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

[irrationally]

At first it seems that Alice's expression isn't about to change. Not even as he backs out, then walks back in, then speaks up again. She still seems entirely unamused, and kind of wary about the guy even as he proclaims his reason for being here the fact that he's their new roommate.

But then he uses the words 'sleeping platform'. And though it first makes Alice look surprised for a moment, she then looks amused.

But in that kind of way people look amused when they're trying really hard to hold back a laugh. No one is getting one out of her that easily!

"It seems we lost two of our roommates today, so you can pick. I sleep over here. And.."

She points at another bunk.

"That's where the old man sleeps." (Sorry, Siebren.)

[weifinder]

His head turns, and he looks toward the other indicated bunk, grin briefly widening. "Great! Then I'll just..." He walked closer, squinting to figure out which of the two narrow beds stacked over each other looked claimed, tossing his rucksack down on the one that looked less claimed. He might have been wrong anyway, but that was a problem for when the old man, as she says, shows up.

"Sleep on this one, I guess. When you say you lost them, were they ah... one of the people who walked off that platform?"

[irrationally]

She nods.

"It happens every time the train stops at a platform like this." Apparently she doesn't seem to mind explaining this much, at least, since she freely offers up the information rather than getting all difficult about it. "Some people just walk out of the train and through the gates. They don't react even if you try to pull their attention. Like they are completely mindless."

Alice would use the word zombies, but it's not quite as popular of a concept yet where she comes from.

"Sometimes those people disappear from the train for a while first, only to reappear like that and leave. Other times they're people who have been around until that very morning. It's impossible to predict who may walk off the train like that on any given platform stop."

.. Maybe not the most reassuring information ever, huh. But Alice says it all with a calm tone, like it's just commonplace to her now.

[weifinder]

He hadn't considered logistics, but with her bringing up what others have mentioned for different reasons, he nods, sitting down on the lower bunk. "Sounds like these people are moving under some kind of spell or compulsion. Maybe the other half to whatever is used to summon us here in the first place. I saw no one more alert tried leaving the platform. Can they?"

He hedges bets that the answer is no. If this access to the train is controlled by some unknown summoning spell, then it may be the function of a kind of key to a seal. Without it active, they weren't recognised. They couldn't leave.

He sighs, shoulders slumping a carefully comedic degree. "I've been enjoying my own travels, but I rather prefer being the one to set my own course, not rely on others. Is there anyone we can speak with who actually controls anything that's going on? Or are they, whoever they are, all operating from the shadows?"

[irrationally]

Alice just shakes her head in response to his initial question, rather than adding anything to it verbally. She's pretty sure he already understands - or that he can guess, considering he has his own ideas already about what could be compelling people to leave like that in the first place.

No, it's his latter question that grabs her attention more, though she first dismissively waves one hand.

"Oh, sure, you can talk to the train. If you spot any of those machines around," she means the ICP terminals, but being from Victorian England doesn't exactly make you the best at technology, "you can use those to send messages to other people on this train, but also to the train itself. It won't respond to you though, so I doubt it's even listening."

Alice shrugs.

"Perhaps they just put it there for people to uselessly vent or something."

[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.

[irrationally]

For a moment the girl seems to contemplate it. She can't seem too helpful, after all. Alice has an image to uphold!

But she's too curious about something the guy is saying. So after Alice eyes him for a moment: "I'll tell you. As long as you show me this smiling face."

Because it sounds totally ridiculous to her. And she has no idea what he's going on about.

But that's exactly what she wants to know.

She gestures at a small panel in the wall of the cabin, containing a screen.

"You can use that. If you insert the ticket you showed up here with, it should let you send messages." Easier said than done, especially for people who aren't used to technology. But still.

[weifinder]

He pauses, then nods to her, because he doesn't mind, he just... might need the materials. "Does this let you paint directly on it, like with a brush on paper?" He likewise gestures to the panel on the cabin wall. "Otherwise I'll need something to draw on."

[irrationally]

She shakes her head. "I don't think so."

Thankfully it's not a very difficult problem to solve. Alice gestures over to the bag he arrived with.

"But they should have put a notebook in there. Everyone here shows up with one." So it's very much possible to just draw in there instead.

[weifinder]

He shifts to grab the bag's strap, dragging it close and flipping it open to rifle through. He knew his Chenqing was already there, and this time he plans to keep it out; a few of the other staples follow, and it's the book-like thing he retains, along with a strange sort of implement that might, maybe, be fore writing.

