voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post February]

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A New Platform [Intro Post February]

On the Train

Three days after the Voidtreckers return to the void after their adventures on the biosphere world, they are awoken by a familiar announcement.

"Good morning passengers, it is day Sixteen of the month of Jelly. Points have been updated on the system."

They have indeed, and everyone can spend the morning shopping. Those who have been on the train for a while will also be expecting the second announcement that comes a few hours later.

"Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." A lurch and a jolt and the windows fill with the fog that means they are at a platform. The fog seems thicker than usual and as they step out onto the platform they will find it is cold, very cold. Icy fog sticks to their clothing, makes it hard to see very far; the atmosphere is dark and gloomy.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing as they walk silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers: Alexis Rhodes, Elfnein, Itsuki Myoudouin, Ken Ichijouji, MT, Neku Sakuraba, Nike Lemercier, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Rainbow Dash, Rei Saotome, Taichi Yagami, Tsubomi Hanasaki, Yuri Tsukikage and Zechs Merquise all pass through the platform, not looking back before they disappear through the barriers and into the fog beyond.

But on the platform itself there are new faces. Wearing hoodies in all four colours, in various states of confusion.

For New Passengers

At first all they can see is steam, billowing around them as they come to their senses. As their eyes adjust, they will see they are on a platform, glass and dark stone rising in sturdy arches around them. Behind them is a set of barriers, and in front of them is a single track extending both ways into thick fog.

They are standing, in clothes that are not their own and a style they might not even recognise. They are carrying a rucksack on their back. For a moment it seems to just be them, alone in the white haze; then the steam begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

The platform is not large with sixteen figures scattered around, all facing the tracks, all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies. To both the left and right, tracks disappear into the mist. Then there is a roaring sound and out of the fog arrives a train. Jet black with gold writing on the side. The Voidtrecker Express. There is a hiss as the doors slide open and out step a strange assortment of people. Some are human, some are less so. Most are wearing the same hoodie in one of the four colours, red, orange, blue and purple, though some are sporting different clothes in a variety of styles.

The Train

After a short time, the doors hiss open again. Those from the train may encourage those on the platform to board. It’s not like there's anywhere else to go and even if there was, you feel a pull. A need to board, a feeling that staying on the platform would lead to something terrible. If that is not enough, there are plenty of people on the platform now, to encourage them onto the train.

Each ICP shows the same message and next to the screens there are stacks of leaflets written by those on the train, with further information (see
'Publications'). The store rooms have been restocked with fresh ingredients, including several crates of avocados, the ingredient of the month of Jelly, as well as all sundries.

For passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage in various suitcases and bags.

New passengers will find their ticket allows them into their cabins. They may need to negotiate for beds, especially if they want a top bunk!

Room is tight but there are storage cubbies at the head of each bed, beds fold up and the bottom bunks double as benches for the small table. There is storage under those benches full of spare blankets and pillows.

Departure

A second horn sounds to encourage any stragglers braving the freezing fog, and the doors slide shut. Veteran passengers know what will happen next, but they may wish to brief their new companions.

The train sets off, the fog obscuring the view again as it picks up speed.

"Welcome aboard, passengers of the Voidtrecker Express." A female-coded artificial sounding voice echoes throughout the train. "Please take the time to read the passenger information displayed on the Information and Communication points and familiarise yourself with the layout and emergency exits."

The train begins to tilt, leaving the ground and rising up into the fog-filled sky.

"Entrance into Voidspace imminent. New passengers are advised to remain seated. Entry into Voidspace in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

A shudder, a jolt, a lurch to the left. A flash of light, colourful and blinding. As quick as it happens it is done. The train seems to steady itself. The fog from the windows is gone now, replaced with a kaleidoscope of ever-changing colours.

Welcome to the Void!

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"By all means," Wei Wuxian drawls, "Stick to experimenting on just yourself in the future." Unsettling as it is hearing that death here is more like a bad night's painful, dreamless rest, as much as that utterly undermines everything he knows to be factually true elsewhere. He supposes a vessel like this, and the present situation of talking with the dead in a manner wholly unlike the kind of sort of more or less usually does, means he can take it as possible—and confirm with others, not trusting any one word to be whole.

Particularly not with Xue Yang's particular enthusiasms, though at the very least, here he doesn't suspect he's lying.

"Just this whole... what battlefield was it that you stood on? How long did it take you to come back, same as this other person? Do you remember anything from it?"

Callous, perhaps, but also genuinely curious, which is the damnable thing really.

Edited 2021-02-08 19:52 (UTC)

She flushes just a bit, because she hadn't really meant to draw attention to herself. But she climbs to her feet anyway and clears her throat.

"Uh...no, I'm okay," she replies. "Sorry, I...I actually just knew someone who used to be on the train who...who knew you."

