[M15] ENEMY: UNKNOWN - THE INTERVIEW

[voidmissions]

---

On opening their eyes, Voidtreckers will feel a sense of disorientation, a dizziness to their vision and inside their head. Both clear quickly, letting them remember where they came from: in the midst of a mission, some unknown entity jumping them, and then —

They're here. Wherever here is.
They stand in an empty room. The lighting of the room stings their eyes after how dark the rest of the station has been. The walls, ceiling and floor are all bright white, tiles. There is no visible door, no windows.

After the disorientation comes fear. The hairs on the back of their neck stand up. For those with danger sense, these senses are going haywire, even though any other abilities are still not working. The feeling can be pushed down, it is similar to the air of expectation at the start of a horror film, the anticipation of fear rather than being in a truly dangerous situation. It might be that they have been on the train long enough to have felt it before.

Heavy footsteps sound, it is almost impossible to tell where they are coming from as the echo through the empty space. The feeling of dread grows until part of the far wall slides open with a mechanical hiss.

Filling the doorway are two huge figures, around seven foot tall and bulky. They are in large metal suits, almost like power armour, black with highlights of gold. They wear a mask that covers their whole face. It is impossible to see the figure inside at all. Their breathing comes through heavy and raspy and when they walk their footsteps are heavy. The door closes behind them and their presence makes the room feel smaller. One of them scans a green light over the voidtrecker.

"Do not be alarmed. Under sections ninety six of Inter-dimensional law and on behalf of the Void Ministry we have intercepted Voidcraft designation Voidtrecker Express as part of ongoing investigations. You have been taking part in a simulated excercise to gauge your skill and strength. No harm shall come to you or your crew, you are protected by inter dimensional law. You have been chosen for questioning and we ask that you comply. You have the right to refuse our interview but we have the right to hold you until our investigation is complete or one week in standard void time has passed, whichever is longest. Complying with us will ensure our investigation is more efficient."

The inspector talking pauses here, as if giving the voidtrecker time to take in that information.

"Do you accept our interview?"

---

ENEMY: UNKNOWN

---

Comments

day three

[jingyeets]

into the unknown

Jingyi looked ruffled when he stepped through the open panel, bidding farewell for the time being to Yi and Er. His tail lashed low behind him, and he felt the panel slide back into place, though his eyes were busy scanning the singular room for familiar, missing faces. The chairs, the camp beds laid out, the table, the one bench and sink, the door that happens to be open at the far side of the room: it all registers, but then he's immediately striding toward one of the people he knows to unceremoniously pull them into a hug.

"Oh good," he said, "Yi and Er weren't lying."

now presenting: the sonic shower

Had he ever encountered a sonic shower before? No, not he had not. Somewhere in the multiverse sonic showers might even take a person's clothes off for them, but not this one; this one just cleaned without needing water. He'd messed around with the control panel after making use of the room for its intended purposes, and that was when he encountered the incredibly strange, but rejuvenating, effects of the sonic shower.

It hadn't even been a full day yet, and Jingyi was already feeling stir crazy stuck in the one room with everyone. Which might explain why he slipped back out the door with wide eyes and a big grin on his face, to wave toward another of the interviewee captives.

"Hey, hey! Come stand in the shower with me!"

With the fully clothed guy looking excited at the idea.

hand...stands...

At some point, Jingyi had started in on the limited physical exercises he could manage in the shared space. Now he was doing handstands, ends of his ribbon caught between his teeth while he practically looked meditative.

Yes, in his cargo trousers that have exposed his ankles, while his feet are bare. With his shirt tucked into his trousers, but his hoodie not, so one keeps his stomach covered, while his hoodie was attempting to migrate toward his head. His tail curled around one leg like a vine, and it was only when his stomach noted a complaint that he opened his eyes.

"Ungee... unph, 'nnoy'ng."

into the unknown

[blitzcheer]

It's hard to keep track of the screens and video feeds - rather, Tidus just loses interest after a while, feeling bad for the people on the other side, and nothing he can do about it. So he's been doing everything else but nosing in on his teammates - and the activity that Jingyi's appearance through the door finds him in is kicking an invisible ball.

"Heyy, Jingyi!"

Which he stops upon seeing the other guy, expression pleasantly surprised. An expression that doesn't change as their approach leads to arms around him, pulled into a hug.

He can just manage to give Jingyi a pat where his arms have been trapped, his voice low, with some mirth:

"Didn't think I got eaten, did you?"

