voidtreckernet | video/action

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video/action

[Video]

[ Della's face pops up looking... well, like everyone else - exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally. She smacks her beak a bit, before speaking. ]

... So. That sucked.

[ Fully aware that's the understatement of the century, Della draws a breath, and tries again. ]

I think we could all use a nice, long breather after everything... and, gosh darn it, as Train Mom, that is my sacred duty. Hugs? Head on the lap? Head-pats telling you that you did a good job? A shoulder to cry on? Venting out all your feelings without judgement? I'm right here.

[ She slaps her chest, then slaps a small sign on on the sports/gym car. It reads

EXHAUST PILE WITHIN

But as she does this, Tidus enters the scene - Della jumps, surprised, almost forgetting his presence.

He just smiles, holding up two cups with steam coming off them, then addresses the video feed as well. ]

We're also making big batches of cocoa too. Any of you that're gonna stress bake? There's room for that room - s'long as you don't need a nap first.

[ It's a small chide though, his smile small but sympathetic. ]

I've gotten out some incense pots from the supplies - you guys who got your head thrown into a blender by that aash-- uh, that jerk, [ he takes a swift glance at Della, then back ] --it'll help you relax. Just some, but better than nothin'. I'll set some off in Momma Duck's air nest, but if you're not doing great and you think you need a pot? Tell me. Raven made a lot of good stuff for good nights sleep if you need any in the medcar, too.

... So, yes. Cocoa. Incense. Hugging. And if you want to sleep with friends for a couple nights, we got air beds and extra pillows in here. Nobody has to get up and go until they feel ready.

And if that's not enough, that's fine too. Maybe next month we do something a little more organized, if you have any suggestions - movie night, sleepover night, big eat night, whatever, I'm listening. And I'm here for you.

[ Action ]

And inside the sports gym, the pair can be found. They have a few airbeds blown up, but there's more that still need airing up if you pop in straight after their message. There's also a tremendous amount of pillows. If you want to help, get blowing, and make these airbeds look nice and comfy!

The transgate from the standard coach has mysteriously been moved to the sports gym's outer hallway. Who did that? But it makes it easier to bring in the cups of hot chocolate from the kitchens, and for anyone who wants to bring snacks to do so. Take a seat, remember to bring your sleeping bag and whatever else you want. Plushes, your own musical instrument to offer some de-stress medication of your own with a melody.

And there's an area where small incense pots burn away, a gentle mist rising up. It won't heal the mind completely, but it will offer it some peace. And if you're worried about nightmares, a few of Raven's sachets and teas are available.

So come get a mom hug. Come and offer hugs. Just come and get something out of the company, whatever it is. Tidus and Della - and others - will be here to give a hand.

The life you had might've been fake, but the people around you aren't.

((OOC: consider this a mingling post, where everyone is free to tag everyone else! be the comforter, the one offering comfort, both, whatever!))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Xehanort's sudden grin is full of teeth and things that suggest it's anything but a happy gesture. "You'll never guess what else I don't know!" It fades almost as quickly as it appears, back to sobriety. "I just know it happens, they won't give me details."

And for a good reason, because timey wimey ball. "...Rewind a minute though."

What Tidus felt was important and what Xehanort did are apparently different things. "You lost your memories too, I take it?" There's a brief small gesture. "With this 'Sin' of yours, and washing up in strange places? Since you're here I can't imagine it's resolved.."

"It's not like what you're saying," he hurries to clear up, hands coming up and waving some. "It's more- I ended up far from home, somewhere real different. I didn't forget anything, it was more- culture shock! And knowing nothing about where I was. I didn't forget who I was - it just it didn't line up with how everyone else lived."

He hasn't no idea if that makes sense, but getting into his deal is weird enough. And he's not the guy all frustrated about his lot in life. There isn't much of a life left for him, after all.

"You've got way more serious stuff going on me," he says, dismissing himself with a wave of a hand. "Sin and that's over with. But you... I can't imagine forgetting the past and then having the future breathing down your neck. But hey, you know... here, it's about what you do now most of us care about." His brow lifts some, and he realises:

"Someone might be able to help you around here someday - with your memory. All kinds of people come through here."

A few similarities, but not enough of them. One day surely he'd find someone who'd been through the same nonsense, and offer suggestions on what to do about any of it.. but at least Tidus had a solid grip of how strange it was to wind up somewhere completely new and not know what to expect from that foreign place.

"More or less serious, there's not much I can do about it at the moment, and dwelling on it doesn't ...sit well." Especially since he's got some concerns that remembering might directly lead to all the mayhem he's accused of.

