pennysheets | Signal in the Void (for @unfavorableinstigation )

Entry tags:

bucky barnes,
psl

Signal in the Void (for @unfavorableinstigation )

The signal from a Void Active world this long after their visit was unexpected. And it's not a distress signal. It's just a... notification?

As someone left from that world's very first visit-- "world"; it's really more of a station, a habitat ring around a star-- they send Soldat to investigate.

They walk the streets of the biosphere, looking for the source of the signal. Everything seems in order. The ring is inhabited now, with a patchwork collection of species, even some actual humans like themselves. It hasn't been inhabited for long, by the looks of shops still in the process of being set up, and hovering platforms of home furnishings outside many of the buildings in the habitat sector. They don't stand out here, just walking along, and no one really notices them. Everyone has work to do, or homes to organize, or places to be.

Then Soldat reaches the pasture and agriculture sector and finds, to their surprise, there's a... circus there? There's a small chain link fence, shoulder high, set up on an empty patch of field, and there are tents beyond that. Fancy, futuristic tents, with static electricity supports and holographic images projected on and in front of them, but still: tents. The circus seems still in the process of setting up, and Soldat can see people hustling to and fro with supplies, animals, and building materials for getting things finished.

Huh. This is probably related to the notification, since it's the only thing out of place about the whole location, but they don't know why yet. They circle the fence, looking for a gate in or someone to talk to.

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Nita had thought this world was familiar, on the ride in - but the reaction of her SCA, which had been long-quiescent, had been the real kicker.

Void network detected. Send acknowledge ping: Y/N?

There'd been much back-and-forth between herself and the voice of wizardry in her head, deciding what to do. Their main query wasn't so much home as... how were people doing? Did the people they know make it home? Had anyone survived to tell the story at all? Were people and voidtrain alike still just... stuck?

Y
---
Soldat's face isn't the most familiar, to Nita, given how little time comparatively they knew each other - but, as she's running about helping with setup (there's always so much to do, and not so many in the way of fellow administrative hands), the fact that they look like someone she does know from the circus, that stirs something up in her.

"Hey - wait, didn't I just see you helping with the animals?"

She can be embarrassed about her error later - first she has to realize she's made one.

Soldat assumes, at first, that she's not even talking to them. It's James who has to say, (SHE'S LOOKING RIGHT AT YOU, BUDDY.), before they glance over, blink, and say, "No, I don't think so?"

She might notice a few small changes. Their hair is a little longer than Buck's, and softer, like they use more fancy conditioner or something. And instead of a fake demon arm, pretending to be a real arm, their left hand is made entirely of shiny metal. In a world like this, they aren't bothering to hide their prosthetic.

They don't recognize her right away, either, though now that they're looking, she does seem a bit familiar...

It's a few moments' blinking, followed by an abashed look away, before it's clear that Nita's realized this is not Buck.

"Oh! Ah, sorry, then. /Dai Stiho./"

She recovers, still trying to place him for real before she digs herself deeper somehow.

"You local, then? Well, relative to this galaxy, no one's really from this world..."

Except for the beings that had been specifically constructed to help maintain it, and all.

Huh. The language that kind of isn't a typical language wiggles into their ears, and that's familiar, too, like they've heard it in passing.

(One of the other worlds we've been to maybe? Maybe. I don't know. I do feel like I know her, though.)

"Sorta." Soldat tilts their head with a little smile. "I'm a traveler, I guess you could say." The world is void-active, but that doesn't mean this little circus group is necessarily aware of the organization. "Kinda like you guys, I guess, though with less tents and more weird trains."

Nita recognizes the way Soldat starts talking - more from having to hide wizardry in the past, than from her time as a voidtrecker.

Right until he gets to the end, at least, at which point it's clear her eyes go wide.

"... You wouldn't have happened to take one here, did you? Or was it some... other kind of 'craft?"

Admittedly, Nita's experience with other voidcraft is still Basically None, having missed out on those opportunities. But she does remember reading about them-

Aaaand she doesn't have those books anymore, does she? So she can't check herself. Drat.

That is recognition, right there. Soldat can't miss it.

And that cements where they know her from. Their eyes narrow a bit, after a moment of fishing around in their earliest train memories, guess, "Nita?" They hadn't interacted much, before she left the train, but Soldat is good with names and faces, and they'd been so damn scared those first few days that most everything is pretty well cemented in their brain.

No, they did not answer her question, but they'll get there.

For once, she's grateful she hasn't tried introducing herself yet. That definitely makes a difference.

"I... can't say I can return the favor yet, sorry. It's been a while."

