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

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin answers, "I wasn't on my home world. And anyway, my world has no contact with the Void, so I wouldn't expect a Void train to show up there. Actually, I've lived in two worlds besides my own. But the Voidtrecker Express didn't show up in the second one, I left that world on my own by disembodying and exiting in spirit form through the Barrier that every world has between itself and the Void. I traveled the Void in spirit form for eight months, steering purely by intuition. And finally I sensed that there was an entity near me that might be able to help me, and so I sent out a call of the soul, that is, a telepathic inquiry. The train responded by picking me up and placing me on the monthly platform. I must have re-embodied myself as it did that. Oh, I'm an Elf of the First Age of Arda. Elves have the capacity to become purely soul, and to reincarnate by re-mainfesting the body. Not all Elves know that, but I do."

He can't blame Vexen for taking notes! Curufin would be doing that himself, if somebody were telling him such a story.

[thawed_pride]

"I see...such things are not unheard of. Hearts and souls are able to cross many barriers that the body cannot, though I am curious about one thing. I possess the ability to move between worlds as well, yet this Void appears impassible to my own means of bypassing the walls between worlds. Did you find crossing it to be any more difficult than passing between the worlds you've lived in?"

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin nods. "That seems a good description, that hearts and souls can cross seemingly impossible boundaries. You have that ability, too? Wonderful. I've never before met anybody else who has done it. But this particular Void is somehow impassible to you? I wonder why? Actually, I didn't find it difficult at all. But truthfully, that was the only time I did it. When I passed from my world to the world we called Arda Marred, I didn't do it on purpose. The God of that world grabbed me out of my original world, and I don't remember the passage at all. And when I left Arda Marred, I left on purpose, but I saw very little of the Void before I was snatched by yet another set of gods and ended up in Hadriel. I don't remember that voyage, either."

He thinks. "The only other time I dipped into the Void on my own was after my death in my own world, which is simply called Arda. The Barrier of that world is called the Wall of Night, and it is known to all Elves that were born on the continent of Aman, where I am from. I died on the other continent, though, Middle-earth. Once I was in spirit form, I went wandering, and I found the Wall of Night and leaped across it to see what the Void was like. It was pretty much the same as the Void anywhere. But I didn't launch off on a journey to another world at that point, I came back over the Wall and stayed in Middle-earth for another couple of hundred years, until I was suddenly transported to Arda Marred. I don't remember that passage either."

[thawed_pride]

"Not via quite the same method, but I've been able to traverse the worlds freely for the past decade. There are a number of methods I'm aware of, with varying limitations, but I've no idea why mine finds the Void such an obstacle. The only explanation I can imagine is that it is somehow fundamentally different from the space between worlds that I'm accustomed to."

He taps the pen against his chin thoughtfully, then doodles a quick sketch of a creature and shows it to Curufin.

"Have you encountered any creatures like these, in your travels?"

The image is not displaying for me, for some reason. Can you PM me a verbal description?

[so_dark_a_road]

"How do you do it? What is your method? And I wonder if the space between worlds is different in different parts of the multiverse? That would certainly explain the difficulty."

Curufin leans over to look at the sketch, with great interest. "Not sure. I've seen a lot of strange things in my travels."

[thawed_pride]

"I move through the darkness present in all worlds, this platform included."

He gestures with one hand, and a pool of dark purple and black mist forms at his feet.

"As you can see, I can conjure an entrance to the corridors of darkness, but they will not connect to other worlds from here."

Thanks!

[so_dark_a_road]

"Darkness is your medium?" He follows Vexen's hand gesture with his eyes, and sees the pool of mist forming at Vexen's feet. "Very interesting! That is a portal of sorts? In your own world, what happens if you generate such an entrance and step through it?"

He considers the sketch again. "Come to think of it, that creature resembles an Orc, in some ways. Orcs were the soldiers of the Dark Lords. They had two arms, two legs, and their hides were darkly furred. They could run on all fours, though they usually walked on their hind legs like humans do. They had large heads, but their eyes looked like cats' eyes. No antennae, though. What's the significance of this creature?"

YW!

[thawed_pride]

"These portals lead into corridors of darkness, which can be used to traverse any distance in moments. Ordinarily, I could exit the corridor in any world I so choose, but I have thus far been unable to set an endpoint in any of the worlds I have targeted.