It's going to be pursued anyway, the need to know outweighed the risk on many levels. "Someone else's life, all the stuff you've been through.. it's something new, isn't it? New to me, at any rate. I suppose it's somewhat heartless to tell another person their life is a nice distraction from all the other problems going on, isn't it?"

He gestures out his hands. "I like hearing about other worlds all the time! Not any different from that, is it?" Jovial, simple. He can move on this easily, though he does think to say:

"And if you're here, you might as well learn whatever you like. I didn't do a lot with the fighting those monks were teaching though, so can't help you there." Ah. He folds his arms loosely, nodding. "But if it's just about going up against illusions -- Wei Wuxian. Did you hear about his lessons? He's still resting up, but he's good to ask."

...

...but then his brow dips. "Um, the Wei Wuxian in a room by himself right now."

Sorry, Teddy: there's multiple of this guy too.

"I didn't either." Sourness returns, but it's of a completely different sort. "I was too distracted with those ... rigged tests." Oh, he's definitely still annoyed about that entire situation!! But it is at least not really a mystery, a lot of people came out of that one irritated!

But the fishing had been good. He can acknowledge that much, at least to himself.

There is a long, looong unblinking stare when it becomes obvious there is more than one Wei Wuxian too.

He spoke to ONE of them.

"It was more for the exercise than fighting illusions; if we encounter our rainbow foe again I dare say I'd volunteer to go with It instead of fight It. Which Wei Wuxian is afraid of dogs? And how many people on this train share the same name and face? Is there a list??"

"Passenger roster." Which is a list! A list that Tidus saw the names and faces of everyone yesterday, and then promptly forgot the number of multiples! "And, uh, you'd have to check it. There's - three three? Three Wangjis, three Wuxians?" An exasperated scoff. "I don't know, it's not my family! But- upper four, I think that's the cabin car. If you visit before we stop, you should get the room."

Because most likely, he wouldn't stay the sole guy in the room once they hit the platform.

"But if he doesn't know anything about it - how about ordering a book? If you're into reading - give ordering it a try! Like... 'void mind training'." Very good keywords. "Did they have a funny name for the exercise?"

That's also probably good to look up.

He's going to have to find out, when moving didn't make him feel like he was going to immediately fall over. One of them was on the network, and mentioned dogs. It had directly interfered with his plans to get a dog!

"....And when are we stopping." Because if it's tonight that's just not going to happen!

Xehanort waves off the idea of void mind training. "No, no. Not that kind of exercise. Not a.." He thinks about it for a moment, expression blank. "Not still working on the illusions problem. I don't care about that." They should all care about that given what other people went through, right?! "Normal exercise. A lot of martial arts are really good just for burning energy and beating people up, keep you from turning into a ball from sitting around too much."

"Eh... 'bout, two or three days from now?" Give or take??

About that long, anyway, though Tidus doesn't count down the days - just waits for the usual announcement to come about the points, and there they are. But he gives a drawn out 'ohhhhh' when it clicks what Xehanort's after.

"So just any exercise. But with fighting on top? You could try asking Trunks or Cassie if you want the fighting part too, they teach. Uh... and I think Soldat teaches? He's James I think, on the roster. Toby used to teach different kinds of exercise, but he left."

Was there anyone who just did exercise-exercise?

"If you didn't want the fighting side of it," he says as he remembers something, "--I got a dancing holo-coach. You know what that is?"

Two or three days. Time would see how he felt then. Surely by then they'd all be improved from the current noodly state! He is never, ever going to volunteer for anchor position again.

Bemused silence falls, instead of ansswering the obvious question. He has no idea what a holo coach is, but it sounds like a train car that isn't really there to him. Xehanort studies Tidus for a long moment, eyebrows raised, before finally venturing a return question .. that has nothing to do with what Tidus just asked him.

"You're a fixer, aren't you? You encounter a problem.. or what seems to be one, you set out to fix it?"

That very much isn't an answer to what he asked, though he was maybe getting curious for a moment there, with the silence. A question that puts Tidus into a return one, making him figure out - but get - what Xehanort's saying.

"Mmmm, not really." Or so he thinks. Tipping his head slightly, a lift of the more exposed shoulder in a shrug. "But if I know something, I'll share it. 'Specially if it's about not being bored. People come and go, they stay, so some things change, but some stay the same. You get used to going, 'oh, I know a guy like that', or, 'this guy over here does something like that'."

He can't quite see it as an impulse. More of just a habit of talking to a lot of people, being around for a while. Sharing information, making connections.

"It's easier too, don't you think?" Tidus adds. "Approaching people's awkward, but it's easier to do if you can say that someone sent you. Then you get to know more people."

