voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post February]

Entry tags:

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

There is a pause.

A worrying one, perhaps- it's too long. Too loaded- Emporio's answer carries absolutely none of the weight that comes from it. "I..."

"...No. There isn't," is his vague answer. "A lot of the people here are careful about keeping the others safe thougb- no one has to leave the train on a mission if they don't want to either. So don't worry!"

Yondu's been there. Having your parents sell you sorta wrecks the whole perspective on family. Hell, only five minutes ago did he eat his pride and call himself a dad for the first time.

Kid looks like he's tryin' his best with what he got left.

"It still ain't armor. Playin' meat shield ain't good enough. You need some double thick fabric at least, not whatever this is." He tugs at his own hoodie. But he just sighs out his nose, looks around at these kids on the platform, wonders how many of them don't have anyone either.

Goddamn, this is some shit. And he's no good at this! "So we go on missions. Guess we got barracks or somethin'?" He coaxes him to keep explaining 'cause it's better than the boy getting all hung up on something he can't help.

.... "You've never seen a hoodie?" Even he saw one before and he's from Florida... "Ah- Sometimes we get things to offset that though! ...normally on-site but..." Aha. "...Well, I think I have a few ideas that Weather can help with at least," he determines, leaving it at that.

Onto the matter of this train! "I can show you? I don't know if I'd call it barracks, but every one shares a cabin with up to three others. The rest of the train though..." He looks along the great line that fades into the distance. "....well, there's a garden car...a games car...the kitchen, dining, medical ones... ...it's...definitely not a normal train. Or ship, probably."

"Nah, I ain't..."

Suddenly it dawns on him. He doesn't see any other Centaurians around. Mostly Terrans and whatnot.

"I'm a Centaurian. I don't know much about Terran clothes. I also just came from havin' a uniform."

Hoodie won't do him too much good. His fin is too high to wear it. But he gestures for Emporio to go ahead. Go on. He'll follow.

Suffice to say, Emporio has no idea what a Centaurian is. Actually, he doesn't know about Terrans either- he squints for a moment, pondering the information as he walks. "Terran... ...As in 'Terra'? Like 'Earth'?" he tries, blinking. "...Oh! That's why you commented on the train- when you said a ship, you meant a space ship..!" Well!

That's freaking cool, actually! "Neat..! ...I mean, there's definitely others who aren't 'Terran' on the train, but I think this is the first time I've met someone who travelled through space, if that makes sense..." He's pretty happy about it in any case.

The train, when they get on, is...well. Modeled like a normal, earth train ultimately. There's screens mounted at each end, and the carriage Emporio's entering into is a standard, seated one, but that aside. "Okay...that direction is where the 'Quiet' carriage, and the food storage, kitchen...that sort of stuff is," Emporio explains from the spot. "...But the rest of this train is this way. And..." Aha. "....the sleeping carriages are...at the other end entirely, so we have a ways to walk..."

It's such a long walk to breakfast, every day,

Okay, well, it's sort of nice having someone impressed by that little thing. "Spent more time in space than on my homeworld," he says honestly. But listens to the directions around the ship.

That does seem like an odd layout.

"There a reason they picked a train for this or did they just like the idea of it' 'Cause that does seem like a kinda strange choice to make."

Or did someone take something that already existed and repurposed it? Oh hell he can't even fathom it. What the hell ever, he's just gonna try to stop thinking about it 'cause every time he does he starts hurting right under his fin.

"Woah..."

That is definitely awe.

Now, the train. "I'm not actually sure- and we can't really ask anyone who would know either... ...it might be something we have to keep in mind to ask some other day," he determines in the end- maybe they'll find another refugee from that planet, who knows. Chances are slim, but hey.

Let the walk begin. For the most part, the train carriages have a similar format; a hall at the one side, and the carriage's room itself on the other. First one up- the Gym. Next- medical. There's stairs near the exit door into the next carriage as they go, notably- "Most of the carriages are about the same size...it makes things a little weird? Like, the gym is pretty long, but it's not really wide either. And then a lot of them have a second floor too..." Medical's pretty far from the other end though...

