voidtreckernet | Video Day 22 Jelly Event

[ Whoa. What is this? Thanatos pokes the screen curiously. ]

I am not Eros. I am Thanatos, Death Incarnate and son of Nyx, and I do not have a father.

[ He doesn't even have his wings out! Why do people confuse him for Eros??? ]

However, you are in a box.

Edited 2021-02-12 21:30 (UTC)

"What? Are you making up a story again?"

[Honestly, he's so relieved to get an answer he doesn't even care she's not making any sense. The part about not having a father though-- they'll have to have a talk later.]

"Very funny. Listen honey, daddy is lost and he needs your help. Can you use that big brain of yours and figure out my location? Remember I taught you how to do it?"

[The avatar she's picked is kinda weird- he chalks it up to the fantasies of a little girl. Next it'll be a talking unicorn.]

Edited 2021-02-12 21:39 (UTC)

No, I am not making anything up.

[ Thanatos points to the screen as if that will help make everything easier to understand. ]

You are right there in the box, and you are not my father.

"Hey, come on- Don't talk to me like that, pumpkin. I know you're a teensy bit mad at me for the- you know- but it's for your own good. You need protecting because you're special, remember?"

... Why do I need protecting?

[ Thanatos looks at his plush mouse. Mother had told him Mort was a protector.... ]

I don't know what you're talking about.

[Oh no... This is really not a good time for her to be doing this again. He can't have her freaking out and cutting the connection.]

"Your powers, Angel. I know you didn't forget what happened. Now can you pull up the Hyperion network for me, honey?

My powers don't work like that, and Hyperion holds little power. The Olympians rule now.

[ Not father stuck in a box, Thanatos has no idea what you're going on about. ]

"Yes, they d- Whaddya mean Hyperion holds little power? You know that's not true!"

[He's starting to get a little pissed.]

"Angel, you gotta do what I say or else I can't get home. Is that what you want?"

The Titans were defeated. The next era has already started.

[ So this guy must be really old if he thinks the Titans are still in power. ]

You are not the Three Fates. You do not tell me what to do.

[He looks a bit concerned, but.]

I think I'd remember if you were my daddy, mister...did you lose someone?

This is a train, mister. A void train, that trains its way through the void.

[Nailed it.]

[Okay, that's definitely not Angel, even if she was using some weird avatar. No waywould she ever call him mister.]

"Yeah.... Yeah, I did. How did you get this frequency, kid?"

[That might be a little too hard for a kid to understand. Well, any kid besides his own.]

"Ehr, I mean. Are your parents there?"

[What the heck was a void train?? Kind of a weird thing for a child to make up.]

Uh, the ICPs broadcast everywhere there is one, so I'm not the only person who has it...

[But the kid blinks and shakes his head.] No, my mom and dad aren't here. At least I didn't see them at the last platform, so I really hope not...

So who did you lose, then?

"Wait, e-everywhere? Oh shi- shoot!"

[John smacks his forehead and groans. Well, if she was anywhere on this train at least that gave his message a chance to reach her.]

"My daughter... She really needs me." [He looks off to the side and bites his lip.]

"You're alone here then? That ain't good."

Jack?

[Oh. this is not good. Not Jack too! He's so smart. He'd be a great consultant on figuring this out. A young-looking purple-haired woman appears on the screen, and it definitely looks like her hair is what's holding the ICP rather than her actual hands.]

[Is this what his human self was like?]

First of all, are you healthy? Not hurt or anything?

"Huh?" [Someone who knows him by his new name? Must be a coworker... Except that doesn't look like anybody he knows down in Coding. Or, you know- has met ever.]

"Uh, I'm fine. Who is this?"

[And what was up with their hair??]

Entrapta. [Matter of factly.]

Look, this might be a little hard to understand, but there's been some sort of incident that made a lot of people younger. Or significantly different.

You were staff aboard this train, and the Jack I know is a little older... and different... [and has never mentioned having a daughter]. You may want to look around the room you woke up in a little for further evidence. Sometimes when something this strange is happening, it's hard to take people at their word.

[That's a name he feels like he would have remembered. He listens to her with a quizzical expression on his face, occasionally glancing around the room as if to confirm what she's saying.

An incident that de-aged people? Its all too unreal. R&D got up to some crazy stuff, but not this level of weird. If they had, the president would be hurrying to try and market the stuff as some kind of cream to rich old people!]

"Staff? Why would I work on a train...? I'm a coder. Look, I really have to find my daughter, she needs m-"

[His eyes finally catch on the life-sized gold bust sitting innocently on a set of drawers.]

"Hold on... Is that-?"

[Holy shit, it kind of looks like him? John reaches out, tracing the angles of the face with an incredulous expression. The jaw is a bit squarer and wider and there's some strange.... staple things (???) on the sides and under the chin. But it really does look convincingly like someone had taken his face and aged it up maybe ten or fifteen years?]

"Is this supposed to be me?" [He asks, angling the ICP to include the bust.]

"Cause if so... Wow. One, that's really weird. And two, I aged really darn well!"

Edited 2021-02-15 05:22 (UTC)

I didn't know you had a gold bust of yourself.

