Redi Domum

[stringmods]

Who: The missing visitors and you. Open to everyone.
Where: MAGI Labs
Summary: After being violently removed from the Tower of Animus, everyone is returned 'home'.
Warnings: None

There was a tight clench behind your navel, the sensation of something dragging you through the fabric of time and space itself... it was an unpleasant sensation, almost sickening. Those of Hinoto-Ri had vanished from the tower completely when the clock struck midnight from what had just happened, removed from that reality. It had happened with such abruptness that it was downright disorienting to observe. There was no chance for a hurried goodbye, no chance of even letting out a surprised scream...

Those of Hinoto-Ri were dragged back to their own world with very little grace, and for a dizzying and wild thirty seconds, they suffered from the sensation of thick tentacles grasping and yanking their bodies this way and that through a swirling blur of matter. Where were they going? What had caused this?

After those sickening moments that seemed to last far longer, they were unceremoniously shoved out of the Shining Trapezohedron in a stream of bright lights, and into what looked like a giant room filled with computer screens. At least it didn't appear to be the Mictlan, like when the other group had returned.

Pray that you weren't on the bottom of the pile...

Now there was a quiet hum, as an alarm went off. Lights shone brightly upon you as scientists outside were running scans to determine you weren't harmful from your trip. That left you time to think.

You had finally met him...

Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos. He'd taunted some of you, shown you another world you had been sent to save...but in the end, nothing much had changed. Perhaps there was small solace that it was still standing and not completely obliterated as had been his plan. The questioned remained, however...

Where was He now? ...you could figure that out later. There were reunions to be had first.

[OOC - Anyone can start threads.]

Comments

[greatseal]

Minako doesn't take long to arrive at the gathering place, after sending preliminary messages to the missing members of SEES during her trip. Those are the people she's most eager to see again, but she'll definitely stop and chat with anyone else she recognizes.

The generally bedraggled look of the returnees is a bit worrying, though...

[themortalhalf]

Shinjiro had replied to Minako's initial message as quickly as her brother had. Answered again if he needed to, though had spent most of his time walking around the group's temporary confines once the slight nausea and disorientation from the pull had mostly worn off. Everyone from Hinoto-Ri seems to be there, though he still searches, harder than he knows he should, for anyone familiar with a collar. He finds nothing, but he had been expecting nothing given how abruptly they had left. Still, it's disappointing. Frustrating.

But, like with most things that happen in life, there ain't a damn thing he can do about it.

Though, for what it's worth, he is glad to be back, even if the return does feel a bit hollow and almost underserved. It's a selfish thought to maintain, he thinks, when there are so many people still trapped back inside that damn tower. Chidori had been right about one thing: it wasn't fair. She had never said those words out loud of course, but she had still said them anyway, sliding them in-between the lines.

But very little in the world was fair.

After he pulls back his search, he hangs back to the outer rims of the crowd. Talks with those he needs to talk to, the number of which is few, and the conversations just as short, though he always keeps close to where Miki is. He figures it'll be easier for her to distract herself if he's not near her enough to remind her of the other brother she couldn't bring back, but still wants to keep an eye on her anyway. So when Minako does arrive, it doesn't take long for Shinjiro to spot her and start to make a beeline towards her, smiling a little, though it fades. He looks about the same as the rest, though his coat's fared better than some people's clothes (nothing he can't fix or repair), and he wears the bedraggled look of wear and tear almost naturally.

[greatseal]

With his beanie and coat, plus standing taller than some of the crowd and predictably keeping to the edge of it, Shinjiro isn't difficult to spot. She'd had time to ponder her reaction on her way here. What happened yesterday had given her things they need to discuss. However... She also knows that today is not the right time. Probably not tomorrow, either. He'd just returned from who knew where and they'd been separated for almost three weeks. He probably has a lot to report and catch up on. Besides, her anger yesterday came from her concern over his well-being. It would be hypocritical to push him into a difficult conversation without giving him a chance to recover from his trip.

But even if she hadn't already chosen to postpone her serious talk, seeing his easy smile for the instant before it fades would have made her decision for her.

It's really so simple. She loves this man. She missed him terribly while he was gone, and even more so because she didn't know where he'd gone or when he would return. All her other emotions regarding him stem from, and pale before that one fact.