As he walks through, occasionally the fin on top of his head strobes with faint light. He's getting feel for all the rooms, just in case, figuring out their layout.

"I do feel like a different vehicle mighta worked better to house a whole crew but I reckon if they need the track, maybe they couldn't help it."

That's his only guess because holy hell is this layout shit.

"I don't think there's tracks in the void...but there do seem to be platforms wherever we stop? ...But so far the planets we've stopped at aren't aware of the 'void' either so I don't know why..." Considering at least two shouldn't have had trains at all, the mystery continues.

Ah, but the next carriage. The one after medical is the garden- a greenhouse really, an arched transparent chamber filled with...rocks? It's a rock garden it seems, with drawings of ants along the ground.

Cute. But also kinda relaxing!

"See what I mean about weird though? I'm pretty sure this isn't a normal train car..."

Ant shapes, like crab shapes, are prone to evolving. So while he doesn't recognize the specific origin point he can at least recognize 'trail of semi-familiar critter'. He looks down at that, and then at everything else in the greenhouse.

"I only ever been on troop transport trains so I'll have to take your word for it.

"I just looked at pictures," Emporio admits as they move on.

The train is, in a word, long. The garden is followed by the greenhouse- similar to the garden car, but with. Well, plants. From there is Cinema... ...which involves going through it more properly.

"To get to the next carriage, we have to go to the top of the seats and then take stairs," Emporio explains when they get to that one. "...It's kind of a pain, especially when someone's watching something..."

"My ship was pretty big, so we had some long walks. But this is claustrophobic as hell."

And god, a walk up like that is gonna be a slog. But he follows along, taking in the layout, eyeing the big screen. At least the set-up is understandable enough, and Earth isn't the only planet with something like a movie theater.

It's not super interesting to him, but who knows. He might get bored. From the sound of it, the likelihood of that is actually pretty damn high.

They did pass through that games car earlier...

"Mnh, it's pretty narrow..." Especially now that they're going through carriages that consist of hallways alongside their room's purpose again. The training gym, the music carriage, then the library... "It's sort of cozy, I think? But knowing that we stop for trips every month has helped."

"At least that's somethin'." But being on here the rest of the month? He suspects he'll either eventually lose his mind feeling contained or... he doesn't know.

He might actually not even care. He finds that at that moment he's plumb out of shits to give. Not a single iota. Not despair, not more than a big of satisfaction that Ego is dead and Peter is alive and some fatigue.

He rubs his eye with the heel of his hand. "I guess if I wanna bitch about it bein' too damn small and too big I'll be right either way." He chuckles dryly to himself. "Y'all been keepin' it clean. Better than my boys would have. Even the ones that were actually good at that kinda thing."

"Haha- each of the teams gets assigned something else to clean with each month; even if someone doesn't help, there's still a lot of people pulling it off...same for cooking," he added, beaming. "When there's so many people helping, things like that become pretty easy- especially when what we need to do it is right there."

It probably helps that the train would likely become intolerable if they left it a mess too long- these cramped spaces would be the Worst...

He silently figures that the train at least picks some people that'll clean up after themselves and others. It's not something he wants to say out loud 'cause he's probably shat up this kid's day enough by bringing even more 'manipulative labor' vibes out into the open. But the thought is there.

"Good 'cause no one wants my cookin'. Someone else is gonna have to handle that."

"It's that bad..? The train has recipes and stocked food every month, so it's not always hard to follow..."

Tact?? What's that??

By this point they're pretty close to the sleepers at least though. "This is...the last carriage before all of the sleeper ones- it's called the 'spa' carriage, but mostly, people use it for the bath. The sleepers all have showers, but I guess there's a certain appeal to it?"

He doesn't get it, mostly because it's his first time having the chance anyway.

