John

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Thundercat said
I don't wanna GOOOOOOOO!!

Ten is that you

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Yehp. Other side.

Sorry for not being here much lately! Going to make first post @Iwaku as soon as possible. That's...not as soon as I would like to think, though, since I still have exams tomorrow and next week, and then after another week more exams.

Welp. I'll try, I guess.

Also, the tidiness-obsessed part of me almost hoped the OOC would halt at something like a neat 3000 posts. But no.

And then we also overshot 3003, which with the 707 IC make a very pleasant pair of palindromes. But we just had to.

Ugh.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Leila: hoodie +1

And the Mischievious Trio is totally a boy band.

Eh - I thought sealing the deal was very much the end of this chapter?

I'll be away for two successive days starting Friday for a competition thingy and I'll have to prepare the day prior, so...I won't be able to post the round anyway. Sorry about that.

We'll be moving to Iwaku right after, though - correct?

And amazing music .

More music, then.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

”If you forget everything…you turn into a bunny guard.”

Impossible.

That was Harper’s immediate reaction, and that was what Leila wanted to make herself believe. Transforming a human body into the shape of a bunny guard was anatomically, physically, and practically impossible.

But just as she, as well as everyone else at the table, knew all too well - nothing was impossible in Nowhere.

Your memories are fading, aren’t they?

They were. And they were fading fast.

Leila reached for her shirt pocket, placing her fingers upon the blue notebook. She drew it out and turned to the place before the first page - the back face of the cover, packed with tidy, elegant handwriting:

My name is Leila Noelle. I am seventeen years old, born on...

And that was all of the passage she remained familiar with. The passage she wrote down in her time at the castle in hope that she wouldn’t forget, in hope that scripture will retain the memories so that her mind could hold out longer.

Perhaps not much longer her mind was going to hold out.

She winced as she shoved the notebook back into the pocket.

And we'll all be going home. All of us. We'd be working together so we can do it faster.

If they collect everything in time, they get to go home. Or at least they’ll be hope that they’ll get to go home.

If they didn’t...that notebook would belong to what would forever be a mute, mindless bunny guard. Or perhaps even worse: a mute bunny guard that wasn’t mindless.

She pulled her sight off the ground and looked around the table, as part of an attempt to chase that thought out of her brain - at least temporarily. The expressions of everyone around there, however - the Hooded figures, the Nobodies, her fellow humans - did nothing but enforce the pressing threat.

Questions remained. If they were in a race against time - a race against time where time wasn’t a valid concept - then why the fighting between them for the list and the items? If the threat they faced was the same, why weren’t them aligned to the cause in the first place? They were equally desperate - no, they were arguably even more desperate...the reasoning wouldn’t be valid in all but two cases: one, the Hooded figures were outright insane, and two, this meetup is a trap and they have been lied to.

Leila couldn’t express how unreasonably much she wished that it was the former. Or, on second thought, how much she wished that she was wrong. Now all she wanted to hold onto was whatever material there was to sustain the thought that they were going home - that they stood a chance at eventually getting home.

On the other hand, bunny guards...then, the Queen, Delirium who treated them as welcome guests and allowed their staying and providing them food, the Queen…?

She shook her head, burying her face in her hands with her elbows rested upon the table.

She didn’t see Luke’s smile when he said:

"So...wanna join the team?"

Leila slid her hands to expose her eyes, locked to the tablecloth and the half-empty glass of beverage in front of her.

She thought for moments. Then:

“...how long?”

She spoke, but did not answer their question. Her mind was still flooding with the dreadful images of past humans, trapped for an eternity in the bunny-shaped cocoons.

“How long did they have?” She asked. She hadn’t made her choice yet, but she wanted to know this regardless. The Nobidies and the Hooded Figures might not have the answer, but she needed to ask anyway. They said they’ve seen it happen.

“...how long do we have?”

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Fox of Spades said "...you'll turn into a bunny guard."

oh

...pardon the image responses.

