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

[voidtreckermods]

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)

Comments

[rieper]

47 almost seemed to consider her reply for a moment before nodding once decisively. "You're probably right," he said. "The situation is less than ideal. Unfortunately we don't have enough information to properly be either angry at leaving so soon or grateful we're not all dead."

Again, his tone was rather matter-of-fact and straight forward. He didn't seem angry or upset in any way. If he was frustrated as he was implying he didn't show it very well outwardly.

"No doubt everyone is frustrated for this turn of events. For one reason or another."

A lot of people were either confused or upset about leaving. Some were simply puzzled by the sudden change of events from the usual. Many were worried about the locals left behind and their fate. Others were upset they weren't allowed to stay and fight. But 47 saw that they didn't know whether they could have fought or not at all. They didn't really know enough about what happened to be angry or upset or worried. And that seemed to be what frustrated him rather than anything else.

[irrationally]

It really is an odd thing. He says 'no doubt everyone is frustrated', yet he doesn't seem frustrated at all as he says it. It'd be an odd thing to say if you didn't at least feel some of the frustration yourself - maybe he's just really good at shoving those kinds of feelings down. Or he just literally can't emote. Alice has seen stranger things.

With Alice, however, it's all on full display. She's so visibly frustrated. If anything, she's trying to not let it fully boil over right here on the spot.

"The real reason we should be angry is that it's not letting us make our own decisions."

It's not that Alice doesn't feel bad for the people back there. Somewhere deep down. But this reason is a much, much more touchy subject. Usually she may have been more cagey about it, but somewhere between her emotions just being too much right now and him seeming so calm and perfect to rant at, it just spills out.

"If whatever was out there was truly too much and it would have killed us, at least we would have died on our own terms. I'm so sick of something outside of myself thinking it can make decisions for me-- as if we are all children!"

[rieper]

She didn't seem to be the only one with such feelings. 47 could catch hints of other conversations that rang similarly to her own frustrations. Many would have preferred to stay and fight or help those people back there. Or at the very least have made the decision for themselves even if it meant to stay and die.

47 would have preferred to gather enough intel to know whether his enemy could be defeated or not. He wasn't one to carelessly throw his life away, and especially not for another person, but he liked to know his odds first. He was very good at improvisation. And even if he had deemed it not worth the risk to his own life to stay and fight this time, the information gained to make such a decision would be handy in devising a strategy for the next encounter. After all, if 47 couldn't complete a mission on the first attempt that didn't mean he was finished; he could always regroup, restrategize, and reattempt the hit later.

"Agreed. This mission could have gone much better. An explanation or more information on the sudden departure would at least go a long way to improving the situation but I doubt we will receive any such report. Which is a pity--with the diversity of this group we could, with such information, possibly come up with a way to defeat or deflect such an enemy in the future if such dire circumstances returned."

[irrationally]

On a slightly deeper level Alice understands that her frustration with this particular aspect of what happened isn't just born from what the train is doing to them or has done to them, but also just because of all the things that happened back home. But at the very least the fact that even his - probably - more rational explanation still makes the train's decision make no sense whatsoever allows her to feel justified in her anger all the same.

"It doesn't seem to care about effiency in the slightest." Which would be odd to any rational person. After all, if the train sends them on these missions, wouldn't it want them to be as well equipped with information as possible to handle them? But to Alice, who's way too used to beings being entirely random and cryptic, it feels like the same old deal. "It's merely making us the subjects of its every whim. We seem to be little more than toys or tools to it."

[rieper]

47 found that he agreed with that assessment as well. There could have been more efficiency with a better format to all of this. If they were tools to be used then clearly they were of the disposable kind. Short usage time, and then thrown away. It kept with the way some people were just on board the train for a short amount of time.

How then did one become indispensable? What made some people last longer than others? Their own efficiency through this chaos? A stubbornness of will? Or just an interesting life to watch while stuck on this train? Maybe they were just here for someone's entertainment.

"Perhaps we weren't intended to be anything more than that. Maybe we simply represent an anomaly to be studied or a mistake to put aside and forget about."

Except the tales in the books and from various locals told another story. And yet, what if they were never intended to be the Voidtreckers spoken of in tales? Or more curiousier, what if there were more trains out there with similar purposes? How did they operate?

There were too many possibilities and not enough information to go on. The longer this conversation went on, the more frustrated both of them were likely to become.

[irrationally]

Oh, she hates that thought. She really, really hates it. It just comes much too close to a lot of terrible past experiences. Even without those Alice would know that she'd hate being treated that way, but already having been looked at as little more than an experiment, a subject for potential research, even having been thought of as little more than a doll or a toy--

She can feel her stomach turning. It's sheer determination of not wanting to completely lose it in front of everyone here that keeps her from retching.

How many tims does she have to be trapped in situations like these for fate to finally be done with her?

Alice sucks in a shakey breath, desperately trying to calm herself down.

"I am.. going to grab some tea." In the kitchen. Far away from all the people and chaos here. It's too much right now. "Thank you for your insights, though they're awful."

... Adding that last part slightly diminishes the thanks in the first place, huh. But she does genuinely mean it. It's just hard to be properly appreciative when you feel like stabbing something.