voidtreckernet | 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!))

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"I wish you had better memories as well." He pressed the side of his head against Tidus. Too soft, too much of a baby. That was unfair, Tidus had just been a child. Children should be allowed to be soft, before life made them hard.

"You..." His voice was cautious, he doesn't want to dig up pain for Tidus. "You had a mother as well?"

There's a pause, a halt in his very throat, but Tidus speaks over it and admits: "Yeah. She...died when my dad disappeared. Kinda wasted away and stopped getting out of bed..."

It's not usually this difficult to admit to, but then, he rarely gets into it. Lost his parents young, and that was that. But on the thought of, 'I want more'--there's a weight in his chest that becomes noticeable, his lips pinching together, rolling.

He should let go of this weight, shouldn't he? Let go of the heavy breath he's holding in, shake his head slow, not let this tension come over him.

"Woooo... my childhood wasn't the best time of my life. But I got a lot more than most people did."

That was so sad, that she had wasted away, died just like that. Stopped even getting out of bed. It hurt his heart to think of Tidus, having lost both his parents. Yet he had still grown into the man that he was, still turned out brave and good.

He reached up to stroke his hair, a gesture he more often used with Inigo than Tidus, but Tidus deserved comfort too, even though he often didn't seem to need it.

"People are made from all that happens in their lives, not just the good but the bad as well." He said softly, "But it's alright to be sad about the things that hurt, even if they were long in the past."

There's a list of people who can get away with doing this and not have Tidus immediately fuss about it, and Taiki might be right at the top.

Because it's not a list that Tidus even knew had to be made, but while he pauses for a moment, he does relax; embarrassment threatening to colour his cheeks, but only tickling them instead. Gaze adrift, looking elsewhere, but nowhere in particular.

"I'll always say the same back to you, you know." A chide - but so light, so soft. The idea to do so doesn't come to him straight away, but he rests a hand on Taiki's knee, squeezes.

"You're still my favourite Taiki."

He doesn't force anything, not quite looking at Tidus either, not wanting to embarrass him. Just sitting, stroking his hair and sitting quietly.

He nodded, taking the chiding for what it was. But smiled slightly at the squeeze to the knee. "I'm the only Taiki you know. I don't know anything about the one's who came before me, but I'm sure they were really good."

Much better than he was. Tai had never been so bad after all...

"There were Taikis before you?"

That does get Tidus to look at Taiki, if in a...mild way, if one can pull off such a feat. But this usually loud guy is being subdued into something quieter with the ongoing affection, which has him shy-faced, but still present.

Please...no one call him out on being dere right now...

"Yes." He nodded, still stroking his hair gently even as he smiled softly up at Tidus when he looked at him. His free hand comes to the hand on his knee and he gently sketches out the hanzi of his name.

"Tai is for my kingdom. Though it is a slightly different character. Um... One is for the country name and one is the formal name? I guess..."

He was a kirin able to understand and be understood but it did not stretch to the written world and he was still learning the language that he should have grown up with if his egg fruit hadn't blown away. "Ki means I am a male kirin so Taiki means I am the male kirin of Tai. If I was a girl I would be Tairin and all kirin have been called this way, since time began."

B-baka don't make eye contact with him while we're doing this!!

That is to say, don't mind how embarrassed Tidus will continue to look, but he attempts to focus on Taiki's explanation before any of that. Humming in understanding, a detail he didn't know about Taiki's whole...world set-up.

"I see... well... I didn't mean anything against them. I just meant, you know- all the different worlds of us there are. Apparently? Weird to think about, but..."

But, well, it's clearly a thing with the same-faced (and named) passengers they meet on the train.

"It is strange... Especially if there are other... me's. Not just Taiki's of past." Or future...

"But me exactly." Like there were multiple versions of other people. "Can you imagine meeting another Tidus?"

That would be... a lot.

He grimaces, but- "Light- I think she met another me? When we first arrived, she knew the both of us -- me and Yuna."

And it's a recollection that makes his stomach feel funny to remember about, seeing it from a new confusing perspective.

"Jecht was there too. There were a pair of gods who were dragging people into their fight - like some of the people here go through."

"Oh." Light had known another Tidus? And his father? And gods that drew people into fights.

"Wow. She must come from a very strange place. Did you not known a Lightning back in your world?"

"Oh, no, it wasn't like that," he explains. "Light was from another world, but so were we. The gods were taking people from different worlds and making them fight on their sides against each other."

There's a pause, and he admits, "I was on the team they were fighting against. She wasn't that happy when she first saw me..."

Which involved drawing a blade on him, but. You know. Let's not share that part!

"I thought for a long time it was some weird time travel thing; that I'd end up there after being stuck here. I wanted to train to stop them, you know? Even if that meant getting their attention to talk to them."

...no, he definitely wanted to kick their asses, but! Let's Taiki-wash this, okay!

"But I guess it was always another Tidus and Yuna and everyone who got thrown into that."

Gods that stole people from different worlds and making them fight against each other... That was terrible. Much like a train that stole from different worlds. Or the entity on the last mission.

"Ah." He can't imagine Light 'not happy'. Or he can. But he doesn't want to. It's a terrifying thought.

"I guess... Different futures can happen... Even if it starts the same."

"Kinda sucks though, right?" At least, when Tidus thinks about it... "How different are they? Yuna-" And he has to take a pause, but, "--if Yuna was a different Yuna from the one I knew, what we knew about each other wasn't that different. I was still gone, she had to go through with being a summoner, everyone suffered Sin - that sucks."

Multiple versions of the same people, going through the same suffering - or just going through another kind.

"So many worlds and yet the suffering is the same..." He looked at him sadly. "Maybe there is one... Where it isn't. Where your fates were different."

Maybe. But in such a world, would a Tidus know a Yuna? Would they even be the same person if different things had happened?

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