voidtreckerexpress

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Breach!

Day twenty of the month of Domino starts as a perfectly normal day on the Voidtrecker express. Passengers work on chores, or play games, bicker and read. The usual ways of relieving the slight tedium that come with being stuck on a train. Even a train that is hurtling through the void.

It is about mid morning when the whole train tilts, suddenly as if it has been hit. It is enough to knock passengers over if they don’t catch themselves quick enough. For those in the games car there is a loud bang as something hits the window. A small black object is stuck in the window for a moment before it dislodges and disappears as quickly as it appears.

The window doesn’t smash but cracks appear around the impact site. Almost immediately sirens begin going off. "Breach. Breach. Warning. Breach."

Hopefully passengers will remember what they are to do in the event of such an incident. For anyone in the kitchen they will see that the oven, water and other appliances switch off. Doors begin closing around the train, in an attempt to seal carriages.

Those in the games carriage won’t see much of that, they will barely have time to register what has happened before they feel dizzy and sleepy, falling to the ground where they are. This spreads throughout the train, the further away a passenger is from the games car the longer they will have before they succumb but within fifteen minutes everyone on the train will be sleeping. Even including those who usually do not sleep or even those who cannot sleep.

Because this is no ordinary sleep.

For some passengers they will sleep the whole day and night, solidly and dreamlessly. But for others, for most, their sleep is anything but peaceful.

They will dream, strange, wonderful or terrible dreams and walk those dreams with their fellow passengers. Tumbling from one to another with no sense of where one ends and the other begins they will dream the whole day and night, though it will likely feel much longer and perhaps much shorter.

Their dreams may come from themselves, they may come from their fellow passengers and there are a few dreams that all may find themselves dreaming.

Infestation

The train is filled with dralite. They are everywhere, in every carriage. Flying through doors, in your bed. This dream takes the form of a stress dream, every time you think you have emptied a space of dralite there are more.

They aren’t aggressive creatures, just annoying and the ever shifting dream means that every time you remove one from hugging your head another appears. The train shifts and warps, carriages muddling as you move through it trying to contain all of the creatures.

A Distant Light

It is a dark night, though there are stars in the sky. In the distance there is a bonfire lighting up the area. Around it there are figures, they are too far away to make out any features but in the flickering light you can see they wear hoodies in the colours you know well by now.

There is the sound of singing and laughter and you want to approach. But no matter how long you walk the fire is always in the distance, never getting closer. You feel a great longing to be at the fire, but it is out of reach.

Flying

Flying is such a universal dream and so it is not surprising many of your dreams will incorporate this. You fly, over mountain, across rivers and seas, through forests and through the debths of space itself.

But most often you fly through the void, the ever shifting void around you, diving through colours that swirl and dance around you.

Dream well Void warriors!

(OOC: The plotting and information post is here. Characters will wake up on day 21 and there will be an ooc mod post detailing that on the 10th February.)

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Madoka is terrified still. None of this is something she can understand. It's dangerous and scary - and worse, it involves one of the people important to her, making all of this even more complicated and confusing. She doesn't even know what that thing over there is when she glances at the mobile suit.. Some kind of robot..?

The only thing she can figure out is that Ple Two doesn't seem to be doing well. Even aside from the whole strange threat situation. The way her legs are shaking, the way she seems so oddly nervous..

"P.. Ple Two.."

She's scared to speak. Worried what might happen. But even in this sort of situation, she can't just abandon a friend in need. Even when said friend is threatening to kill her.

"What's wrong..? Y.. You know you can share it with me if you have a problem, right? We can work it out together, you don't have to suffer by yourself.."

Once she's in a mobile suit, once she's able to use her powers, she'll be fine. She can take on anyone, and anything, and destroy every threat to her, to executing her duties. Even if that threat is just... Madoka.

The greatest threats are those that might take away your ability to fight.

"I can't. ...I'm not suffering. I belong here! I'm finally doing what I'm meant for!" Her life, her entire existence, is a weapon. "Even if... I have to clean things up myself..."

Her first instinct when she hears those words is to doubt herself. As always. Because maybe Ple Two is right, somehow. Maybe what Madoka is saying is actually setting the other girl back. Maybe Madoka isn't doing the right thing here at all.

But she remembers the time they were playing games together when Ple Two first told her about this - about her being a weapon.

".. You.. said it yourself."

That's the only thing she can cling to right now. No matter how scared she is, or worried, or doubtful. Just that memory.