She will bring up the pill bottle eventually - although maybe not tomorrow, or even this week. Right now, she closes the last few steps between them and throws her arms around the battered burgundy coat.

"You look terrible."

But she means it in the most affectionate way.

[themortalhalf]

His reaction to her embrace is different from what it had been in September. The stiff uncertainty is gone, and the awkwardness that still remains is a far cry from what it had been. It's more subtle, instead of etched into the rigidness tenseness of his posture, though he still has to mentally process things for a few seconds, still has tell himself that he doesn't really give a damn what people see right now, before returning the gesture.

It had been three weeks, hadn't it? He hadn't had the chance to miss her before. Three weeks had been more than enough to remind him what separation felt like, and he wasn't looking forward to the time where things were more permanent. At least this time he had a luxury of knowing where she was, and had been relieved to find that she wasn't with him. Animus was no place for her. It was no place for anyone.

"Thanks," he says, finally. (He thinks, anyway.) "I'll try to look better next time."

[greatseal]

Separation is something Minako is intimately familiar with. In fact, until recently, she'd have considered it inevitable. Every person she cared for eventually left or moved on. And when that didn't happen, she was the one who had to move - whether literally, or figuratively, as in the case at the end of her stay in Port Island.

But despite being realistic, she is also still an optimistic person by nature. Just because it had always happened to her in the past didn't mean it had to happen again any time soon. This was the second time Shinji and Minato had left and then returned to her, and this time hadn't been anywhere near as dramatic as their first departures. (At least, as far as she is currently aware.) Overall... it's not anything she needs to worry about, now that it's over. They're home, and safe.

But still. "If there's a next time you should give a little more warning first. Unless you were just trying to get out of Valentine's Day?"

She's joking around now, but she's also still not letting him go.

[themortalhalf]

He snorts at that.

His grip loosens, but he doesn't bother to pull away.

"Maybe." Though he's sure he didn't get out of anything, but those are things he'd rather not dwell to long on. He had spent a small portion of Valentine's with the wrong Arisato, and his lips turn momentarily wry at the thought. It isn't something he cares to remember, though it's hard not to. He's just glad it's something he can be embarrassed about, even if those memories will stay forever under lock and key. "Guess you'll just have t'try harder next year."

It's as close as he can get to joking back.

Though March would have been a better month to skip out on. Valentine's was a girl's holiday. March was all expectations that he had thus far gotten out of for eighteen years.

[greatseal]

"I will!" And she means that completely. Two Februaries have already been wasted. Nothing is going to get in the way of her spending an actual Valentine's with him next time. "But you're not completely free for this year yet, you know."

She knows about White Day as well as he does, and she has quite a few expectations stored up.

Open and be warned of potential hugs

[gigglesnortpriestess]

It's late but once she heard the message from the COMP, Yukiko ran out from the inn as fast as she could. It didn't matter if she was freezing from the lack of shoes or due to being in night clothes, her friends could be back and she couldn't keep them waiting. She also may not notice others going the same way because what is a one track mind?

"Rise-chan? Naoto-kun? Kanji-kun?!"

Please...let them be here...!

[testsubject031]

Your resident stalkerbot is present and accounted for, helping her friends and allies to scan the crowd for familiar faces. Labrys hovers above the mass of people, ready to swoop in with greetings.

OPEN | Big IT group hug?

[linefacingforever]

Of course, Yu had shown up as soon as he got the message. He wished their missing friends had been his first encounter with everyone back, but... well, he was pushing that encounter from his mind for the moment and paying attention to what was more important. Namely, trying to spot Naoto, Rise, and Kanji in the middle of this crowd.

...he really wanted to give all of them a massive hug. He was that worried about all of them.

[maybe_a_king]

Arturia somehow manages to keep from falling to her knees, completely weary as she drags herself from the pile. What had happened? One second they were confronting that.... thing. Then the next they were here and oh, she felt like she was going to be sick to her stomach after that sudden departure.

She manages to find a chair and sits in it, her shinai held tightly in one hand as she tries to get a bearing on her new surroundings.

[technomaturgist]

Ferrus, after his landing ontop of Minato (sorry bro), is awkwardly standing around. He's just...

For anyone who's paying him any attention, they might be surprised by him removing his hood. He's got sheer white hair - and it's most definitely white - wrapped under a black bandanna/rag/thing.

He just needed to cool off. His robe was abruptly cloying and hot, after all.

