Welcome to Haven:

[fluxscapemod]

What: It's moving day for everyone.
Where: Haven MagLev Train/Haven Train Station and then Jerry's Info Booth for the Newbies.
When: 04/28 - Morning
Warnings: There will be swearing, probably mentions of violence. Will update as needed.

This FluxOver starts a lot differently than the others. For starters, everyone and we mean everyone is waking up on a train. No one's waking up in their homes. The first sound anyone hears isn't an alarm clock. It's the steady hum and squeal of the MagLev train just barely skimming it's rails as it makes a turn towards the Haven Train Station and then a deep, gravely, lightly accented male voice saying:

"Haven Train Station! Last stop! Everyone off!

And then the grinding of brakes as the train slows down to a bit of a harsh stop. With so many people stuffed into the train like sardines, it's probably hot and crowded, and everyone wants off. It's also very likely you're going to wake up leaning on someone. Do you know them? Are they a stranger? Let's hope you didn't drool while you were sleeping, or snore too loudly.

When the doors open, the heat probably gets a bit worse and the crowd is very eager to get off the train. Jostling and bumping, it seems as though no one cares who they smack into, they just want off. Since it's the last stop, it's probably best you depart, too. Should you choose to stick on the train, you'll find that while it does depart the Haven Train Station eventually, it just goes through a foggy area that seems to lead right back to the Haven Train Station. It'll keep doing so until you depart the train. Once the last person is off, the train will roll away and disappear in the distance.


For all the newcomers, you'll feel an impulse to go right to the very ramshackle-looking information booth, where a gentleman named Jerry has your information packet. For everyone else, your phones will start buzzing and a voice will start giving you directions, leading you back home and we're sorry to say it, but your homes have taken on the external appearance of everything else around them. Pieced together, rusty. Built more for survival and less for visual appeal.

Again; externally. Internally, you'll find that nothings changed and home is just as you remember it. And for anyone that got anything for FluxMas, you'll find your stuff waiting for you in the kitchen of your homes. Unless it's a vehicle. You'll find the keys to that in your pockets, shortly after stepping into your houses.

Settle in. Explore. Find your friends.

Welcome to Haven.

Comments

[curious_spirit]

"I'd like that," he replied about taking a look for a place to make copies or maybe even enlarge some of the photos that had arrived with Lydia. Shadow picked up his gaze, watching her look through the trunk without releasing the photo album.

Books, coins and a deck of cards... Shadow peered in and thought there wasn't more proof that he didn't have a life without Lydia and Leo. At least, not a memorable one from his point of view. "Those are mine, I think." He reached for the coin in her hand and flipped it over each of his fingers.

Maybe she remembered that from when they first met. Shadow had proved an understanding of physics with the trick, although Lydia had been working on a completely different science at the time. Or math. That meeting remained fresh on his mind although nearly two years had passed.

[wantadistraction]

There was a part of Lydia that wanted to continue looking at the book but there was another part of her that found it too painful to at the moment. It ached to look at her son's sweet face and not know when she might actually see it with her own two eyes again. It also made her hurt for Shadow as he had only just found them and it didn't feel fair to have them separated again so soon.

So she focused on the coin as she handed it over to him, watching as he did the familiar trick of flipping it over each of his fingers. Of course, she remembered the first time he had done it on the first night they had met and how she had teased him about how he must be good with his fingers. That had been the start of their conversation taking a serious turn into flirtation rather than just mild interest and curiosity.

It made her smile a little as she reached out to rest her hand on his knee, brushing her thumb over a crease in his pants before she rose up with a bit of a sigh. Then something else caught her eye as she leaned down to pull out a stack of letters tied up with a very cliche style ribbon. It still made her smile though as she showed up, knowing full well he would recognize his writing scrawled on the front of the top one. "I don't know but I think I told you that I kept all of them."

[curious_spirit]

The letters he'd written her and photo album of Leo were bittersweet. Shadow was happy Lydia smiled but there was a pang of sadness, hating how they'd been separated and now separated from their son. He stopped rolling the coin over his fingers and put it into his front pocket of his jeans.

"I might continue to do that. A letter to you and one to Leo, every week here. I'll show you in person too but looks like you started a collection so seems only right to continue it," he told Lydia through a small smile. Shadow felt as if he had to make up for lost time even if it didn't seem as if ending up in Haven was the fault of the gods, new or old.

His eyes glanced to the stack then to Lydia, waiting for her response.

[wantadistraction]

"It didn't feel right to throw them away," Especially since she hadn't been sure that he would ever return to her or find out the truth about Leo. If it had happened that way, she had at least wanted the letters so she could reminisce but also so she could show Leo one day. Show him a glimpse of his father just in case they never had a chance to meet.

"I think a letter a week for Leo sounds nice. Or do a journal that we could give him one day if we get to keep it," She smiled back, reaching out across the short distance to brush her fingers against his cheek. She wouldn't make him write her a letter every week given they were together now but she wouldn't stop him either if he wanted to.

[curious_spirit]

"I'm glad you didn't," he responded heartfelt. The warmth reached his voice, lowering his octave a little--close to how he sounded when waking up. Shadow didn't think of it or how Lydia didn't really know that sound from him yet. Her response had him cease from thinking sadly.

Shadow nodded at her suggestion of a journal. "We don't have to give it to him if he doesn't remember us missing but it'd be nice to do. ...I'm still writing you a letter," he insisted and wrapped Lydia in his arms. In his mind, it was the least he could do to make her happy under the circumstances.

He dipped his head to kiss her tenderly.

[wantadistraction]

It was true that she wasn't completely familiar with all the different traits he had but she did have some experience with him being or sounding sleepy as well as his voice going all soft and low. She continued to smile faintly as she listened to him, enjoying the slight shiver that ran up her back whenever his voice did change. A fact that he probably didn't know.

"Okay," Her smile grew at his insistence that he was still going to write her a letter and she moved into his arms when he reached for her. Sliding her arms around his waist, she tilted her head to look at him. "I'm not going to say no if you want to."

It was a nice way to show that he cared and it meant something to her, perhaps more than he realized, that he was going to make the effort. She was still smiling as she leaned up to kiss him back softly.