[Royalty have statues of themselves all the time, she has portraits of herself, it's not that strange. It's just... fancier... than she expected.]

[But okay!]

That is you, though.

I don't think your daughter is here. You've never mentioned her to me. But the train is pretty compact and if you want to look to be sure, I could help you.

"That makes two of us. Kinda cool though. Or is it tacky? Maybe both."

[His expression turns serious again when she says his daughter probably isn't on the train.]

"Yeah... That's not really a surprise," he says with a frown. "I don't really. Uh. Tell people about her. I have a picture though if you can help me search."

Sure. I would want to see a picture of your daughter anyway.

My cabin isn't far from yours. Should I meet you outside of it?

[She's going to help him look just to put his mind at ease.]

"Yeah. I don't really know my way around this place, so-"

[He shrugs.]

"Hurry up though, I'm not gonna wait around. I gotta find her."

Don't worry, I'll be there.

[But oh, it's going to hurt when he realizes she's not anywhere.]

[Entrapta knocks on his cabin door not ten seconds later. Sandra isn't with her- she left her with a girl that was having problems phasing through things. But that's alright. She doesn't think she's going to be as productive as she normally would be when there's a situation like this, one where there's no hope of fixing it.]

[Devero's raising his voice in answer before he even reaches the ICP in the car he's in. He's such a helpful guy!]

This is the Voidtrecker Express. It's an interdimensional space train and your daughter probably isn't--

[He hews into the view of the ICP's camera and literally does a double-take when he sees a flesh-and-blood Glowstick on the screen.] Jack!?

The Void what? I don't- That's not a place on- Where the frick...?

[John shakes his head, massaging his temples for a second before replying.]

You know me? [He squints, fairly sure he's never seen a hunk and a half like that around.]

Not like this, I don't.

[He takes a deep breath. Part of him wants to leave Jack to flounder, but-- he doesn't. really. like to hold grudges. And this younger, human Jack had sounded so worried...]

Listen. It's not easy to explain, but you're stuck here and your daughter isn't, and there's no way to connect out to an external network. I'm sorry.

What's that supposed to mean? [There's an inkling of the aggressive, self-important tone there, but its dialed down so much lower.]

No way? No- nah, nah, nah- That's not p- possible. There's gotta be...something...

[He sounds desperate now, shoving a hand through his hair and shaking his head.]

You don't get it- I can't leave her alone. She needs me. She's just a little girl and she's got no one else!

[His expression is pleading.] How did you get here? Where are you from? Who's running this place? Please, anything-

There's an AI running the train that's pulling all of us here, but good luck getting through to it if it doesn't want to talk. Everyone on this train is from different realities-- different universes-- and we're all stuck here no matter who or what we have to get back home to.

You're not going to be able to get back to her. I'm sorry. If I could help you, I would. [And he does mean that sincerely, even if he and the AI Jack aren't on the best of terms right now.]

An AI...? I can talk to AIs, I deal with them all the time. Is there somewhere I can access it?

[He can't really bare to process the rest of what Dev's saying. If he accepts being trapped forever as reality he'll lose it completely. The image of a limp furry little body on his bed, darkened by the shadow of an old woman flashes unbidden through his head...

No... he was free of her. A new man. He had to be able to protect what was precious to him...

John presses his palms to his face and tries to remember how to breathe properly.]

Ngh...

Edited 2021-02-18 18:24 (UTC)

That's the thing. It can't be accessed. The terminal you're using is about the only way to interact with it.

--Hey. [He can't help but be sympathetic, the big marshmallow man.] Deep breaths. I know it's a lot to deal with.

No, you don't. You can't...

[Comes the reply after half a minute of shaky breathing.]

I almost lost her once. This wasn't supposed to happen... She's safe... I made sure she was safe.

[Why was the universe so hell bent on separating them?! What did he do to deserve that? John draws in a sharp breath through his teeth.]

Then I'll use this terminal. Or I'll blow up this fucking train. I don't care what I have to do. I will get out of here or die trying. If this is some kind of karma for a past life thing, whatever cosmic bullshit that rules the universe can shove that RIGHT back up it's own asshole! I'm going back home to my goddamn daughter!

[At some point during this he'd started pacing and he's out of frame when he finishes, a loud crash signalizing his assault on some unlucky piece of furniture elsewhere in the room.]

[Devero's heart goes out to the other man, it really does. How can it not, when he's so upset about being separated from his child? He hears so many horror stories from other folks on the train about parents abusing their children, taking advantage of them, hurting them, that in a way it's a relief to hear someone giving a shit about his kid.

But Jack's an adult, even if a slightly younger adult than usual, and this train is full of kids who need help. So though Devero's sympathetic, he's got to leave Jack to figure this out on his own.]

...Good luck, man. [He says it pretty soft into the ICP, maybe not even loud enough to be heard as Jack's moved away, and cuts the connection on his end.]

Video Day 22 Jelly Event

[video] sorry, not sorry, couldn't resist

an ACTUAL ANGEL I'm-

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uh oh some accidental backstory unlock

uh oh some accidental misunderstanding

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cw memory of animal death

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