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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Senku has every right to be upset about it. Dire is definitely what Dennis would call it too.

"If that was happening back home for me I'd be proper pissed too. Nothing selfish 'bout it." Not at all. Selfish is this train thing stealing them away from their homes and using them to save other worlds without any consideration of what they already were dealing with. It's bullshit.

There weren't better equipped people to handle this over seemingly random assholes kidnapped into a space train against their will?

"Unfortunately, being angry about it gets me nowhere." Senku commented with a bit of a sigh.

"So I put my energy into attempting to find a way to leave. There's value in making this trip consensual. Some people don't have places to go back to." He frowned.

"Bad luck on the train's part that I do have somewhere to be."

Dennis knows he's right, but sometimes it feels good to just be angry.

"... people can't stay in the worlds the train stops at if they want to?" Or is there some stupid rules against it?

"S'real good of you to try and figure that out. Dunno how I'd be able to help myself, ain't any sorta genius, but I'd like to too."

Senku was a bit strange in that if he didn't see the point in that, he didn't do it. He had a very strong degree of self-control.

"I can't recall if it's been tried on the worlds we visit. I has been tried on the platform. You die and end up in the luggage." Senku said bluntly.

"It's entirely self-serving, really." The fact other people could benefit from his research was just a perk. He'd do it anyway. "However, there are various ways to help at different times, including just watching my back for a few minutes at given moments. The longest experiment I've run is with the SCAs on our wrists." Senku said, holding his up.

"The last world, removing them led to mind control that was not overturned by putting it back on, not for a couple of days." He frowned. "Not particularly my finest moment, but it's another data point."

"What-" Did Senku say the train straight up kills you if you stay on the platform? That's something glossed over real quick, you die and come back in luggage? How-?

Dennis looks a little dumbfounded, but closes his mouth listening to Senku as he explains more.

"Fuck, you don't go half way do ya?" That's crazy, but it seems like everything Senku does is to learn something. He doesn't think he could ever go that hard wanting to acquire knowledge, but if it's for the better of others he can't knock it.

"If it ever comes to it, I'll do what I can." As best as he can.

Sometimes, Senku tended to miss social cues, but he caught that Dennis had interrupted himself.

"That's correct. Not getting on the train results in death." Senku responded. "And because of the tether, according to the train, you don't actually die, so you are returned to a piece of luggage. I have not tested this myself, because when I wanted to, I got yelled at until I gave up on that experiment."

The sad thing was, it wouldn't even be the first time.

"And I don't." He smiled. "Within reason. I'm not fond of allowing anyone to get hurt unnecessarily." But if it was him, that was probably okay. "But with the danger of the risks escalating, that's not a test I would ask you to perform." He meant for that to be soothing. "As it is, Gen is volunteering in my place." He sighed.

Senku is doing great considering! Though the way he explains the death, but not death(?), stuff makes even less sense. Not by any fault of Senku.

"Uhhh yeah, don't blame whoever didn't want you testing that one thing out." Dying is still dying, though it's weird to even consider death at all right now.

"No offense, but think that's where I'd draw the line with helping." Dying.

"What? No, no. I don't want you to die. I don't want anyone to die. We have a very strict no killing philosophy in the Kingdom of Science." Senku said quickly, he really didn't want anyone to get hurt.

"Some people have though, so we know it does function and the train told me it was the tether that allows for it. How to sever that...I don't know yet." He pressed his lips together.

Dennis actually looks amusingly apologetic.

"Joking, just taking a bit of the piss out of ya, promise." He figured from the way Senku was talking he didn't intend for him or anyone to die, still good to hear him say it though.

"But why would you wanna figure out how to sever the tether thing? If people can come back cause of it? Sounds like that's better for us." Dying is typically a permanent thing, bud. He'd know. He's dealt with it enough in his short life.

"Ah." Senku chuckled lightly at himself and shrugged helplessly. "I don't always catch stuff like that unless it's particularly obvious." It's an apology of sorts. He had friends though, he'd been lightheartedly teased before.

"That is better while we're here, but a theory I have is that if we can sever the tether, then maybe we can make the choice to leave." Senku looked as though he was contemplating it though. He wasn't particularly looking to rush into death again anytime soon.

"Tether aside, I'd rather avoid death if we can help it. We have measures in place and people with magical skills to help avoid that. Some people like me deal in Western or Eastern medicine." He did both. "So really, it's safe enough and modern enough that we should be able to treat just about anything. I do rather like having the modern equipment at my fingertips again." Not that he's had much opportunity to use it, but that isn't a bad thing.

"S'good." He waves the explanation away. He doesn't need an apology for it, Senku hadn't been rude or mean so no harm done.

"Huh... guess that could make sense. It's as good a lead as any, from what you've told me." In a way there's some logic in that. If it tethers them to the train then he could see that being true.

"Sounds like you guys got everything figured out if bad shit happens. Crazy thinking there's really magic here. Only ever been something you see in movies, read in books, y'know?"

Senku nodded. He truly believed he was on the right track, even if he didn't have conclusive results yet. He was a patient man.

"Isn't it though?" He smiled.

