Crashing Down: Preparation

[voidtreckermods]

Voidtreckers. I have picked up a catastrophe mission coming from system #78961112094711. Voidtreckers have urged me to be open with you all these last months and so I shall be transparent. The readings coming from this catastrophe are very unusual and I cannot determine the threats. Indeed there do not seem to be any threats in the system that would result in a catastrophe level mission.

This has been encountered before, in the Month of Egret on system #27462947582. This voidcraft was unable to ascertain the threats that could lead to a catastrophe. Known risks were calculated and mission goals created, but the Voidtreckers were put in unnecessary danger from the world destroyers.

From the data available it is not unreasonable to believe that the catastrophe facing #78961112094711 comes from the world destroyers. We still have little information. We do not have any way to stop the destroyers. However we have advantages that Voidtreckers did not have in the month of Egret.

We know what is coming. System #78961112094711 is Void Active. Voidtreckers have allies there. Saving the system is not possible but with five hours it is possible that many many lives could be saved by evacuating them to the void.

This voidcraft is sending a forward message to the ministry stationed on System #78961112094711. Due to the nature of arriving at catastrophe missions they will receive it not long before we arrive. But it should mean they are ready for us. This voidcraft has calculated mission goals to help voidtreckers organise but it should be noted that the most important goal is to save as many lives as possible.

The announcement comes out of the blue on day twenty four of the month of Quicksand. Not too long after breakfast when people are getting on with chores or other morning activities.

It is followed quickly by a holographic message setting out their team goals. They do not have all that much time before arrival, an hour or so to be prepared for the huge task ahead of them. The dressing carriage is open with warm coats, hats and other team-coordinated winter accessories.

How to prepare for such a challenge? It's going to be a very difficult day.

[OOC: This is a bonus extra for those who want to play out the preparation and reaction to the forthcoming event. It is forward dated until day 24. The actual event will go up on the 16th April and a conclusion on the 23rd. Though IC the event will only last one day.]

Comments

[irrationally]

It's a good question, honestly. Alice inhales slowly before speaking up.

"I do not trust to leave this up to everyone else." Not when some people on the train are just.. utter morons. And the task this time around is a little too important, which may be part of the reason why Alice managed to drag herself over towards the dressing carriage. At least with some missions it's not like a world would be gone if they would fail, but.. well, if they don't work hard enough here, some people might be lost along with the world that will be destroyed.

And that's a little harder for Alice's hero complex to swallow, no matter how crappy she's feeling right now.

".. And every life not saved on this mission will be a life snuffed out."

[knifewithnoname]

That sounded more like Alice. Not trusting the others to do it right. It was right after all. Some people on this train were very stupid.

It was an important mission. "Yes. If we do be missing anyone they will be dying."

So even apart from useless teammates, it was a case of all hands on deck. Everyone was needed, because they had a lot to do.

[irrationally]

It's just about the only reason that can get Alice to move anymore at this point, really. She has to get herself together, or people will die. If she just imagines that someone might have been able to save her if they had worked a little harder.. that gives her at least some strength to not be that absent person for someone else.

No matter how heavy her limbs feel.

".. How about you? You must just have woken up."

Or.. well, whatever someone does inside of those suitcases. Since no one seems to remember, Alice imagines people just sleep in there or something.

Regardless, it can't be easy for the other girl either, having to do all this when she only just regained consciousness.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes." She nodded. "I did be waking up when the train did be speaking."

Hence why she is trying to catch up as quickly as possible. "What month name do we be being on now?"

They'd just had a mission, so was it a new month? How long had she been gone?

It maybe doesn't matter but having as much information as possible is good.

[irrationally]

.. what month name are they on? It's a good question. Sure, the train may say it often enough, but Alice's mind has been so scrambled lately that it's been really hard to maintain small details than that.

So rather than answering that directly, especially when she doesn't know the full answer, she instead approaches it from a slightly different angle.

"You have not been gone for long."

Not as far as Alice knows, anyway.

"Perhaps a week or so."

[knifewithnoname]

Does she not know? That's worrying because it's an easy thing to know. The train says it every morning. If she doesn't know that then she really hasn't been paying attention.

Alice isn't a stupid person, so the strange mood that has taken over her has gotten worse. She sighed.

"Okay. That do no be being too long. Do you be having warm things?"

Osiga was cold. Alice was at least in here, which meant she had began to prepare. But if she can't even know what month it is then she was going to have to make sure to help her. If Alice can't even follow what was going on then she was going to need all the help she could get on a world about to be eaten.

