Echoes in a Void

[voidtreckermods]

"Good morning passengers, today is day twenty of the month of Horseshoe." The day begins normally at least. Passengers wake in their bed, perhaps get up, begin to start their morning.

It is perhaps less than an hour after waking that the first problems occur, turbulence making the train shake and roll. It's not quite bad enough to throw most sure footed passengers off their feet, but it is not very pleasant. Anyone near the window will notice the void looks different. The colours are bolder and shift more violently than usual.

"Passengers of the Voidtrecker Express, please brace yourselves for a Voidstorm." The announcement is not that useful, but a moment later the ICPs all show a message.

The void continues to shift and swirl, violent and mesmerising.

Outside

It might be that the strange effects of the void draw them to the windows, or it might be that they hear a voice. A friend, a lover, a mother. Calling them. Soft and sweet, high and playful.

Join us. It's tempting, faces show in the void outside, pleading and cajoling. Passengers might even see places, a home, a land long lost. Just outside, not out of reach at all. All they have to do is join them, enter the chaos of the void. Or at least stay close, watch through the windows, stare into the void...

Inside

The shapes outside the train are not the worrying thing, as the storm progresses people will start noticing that the train seems fuller than usual. An empty carriage becomes full in a moment, people eating and playing or reading. A friend passengers thought long gone walking down the corridor towards them. Or perhaps it is not a voidtrecker that they know, but a stranger in uniform going about their business, seemingly normal until they pass through them, leaving them chilled and weak.

They gravitate towards those who are alone, following them, gathering around them, sapping them of energy.

Safety in Numbers

Sticking together is the safest course of action. Being together, physical contact or just shared activities will make the echoes leave them alone. Start a game, encourage a beanbag reading circle. Anything to keep people distracted and together.

Stay strong, Voidtreckers, the storm shall soon pass.

(OOC: Here is the ooc information for this event. This post can be used as a catch all, or you can start your own posts set during this time.)

Comments

[tactlesstantei]

[She's distracted enough that the grab takes her completely off guard, causing her to be initially easily dragged away. That doesn't last long though, as she soon begins struggling to get loose and back to the window, trying desperately to twist around to make Enna release her.]

"Let me go, my family's out there! I need to talk to them!" [She could still hear their voices, asking her to come back to the window and join them.]

[nocawsforconcern]

No they aren't.

[Enna shifts her grip, trying to get Masumi in a headlock.]

We're in a storm. It's an illusion of the sirens.

[tactlesstantei]

"No, they're out there! I saw them!"

[And if Masumi cranes her head to look at the nearest window, she can still see them, just out of reach beyond the train but there anyways. However, she's too busy struggling to not get put in a headlock to look beyond the briefest of glances, her focus on getting away from Enna so that she could prove they were there.]

"I can show you, they're right there!"

[nocawsforconcern]

[Only one thing to do.

Enna uses one arm to keep the headlock, but the other arm comes around to cover Masumi's eyes.]

Just because you can see them doesn't mean they're there.

[tactlesstantei]

[She's still fighting to get away, but now that she can't see anymore the struggles are slacking off a bit. She can still hear them calling out, fueling her need to follow their voices, but without the chance to actually see the void part of the lure is now gone.]

"How do you know they're not there? So much weird stuff already happens here, why not this?"

[Normally Masumi would know how ridiculous that was, but the voices were still influencing her into believing her family could be out there.]

[nocawsforconcern]

The same way I know not to go for a swim in a storm, duh.

[She sounds so Done immediately.]

[tactlesstantei]

"Please, I know it's them. If it's not..." [She didn't know what she'd do if it wasn't actually her family out there. As it is, Masumi continues on, apparently not quite accepting it was all fake yet.]

"My brother's out there, I haven't seen him since..." [Since he died. And it's then that she remembers that no, dead people can't appear outside the train and she falls silent trying to explain how she could hear his voice now despite his being dead.]

[nocawsforconcern]

[Enna pauses, listening. She understands, and sympathizes...

But she's still gonna keep dragging.]

It's okay. You can think about them. But don't let your memories of them get you killed. It won't make them happy if you die wanting to see them.

[tactlesstantei]

"...How did I fall for this again? I know Shuu-nii died..."

[Now that she had realized that it really was a trick, Masumi had stopped struggling against Enna's grip and was just letting herself be pulled along. She knew the dead couldn't come back, she knew that people couldn't just appear in the void, she'd even seen a fake Shuuichi before on a different train and had fallen for that trick too, and yet she had let herself fall for whatever that was.

The fact that she could still hear those voices made it hurt more, and it was taking some effort to block them out and not get sucked back into the illusion.]

[nocawsforconcern]

[Well, Sena turning docile makes Enna at least release the headlock.]

... 'Cause you love them. So you wanna see them again. It's normal.

Are you gonna be okay now? You're not gonna do anything dumb and try to jump out a window?

[tactlesstantei]

"I guess. I wanted to see them so badly when they showed up in the void, I just don't know how I got sucked into it so fast..." [It didn't make it any better, but at least Masumi was aware that it was all an illusion and wasn't trying to look at the windows anymore.]

"...I think I'll be okay, but I don't want to be near the windows right now."

[She didn't want to accidentally see family who weren't actually there, not when it would just make her feel worse.]

[nocawsforconcern]

I'm locking people in the rooms that don't have windows. You can go in there too.

[tactlesstantei]

“Thanks. I know it’s fake now, but I need some time to think.”

[Hopefully being in a windowless car would help get her away from the voices that had yet to stop trying to bait her back to the windows and give her a chance to deal with the confusion over why she even fell for that at all.]

[nocawsforconcern]

You'll have time. And other people to help. If that helps? It helps me think sometimes. Caw.

[..... yeah, she's just gonna ramble.]

[tactlesstantei]

“...I guess.” [Masumi wasn’t really up for responding to the rambling much, and just kept moving along, trying her best to not think about what she’d seen in the void.]

“...Earlier you said that it was an ‘illusion of the sirens’. What did you mean by that?” [She thought it was all a voidstorm thing.]