Too soon?

[jingyeets]

Arm traps are an ingenious way of ensuring people are easily lifted, though thankfully, Jingyi is not trying to turn an embrace of relief into a wrestling match. Or trying to spin anyone around--even if he might, in an incredibly good mood.

"Not enough blood, even for a dream," he says, releasing Tidus from the hug after a brief squeeze. His frown turns a little wry, tail lashing behind him, but not too overtly. Not enough space for that.

"How've they been about hosting everyone?"

Don't forgive his dubious look around. This is, frankly, a weird setup to him.

[blitzcheer]

No spinning around? What's even the point of this friendship.

When they step back, he's still got a smile on him, gruesome as the addition of blood to his imaginary death is (even ruder than being eaten, obviously). He looks back and around them as Jingyi does, a hiss of sound between his lips that's toned uncertainly.

"Wellll... they're keeping us alive. And figured it'd be a bad thing to let us sleep on the floor." He turns back to Jingyi, but then moves aside, walking a few steps so Jingyi will feel comfortable better taking in their surroundings too.

"There's food and somewhere to eat and heat up food. You ever seen the ration packs we have on Purple? A bunch of those. You'll have fun with those." If in just an assuredly 'new thing' way.

"Nothing to do but wait, though. Unless you wanna watch everyone outside movin' and running around."

He points a thumb over to where the cameras are at that.

[jingyeets]

Jingyi's frown only intensifies as Tidus keeps talking, shaking his head with a, "If I have, I don't remember," for the ration packets.

He hadn't registered the screens yet, but with Tidus now pointing them out, he couldn't say he was impressed.

"So they abduct us out of their staged test to shove is into friendly interviews which, is that a word for questioning? Then afterwards, they stick us in a box where we can stare at everyone still forced to do the testing. Have I got that right?"

They're being turned into complicit voyeurs. Thanks, Yi and Er! Truly, this is gratitude! Being shoved into an even smaller box...

Don't mind the irritated flicks of his tail, he's just. Annoyed again.

[blitzcheer]

Is that a word for questioning? Tidus nods, not really sure if Jingyi would be paying attention to it where he's still talking. He can sympathise with Jingyi's frustrations, even if he's chilled - and was never that bothered in the first place by the surprise interview.

More baffled, and curious; about where it'll lead, what good - or bad - will come from it.

"Shoved from one box with a bunch more boxes - sounds like life in the Void, don't you think?"

He means it as a joke to lighten Jingyi's mood, but then adds, in case it doesn't work on its own. "You got anything to drink? Eat? I've got some snacks."

Here, let's think about chilling some, Jingyi pal.

[jingyeets]

"There's nothing remotely unboxed about any of this," he says, agreeing easily, crossing his arms over his chest. He doesn't smile, but his tail stops looking as aggrieved in motion, and he sighs.

"Water would be nice." The current room doesn't look like it's equipped to provide more itself, so asking for tea, or a momentary wish for alcohol, doesn't make it past initial thoughts.

"I'm really tired of being abducted as a pawn in someone else's chess game. Can't tell if it's better or worse that both the train and these guys are the least deadly version I've dealt with."

So far. Maybe that would change! He sure hopes not, not when they're bound to the train. He's just not going to say that when it's something Tidus knows better than he does.

"Is there anything else to do? Obviously, the waiting, which they basically said wild take as long as they want it too, but... has there been more of us today? How many new interviews?"

handstands

[monkeyinthewrench]

Jake's been in here for two full days already. It's infuriating. Even the NYPD tried not to keep people in the holding cell for more than 24 hours. And they weren't even charged with anything!

He's paced in a small spot over and over, occasionally watched the monitors and attempted to cheer people on...but as this holding cell gets more and more crowded, even he starts to get grouchy.

His eyes fall on the guy with the karaoke machine, showing off some balance skills.

"...you okay there, man?"

[jingyeets]

Jingyi flicks his gaze towards Jake, then unwinds his tail from his leg to bring them down one by one. He stands in a cascade of hair going all over the place, pulling his ribbon free from his mouth and plucking errant strands of hair off his horns.

"Haven't eaten. What exactly did they... leave us with?"

His dubious look towards the sink indicating he's seen there's stuff there, and it didn't really make sense to him.

[monkeyinthewrench]

"...nothing identifiable. Some kind of...bland nutrition block. But it hasn't killed me yet, so."

He moves over to prepare a plate for him. He's figured out by now that it's more palatable if it's warmed slightly.

