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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She looks thoughtful at the question, and is silent a moment before she answers it.

"It had not occurred to me that this should be bothersome. It is different, yes, and unexpected - but it appears as if I am here for a positive purpose, and that is not objectionable."

She did adjust the hoodie a little bit.

"The clothing change and the lack of my ship, however, are somewhat...aggravating? Yes, that would be the term. They decrease my mission efficiency."

That would be the term?

It sure is an odd way of talking about having been kidnapped. Then again, Ange has seen people make a whole lot less sense than this, so even though she's curious, she's still rolling with it. Maybe this person just doesn't have very strong emotions about anything.

"Most people think it's bothersome," she points out. And whereas Alice would agree with that to some extent, she knows that she, too, is not quite as worked up about it as certain other people are. "Since they were taken here without being asked as to whether they wanted to be brought here or not."

It's a matter of perspective, really. In the old days, it had been her job to snap necks like they were toothpicks, without any say and without any thought allowed her at all other than satisfaction at achieving her objective. Being taken by a higher power for a greater purpose is vastly different to her. And though she's very calm, she has very strong opinions on such things.

"Oh, I am not most people. The unkind would simply say I wasn't 'people' at all. But one of my key desires is to discover a higher purpose to my existence. This may well be it, which would balance the nature of my arrival."

Edited 2021-02-04 00:23 (UTC)

"Why would certain people say you aren't a person?"

There are a lot of other things Alice could say here. She could question - first and foremost - whether being here really is anyone's primal purpose in the slightest. And maybe what she does end up saying is maybe the much less impolite option, as blunt and direct as it is, but Alice can't help but be curious.

And she figures that if it's something someone doesn't want to talk about, they'll just let her know.

"You seem like a person to me, if that's not too odd of a thing to say."

"Oh, no, I was designed to be - I am what is known as a Human Replica Droid."

She wouldn't usually be so honest, but this is hardly a spaceport on Corellia, is it? She's not viewed as a commodity here. Or a weapon. She can begin as she means to go forward.

And one thing she completely lacks is self-doubt. Once the decision is made, it is made. Barring radical new evidence, it stays made.

"Most of my ilk were designed as mere duplicants, essentially target doubles or infiltrators. I...well I was designed to see how advanced the concept could be become. So while a life form, I am an artificial one. Many people view me as a tool of some variety."

Oh.

Oh.

That's explaining a whole lot. Sure, Alice's experience with anything artificial or robotic tends to be more on the 'they attack, Alice smashes them' scale, but it still gives her enough knowledge to realise what the other must mean when she's saying things like this. She's not human - not truly flesh and blood. And none of the robots she ever saw seemed very emotional either..

Then again, rather than wondering that about the other, Alice could just ask. She's curious enough for it, and hasn't always mastered social norms in this regard, so she just goes right ahead. No matter whether others may perceive it as impolite.

"So do you not feel things the way regular humans do?"

She shrugged, eloquently, shifting a mass of blonde hair with the gesture.

"I do not know. I feel, I have responses, I have desires...but I don't know if they're how organic humans would feel or not. I feel the need to test my limits, and I know that was not programmed, but I don't know if that's feeling as humans would feel it."

"Physically, I can feel all the same things. Though it was not until my self-emancipation that I could truly make those things my own. There can be pain, or pleasure. Though, in fairness, if I feel cold I can just switch those nerve endings off to complete a mission."

Edited 2021-02-06 18:02 (UTC)

"Lucky you," Alice can't help but dryly remark to that last part. Look, it's just the easiest instant answer to give while her brain is still busy trying to process the rest of what's being said here.

And when it's finally done doing that, there is one thing standing out among the rest.

"What was that self-emancipation about though? Did you free yourself from.. your creators..?" Alice sounds a little unsure, since she doesn't fully know how the whole robot thing works yet. She's pretty sure they have creators though. Probably.

"I was purchased from my creator, with command codes installed to insure I obeyed. He, unfortunately, was the most powerful crime lord in the known universe. Once he was dead, however, I had a window in which to make my own decisions. I returned to my creator and had his control codes and the memories of what I did for him removed."

She paused.

"You understand, it was not only that I didn't want to remember specifics - though there were...quite a few I did not wish to remember - but I knew where all the blackmail files and hidden weapons caches and bank accounts were. Without them, nobody could force me to help them put the criminal empire back together."

Memories. Somehow this just had to hit on a sensitive subject, didn't it. Then again, maybe it's only natural they would arrive at a place like this when talking about a different heavy subject like self-emancipation in the first place.

"I can understand that reasoning," she finally slowly says, after having processed the words for a few moments. "But when it comes to a personal level.. Isn't it better to remember the things you've done or experienced, even when they were bad? Even if they're not great to remember, they're still things from your past. They're still things that you have pulled through, that have made you stronger."

Alice can understand feeling reluctant about it though. If droids are capable of feeling reluctant, anyway. She always thought she wanted to forget too - until she realised the cost of said forgetting.

She is quiet for a long moment, a hand going to her chin as her exquisite brow wrinkles in thought.

"Probably," she admits, after a time, "I now have only a fraction of my lived experience to recall. But the existence of that information ensured others would come looking for it, and I would have to act in self-defense if nothing else; besides which..."

Here she paused, shaking her head. "That version of me was very adept at killing. But none of it was...by choice. That entire portion of my life was not of my choosing. I do not want my future clouded by things I wasn't just compelled to do, but as a result of my then-programming found nothing wrong with."

