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

[10billionpercent]

"Don't worry about it, it's a weird thing to do. I already know that." He waved his hand a little with an amused shrug.

"Perfectly fine. Nothing about my condition has changed at all, really." Senku wasn't in that much of a hurry to put his back on since nothing happened and actually he's really curious about something. He'll wait until Roland has his SCA off.

"Tell me something, I'm curious." Senku will likely sound different. He's speaking English, certainly, all of the words are right but his accent is probably pretty thick at this point with as little as he uses it verbally. "Has what I've been saying to you, sound different now that you don't have it on?"

[adregem]

"Good. I know it makes for boring data, but I'd rather we play it safe, if we can help it." He answers promptly, drifting his gaze back down to his wrist where only one knob remains on the strap before the SCA is inevitably removed from his person. Roland closes his eyes for a brief moment, a breath inhaled deep, before he opens them at Senku's questioning. He hears Senku's voice...and he understands the English even under a thick accent.

Similarly, Roland speaks in a steady English-Aremican accent of his own, crisp and clear as day.

"...A little. But it's a superficial change. I just hear you for your natural tone. You're fluent in my native tongue, aren't you? So I can still understand you fine." He crosses his arms. "And what about me?"

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, by necessity." Senku chuckled lightly. "I was just curious because I wasn't sure if you did speak another language, but I figured you spoke English." Which he did, so he hadn't been wrong. "Which means you usually hear me in English, so I was wondering how different it is." He was smart enough to know he probably had an accent to a native speaker, it only made sense, it was his second language.

"To me, even though I speak English, I always hear you in Japanese. The train's translation defaults to Japanese...Ishigami Village dialect." Senku mused.

For the experience, he switched over to Japanese. "This is how everyone normally sounds to me." He didn't think Roland would understand him. "I also speak Russian, although no one else does that I've noticed."

[adregem]

"Yeah...I do...You're all always speaking Aremican to me." He slows down some as he receives Senku's fluency in other tongues. Some resemblance to the languages he knows of from Roland's version of Earth, but not enough to gather that he quite understands the meaning of any of it.

After his demonstration, Roland's shrugs his shoulders. His own five minutes were almost up, with only a minute and a half to spare. He pats himself down, breathes in deep till cold foggy air fills his lungs...But most of all, he closes his eyes and concentrates on the feeling of, well. Anything. Anything out of the ordinary, anything out of the blue.

He wonders if he will hear voices from the second world, or one in particular. If a headache will come rushing through his temples as it once did the closer he got to him, or the darkness that spews out of him at the proximity. None of these happen, so the timer sets off and before he knows it, his hands are already placing the SCA back along his wrist.

"Nothing." He reports to Senku, with finality. "I didn't feel a thing."

[10billionpercent]

He also was in the process of snapping his SCA back into place. He nodded his agreeement. "Nothing for me either, even though I went over the time. So this platform at least, seems to be a safe zone, for whatever that's worth..." He mused.

"Except for the translation effect." Senku considered. "And it's fascinating, isn't it? It's funny that it defaults to my native tongue, even though I might understand you otherwise. I wonder why."

[adregem]

"The platforms are a safe zone, huh?"

That makes the most sense. He supposes they acted as a barrier against the rest of the void, a place to dock and replenish energy if that's how such machinations work. He tucks his hands under his armpits...until it occurs to him his new outfit came with leather gloves. This, he fishes out of his coat's pockets, wearing them deftly as he speaks.

"I guess it's trying to make us more familiar with each other. It's definitely an easier way to get people to work together when it tears down the language barrier on the get-go." Which makes Roland wonder to himself what everyone else sounds like when the translators are off, but that's not for today's discussion. "Do you want to keep trying this in every platform until you get enough data to conclude we'll be safe here even without our SCA's on?"

[10billionpercent]

"I think that would be wise. We do get many opportunities to try it anyway. I'm not sure one data point is enough to conclude that." Senku responded nodding a little bit.

"It would be more challenging if people didn't speak the same language. The fact that it's heavily weighted in Japanese and English speakers doesn't mean a whole lot if you don't speak one of those languages. Not everyone is multilingual. My goals meant I needed to be. Gen, too, speaks English." He informed Roland, just as information. "Which he learned for his job. But if neither of us needed it, our grasp of the language would be weak at best, if not at all."

