voidtreckerexpress | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It's an overwhelming experience," Merwen says, with a sort of helpless laugh. "How could I not share fear and anger in a place like this? I am taken from my home, my lovesharer, my children, to save worlds when I'm still healing from the scars of saving my own world? Of course I am overwhelmed. So should we all, I imagine."

She drops the sweater on the ground, carelessly. The fist-sized insect resting on the rucksack clicks its mandibles several times, watching.

"That's what I understand." Senku agreed with a bit of a nod. It wasn't for him, so much, but then again he had a very strong handle on his own emotions, and didn't find them to be particularly useful, especially things like anger and fear. He avoided them as much as he could.

He isn't bothered if she's going to keep removing clothing, nor does he look particularly interested in it.

"Were you finished saving your world then? That's fortunate. I am very much in the middle of a lot of work at home."

"For now. That time. I'm not certain you can ever said to be finished with it entirely. I dread that it only ebbs and rises like the tides."

Putting it mildly. Just because you've convinced colonisers to leave doesn't mean they'll stay away forever. She rubs her face, suddenly more tired than anything. "You seem very dispassionate about the entire situation."

"I suppose you have a point, then again I can't speak to the state of your world, just my own."

He blinked a moment. "Dispassionate. Yeah, I get that sometimes. I'm not great at expressing myself. I have a lot of knowledge, but outside of that." He waved his hand back and forth. "Just so-so."

"Also I've been here for three and a half months. I've done this platform thing seven times."

"So this is routine for you, by this point."

That's an unpleasant thought. Her newest trauma is just an unremarkable new day for someone else. Merwen fidgets her hands together, making the webbing between her fingers snap a little. "How many are here, do you know?"

"In a way." Senku responded. "It's becoming that way, but hopefully, eventually, we'll be able to break the cycle." That was the kind of thing he was working on. He may not be the best person for comfort, but he was working on the problem instead.

He had to pause a moment and glance around the platform and do the calculations.

"Barring not noticing someone, the population since my arrival hovers between 110 and 125. There's a passenger list on the screens inside." Senku explained. It wasn't necessarily that he knew everyone personally.

Oh, that's... that seems like a lot of people to be caught up in this. It's an overwhelming thought, just like everything else about this situation.

"I have very little choice in this matter, don't I?" Merwen observes. "I am here. Either I hasten my own death or I cooperate." It's a grim pronouncement, but it seems apt, to her, just at the moment.

"Well, personally, the cooperation to some degree, is far more interesting. There are interesting people here, and there's not a ton to do on the train while we're stuck on it, making you anticipate the missions all the more for the chance to get off the thing." He commented with a little snort.

"But you won't die, at least not permanently. The train refers to what brought us here as a tether. That allows us not to be able to actually die. If you die, you'll wake up in luggage awhile later. I haven't done it personally." If only because some people didn't let him try it.

"It's not a bad community."

"Community is a precious thing," Merwen says, pensively.

Okay. She's here, she has little choice, but it's sounding... not as bad as she might have initially thought. "I admit I have been envisioning this as captivity, and I'm not sure it isn't. I am tired, and sometimes I feel older than I am, but I suppose I should judge the situation for what it is, not what I share fear of it."

"I agree with you. I'm from a small, tight-knit community myself." Senku commented, and that was what he was hoping for more on the train. He'd do what he could to make that happen.

"It definitely is a form of captivity. But if you ask someone like the Mentalist, the tactic they're using is plying us with comforts, just enough so that we'll do as they ask, but not give us anything so we'll work to earn what we want to buy. That's psychology stuff that's not really in my wheelhouse. But it's not the kind of captivity where you're going to be locked up somewhere unpleasant or deprived of the people around you, or anything like that. It's a very fancy prison, so to speak."

Senku knew that may not be helpful, but he was blunt and never shied from the truth.

Edited 2021-02-02 18:38 (UTC)

"Money," she says, the word sounding like a foreign term. "They use money. Like Valans."

Which she understands only in theory, not practice. Merwen sighs. "This will take much getting used to," she says. "But I will seek community, where I can." She offers him a smile, if a tired one.

"Ah, not quite. It's a points system. You should have three points." Senku explained. "Then, something, we're not clear on, makes them accumulate and you can order things based on that."

"But your basics will be provided, at any rate." He smiled back a little bit, which if she smiled that wasn't his worst platform interaction then.

"I'll let you get settled, but if you have any questions I'm always around. Nowhere else to be anyway." He waved his hand a bit.

Ugh. As though that's really better.

But Senku isn't the one to complain about that too. There's time for that in the future. Merwen picks up her rucksack again, takes a deep breath. "Thank you for speaking with me. I wish you well, and I'm sure we will share speech again soon."

A New Platform [Intro Post February]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject