etrayalogs | Nothing is Safe, aka The Big Sealed Carriage Break-In

[A mysterious train carriage that is always locked and under guard and into which no one is allowed, and the only information on why is something extremely vague to do with 'power surges?' Obviously Caitlyn will be investigating that.

She attempts making conversation with the guards posted outside, under the guise of wanting as much information as possible for when she will inevitably be assigned a guard shift outside of the carriage. But that gleans little enough; to the extent that they're willing to talk to her, they don't seem to know much more than anybody else.

She's walking away, her mind already starting to turn over possible ways to sneak inside, when she almost bumps directly into someone.]

I— I didn't see you there. I was just... Walking. Back to my carriage. Where I live.

[Oh. She recognises this person. This is the person who helped her find clothes when she first arrived in Etraya.]

Edited 2025-01-26 02:04 (UTC)

[ Wow! Two people having the same idea! Imagine!

Because, yes -- as soon as Rin heard the rumor about a sealed-off carriage, she knew she had to take a closer look at that. She's been hanging out in the carriage in front of it and watching the comings and goings for a bit, to get a sense of the guard rotation, if nothing else.

At this time, she's about to leave herself, because a girl needs to eat sometimes, when suddenly -- oh. ]

Uhm, hello!

[ It takes her a second to process what the girl is saying -- uh huh. Sounds real. Rin remembers her -- that girl who wasn't really wearing clothes when she came to Etraya.

Given her shifty demeanor, Rin has a bit of an inkling about what's going on here. She just smiles at the girl. ]

Are you hungry? I was just about to grab something to eat.

[Getting a bite to eat is as good an excuse as any to get out of here with as little awkwardness and suspicion as possible, so Caitlyn goes along with it eagerly.]

Yes. That does sound nice. Why don't we— [She glances back over her shoulder at the guards standing in front of the mysterious locked carriage.] Leave.

[She starts off, back towards the Sprawl carriage where she's been assigned to live for the duration of this train ride.]

Yes, let's!

[ Rin gives Caitlyn a smile and follows without complaint. As if they're friends who happened to run into each other.

She, too, has been assigned Sprawl, though a different carriage. It doesn't look much different than her own, though.

As if on cue, once they're well out of the guards' earshot, her stomach starts to rumble. ]

I really could use a bite to eat, though.

I haven't got much, [Caitlyn admits ruefully. She isn't going hungry, but the sort of lavish meals she's used to at home are very much a thing of the past. Once they're in her cramped little carriage, she'll put a pot of water on for tea and set out things to make a couple of sandwiches. Nothing fancy, but it'll do.]

I wasn't actually walking by, [she says, keeping her voice low despite the fact that they're alone.] That carriage back there, it's been sealed off and no one's allowed inside of it. Even the ones guarding it don't know why. There could be something in there of interest.

A-ah, I meant I was going to go buy something... please don't worry about me! [ Gosh, she didn't mean to impose, and while her salary as a tailor is hardly anything to write home enough, it's enough for buying a snack.

She leans in and replies in an equally low voice. ] I know, that's why I was there, too.

It's no trouble.

[She's very used to putting out tea for guests. Though it's usually a servant who actually makes the tea.]

There's got to be a way inside. Neither of the guards had keys; as far as I'm aware, there aren't any. Since I've been assigned to work as a security guard while aboard the train, I can make an effort to get myself stationed outside the carriage for a shift so that I can take a closer look, but we may need to resort to more... invasive means, should that prove fruitless.

Cassandra is a great many things, but primarily since arriving here she’s been suspicious. And while she no longer thinks that this might be some monstrous trick the Briarwoods are playing on her, she’s no less suspicious of the place and the people that may be behind it. She still doesn’t believe that what they’ve been told the reason for their all being brought here is truly the reason.

So finding herself on a train, and finding herself among the so-called ‘elites’ on the aforementioned train, doesn’t make her any LESS suspicious. ~~It makes her more so.~~ She plays the part when she’s out in public, like she’s just some young, innocent girl who doesn’t know anything at all because making those that were already here underestimate her comes as naturally as breathing. It’s yet one more way to go unnoticed.

And it makes it easy for her to investigate. There’s a sealed carriage that is always locked and always under guard. Usually, when that’s the case, it’s for a reason. And oh, Cassandra wants to know that reason. So she starts investigating. Starting with playing the foolish innocent girl who can’t help but wonder at guarding a train carriage. She asks the guards on duty questions, wide-eyed and innocent. And she asks different questions of guards on different rotations.

It doesn’t give her much in the way of answers, but knowing that those who are guarding the carriage don’t seem to know much more about it than anyone else does is something.