[adregem]

"Got it."

The order's been made and Roland will comply henceforth. If something did happen out of the blue, at least they'd be prepared for it.

Though, speaking of being multilingual...and here he presents a rare occasion where he admits he's lacking in the area of diplomacy. Truly, it's only because he never had the time to do this versus not wanting to learn.

Roland turns to Senku again, a hand on his hip.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" He starts off casually, but he looks quite serious about it. Then again, he looks quite serious for most things. "Is that easy to learn? The language you speak. Japanese." Which sounds very much like an Eastern continent language from his version of Earth, incredibly familiar in both tone and inflection. "Do you think that's something I could pick up from you?"

[10billionpercent]

"Sure, shoot." Senku agreed with a bit of a nod, he never minded questions anyway.

He considered the question. "I believe it's relatively considered easy to learn, at least in the spoken form. It's the written form that gets complicated. It's not a romanized alphabet like English is, it's a series of sounds." Senku explained.

"And in the written form, it's in characters. Here." Senku waved his hand and pulled out his journal, and flipped it open. "Pop that off for a second." Since it was so easy to override the translation out there, Roland could get a good look at it.

[adregem]

He does as he's told and removes the SCA again, pocketing it for safekeeping. He peers close to the journal, hand under his chin.

"Wow. I see what you mean. It's similar to something we have at home, but...not quite." But similar enough to be recognizable. "Where do I start learning? By writing down the alphabet and their corresponding sounds?"

[10billionpercent]

"There are three different written forms." Senku explained, quickly switching to English, except for the names, it was easier to show him. "Hiragana." He pointed at a character. "Katakana." He pointed at another. "And Kanji." Those were the most complex of the bunch.

"When we teach people in the village we just stick to hiragana these days." Senku hummed. "Kanji tends to be one or two that make up words, but the hiragana is each individual sound, that's the difference. When we're kids we start with hiragana." He closed the book.

"Oh, the third is for foreign words that are borrowed from other languages. I know for a fact that you can learn another language because I started learning Dutch to mess with Siebren." Senku snickered lightly.

"So maybe what I could do is make you a sheet of hiragana to start, and give you the translation so to speak. If you force it, you can still hear the language you want, you have to be trying to though."

[adregem]

He repeats the words carefully, though he will admit they are foreign to a tongue that isn't used to syllabicated words. Roland powers through though, and listens intently still. Certainly there was truth to the kanji looking intimidating...that was a lot of strokes.

"It'll definitely be a challenge," Roland goes, though he's as invested as he can be to a new goal. They had a lot of downtime on the train in between missions. He enjoys learning when he has that moment to himself. "But I think we'll be able to do it. And I can try speaking in Japanese to you every platform since we'll have our SCA's off as part of the experiment. See how much I've improved." He's setting himself up for a tall order he knows, but Roland is one to function well under pressure anyway. He smiles.

"If you're willing to be a teacher, I'm here as your first student. Or rather, first interdimensional student, heh. What's teacher in Japanese?"

[10billionpercent]

"I think you'll manage fine." Senku agreed. They had so much downtime what was another goal? He was learning things anyway, all the reason to encourage Roland to do the same.

"Sensei, is the word for teacher. It's also one of the titles you would use to show respect. Much like addressing someone as a doctor, for example, you would address them that way. Coincidentally, that is true if they were a doctor. So I would be Senku-sensei. Well, technically, Ishigami-sensei." He chuckled though.

"Calling me that is not required." He waved his hand. "Way too formal, considering."

[adregem]

"Heh. As you wish, Chief. I look forward to learning a new language from you!"

But that's one nickname Roland will stick to, thanks very much. He is after all, a Chief himself.

The experiment completed, and the platform slowly filling out of people as they entered the train, Roland beckons him inside with a nudge of his head.

"Wanna jump back in? Or is there something else you're researching out here?"

[10billionpercent]

Senku offered him an amused little smirk and half shrugged, he could live with that. He wasn't terribly bothered either way really, people called him a wide variety of things on the train after all.

"Nope, I'm done." Senku said, moving towards the door.

"Find me later, I'll start you on what you need to know."