voidtreckerexpress

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Who: Eva and Najaran
Where: Standard Carriage.
When: After this (well, Eva's thread), but before any trainwide talk about it.
What: Eva fills Narajan in on what she knows about the tethering stuff.
Warnings: talk of What Happened Last Mission re: Halo

"You wanted to know how I understood all that stuff, yeah?" Eva asks once they've finished asking their questions, brown eyes far more serious than anyone on the train's likely ever seen them.

"Long story short: some of us found the remains of a voidcraft on the last mission. It's pilot died soon after and there was nothing that could be done to stop her death."

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She shuddered a bit at that thought. "I didn't know that," she said. "You said something about reviving people..." She wasn't quite sure how to ask what she needed to ask.

Eva frowns a little but given that state of Everything since the last mission, that's understandable.

"I did, yea, and, as far as I personally can tell based on what I've been told, it's that SCA that allows it to happen while we're off-train."

"But what exactly do you mean? I mean... if I said it back home it just meant someone passed out or something, but there are people with healing magic here..."

Her gaze softens just a little. "I mean brought back to life. If the SCA's not on you and you die on a world..."

"Then... I die. How can someone... come back from being dead?" she asked, confused. "I mean... I know how they can leave messages, and Kigi's sister said that elves spirits don't fade like humans' do..."

She swallowed hard, tearing up. Usually did when she thought of Kigi. Of all the nymphs who died to try and keep the world alive just a little longer.

Najaran has seen a lot of personal sacrifice in her short life. Some successful, some not, some for a good cause, some not... She was never counting in the train bringing her back if she died on a mission, SCA or no. She learned through the examples of others what she was and was not willing to risk.

Eva exhales as she considers everything she knows.

"You come back from dead via the tethering the SCA provides, as, through it, our very lives are tied to the Train. And I suspect... That the Train itself is tied to our lives, only if all died, it dies, and that's why it forced us out of the fight with those shadows."

"It... brought us back.. to save itself, not us?" she asked. That... left her conflicted. Very. On the one hand... If her going back helped save someone, she was less bitter about it than if it had just been saving her own skin, but on the other hand, if the train sacrificed everyone they had been sent to help... to save itself only? Then she was very angry with the train. Now she wished she could ask more questions, and her eyes flicked to the console as she thought that.

Goligan cleared his throat, or what passed for it in man headed canes. "I have heard a lot of people speak of this incident in short bits, but only Lady Najaran has given me a full account. Perhaps it is time and past that I asked someone else what happened, given it is at the crux of so much of her anger and self recriminations."

"I'm not selfishly rec... re criminal... um... what ever it is you said!" she protested.

"I can't say for sure, but it's a good assumption. That said, I could be wrong and it brought us back to save us from whatever those things were."

Eva nods in agreement to Goligan. "Yeah; that's like what's going to help the most here. From my view, they where like nothing I'd ever seen in my life and while I'm pretty sure we could have fought them... I don't know."

Her eyes flick to Najaran. "That said, I do want you to strongly consider wearing the SCA on missions at the very least. I could put my foot down as a Team Lead and force the issue as one of safety, but..."

She'd rather not if Najaran felt so strongly about it. "I'd rather it not come to that."

"I refuse," Najaran said simply, but she was shaking slightly. "Not until we can get the train to respect our choices. To let us choose. I'm not trying to be some hero or whatever, I don't care if people remember me after I die or anything like that. But if there is any hope at all for people who need my help, I have to try."

"You might not care if you live or die, but there are those where who do care," Eva says softly, voice serious beyond any shadow of a doubt.

She draws herself up as well, welcoming the mantle of Champion about her, of a leader. She who she is and that is a woman who understands, instrictally, the kind of danger Najaran's opened herself and others up to.

This isn't something she wants to do, but it has to be said. "Then as an Orange Team Leader, I can't approve of you going on missions and I will be bringing this to Curufin and the others at the first possible chance. By not wearing your SCA, you're not just putting yourself at risk, but all those around you. Never mind the fact that you wouldn't be able to understand us or even know if your life is in danger, or keep in touch with the rest of the team. Whether you like it or not, there are people on here who care about you and your safety. Your cards, for one. What happens to them if you die off-train and off your world without your SCA?"

Is it a low blow? Probably. Does Eva care? Not if it gets the point across.

"I do care. I just can't let that or you stop me." She stood taller, drawing her shoulders back. "My Master is the scariest person I've ever met when he is angry. I stood up to him to defend someone innocent, I'll stand up to you. I am still going on missions. I am still going to help people," she said, flatly, determined.

All of that's well and good, but it doesn't answer the most important thing in Eva's eyes.

"Najaran-chan. What happens to your cards if you die? You told me they were living creatures, as real as pokemon are. What happens to them when you die?"

She took a deep breath. Let it out slowly. "They are pulled back into their cards if I am not there to sustain them. They will rest like that. I don't know if the train will send them back to my world or not, but they will wait for another Cepter strong enough to wake them. They'll notice I was gone," she whispered clutching Goligan tightly, "and notice when a new Cepter takes them up. But my Master says that they're unaware of the time between their old Cepter dying and their new one claiming them. There are cards that are still being found from the War Of The Goods, and unless they were damaged by the Gods themselves, like the Elemental Lords were..." Well, two of them. Maybe three. She wasn't sure about the Lord of Flame yet, and probably shouldn't talk about the Lord of Water since she was a big secret and all... But the Dark Lord of Earth and the Lord of Flies she could discuss. The more people who understood that they needed to be stopped, the better. Well, the more people who would actually stop them, anyhow.

She caught her thread again, and shook her head. "If they're just banged up from combat they'll go back to their cards and heal up as if I summoned them back. And they'll be fine when their new Cepter calls them forth, and a thousand years would be the same as a say to them. I'd like to think they'd miss me but..." she shrugged. "Cards don't talk about their old Cepters."

Eva nods in understanding. She wouldn't deny a lot of it went over her head, yet at the same time, the context was pretty easy to grasp at the very least.

"And, if they don't return to your world? If they remain on another world because you, their link home, died there then they'll remain dormant forever." Or worse, someone else would find them, activate them, and use them in ways Najaran wouldn't like. But that's a card she can save for later if needed.

"Halo-san's SCA remained behind after she died -Seto has it last I saw- and it's certain the rest of her belongings did, too."

"Then they'll remain here and they'll live on the train until it picks up another Cepter. Or the Goddess will see to them. Also..." she hesitated.

"Ah," Goligan said.

She nodded.

"Lady Najaran has a theory that her being on the train might actually stop the Black Cepters from taking over our world, specifically because it keeps her cards from them."

Najaran nodded a bit. She didn't like thinking about it, but if that was the only way she could help save her world, by staying away from it... and by getting the train to keep bringing her cards...

"That's a good theory," Eva says with a nod to Goligan.

"Yet..." She starts, pinning Najaran with a look. Does she like doing this? Nope. Is she? Yes. It's her Duty as Team Leader. "If they remain on the world and another Cepter finds them? One of the bad guys who then uses them against that world?"

She holds up her hand to forestall the other. "I'm not saying I know the answers to those questions. What I am saying is that you owe it your cards- they rely on you as much as you on them- to the beings within said cards that you so boldly claimed are living creatures like us, to stay alive and make it safely back to your world. And to do that, it means you wear the SCA on missions. It's seven days out of thirty and out of every mission we've had so far, only one had the forced evac."

"They would no more ask me to stay out of a fight to protect me than I'd ask them," she snapped, eyes narrowing. "What I owe them is respect and trust! Which is what they give me as well. Are we done here?"

Eva's eyes flash angrily at what seems willful ignorance to her, but if this child has to learn because of fire, then who is she to deny it. "I want you to think long and hard on what your Master would say if he were here on the train and have gone through what you have, as I doubt he'd agree with this foolhardy stance of yours."

Does she know that for sure? Not at all, but it is very much a card she's willing to try. "But yeah. We're done here."

And with that, Eva turns on her heel and heads off to see what the rest of the passengers are doing.

Najaran and Goligan exchanged a long look.

"Let's hope Master Horowitz never arrives here..." Goligan said.

Najaran shuddered, rubbing her arms. "Agreed. For lots of reasons." The world needed him right where he was for one. For another he'd make her practice more. And... she wasn't sure who on the train would actually be stupid enough to go after him if they felt this way about keeping her safe. She wasn't so much worried about what they'd do to him as what he could do to them... NOTHING on ANY world was as scary as her Master when he was angry! Brrr.

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So. Much. Headcanon. Stupid short series.

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Thank you for the thread!