Void Missions (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
voidmissions) wrote2021-09-30 06:48 pm
voidmissions) wrote2021-09-30 06:48 pm
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[M15] ENEMY: UNKNOWN - THE INTERVIEW
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 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.
ENEMY: UNKNOWN
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A huff, but nevermind that-
"Yeah, I cooperated. Sure, they're weird and spooky at first, but they weren't bossing me around or refusing to tell me stuff. I asked what would happen to us, and they said they wanna figure out what the train's deal is with us, what it wants." He gestures out a hand, the motion itself meaningless, just a wave.
"The reason they had to put on that charade was half 'cause the train wouldn't talk to them unless they faked a mission." He folds his arm across the back of the seat again. "Yeah, I don't get why they need to keep it up now or why we can't just talk to everyone... but at least they're answering questions." He huffs. "That's new, for once."
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Everywhere Tidus goes, a ball is there too?
Somehow that seems plausible. "You trusted them awfully quickly, and still do, even though they're still psychologically torturing our allies right there in front of us." He doesn't approve, apparently, but his hostility seems directed elsewhere. "Given how often we've been lied to in the short months I've been here, I would have thought someone who's been around much longer would be far more cautious. Were you given some proof that I wasn't? Did they bother to say why all these horror tests are needed to help figure out what the train wants?"
Which he'll allow for, he wasn't there for everyone else's interviews. "Because all I got was some suffocating aura of dread probably meant to keep me meek and submissive."
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"I get it, you know? They're weird, why should we trust them, they could turn around and do something bad with what we tell them - but what's doing nothing going to do? I've been on the train forever, and those guys gave me more than the train ever has." He shakes his head. "I'm not gonna be paranoid when they offer to help out. I just... didn't get that bad of a feeling from them."
What else can he say? That he's not that paranoid, but it's not like he doesn't understand some of Xehanort's concerns. Only, he finds it hard to see them as bad as he is.
A spooky station would be a lot worse if they were really getting attacked.
"But they didn't ask us for anything special. What's knowing what we think about the train or the kind of missions we've been going to tell them?"
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He looks away, to count how many people have arrived by day two, lips thinning. "Their tests aren't about our missions, Tidus. The tests are about us. What are we going to tell everyone down in those simulations when they find out we just sat here and peacefully watched and cooperated while they're being terrorized? Again?"
It almost sounds like he cares.
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He shrugs, helpless. Then what can they do?
"We'll see what happens, right? If they're here to learn about us, then all we can do is fight when the time comes. They don't know about everyone on the train."
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And maybe even then, out of sheer mulish stubbornness. "It's a little disturbing that the response isn't 'well let's try to get out' instead of shrugging and deciding to wait and see. Maybe a lot disturbing, especially with Diagad and the stuff that happened before it."
"And here I am without my illusion resistance pendant to help even know if this is another trick."
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But at least for Xehanort's latter remark on pendants, Tidus raises up a hand, and from it appears a bulky-looking forearm shield. Fortunately, he's holding the straps (so it doesn't fall on his head), and he gives it a wave above his head.
A small wave, mind.
"I'm not feeling anything different," he says after a moment. "...if the room isn't blocking the magic," he then adds. That's a possibility.
A possibility that won't help Xehanort feel better (or will just credit his suspicion), but.
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Maybe it's the food. Said 'food', such as it is, is eyed dubiously from his safe distance. Going a week was going to be very tough even for him.. "Given it's blocking all other forms of magic," is the sullen response, "And it's already proven they can make us feel what they want, that really can't logically be trusted either."
Tidus might be terminally inclined towards helpfulness, but there was a good chance everyone else wasn't. He could hope. "I'm sorry, Tidus. I'm not as.. naturally inclined to trust as you are, I suppose. Especially with so many bright red flashing warnings flying around that the train has been helpfully introducing us to over and over and over. This isn't okay, this isn't fun, and in spite of what happens in the future I do not yet enjoy watching people run around in terror."
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"No one said anything about this being okay or fun," he says first, tone at least restrained. "I already said about talking to them, but you don't want to, so what else can I say? I didn't like watching people disappear without knowing where they were going either, but you know what? I want to know more about what's going on or the people around us than everything the train doesn't tell us!"
Now, his tone isn't as restrained - not shouting, but his throws out a hand back to the screens.
"You know what that's better than? People getting dragged from the middle of their lives without any equipment to protect themselves, stuffed into carriages and made to watch people come and go without warning. You think the train's any better? It all sucks. Everything sucks around us, Xe, but I can take being stuck in here a few days if it actually means we're getting listened to. Can it come 'round and bite us later? Sure - but we're already here, they already know about us, so what am I supposed to do about it? Be mad they had to fake a mission that isn't going to get anyone killed?"
He sighs, slumping his arms tighter around the back of the chair.
"I'm willing to take the risk, Teddy. We don't have any better choice."
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Train: good or bad, it's not part of the discussion as far as he's concerned, apparently. "People don't need to die for something to be awful to the point where it should be immediately stopped, no matter what might potentially be gained from it later. Diagad didn't kill us either. Nor did the encounter just before that which forced all of you to suffer your worst terrors, but oh, was anyone suggesting we cooperate and see what we learn when that thing was torturing us? After all we didn't die." His scowl deepens suddenly, fairly bristling with indignation. "And now I'm employing your fallacy, I would be laughed out of the debate hall and rightly so." It's shameful, SHAMEFUL. He deserves to be laughed out of a debate hall.
He was going to have to moderate his own responses better, the situation was bad enough without inviting Even to appear out of nowhere and mock him for resorting to logical fallacies to try to make a point.
"I have been taught that the ends do not justify the means. And just hoping they throw us a tidbit that they haven't yet bothered to do in favor of what they HAVE DONE and are continuing to do right now, doesn't make any of this acceptable to me. The price is too high." Would it have been, had the situation been a little different? "On the questionably bright side, it's heartening to know my morality is apparently still intact. As we are likely being monitored, I will leave it at that." He has plans, terrible plans if he gets the opportunity to put them to use.. but discussing them wasn't going to happen. Not when it's so likely their captors are listening to every word they speak.
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