Edited 2021-02-07 14:14 (UTC)

"I got a carnivore focussed diet. I figure the train'd find it too expensive for me to try to eat any of the passengers, wouldn't it? So I'll just make do off other people's cookin'"

He finally, finally cracks a smile 'cause for some reason this prick finds it hilarious when people might assume he might eat somebody.

But the smile drifts when they're in they're in the spa cab, and it just feels muggy to him. "It's just a way of bein' social and relaxed more than it's bein' clean, I guess. I never got it either, but you got as many scars as me an' you get eyed up in a place like this." Which is less him 'feeling bad about his body' because they've been on his face since he was a kid. He's can't really not show them off. It's because it's worth avoiding the guy that looks pretty damn dangerous.

Edited 2021-02-07 22:22 (UTC)

"I don't think a few people would want you to eat the passengers..."

Apparently, joking about that sort of thing is just par for the course where Emporio's from. Granted, he looks a little nervous...but, he's also been talking to this person for a little while now.

And while he's not always the best judge, he's pretty sure Yondu is a number of notches above most of the inmates of Green Dolphin. "Hmnn...I guess that makes sense... ...Do you have a lot of scars?" Other than the face ones, since. Well, he can See those.

"Probably the ones that'd taste the best." And then he chuckles meanly. Can't help it.

"Oh yeah, got a lot of 'em. They're only a pain in the ass when you're wantin' to do respectable business and then you see someone doin' that thing? Where they lean back a little? You can tell they're kind of lookin' down at you? Heaven forbid you don't sound too proper either, got you labeled as a double threat there... Ain't sayin' they're always wrong, but sometimes people make commerce and leisure a li'l' bit of a pain in the ass if they decide you're not deservin'."

One might wonder what kind of humor Emporio's grown up around if he actually stiffles a snort at that, hiding a grin behind his hand. Might. Might.

But anyway. "Yeah...people like to make judgements about stuff like that, I guess..." It always seemed a little weird- but then again, the only people he's really known are kinda...

...

Oddballs. "I haven't seen anywhere that we've had to deal with that much so far, but I'm sort of worried- the way that people talked about it at home, it sounded like something that would be common with any place that has cities, or towns..." Maybe they only avoided it in that one place because they were there a few hours as 'adventurers'? Hm.

"...Though, I can't really say more than that about it, since I'm not used to seeing people much at all..."

See? It's funny. This kid gets it. Quill just didn't have a sense of humor.

"I'm still not the type to socialize half-naked nohow." Not unless he's paying someone and it's all naked.

"I'd almost consider you lucky. Spend most of your life in close quarters with a bunch of strong-minded assholes and you start wonderin' what real peace and quiet might look like."

One of these days, someone who has had a normal childhood will overhear these sorts of conversations, but today is far from that day.

As it is Emporio just nods a bit, pondering the matter over. "...I guess..? It didn't keep me from listening to them...I just wasn't interacting with anyone, I guess..."

Jail is loud.

As it is- they're hitting the sleeping carriages now. "Oh- we're at where the cabins are...there's 7 of these carriages, but you should check your ticket so that we don't pass the cabin that you're supposed to be in. There's other carriages after the sleeper ones, but..." Hmm. Well, they're in sleeper 7 right now....maybe Yondu will be closer to the back?

"...Well, it's just the Dressing carriage, Triage, and Luggage. ...There's some breakfast stuff in Luggage though, since it's closer than going to the kitchen in the morning," he laughs weakly. Extremely close, if you're in sleeper 1...

"I'm up in 1:B apparently, bare-ass close to the front." What a description. He does the thing where you flip the ticket to look at both sides in case there's any important info he's missed? Nothin'? Great.

"Alright, I wager I can find it from here." He pats Emporio's shoulder heavily. He's really got to get into his bag and see if his arrow's intact or if there are any components missing.

"1:B-" AH

"It's the farthest carriage in the back..." Oh no. "Actually, it's right beside mine... ...but it's pretty straight forward, like you said. I guess I'll probably see you a lot though," he adds with a nod.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject