Exploring

[longforgottenpromise]

Who: Taiki and Open
Where: All through the train- garden, games, kitchen and standard have prompts but feel free to catch him anywhere.
When: Month Domino, Day 23
What: Taiki is finally well enough to get out of bed and start exploring this strange train he boarded a week ago.
Warnings:

The last week has been one of fever and sickness. Dreams of blood and death, mixed with other strange dreams that seemed to have been shared with those who travelled with him on this train.

But the fever had broken and the last couple of days he had been doing better. Able to sit up and move around his cabin. He felt bad for having caused both lord Gyousou and Wen Qing trouble, when they both should have been focused on resting and healing themselves.

Now he was a bit better he was feeling very confined. Apart from the walk from the platform to this cabin he had not seen the rest of the train where he now lived. So though he was still shakey on his feet he got dressed in the trousers and hoodie that had been in his bag and left the cabin quietly, holding onto the wall for support.

Garden

He instantly liked this place. There were no flowers, though there were a couple of suitcase-turned-plantpots that looked like things might grow eventually. It was peaceful though, even if the light from the void was strange.

He sat down on a bench, tired already despite only walking two carriages. He was better than he had been though, better than he should be, considering what he had done. He stared into the water and then closed his eyes, trying to take in the peace of this place.

Games

The next carriage along had board games and he paused to read a few of the titles. He hadn't ever really played any board games, though he had seen them being played before. He recognised a couple. He smiled at anyone he saw, not approaching but trying to be friendly. He knew enough to know that most the people here had had as little choice about being here than he had. He was still suspicious of this whole place, but so far people had not been cruel.

Kitchen

Carriage by carriage he walked on shaking legs, stopping now and then and siting down to rest. It was a long journey from one end of the train to the other and there was a lot to take in. Some of the places he half remembered from dreams, other peoples dreams. Strange to be stood in those places now.

He entered the kitchens and all at once stopped, recoiling slightly. Something was wrong. He felt ill, more ill. Blood, maybe just raw meat. He's never really noticed if that has any effect on him, his Taika shell protected his body from the worst of blood sickness on earth and in Tai he had never even been in the kitchens.

Still it was an altogether unpleasant feeling and he quickly left, gripping to the wall for support.

Standard Coach

He got through the first carriage but by the time he got back to the standard coach he had to sit down. He saw the bookshelf and forced himself to stay standing while he grabbed a book and sat at the nearest table.

It would give him an excuse to sit a while. People here might be as trapped as he and Lord Gyousou were but it didn't mean they could trust them. He stared at the book, only half reading it and then looked out into the void. What was it? How were they here? What had become of Tai?

None of those were questions he had answers to.

Comments

Standard Coach - aka, BOOKS.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita recognized the man - both from their tense conversation on the platform, and from the much-more-fractured memories of dreams she'd had all through the twentieth.

Picking up a book herself - not one of the textbooks, though they wouldn't be outside her attention for long, but one with some distinctively-colored people wearing hoodies on the cover - she sat across from him, wondering what he was seeing.

Eventually, though, she did speak up:

"Kinda wish we'd been given an instruction manual for this whole thing, since we didn't get to agree to all this beforehand."

[longforgottenpromise]

He recognises her as well. From the platform and from one of the many strange dreams that had swirled in his head a few nights prior.

He watched her as she watched him, he was still suspicious of her. She had known a lot on the platform, though she had claimed to have just arrived. He knows now that no one here had anything to do with bringing him and Lord Gyousou here but still. Trust was hard.

He nodded when she spoke. Instructions, written or otherwise would be good. He looked out into the void again. "Would anyone agree?" If they had been asked, he means.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita flipped through some of the pages: bright colors, a world to be saved, a clear and present message: If your world is in danger, we're here to help!...

"If they'd been told the truth from the start? I think so, yeah," Nita said, letting her current page fall through her fingers.

"I do something like it, back home. For all I know I am on errantry, here, and They couldn't tell me."

She shook her head.

"But based on what I learned the last time I was truly out of the Powers' jurisdiction, I doubt it. But world-saving... I like to think I already know some about that. All sorts of people take the Oath, so I'd bet it'd be the same way for a voyage like this."

[longforgottenpromise]

That was a lot of information all at once and it took him a moment to unpick it. To take what he understood and didn't understand and separate the strands. Perhaps there were people who would agree to come to this train and help other worlds. People who did not have duties and responsibilities back in their own lands. She had done something similar in her own world.

