voidtreckerexpress

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Who: Inigo, Tidus (aka the two shared braincells duo) and you!
Where: The standard coach
When: Horseshoe 17
What: Inigo and Tidus are handing out free stuff because Tidus is the train's official sugar daddy.
Warnings: Probably nothing, will edit if necessary.

---

Hey guys, forget about that public breakdown the other day. Today Inigo is on the ICP with a big smile, seeming as cheerful as ever. It's fine. It's cool.

"Good day, everyone! Tidus and I brought some things back with us from Irivar to share with everyone. So why not come over to the standard coach and see if there's anything you'd like to take with you, hm? We have quite the selection! Oh, and.. erm, Taiki, Roland, Bryn and Della.. If you could make sure to come see us, we'd appreciate it! Otherwise I might have to send Ti--"

Before Inigo can even finish the sentence, there's an offscreen obviously very Tidus-y voice calling out, "Inigo! Ask for Sakura too!"

Inigo huffs, turning his gaze to the off screen source. "I was getting to that!" (No he wasn't.) Apparently he accidentally pulled his ticket off the ICP as he starts moving away from it too, because the feed just cuts out. Just come get some sweet stuff.

---

Their set-up in the standard car is a simple, if messy, one. They have a few of their offered freebies on the same table they occupy, each guy facing the other, sat by the wall. From the immediate front, fragrant bags sit no bigger than a palm, a variety of scents better to tell when held to the nose. Whetstones sit stacked mostly on top of one another, and then a cluster of hair ribbons and circular hair ties behind them. Behind the bags are a few scent oils--basically, perfumes, if not very big. There's a few to choose from, but...

...not as many as there are the soaps, which take up a half of the table in their choice. It's like a lush shop here of choice, different colours and sizes.

And Inigo and Tidus? Sit there, either playing cards or fiddling through the paper craft book available from the art supplies where the old library used to be.

A chalkboard sits balanced, with the words 'FREE 2 TAKE' written in big letters. In case you missed the public announcement.

1:
Come up, and have a look. Ask about what they've got.

2:
Or while you're here, maybe you can help Tidus, who pipes up to ask-

"Hey, quick question. How long 'til you're comfortable hugging someone?"

(ooc: as a note, all threads on this will be threeways! please enjoy trying to handle both teens at once. you can't seperate them.)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"If it works." Not that it'll stop him from being a brat to the train, buuuut- "But also, I wanna get a feel for the train too. How it reacts to us. Like, how we should be seeing it? It's a train, but we know there's something in there too.. but what's it holding back on purpose, or what doesn't it know we wanna know?"

How much should he really be huffing and puffing about the train??

Tidus puts the ticket in, and finds the feedback post easily. Begins typing away, with the message clear for Taiki to read:

Hello. I would like information on why passengers get called on by a conductor and then make a disappearance from the train, sometimes permanently. Any information that can be shared with the train as a whole, as you've done to tell us about the void sickness and void storm, would be appreciated.

He looks at Taiki.

"That okay? Orrr-" he skims it "--you want less nice, more demanding?"

He nodded, it was clear that the train was more than just a train but if there was a person who could hear them, who could understand them... Then Tidus was doing the right thing by trying to reach out.

He read the message as Tidus typed it and nodded.

"No. That's alright." It didn't sound too demanding... Maybe more so than he would write. But if there was a person and they got angry, he would rather they got angry at him than Tidus.

"Okay then!" Then-- submitted! And if Taiki thinks that's demanding, he should see what Tidus usually writes for feedback messages!!

But he takes the ticket back out once done, holds it out for Taiki to take.

"I hope it works... either we've got a dumb train trying its best, or we have a train keeping info back intentionally." ...well. "I think that's the case anyway, but." He shrugs. "Don't know unless you try, right?"

"I hope it works, I hope it is listening." A strange thing to say about a train, but Tidus is right. You don't know unless you try.

