Resurrected and it feels so good

[dredefulchilde]

Who: Joscelin Fitzthomas + you
What: Why am in this suitcase?
When: Two days after everyone gets back on the train (aka the day before Platform Day)

It's dark. That's the first thing Joss notices. It's dark and cramped and he can't quite figure out why. Hadn't he been with Romeo on the space station? They had followed someone and then there had been gun, and--

Joss gasps, than immediately begins to cough. He feels his chest. He'd gotten shot, hadn't he? That, he remembers clearly. It had hurt like hell for a brief second before everything went black. He figures that he must have passed out from the pain and been transported back to...this very small space where his knees are practically forced up against his chin. What is it? And why does he feel so weak? How badly had he been hurt? Has he been taken captive? Is he in a cage?

The boy struggles for a moment and manages to open whatever he's in enough to see a small crescent of light. It dazzles him. Normally he can see perfectly in both light and dark, but something is off. He feels both blind and deaf; cut off, somehow.

Another kick and his cage gives way completely, revealing itself to be...a suitcase? He falls to the floor of what is obviously the train's baggage car. Why the hell had they put him here? He knows that he's essentially indestructible, but this is ridiculous. Vampire or no, one typically does not put a gravely injured person in a bloody carry-on.

He manages to collect himself, still feeling strangely muffled. Normally he can hear every sound the train makes as it flies through the Void, but now its eerily quiet. The door seems heavier too. once he gets there. And it's really quite shocking how tired he is. He must be dreadfully short on blood indeed, if he's feeling this weak.

Still blinking away spots, the boy stumbles out the door to the baggage car and into the train beyond.

Comments

For Tony

[dredefulchilde]

He makes it all the way to the kitchen, still feeling curiously woozy. Blood. He needs blood. Blood will put him to rights. Blood will make him feel less weak and wooly, help him hear and see better. Blood will make him normal again.

He pulls the refrigerator door handle and is surprised by how heavy it suddenly is. And the blood packs seem so high. Not for the first time, he wonders what that gun had done to him. He's survived worse injuries than that, but this is different, somehow. Shivering in the cold of the fridge, he stares up at the blood and wonders why the sight repulses him.

He wheels around sharply when he hears someone approach from behind, allowing the door to swing shut.

Re: For Tony

[runs_on_batteries]

He hadn't eaten yesterday, finding everything turned his stomach. He'd stayed mainly in bed, needing the day of rest for several reasons but the main one, of course, was grief. For now, at least, he'd managed to pull himself out of bed for tea. He didn't want it exactly, but he knew he needed it. He was still wearing his robe and lounge pants instead of real clothes, but his hair had been tamed a bit and he was upright. What more did people want from him?

Walking into the kitchen, he noticed the movement first. His gaze landed on the familiar shape and he.. just stared. The empty, red travel mug in his hand dropped to the floor but he didn't even notice it. "Joss?" He asked, half believing he was either seeing a ghost or hallucinating.

[dredefulchilde]

"Stark!"

For a moment, the boy looks exactly his age--just a young child happily greeting a parent who has just come home from work, maybe. But then he closes off again, carefully schooling his face into its usual sarcastic mask.

"...You look like hell."

[deductiongeek]

Conan turns at the sound of footsteps... and stumbles back as his face pales in shock. He hadn't been this surprised since he'd woken and realized that he'd lost ten years.

"Joss? How? This isn't possible."

[dredefulchilde]

He blinks. Conan looks shocked, but, strangely, Joss can't hear it in the other boy's breathing or pulse.

"...it isn't? I just woke up in a bloody suitcase. I know that I got into a bit of trouble back during the mission, but this seems extreme."

[deductiongeek]

"You died," Conan tells him bluntly. He wasn't in any state of mind to soften the news. "I solved your murder myself. A sabotager shot you through the chest with a laser."

Sometime closer to 'evening', Day 15 of Egret

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita hadn't quite slept all day, but it was close. Making her own way to the kitchen, she found Joss right before then and practically felt her brain stop.

She'd known of people coming back from inexplicable absences in the luggage carriage, as well as various 'not quite dead' states for species of all sorts back home, even of how people came back from things that would ordinarily kill them in Nautilus, but here death seemed a bit too... final.

"Joss?" Even if the two hadn't talked much, if at all, on or off Network, she knew his name.