After she’s exhausted all her questions she turns to leave, still maintaining her foolish innocent girl façade for the guards (and anyone else who might be in eyeline) even as she turns it over in her head. There has to be a way in. Whether that way in is as subtle as she’d like, that’s another story. But she’s not going to just leave it there. Because their excuse of 'dangerous power surges' is a baldfaced LIE.

Edited 2025-02-02 11:16 (UTC)

“You sure about this?”

It’s hardly a question when he’s seen the determined look on her face about wanting to learn what’s inside the locked carriage. Law peers through the window to the locked carriage, gaging how they would approach. Could they even get close enough to ask the guards questions without it looking too suspicious? He sighs. At least this was a reprieve from his time in the library.

He’s read most of the journals he could get his hands on, history books with little indication of who this King was. It was not a monarchy, which obviously but one had to check, but he’s currently at a loss of what direction he needs to pursue. He reaches into his pocket, pulling out a pen he had taken from the library.

“I doubt we can get much closer.” He says to the younger girl. A pause, before he glances down at her. “What’s your plan?”

She had to have one, right?

"I'm sure," Rin answers to his first question. She, too, is absolutely focused on what little they can see through the window -- and so very little it is. They can barely see the guards. By now, Rin has been keeping track of the comings and goings and has a rough idea of the guard rotation schedule.

She's absentmindedly chewing on her thumbnail when Law asks her about plans. "Uhhh," she pauses. Sure, she's been forming a plan in her head, but it needs more... structure. "Well, from what I can tell, there's never a time when the door is unguarded. So we'll either have to distract the guards or knock them out. And then, I don't know -- explosives? Do you think that'd work to get that door open?"

By now, messages have been passed around, the beginnings of plans have been made, and Cloud knows what his role in this is going to be when it all goes down. It's not quite the role he'd have preferred, but it might be for the best that he and Caitlyn keep their heads down and suspicions off them as long as possible.

Especially after the shitshow this is definitely going to be, no matter what happens.

But Cloud has other things to worry about, too. Like the fact that, judging by his network activity, Sephiroth is going stir crazy in the crowded, shitty Dregs carriage and something has to give before people start getting hurt.

...and not that he'd admit it, but he's a little worried for the kid, too. It's not like any version of Sephiroth he's ever known before to be...aggressively reactive like this. And while he's sure most of it is probably just being a teenager, he knows that's not the whole picture. Sephiroth was somewhere else before this, undergoing a forced transformation - who knows what kind of havoc that might have wrought to his psyche? Getting shoved into the worst possible section of the train surrounded by people in close quarters is absolutely not helping.

So Cloud asks around. Listens to his fellow Sprawls chat about their daily woes, what hardships they're dealing with, where they might need an extra pair of hands that are capable of pretty much anything. And then he talks to a few of them, and he makes his case to one of the Neons, and now he's on guard duty at the door that separates the Dregs from the Sprawls.

And he sends Sephiroth a text:

Come to the front of the Dregs. I'm getting you out of there.

It is ... difficult, in such crowded places as the Dregs, to soothe the faint but relentless pressure to establish something his and then defend against anyone who would dare to intrude. There's no place to call his own, no tempting objects to squirrel away, and left to his own devices surrounded by the unwashed, unregulated desperate throngs of the train's unwanted, Sephiroth is ... doing his best. But he already loathed being touched, and this was not helping.

He hasn't lashed out yet, his control is far better than that, but it didn't mean the temptation wasn't there every time someone got too close passing by, every time he was jostled on the shared bed he'd found a spot on. And that never really stopped since arriving, there's too many people in the back of the train, all of them unwilling and unhappy.

In that, he's just one of hundreds. So it's an exercise in forced patience and restraint, and at least those are familiar and old lessons; this wasn't forever. It was just until this mission was over.

But that doesn't mean as soon as another option is available that he's not going to abandon the crush of humanity in the Dregs to their own devices; as tempting as it continues to be there's no harm done in his quick passage from a more distant car to the front.

I'm waiting.

Sephiroth is only waiting a moment before Cloud opens the door and gestures with his head for the kid to follow him. He leads them back through the Sprawls' carriages, which are still a little cramped and noisy but way less crowded (and a lot cleaner). They get stopped on the way by another guard, but Cloud's already got written permission for the transfer and the guard sends them on their way with a smile.

Most of the Sprawls' living areas are made up of shared spaces - kitchens, workshops, gardens. But they do each have their own personal space as well. Cloud's is small and there's really nothing in there but the basics, but it's private, and that's the most important thing.

He stays standing, folding his arms and leaning against a wall. "You can stay here as long as you want. Catch is, you gotta take a job. One of the ones they're short on staff for."

