voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post May]

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A New Platform [Intro Post May]

On the Train

Like clockwork, the Voidtreckers are awoken by a familiar message this morning.

"Good morning Voidtreckers, it is day one of the month of Llama. Points have been updated on the system."

With points updated, everyone can spend the morning shopping. Most people will 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 air is sticky and warm, the windows almost immediately dewing over with the humidity outside.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing, walking silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers. Azula, Prisoner, Amery Vallet, Dyme Graydon, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Yoite, Piccolo, Bulla Brief, Xie Lian, Kurosaki Ichigo, Hua Cheng, Renee Corbin, and Ran Mouri; 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 find themselves on a platform, rich wood and pale stone forming a natural, tree-like structure overhead. Behind them is a set of barriers, and in front of them is a single set of tracks extending both ways into thick fog. The air is rainforest-hot, and the sound of frogsong can be faintly heard over the drip of the artificial canopy.

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 fog begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

The platform isn't large, and seems smaller with twenty-eight figures scattered around, all facing the tracks, all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies. 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 pours a strange assortment of people, over a hundred at least. 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.

Behind them, the doors close, and the train is cloaked in the same fog that hides the world beyond the platform.

The Train

After a short time, the fog clears and 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 nori, the ingredient of the month of Llama, as well as all sundries.

For passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage in various suitcases and bags. For each member of Purple Team, a small silver box with their name on it contains a glittery cupcake.

New passengers will find their ticket allows them into their cabins. They may need to negotiate for beds, but at least they won't be alone in their confusion - since the sleeper carriages are now double-decker, and experience isn't going to avail the passengers in finding their rooms.

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.

The new double carriage's transfer ICP is active, allowing people to move to a double room should they meet the requirements with another person, though they'll have to move their belongings themselves.

Departure

A second horn sounds to encourage any stragglers taking advantage of the fresh air, 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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It's seaweed, [the anthropomorphic tiger person standing behind her comments.] I don't think most people eat it plain like that. They wrap it around sushi or attach it to rice balls or cut it into little strips and use it as a garnish.

"That," says the orange and black probably-a-tabaxi standing next to her, "is exactly what I'd like to know."

Wen Ning shakes his head. If they do, they're called something else. He's never heard the term before.

"I know they're not real bears... then they would be under a creature category." It would be odd to put some sort of real animal in with the souvenirs. Though he wouldn't consider it an impossibility. "Are they... a toy?"

Most of the items on here don't seem particularly useful. It really is just for dumping excess tickets, most likely.

Kitty meet... other orange kitty. Person sized anthropomorphic orange kitty. Tiger person. Whatever.

They're crouched down on the ground, hand extended so that Spark can sniff or not sniff as it may please Spark.

"Hey," they say in a low voice. "How did you get here?"

"Hi?" Bacon echoes back at the cute goth girl, smiling awkwardly. Death might not recognize them, given that they aren't from her world and even if they were, this isn't the body they were born in.

"Humans can't manipulate ether on their own." So, they need a blade partner to do it with/for them. "As for our side? Loaded fucking question I don't have the energy for today."

"We're pretty self-sufficient. Don't worry about it." Even on top of blades not needing much, he and Jade are pretty resourceful between them. "Thanks for the thought, though."

"Kitchen. Right." He's perfectly willing to follow Luke there, but... "I don't think there's any way I could eat right now." Not with the shit his stomach is still pulling. Not with how exhausted and wrung-out he feels, already, from the fact of who's in front of him, from the mere mention of Van, from keeping Jade calm even before that.

He's not handling this well. He's not sure anyone could, certainly not any blade (fuck, Luke isn't going to realize how stupid blades get about siblings), but even by that standard, Asch thinks he's probably not doing well. After burning yourself to dust for someone else's sake, who would?

"Sorry," he says quietly, almost like a warning, before he darts in - too quick to be human, or at least most humans, Auldrant's Sync might have been able to keep up - and throws his arms around Luke's shoulders. It's a sudden embrace, tight and lasting the space of two or three breaths, just long enough to ground himself a little better, to let the reality holding him up be something other than shaky scaffolding. And then he lets go, stepping back, and just, exhales, clearly more settled. His posture becomes something a little more business-like, mission-oriented , though still not as harsh, if you were to compare him to Auldrant's Asch side by side. "Okay. Kitchens, let's go."