"When I said it was cruel for anyone to have to be that way.. y-you said I wasn't wrong about that. You said that even though you couldn't be like us, you could at least try to have some fun.. Don't you remember..?"

"I'm going to fight." She has to fight she has to kill and thinking about it just makes it harder to be herself. Ple Two is nearing her mobile suit, images of death and destruction flashing through her mind. Once she kills everyone she cares about it will be fine! She'll be herself again!

In fact, she'll be even stronger, won't she?

"...just lying to myself... just surviving..." ...when she talked to Madoka, or now?

"I-.. I don't think you were lying to yourself.. You sounded so sincere."

That's why Madoka has been trying so much. To include Ple Two in fun activities. To slowly get the other used to having a bit more physical contact that's loving rather than violent. Because Ple Two really sounded like she wanted to try those things, so she wanted to help.

Even though she's still much too afraid to full on run up to the other girl, Madoka does take a few shakey steps closer when Ple Two gets closer and closer to her mobile suit.

"Please.. I don't think this is what you really are. O-Or what you have to be!"

"Just... fighting. That's... all I need..." she mutters, and the voice of Glemy swirls around her - she's not even sure if he's here, if Madoka can hear him, but what does it matter? She just needs to get there. To the mobile suit, to complete herself as a weapon.

...Madoka's finding the nerve to take a few steps, though.

Not just a few steps either. She's still scared, but she's taking another view as Ple Two gets closer and closer to the mobile suit. Maybe Madoka figured it's easier to do so when the other girl is paying less attention to her and more to that odd robot-looking thing - or maybe she just really wants to help the other that much, despite how dangerous this situation is.

Although she doesn't nearly get close enough to be able to touch the other or anything, she's not too far away anymore now.

"Do you really believe the person who was telling you all that so much..?" That strange voice she heard earlier, seemingly coming from nowhere-- "Because h.. he's wrong! You're not weak at all..! You've never been weak!"

Madoka's still coming. It shouldn't be enough to distract her, to stop her. Just this girl who can hardly take care of herself, who Ple Two could kill in a half dozen ways just under the immediate circumstances. She can, and she should, and she doesn't want to - which means she needs to all the more.

And it's making her head hurt, quite literally.

"I don't... know... what..."

It really hurts to see Ple Two like this, with her confusion and pain so visible. And Madoka hates it even more to be the cause of it. But on the other hand, she just refuses to let the other girl think that all she can be is a weapon. That all possible opportunities aren't right out there for her if she wants to take them.

"If.. If you don't know, then please just listen to me." Maybe it's exactly because Ple Two seems so pitiful and hurt right now. It makes Madoka's desire to help grow stronger than any nervousness or fear, no matter how reckless that may be in a situation this dangerous. "Believe in our friendship.. I wouldn't lie to you."

She takes a step closer, holding out her hand.

"Please.. give it a chance..?"

Her whole thought process is spinning in the most awful circles. There's no escaping the desire to be friends with Madoka and the way that's exactly the problem here.

And it's a gamble as to whether her response will be violent or receptive, too.

But Madoka's approach is so simple and straightforward and kind, that it breaks through... a little bit. "...you've never lied... that I've ever been able to tell." She can feel it.

"That's right.. There's no way you wouldn't know if I tried to lie, anyway."

Since even Madoka is aware of just how bad she is at it. And - in her opinion - Ple Two is smart, so it's just impossible for her to not see through something like that then.

And although the girl sure doesn't want to push her luck too much, she's at least glad that Ple Two seems open to listening to her now. The whole situation is still dangerous, but how could she back down when it feels like she might just be able to do this..?

"H-Honestly, I just want to be your friend. And I want to help you see all the things you can do in life.."

Madoka would obviously be a terrible liar. She's just this nervous, kinda clingy, very kind ball of cuteness. It's impossible to escape thoughts along those lines.

She wraps her arms around herself, taking deep breaths. "...I've killed people. I fought for the side that did this." Without even thinking it unjust - and she still has to almost force herself to think of it that way. It's just so natural to accept that war requires sacrifices like entire cities.

That does make her grow quiet for a moment. There's no denying that this place feels awful. It's so obvious that terrible things happened here. Even if Ple Two didn't explicitly mention killing people, it would have been implied with the latter half of what she said.

And that's awful. Of course it is. But how could Madoka blame her friend for that when it seems like this was all the other ever knew before..?

"I know.. it probably sounds really strange to say this right after you say that. But.. I don't think you're a bad person."