"I want...I want my moral compass, if indeed I can have one, to be of my making. Not a history made for me. Where I was a tool, in every way."

"You seem to know very well what you want for a droid," Alice can't help but recall.

But it's just since it's the easiest thing to fall back on for a moment - a dry remark to fill the air while she thinks, so there isn't some lengthy awkward pause. Because everything the other is saying is for sure something she has to ruminate on for a few moments, rather than having some snappy answer at the ready.

"But that's a good thing, I suppose. It sounds like you've thought about it a lot. And as long as it's a decision you're making all on your own.. Well, then who could criticize you for it?" Not that Alice doesn't know people will still probably try to do so all the same. But still.

They can try. Her certainty is not clouded by self-doubt. About decisions, at any rate. Her precise nature, and big questions - those could keep her up at night, if she slept instead of powering down. Am I alive? Do I have a soul? - those questions bite deeply.

"Events have kept it foremost in my mind," she replies, shrugging. "But that's absolutely the point - it was my decision. The first important one that was entirely mine."

The first decision that was entirely hers. No wonder that it's so important to her. Anyone would remember a decision that important, even if she chose to let go of certain other memories.

"You can make a lot more in this place."

At least that's one upside of this whole train kidnapping thing, Alice thinks. Some people are actually pulled here out of their own crappy circumstances, kept away from the people who could hurt or bother them.

Though then she pauses for a moment, glancing around them before her gaze returns to the other's face. ".. Unless the people who tried to control you are here too. But I doubt it. You might want to check the passenger list to make sure though."

"I haven't seen them, but if they are, they will not remain functional for long. They were very bad people, and cannot be allowed to roam free, harming others."

That much is said with grim determination. She wouldn't let a Xizor inflict themselves on anyone.

"So what are you planning on doing if they show up on the platform?"

It's not judgement, really. Just curiosity. Because Alice has thought about this sort of thing too - especially since there is at least one person she absolutely could never allow to be here on the train together with her.

"Throw them under the train?" (Thanks for the most morbid suggestion possible, Alice.)

She pursed her lips for a moment, looking at the train.

"I am not certain this train has an under that would consume them, given its nature," she replied. "No, I would adopt the simple expedient of snapping their necks. Efficient and with a minimum of pain."

And her look said this was not her first wish, but it also said it might be a necessary one.

"You must understand," she adds, concerned she will appear monstrous, "my former master was a violent manipulator, in every regard - with pheromones to add compulsion, in the mix. In a closed environment, he could do tremendous damage very quickly."

Alice waves a hand, kind of dismissively.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm not the sort of person who's going to throw a fuss about that."

Sure, she may have something against killing innocents, but that person sounds far from innocent. And Alice particularly hates people who try to control other people's minds, so she definitely wouldn't shed a single tear.

"I just wanted to warn you that it's rather impractical in a place like this. Even if you kill someone, they show up again. Death is meaningless here." Like that's the main argument against killing a person, rather than the killing itself..

Practical being that she is, she nods, slowly.

"I take it merely inflicting paralysis would similarly only be, at best, a temporary measure?"

"Oh." That's probably the calmest oh anyone has ever uttered at the thought of someone causing another person paralysis of all things, huh.

But Alice contemplates the suggestion as calmly as if someone would have asked her which kind of tea she prefers.

"Perhaps that would be less temporary? Unless someone heals them, of course. There are people with magical healing powers on this train." She's not sure how strange that idea may be to the other. Then again, if she's a droid, she probably should expect some strange things to be true.

"I hadn't considered such abilities - but I had to consider the idea that such a powerful device as this train might have advanced medical facilities."

"We have - or had, in my universe - beings with strange powers, among them the ability to heal. I suppose I could not rule things out that way."

Alice nods.

"You will see many more of those beings here. Although there certainly are people who don't have any special powers aboard this train, I'm fairly sure the majority of people does possess at least one power others would deem 'strange'."

Look, she may be one of said strange power people herself, but Alice grew up in a normal enough world that she's pretty sure what kind of powers would be considered strange by normal standards.

"So it would be fair to assume most people you end up speaking to here can do something out of the ordinary."

"A logical assumption," she agreed, "and better to presume it to be possible than otherwise."

"In my universe, I have seen what I believe you would term extra-sensory perception, telekinesis, and have heard of far more besides. In the form of...well, warrior-monks, I suppose would be an adequate translation for the moment."

Warrior-monks. It's certainly not a combination Alice has heard of before, but it's also far from the strangest things she's ever heard either. So the girl just takes in the information with a nod, like it's just normal. Natural.

"I see. Have you ever heard of something like this, then?"

And Alice wastes no time in starting the demonstration. Not that there's much to said demonstration. It's just the girl standing there, her hand held out, and a moment later there's a rather ornate-looking and pretty big knife in said hand. And with the way her hand is angled, it looks impossible for her to have pulled it out of the sleeve of her hoodie - as if it just appeared in her hand out of the blue.

She watches with intense curiosity, shifting her position to see it from a few different angles.

"No, that is entirely new to my knowledge. It is fascinating. Is there a finite amount you can do? I mean, surely it must drain at you, somewhat?"

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irrationally - 2021-02-21 18:07 (UTC) - Expand

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marvelous_murderbot - 2021-02-22 00:34 (UTC) - Expand

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A New Platform [Intro Post February]

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