"The creature on this page is the most common form of Heartless, creatures that are the darkness in people's hearts made manifest. They mindlessly collect hearts to create more of themselves, and are responsible for the destruction of numerous worlds."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Corridors of darkness, eh? Sounds like a very efficient means of transportation. So, you've tried entering a corridor but haven't been able to use it to get to any world you've attempted to navigate to? You've actually tried this while on the train?"

He nods, though the expression on his face is just slightly tinged with alarm. "Heartless are made of the darkness in people's hearts? Good thing we didn't have that sort of creature in my world. Too many hearts there that were filled with darkness, and we didn't need any dire magic that multiplied that darkness." Curufin's heart had been touch by darkness, beginning in childhood and becoming more blatant once he and his relatives had emigrated to Middle-earth. Six hundred years after the exodus, he had figured out how to mitigate that darkness and to choose a new path for himself.

"Was your world destroyed by these creatures, or some world you knew of?"

[thawed_pride]

"On the platform, but yes. I also tried my phone, which was specifically designed to be able to place inter-world calls."

His eyes drift away from Curufin, a distant look in them as he thinks back to the fall of Radiant Garden. How he'd stood idly by, impartially taking notes as the Heartless overran the populous. He takes a shaky breath, and blinks hard as he realizes he's staring off into space.

"Both...my world was not quite fully devoured, but I witnessed firsthand as it was dragged into the darkness and converted into a base of operations for those who viewed the Heartless as their pawns. I also know of multiple worlds that were consumed utterly...so many that a refuge was created on the border of light and darkness to house those few who managed to escape each world's destruction."

[so_dark_a_road]

"I guess the platform would be a good place to try it. There must be unseen paths through the multiverse that intersect at the platforms. Or so I surmise. Your phone didn't work?" For the sake of a joke, Curufin mimes taking a cell phone out of his pocket, swiping at the screen and punching keys, and then raising the device to his ear. He huffs in humorous disappointment, "No damn reception on this platform! Gonna complain to tech support."

Of course the topic of the Heartless is not so funny! And the distant look in Vexen's eyes is affecting.

"That is terrible, that your world was hijacked by those who used the Heartless as their pawns. And equally terrible that other worlds were devoured by the Heartless. But good that someone thought to create a refuge. I wonder if there is any way to combat these creatures and their manipulators?"

[thawed_pride]

He reaches into a pocket for a bulky looking phone and displays the screen.

"You jest, but this phone has contacted people in the space between worlds in the past."

He brandishes the phone briefly, before sliding it back into his pocket.

"My home has, at least, since been liberated, and many devoured worlds restored. There is but a single sort of weapon that can effectively combat the Heartless, but the number of people capable of wielding them has increased dramatically of late."

I could see the phone image. Different image host?

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin looks at the phone with interest. "I joke, but I believe you. I wonder how they make a phone that can connect world to world or inter-world space to world? That must require some complex electronics."

He nods, relieved. "I am glad your home has been freed of those horrible things and their handlers. And it is good to know that a devoured world can be restored! What sort of weapon is that, that can destroy a Heartless? Is it magical or technical, or a combination of both?"

I forgot to remove extra stuff from the Heartless link that can mess it up.

[thawed_pride]

"A combination of magic, electronics, and special materials."

He could go on about the mechanics of the Gummiphone and the special properties of Gummi in general, but then they'd be here all day. Night? What time is it, anyway?

"The Keyblade is, as far as I've been able to determine, magical. It is a weapon supposedly designed after a cosmic artifact, and is extremely effective against creatures associate with the heart or darkness."

That makes sense.

[so_dark_a_road]

"Ah, I thought so. It must take a combination to make that type of communication possible."

He'd be interested to hear about the Gummiphone sometime, but not now if Vexen wasn't into talking about it right now. And it was not always to tell what time of the day or night it was, not on the train and not even on the platform.

"I've heard that word before, Keyblade. Someone I knew on the train or on one of those other worlds must have mentioned it. It sounds as though people from your world are eager to learn to wield it? I can certainly understand why!"

[thawed_pride]

"Yes, it's quite a valuable weapon, with a number of useful applications. Unfortunately, it can be used to cause problems as well, but I do owe my world's restoration to a young Keyblade wielder."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Thank goodness for the Keyblades, then! But what kinds of problems can they cause?"

[thawed_pride]

"In the wrong hands, they can sever hearts from bodies, even doom entire worlds to the abyss of darkness. They are tools of immense power, and strife between their users can create devastation in its wake."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Then let's hope the Keyblades never fall into the wrong hands! Though I suppose that at some point, at least one must have, or you wouldn't have knowledge of what damage they could do."