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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"Hey. Come here."

He opens his arms up this time, waiting for Romeo to come in before wrapping them around the younger boy and pulling him in. What did not being her shinki anymore mean? Tidus isn't sure, but in any case-

"You're still her Romeo. Whatever's happened, you're still friends. We can figure out the rest when we can, alright? When we can see her again."

Romeo pressed into him, wrapping his arms around him too and letting mister Tidus hug him, not wanting to let go. Wanting to cling onto something, even if it couldn't be Elfnein.

And Mister Tidus is right, he was still Elfnein's friend, they were still friends and if she went back to the heavens, one day he would see her again.

"We will see her again, when we can go to the heavens and find her again. But... It's hard. Because we don't know... How to get back."

"When things get tough, all you can do is hope, and keeping trying." He keeps his arms around Romeo, speaking reassurances from his own heart, the chill of the fog pinching at his cheeks.

"You don't always see the way ahead, but you don't stop trying. I believe we'll find a way... we have to. And if Elnein's back in heaven, maybe she can help us from there."

Tidus turns his head, but only to the extent of Romeo's hair brushing the side of his face. Voice dipping down privately, intimate.

"But it's okay... if you wanna miss her, I'm here. We'll stay here 'til you're ready."

"Yes." He nodded, tears mingling with the fog that was soaking Tidus' shirt. "She will help us, if she can I just know it."

She would never not help them! She was his friend even if she wasn't his god anymore.

He stays huddled in Tidus' arms, borrowing his strength for a moment, letting him shield him before he had to face a world without Elfnein.

"You're really kind sir. I know... You must still have a sore heart, from when miss Yuna left. So it's nice of you to help me like this."

It's a reminder that doesn't unaffect Tidus, a pang of sorrow at the mention of her name. But his arms squeeze for a second around Romeo more, something affectionate even in that memory.

"I missed her. I missed her a lot, and I guess I still do... but we had to say goodbye before, and...we knew we'd have to do it again. When I think of her now... I treasure everything we had. I miss her, but - I love her more, you know? She's this special part of me that'll never go away. Everyone I met when I knew her, and everyone now - they're the same."

In Spira, on the train; the memories he has of them, the small bundle of emotion that gathers in his chest to recall them.

"Elfnein will be there for you, too." He moves his hand, rubbing at Romeo's back. "It's just gonna hurt, for a while."

Mister Tidus is very brave and very wise. Romeo listens to him as he tells him about missing Yuna but loving her even more. About how she was special and would never leave him, not really.

He nodded, it hurt a lot. "I'll find her again though because she's really special to me and so she won't ever really go away."

And the impossible could happen, he had found Alfredo again, even despite having no memories and being in a whole different place than his old world or even the heavens.

"That's right. You're gonna fight ayakashi one day together, but you can't do that 'til you meet again. And if we need to force this train to let us leave," he says a note higher, more determined, "then that's what we'll do! We have our own stories, and they don't finish with this train!"

They just had to keep hoping and finding some way. Whatever it was, how ever long it took. There had to be something, eventually.

He nodded, buoyed by Tidus determination. His hand turned into a fist and he punched the air. "We will sir, we will leave the train one day and find all our friends who are gone, Elfnein, miss Yuna. Everyone."

Even if it meant finding a way to move between worlds. Romeo didn't know how such a thing would be possible, but he has smart friends.

"We just gotta not give up."

It was good to see Romeo's spirits lift, though they were more steadied between loss and hope, still grieving at the same time. The smile that tugs on Tidus's face is subdued to match, and he'll retract his arms some, give Romeo the room to move, uncrossing them but keeping his hands on Romeo's back.

"It gets hard, but we're not alone, you know? And if you ever feel it, you can come and find me, or Roland - or even Madoka and Alfredo."

He nods. "We can stick together today, long as you want. You wanna stay out here 'til the train calls us in?"

It was hard but he wasn't alone. He had so many friends here. Mister Tidus, mister Roland, Madoka, Alfredo, mister Senku, mister Gen, Ple Two and many more. All people who were friendly and kind and would stick with him, stick with each other.

He looked up at the falling sleet. "Yes... But you don't got to get cold sir..."

"Hah!" Hah! Don't mind as Tidus takes that as a challenge, refusing to acknowledge to plip! of the sleet that finds a home in his hair. He sits down from his kneeled position, shaking out his right hand until in a poof of temporary golden glitter, a fancy blanket appears, dropping in a crumble than anything tidy.

He picks it up, trying to find the corners, sparing just a moment to pat his lap and say to Romeo, "Get on, we'll huddle up," taking the blanket out of enough of a mess to get it over his shoulders and to bring it around Romeo, if he'll join him.

"When's my next chance of getting cold? I'm sick of the train." And he's far from a guy to enjoy the cold, but screw the cold too. He does what he wants. "If this is my fifteen minutes to be outside, I'm being out here with you."

