. "I can't believe it got video of me like this! This was when I was starting off!"

[ DAY 18 ; sports gym/games car ]

( attempt a: whomp whomp )

Tidus has got a plan. He's had a plan for a while, thanks to Roland, but now is the time to achieve it. It starts somewhere around morning to noon, after breakfast. There's notices slapped on the outside of the sports gym doors, written in fat felt.

'USING THE SPACE 2 MAKE A POOL'

'SWIMMING POOL INSIDE'
One on one side, one on the other. You might get to read them, before the troubles, or after. What are the troubles? That would happen to be when a sound like the equivalent of a bomb going off sounds from inside the gym, and before the doors can be opened from outside, they slam open from within - and water floods out into the hallway, possibly knocking anyone out there off their feet.

The good of the situation: the water is only knee-high deep on an adult. The bad of the situation: ...the car is flooded, welcoming any unsuspecting person who welcomes through the sports car (and thank goodness someone moved the transgate back out). Tidus can be found inside the car - that's impressive flooded from one end to another, in swimming shorts and coughing up water, while a blue pal is floating on the water the opposite end, wiggling and squeaking 'hiiigle!! piggle!!' desperately. ( But, they're only visible to those with a good heart/of good intentions. )

A plan may have not gone off right here.

( attempt a: dingdingdingding! )

"I've got a pool going in the gym for an hour or two! Come join me if you want!"

But by some miracle, they finally get it right. This pool doesn't take up the full length of the gym but one half of one side, away from the walls and about half the size going up from the ceiling. Tidus might be seen inside the water, or just enjoying floating above it; his blue pal nowhere but to seen, but for those who sense energy, may be able to discern there being entities with the water, that is otherwise nothing more than fresh, natural water.

Grab some shorts from the spa car, come and gawk, complain about the room being used up or whatever you like. Tidus dives into the water and reaches out of the 'wall' of the water, to a large trunk homing pieces of coral, breaking it off and bringing it into the bizarre pool - where it shatters into pieces, and the water wobbles...in delight??

[ DAY 19 ; sports gym - standard coach ]

( a: dance dance dance!! or shoot shoot shoot!! )

Oh no, he's in the sports gym again.

But don't worry, there's no water. This time, there's a holographic figure being projected from a round disk on the floor. About as defined as a wii fit trainer, they stand idle as Tidus - dressed appropriately - flicks through a screen of settings.

"Wanna give it a go with me?" Tidus offers, always happy for company. The dance difficulties he goes for are simple to follow, and there's the option of finding him with Inigo for company, if you want to up the potential for dumery. Two guys just doing repetitive dance moves, and if Tidus happens to catch you staring (though, he really needs to keep his eyes on the coach!), he'll grin and challenge, "Think you can keep up!?", in all his usual daring nature.

( Warning: if Inigo notices a girl/woman looking at ~~him~~ them, the possibility of him shrieking is 90%. )

But when isn't Tidus like that? Always up to something, and willing to include another. There's a new addition in the games carriage that Tidus has been having goes on, aiming to raise his highscore. Look at this wonderful gameplay.

( attempt b: 3am thoughts )

But there's more than only his usual buzzing energy going on with Tidus. He can be found in the standard coach on some of the later nights; another energy drink opened, indulging in a fizziness a guy like him shouldn't be so late. The tablet device sits on a simple stand, while his head rests in his folded arms, watching the blitzball footage.

To some, he just looks focused on whatever he's watching - intensely so. But if he happens to notice anyone come in (a 50/50 chance), he pauses the video, or just brings the device down -- like a guy trying to hide his shame, head turned towards the window, his face a warm pink. He might look back with a not-trying-to-appear-awkward "Hey" if he recognises the person - but otherwise, just, you know. Acting like he didn't do that!

Nothing weird about him, bro.

[ DAY 20 ; sports gym (late) ]

( note: prompt has some allusions to death, may involve talk related to it; nothing negative/suicidal! )

It's late again, and Tidus has something he wants to find out.