Working on a post now but this is way too intense to handle.

Not ok.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Writing still wonky, but posted.

Leila asking the important questions.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Leila found herself increasingly not certain what to do as conflict and tension escalated in the scene. Several times she winced at the phrases being tossed around in their conversation, prepared for punches to start to be thrown after the end of every sentence.

The worst part was that she had absolutely no clue what was going on. Truth be told, she never did - not a chance in this land that supplied limitless quantities of madness and irrationality - yet this scenario was only too puzzling.

She almost felt that feeling return for a moment. That feeling she would feel long ago whenever she walked into a place with too many people, or onto the bustling streets. The feeling when everything to do she could conceive of was wrong in at least one way.

Should she try to stop them before things spiral out of control? Were[i] things going to spiral out of control? She wouldn’t have the courage either. Even if she did stop them - for what will it be? Just...just [i]what is all this?

As Ace Jasper and Inadi were deep involved in debate with the others at the table, Leila sunk as far back into her seat as possible, nervously sipping on her glass of...some kind of beverage. The stress of the atmosphere was upsetting and she wondered if it would be okay to leave for a while - that they just encountered a humongous life-devouring monster would serve as an acceptable excuse -

“...Gary hitting some philosophy-blithering dude[i] with her pole -”

And then that sentence landed and it was enough for Leila’s just barely controlled emotions to decide that it had gone that bit too far. A twitch was visible in her expressions, which now shifted from one of slight discomfort to a stressful glare of anger of which all she could do was to direct it at the tablecloth in front of her. She felt her hands start shivering.

She took a few deep breaths to regain her calm. [i]It won’t make anything better was the reason her rationality used to push the growling anger back into somewhere hidden - still the unsettlement on her now paler than usual face was unmistakable.

Inadi kept rambling on with aggressive responses at the Hooded Figures, as well as the few familiar nobodies she also recognized. Their presence caused much of the conflict and confusion she was experiencing - and Inadi’s hostile remarks weren’t making it better for her.

“Inadi wait -”

She started off with a voice to faint to have the request have any effect on the currently heated discussion, but something else carried out the task of interrupting Inadi.

"WHAT is your PROBLEM!? These guys are giving us free food, they're being so nice and kind to us and you're talking about fighting?!...”

Leila sat dead still throughout the course of Toby’s speech. She comprehended where he stood, but in a way it was also almost painful to listen to, these words coming from someone who hasn’t been there at Yonder, on the Star Fisher, or at the Stone of Sacrifice…

...her sight wandered and stopped upon the figure of the dark skinned man at the other side of the table. Leila didn’t remember clearly enough to be completely certain at first, but once he spoke there was no mistaking it: Numair Wason, aboard the Star Fisher - now standing beside the ones who assaulted them, potentially with the intention of killing, left them without aid in the aftermath of the battle with the witch…and now inviting them to join them.

Leila was too used to pictures coming together when she thought hard enough about them.

This picture didn’t come together.

”...You didn't even listen to what they had to say!”
Toby concluded with a huff, and the whole scene turned into a stalemate after that. Toby staring at the table after glaring at Inadi, and the others similarly seemingly having words upon their throats that were not uttered, out of various reasons.

“If all the items on the List are collected.” She asked, speaking slowly:

“...who gets to go home?”

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Sorry for taking this long, ugh.

I'll make sure I throw up something tonight before the next move-on.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Oh well. Oh well that IC post.

Great. Time to panic.

Hopefully posting tomorrow.

The Midnight Train to Nowhere

Oh I missed you folks.

Been constantly dead tired for the four days starting last Wednesday and had some things to sort out this morning. I believe I'm handling it rather well laughs loudly at my standards and am (almost) ready to get back to writing for this.

Read and understood about the announcements. I haven't caught up with everything IC yet, though, so I suppose after Fox's next post will be when I drop Leila back in.