voidtreckernet | video | orchestra three, dimmed evening hours

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video | orchestra three, dimmed evening hours

( Jingyi flops back to be sitting on a bed (large! well, double versus the twins of the cabins, so anyone who's in the doubles carriage is already used to this, lucky buds. He gives the ICP a look after sighing, holding up his hands in a stopping gesture. He keeps his voice lower since, well, this talks into cabins and some people are likely asleep, but: )

Okay, so, right. How do people sleep alone? It's so quiet! The big bed's nice, but I'm waking myself up here.

( He doesn't do pleading as his best look, but here, have a twenty-one year old making a Beseeching Expression to the people awake enough to have noticed the ICP up and talking. )

Anyone up for a four night sleepover or something? Elidibuses need not apply.

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[When the door opens, Ryo is expecting Jingyi to be right there, not sitting on the bed. He looks at Jingyi and his outstretched hand, then at the open door, then back at Jingyi. Evidently he can open doors from a distance now? That's new.]

[But he returns the smile and steps in, offering one of the mugs to Jingyi.]

Of course. And it's hot chocolate - that tends to be pretty good for being awake in the middle of the night.

( When everyone who'd been on Diagad starts having small power testing days. His hand falls back to his lap when Ryo's coming in, only for both to come up and accept the offered mug, his head giving a shallow nod in gratitude. Not expected, not needed, but part of what sounds like Ryo's own sort of late night traditions. It occurs to him in that moment that people all have those, and he just doesn't generally know it, because he's asleep far before the night spans late, pending a Night Hunt doesn't have him prowling with his fellows, defending and tracking and ugh, those nights, where they sleep curled up at the sides of whoever's sitting first watch in dragon form. )

Thanks. Does it help people fall asleep?

( He doesn't know one way or another, though sweet things don't seem like they would. Maybe they do anyway.

He lifts it regardless, appreciating the warmth in his hands, even if this means he has to stay vertical long enough to enjoy it. )

[Ryo had his power testing day earlier today, and look, they've already talked about it and he doesn't want to do it again. It's also part of the reason for the hot chocolate. They've already had tea once today; may as well shake it up.]

[He closes the door behind him and takes a seat on the bed next to Jingyi, carefully so as to not spill either of their mugs.]

Not inherently, but it can be comforting. I'm usually awake in the middle of the night for an hour or two anyway, and...I like having this, when I can.

[He only ever has it when they're wintering in Arkwood. Lia has the same sleep schedule that he does, and this is her time, her hot chocolate recipe, and...she's dimensions away, with everyone else that Ryo knows and loves, and he's here. Wherever here - the train - currently is in the grand scheme of things.]

[He smiles at his mug, but he can't hide the tinge of sadness in it. He's getting better at dealing with homesickness, but that doesn't mean it'll ever truly heal.]

( Jingyi considers his expression, breathing out in a sigh as he reaches out, clasping Ryo's near shoulder and giving a soft squeeze. )

Like a small piece of home, even if you're far, far away.

( They mostly all seem to have something like it, he thinks, and he understands it, aching for home being part of his whole one week inn room decision, whatever it's done or not done for his sleep schedule. )

What wakes you up at night? Nightmares? Schedules?

[Ryo reaches up with his free hand and gently lays it over Jingyi's. The touch definitely helps.]

Yeah.

That's just how I've always been. I sleep for a bit, wake up for an hour or two, and then sleep for the rest of the night. It's...good for middle watch, when we're traveling.

We just shove each other awake.

( Said with a half smile, but oh, he means it. When you grew up with a group of people, at times you all knew each other just too well enough to have certain indiscrete ways of needling. Good natured, mostly, because they had grown up together. Bad natures didn't do well over the course of near two decades within the greater clan that was family, in whatever distant manner. )

Though I don't know that anyone from my clan sleeps easily outside the Gusu. Most the time when you're traveling, there's a reason. Staying more alert is a side effect... which is why this is a bother.

( Another squeeze of his hand, though he doesn't seek to pull it away. Just sighs, flicking his gaze across the room: the this in question. )

Train's not safer or less safe than a night hunt, but for the most part, it leaves the worst for missions, hasn't it? ( A pause. ) Hey, you've got your ticket with you, right?

[He snorts a bit at shoving each other awake, but he smiles. It sounds right, for family.]

[His expression falls a bit as Jingyi continues. He'd started seeing the train as more of a city months ago and adjusted accordingly, but it sounds like Jingyi still sees it as a caravan: safer than traveling alone, but still risky - still travel - nonetheless. Travel is travel, and travel requires vigilance. If he hasn't been sleeping well...well, it's no wonder why, if this is how he's been seeing things.]