Why? There's a few reasons in his head. A few thoughts have been in his head, leading him into the sports gym, out of the way. He could go somewhere more private like the quiet car, but Tidus likes the sports car, spends most of his time in it. He likes the space and silence, as empty as it is right now.

He has a device on him, and he's counting down the time; his SCA on the floor next to him, in easy reach.

Counting how long it takes for his skin and the rest of him to start to discolour, shimmering into greens and blues; until it becomes see-through, until it gets to a point that it scares him, and he can't countdown any more and needs to grab his SCA again, all he can grab at that point.

But as late a time as Tidus picks to do his experiment, maybe he ends up not the only one there, caught with his eyes on the tablet device, ears not picking up on the doors farther away from him when they open.

Unless the person is particularly loud - then he'll reach for his SCA, and scramble to get it on quickly, the colours across his body fading as a more solid form returns.

[ OTHER DETAILS ]

[ Want to do any of the above but on different days? Treadmills, dance exercise, and gaming are available on any of them! Inigo can also be a 3rd person for dancing. Feel free to message me for any questions/plotting!! ]

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Inigo worries, even what he worries over - apologises for -- is the opposite of the truth. Where he's been more comfortable having it out there, even if it doesn't change anything. Because it doesn't change anything, and sure, that means his condition, too - but that, he's long made peace with.

He leans the side of his head against Inigo's, content in this particular mood.

"It's alright," he says - admits, even though he knows he can't leave it at that. "I... had time to come to terms with it back on Spira, you know? It doesn't really bother me. What bothers me more...is the way it makes me feel trapped to the train."

There's a pause, and he huffs, tinted with mirth.

"But we know how I feel about that."

No need to get into that, his tone implies, a jab at his own expense.

"But really... in the end, we're all in the same boat." ... "Or train. Our situations are the same. So we're stuck here, just trying to figure ourselves out."

Being happy, being sad. Suffering and dealing with where they are in life. That good stuff.

They are all trapped. It's true. But while Inigo's home situation is.. well, complicated, he at least has some place to go to after he leaves the train. He can somehow figure things out from there. Whereas Tidus's existence is very literally trapped within the train - like a ghost in the machine.

It's not a thought Inigo likes at all, though.

"We'll figure out some way to detach you from the train." There's a beat, and then Inigo quickly continues, almost as if he wants to be ahead of something: "There's some way out there, I just know it. We only haven't found it yet."

(Save us, Jingyi-Wan-Kenobi.)

"And then one day we'll all leave this train behind together. And then you won't have to think anymore about silly stuff, like.." Inigo releases a sigh, his hand seeking out Tidus's own, holding on to it. "Like how many seconds you can still exist without your link to some dumb train."

There's a bump to his hand, eyes glancing to see what it is. The obvious - Inigo's hand. Tidus moves his fingers so Inigo can take a hold of it, something funny in his belly, an ease. This kind of ease where others would be more scared, and it's not always this way, but, often, he wonders if this was how Yuna felt.

Choosing death for life. But here, now... it didn't mean anything.

Still, Inigo gets a small huff out of Tidus, a touch of a chuckle. Asking with a continued mirth. "Oh yeah? Then what will we do then?" Ahhh... "Go and see Naga?"

Ask for a few favours?

"Yeah."

It's a surprisingly serious answer, especially coming right after that statement said by Tidus with such a laugh in his voice. Not that Inigo sounds stern, or too somber about it - if anything, his voice sounds a touch dream-like, like his mind is far away from this place at the moment.

"I just know she'd be able to help you." After all, is there anything Naga can't do? And while Inigo knows that she must have better things to do at the moment, more important things, like helping his father and sister and everyone else back home banish Grima for all eternity..

He still can't help but feel this selfish wish somewhere deep down in his heart.

"I wish I could just somehow reach her here. It's so frustrating to know that help is right out there," help for Tidus's situation, for all of them on the train, "but it's just right out of reach."