"I hope we get answers... For anything really."

Even if it wasn't the big things like where people went, or how to leave the train. Even small answers would be better than nothing.

"Sucks, huh? This is what we get for sleeping on the classes on what to do when you get whizzed away by a void-travelling train."

To add some humour to it. But he folds his arms, mouth twisted to a side.

"You'd think being some dream human would mean I could do something cool... like, go in--" and his hands already unfold, so he can wiggle them mid-air "--and get whatever's in the engine room to listen to me! Mess up their dreams by being annoying!"

He smiled softly, it was good to hear Tidus joke, good to see him smile.

He tilted his head at the suggestion. "Yes, it would be good if it gave you powers, like a character from a manga, do you have those?"

Tidus' world seemed some strange mix between things he had known on earth and more like his own world. So it was always difficult to know what he would understand.

"You mean stories with pictures? Sure! I used to read one about a fish playing blitzball and pretending to be a normal city-goer. It was dumb but funny; the fish was drawn like a kid's art, while everything else was super detailed!"

Tidus likes the gag comics, okay.

"That sounds fun." He smiled, it sounded exactly like the sort of story Tidus would like.

"There were all sorts of stories like that on earth, many were about people with magic or powers."

"Did no one have magic on earth? Or was it just a few people who had it, so it was fun to read about people getting them?"

Did Zanarkand have stories about that? He's trying to think as he listens to Taiki too, but...

""People didn't have it. At least... I don't think so. Some people claimed to but it was mostly disproved... But I don't know. Because I existed there, on earth."

Most people did not know about his world, they did not know how close and tangled the two worlds were. They did not know that creatures like Taiki could even exist.

"Hmm, you know... my Zanarkand never used any magic either - even though the city it was based on, it was a city all about it. Used to be famous for it."

He waves a hand. "That just shows how well you can hide magic, huh? Even with the city the way it was, we didn't know anything about magic! Well, far as I know." He shrugs, a small laugh. "I was always playing blitzball. I wouldn't know if there was an seafloor conspiracy about it."

He nodded, it was indeed easy to hide magic. Especially if you did not know about it at all. After all there were plenty of Taika, many who would not even ever know they were living in the wrong world.

"It must have been a shock to you when you left."

"Sure," he admits with a small laugh, "but I had good people around to help me! Did I tell you where I first showed up though? Out in the middle of nowhere, near a bunch of ruins? And fish fiends trying to eat me!"

He points to himself, adds the reassurance, "I'm okay though, 'course."

"That must have been so frightening." Even if Tidus had clearly been alright, not surprising since he is so strong, a good fighter. But still, it must have been a terrible time.

"Were you alone for a long time?"

"A while," Tidus admits. "It wasn't that long, but it felt like forever at the time. Everything was a wreck -- I showed up outside first and had to swim in, and it was freezing too. All stone, and everything was damp!"

He thought was going to freeze to death, but, well, they can skip that.

"It was lucky I did get out. Some Al Bhed ended up finding me -- even though they thought I was a fiend at first. Sometimes that happens there. You get Unsent hovering around lookin' like humans, but they're too far gone. But!" on a cheerier note, "they let me on their ship, and I got some food and water from them!"

"I am glad they managed to help you."

He smiled, "People from my world can't survive being blown over to earth unless they are still in their egg fruit, when they are taika, born on earth. But sometimes people from earth blow over to our world. They arrive in the sea of stars. They can't even speak the language or anything... I was lucky. Because I am a kirin, I can be understood but even I couldn't read or write... I still need a lot of help." Which was a little embarrassing, for a minister.

"Was the language the same for you? Or did you need to learn it?"

Wow. Tidus listens to that, trying to imagine it-- a sea of stars catching his imagination in particular, though it's not the point. He wonders, but answers firsst-

"No- I mean, I did learn one. The Al Bhed actually talk a different language from everyone else, so when I met them, I had no clue what they were saying!" ...well. "Uh, still don't sometimes, but I tried learning. I can say a few things!" he says brightly, happily; proud that he can, but in a more modest way than his usual hardy spirit.