Nita looks askance. "Though, given the last time I was here we had to clear this place of some kind of illusion-causing virus, I take it whatever we did succeeded in making this place habitable again?"

She'll circle back to that other question when Soldat's ready.

"I remember the mission ending, but not much beyond that."

"That was my first," Soldat says, a little ruefully. "I'd seen you around, but we hadn't spoken. I'm Soldat." Which they're sure she will probably guess the meaning of, but they don't really care anymore, unless it's something that will get them in trouble for having a strange name. "I was on the-- purple team? But I basically took up residence in the. The kitchen car, no matter what the team was doing that month."

Even with the Speech, Nita doesn't have a particular reaction to their name.

What there is on her face, is relief.

Though she downplays that a little: "We always needed someone keeping an eye on things in there. I think someone set the sprinklers off once...?"

Though that may have been the cinema; she hadn't exactly been at the scene of action at the time.

"Still, it's nice to meet you Soldat - in better circumstances, I take it?"

"Someone busted a whole pipe in there once, soaked the whole place," Soldat huffs, remembering that incident well. They shake their head a little. "I'm not with the train herself, right now, but I'm with the organization." They had really been uncomfortable on the train itself, and the smaller craft they're on now is much easier on their brain.

They glance around, at the fence and the tents and the people milling about at their different tasks. "You're the one who signalled, right? Are you, uh." They hesitate, then ask, "Are you safe here?"

Her? Despite what the train's voice had been, Nita was still visibly confused at the pronoun - in her various contacts with it, she'd never gotten a specific impression of what it thought on that metric.

"You mean... system 1015? Or just the Void Ministry overall?"

Then she circled back to the question she had been asked, shrugging: "I'm not left in fear for my life by working with the Ringmaster. There's a lot less danger than we ran into on missions, as well. He's got weird thoughts about how to tell when someone's ready to leave, though. When people leave here, there's no void platforms or anything, but I don't see whatever discussions they'd have to have with him to leave either."

Which, granted, it was probably a private matter, but, still...

Mun no longer remembers who started the pronoun thing, but they definitely picked it up from someone else. "Just the Ministry," they say. "Turns out I'm not really fond of trains in general. Something about falling out of one almost a century ago."

That memory returning had made a lot of things much more clear.

"Not in fear for your life isn't giving me a lot of confidence, here," they add. "That seems like awfully faint praise."

Nita winces. Some aspect of the story sounds familiar, but- Nevermind.

"Well, being here means not being home. And I hadn't even heard from any of you until now. Wasn't sure if that was actually something the Ringmaster could control, or if you all were..."

She makes a vague, all-encompassing gesture. Soldat can probably interpret what that means.

"Probably nobody knew to look for you," Soldat suggests. "I know I didn't."

(Not that we've had a lotta luck looking for other people, anyway.)

"It's great that you still have your SCA, though," they add. "Want to come back to my ship, get a more secure connection, see if you can get in touch with anybody?" Maybe get herself un-kidnapped? Not that it will help, since the Ringmaster can just rope her right back, but they don't know that.

Nita makes a face. "Did you meet my sister? Or- well, my other sister, S'reee. Dairine looks a little like me, but a redhead."

And somewhat shorter, but now's not the time for quips. "S'reee is a humpback whale; you'd know her if you met her. And then there's Saash, she's a cat who's also a wizard. Any of them would've wanted to know we all made it to our homes safe." Assuming any of them aren't missing, too.

There were other friends she could mention, but keeping it close to home limits how many people she has to remind herself she's lost, not just met other versions of from what she knows.

At the offer, she looks relieved. "Wouldn't be opposed. Though, should probably give someone here a heads-up. Just so there's a witness."

They did know how to reach her for just communication, here - but most of the ways the circus used were extremely low-tech, and wouldn't work very well if she went far enough afield.

"Uh, no whales, no," they say, a little surprised. "I did meet Saash though! She held open portals for us on a battlefield. And let me pet her." They'd like Saash a lot.

(I NEVER MET SAASH... She was gone before you showed up. Too bad, you'd probably have liked her. Yes.)

"She was gone after a few missions, though. Probably back to her own life," they admit. "Or-- unless there are more circuses stealing people." They eye the circus with a kind of wary curiosity. "Who do you need to tell?"

The news on Saash is welcome - though she's quick with a correction, as well, giving them a cockeyed look: "I can't say the platforms ever successfully delivered someone home, at least not while I was there. Something about how our tethers were formed?"

"We had a Q&A with the train, shortly before you showed up," she explains. "Only one person was ever brought from any given world, is the short answer. Technically I only need to get a word home-home... but they're my family too, even if theirs is with another Neets. And... did they ever mention Enrara?"