Powers' was something he couldn't understand in her context, or the oath.

"Oath?" She seems to like talking and so letting her seems like a way to gain more information.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nodded, not knowing what he was thinking; if she'd had the slightest inclination, she would have been completely flustered.

Used to be she hardly spoke up, in her classes if not to her bullies, but now... Things had certainly changed for her, in becoming a wizard.

"Yeah; wizards swear to protect Life, whatever grows and lives well in its own way. We're told what sort of fight we're entering, what the price can entail at its worst, but also what we can do with the power we're getting."

She traced one of the dynamic figures on the page before her.

"Here... it's a lot more open-ended. There is training, on the ICPs, but most of it's not about what the people here have been sent out to deal with. Definitely not on the why of what we're doing."

For Curufin

[longforgottenpromise]

(OOC: Continued from here and fudged to make it be happening now)

"No." He shook his head. "They don't." Curufin's world sounded very different from his own and also earth.

"I spent time on another world though. They have many religions and many ideas of the afterlife."

He had come across quite a lot, in his search for understanding anything about what could have happened to him in the year he had forgotten.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ OOC: Nice retconning! XD ]

"No afterlife, eh? So you and your people simply concentrate on the here and now?" Curufin can't imagine not knowing that he would continue to exist after death. But then, that's a concept that he grew up with. And furthermore, he died and experienced an actual life after death, and that happened long before he was snatched into another world.

"What was that other world like? What sort of religions, and what ideas of the afterlife did they have? And what did you think of all of that?"

[longforgottenpromise]

He nodded, he was not sure that was quite how it was but there was definitely a focus on the life they were living, rather than anything else.

He looked a bit startled at the next set of questions, so many so fast. He was silent, looking at the table to try and gather his thoughts. It was a lot, too much to describe really but Curufin had been kind so far and explained his own world to Taiki. So he would try.

"It is called Earth. There are many peoples and cultures and many religions. In the country I was in there are three religions. Only one has an afterlife and it is one of rebirth. In other lands there are other religions and they have ideas of the afterlife as a place you go."

He studied his hands, "People worship at shrines and pray for many things, such as family and doing well in school. I... I grew up there so I guess it was just the way it was. I didn't really have any opinions on it."

Hopefully he had answered all of the questions.

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin did have a tendency to ask a barrage of questions, momentarily assuming that the mind's of others were like his -- continuously hungry for information. But he saw that Taiki was looking a little startled, and so he didn't add any other questions to his list.

He listened to what Taiki had to say. "I have spoken to people who come from Earth, or from some version of it -- if they are actually talking about the same place as you are, that is. It seems a place that teems with human life and supports many cultures. In your country, were you raised in the religion that believes in rebirth? I guess we all take our own beliefs for granted, since we are raised with them. No need to have an opinion!"

He smiled at Taiki, just to show his acceptance of Taiki, whatever Taiki believed or thought.

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki nodded, his family had never been particularly religious, but he supposed in a cultural way it was true, that was the way he had been raised. He was glad for the pause in questions for now, he isn't used to talking so much. It gives him a moment to think. Versions of earth, worlds beyond the two he knows. A void inbetween.

It's a lot to think about, even without the strange things that have happened so far. But it is clear that no one seems to know how or why they are here or how they are going to get back to where they belong.

"Have... Have you been here for a long time?"

kitchen

[flatteries]

At first Inigo doesn't quite seem to realise the state Taiki is in. It's most likely since he's approaching the other from the back, recognizing who it is more than how exactly they're looking right now. So Inigo's face breaks out into a wide smile as he loudly greets him.

"Oh! It's so good to see you, I was actually.."

His voice slowly trails off as he actually approaches Taiki and notices the way he's clinging to the wall and not looking too well. Inigo's smile fades, replaced by his eyebrows knitting together in worry.

"Are.. you alright?"

Re: kitchen

[longforgottenpromise]

The loud voice makes him jump, which makes him dizzy, which makes him grip onto the wall harder. He recognises Inigo, both from the platform but also. His dream. The death all around, death and youma and frozen Tai and darkness. But throughout it all Inigo holding his hand.

It was that memory that stopped him from just nodding, schooling his face and continuing. He looked at Inigo sadly, "I... I probably need to get out of here."