[But before Ryo can think of something to fill that pause, the conversation continues on.]

I do, yes.

( this is, fair and unfair to say, part of talking with jingyi. tell him to slow down, bring conversations to where you want them, or see when he sort of just rolls on past things, these days. )

Good, 'cause then ticketers can't kick you off train. ... Not that I think they could anyway, but you never know.

( it seems like an odd statement, but in the mix of things which have bothered him enough that he's collectively decided to act and get a larger room to compensate, this is one.

thus he takes a sip of cocoa and lets his tail give an appreciative thump, fur fluffing up some through all the small muscle twitches of enjoyment his brain passes along to them. )

[Normally he's fairly good at following abrupt conversational turns, with or without context. Normally, he just rolls with it.]

[This one, however, is still pretty weird, and he blinks.]

...have they been?

[As far as Ryo knows, the only consequence to not having his ticket on him is not being able to get into his room or use the ICPs - which is a pretty big consequence in and of itself, and all the more reason to keep his ticket on him.]

It happened before we were here. Inigo remembers it, and anyone else around that long... so not many of us, I don't think.

( But it's a frown and he sighs, waving a hand. )

After the interrogation stuff, they won't really be able to pull anyone off train, I don't think, but it could still get messy.

[Ryo stiffens a bit, suddenly very awake.]

Wait, you mean-

[The Void Ministry. He hadn't really had the context until Jingyi had mentioned the interrogation.]

[He sighs, and some of the stiffness leaves. This was supposed to be relaxing; how did the conversation wind up here?]

...oh.

I know they probably have answers, but I think I'd rather they leave us alone.

Not sure if they will, if they find us. Or if they've got any idea about us, but they'd hesitate, I think. 'Cause they don't know if they can untether any of us safely, this whole situation we're in is weird.

( Though he adds, after a moment and with his tail cutting across the bed just over the comforter: )

I want someone to offer answers instead of silence or only questions and "we can't tell you about that."

Edited 2021-11-23 06:03 (UTC)

They already lured us in once, under the pretense of a false mission. I don't know why they wouldn't do it again, if they know it works. We can't exactly turn down a request for help.

[Technically, they could; that's not to say he could live with that decision.]

The train isn't telling us anything and neither is the Void Ministry - we might need to find someone else if we can. What about the people who helped us on Diagad?

[He means Anan and her crew, though his only meeting with her had been a rushed tutorial on anchoring.]

( time to mark another lash of his tail over the comforter and the rest, which by now is starting to mess it all up more than his pointless flopping over and pretending he was capable of sleeping earlier that night. )

The train might have a way of checking more factors before letting us off again... and I don't know, they controlled that whole station, could they do that with a world? One that wasn't built by hand or whatever built that place.

( he wonders. he knows arrays could manage it, but the specifics of how they were manipulate on station were a whole other kind of environmental control that he doesn't think would work the same way in more open environments with more variables to handle. )

Uh... that person, the... Nana? Anan? Nonan?

[It's something to consider, and for someone with zero technological familiarity beyond what he'd learned on the train, it's a lot. Still, he takes the time to think about it.]

I doubt it - I think, if they could, they probably would've approached us on another mission or at a nexus. It's easier to control a building than it is the land it's built on, right?

[You can't control the weather, or wildlife, or whatever else the gods or spirits might throw at you. He'd imagine it's much the same for a planet that was built versus a natural one.]

[He straightens up a bit as Jingyi lists names.]

Anan - that was it. What if we contacted her?

Dunno, illusion arrays can be tied to anything, set up anywhere, but from what I heard that was more of a Chaos problem, not a Ministry one.

( he can talk to the more magic-seeming side of it, since it's closer to what possibilities exist back on his world. )

Anan, right. Yeah, haven't we tried before? If not, you can talk to Tidus. He's got a radio that might work like that.

[Wait, what?]

Was the station an illusion or was it all just fake?

[He wasn't there and can't judge, so might as well ask.]

I don't know if we've tried, but I'll talk to Tidus about it.

[He's quiet for a moment, thinking.]

He didn't...seem like himself, when everyone came back.

[And Ryo hadn't talked to him much since; he's gotten better at not pushing, though he's still learning where the boundaries are, which sometimes leaves him with no idea how someone is actually doing. Right now, that's where Tidus is in his mind, and he's worried.]

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video | orchestra three, dimmed evening hours

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