"My captain always used to say he hated eating food like a normal person. If he could just eat tasteless nutrition pellets, he'd be satisfied 'cause it's more efficient that way. And I've never been more sure than I am right now that he was nuts. On that particular point, anyway."

[jingyeets]

Jake, having acquired a twenty-one year old tail, also has acquired the whole soundtrack that goes along with Jingyi's general existence. Meaning the noise of distaste at the description, which:

"Bland isn't the worst, but sometimes you want flavour. If it's bland all the time, it's easy on the stomach, sure, but... did they leave us nothing to spice it up? No herbs? Not even salt?"

He watches Jake as he's working, also hoping the whole "we can hold you for up to a week" wasn't going to manifest. Would it be a week from when Jake disappeared? A week from Jingyi's joining? Were they going to be stuck in a room with too many people, one lavatory, and bland, weird looking food for a week more?!

Better not to think on it too hard.

[monkeyinthewrench]

"As far as I can tell, nope. Gotta keep the broadest range of people alive possible, I guess."

The sludge is done! He serves it up with a sympathetic frown.

"It's my third day in this stupid cell. They're only allowed to keep us four more, right? Which is still absurd, because back where I'm from one day is the limit if you haven't been charged. And for good reason---it gets real stinky real fast."

[jingyeets]

"They told me a week or until their investigation ended, whatever was longer." He pauses, accepting the sludge with a visibly mixed expression on his face. "Thanks?"

Looking up from the sludge, he adds, "They didn't make it sound like they were interviewing all of us to you, did they? 'Cause if it's only a handful of us a day, we're going to be in here longer than a week, and the whole train can't fit in this space."

Stinky was only the starting word for what would happen if they were confined to that degree. Jingyi paused to hunt down a spoon, ignoring the fork or anything else implement wise, then nodded his head toward the series of seats. An open sort of invitation if Jake wants to join him in his sludge... eating... adventure, to talk.

into the unknown

[flatteries]

Wow, won't you look at that. For once Inigo doesn't have to be the one running around to hug people - no, instead he is getting hugged here. Without even having to ask for it. It's free real estate.

It doesn't even fully register with him yet, really. He only realises that Jingyi really is here with him until the other is already hugging him, meaning that Inigo is totally frozen up for a moment - all the way until he realises this really is happening, and he quickly wraps his own arms around the other in turn.

There's so much to ask here, but for a moment Inigo seems content with just an embrace, just clinging to the other for a moment.

"Are you alright, Jingyi?" It's probably half-muffled by the way Inigo is most likely talking into the other's robes while he's clinging to him, but ssh, it's fine, it's cool.

[jingyeets]

Inigo can probably hear paper crinkling when he hugs Jingyi in return, somewhere in the exact vicinity of Jingyi's chest. (Fifty pages worth of paperwork tucked in there, but it's fine, that's not a present concern. Robes are great for holding things even when unexpected.)

"I'm annoyed, concerned, frustrated, unhappy, and relieved you're okay and not dead or possessed, I don't know. You and all the rest who've been going missing." There was definitely a thing in the back of his mind worried on that account for not great reason, but it is there, like other unfounded fears that can crop up out of nowhere.

In other words, he was right enough, being that he can complain and his tail's down to minimal lashing, more a worried and low sort of curling from side to side at the tip of his tail, left, then right, then left again.

"How are you?" A pause. "How are you really."

[flatteries]

Inigo isn't too sure if that answer is telling him much in this moment - especially since Inigo feels like Jingyi is all of those things pretty much all of the time, if not to a certain degree.

But he can realise that it's most likely amped up a whole lot more right now than it usually is, especially since the other only just got out of questioning like all the rest of them here. So he only squeezes his friend even a little tighter, as if to prove the fact that yes, Inigo really is here, and not just some sort of weird ghostly form.

"I'm okay," he mumbles, though it's hard to tell if that the answer he'd give to the initial question, or to the really part. It's always hard to tell with Inigo when he defaults to that answer in any given situation, regardless of his usual mood. "Just.. really sorry that I couldn't tell any of you where I had gone. I really wanted to."

Is this Inigo's fault? Not really, since he didn't have a choice in any of this, but if there's anything this guy is a champion at, it's turning everything into his personal responsibility.

"I watched you all this time." Because he was feeling so bad about how worried they seemed about him.

[jingyeets]

Some people are simply made out of many emotions, at all times, while none of them manage to be particularly guilt-feeling.

Jingyi's response to the squeeze is to interpret it as Inigo needing more contact, but rather than squeeze back (for once, it was probably safe for him to do without his self-taught limits), one arm squeezed, the other patted Inigo's upper back. There, there.

"Usually I'd say that's creepy and very spiritual of you," he says, lips twitching into a smile that he sighs after forming. "It's rude, you know? That you could see us, but none of us could talk across whatever warding they've put up. Taiki's worried out of his mind, and now I've disappeared on him too... we knew it wasn't violence, we couldn't find any blood."

Scant comfort, but for people who had their own reasons to suspect foul play, it was one kind of reassurance that wherever people were disappearing to, it wasn't done with carelessness to their persons.

"None of that's your fault. Take it from someone used to abductions," he says, voice turning dry rather than wry, "Before we ever ended up on a train."

[flatteries]

"I know," he mumbles. Not necessarily about the details Jingyi tries to slightly pacify him with over here, even if they both know that it can't quite be enough. No, instead he knows that Taiki was worried sick about him. He only had to watch the other run all over the place to know that the kirin must have been looking for him - their friendship strong enough that Inigo doesn't have to feel like he's making himself more important than he really is with that assumption.

".. and I also figured that last part." Not really, this time, but maybe Inigo is trying to joke too to try and lighten the air a little. Though it's a weak attempt, both in tone and spirit. "Everyone wants to kidnap a handsome guy."

He exhales, as if trying to release some tension, and then releases his hold on Jingyi. If not just so they can sit down somewhere, rather than him keeping the other guy on his feet after that experience.

"What did they ask you..?"

[jingyeets]

"Ah, so that's the standing theory for why you were abducted too, huh?"

If it's meant to be a joke, he can run with it, since no criteria appears to exist. Or to explain everyone in this room as he glances around, after Inigo releases his hold and Jingyi does the same in turn, with a final pat to his upper back.

"I'm guessing whatever they asked you to start, at least." There really isn't much of anything to recommend itself in the room, so after a moment, he gestures toward the line of joined chairs with some available seats, glancing at the screens and then away again. It'll make him mad in a way he can't help, so he'll ignore it for now. "Name, age, system number. Then other stuff, all related to the train, or to Diagad, or... how much they didn't know, at all."

He continues to frown, unhappy and not radiating anything closer to settled after all of what he'd been talking about, because whoever Yi and Er are in the scheme of things, they're not the ones making decisions... beyond sharing what they learned in interviews with the ones making decisions.

Hand Stands

[eternalinquiry]

"I could hear that from here. Not having inedia is an experience I had no desire to repeat." Lan Wangji was walking past but he too, is incredibly bored now by the lack of things here. So in a small display of fellow impudence, he joins Jingyi in a hand stand.

"You seem just as practised in these as before."

[jingyeets]

He blinked when Hanguang-jun joined him, smiling around the fact he bit his ribbon to keep it from dragging on the ground. He still tried speaking, which came out all muffled, "Of cowsse!"

Though his stomach rumbled again, and he rolled his eyes. So annoying. Inedia, conceptually, he knows it, and can practice a form of it, but not true inedia. Plus, he liked eating.

Maybe not in this cell, but in general.

[eternalinquiry]

“It is a good discipline to maintain your form. Are you as frequently found like this in cloud recesses as I remember?”

Truthfully Lan Wangji hasn’t done this in years, but his body remembers the form and quickly he rediscovers his balance. He sees if he can still write and hold himself up with one arm.

“Is the… I believe Detective Peralta calls it ‘sludge’, that offensive to you?”

[jingyeets]

As he still couldn't properly talk with his ribbon held between his teeth, he grunts and rolls his eyes, scissoring his feet some to indicate yes, he found it horrible, but also:

"Hyke home."

It was a bit like home, on the bland side of things.

[eternalinquiry]

"Mn." Wangji agrees, swapping hands and feeling the pleasant burn up and down his body.

"Does the tail make it easier or harder to balance?"

[jingyeets]

Hanguang-jun showing off, huh? Jingyi snorts, though it sounds more like a sneeze, before he shifts onto a single hand as well, elbow bent just so to support him without the joint locking up.

"Ffofh." Both easier and harder, depending on what balance was meant, or if he was actively moving or not.

To demonstrate his point, he unwound his tail from its wrapped state around his leg, letting it carefully flop the end portion side to side, curling into a u shape in either direction.