voidtreckerexpress | Event: Abort! Part Two (day 25, Egret). Luggage carriage

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Event: Abort! Part Two (day 25, Egret). Luggage carriage

They are on world world#27462947582 for about five hours, helping, ushering people out of the city, fighting monsters, keeping guard. All seems well in the city itself, peaceful even except for the slight panic of people being told to move south.

Wherever they are, north in the desert, travelling through the countryside to the south or still in the city itself they will notice from their peripheral vision a darkening of the sky. Looking up they will see clouds. Strange clouds, appearing in the blue sky out of nowhere.

Their SCA’s start beeping, rapidly, flashing red. The clouds are too weird to be clouds, dark shapes in the sky. It might be that the Voidtreckers heed the warning and tap their SCA to evacuate to the train. It might be that they do not.

If they don’t then there is a moment, a moment of absolute stillness as those around them notice the shapes. A confused pause. Children stop their chatter, people stop their complaining, even the monsters seem to sense something and pause in their attacks.

The remaining voidtreckers are yanked away, even without pressing their SCA, they glow gold and disappear.

They all appear in the luggage carriage and not even a second later, with no warning the train lurches, flinging everyone off their feet as it enters the void.

It’s not really easy to tell speed in the void, but they will get the sense that they are moving fast. Faster than before, leaving that world and whatever those shapes were behind.

(OOC: Information on this event is here and part one is here)

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She took his hand and got up as carefully as she could, putting her card behind her back where it vanished. She found her metal staff where it had fallen and she lifted it, careful not to hit anyone with it. She wasn't sure if she'd get to keep it or it would vanish, but she wanted to make sure no one tripped on it. "Okay, I think I have everything. Let's go."

Once she got her things, Duo pulled her in close to his side and wrapped his arm and cloak around her, his arm around her waist. "Then we go!" And go he did. He moved them through the people, dodging some, he was forced to lift her over someone on the floor and ducked them both under the flailing arm of another, but he hit the door after a minute of that and was out and through into the dressing room.

Once there he laughed and looked over his shoulder. "That's way too many people in there!"

She yelped when he lifted her, and under other circumstances there would have been a laugh there too. But she was focused on not hitting anyone with the staff, and still trying not to cry. But the way he had his arm around her at first, then lifted her... it felt a little like when she had been a little kid, running away from things with her dad.

Would her dad have found a way to stay and protect those people? She wanted to think so, but she wasn't sure. Had they run so much because he was protecting her? Probably. She remembered him being very brave. And creative. And fun. And loving. She missed him.

She glanced back the way he was looking when he laughed and nodded. "I haven't seen a crowd like that since the tournament..."

Duo was getting so used to the strange things people said that he didn't even blink at the mention of a tournament, he just turned his grin to Najaran and then slowly let her go to step back and give her a quick once over.

"You're sure you're unhurt though?"

She shrugged a bit, leaning heavily on the silver staff. "I'm physically okay," she mumbled. Then blinked and looked at him. "Are you?" He carried her, so that meant he probably was okay, right? Right?

Duo just smiled. "Fighting fit." He promised, but he looked back toward the luggage carriage with a bit of a frown. "... Just don't know what the heck went down back there..."

He gave a shake of his head and gestured for Najaran to follow him. "Lets get further away... When they all start flooding out, this carriage is gonna be as packed as the last."

She hesitated then nodded. "Okay. Wherever you want. I'll follow." The reality that those people were probably in big trouble and she couldn't help was setting in. Her anger was gone for the moment, leaving her just miserable and exhausted.

What he wanted was to know what happened. To be able to go back and check on the idiots of that planet. But there was no way of doing that. As for the people back in the luggage area, he knew they would be fine. Cramped, shocky, but fine enough. He'd not heard any screams of pain, after all.

Duo lead the way out of the dressing carriage and through the sleepers. Once he reached the greenhouse he dropped onto the grass with a heavy sigh, and a clang of metal that made him curse under his breath. "... Damn. Forgot about those." And then he took his cloak off. Under it he had, a small handful of different sized swords and knives tucked into his belt. He may have gone overboard.

She followed him to the greenhouse, then slumped to the ground beside him. She set down her staff and buried her face in her arms on top of her knees, and began to sob. His knives wouldn't have phased her much even if she was fine, really.

Once he got rid of his baggage, he knelt beside Najaran and laid a hand on her shoulder. He had never done well with crying... kids crying was the worst... women crying was high up there as well.

"Hey... hey what's wrong?" She'd said she wasn't hurt, right? Was she actually hurt?

"They.... they needed us...." she gasped through her tears. "They needed us and we just... just... abandoned them...." she sobbed.

"Oh..." Duo frowned, and then before he could stop himself he sat down and gathered Najaran into a tight hug. "Yeah... listen. I don't think we could have done anything. I think if we'd stayed there we'd be dead now. Whatever was coming from above... it was big and had danger written all over it."

He sighed and closed his eyes. Maybe if he'd had Deathscythe he could have actually done something. But as a guy on the ground with a little sword, there was no way he could have fought what had been coming. "We didn't abandon them. I think... they were lost before we even got there."