Frankly, Soldat had never known how exactly Steve wound up in 2014. That just isn't something HYDRA bothered to brief their asset on. So they come to the only conclusion they can based on the word "ice" and their own experience: "They kept you in cryofreeze too?" They sound-- sick. Maybe angry, but mostly sick. Had somene done to Steve all the things they did to them...?

"I.. um.."

It'd be easy to lie. And it's very tempting. Not having to explain anything about dancing, not having to waste even a single word on something that's incredibly flustering to him.

But the more he thinks about it, it doesn't feel fair. Here she is, baring herself by dancing so publically. How could he lie in the face of that and not feel like an awful person?

So while he does step closer, to show he doesn't want to reject her invitation, Inigo smiles a tad sheepishly.

"I actually.. already know how to dance. My mother was a dancer.."

That makes them smile, albeit a little wryly. "Yeah, all of us." Maybe not Yurine, but the rest of them. They give Otoha's wrist a little squeeze, brief but warm. "Sorry about all this. I'm glad you introduced us. Not glad I freaked out about it. That makes things harder for you."

"Hmm... It is something related to your life at home, but I don't know that we have uncovered the exact reasons for why the placement. The Blue Team does seem to have some of the youngest passengers on the train, but age doesn't seem to be the factor."

He nodded his head in agreement. "Yes, Piccolo is the other. We were both selected by the previous leader to assist, but then he left the train."

"Exactly. I don't know what else we need."

Quatre would have to start joining him. Even though platform day almost physically hurt, it was nice to be able to send others off. Even if they hadn't been his friend, they had been someone's.

"It makes sense, removing the thing that caused the problems in the first place. There was no war here, no conflict, nothing to keep us at odds. I hope that when I do get to go home too, I can actually talk to him more."

Well - it's something that can only get better with practice!

[Alfredo nods, then puts on his best, most reassuring smile!]

I won't look at you while you sing, if that helps?

[Little steps...]

That gave him pause. "How is that possible? When you die, you don't generally wake up again." He couldn't say, not in my experience, because he had believed himself to have died and yet did wake up again, with a sense of sixteen years passing and the lingering words of the desperate young man who'd summoned him from wherever he'd actually been.

"That's what we did in my world. The healers were highly knowledgable about plants, from thousands of years' worth of experimentation, and they were good at making elixirs and potions for the purposes of healing. I guess our worlds have that in common."

He smiled. "Nice. What will you do first, with those epson salts? Make a healing bath for someone?"

He pulls his hand back - not offended, just getting to the point of Too Much Touch. “... I don’t know if she’d understand, so I won’t tell her unless directly asked. ... We can talk more about this later if you want. It’s not... I don’t know how to explain it. But I can try.”

Who was to say he'd seen a dog, or had not seen a dog? The problem with the plethora of creatures steadily accumulated on the train was a number of them sharing features that, to eyes inclined toward certain fearful responses no matter how many years stretched between him and the time of hungry feral dogs chasing after his child self.

That is to say, upon seeing some variety of canine or near-canine beast, Wei Wuxian had activated the time-old respected response of any person confronted with their phobia.

He turned tail with a gasping shriek and ran the other way, hitting the car-to-car transitions with nothing but blind panic egging him on. That, and the call he'd gotten too used to, of "Lan Zhan!"

"Kids are like that, they are curious and active, and they are fascinated not only by gadgets but especially by bright lights such as stars."

He smiled at Senku's sigh. He felt the same way. "Maybe the train will send us off on a vacation, and we'll get to relax and celebrate a little. And watch the stars and planets!"

He nodded. "Learning by imitation is a good method. But everybody has their own stories to tell, and their own style of telling them. And their own preferred audiences. Kids do love stories, and they are a delightful audience! Do you have any particular stories you'd tell about being on the train?"

"I think it might be true, or at least, often true, as you say. It's one of those interesting features of the human personality. Same for Elves." And he, too, had a few past experiences that related to opposites attracting that hadn't turned out well in the end. So, he'd understand.

He laughs with her. "Well, let me think. Besides the Soap Bar of Righteousness and Scrubby the Copper, there was WhackYourAss the Broom, DumpWaterOnYourFeet the Pail, SloshYou the Mop, and CanICleanYou the Scrubbing Powder Can. They all took part in the Kitchen Wars."

He was familiar with all different kinds of facilities for the necessary nuisances of being living people; also the more pleasurable kind for bathing. The train had its own sense of logic for both these things, and Wei Wuxian was intent on figuring it out for himself, and far from unwilling to ask about it. Ah, maybe not ask Alice... he didn't want to disrupt her, or you know. Ask a young woman about the facilities.

