voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post April]

A New Platform [Intro Post April]

On the Train

Once again passengers are awoken by the morning announcement.

"Good morning passengers, it is day Sixteen of the month of Kazoo. 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 after lunch. A lunch that may be a bit sparse: between the big eaters and the stress bakers, the stores have been stretched thin the last two weeks.

"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 steam is thin, with blue skies seen above. The sun shines brightly down, warm light pooling on the platform.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing as they walk silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers: Cassie Lang, Glorfindel, Jessie Custer, Olivia, Paddra Nsu-Yeul, S’reee, Thea Queen, Wei Wuxian.

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, open, with a vine-covered wall stretching high either side of the barrier. 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, and seems smaller with eighteen 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.

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 doors close behind them.

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 plenty more tomatoes.

For passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage in various suitcases and bags. There is a suitcase stocked with spare wash kit items, for those who are running low as well as a box labelled Do Not Use Yet that is full of small 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 who are making the most of the sunshine. 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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Poor, dear Murphy. Try as though he might, he's just not going to be able to sneak past Ann. She's on such high alert right now, as soon as the door slides open she's glancing up; though as she looks up, her fingers are still typing away on her phone, clearly trying to send out a text message and failing, but she's at the point in her teenage-hood where she's on this device so much she doesn't even have to look down at it to know that what she's typing is flawless.

You, good sir, are sharing the room with a teenage girl indeed. She stares back up at him, thumbs finally ceasing their tippity tapping against the phone's surface, and for a second she's silent as he begins to go through what she can only assume are now his things.

Oh. Of course. This is probably his room, too, okay. The only problem here is that this is so fucking weird and despite the fact she's spent over a month with three-- four, counting Morgana -- young men on a road trip, they'd forced the boys outside of the tiny RV for sleeping arrangements. She can probably pretend that this is like the time in Hawaii with Ryuji and Ren... except she knew them. She has no idea who this guy is.

Okay. This is. This is fine.

"Uh, hey... there." Awkward? A little. She glances off to the side, at least, to give him his privacy, even as she continues speaking. "...New here too?"

"Oh yeah...." Casually as the day is long, and boy is this shaping up to be a very long day. "What kidnapping number are we on for you? I think this is like, my twelfth."

He kicks off his new train-blessed boots and settles into his bunk so he can finally read some of this brochure crap, lanky legs crossed and all stowed in. In that way that men that had no right to be as tall as they were would fold themselves to get comfortable.

"No apocalypse in your world?" He says as he glances at the phone in her hands.

"Depends on your definition of 'kidnapping'," she responds, relaxing a little bit. She's been 'kidnapped' into the Metaverse a few times, and forced into it at least twice during their Summer vacation shenanigans -- once more before she got dragged onto this stupid train, in fact. "I'm gonna say... mmmaybe... time five on my end."

Okay, this guy isn't that bad. She can deal, and also, he doesn't look like a cop, so, bonus points there. She drops her phone onto her bunk and turns so she can properly face him, crossing her left leg over her right. He is the second ridiculously tall person she's met today, huh.

Apocalypse... right, right. From what she's discovered, they're not all from the same world, so. No need to be too uptight. "Was actually on my way to try and prevent that for a second time... not quite the same apocalypse that you're probably thinking of, though. What about you? My name is Ann, by the way. Ann Takamaki."

He's a good solid 6'4'', but once he meets Siebren or Piccolo he'll feel considerably smaller. The height range on this train has thus far proven ridiculous.

"Oh, you actually managed to stop one already? Good. Because they suck to live through. And worse, every time you rebuild? Something or someone comes along and just spoils the whole thing. It's garbage."

He sneers at the brochure, at least feeling a little more at ease. No immediate judgments anyway. "Have you taken a look at any of this crap yet?" Surprising! He's the one getting to do the hunting? That's great. Finally he gets to be on the end that's not running from people with guns. Though he's very sure that's going to turn around on him.

You know, in her group she's the tallest girl. Now she's suddenly feeling ridiculously short and that's really not fair at all.

"Yeah. We took down a cheating piece of trash God and right after that, and egotistical nutcase who was trying to be God. I thought we were done but... well, we were off to the races again. And then it's like I blinked my eyes and I was here," she responds, drumming her fingers against her knee for a moment. "What sort of apocalypse have you been through? 'Cause I'll bet it has nothing to do with maniacs or Gods if you've had to make attempts to rebuild several times... that does sound like garbage."

Her gaze drifts to the brochure for a second, and she nods. "Yeah, I have... so, I'm gonna like, take a wild guess and assume these hideous little ensembles of ours have to do with the teams we're assigned to. I don't mind helping, but also... isn't it kind of rude to drag us from the shit we were all already trying to do?"

"Gods?"

Murphy has heard all kinds of shit today, but he'll take it! He's heard they're on the train. He's met an alien outside. He met an elf. So gods, he guesses. In his world he's about the closes thing to a 'god' it's seen.

(Which is really very unfortunate because no one should have to deal with bitchy gods.)

"Standard zombie apocalypse. Like the old movies? Yeah, I never liked those. Maybe I should have gone to watch 'em cause I'd really would have been better prepared."

He scoffs a little. "I don't know. I'm getting the impression that some weird person or entity or alien or whatever just started throwing darts at messed up worlds and went, 'Oh that one lived for a while, let's go with them'." He shrugs, open-handed.

"One of them was a legit God, the other was just our school shrink trying to play God. The last thing was a phone app that decided it could use the desires of mankind to turn itself into a false God. So, I'm pretty sure my friends and I have a one way ticket to hell if that's a thing." She shrugs a little bit, because really, how many Gods can a group of teenage vigilantes piss off in their lifetimes at this point??

Zombie apocalypse has her absolutely shuddering, though. "Oh, hell no... that's awful! I mean, I love the movies but like... my friends and I would always talk about what it'd be like and if we could survive. Spoiler: there's no way we'd survive something like that. That's gotta be really rough!" It's not even the zombies. The fact that no electricity anymore? No malls? No retail therapy... ugh.

"I wouldn't be surprised... honestly, I thought that maybe we were all dead and this was some bizarro trip to the afterlife. But I guess we're just... stuck running errands for the multiverse. What horrible timing, though."

There's some on the train! They could try and find out!

"Delusions of grandeur are only fun when people aren't trying to kill you for them. Hard life lesson, folks. Hell of a way for a school shrink to go, though. What even happened there?"

He has to take a moment to cringe about his won apocalypse though. "Right? It was awful. But I was given this serum which has guided me through... many different complexions," he gestures at his own redness, which is really fairly recent. "So zombies don't bother me as much as they do other people. They still make life a pain and we're on our first good chance at successfully rebuilding? But yeah, it is what it is."

Murphy gave up control, power, the moment he had a chance to exist as a normal person in a privileged world again. He knows how good 'easy' feels and how terrible it is to see it go. He knows what it's like to desperately want it back.

He crinkles his nose at her, though. "Makes the fact they have so much food in the stores pretty great."

Edited (sure did type half a word there) 2021-04-01 23:32 (UTC)

NO. No thank you! She's had enough of that, she just wants to go home and finish kicking the shit out of the phone app God so she can be done!

"Yeah, agreed... basically he decided that if we all lived in a false reality, we'd all be happier. We all had everything we wanted, and it was like none of the bad stuff that happened previously ever even existed. But that also sorta... gave away our free will, if that makes sense? So, we had to put him down." Which hadn't been an easy thing to do, but they did, and they prevailed. And then, six months later, this shit happened. Nice.

"A serum... so does that... does it make you like, immune?" She does take note of the redness, and she nods. "But that's good! I'm glad that there's something that's helping now, that's amazing! The movies generally don't show that happening... at least, none of the ones I've seen."

Okay, that. Makes sense, especially from his perspective. "True enough, I mean... at least we have that to look forward to, right? Still, I don't really trust any of this... I guess all we can do is roll with it for now though, huh?"

"It didn't make me immune so much that it made me turn it into something else. I got mauled as soon as they gave the serum to me. And usually I hate reassuring people because it gets so old the screen turns black and white, but since they stuck us all in these rooms I'll go ahead and say I'm not dangerous."

Unless he chooses to be, actively. At the worst he gets 'hangry' if he has a craving. But, as it turns out, the train forsaw that? Which is, you know, creepy and he doesn't want to know where that came from.

"Thanks to that serum and a little research they did figure out a cure, and I got some weird powers." Eventually. It took wading through years of Murphy's bio-cocktail.