"Er, sorry, you're heading somewhere?" She made to edge along the corridor, let him walk past, but she was still staring, and hated herself for it.

[dredefulchilde]

“In the flesh, it seems,” Joss replies, sounding exhausted. It’s been a long and confusing day and the constant steam of people telling him that he died is getting rather old. But it feels wrong to take out his frustrations on someone he barely knows. He’s too tired for that.

“The medical car. This...whatever it is that brought me back changed things. The Doctor says he’ll do an examination to make sure I’m all right.”

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita nods - both because he's right and because at first, well, it doesn't seem there's much that she can say, exactly.

But second thoughts do intrude, and rather than go with any of the obvious things she instead asks, "Anything outside of that that you're worried about, though?"

Joss's death wasn't the only hard-hitting matter from this mission, though it was likely the hardest.

[internetsexsymbol]

Reigen hasn't slept in the past two days (he'd just gotten over the bout of insomnia from last month too, dammit), so he's mostly just been aimlessly wandering and trying not to think too much about everything. When he sees a small figure come out from the baggage car, he's almost certain his imagination is mocking him, but when he sees the boy's face, everything seems to stop.

"...Joscelin?" His voice is incredibly soft, colored with shock and relief he's not sure he can fully feel yet. Reigen hesitantly approaches, afraid to confirm whether it's really Joss or just a ghost he can see through easily.

[dredefulchilde]

"Reigen!" Joscelin runs over to his roommate, wondering why he still feels so breathless. "What's going on? Why was I in the baggage car?"

[hashtagparkerluck]

This is the same time of day that Peter can be found lounging in one of the web hammocks generously supplied by the resident spider. The Dressing car is a Mess. Because today Peter's not in the hammock but rather laying on the floor with books and papers scattered all around him ranging from science to fantasy he seems to have just collected a bunch of things and locked him self away with with what are probably the last few cans of Monster Energy Drinks. He's got dark circles under his eyes from absolute refusal to sleep and his tapping his pencil somewhat manically as he reads some notes on things.

He looks up as he hears some commotion in the luggage car because he was pretty sure there was no one back there. He knows he's been in this spot since whenever the magical teleport back to your room thing happened and he's pretty sure no one snuck past him. Pretty Sure.

"...Hello?" He calls out, voice full of apprehension. Was this the anomaly the inspectors had detected that once time? No, based on the conversation he'd had he's pretty sure they all were but maybe they missed something? Was there something on the train they were unaware of?

[dredefulchilde]

The voice takes Joscelin quite by surprise and he finds himself jumping, and hating himself for it. No one ever sneaks up on Joscelin Fitzthomas. It's impossible. He can always hear them coming.

Except today, apparently. Fuck, he must really be low on blood.

"Christ, Parker, you almost gave me a heart attack."

[sensitiveapple]

She'd been told that Joss had given his life, saving them from a saboteur.

It's not fair. It's not! First, she loses Jocko and Freema and all her friends at the house, then, she loses someone who doesn't want her to be a courtesan, but something more, and now... Joss. He'd been nice to her, and she just wishes he was here.

She's actually looking for Bucky when she trips over something on the floor and falls against the wall. Sighing, she picks herself up and... That's not possible. It's not. It's not possible, even with her wishing, it's not possible. He'd been dead. She'd seen his body herself, and known... there is no coming back from that injury. She'd wanted to try, but she'd known.

"Joss?" She whispers softly, seeing him standing there. "Joss!" Then she practically jumps on him and wraps him in a hug. "You were dead!" She whispers, sniffling.

[dredefulchilde]

“Misa!”

Joss feels the wind get knocked out of him as he’s tackle-hugged by the much taller girl. Immediately, he feels a strange heat rise to his cheeks. “I’m fine! Why does everyone keep telling me I’m dead? I know I must have been injured, but I most certainly wasn’t dead.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Joss-san?"

It's not so much shocked, as it is with wary eyes Eva looks at him. Really looks at him, as if she's trying to decide if he's really there, or not. Or if this was a trick of some sort, like a ghost-type's pranks. But she's the only trainer on the train and she's pretty certain none of the illusionists would pull such a thing (and if they did, they'd be in for a world of pain).

So... Maybe there? That's what she'll go with, for now and play fill in the how's and why's later. "...Welcome back...?"

[dredefulchilde]

“No, I’m not dead. Surprise.”