[irrationally]

"Yes."

She gestures to the spot on the ground next to where she's sitting. There's a warm-looking coat lying there, looking like it was not-too-gracefully discarded onto the ground.

Apparently Alice can at least do some basic levels of taking care of herself, even in this state. She just won't do it in the best way possible, hence why she had to sit here and take a break after picking out the coat. It's not like they were going to actually leave the train anytime soon with the hours' worth of a countdown, anyway.

"I do remember how cold that place was." After all, they had been there before, right? It wasn't something Alice realised right away, but when she heard other people talk to each other here, the memories slowly came back to her.

[knifewithnoname]

"Yes, it did be being stupid cold." She nodded, glad that Alice at least had a coat. It was a start.

She began rummaging in one of the drawers, looking for hats and gloves in both her size and Alice's.

"So it will be being important to keep these on." She might be speaking to Alice like she is a little child. But honestly, she doesn't know how else to deal with her right now. This is so far out of anything she understands, for Alice to be like this.

[irrationally]

The girl isn't the only one who's realising that she's speaking to Alice that way. Alice herself understands it too. It's not hard to realise, after all, and it makes her feel kind of pathetic in the moment.

And that feeling is just strong enough for her to stand up, even though she feels like there's no strength left in her legs. She grabs the coat off the ground, hanging it over her shoulders so her arms are free to carry other things - like the stuff the other girl is grabbing for them right now.

"I know." Her own voice still feels foreign to her ears, but Alice tries to speak, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. "Don't worry. I will do fine."

She can't say 'I'll be alright,' after all.

She is not alright.

"You do not have to take care of me. I will just do what I always do."

Even though Alice is saying it with a tone that completely lacks energy. Or emotion, for that matter. Even though she's standing there, it's like there's no soul left within her. Like a doll.

cw LO is not a psychologist

[knifewithnoname]

"Someone do be needing to." Because Alice is clearly not looking after herself. This is so frustrating. It's not as if she's sick or injured. It's just her feelings dragging her down. There's no medicine for that. You can't wrap feelings in bandages to stop them bleeding out.

"Be sticking near other people, do no be going off on your own." She sighed.

She would just have to keep an eye on her. She can ask others to do so as well. Tidus already knows about this and surely other people have noticed. They've noticed how Alice looks how she is acting.

[irrationally]

"Do not talk like that," Alice suddenly speaks, an edge crawling into her tone.

An edge of something more dangerous. It's not the sort of tone she usually uses around the girl, but she can't help it in this moment. There's something about the way she speaks that truly irks Alice. If there's anything that reignites her trauma after all this time, it's people treating as if she's helpless.

Just like back in the asylum. Her stomach threatens to turn itself over inside of her at the very thought.

"I will be fine on this mission. I do not need people to look after me. Do not treat me as if I am helpless, since that is exactly what those abominable idiots did back home!"

She stomps over, grabbing a pair of gloves into her hands.

"I am merely tired. Not incapable."

[knifewithnoname]

She freezes, having just picked up a warm hat that she thinks is in Alice's size. She can hear that edge, that danger.

Alice's anger. She doesn't turn. Not at first, doesn't move at all except to stare at the hat, her own anger rising inside her.

She is only trying to help after all. She doesn't understand why Alice is like this. She doesn't even know why she cares. She should just let the other girl be and get on with the mission.

But Alice has, slowly but surely, became someone she cares about. Someone who she cares about the opinions of. Someone who is now mad at her.

Because she cares. This is so stupid. She hates it. She's not like the idiots from Alice's home. She's not an idiot. She doesn't treat her like that. She wouldn't put her in hospital.

As Alice snatched up the gloves she would find a hat hurtling its way towards her.

"Be suiting yourself. But do no be coming and crying to me when you do be getting eaten by a monster because you do be being too tired to be fighting back."

She turned on her heal, ready to storm away.

[irrationally]

Maybe in another situation she would have stopped the girl.

But right now.. Alice is in no state to do so. She hasn't been in a long while. Everything has been so tiring, and this just feels like the latest tiring stone in the wall of exhaustion that's been constructed within her. Alice can feel it dulling the anger within her until it's just more of that same exhaustion.

Which means she'll just watch the girl storm away, letting out a sigh after she disappears.

There's nothing she could have said anyway, Alice thinks. There's no way to communicate any of this feeling to a girl that young. It's better to just let her go and try to focus on getting through this mission.