"I guess so. I mean, that's what I usually do until Warren shows up." He stares up at the roof over his bunk. "I don't think she can this time." And for all his bitchiness, he sounds actually sad about that. Would she even know he was gone? Would she even care?

"That's terrible... I'm so sorry that happened to you. And... hey, for the record? I wasn't worried that you'd be dangerous, and I definitely don't plan on mauling you or doing anything horrible like that. Not gonna lie though, I'm not used to rooming with guys."

Y'know. Teenage girl shit and all.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to but... did you volunteer to get that serum, or was it something they forced you to do?" She pauses, shifting, considering. "Powers though... powers can be useful, depending on what they are, right?"

Unfortunately for Murphy, he's now mentioned someone named Warren. And it's been established that Warren is a woman. Ann blinks, and then smiles. "Is Warren your girlfriend~?"

Okay, well. This is surprisingly not terrible, for a teenage girl.

"I'm old enough to pick up after myself so you don't have to worry about that. Years of apocalypse make you appreciate a nice quiet rest."

He shakes his head. "I was in jail on mail fraud. And in their eagerness for test subjects for various serums they went through lines and lines and lines of prisoners before they got to us white-collar folks." At least he's dropped the pretense it was at all voluntary and he was being noble. He's still resentful.

The powers thing, though, he doesn't clarify. "Mild telepathy and other stuff. I can't read your mind. You're safe." Which is a willing reassurance, because she was nice enough to bother to say he didn't deserve the shit that happened. Most people don't. Probably because he can be such a bitch. "And Warren? No. She is a babe, though. Ex-military hot. Looks like she could break someone but in the best way, not in that She-hulk way."

Though it is just as likely Murphy would find a man hot.

"Still... just thought you should know."

A brow arches before her eyes widen, hands flying to her cheeks. "Wait... are you serious? That's ridiculous! That must have been horrible, I'm so sorry!" That sounds ridiculously familiar to something that she'd experienced at home. Human experimentation, at least, though the cause wasn't for a cure for a zombie apocalypse by any stretch of the imagination.

"I don't think you'd have a whole lot of fun reading mine anyways. I don't have a whole lot going on upstairs," she responds with a laugh, reaching up to tap a finger against her own noggin. She could be smart if she really wanted to. If she applied herself more. She's not entirely stupid, but, she also knows what she is, too. "Aww, I'll bet you'd make a really cute couple, too. How long have you two known each other?"

"Nah, you've got enough going on to know this situation is stupid. And you helped kill some shitty dollar general brand gods. I think that takes plenty going on upstairs."

And, you know, she's not being a dick to him so that immediately puts her on his good side. Murphy's foul attitude frequently does the opposite. It's the curse of being a 'savior' but being the ass opposite of a 'noble self-sacrificing' type.

"I'm not really all that ashamed of it but don't freak out or anything whenever I have to put on my pajamas or something. I've got bite scars all over me." About Warren? He just shrugs, sort of makes a round and round motion with his hands. "Yeeeaah... the only problem is she's got that traditional brave hero romance view and I'm sort of a... multiple guys and ladies kind of guy. The whole poly thing. But you know what? What we got is fine."

"Thanks! Hey, if the opportunity ever comes up... can you tell that to my high school teachers too? 'Cause I don't think they're uh, believing me when it comes to that." Granted, none of them would believe her even if she did blab about the whole bargain bin Gods bullshit, because no one else other than the Phantom Thieves remember any of that. Well, that, and she'd be tossed into jail for her own 'criminal activity', but, details.

"That must have really hurt... but I'm so glad they didn't have any sort of effect on you. Or... you know. Actually kill you, that's also a huge plus." Being torn apart by zombies does not sound like a fun way to go down. "Oh! I see... well, to each their own, right?" She's definitely on board with poor Warren in that aspect, mostly because of all the ridiculous chick flicks that she watches and the rom coms she drags her friends to. "It's good that you two are so close, though, regardless. Maybe one day she'll board the train, too!"

"Ehhh, teachers are idiots too. As long as you learn how to balance a bank account, figure out a steady income to keep your bills covered, and what cheap brands are as good as real brands?" He counts off all these on his fingers. "You'll make it in the real world. In the post-apocalyptic world? Remember to be quiet on your feet and aim for the head." There's so much shit he learned in school he didn't end up needing, even when the Earth turned as properly as it should have.