Tidus is sympathetic to the feeling in Inigo's frustration; after all, wasn't that too often the case? Help just being out of reach, since they didn't have the means to reach for it. He hums at first, but, with a little though...

"You said you tried before... but it was alone, wasn't it? What if someone could help you?" It's an idea really stretching to be possible, but-

"Remember when Nita held that gathering to try and talk to the train, on the platform? She was directing...kinda mushing all the energies together, that kind of thing. What if someone could do that with you? Make your prayer stronger?"

Prayer boost buff?

That causes Inigo to look over at Tidus, seeming to think about it for a moment.

"Well, it couldn't hurt to try." Right? That's the one upside to this plan. Even though Inigo isn't sure if it'll work, if something about the void itself isn't blocking his connection to Naga, it's not like they'd lose anything by trying out this plan.

At worst just nothing would happen.

He moves a hand up, pulling a hand through his hair.

"We'd just need to find someone with that sort of power. Someone who can amplify things, or something like that.." Inigo is mentally going over all his friends in his head right now, though he's not sure if any of them have something like that.

Who came to mind? ...Nita, obviously, but that was a dead-end there, and he wasn't sure who else there was with a little more thought. Tidus doesn't let that dissuade him though, since if they don't know...

"We'll ask, even if we have to ask the whole train. We don't have to let the whole plan out over the ICPs, but as long as we find someone who can help with prayers, or just amplifying..."

That's a good word, amplifying.

"Off the train's better for that kinda stuff than on, right?"

Was there somewhere he heard about that? ...he's not too sure, but it sounds alright.

"Definitely. It feels kind of odd to do it here from within the void.. And we never know if the train isn't trying to block that sort of thing on purpose."

So it's better to do it away from the train, right? When they're on some world, and the train won't be right there to meddle with their attempt.

He pauses a little, thinking about it. It feels so very long ago by now, but.. "Back home we always tried to call for Naga high up on a mountain." Partially since it's where her sanctuary was, but.. maybe it also gave them a better shot at connecting with a divine creature? "Though that would mean we'd have to get lucky with the kind of world the train would drop us off at."

"Yeah," Tidus agrees, unsure about their luck there. "Let's focus on what we can get. If we get lucky with a mountain, great! Maybe there's something else can get that's useful."

But what? Tidus is thinking back to Spira as he says it, to Yevon and the aeons. There was imagery for Yevon, but that didn't really do anything. And with the aeons, you had to go to their temples - and finding a temple for Naga was less likely than a mountain.

...so, it's probably better to ask: "There isn't anything else that's got a connection to Naga, is there? We have you and your brand..."

Was there more?

A connection to Naga.

Inigo grows quiet, staring ahead of them. It's not that he has to think about the answer. He knows the answer already, it's just that there's a different problem entirely that keeps him from being able to easily answer that question.

"There are some items that are passed down the royal family line that might help."

That was what they, too, had tried to use to summon Naga in their future. It's why the thought had crossed Inigo's mind before about trying to use them here, but--

"They need those back home though, if they're still fighting Grima."

Tidus glances at Inigo when he first speaks, curious. But then he speaks on, and while his face wasn't the picture of hope, his mouth does frown; one that lingers, when he thinks about how Inigo doesn't know what the situation back on his world is. Their fight against Grima...

"We'll do with what we can get," he assures with a nod. "We have you, and your bond. And with the different kind of folks we have around here - we'll figure something out."

Maybe not straight away, but eventually. Time was what they had plenty of.

"I hope so."

It's said quietly, and Inigo moves to lean against Tidus even more. "I really want to do something like that for everyone here. And do something for you too." To fix Tidus's situation. To give him a shot at life.

He slowly sighs as he thinks.

"At least I know the bond isn't fully gone while I'm here. I know that Jumblie somehow managed to tap into it, that's how she got to bond with me. So it's still there, even if I somehow haven't seemed to be able to reach her yet."