He's utterly silent when he follows, close enough to not get lost in the far less crushing press of bodies, expression and bearing one of very carefully maintained neutrality, doing his best to completely bury the ongoing deep discomfort with having people so close. Having so many people around period. He may never get used to crowds. But the Sprawls are better, by far, the brief 'altercation' with a different guard passes by with no remark, not even a twitch, gaze on the floor until they're waved on.

Even the taste of the air is different out here. Less unwashed desperation.

But it leaves him a little ucnertain about touching anything; for all that Sephiroth hadn't really been in there long in the great scheme of things, he wouldn't exactly call himself clean. Every time someone brushed past, or he touched ANYTHING.. well, clean doesn't exactly rub off, but dirt does. "So long as that isn't medical or laboratory work I'm sure I can make myself useful somewhere."

Still very carefully controlled and neutral. "..And if those are a must, with a little time I can handle that as well." But he'd really, REALLY prefer not.

"They're not," Cloud replies with a little more definitive firmness than strictly necessary. There's no way in hell he's going to let anyone make this kid work anywhere remotely like a lab or clinic.

"From what I've gathered, it's mostly cooking, sewing, that kind of stuff. Or the library, which should be right up your alley." There's a bit of flat sarcasm in that last one, but only a little.

Cloud has also noticed the careful way Sephiroth has been avoiding touching anything, and he can guess why, given the state of things in the Dregs. "Use the shower if you want. I'll go find some clean clothes in your size in the meantime."

"..Do you think so?" A library, really? He liked books well enough, but he hadn't gotten the impression his passtimes were things that Cloud would have known about. Maybe he'd misunderstood their future relationship somewhere. "...Cooking and sewing is also fairly straightforward. What task I am put to, I will see it done."

He is if nothing else, adaptable. And he'd learned a few things about cooking serviceable meals without being too fancy about it, fancy was best left in more capable hands -- but unless he was expected to cook for the higher classes, which was unlikely, that too should be fine.

... But any such decisions can wait, because there's an opportunity to clean up and while Sephiroth could tolerate being grimy as long as necessary, it is no longer necessary and immediately he pivots, pulling off the shirt he's wearing as he goes. "I will, thank you." Right now.

Cloud shrugs. "Maybe. I know adult you was pretty introverted, and I know he was well-read, so he might've spent a lot of time in libraries. Just don't get obsessed with researching one thing to death."

One of these days, he needs to tell Sephiroth the rest of the story. But this mission is definitely not the time. The kid's already on edge and some major shit is going down soon.

"Uh...sure." Getting thanks from Sephiroth is still kind of weird and unexpected. "If I'm not back by the time you're done, just stay put for now. Need to fill you in on some plans."

And he'll leave Sephiroth to it, heading back out into the carriage to find someone who can provide clothes for a teenager.

He'd.. only ever been in one library that he could recall, and that was Charlie's. Maybe at some point his research and 'entertainment' wouldn't be quite so closely curated? It's enough to make him pause briefly, shirt in hand, very obviously tempted to ask further questions about that, but he changes his mind.

Priorities.

Although the Professor had long since made things like a lack of clothes to put on after getting clean a subject of embarrassment, he still knows enough of everyone else's social mores to at least wrap himself with a towel.

But when he does finally emerge, smelling a fair bit better, and still damp, he seems a bit disturbed. "Your facilities are damaged. The water kept turning warm."

The shower's still running when Cloud returns, not that he can blame the kid for taking his time under the circumstances. He makes a little pile of the folded clothes he's brought on the edge of the bed - black, because Cloud's literally never seen any Sephiroth wear any other color, but old-fashioned enough to be clearly from some past era by their reckoning.

"What? It's not damaged, it's supposed to be warm."

The question gives Cloud a sinking feeling. If Sephiroth thought something was wrong with the shower, then whatever bathing he was doing back at Shinra HQ must have been perpetually cold. Which there's absolutely no damn reason for - not like R&D didn't have enough money. What the fuck, Hojo?

"...That seems inefficient." It wasn't bad, but there was something alien and decadent about a shower that was anything other than bracingly cold. "Does this train really have so many free resources to spend on heating water for such a mundane purpose?"

Did the one in his small apartment, barely tested for anything but necessary cleaning, also turn warm? He hadn't bothered to find out. On was on, and it was good enough.

At least he's not being dressed in pastels. Black is nice, it hides a lot of dirt, almost all blood, fit in everywhere and matched everything. This would have resulted in Sephiroth fairly immediately finishing off his dry and getting dressed, but Cloud is still there, and Matt had made it very clear that people do not just strip with other people around, outside of locker settings. This. Is not a locker room.

Pants are dug out and he retreats with them. It's a good enough start, the rest would be well within the range of accepted public morality. Shirtless people were inevitably everywhere.