"Honestly I was half expecting her to be on that platform ready to save me." Like he's the damsel of the story. Which, basically he's either the damsel in need of saving or the megalomaniac villain in need of a perfect nemesis. He's back to being the flashy damsel, and either way? Warren's always his hero.

Not exactly a romcom, but a gender reversal on the action movie scenario.

"What about you? Any guys or girls that were supposed to be here to save you?"

"Yeah, they sure are... teachers and cops," she responds slowly. How many times has chalk gone flying at her head or hit her in the face, anyways? "I have a problem with balancing a bank account mostly because I enjoy retail therapy too much, but I plan on becoming a model so that... that should be income enough, right? Even with the potential of college..." Okay. This is sounding more and more bleak. "...I only failed one of my finals, that's probably good enough, right?" Ugh... she's so screwed. This isn't home but she should probably find a way to try to study a little bit, at least. "So it IS like the movies! Boom, head shot, huh?"

She can understand that, it's wishful thinking, something she can definitely relate to. "I wish she would have been, but maybe she'll show up later and you can be the one to save her, hm? Though if it helps... just know that I've got your back while we're here, too, okay?"

To the best of her abilities, at least. Everyone on this shit storm train needs a friend or two, and if they're going to be roomies, they at least need to be friends. So far, so good.

"My entire group was with me at home before I got... tossed here. But there's another girl here, Futaba, that ended up here with me. Problem is, we're remembering two very different points in time. When I told her about the whole elevator-to-go-kick-a-false-God's-ass thing, she had no idea what I was talking about." She sighs, leaning back a little bit. "Futaba is a little younger than I am, and a lot more shy. I'm worried about her."

Okay that gets Murphy to set up. "Hell yeah, get a good agent. You could pull it off. Get a tutor and then do college. And that's right-" he makes a little finger gun and clicky- winks. "Just like the movies."

That's going to be hell on a shy girl. This train is a mess of people. Now, it's lucky that Murphy is an extrovert that loves the sound of his own voice. He'll be fine. He's also got emotional armor; no one can do anything to him short of ripping him in half literally that he's not already been through. In fact, if someone did, he'd probably just be pissy about it when he came back.

But a shy girl? Hoo. The wrong dig in a strange place is dangerous.

"Well, that's not great. Is there anything different in what she can do between then and now? Better or worse?" Maybe that has something to do with the train's choices.

"The agency I have right now has already booked me a ton of jobs! I've been in a lot of magazines, but right now it's just sorta been a part time thing. Mostly because of school, ugh. A tutor wouldn't be a bad idea, though... and I guess maybe college..." Probably college, or else she'll never hear the end of it from Makoto. Maybe. "Wow! So do you have to shoot them once in the head, or do you do that double tap thing? Or would that be a total waste of ammo?"

Futaba's doing a lot better than she had six months ago, considering she'd been a total shut in. She's gone on an entire road trip, been through a shit ton of crowds, another beach trip, a ton of weird ass Jails with a bunch of equally weird ass Monarchs, and she's proud of her. Mostly, she's glad that they're here together, because this is a whole lot of strangers and when she'd found her, she'd already started getting overwhelmed. At least now, she's got someone familiar to lean on until she's ready to branch out on her own.

"Not really sure, I think everything is the same on that aspect. She just mentioned that she came here from a completely different point in time, which sounds really weird, but. At this point, I wouldn't put it past this train thing. The last thing she remembers took place days ago. At least, for me."

"Hey, I could help you out with the math thing while you're stuck here. If they're going to send us on these big missions and have a hell of a lot of downtime, you might want to take advantage of all the people on this train that can be free higher education prep."

Plus, honestly, he needs something to do. Technically he can't rot, but he just might if he's left alone long enough. Jesus Christ. Plus she could go home and shake her agent when she knows the full scope of her financials.

"I saw a floating child that made its own food from thin air. So I'm betting it's a train thing... Hey, you noticed that there's like, three names that are the same on the doors? When we go through? I think it might not even be the same girl if you don't remember her gone. Just one just like her."

He gets up and goes to the ICP and boots it up, starts scrolling through the roster. "Look, isn't it crazy? Kyoko Sakura. Kyoko Sakura. Looking exactly alike. Wangji Lan. Wangji Lan. Wangli Lan. Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian."

He hands it to her to take a look at. "Real crazy."

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A New Platform [Intro Post April]

rest in fuckin pieces man

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STRIKERS SPOILERS INSERTED HERE

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