It means there's still a possibility, no matter how faint it is. That there's still hope out there somewhere for this plan.

Tidus looks towards Inigo from the corner of his vision. "So that means... Jumblie can speak to Naga too?"

Theoretically?

Because Tidus isn't sure what to think there, but if there's some wavelength that Jumblie is sharing inside of Inigo, then - that's good, right? He doesn't know what the two experience with one another, or what that bond does beyond the link to Naga and the brand in Inigo's eye.

"Maybe," Inigo says. He's well aware that it's not the most intelligent of answers, but.. really, there's a lot even he never got to know about his bond with Naga, and he's even less sure of what it could mean when foreign influences like Jumblie get involved.

"I can often hear her speak in my head. Jumblie, I mean."

Which he figures is a side effect of her just hopping along on that bond. But if Jumblie can talk to him that way, then maybe it's true that she could talk the other way too - to the being on the other end of the bond.

"But.. I don't think her reach is all that better than mine." Inigo shifts a little where he's sitting and leaning against the other. "She's just a higgledy, after all."

The cutest higgledy ever, sure. But they don't seem particularly powerful by themselves, without something else there to power them.

"Oh." Hmm. Tidus taps at the riven on the floor, still showing the timer on the screen. "I guess I never thought about it before - what connects the higgledies to us. I figured it was just something they could do, so long as you can see them."

Not that they were riding on any particular bond. What did it mean for his and Gibbers? Was there something or other the creature was bound to inside him? When he wasn't bound to anyone, anything, and had to be.

...and what about when his barely held-together link unravelled, just like it had now? He puts a hand to his chest, a thought he hadn't considered. Worry floods him, and he starts to get up - maybe abruptly to Inigo, but:

"Ummm, let's go see how the higgledies are doing. Are they in the bedroom?"

Doing fine, okay, not having anything happen to them because Tidus decided to do cool tricks like fading??

".. huh?"

There's that brief pause, and then just that small sound of surprise coming from Inigo. He glances at Tidus with some confusion in his eyes - mostly since he's not quite following the same mental train of thought as his friend is. Inigo was mostly too busy thinking about the Naga side of his bond with Jumblie more than anything, and so he doesn't quite know where Tidus is going with this..

Though he gets up all the same. As if he trusts the other enough to go along with him, even if Inigo isn't too sure what's happening.

"Yeah," he finally says, his head dipping into a nod. "I told them to wait for us. .. Why, do you think something's wrong?"

"No no," Tidus hurries to say; not wanting his own worry to spread needlessly to Inigo, who's naturally better at it than him. "I just wanna see Gibbs is okay. You know- that he doesn't think anything's wrong with me. That he felt anything."

Not that Tidus is worrying about Gibbs, oh no. But as he says it, he does believe in that case better than himself doing anything to the high higgledy. His existence doesn't rely on his being, strong by himself - stronger than Tidus in that case (and many others). He throws a temporary smile at Inigo, nodding with it, before heading for the way out, but not in a rush that will leave Inigo behind.

"It's late anyway. Good time to be heading for bed."

Thankfully for Tidus, it does seem like the worry is flying way over Inigo's head. It's hard to think of when he isn't following the exact same train of thought, after all, and the reason Tidus himself provides is very believable.

.. well, that, and then there's also the fact that Inigo is just happy to know that Tidus is going to come to bed with him, rather than sitting here by himself, getting existential in the worst way possible.

So Inigo quickly steps to catch back up with Tidus, following him back in the direction of their room.

"Ah, right.. Hopefully it should be alright, since he didn't come rushing over. And Jumblie's there with him." And Inigo knows the sunshine higgledy is a great source of comfort. "They'll probably still be waiting for us together."

And so they went to find out the higgledies have been raiding their secret stash of sweets while they were having an existential moment.

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[ OPEN ] "would you calm down a little bit"

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hi ree from 10 days ago dw is denying me my daily dose of tidus apparently

hi, kissy faces

o///o

😘 i found it