"Most people don't consider hot water a luxury. Maybe a little in the slums, but the issue there was more the quality, not the temperature." Because screw Shinra. "Nobody wants a freezing cold shower all the time. Except you, I guess?"

Cloud's patient as he waits for Sephiroth to go get changed and pokes around on the network, managing not to say something along the lines of being unsurprised that he takes showers as cold as he is.

Don't worry, kid, Cloud would never make anyone endure pastels.

Cloud wouldn't have cared if Sephiroth had just dried off and dressed right there - he's used to locker rooms and barracks and such - but he has no issue with modesty, either, if that's what the kid needs.

Here, without the distraction of the endless crush of other people, the faint sway of moving train is harder to miss, unfamiliar but not in a terrible way. He'd never been on another, if this was what they were all like, aside from the back carriages, maybe.. it wasn't terrible. "I don't know if it's something I 'want'. I didn't know it was an option."

This would require more testing at a later point in time, now was not an ideal time.

"Who am I expected to speak to about gaining a profession?" Cloud would surely know, or he wouldn't have dragged the boy out of the dregs as he did. Libraries or sewing had been suggested, sort of, and he was willing to try either willingly enough, fighting momentarily with a sock. Some of the clothing didn't fit perfectly but not everything was tailored to his exact needs, so it was just fine. "..Additionally, what plans?"

Luffy is not one for plans, normally. He'll listen to them but they're forgotten within five seconds of putting anything into action--it happens when you have the rhythm of chaos and liberation thrumming through every fiber of your being.

So it's probably best for everyone that a distraction was part of this plan, and that there was already a revolution brewing in the depths of the train. Luffy had felt suffocated since this whole journey had started--hating that he somehow ended up somewhere comfortable while others suffered. The plan was quickly secondary to doing something about this whole class situation.

Tensions were already high, but all it took was the wrong move of an elite--the disparagement of those lower on the social hierarchy, maybe a laugh in the face of the desperation and suffering of others or an off handed comment. Whatever it is, it pisses Luffy off and his fist goes flying--right into some 'holier-than-thou' bastard's face. And well something like that was bound to get the attention of guards.

"Let's see what you got." The grin he tosses in the face of retaliation is feral, hungry, boarding on the knife's edge of being dangerous. Fights were something he lived for.

[Caitlyn would prefer to be in the thick of things, but she knows nothing about explosives, or lockpicking, or anything else that might be of use when it comes to breaking into a sealed and locked train carriage. So she does the thing she's spent altogether too much time doing back home: standing guard.

She's not bad at it. Quite the opposite, in fact. She takes the job seriously. And she's observant, perfectly capable of standing still and watching and noticing the details of changing scenery for hours on end, even if her mind does stray elsewhere on occasion. But she does wish she could be more active.]

We should be prepared. In case things take a turn for the worst. [She glances at the sword her newly-assigned partner carries. She'd really prefer to avoid bloodshed.] We should try to think of a cover story.

[Cloud's seen Caitlyn around Etraya before, once or twice, but never spoken to her. Like him, she seems to have experience with working security, which takes some of the uncertainty out of this mission - unequivocally a good thing.

And like her, while he's more than capable of observing and being patient, he would much rather be on the front lines. He's got plenty of skills that could have been useful, too...he's certainly familiar with explosives, among other things...but there are only three Etrayans on security and one of them is Deku, who's an assistant. It would have been hard to justify him standing guard here.

Cloud also thinks it's extremely possible that Deku would abandon the plan halfway through if he thought he could punch a problem hard enough to solve it. So this is probably for the best.

But he's no good at small talk, so beyond an awkward greeting and nod of acknowledgment when they first arrived, he hasn't said much. It's a relief when she speaks up first, and a relief that it's business she wants to discuss. He nods.]

They usually do. [But it's wry, not too serious.]

Hm. Maybe...they came at us with a numbers advantage, we lost a fight, got knocked out for a while?

[Caitlyn isn't especially good at small talk either, though that's never really stopped her from trying. Today, though, they have a very specific job to do, and the awkward smile she'd offered him when they first met is her only real attempt at being social. Figuring out a plan is what's important, and so that's the only thing she focuses on.]

I suppose we'd need to... get knocked about a bit? To make it believable? [She's been kicked in the face. She didn't care for it, as an experience. But will anyone believe that they were knocked out if they look completely unscathed?]

Nothing is Safe, aka The Big Sealed Carriage Break-In

INVESTIGATION AND PLANNING

for Rin

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🔎 Cassandra de Rolo: getting her investigation on

Rin; obtaining a map

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for Sephiroth

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DISTRACTION AND FIGHTING

Distraction team; punch the elite

guards doing guard stuff (for Cloud)

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BREAKING INTO THE CARRIAGE

ESCAPE AND AFTERMATH