"Hm. I wonder."

Is that really all there is to it? Xehanort has doubts, but he also has an external perspective. "And yet here you are, pursuing fixing things quite relentlessly. Bringing people food. Pointing them at other people. 'Networking', my colleagues would have called it in Jinnjar. A good thing, right? Helping out, even though you've had it as hard as the rest of us." Fixing.

He isn't one of those people. Some are driven by such altruistic things, he ... isn't. "A lot of people here are going to have an easier night because of all your work, but you should be relaxing too. And no, running back and forth doing things for everyone is not relaxing."

That assessment - or is it the ending chide - gets a bark out of Tidus. A laugh, something deep from his lungs, genuinely tickled. Quick to turn into a chuckle, leaving a wide grin on his face. Saying, almost instantly after:

"Mann, you make me sound like an overworker! Is this you worrying about me?" Concerned, is he? "Don't worry, I'm not that nice. You get the sort here, but me? I like rest. But I like people too. Talking to people. That's all it is."

Well. He lets a beast pass, and, "Okay - maybe not all," he concedes, raising a hand, palm flat, as if to protest a rebuttal before it can be given. "But Della - she's a mom. She cares a lot about the people here. Back on Jinnjar, she didn't get to be one. So-" he cocks a head to the rest of the room. "--I helped her. 'Cause I like her."

He stretches in his back, hiding it for a second before he lets it release, an exhale taken; his shoulders slouching, relaxing after. Body at ease.

"If you're stuck here, you might as well enjoy it a lil'. "

His motto, if he ever had one.

"You're worrying about everyone else, it's the only thing you haven't gotten cornered yet." Self-care! Besides which, if his cold, more practical side had any opinion on the matter, being nice simply encouraged people to be more helpful in the future.

Della - he's met her at least over the comms, the duck related to Scrooge. She'd seemed.. highly energetic at least, and mentioned her kids. Woodchucks or something?

But she'd seemed nice. Her offers here were kind. She, like so many others, obviously meant well. "..Ah yes, some people think of it as being trapped here." It's an escape. Isn't it? "Especially if her children wait for her somewhere far away. It would surely be difficult."

Not that he knows personally, he considers himself far too young for that nonsense. If he can't decide most days if he wants to bother with breakfast, never mind what it should be, he's definitely not ready for families!

"Hey, it's nice." Tidus is grinning, amused - but charmed? "Not sure I like the idea being put with the fussy kinds, but I'll take your worry. Thanks."

Teddy cares. Tidus leans back on the airbed he's been sitting on, propping himself by his arms behind him. He doesn't miss the obvious in that remark there, though. Some people think of it as being trapped. But he knows not the sound judging when he asks, just curious:

"You don't mind being here?"

Would a guy who doesn't remember himself mind?

"..You're welcome, I guess." They were all here to relax for a while. Rest, recover, watch other people run about or play games .. honestly someone should have tried to drag a viewer in here or something and move the movies from the ... movie .. car to this one too. It probably would have taken a lot more effort than anyone is actually capable of right now.

DID he mind?

It came with a lot of revelations that he could have certainly lived without. A parade of nothing but anguish and doubt and guilt. Did he, though..

"Nah," Xehanort concludes after a long moment. "If you think about it. The train's giving us all an opportunity we'd have never otherwise had. Sure it comes with risks, but what doesn't? Meanwhile there's millions of worlds.. trillions of people, and we... of all people, we're the ones that get to see it. Touch a strange world. Eat the weird foods of another planet. Breathe air no human being has ever breathed, watch sunsets on beaches no human feet have ever walked."

He leans his head back til it thumps against the wall, considering the far-wall on the other side dully. "It's a bit of a wonder, isn't it? And the train lets us all go sooner or later, this isn't forever. But for that time, those precious few weeks or months.. we can do and see things.. nobody else from our little worlds ever will know."

Buy a viewer/projector and Tidus would do it in a flash. Meet him in the games corner for a butt kicking.

But for the present, he hums some to Xehanort's view; tilting his head against his shoulder, eyes closing, but his voice clear. "It's amazing, when you put it like that. ...It's all some people have," he adds, as if to add credence to the picture painted. "Lot of people can't go home; there's nowhere else for them. If you get to come back from the dead and stay living-"

He opens his eyes. A pause before he admits: "I'd be fine with it, if we had a choice. Give people a choice, and you'd get people clamouring to be a part of it. Dead, alive- plenty out there willing to be a hero for a while and have somewhere to be."

Belong? It might be the better word, but belong doesn't sit well with him, so he doesn't say it.