Something in here is not good. Or he's just over sensative because he's still ill. "I'm sorry..."

[flatteries]

Despite the lack of a direct answer, Inigo can read the implication well into it. Taiki clearly isn't okay. His face seems to say as much. Inigo has no idea what exactly is making him feel this way, but on the other hand, that also doesn't matter to him in the moment itself.

If Taiki needs help, then he'll offer it. Just as easily as he did in the dream, without having to think about it. Inigo moves the arm Taiki is using to lean against the wall with to drape it over Inigo's shoulders, wrapping an arm around Taiki's waist to gently pull him along, away from the kitchen. Maybe it's overkill, but he really doesn't want to take any risks here. Maybe it's a protective instinct that still lingers from the dream - the dream that felt so real.

As they walk, he shakes his head.

"Don't apologize. If something is wrong, then you can just say so."

Wow, Inigo. Great advice that you literally never follow yourself in your life ever.

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki was a little taken aback by his arm being taken. He's not used to people touching him. It's not a bad thing, just unexpected. He remembers the dream, Inigo not leaving him even when faced with Youma.

It is awkward but also he is grateful for the arm around him as they leave the kitchen. "Thank you." He whispered. "I don't know. Something..."

Something had been wrong, but the air outside the kitchen is a lot better and he feels less nauseous already.

[flatteries]

"Something..?"

At least it doesn't seem to him like Taiki is trying to hold something back or keep it secret. It kind of sounds more like he just doesn't know how to describe it.. which Inigo can't really blame him for with how strange things can be on the train.

".. you were in the kitchen just now, right? You didn't eat anything strange?" Although Taiki is starting to look better now, it's not that much of a stretch to assume in Inigo's mind.

The Garden

[yep_stilldead]

When Taiki opens his eyes, there's someone in the corner of his vision. The girl from the cave dream, looking as transparent as ever, but much less despondent about it. She's loitering around the end of the car, waiting politely for him to finish meditating, or whatever it is he's doing over there.

Take your time.

Re: The Garden

[longforgottenpromise]

He sees her and blinks, confused at first. He had had many dreams and it is strange that he dreamed of people here, before he ever met them. But he understood that the dreams were not normal, that they had somehow entered the dreams of others.

The dreams are muddled and confused but he takes a moment to remember.

"Ivy?" He looked at her. That had been her name, the girl in the cave.

[yep_stilldead]

"Yeah, that's me." She floats into view, looking slightly uncomfortable.

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry for... you know, all of that in the dream. I reckon I wasn't very nice."

[longforgottenpromise]

"You don't have to apologise." Taiki looked at her sadly, she seems a lot less despondent here than she had been in that cave. That's a good thing, the girl in the cave had been desperately sad.

"It was a dream... You didn't have control."

And she hadn't been particularly not nice anyways, quiet, not sociable. But they were hardly crimes.

[yep_stilldead]

"I guess, just... I feel bad that anyone else had to be there. I don't want anyone else to have to go through what I did."

She looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. "Still... thanks, I suppose. For sitting with me and listening to me droning on and on about rocks."

Games

[stealsyourheart]

There's a teen sprawled half-upside down in one of the chairs, shuffling cards in increasingly improbable patterns. He looks up as Taiki wanders in and flashes him a grin.

"Yo! You must be new here. Don't mind me, I'm just entertaining myself."

[longforgottenpromise]

He skitters a little at the sight of the boy on the beanbag, he seemed around the same age as Taiki and that was enough to make him nervous.

"Um... hello." He looked at the cards and then the boy, then the cards again. "Oh. Yes I am."

New, that was. He looked at the cards again and nodded. Wondering at the patterns.

[stealsyourheart]

"Thought so." He says with an easy grin. "I'm Kaito. Kaito Kuroba."

He sees the look and grins, shifting around to sit up properly,never loosing the rhythm.

"D'you like it?"

[longforgottenpromise]

"Um... Taiki. My name I mean."

He tilted his head and nodded. It was interesting what he was doing with the patterns, the way he didn't lose his place even as he moved. He was very skilled.

[stealsyourheart]

"Nice to meetcha, Taiki." He grins at him.

"I'm a magician, you see - this is practice. Keeps my fingers nimble."

Is he doing his hardest ones for Taiki? Yes, yes he is.