voidtreckerexpress | How about if I just hide

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How about if I just hide

Who: Little One and People
Where: Around the Hire carriage and other locations
When: Between day 13 and day 22 of Merriment
What: Little One hired the fancy carriage for a week and blew over a hundred points on junk food snacks because that was easier than processing anything that happened on the last mission.
Warnings: Child assassin stuff might come up, sickness mention in last prompt

[Before the Platform. Closed to roommates if they want.] Once she had made her way to her room after the mission she hadn't left. She had enough stashed food to not need to leave her bed except to go to the bathroom, always when she could hear no one out in the corridor. Most of the train had been sleeping then, all exhausted from saving everyone and so she could pretend to be as well. To hide under the blankets and pretend to sleep.

She hadn't slept though, not properly. Only when the train forced it. Instead she had thought a lot. Memories that weren't hers, memories that belonged to Buttercup Sanzo mixed with memories that were her own.

It was stupid, she hated it all. It had all been fake, that world, a family, friends, a world where she was not only liked but also powerful.

That wasn't for her. She was not Buttercup Sanzo. She wasn't even Buttercup. That was just a name Tony had given her. Over a year ago. A name she had started to almost think about as her own.

But it wasn't. It wasn't hers. She had no name. She didn't have a family. Her sister was gone and for what? She had obeyed orders to prove herself, to show that she was loyal to the shadow god but then she had been whisked away to this train. She had broken every rule. She barely prayed anymore. She hadn't killed anyone. Monsters yes. People trying to end worlds yes. She had stabbed people she knew, when she had been Buttercup Sanzo and she felt bad for that.

She shouldn't feel bad about that. It was what she had been made for. A hand to hold a dagger, a soul to do the shadow god's work. But then this train. This stupid train had torn her from all of that and put her in this place with people who were so Good and yet nothing like she had been taught they would be like. They cared for each other. They loved, they argued, they threw their everything into saving strangers on distant worlds and she did too.

They saved her when she got into trouble. They fed her sweets and they asked nothing in return. They gave her no orders outside of combat. They taught her. She hated them all and yet deep inside she knew it was a lot more complicated than that.

But as complicated as all that was she had at least gotten used to it this last year. That city had been something else.

A father. A brother. Knowing that even if she messed up she would get to be part of their family. Just thinking about it made her furious. Was it possible to be jelous at a fake version of yourself?

Because the more she thought about it the more she hated Buttercup Sanzo. But more than any of that she hated that it had been done to her at all. That her mind had been twisted. That she had gotten stuck and even attacked those she knew.

So she lay and she fumed and pretended to sleep.

[Day 16 and Beyond. Hire carriage corridor] Curiosity had her leave her room. Platform days were always interesting. People arrived. People left.

She watched those that walked away. She knows a couple of them but one she knows very well indeed.

Priestess Lightning. She had met her on her very first day. Back when there had only been ten of them. Now there was just... Eva and Peter. They were all who were left.

She couldn't cope with this. It was too much. She didn't even want to be in her room anymore. Didn't want to see anyone. The train was bustling, people felt better and new people were arriving. She didn't want any part in this.

She found her way to the hire carriage, she had lots of points. She was good at this job even if it was not one she had chosen. She put in the information and paid the points for a week. There. She could hide here.

It had an ICP with access to all the films in the cinema and so that was perfect. Horror films were a good way to de-stress.

As were sweets. Through the next few days the only times she could be found was when she snuck down to the nearest shop terminal to buy some sweets or chocolate or a bottle of fizzy drink.

[Day Nineteen, throughout the train.] By day nineteen she felt a bit more confident to do a supply run. She aimed for late at night when most people should be asleep.

Library first, to nab a couple of books, some magazines. Horror films were great but her mind wouldn't settle, she needed more things to stop it from thinking.

Another run to the shop, more sweets, more chocolate. The game room to grab a pack of cards.

Last stop kitchen. She grabbed cheese and biscuits. Any cakes that she could nab. Never all of anything, one here, one there. She wanted hot milk and honey... She glanced around. It was quiet now so hopefully she would have enough time to make it, before anyone walked in.

[Day Twenty One, Medical]

She had woken up when the train had returned her to bed with stomach pains so bad she just wanted to curl up and scream. She had curled up, tried to watch a film. But she hurt too much, she felt like she wanted to throw up. But she couldn't.

She couldn't be sick. Even safe inside here where she was bothering no one. Being sick made her useless and though she couldn't argue that watching films for the last few days had been useful... She knew that if needed, she could have left. If ordered she would be ready.

But if she's sick. She can't. But being sick on the train isn't like being sick in Gauig. They have medicine here. She knows very little about medical but soon she is on a quest, to sneak in and grab what she can.

Sneaking into the medical carriage is a lot harder than getting into the kitchen, but she moves quietly, stays low and makes no sound even as she feels terrible, her stomach roils and she wants to cry out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Only Curufin could use so many words to apologise for talking too much. But she nodded at the description of a unicorn. A horse with a horn, usually white.