"One of my friends is an al bhed, so I wanted to know! But everyone else...other than accents, we all talked the same language. We were still in the same world." So that makes sense, right?

"But what happens to people...-- the people from Earth? Who get blown over where Tai is? Do people there know about Earth?"

He nodded, it did make sense since they were in the same world. Even if Tidus' part was different. He nodded at the question though. "Sort of. They call it Hourai and it's sort of a mythical place, where the streets are made of gold. A fairy tale beyond the sea of stars."

He shook his head, "But when people arrive in my world they are called Kaikyaku." He explained, "It... I guess it depends on the kingdom they arrive in. Some try and help them where others do not treat them as kindly. Some people blame them for the shoku, that is the storms, that happen when the worlds clash together."

Which wasn't fair, kaikyaku did not cause the storms, they were victims of them.

"Sounds like I got lucky on Spira! Two worlds clashing together..." Wait, he heard something like this before. Or a concept close, except- "Is this like...what you call parallel worlds? Where they're side to side but they don't usually interact? Except these...storms that happen. That blow people around."

...which is weird to imagine. But it sounds more magical than just your usual idea of a storm.

"I think so yes." He nodded, "I don't really understand it myself..."

But a parallel world sounded right, they were two worlds that usually did not interact until they did.

"Some people can move from my world to earth purposefully, but it causes shoku so is very dangerous. For the most part though they are separate, one cannot know the other."

"So the shoku's the storm...and it's people moving around that make it?" Hmm. Why's that, Tidus wonders--but it doesn't sound like Taiki knows even if he did ask. So it's curious, but not worth getting serious over.

"Is the sea of stars near the sea of clouds then? That's it, wasn't it? Like a sea around the mountains?"

It may not be a literal sea, but also, he remembers there being something fantastical about the way that Taiki talked about it.

"Lord Gyousou might know more..." After all Lord Gyousou had lived in their world all his life and he had lived a long time, Taiki had still barely learning how things worked.

He shook his head, "The sea of stars is on the edges of the world..."

He is sat in front of art supplies, he smiles and takes a new piece of paper before sketching out a map. "This sea here." He points to the sea on the outside of the main ring of kingdoms. "That is the sea of stars. The sea of clouds is up... If you stand on the earth it looks just like the sky would in any other world. But it is the sea that separates the normal world from the world of immortals."

Can Tidus take a seat by Taiki for this one? This is going to be easier to look at the map with, noticing right away how more like an...insignia it reminds him of. Like those in the temples of the fayth than somewhere real.

But-- that's probably creative liberties. Tidus takes in what Taiki says instead, humming.

"Ohh, so-" he points a finger on the map, in no particular place. Just to tap it. "Immortals live on another world? Or is it a mountain? --You told me about a mountain once."

At least, he's pretty sure. Wasn't there a mountain in the sea of clouds?

Taiki is happy to have Tidus sit next to him as he shaded parts of the map, adding to it idly as he spoke.

"Yes... The imperial palaces, and other important palaces... They are all on top of mountains so large that they go above the sea of clouds. That's where those who are immortal, like the king, live. If you are in the imprial palace it is like being on an island in an ocean, but really it is on top of a mountain and from below what you are seeing as an ocean is the sky."

It might sound strange, but then again Tidus' world was strange too, it had buildings built on water, or under water...

It's odd... but it's true, that - while Zanarkand was normal to him - even Spira had fantastical sights. A forest made mostly from water. It'd be interesting to see.

"Does the king at the top have anything to do with the rest of you?" He goes from the middle of the map, circling his finger around to indicate the other kingdoms. "I can't believe how many kings there are."

Look at all these. --Wait. "Are all these kingdoms?"

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