She leaned against him, crying and shook her head. "I've fought big and dangerous! We could have at least tried! I'm supposed to use my cards to help people, not to run away to save myself."

Okay so they had looked like the Lord of Air and the Black Cepters, who miiiiight have been powerful enough to turn a sea-side port town into a dessert for years and eat the most powerful Cepters who came through.... but it wasn't like she had been there alone. Together they could have saved those people. Right? At least... they could have tried...

Duo rubbed her back, trying to ease her tears but knowing he was probably doing an awkward job of it.

"Yeah, me too." Duo tilted his head to try and get a look at her. "There are times to fight, Naja. And times to run. And that was a time to run. Because... I don't think that planet is there any more." Because he was remembering a conversation he had with someone about dreams. Dreams of death. Of worlds dissolving...

"If the train could pull us back then, why not the people we were helping?" she asked, looking up at him with tear filled eyes. "Why were we there if it wasn't to help them? What was the point of just showing us a piece of creation being destroyed?" Was Grubel right? Was everything just going to... end one day...? "I can't believe that the Goddess Culdra would write an ending to things with no way to help!" Hi, you wanted to get into religion right? Who doesn't!

"And then we all would have died..." Duo wasn't harsh when he spoke, but he was blunt. His expression was calm and serious, though there was a clear sadness in his violet eyes. "A whole world of people wouldn't have fit in that luggage car. We all would have gone from one fiery death to being swashed into a space we were never meant to be."

"I think you're mistaking the work of bad people with the work of some unseen deity." Duo, a guy who didn't believe in god, wasn't about to tell her she was wrong to believe in some higher power. Not right then. But he could imagine where she was going with this... "Maybe, if you're thinking like that, it was fate that made it this way? Maybe we were fated to see what we did? People had dreams about it before we even got there. It was always gonna happen. I don't think we were ever meant to help. Just... witness it."

"But maybe we wouldn't! We didn't even try! And there is a lot of room on the train, there are other cars. There had to be something... why would anyone just bring us there to watch people die? Who would be that cruel?" she asked, sobbing heavily.

Duo didn't have answers, only guesses. And even then he hadn't really had time to think things through too much. Ha hadn't had time to talk to anyone else and learn their experiences.

All he could do was gather Najaran up in another hug and hold her tight, because seeing her cry hurt.

"... I don't know." And there was real pain in his voice. "... I wish I coulda helped. I do. I don't know what's going on. Don't know why we were there..." But it just proved something he'd always knew. There was no merciful God. Just the God of Death.

Edited 2020-04-23 10:16 (UTC)

She sobbed into him, finding herself clinging to his shirt, needing comfort if there weren't answers. She was shaking not just from sobs, but also exhaustion. For all she was sure she would have been up for fighting whatever came next, she hadn't been up to it. Not that she would have felt anything other than worse if that was pointed out. All she could do for the moment was cry, and she hated that. She wanted to help. She wanted to make things better for people. To be the kind of Cepter that her father and her Master were. To help others....

He held her tight and was quiet while she cried. He hated it, he really did. Crying wasn't something he thought he could handle well, and it wasn't something he could do himself. Boys didn't cry. So he let Najaran cry for him and he just held her tight.

After a little while he'd started to rock. What was it with rocking when someone was upset? Sister Helen had done the same thing to him when he'd been upset and she'd held him. She'd rocked him from side-to-side and for some reason it had made him feel better.

It helped her too. Slowly her sobs would ease, her trembling would slow. It would take a while. but eventually exhaustion would win and she;'d cry herself to sleep, curled up against him.

It took him a bit to actually realise that she'd fallen asleep. Quietly he said her name, but didn't get a reaction.

Duo smiled sadly and carefully, gently, he gathered her up into his arms and scooted back until he was able to lean against a wall. He kept her in his lap, head upon his shoulder, and his arms loose around her waist. She could sleep. He wasn't in any rush to move... He needed to think.

She would sleep like that for hours. Master Horowitz wasn't really much for physical affection, and Gooligan was great in many ways, but utterly lacking in arms. At least most of the time. So she didn't get much physical comfort from other people. These few hours would probably be the best sleep she'd had since before Bisteam. Quality, if not quantity.

And as a result she was more dazed then usual when she finally woke up. "Wha...?" she mumbled incoherently, unsure where she was or what she had fallen asleep up against. Seemed too soft for a wall...

Duo hadn't meant to fall asleep, really he hadn't. They'd been lucky to put themselves in an out of the way spot like they had because as Najaran has slept, people had been walking through. It was interesting to watch, but soon things quieted down and Duo, with little else to do, has started to doze.

When Najaran woke, she would have still been in Duo's lap with the teens arms loose about her, or at least one. His head was resting almost on his shoulder, eyes closed in sleep.

Her blurry sleep clouded mind took several moments to realize she was looking at someone else asleep from very very close up. Thankfully memories of what had led to this hand't yet surfaced as more than a bad dream. So she yawned, pulled the bags they'd used for the food, now empty, from her belt and folded them up. Yawning she gently tried to ease them between his head and his shoulder so he'd be more comfortable, and then of that didn't wake him, she'd settle back in to sleep some more.

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Is she on her feet or still held up?

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