He'll be standing off to the side, mask still on - and locked on, of course. He's... not sure what to really do, right now, beyond wait. So he does.

[greyerrant]

"I thought your priesthood never removed their masks, let alone their robes."

Garviel says quietly, from behind Ferrus. Damn Space Ninja romans.

[technomaturgist]

Ferrus practically jumped five feet into the air at Garviel's sudden talking. He almost whipped around, before - oh. He did his best to straighten up again, and not seem jumpy.

"It's only... the hood of the robe..." He offered in response. Garviel had probably seen him out of robe once or twice - in his apartment in the earlier months. "...And it's not as though we can't get hot in them."

[greyerrant]

"Odd words from a Mechanicus. I thought you prided yourselves on your stoicism in the face of weaknesses of flesh."

He doesn't seem angry, or even reproving, just confused. As for him, well, Garviel is pretty much immune to extremes of heat and cold to begin with. In addition to small caliber bullets and concepts such as sarcasm.

[technomaturgist]

If anything, Ferrus would look awkward at the other's statement - his stance shifted. The flesh was weak, certainly - and while he was normally stoic about it. It's confusing to hear Garviel confused, but he just sort of looks up at the other.

This could devolve into a discussion of his failures, if he let it - but he wasn't sure how to deflect. Maybe he was too tired for that.

"Not... all of us." He stated. Ferrus liked being human - he'd never had his brain modified, never had anything changed more then superficially. His flesh was weak, but it held meaning to him - and while he used his mantle and mechanical arm... Well.

He liked being human. Perhaps more then was right for a techpriest. Whoops.

[greyerrant]

"Learn something new every day then. Well. Back to our duties here then. Will you be ready to do what is required?"

Loken seems as unmoved by their ordeal in the tower as he has by anything.

[technomaturgist]

Oh, good. Garviel didn't care.

... Although, was Garvi literally that unshaken?

Ah, whatever.

"...Yes, sir. ...After a bit of rest."

He survived the Tower in style. The issue came with his interacting with Nyarly. The maze had taken a lot out of him, even if he'd avoided letting it show at the time.

Sleep sounded heavenly.

[pistolsakimbo]

"Ferrus!"

Brace yourself, Ferrus, because there is a bundle of purple and brown launching herself at you as hard as she can. And yes, she is clinging and crying, and Rune doesn't care how awkward it is.

[technomaturgist]

Woah what. Ferrus almost jumps, before-- oh. Hi, Rune-

Hopefully, Rune didn't hurt herself on the metal plates that were bolted up against his ribcage - even with his padded robe. He caught her well enough, and... has his ability to comfort improved? He's lightly wrapped an arm around her, and is lightly patting her back. He at least... looks less awkward.

Maybe it's that he's not saying anything, and his mask is still on. And that he's tired.

[pistolsakimbo]

Hey, Ferrus, you are getting better at this whole interacting with people thing! She likes that; and ow, colliding with his chest hurt a little, but she's just too happy to be back to care at the moment. She finally looked up at him, sniffling slightly; yeah, she was totally crying against your robe.

"...w-we're really back, right?"

[technomaturgist]

Not really. He's just... really tired, right now. Otherwise his words would stumble - he's just remembering what Rune wants and giving it to her. ...When he feels better, he'll probably be less cold.

He doesn't seem to mind her crying against his robe, or at least he's too tired to properly say as much. "I... think so." He answered. His voice, unlike his normal emotional state, was actually fairly soft. Somewhat tired.

...It was actually pretty soothing, even though it was also very obviously not intended to be.

[pistolsakimbo]

Rune buried her face back against his robes, letting out a relieved breath as he small frame shuddered against him.

"...good."

[selematpagi]

Yukko doesn't join the pile of visitors. When she arrives, she bounces on the top of the pile and rolls down down down. She lays flat on her back, as straight as a board. She stares up at the ceiling with a blank expression on her face.

Man. What the heck is happening? These past few weeks have been so incredible. She's starting to question life and everyt- Yukko Aioi sits up and rubs her head.

"My head huuuurts," she whines. "And my back aches. What the heck?!"

Wow that did NOT take her long.

[bladedskies]

After successfully escaping the portal dogpile, Haseo is...Well, Haseo is just going to be against a wall, face slightly green as she tries not to throw up.

Screw you, Philemon.