"Yes please."

Hopefully it wasn't a stupid one.

ROTFL that! Guilty as charged.

"There was a big difference between the southern part of the mountain chain and the northern part. The southern part was inhabited by many strange creatures that tended to wander up the slopes from the darkest part of the continent. Some of those beasts were pretty dangerous. We children weren't supposed to go up there without an adult with us. But Celegorm and I oftne did things we weren't supposed to do. And one evening we decided to walk down to the ravine, cross the stream at the bottom, climb up the opposite slope, and take the path up a mountainside and climb up to the ridge and then explore the other side."

He smiled at the memory of that adventure.

"That was the first of the southern peaks we were headed for. So, we went. The sky got darker and darker as we climbed, and though we had some light-jewels with us -- that is, Elven flashlights -- we were still going into a region that was very dark indeed. The stars weren't bright enough to light our way. We reached the top of the ridge and started walking along it, looking for a path down into the valley below. But suddenly, we looked ahead and there was a very strange creature indeed! It was a Manticore, which has a bull's body and a human head. Celegorm and I looked at each other, a bit worried. And then it pawed the ground, snorted its rage, and charged us."

He made a humerous scared face. "We turned and started to run. And we were fast, since running was one thing we did often. But not fast enough. The Manticore was gaining on us. We might have been hurt or killed, but suddenly, a white light shone at the top of the rise. We looked back and saw a unicorn! And the unicorn saw us and the Manticore chasing us. She, too, snorted and pawed the ground, and then started chasing the Maniticore."

He smiled at Little One. "The story's not over yet. I'll tell you the rest if you want to hear. It has a funny ending."

She's not sure whether to be derisive at how disobedient he had been as a child or impressed by how he had gone into dangerous places such as that.

Light jewels makes more sense as a concept than flash lights but she nodded. Very dark, even stars didn't help. A manticore. Bulls body and human head, sounded weird.

She nodded, "Yes, be telling it."

She wants to know if the unicorn killed the manticore.

He wouldn't have minded if she had been derisive about that disobedient young Curufin. He'd have laughed and agreed.

"So, the unicorn was chasing after the Manticore, and she was pretty fast. She got almost close enough to stab him, but he looked behind him and saw that he was in real danger and started to run twice as fast. His hooves clattered on the rocks with a heavy, thumping sound, and the unicorn's hoofs skittered with a much lighter sound. He disappeared into the darkness of the valley on the far side, and she never did catch up with him. She came running back after a while and stopped on top of the slope and peered down at us. 'What were you little Elvish twerps thinking of?' she demanded. 'You could have gotten yourselves killed!'"

Curufin grinned. "We stared at her and didn't answer. And then she snorted and ran down the slope and chased us down the same path we had come up. We were afraid of that horn, and so we didn't tarry. We ran like hell. Once we were down near the ravine, she stopped and called to us, 'Don't go up there again. There are worse things than the Manticore in that darkness, and you would surely grieve your parents if you never came home. Go now! Go home! MOVE!'"

Curufin shrugged, still smiling. "We said, 'Thanks for saving our good-for-nothing lives!' And we grinned at the unicorn and started down the path into the ravine. She snorted again and added, 'I'll kick your worthless little asses if I ever see you up here again.' We responded with salutes and smiles, saying, 'We promise!' Of course, our promises were worthless, but we stayed away from that area for a while, anyway."

He wriggled his eyebrows in a humorous fashion. "Years later when I told that story to my brother Maglor, he said that the unicorn wasn't just a unicorn, it was Yavanna, the Earth Goddess of the Elves. She was reputed to be good-natured, but I guess encountering wicked little Curufin and Celegorm was enough reason for her to become a little bit stern." He laughs.

So the Manticore had lived but the unicorn had gotten mad at Curufin and his friends. Quite rightly since they had been disobedient!

The unicorn sounded like she didn't take much nonsense from silly elves. But then the unicorn was a god? She blinked at him.

"You did be being told off by a goddess?"

Curufin wouldn't argue about the rightness, since he knew very well that he had been a little rascal.

"Apparently. That's if Maglor was right, and the unicorn was just one of Yavanna's many forms. He spent more time interacting with the gods and goddesses than I did, so I guess he'd know."

"Maglor did be talking to gods a lot?"

Like that was just a normal thing to do. She raised her eyebrows. "Well you did be being lucky, that you did be surviving that manticore. You do be owing that goddess a lot."

"I think Maglor was more amenable to communicating with the Powers than I was. And they loved his music. Of course, being a smith myself, I occasionally talked to the smith god Aulë and even was invited to his feasts along with my father. But other than that, I kind of avoided the gods. Especially the Death God, Mandos."

In Aman, it was a normal thing to do, talking to the gods. "And you're right, I do owe Yavanna a lot. Even though she chased us down the mountain and scolded us, she did save our lives. I never thanked her in that world, but she was there in the next world I lived in for a while, and I thanked her then."

Just going to feasts with gods, as if that were normal. Maybe it was normal in his world. What a strange place. They had a god for smiths and a god of death.