Then she shakes her head, wincing. "Sorry, wrong place-name: I meant Jema'grethy. A lot of us ended up with a sort of... bond? Anyway, I was wondering if the three people I was bound to are, well, okay?"

She'll let them get a word in edgewise before elaborating.

"No, the word isn't familiar," Soldat says with a little frown. "Saash didn't tell me much, really, we only met a couple times. I'm sorry. I can send a message along for you, if you'd rather not come to my ship." They can understand how being invited to leave a public place for a private one with someone she doesn't really know very well might be sketchy. They can imagine why she'd dodge the offer.

Nita shakes her head. "I'd prefer to come along, actually. Just let me grab someone's ear, first."

... Hopefully it's clear that's a metaphor. "We don't have network devices, or even computers, so it may take a couple of minutes. Want to come with, or wait here?"

She's fully capable of teleporting herself back here if something goes wrong - as long as she doesn't leave the planet, she figures the Ringmaster won't have reason to care. (Then again, that would make this a kind of stress-test she doesn't recall having happened before, concerning the man's proclivities.)

"I can wait," Soldat says. "I don't want to bother anybody." Or get snatched by the ringmaster. Or, for that matter, run into the person she thought they were when she first addressed them. They're not sure that'd be a great idea. They're aware of multiple timelines, what with the multiple Steves and various different Earths, but seeing themselves--

(Let's not. No.)

Nita can't fault them for that, and with an acknowledging nod she slips away for a few minutes.

She doesn't do anything so obvious as grab a backpack - even if she talks to anyone else from Voidtrecking, she's not anticipating instantaneous travel, let alone actually getting offworld - but a few interesting trinkets the locals had already been giving the circus, as well as some from past stops, make their way into her claudication.

With her Manual primed and ready, and her SCA cleaned up a little, she meets back up with Soldat doing her best to keep her stance relaxed.

"Lead on?" She'll wait until they've walked a good ways out from camp before she starts up any more conversation.

They wait patiently, in a simple parade rest. They've been out of the army and HYDRA, both, for years now, but some things have just become ingrained parts of them, including apparently how they stand when waiting around.

They maybe also do their waiting a little ways back from the fence, watching the buzz of activity but not standing close enough for anyone else to potentially recognize them and mistake them for someone else.

When she returns, they relax out of the stance, give her a small smile, and start leading the way to the little spaceport the Voidship is docked at. They, too, wait until they're a little ways off before asking, "Nobody gave you any trouble?"

It's an uneventful period, for once - but then, the circus isn't particularly prone to infighting. Their team's never been that large or at odds with themselves...

Nita returns the smile, as much out of happiness to see they're still there as relief at getting to do something.

"Nope. Not like I was saying goodbye."

Mood shifting, she bit her lip. "About Jema'grethy - Minako left about a month before I must have, I remember that much of that month's platform. But - was Enna still there? She was a bit birdlike, and shorter than me."

Soldat may notice Nita's only named two of three, there.

"I think I saw her, but then she was gone shortly after," Soldat says apologetically. "I never spoke to her. Who was the third? I might know them." They did notice, in fact. They don't consider it an actual omission, just that Nita probably hadn't gotten to the third name yet.

Nita turned noticeably worried at that reveal. What was it like, with all three of us gone?

Remembering a conversation she'd had with Uta back on Jema'grethy, she twitched at the thought of feeling deja vu.

She could feel the peridexis at the back of her mind, much less dormant than it had been during most of her time with the circus.

Pushing through her own upswell of feelings and memory, she said, "... The Voidtrecker Express?"

She hadn't planned for it to come out sounding like a question, but there it was.

"Oh, well." That's a bit of a surprise, but then, maybe not? They were all connected to the train, after all. Just not who they were expecting. "She's still out there," they assure her. "I'm not on board anymore, obviously, I joined up with the other ranger types who scout planets for trouble, but she got her tether problem fixed and got sent back out with those of her crew who wanted to stay."

"Fixed?"

Given Nita was one of the few who hadn't properly met anyone of the Ministry, she couldn't help but be skeptical. 'No more kidnapping' was a good standard, but how was it achieved?

"Well, fixed how, then? And-"

There was a very not-Nita noise, then; she froze - not in fear, just Not Responding. In the back of her mind, the peridexis braced itself.

"Void Restore Point... Seeking... Void Restore Point... Seeking..."

Edited (Wanted to break away from Nita asking All The Questions for a bit) 2025-01-11 15:39 (UTC)

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Signal in the Void (for @unfavorableinstigation )

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