"Is this supposed to be the brush?" He asks, holding up a pen from the case of them and the pencils.

[irrationally]

A brush.

That means this guy must be from a time even before hers. Or just a world that never reached even Victorian levels of technology, Alice thinks.

"Well, it sure isn't a fountain pen." Which is what she's used to. Not that she's ever written much herself, but still. "But I suppose it'd have to do for writing equipment in this place, yes."

There's a slight pause on the girl's end, and she leans forward slightly when she realises something.

"Could you use it? It's very different from holding a brush."

[weifinder]

He blinks down at the pen, holding it at a proper angle for a brush, with the proper grip. "One way to see," he says, smiling briefly. He tries to write and...

... the first time, the pen slips out of his hand. He catches it up, holds it more firmly, and with the whole movement of his arm manages to draw a reasonably lightly inked circle within which he draws a curving smile and two small circles for eyes. The line of ink grows stronger as he goes, and then he lifts the pen away, a moment away from pressing just hard enough at just so an angle to tear into the paper itself.

Turning the notebook to his roommate, he smiles. "Here it is!"

[irrationally]

Alice wonders for a few moments if she should be giving him a few more tips on proper pen usage. But she decides to stay quiet once he looks like he's more or less got it - in his own, very unique way, anyway - and instead just silently waits to see the end result of his actions.

.. an end result that is very, very literally what the name would have implied. And yet it seemingly isn't what the girl expected at all, since she first looks at the drawing with wide eyes. Then her gaze moves up, towards his eyes, giving him that same surprised stare.

It lingers for a moment. Maybe two.

But then, slowly, a 'pffft' escapes her. Like a surpressed laugh. But a moment later it's no longer surpressed - instead bright laughter rings out, half-hidden behind a hand which she quickly moves up to cover her mouth. At least it doesn't sound like she's laughing at him. She just seems to find the surprise of the moment funny.

"That is what you wanted to send to the train?"

[weifinder]

He pretends to something like a pout, giving her the least wounded look an adult man can manage when he's helped someone find amusement in something he was (jestingly) serious about. "I did, yes! See, isn't it charming? How can the train not like someone who's this friendly?"

The irony being his utter unawareness of the concept of emojis or anything of that nature. He turns his notebook back his way, looks down at the smiling face, and breathes out in a dramatic sigh.

"Its going to be very difficult to manage if we're not allowed any freedom in how our messages send..."

[irrationally]

"There's not much freedom here as a whole."

Likely not the most positive of messages, but Alice has always prefered just telling the truth over sugarcoating things. And her having laughed at his antics does open her up a little bit more - at least enough to not mind telling her new roommate this much.

"After all, technically we are all merely victims of a big kidnapping scheme. We have no choice over what food appears here any given month, no choice in where we sleep.. Not to mention that the train doesn't seem to care very much for us."

She gestures in the direction of the panel in the wall. "Whenever you send it messages, no matter how emotional or convincing, it just gives you the same standard response it gives everyone else."

[weifinder]

"So we're in a fairly fancy dungeon, allowed off to do what, try and improve other people's situations? Are we sure the first crew went missing, or did they find a way out of this?" He flicks his fingers toward the wall, but sighs at the terminal or whatever it is anyway. If it's a dead end, he can at least play with it as a personal sense of nonsensical relief.

The problem he faces is having no idea how to input on the screen, still, so he stares at it, stares down at what he's drawn, and then looks back to Alice.

"It's still worth being a nuisance. So how do I tell the train everything it wants to ignore?"

[irrationally]

Alice doesn't quite disagree with his sentiment, despite - seemingly - looking a whole lot more calm and casual about this deal. It's hard to still want to throw a fit after having been stuck here for quite some time now, not to mention being used to worse.

So rather than replying to that, she waits until he asks that other question, moving closer to actually help out.

"There's an option here.." She hums, and it takes her a moment to pull it up too. Apparently she's having a bit of difficulty with it too, which Alice explains by adding: "We didn't have anything like this where I'm from either."

Hey, this guy seems kind of amusing, so she may as well admit a few things to him. That's what people do, right? Connecting through sharing things?

After a moment, a text field appears on the screen.

"There. You need to press those letters to write a message using them, and then you press your finger here and it sends it off to the train."