A New Platform [Intro Post February]

[voidtreckermods]

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!

Comments

[guru_clef]

"Agreed. There are infinite possibilities that might open to us then to help those who need us."

[bakegarasu]

"It's not really participating in the question and answer thing right now. There's some magic involved here but that's also not my specialty." His specialty is making things dead, fast. "Senku might be the one to talk to - he's been here a while and he's pretty smart."

[guru_clef]

"Perhaps ask him?" he suggested.

[bakegarasu]

"Yeah." He glances towards the dining car. "I should go. Maybe come find me later? If you don't end up busy... new passengers and all." He pats Soldat firmly on the shoulder and then starts walking towards Yurine.

[nutkrusher]

"We'd generally prefer one that doesn't have one in it already."

[wisdominshadows]

"No," she agrees thoughtfully. "I've never met anyone who meant to come here- though someone must travel these roads between worlds willingly, if the records in the library are to be believed."

Which- well. It seems they are, all things considered. It's really quiet frustrating to believe an entity which kidnapped you mmight have a good cause.

"That is... an interesting question," Given that she's barely plunged the depths of the Triforce of Wisdom, honestly, Zelda's not entirely sure of the complete answer.

"I do have an affinity for light magic, and for healing. I can perceive truth from illusion. I can conjure fire and shields, and travel my homeland by the wind's gales or the notes of music. I can banish a demon to the void between the worlds."

And, at times, she shape Time itself to her will. But it doesn't seem to hold on the train. And besides, one must always hold something about oneself back.

[controlsthedie]

"This is my first time growing something even if poppies are one of my symbols." He lightly presses a finger to the soil at the edges of the pot. (He's too nervous to test the soil closer to where he sowed the seeds in case being Death withers them.) Does it need water? It looks and feels really dry. Maybe some water then?

"I can't speak for Death in your world, but I collect the souls of those who died a peaceful death and see that they reach the Underworld safely."

[bakegarasu]

"Ah. Wouldn't have been you then, even if you were in my world. My father shot him while I was trying to rescue him." He says it casually, though there's an uneven note to his voice. "That debt was settled."

... Hm. "He was a terrible person, besides. So it was justified, anyway." The way that people have responded to him discussing what his childhood was like has at least told him that much.

[thawed_pride]

"It sounds as if it is just as well they don't allow you to participate. Determining someone's honesty is a delicate affair, and you are far too young to have to bear the burden of uncertainty. There are reasons trials generally take weeks, in decently civilized areas. I can only imagine the pressure they must feel, trying to make such a determination from the shadows, with but one opportunity to speak to the suspect."

[yondu]

"You remind me of somebody." he mentions out loud as he points with that stick, finally, though he knows the similarity's only superficial. Maybe, unless this man's got trouble feeling strong enough to handle himself. Or someone did that to him.

At least he's accepted that the creature V has probably doesn't mean anyone harm at this given moment. Ah, to hell with it. Stick is pocketed for now.

"Huh... well I guess some other species got that kinda thing. Wouldn't surprise me that y'all would come by it yourselves. Nah. But this? This is my colorin' raw as the day I was born."

[miseris_socios]

"... I mean... I don't think they - well. I think they feel some pressure, but they can't get documentation to get jobs. They do what they have to in order to survive. They... kind of got fucked over in life." He doesn't like it, either. "These are people who usually have the money to pay someone to look the other way for their crimes. And it's not... all that hard to get into places during the Dark hour if you can pick a lock. Security systems go down, so you can look for evidence and then get out."

[yondu]

Yondu's never considered himself a good-hearted person. It's been so thoroughly drilled into him otherwise that he might not ever think of himself as any fashion of decent. In either case, the idea of getting close to people in any way shoots his walls up again. Like a protective barrier, 'cause he knows either he'll get hurt, or he'll see again how big and empty that pit inside him is.

"Important thing is they're good at what they do. Have most of the missions run pretty smooth yet?"

He veers off in that direction.

[thawed_pride]

"Not personally, there is, as you say, little of interest there. But at least the physics are consistent. Wonderland seems to actively delight in flouting the few natural laws that are otherwise consistent between worlds."

He was almost surprised to find out that the Heartless did appear there as normal.

[thawed_pride]

"My inclination is to think it a property of the Void, although there is merit to the idea that the train may be limiting our movements itself. I have already observed evidence that it can conceal things from my magic...unless its heart is hidden somewhere other than the engine, or it truly does not possess one."

[thawed_pride]

"For me? Atonement for the wrongs I have committed." His eyes drifted down, and he shook his head. "For the others, they fight to protect those precious to them, and their homes. Even if something takes place worlds away, it may still touch upon things you know and hold dear."

[weifinder]

He won't put it beyond anyone to have built in a system of pointless and meaningless complaint handling, given it would certainly cut down on the amount of paperwork anyone in a position of power had to handle if they could simply ignore all complaints. Still, something about it appeals to him, and moreover, it's some kind of message sending system for the rest of them stuck here, which has him already more interested than not.