Fresh tears pricked his eyes but these were happy tears, that mister Tidus would stay out here with him even in the damp and cold. He smiled as the blanket was wrapped around him and sat down next to him, cuddling up and drawing the blanket around him.

It felt very strange to be sat on this damp, sleety platform, as people bustle around greeting people. As people react to the fact they have been brought here, to be on the train.

"In your world do people disappear? Like Elfnein just did, when people just go away?" He tilted his head up, he's had this question for a little while. "Because in the heavens people vanished like this all the time, if they were gods their whole temple would just fall down and they'd be gone, like they were never there at all. Shinki vanished too. I don't know if it happened on my first world but I guess it must..."

Yet some people seem surprised, that people would just vanish and leave.

There wasn't a real lot to see in the thick of the fog, but Tidus didn't care, arms wrapping around Romeo with the blanket to keep the two of them as comfortable as he could do right now. The cold pressing to his cheeks, but he ignores it, humming thoughtfully at what Romeo explains. Curiously.

"All that? Huh... nothing like that happened in Spira!" At least, nothing in the way Romeo is asking and explaining. "Where did they go? You know?"

Was there a reason for it? There had to be something, obivously.

"No." He shook his head. "But me, Joss, Elfnein, mister Zetta and miss Hibiki all came to this train so maybe people went to other places."

That would make sense, people disappeared from one world and went to another.

"You think that's it?" That would make sense. Still- "Man, that sucks about their temples. You get snatched and your whole house comes down? Talk about a rough time when you get back. Hope someone's saved all your books from your library!"

From how long ago?

"I hope so too. Though it might get built again... Or she might be in a new one."

He hoped she had lost no books, she would be sad about it.

He looked up. "Or she might not even go there, she might go to her first world." That would be worrying, since it sounded like it wasn't good for her there.

"Her first world? Before she was a god?" Was that possible? Though, the better question might be- "Did she wanna go there?"

Was that part of the plan, as well as going around everywhere taking out ayakashis?

"I don't know... I think she maybe went there before she came here. Like Joss went to his first world... But she never really said."

There's a lot of doesn't know, about his god... former god, about her world. "I think she still had things she was supposed to do there too."

Tidus ponders it, but no matter what, there's nothing they can say for sure to any of their questions. He lets out a noisy huff, squeezing his arms around Romeo and the blanket he's holding around them.

"Well, I think you should start from Heaven. Then you can look from there! If that place is connected to wherever she came from, you can find out which world it is!"

Right? Would a train know where Elfnein used to be? Eh...

He nodded, "That would be the best place to start because I don't know where her world is at all." Honestly he doesn't know where the heavens are either... It's a big task and a scary one. But one he will do his best at.

"You have lots of good ideas, mister Tidus."

"Too bad I don't have better. If I did, I'd find a way to take us off this train, and get us a better one. One where we can find our friends, and get where to we wanna be. We can help people out, and stop dragging people off from their worlds that need saving!"

Wouldn't that be the dream? If they were doing things like that, he'd feel a lot better about this train hopping business.

"Yes." He nodded sadly, "If we could drive the train, that would be better because then we could make sure people wanted to come and help us instead of making them be here!"

That would be much better. "People should get to chose what their jobs are."

"That's the adventure I wanna be on," he agrees. "Let people join up and help them out, let them go home if they want to. Why not! There's plenty of people who don't wanna go back where they were or like saving people. It's just all this...losing people without a choice. Or like we don't have any."

Because they don't, not really. They can 'choose' not to go on missions, and let people suffer? Sure, great choice.

"I'd tell you to tell the train what you think, but..." Well- it 'listened', sure. But it didn't particular have the capacity to care, about what people thought about being kidnapped. "Well, that's up to you. If it makes you feel any better."

"Do you think the train is a bad boss?"

He looked up at Tidus curiously. He hadn't thought about it like that before. He hadn't thought of the train as a person who chose to bring them here or kept them here or made people leave. But it had answered their questions before so maybe it did make those decisions...

"No one should be forced to work and if they want to go home they should get to do that..."

No one had known how people got to or left the heavens either... He frowned, thinking.

There's a small breath of air that leaves his lips, a sound of resignation, of frustration with it. What does he think? What does he care- what's good for Romeo right now, more important than his own feelings?

"I think the train figures it's got a job to do, so it's doing it, and its job comes first. Whether it knows it's okay to take people, or if it really cares... some people are like that too. Train or no train."

Some weird train AI or...whatever you call what runs the train.

"Even if we go out and do good things, you can't forget what's done to do it. People get taken away in the middle of really important things, or they had people relying on them. So even if it seems like we're doing something good bein' here, others get hurt. Lives are in danger. And we don't know if anything happens when our friends get back."

Which might not be the best thing to say, considering why they're sitting out here, but it comes out before Tidus can stop himself.

"There's just a lot we don't know, you know?"

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