We're all in this train-gether 🚂

[adregem]

Who: OTA. If you’re a passenger with a ticket on this train, then you are most welcome here!
Where: Upper Music Car
When: Imagination 18, at around brunch.
What: Welcome to the train’s first ever community open forum. Come for the food, stay for the best discussions ever.
Warnings: Lots of top-levels for easy access to relevant topics to your characters, but apart from that, nothing right now! (Not a warning but a heads-up that one TL will be dedicated to the dissemination and discussion of the bonus trek during the last mission. For your OOC reference, please see here.)



Someway through the 18th of Imagination, an announcement for the already spoken for meeting is shared by the ICPs, giving people twenty minutes to come to the upper Music Carriage for the gathering. While the chairs mostly face the stage, they’ve been curved to allow people to face their fellow passengers too, so not to put the sole focus in one place.

This is a meeting for all, and everyone will have their chance to speak and be heard.

The promised snack table sits to one side of the room, and on the stage, the white board from the standard coach has been brought in, written on it bullet points for the planned topics. To assist in the flow of discussion, familiar moderators stand in place to help jot things down, carry conversation further should one idea end while another is ready to begin, among other such administrative tasks to organize the forum. Plus, the ICP’s are in constant use all throughout the meeting, with basic announcements about what’s being discussed now, and how more people are still welcome to catch up to the Music Car if they hear something that interests them.

Grab a plate, settle down, and let’s get to work.

(OOC: Specific top-levels will be set-up for ease of tagging. Select ‘Show Top-Level Comments Only’ if you would like to skip ahead! And as much as possible kindly keep to a single thread in that TL, unless a very special or private point has to be made with regards to the subject! :) Of course if you will be tagging the snacks table, the extra suggestions, or the meta-thread, this does not apply any longer.

Also, very important: Please see here for an example format of how documentation of missions can go! It is most relevant during the discussion on information gathering.)

Comments

[consider8]

[Eight broke. It starts with water rising in her eyes, her face stoic. But a shudder in her shoulders breaks the dam of emotion that she had been desperately keeping in. A month's worth of grief and loss came pouring forth, despite her efforts to keep it down.]

I'm sorry. You're right. [She manages through ugly sobs. She whimpers before turning her face away in embarrassment.]

This is shameful. Shameful. I... I'm better than this...

[But, no. No source of self-affirmation would reign in the tears. The most she can do is use her hands to brush away her feelings from her face, which only makes her look worse.]

[adregem]

[ Such a scene is not one to break Roland, but it softens him to an even greater degree. His eyes drop low, and the protectiveness that comes to him as quick as his breaths, something so inherently Roland, returns in rolling waves as Eight sobs. He is content to stay there and bear the brunt of her sadness, the palpable fears coming to life. Roland does not forget where they are, the day to day a reminder of their captivity, but he does forget that not everyone comes from a place where they can readily accept things as they are.

It's when she turns her back to him to hide - calling it shame - which spurs him to stand from his seat, only to kneel by her side to rest a hand to her back. Roland doesn't want such a kind soul to shy away from comfort where it is most needed, where it can be used to draw strength from. She deserves to know she is not alone. ]

Eight. [ Roland offers gently. He hopes his hand can soothe, light strokes up and down to quell the grief. ] It's okay to let it out. Don't worry. I'll -

[ - protect her? What right do you have to protect anyone?

Roland shakes his head; wrangles his thoughts away from that place and instead, realizes he must do what he can to give Eight a safer space to indeed, let it out. So he maneuvers himself with a quick pivot of one foot, such that now, his body is physically shielding her away from prying eyes and curious, concerned glances. He hovers only to keep his gaze on his boot, and the hand that remains on Eight continues to pat and caress where he can. ]

[consider8]

[Gestures, not speech, showed the depth of Roland's compassion. When she reached the surface she learned quite well how different the Inkling language was compared to Octarians. It was a divide that separated the two, but despite the difference in language they could still speak the language of movement. Of touch. Of posture. Of warmth.]

[Twice she tries to pick herself up, to let the tears end, but she falls to the same mood. The truth was she was homesick, and had thought that after everything her journey to be where she belonged was over. But here they were again. Here this train was again. Here the trials were again, but this time there was no end point. The trick was there was no trick.]

I'm... [She quibbled.] ...an Octarian soldier. I... have fought through worse than this! So why... [Why was this was what overwhelms her?] *sniff* no... what is this all for?

[adregem]

[ He hates to hear it from someone so young. I'm an Octarian soldier. Roland is aware that universes and worlds and divides of realities mean standards change along with their circumstance...but from where he comes from, Eight might have been considered a child. Someone still growing up, someone still trying to find their place in this world. He knows he can't impose his own perception on these things on anyone on the train, but it hurts all the same. His heart has always bled the hardest for the young who were granted lives riddled with cruelty. ]

I wish I could tell you. [ He drops his voice to a lower tone, straight from the chest, right from the heart. ] I wish I had answers to give. Believe me, that's all I want for everyone. [ But he has none of it. The only thing he can offer is the hand to anchor Eight every time she falls, or one to help wipe the tears that fall heavily against cold floors. ]

But this isn't a fight you can win on your own, Eight. So, believe in us. We'll do our best. You're not alone. That I can promise.

[ That, Roland can keep his word to, even if something tore him away from the train itself. ]

[consider8]

[She weeps for a moment, turning away for Roland as his words are taken into consciousness. Slowly her composure returns. Her breathing slows and she turns to face Roland, flecks of magenta tears crusting the corners of her eyes.]

[She looks up to him in quiet admiration. Although he too was in the same position she was in, Roland had somehow found a way to keep going. To know that there may be no end to this and yet to continue onward despite being so far from home. To be a source of comfort within the uncertainty.]

[She couldn't help but admire that. To... want to live by his example.]

[One last sniffle and the storm passed. She uses her wrists to rub the last of the tears from her eyes.]

Thank you, Roland.

[adregem]

Think noting of it, Eight.

[ He's hesitant to uncover her from the crowd, but when he sees her return to herself, Roland is confident enough to stand and give her some room. The hand that lingers against her shoulder, or the top of her head, is the last to part from her figure. ]

You're doing great, you know. All this stuff...It's easy to think we can just get used to it. [ He shakes his head. ] But that's not the case for everyone. So every day we make the decision to keep at it is a victory under our belt. And I for one look forward to discovering more about your Octarian ways. [ Roland flashes her a small smile, genuine and heavy with emotion despite its subtlety. ] I want to hear more about you, your world, the things you like, the things you don't like...What else you can make apart from glue. Heh.

[ He nods. ] Yeah. The plus side to this mess. Getting to know different stories from different folks. Is that okay?