"Could you show me?" he asks, no sense of shame in asking someone more familiar to offer him guidance if they're so inclined. "How sending messages works to the rest of us, but also how one sends messages to the train that's ignoring all our perfectly reasonable questions that I'm sure are all very politely worded. With smiling faces and everything!"

From a man who has, indeed, signed off on messages left with a smiling face drawn on the paper.

[so_dark_a_road]

"People can always surprise us. We make one set of assumptions based on what we know of them, and then it turns out we didn't know as much as we thought we knew." Thank goodness!

"It's a good thing, to have people to return to. Even though they worry about you in your absence. I see that as a strong reason to hold tight to the hope that you'll go home someday."

[weifinder]

When you're an irresistible franchise loved over the decades...

He comes closer still to look at those teeth, which are impressively large enough he shudders in vague recollection of what dog's and their mouths full of teeth had felt like to him as a child living on the streets. Nothing more than the initial impression. These plants look nothing dog-like in and of themselves.

"Then it's called a Baba?" Wei Wuxian reached out, touching the "head" of the plant in question. It feels surprisingly plantlike underhand, and he's not sure what he expected otherwise. "It's incredible it can be that strong and flexible at the same time, it looks like its stalk would be too thin!"

Not that it was, when he thought about it. The plant's certainly dangerous in and of itself, but a part of him notes that these missions, these ovens, all sorts of things here can be incidentally or otherwise.

He laughs, pulling his hand back again and glancing her way. His sense of curiosity wasn't usually allowed the free reign he'd given it in his younger years these days, but it was still alive and well, regardless. "You brought it on yourself? Has to mean something, if you'd bothered. Either way, it's a living creature, isn't it? I can't be shy around another predator when I've hunted often enough to feed myself and others. Keeping things from reaching a point where they'd become more dangerous seems reasonable." His shoulders lift, not quite a shrug, but close enough.

Want to wrap this one and catch up later?

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin nodded enthusiastically. "I think so, too. And that is what it's all for, the chance to help those who need us."

Sure! TY for the thread!

[guru_clef]

He nodded, agreeing.

Re: Wildcard ; roommate

[thawed_pride]

Normally, Vexen would have been much later in checking on his sleeping arrangements, with so many things to investigate. Today, however, he's...tired. Exhausted, really. So he steps into what is apparently his new room, shoulders slumped and stifling a yawn. He looks over at the voice, then glances at the indicated bed.

"Very well. I have no objection, so long as I can expect at least some modicum of peace and quiet when I am here."

[weifinder]

He may well be managing to fall down some rabbit hole or another, but the one left staring at him after he speaks with eyebrows climbing and a smile spreading across his face is not at all lacking in wonder of his own. "Ah, what kind of a day am I having? So lucky as to run into both a Little Radish and a Big Radish at once!"

He laughs, breaking off the path to head toward Lan Sizhui, by now at least familiar with the fact he's far from the first of people he knows to be here. Sizhui looks much like he'd last seen him, setting out with Wen Ning to work on their clan's cenotaph, but the similarity wasn't a guarantee. More promising, being recognised in part he thinks by voice, but not a guarantee.

"Don't tell me the train summoned Gusu Lan rabbits to help with its missions, too."

[so_dark_a_road]

"As far as we've been able to discover, the train does choose on the basis of skills. But there may be more to the choice than merely the skills. Some of the people I've known on the train don't have any particular skills that they use on missions, and yet they contribute by being there for the rest of us. My mother Nerdanel was here for a while, and she had no fighting skills or magical skills that could obviously be used for mission goals. And yet, she was one of the most loved passengers ever. And that was because she was highly empathetic and a very good listener." He smiled. "Also, she baked cookies for us."

And as for that matter of talking to the train. . . "You can use the communication devices known as ICPS to talk to the train. There's one in every carriage, and there is a feedback and suggestions post that allows this. However, the train will only record and thank you for your feedback. It won't comment on it. Sometimes it will act on the suggestions. The only time it made a post that allowed us to ask questions and get actual answers was months ago. I'm hoping it will do that again, maybe even on a regular basis. And if you have telepathic skills, you might find yourself aware of the train entity's presence at times, though it probably won't talk to you in that fashion."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin smiled. "I think we could do both. And I'm sure we'd have volunteers for both projects." Everybody was good at something.

His face brightened as he remembered the contents of his jacket pocket. "Say, Romeo, I have some chocolate bars. Would you like one?" He fishes one out of his pocket and offers it with a smile.

[so_dark_a_road]

He nods. "You have a point there. If that plant will just keep producing seasilk, then it would be a good choice."

He takes another sip of his own tea. "We could go and take a look at the Greenhouse, after you've had a chance to warm up. It probably is different than whatever you're used to, but it is possible to grow things there. My friend Glorfindel and many others have their own planter boxes and they grow useful fruits, vegetables, and herbs."