voidtreckerexpress | At the End of the Storm [Open/Catchall]

At the End of the Storm [Open/Catchall]

Who: Anyone and Everyone
Where: The entire train
When: The day after the Voidstorm - Horseshoe 21
What: The storm is over. Time to recover.
Warnings: None so far

Yesterday, there was a storm. Yesterday, the Void called out to you, and phantoms of the past appeared outside the windows and inside the cars. Yesterday was...difficult, to say the least.

Today is calm - as calm as things ever are. Today, you have time to recover. There are hastily-covered windows to clean off; there are friends and teammates to check in on; there are even normal, everyday chores, because life does not stop for a single storm.

Or perhaps you succumbed completely to yesterday's phantoms and need to rest and regain your strength.

Regardless of what you need, there is time enough, at the moment.

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[ He looks like he's considering how to answer that question. It's more that he's wondering how best to word it, not because he doesn't want to. ]

While the actual fighting was short, due to our tactics in trying an overwhelming show of strength, which was a bluff much like everything else we did, I managed to force a stalemate. He had strength, but I whipped up nitroglycerin and threatened to use it to blow everyone up if he didn't agree to an armistice.

[ Most of his tactics involve deceptions, that's just a fact. ]

I realized there was some reason he was fighting in the professional circuit as a teenager. He was trying to protect someone. His little sister, who was brain dead. In exchange for ending the conflict, I told him the revival process could save her. He agreed to stop in exchange for that.

[ He hums slightly. ]

Then I just had to contend with the bigger pain in the ass he woke up, which he helped me with. They weren't exactly a cohesive unit and some people didn't accept those terms, but getting the opposing leader on your side is convincing for most. At the moment, he's dead in a cold sleep, Tsukasa I mean. My plan is to preserve his body, petrify him again and wake him up. Gen has told me, at least, that it's successful.

...you would not have used the nitroglycerin, then.

[The fact that Siebren feels the need to check that no, Senku would not have blown up his allies along with his enemies, says less about Senku than it does about the sort of people Sigma is accustomed to working with.]

Gen is your Mentalist, correct? Is he from a different point on your timeline than you?

[It stands to reason, if he is able to confirm the success of a plan, but it is worth confirming.]

Not for that purpose. We did use it to smash through some bedrock to get his sister out of the ground. That would have caused casualties. Not only do I not want any, because seriously, there is only a very small number of humans, and killing each other isn't going to get us far, but I also promised Ukyo.

[ He wouldn't want to break a promise for any reason. ]

That's right, he is. He's from about two months after me. Annoyingly aside from tell me about Tsukasa, he won't tell me anything else.

I see.

I have been informed that missions here have the potential to become violent - do you still hold to that philosophy here?

[It was a promise made, yes, but also a promise made in very different circumstances; how does Senku see it now that the situation has changed?]

[As for Gen:]

Is he worried about time paradoxes?

There hasn't been anything here to suggest I need to change my mind, and I'm not likely either. I'm stubborn as a mule.

[ Gen would unhelpfully whisper he was being a Capricorn. Ugh. Him and his astrology needed to get out of Senku's head. ]

It was one of the things he did mention. All I've gleaned is that, my plan works, and at the point he's come in, I'm seriously injured. I don't think I would change my course of action regardless if I knew the outcome or not. I always typically take what seems like the best avenue in the first place.

Edited 2020-11-05 03:38 (UTC)

...that is good to know.

[It is one thing to have a measure of someone's intellect; it is quite another to have a measure of their character. Siebren now believes he has both for Senku, provided that Senku has been telling him the truth this entire time.]

[Senku has only mentioned deception in response to violence, and with a possible future injury...Siebren hums thoughtfully and adds Senku to his list of people to be protected should violence arise.]

All hypotheticals - you cannot say for sure without the data in your hands. [Had he know in advance the extent of the damage his experiment would cause, he certainly would have changed course.] It may also be possible that he does not wish to recount events he finds upsetting and would simply prefer to see you healthy here. [He hasn't met Gen yet, so he cannot say for sure, but...well. Basic human compassion.]

[ Senku's deceptions tended to come with help, he wasn't naturally inclined to lie. He didn't really understand the point of it, most of the time. ]

That's true, but I can't imagine changing course, even if I get hurt. It's likely I'm the only one hurt, and I'm not dead so in the end it might end up being inconsequential. [ He's more inclined to sacrifice himself if it has to be someone over no one. ]

Hmm. I hadn't considered that. It wouldn't bother me, I'm not upset about it. Injuries are always a risk in a dangerous world.

[Siebren huffs at that, somewhere between incredulity and a laugh.]

Is that your standard? 'I am not dead; therefore, everything is fine?'

[If Senku is that self-sacrificing - or reckless, as the case may be - then he will definitely require protection should the situation become dangerous.]

Injuries are a risk regardless of the world's level of overt danger. Perhaps you should consider that possibility; it may give you a new angle of approach the next time you ask.

[Provided there is a next time.]

Nah, I've been dead.

[ Senku will just leave that there without context, because it's more of a correction and fleeting thought. ]

Hm, I'm not sure I'll ask him again, but I guess I should consider that. He seems fine though.

[Siebren sits up very suddenly and, for a few moments, just stares at Senku.]

...petrified or otherwise?

[EXPLAIN.]

[ He blinks and then realizes. ]

Oh. Well, Tsukasa and I didn't agree on philosophy so he decided to kill me to stop scientific progress. It was fine, I still had a piece of petrification on my neck, so when Taiju applied fluid, it fixed the damage.

[There have been points in his life in which Siebren has wondered if he is losing what is left of his sanity. Generally, they come as a challenge to the laws of science: when he witnesses something that, by all accounts, should not be possible and has yet somehow occurred. Witnessing Reaper dissolve into thin air the first time was one such occasion; this is another.]

[He stares at the floor for several very long seconds, blinking a few too many times, trying to process data-]

[Opens his mouth as if he were about to speak-]

[Closes his mouth-]

[Repeats the process-]

[And finally sighs and closes his eyes. He cannot make sense of this with the data given, or possibly even at all. Provided Senku is telling the truth, he will simply have to take Senku's word for it.]

I am glad it worked out for you.

[ He realizes that he's kind of not explaining anything at all and he can't really leave it at that. ]

It's really a fascinating process. The best I can figure is that whatever the light did it changed the molecular structure of the humans and using nital causes it to change back. The process of changing from one state to another allows problems in the cellular structures to be repaired.

It was a thesis I had that it would work, and it did. It's come in handy since then.

I realize how fantastical it sounds, but it absolutely, ten billion percent follows the laws of science. It's completely exhilarating! I'm dying to really understand the tech that got us to this point.

[He keeps his eyes closed as he listens, eventually rubbing his temples. This is...insane. Likely functional within the bounds of Senku's world, but still completely insane.]

[...as though he has room to throw stones in that matter.]

[His first comment - Though ten billion percent does not follow the laws of mathematics. - does not make it past his lips. It is an enthusiastic exaggeration, and it would be mean-spirited at best of him to poke fun at it.]

I would much prefer you not die again at all.

We can agree on that, I have no real interest in dying, and while I'd like to learn more about the reincarnation properties of this train in the whole void thing, I got told off already.

[ Yes. He'd been trying to kill himself to see how coming back to life worked. Again. ]

There's an unexpected complication, being mentally linked to someone else, thanks to some strange island we went to, she's not too keen in finding out what happens if one of us dies, and she's absolutely right about that.

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At the End of the Storm [Open/Catchall]

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