As it was, in his explorations of the larger yet still quite small room attached to the sleeper carriage he'd been arbitrarily assigned to, he was poking into everything. Turning the knobs on the faucet produced water in hot and cold varieties, proving the sink to be pleasantly useful without all the time needed to heat its waters otherwise. "Where does the water even come from?" he said, asking no one as he turned the knob off, and moved toward the narrow confines of the glass doors leading into another small partition of the room. Was it a room? This was more like an afterthought of space management.

Unlike the sink, however, the shower (if he'd known what to call it) was a mess of different knobs, buttons, and drains along the entirety of the floor, giving him a hint of what was intended, but not understanding of how it was intended to be initiated. With the bathroom door still propped open, and Wei Wuxian having shoved himself into the currently dry shower, his button pressing and knob turning was a moment away from sudden encounter of the very wet, very cold kind.

Curufin would be very pleased if Quatre could join him. And Curufin had the same experience: platform day caused him an almost physical pain, and sometimes he had to sit down against the barrier and clasp his arms around his middle, just to wait for the hurt to diminish enough for him to go and greet new passengers.

He nodded. "We are so far removed from our worlds and all the complexities of living there. The problems seem to be left behind. I hope that you and Zechs will be able to use your experience of being allies here to connect in your own world, once you both have returned."

He looked off into the distance. "We all talk so much about what we will do when, or if, we return to our own worlds. I think that provides us with a stabilizing mood. Quatre, when you return to your home, what will be your first priority?"

"Good point," answered Curufin. "We have first to find out what kind of energy the train needs to receive in order to communicate with us more. I assume it was telling you the truth, as it doesn't seem to lie to us ever. And then we can figure out what might be the sources of that type of energy. I'm really interested now in asking Nita what she knows or has discovered."

"The two of you were really thoughtful, and concerned about your father." Curufin chuckled a little. "Sounds like Yuzu had a natural talent. Good thing for her, and for you. And you, Ichigo, did your natural talents start showing up at a young age?"

He understands reserve. It's very common to wear a mask in order to fulfill a role that is important. Even Curufin does that, sometimes.

"You feel that the summons to the platform is a part of your destiny? Yes, perhaps this is a destined mission, for all of us. But I can tell you something of what it entails. The train takes us to worlds that are in some sort of trouble, and we help the people solve their problems. Sometimes that involves fighting, and sometimes technical skills, and sometimes the ability to solve a mystery, and sometimes other talents. We are divided up into four teams, and each team is identified with a color. You and I are Team Orange. Each team gets a different assignment when we arrive on a mission world. Orange Team normally gets the technical assignments, but often there is more than one purpose behind an assignment, so each team has a mix of skills. Orange Team normally gets the technical assignments, but sometimes we do other things as well. So, whatever your skills are, they'll be needed at some point."

The garden car is peaceful, though right now not completely quiet other than the rustle of the plants - there is the soft sound of a xiao sweetly filling the space.

The man playing the instrument is sitting cross-legged in a meditating position, everything about him... incongruous with the bright orange hoodie.

[Nita nods, managing to smile through more than just her embarrassment this time.]

Well, all right - it's always good to see you, anyway.

It's fine, it was only meant to be a brief grasp, and Soldat absolutely understands when touch is too much. Wrist-hugs were literally the only thing they could manage for a very long time. ... sometimes still are.

"Probably for the best. She might think it makes me more dangerous." Which... she might not necessarily be wrong, in her own case, but they'd still rather not give her that kind of ammunition to use against them. Handlers don't need to know those kinds of weaknesses to exploit, even if she's not their handler. "Later I'll want the whole story. How and why she did those things to you before. It might help me understand."

(Might help us figure out how to wean him away. That, too.)

Nita nods - more of a bow-of-the-head than a nod, but there's no curtseying or the like involved - to the both of them.

"What he said. Plus, I'm a wizard in the service of Life, and I knew some healing, so..."

She shrugs.

"I did some surface repairs, during that discussion about the books."

Just what was willing to be healed, of course.

Xichen blinks, then focuses more on the man, tilting his head to one side. Wuxian...

No. His brother's husband as of mere weeks would not be confused so, and he did not leave on the platform as da ge did the previous one. So... a different one?

"Young master Wei." Inclining his head to confirm the recognition. "The only specific answer I have for you is that it is a platform - an elevated area for people to board and leave the train. Where the platform is, I know not. Definitely not in the Central Plains; probably not even in the same realm as where we used to be.

"This - this specific train. It travels through the void between realms. Everything is very strange, but - it takes us to places where our aid is needed. Aid beyond what can be found there."

Xichen does not smile back, but his expression as he watches her - and plays - is soft. This much joy, it is precious, and it deserves protecting, rather than dragging down.

When the melody winds down, he lowers the flute and then cups his hands at her. "Welcome to the Voidtreck Express." The train is large, but not nearly large enough for Xichen to not have at least glimpsed most people here. It's still a guess.

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A New Platform [Intro Post February]

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Wildcard, garden car

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