She can't lie. And this is the truth, when she really considers it.

"Even if you did that in the past, it doesn't mean you have to do that in the future."

It's a place of death, and she's a part of it. This is just reminding her of the only thing that her existence is supposed to be for... to kill her master's enemies.

So much easier when people weren't telling her to try to be herself.

"Dummy..." she says softly, almost too quiet to hear. What is wrong with these idiots giving her chances? Believing in her?

"...if I kill someone to protect you? What then?"

"Then.."

Madoka starts, then stops for a moment. Of course she'd prefer that no one is ever killed. But at the same time.. she knows there's so many dangers out there. That sometimes it can't be avoided, even though that's such a painful thought to try and wrap her head around.

So she shakes her head and continues.

"You don't have to do that for me." It's not what she wants, after all. She wants a friend, not a bodyguard. "But.. if it would happen somehow, then I would know you didn't do it for a bad reason. I believe in you."

Even if any sentiment around killing is super hard to figure out, Madoka can at least say that last part confidently.

"So.. let's go back together, okay..? You don't have to stay here by yourself."

The world is full of horrible, violent people - and people who absolutely refuse to choose a peaceful solution - and people who will simply do anything awful that they can get away with. What do you do with them? When they threaten not just one friend?

Ple Two will easily kill for Madoka. Protecting her... she knows that it's what she feels is important.

"Silly... sweet Madoka..." So persistent. It's going to get her hurt, but... maybe not today. "I... don't want to be alone. ...not now..."

Honestly, it probably won't even dawn on Madoka until later how lucky she has been here so far to not just have been shot for her efforts. Right now she's much too focused on the other girl to truly consider that.

"You're not." Alone, that is. Even if that may be a silly or sweet notion right now.

And while normally Madoka would love to just hug Ple Two now, she does know the other isn't too used to that yet, so it's probably not the right move to do that in a situation that's already so difficult for her. Instead Madoka just gets close enough to hold out a hand towards the other, like she's silently asking Ple Two to take it if she wants to.

Edited 2020-02-27 19:57 (UTC)

Ple Two came very, very close to doing just that. Thankfully, she's been affected just strongly enough.

It's all so naive, to just let happy platitudes from a sheltered girl affect her so, and yet... it's so honest. So plainly kind. There's not any manipulative intent.

Slowly, carefully, she reaches out a shaking hand.

She tries to smile as encouragingly as she can when she notices Ple Two's hand trembling, but still heading towards her own. When she's close enough, Madoka gently grabs it with her own, before moving her other hand over to put it on top of Ple Two's hand, as if to completely surround the other's hand with her own warmth.

".. thank you." For reaching out just now. For trying. For not giving in to what must feel so natural to Ple Two after all this time.

For being her friend.

"I promise I'll do my best to not let you down.. Whenever you feel alone, or worried, or you don't know what to do.. You can always come see me. I'll always be here for you."

A soft, gentle hand. Ple Two grasps it softly, looking up at Madoka. How can she be saved, when it's so easy to just slide in and out of being what she was made to be? It's all too possible that she could hurt Madoka for real...

But the darkness around them is fading.

"...even for a... weapon like me."

She shakes her head. The more the darkness disappears, the easier this somehow feels.

"Not just for a weapon. It's for.. my important friend."

"Friends." With her. People want to help her and be her friend. And maybe she just... doesn't have to understand it.

It's just the way some people are, and lots of those good, kind people have found their way to surrounding her. "...we really are friends."

Madoka's smile widens, to the point that she even giggles. It's like the situation from only a few moments ago is completely forgotten. As if Ple Two never pointed a weapon at her to begin with.

"I get so happy when I hear you say that, you know..? It feels like an honour." Because Ple Two doesn't seem like she's say that kind of thing easily.

It's cute. Beautiful, even. Madoka smiling and laughing after having faced Ple Two's violence and darkness more directly than ever. Is she crazy?

"I'm not... not that special. Not like you."

For as good as Madoka is at praising others, and for how easily she does it no matter the situation - this dream sure is proving that last part right, anyway - she can't deal with it nearly as well when it's suddenly turned back around on her. Her jaw drops open slightly in surprise at those words.

"That's not true.. I.. I don't think I'm all that special."

Not special at all more like, but she wants this to be focused on Ple Two, not on her! The other girl is the one having such a tough dream, after all.

"Besides.. you're so smart. And you're cool, and you can keep calm even when things are scary.. It doesn't matter where those traits come from, they're really admirable anyway."

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