Even Joscelin is somewhat taken aback by his bitterness. Everything today has been strange and confusing and wrong, and having the whole train shocked at his sudden resurrection isn’t helping. He feels rather like an exotic new animal in a zoo.

“This is all very odd.”

A little... bit later than most of the other threads?

[pleple]

There were people... closer to him. There are lots of people closer to Joss. So despite her imminent distress over his death, she's avoided devoting too much of her emotional energy to it herself... and when word got around that he just popped out of a suitcase a little bit later she waited for the more emotional reunions before finally catching up to him.

"Joss. It's... good to see you okay. However that happened." She's not close to him, and he's here so - it's stupid that her voice quivers a little, but it does anyways.

[dredefulchilde]

She’s one of the ones closest to him in physical age, if not the real number, and he’s always felt a sort of camaraderie with her because of it. Plus, she’s got a sensible head on her shoulders and that’s something Joss has always valued.

So when he sees her approaching, Joss feels a sense of relief.

“I don’t know how it happened, but I’m not displeased. I rather enjoy not being dead.”

[marriedanidiot]

Sometime in the night, Joss will stumble across her. In the dimmed lights she seems to gleam, as if moonlight pooled around her feet. A harp sits in her lap, and her hands trace the carvings so gently, as if it were the face of one dearly loved. She lifts her head, startled by his presence, and her eyes are red from weeping.

"Youngling?" She brushes aside her tears and rises, reaching gently for him.

"What does one so young have on his heart to have so grave a face?"

[dredefulchilde]

Vampires can see perfectly in the dark.

Unfortunately, Joss isn’t a vampire anymore.

He’d agreed to spend the night in the medical car under close observation, but in the small hours of the morning he’d been woken by an urgently full bladder. He’d been too focused on finding a toilet to notice the dark much, but after relieving himself he discovers that the train looks very different and strange at night. Familiar shapes look sinister and strange and he quickly finds himself hopelessly lost trying to find his way back to his cot in the infirmary. At the fourth wrong turning, he can feel the panic rising again, tears burning at his eyes, when he sees a beautiful figure up ahead, glowing as if lit by moonlight.

He had seen the woman around before, but paid her little mind. Now, though, something about her warmth and pain draws him to her. The mixed beauty and sadness reminds him so much of Mum that he can’t take it. The tears spill over and somehow he finds himself embracing this absolute stranger and weeping his utter exhaustion into her shoulder.

“It’s too dark. I can’t find my way back.”

Evening

[diamondsfortears]

Daia's doing a bit of wandering around, himself. Being a vampire usually means insomnia, anyway. He finds himself in the familiar gaming car, shuffling through the variety of games as he tries to find something to amuse himself. But the Single Player games don't seem to be as plentiful as he'd hoped. Maybe he could play one of these multiplayer games by himself?

Worth a shot, right?

He begins setting up Battleship, and stares at the instructions as he tries to figure the game out. But as he continues to read, his shoulders slump a little.

"Oh. Looks like it has to have a second player after all," he frowns, almost pouting.

Thankfully, he sees someone, and even a familiar one. The frown disappears into a grin and he waves wildly.

"Joscelin! Come play with me! Pleeeeaaase?"

[dredefulchilde]

Normally, people can't sneak up on a vampire. Sadly, Joscelin isn't a vampire anymore.

The child visibly jumps, then whirls around to see...the one person he most wanted to avoid.

Shit. Daia would know. He's only begun to come to accept the diagnosis he was given, and this is the worst time to encounter a vampire.

...Would Daia try to drink from him?

Panic flashes across the boy's face.

"W-what?"

Coming in REALLY late on this one!

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin is restless and unable to sleep. He climbs out of bed quietly so as not to wake his roommates. He glances at Joss's bunk and feels a pang of sorrow for him, and for all who are missing, including his brothers. He takes his flute and heads for the garden car, where he sits on a stone bench and starts to play a tune. [ And it sounds something like the flute in this song. ]

But suddenly he hears a sound and looks up. "Joss? Is it you?"

[dredefulchilde]

Things are very strange right now. He's alive, and he's alive. Human. Thoroughly mortal.

He's under strict orders to return to the medical car before lights out, but the only roommate he hadn't been able to find was Curufin. It's almost time to go back, but he hopes that he can find the elf in one last spot.

The flute gives it away.

"That's...quite good," he says, shuffling awkwardly. "Hello, Curufin."