Sadly Xehanort is more likely to think of science equipment before more interesting things like movie night to go WITH the sleepover.

"I guess I'm so used to not having a choice at all that it doesn't really bother me." There's something in his tone that suggests he does understand Tidus' perspective on it, it's just not one he shares. "But I think somewhere, on other void vessels, people ... must ordinarily be able to choose. Void travel doesn't seem to be spooky and mysterious except to us."

So why didn't THEY get the chance?

There's no conductor, that's why. He's sure of it. "It's silly, I'm sure, but I'm going to try to focus on the more positive parts. Otherwise I'll have to spend too much time thinking about us being kidnapped slaves or some such." There were dead people on board. What did Zagreus think of them? "It's a bit of a dream come true for me if I ignore the nasty parts. Let's make the best of it while we can. Somewhere to go.. or nowhere to go, this is a once in a lifetime trip."

"Sure," he says amicably, a single shake of his head. "I'm not gonna change anyone's mind. We've all got our own stuff." Being dead, having a suckier life where they came from- and what did it matter, anyway? He's been here too long, it's tiring even for him.

He flops onto his back, giving up on just leaning on his arms. "Think of all the stuff you can buy!" "Even stuff from other worlds. Pretty cool, huh?"

Adventure awaits! As long as it doesn't come with the mind numbing horror other people experienced of late, at least. Adventure surely is possible without added trauma, and then it's just exploring and learning and science!

It can't all be bad. Can it?

"There's not a lot I think I need." Buying things! Where would he put it, with the giant cat and the plants and the frickin water fountain taking up 90% of the space in his shared room? "But I've thought about one of those ... big fluffy dogs that people use to feel better, for the train at large. Might be useful, especially something like today. All this.. and a friendly dog."

"A train-sanctioned dog?" Tidus grins, a quirk to it, like it's the first time he's ever heard of such a thing. Which- "Never heard of that. That mean we all need to look after the big guy? I don't think a few people would mind that."

Given the animals already around on the train. They really need to get a pet car, don't they.

Pay for it and then pawn it off on other people entirely? As appealing as the idea might be on the surface, Xehanort's still got a decent sense of responsibility, for better or for worse. "No. If I paid for it, I'd care for it of course. Food, water, cleaning up. But others could enjoy having it around more than I would, for example."

A lot of people here, based on how many noodle-dragon snuggles are happening, would surely like a friendly dog to pet or play with! "Plenty of people have pets. One of my roommates has a cat and has more or less taken over the entire room for their things." He's not holding a grudge. "But it's their pet, which is different than a resource anyone could draw on." Need a cuddle, get a therapy dog! "...Maybe I'm overthinking it a bit."

"Hahaha, hey! Not saying you can't be Mister Responsible for the big girl or guy, but if they're for the train, I bet you're gonna see people spoiling them anyway." He raises his hands in place of a shrug.

"...but also, it sounds like you really want a pet." And his grin widens, while his voice lowers. "That's not a cat. But a dog. A very fluffy big dog."

Compared to the current cabin company of a cat.

"It's okay - your secret's safe with me."

"That's fine. But that's also a different thing than routine care." Especially when it comes time for potty breaks, nobody's gonna be jumping line to take care of that!

DID he just want a pet? He could probably get one if he really wanted to, and though Tidus may be joking, Xehanort takes a moment to actually, seriously consider it. His original desire for a dog had been to put their exceptional noses to work, but it seemed their rainbow foe might not be as much of a future threat as people feared. Did he want one just as a pet? "I like cats just as much," he says eventually, slowly, "When it's my cat."

Someone else's cat is just an obnoxious fuzzball getting hair on his stuff. HIS cat would obviously, be a superior kitty.

Guilty as charged. Tidus isn't going to clear up after a dog that isn't his!

"And why should that guy get to have a cat, and you not a really fluffy dog?" Was the dog mentioned to be fluffy, or just big? The fluffy part is now the important dog factor here. "Makes total sense!"

That Xehanort really wants his own pet.

"But-" but! "--what're you gonna name them? Your dog for everyone."

But especially for Xehanort.

"A desire to actually get sleep instead of animals disagreeing and then having to listen to the complaints of the owner is a good reason." The downside of shared space. It wasn't really viable to add another animal to an already crowded room that's overflowing with other people's belongings.

Personal space happens in OTHER places. Not on the train.

The idea of names draws a shrug. "I haven't thought that far ahead." Names were pretty individual things! "It would be hard to pick out a name without knowing anything about a creature besides its species."

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I am sorry for all the delays.

it's okay!

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