"You did be going to another world? Like the worlds we do be going to? And your god did be being there?"

She has so many questions.

In the western continent, Aman, it was normal to feast with the gods, but it wasn't normal in the eastern continent, Middle-earth. The gods didn't live in Middle-earth.

"I did go to another world. Actually, two of them. The first one was a version of our world, and it was called Arda Marred. The reason I knew it wasn't actually the same world was because it had no residents except in one village in the mountains. And some of these residents were clearly not from my world! Anyway, Arda Marred had a presiding god, Eru, and he was the Creator God from my universe. But he was a little different than the Eru of my world. And the second world I lived in was called Hadriel, and it had no Creator God, only a pantheon of gods who represented various emotions. And they made events happen that evoked these emotions in us, the citizens. They had a purpose for doing that. These gods fed off our emotions -- they were energy parasites. I wish Eru had been there. Maybe he'd have controlled the parasitic gods." He shakes his head and makes a humorous face.

"The gods did be feeding off emotions?" She wrinkled her nose. A worlds like his own but with barely any other people and then gods who evoked emotions in order to eat them? What strangeness.

She pulled a face. "Did you be choosing to be going there?" Or was it like this train, pulling them from their own worlds. Was that something that happened a lot?

"Yes, they absolutely DID feed off our emotions. Otherwise, Hadriel was an interesting place, and there were people there from my world, including my brother Maglor and my son Celebrimbor. I'm glad I was there because I had the chance to make amends to both of them and enjoy their company. For a time. But the energy parasites were a bit much, and in the end, nearly everyone I knew left and so did I."

He shrugs. "I didn't choose to go to Arda Marred, though I did eventually choose to leave. And I didn't choose to go to Hadriel either, though again, I did choose to leave. That's how I ended up in the Void in spirit form, drifting about in the magnificent darkness with the occasional colored lights, until the Voidtrecker Express reached out and summoned me. I took that as an invitation and accepted. Voila! Platform day."

"But you did no really be choosing to be coming here. Even if you had been saying no you would have been being on the platform." Because that was how it had worked.

She wasn't sure if she had been invited like that. She can't remember being. But also she had wanted to be anywhere but the inn, when she had ended up on the platform so maybe it had taken that as acceptance.

But so many people were angry about being here. So she can't imagine there was any real choice. "How did you be leaving the other places? Arda Marred and Hadriel?"

"I suppose you could see it that way -- as something that was not a choice. I guess I'll never know, since I wanted to go with the Voidtrecker Express and was grateful to be chosen. I'd never have refused."

Little One might never know, either!

For most, there was no real choice, and hence their anger. "I left both those worlds, Arda Marred and Hadriel, by disembodying and jumping into the Void in spirit form."

He wouldn't have refused? That was interesting. She wasn't sure if she would have, or not. Probably she would have. She was in her proper place back home and had never truly thought about leaving or running away, even if she had not wanted to be there at that time.

"This void?" She wrinkled her nose, looking out of the window. "Did that no be being stupid dangerous?"

He wouldn't have refused because he was searching for a situation where he could be helpful, and he'd have tried anything. Being in her proper place might have kept Little One from consenting to be on the train, if she was really attached to her world or her situation in it. That's how it works with most people.

"It would be stupid and dangerous to jump into the Void in bodily form. I think anybody who did that would probably die immediately. But in spirit form, there's no body to endanger."

"I do be thinking you should be worrying more about your mind."

After all, that seemed to be the danger. Headaches, weird dreams, seeing people who aren't even here. There was no end of weirdness that happened here.

He smiles. "I should be worrying about my mind? You mean I'm crazy?"

"Maybe." She shrugged. "Maybe that do be being why you do be talking so much."

She spoke without thinking and then froze. Glanced at him. Ready to scarper if he was the type to take offence at cheeky brats.

Curufin broke into an appreciative laugh. This young person was so good at playing the cheeky brat, and he wasn't offended at all.

"You may be right. Maybe I can't resist talking so much because I'm a madman." Chuckle. "Don't worry, I'm not angry."

Good. She was glad. She smiled at him and nodded. Maybe he was mad. But he was fun to talk to and had been a good distraction so that was a good thing.

Her smile was such s sweet one. He didn't see it often, but it was worth waiting for. And maybe he was mad; he sometimes thought so. But he did like to use his abilities to help others. And he had wondered as soon as he saw her grabbing books in the middle of the night if she was feeling troubled.

He smiled back. "Do you have stories about your own experiences that you like to tell?"

"No." She shook her head. Telling stories could be dangerous, they led to questions and it was hard to keep track of what she told people.

"I do be liking to be listening more."

"All right, it's up to you, of course." He smiled again. "I wonder if there is any other story I could tell you that you would enjoy? Or would you rather just keep gathering books and magazines?"

She tilted her head, "I can be listening to another. What else did you be doing? You do be sounding like a naughty child. Did you be getting into trouble a lot?"

Surely, he must have got caught a lot.

How about if I just hide

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