"Do you know, I was able to purchase a book that allows me to convert high level mathematics into magic?" Senku asked, holding out his palm. After a moment, there was a cool blue light emitting from it.

"Cool, huh?" He couldn't resist. "This is a healing spell. I might as well use it to learn something useful."

It's a good thing he's finished his tea, otherwise he was likely to spill it when Senku just nonchalantly whips out a little magic. There's a surprised exclamation of sorts as he leans in just a wee bit. He's seeing this. That's real.

"You can just bloody turn maths into magic?" How-?

"You just two plus two and some magic chanting in your head or what?"

"It's a book I bought." Senku chuckled lightly at the reaction because honestly if he were more the kind of person who got surprised so visibly, he might've done that the first time he saw magic too.

"It's not quite so simplistic as that." Once again, Senku was going to overexplain something, which was entirely his nature.

"It's an intricate system that involves a certain level of mindfulness to open pathways so to speak, which is somewhat how one builds power, and because it's all logic based, spell creation involves a series of different formulae. So the properties of my spell specifically include things like being cool to the touch, numbing the pain through healing, wound closing, energy revitalization...just to name a few things. So when crafting the spell, I built a formula with all of the elements I want included, and then I plug the values in, so if I only need enough power to say, show you what I'm doing or healing a small wound or something, I don't go throwing all of my energy into it."

He considered his thoughts for a moment. "However it hasn't been easy at all, it improves with practice, but I think I'm as close as I'm going to get to completing this spell, as I now have enough energy to at least do one critical patient. I just have to keep building this energy. Practice seems to help." Senku admitted.

"I do wonder if you can do it without the calculations as a conduit, but I imagine it's like any other magic, I'm not sure for many people it's innate, they still might need some kind of focus..." He looked like he was thinking about something again, as though he might be considering overhauling a magic system not of his own creation.

Edited 2021-04-30 01:32 (UTC)

Bless Senku he really does go right into it explaining how it all works, but Dennis probably looks like he's blued screened. He's listening, but Senku may as well be speaking Greek.

"Yeah practice makes sense-" He mutters, nodding, trying to follow along.

"Still crazy you can do that much." And look if anyone could do that sort of thing, making a magic system, Senku is no doubt that person.

"So uh, like an item or something?" For focusing. He's trying.

That, this time, Senku does not notice. Really, all Dennis needed to do was be like his fiance and tell him 'thank you for the information I wasn't asking for'.

"It is." Senku can agree on that, even if he's mildly amused. "It's completely different from science and it's fascinating.

He nodded. "You know, in fiction how witches have things like a wand or some such nonsense? I wonder if that's what the math is doing here. Just making you think about what you want to do in a specific way so that you accomplish your goals."

It's okay, honest! It is interesting even if he's not 100% understanding it all.

"Oh yeah, yeah wands or magic orbs and the like. If it's maths for this magic I'm proper fucked. Was always rubbish at it." Not seeing being a mage or wizard in his future any time soon.

"A lot of people are. Calculations like that come naturally to me, I can do high level mathematics in my head." Senku said, as though that was a totally normal thing to do.

"Gen, who's learning with me, is not as skilled as I am in the math department, but he knows enough to keep up with it. I don't have to help him too much."

He smiled. "There's a small benefit to being stuck on a train, there's a lot of time to find ways to improve anything you set your mind to doing."

Other people just hung around and watched movies but that wasn't his style.

"Sounds like Gen's gonna be a pro sooner than later if he's got you around." And Senku's not wrong. If you put your mind to it, many things can be in reach.

"Guess we'll see how long I'll be around, but won't just sit on my arse the whole time." There will be ass sitting, but if things are really like how he's been told, he's got some work to do.

"Gotta pull my weight, yanno?"

Senku chuckled lightly. "He might be. He's keeping up so far. We're learning different spells so it's not quite like I'm holding his hand or anything." They were both just determined people.

"The only thing you have to do to pull your weight around the train is chores." Senku commented. "Technically the rest of the time is free time. I hate that so I spend my time working on various projects, minding the medical car or things of that nature."

Sounds like Senku had a lot riding on him back home. Sitting still probably felt like he wasn't doing enough to help. Or he'd always been a busy mind.

"Chores ain't bad. So uh people just put in for what they wanna do or are we expected to do certain things?" Pitching in for chores was fine as far as he was concerned. He was used to that sorta thing anyway. At the fire station everyone had to do their part to keep it clean and put together, they all worked and lived there after all.

Same idea for the train.

Senku had actually always been like that. With his intellect and the speed at which his mind worked, it manifested in strange ways sometimes, and one of those was the fact he couldn't sit still and be idle without something to keep his focus if he wanted to.

"They're assigned by the colour of your team. So purple this month is kitchens and bathrooms." Senku explained. "I'm on cooking, which actually is the first time since I got here. I'm not sure how it gets decided." He hummed. "It does change every month though. How you sort things out with your roommates is up to you, beyond that. I keep almost everything in my arms band so my things being around isn't an issue."

He considered that for a moment though. "I'm a bit concerned something will be borrowed and not returned. It's been a bit of an adjustment in that way."

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A New Platform [Intro Post April]

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