[Jack does the same, handing his to Senku and putting on the new one. His fingers tap the table as he waits.]

What's this about anyhow?

He takes another breath, and says, "Blades have been in fucked up situations for as long as we've existed. We were reliant on humans to be. For every good person, there were two who didn't think of us as real people. So we had to look out for our own."

It's not hoping, exactly. It's not something so distinctive, or really so optimistic. Blades look out for each other, in the same way any two strangers who have been in the same shithole will look to each other before people outside the group.

(It would be weird if she did drip. Whatever she may be, his expectations are still parsing her as a high-tier water blade, and water blades above a certain level are only wet if they want to be.)

What else can he say? That just the way she jumps straight to an accusation of spying, so personal about it, screams the same sort of situation? If she's that paranoid, that will probably only make things worse.

Instead, he says, "So it was one part curiosity, and one part keeping myself safe while trying to figure out the answer. I didn't, and still don't, mean you any harm."

"I'm glad to hear you have quite a few friends."

It's what, in Inigo's opinion, has to be said upfront. First and foremost. Because it's just true - he really is glad to hear it. Entrapta made something for him right after the first time they spoke, after all, and it's cemented her in his mind as a kind person, despite her eccentricities. But then again, the people on the train all tend to be a little weird themselves, or not minding things being a little weird, so Inigo isn't too surprised to hear about people having taken to her.

It's good. No one should have to be alone, especially not in a place like this.

"Though.. yes. It's difficult, the way people constantly leave." Oh boy, does Inigo ever know about that. And while his tone is a little wistful as he says it, he manages to keep most of the emotions about it down, instead smiling slightly. "But it's good that you're choosing to do something productive with it instead, I think. Still.. if you ever need to talk about it, you can come look for me anytime, alright?"

...

Inigo stares at it. Their two hands, the SCAs. The alarm.

It's a little weird to see the one he's wearing going off - especially since it does bring a hint of instinctive panic to him. It's nothing rational, since Inigo knows that nothing can really hurt him in this situation, but there's something about the beeping of the SCAs that just doesn't feel good.

And when the one on his wrist stops beeping, it still doesn't feel great. It's a little weird. Mostly confusing.

He stares from the devices on their arms over to Senku.

"What does that mean?"

Please explain it for the less intelligent ones among us here!

Inigo shakes his head, looking over at Goku as he walks.

"I don't know, time may have to prove that one!"

He'll at least give Goku some leeway since it's the other guy's first day, but..

"If I catch you over here again some other day while you're trying to find out where to sleep, I'm definitely going to assume you have no idea where you're going at any given time." At least Inigo seems to mean it as a gentle tease - there's no hint of malice in his tone, and there's a slight smile on his face.

Thankfully talking about missions is something that's so routine to Inigo that it's a little easier to focus on his explanation, rather on the fact that he is speaking to a woman.

"It really depends." Seriously. He's been on so many missions that it's really hard to find some sort of explanation that would include each and every single one of them. But he's trying. "Usually we are saving a world from some sort of danger, even if the tasks to doing so may differ from mission to mission."

[ Inigo lets out a wistful sigh. ]

Don't we all?

[ At least it doesn't sound sarcastic in any way. After all, why would he make fun of Woz's desire for his own room when it's exactly what Inigo has wanted all this time? Or maybe not necessarily his own room, but.. at least a bigger one would be nice. And sharing with a few less people.

He shakes his head, something about the joking attitude fading slightly as he frowns. ]

But this train doesn't seem very concerned with making things as comfortable as possible for us, even though we're doing a lot of work for it.

Yup, that's the exact reaction he was expecting. You don't stick around on the train for that long without seeing a lot of people say these exact same things, after all. Inigo is used to it by now, but he's already glad enough if he can give her some sort of feeling that she has a chance to get out of here before a ridiculous amount of time passes.

"About a month or so longer than me?"

It can't have been much longer than that. There was only one mission or so before he showed up, so..

"As far as I know, that's when the first people of our current group showed up here on the train. There wasn't anyone else on the train when they came here."

Thank god. If he wasn't up for that compromise, Madoka definitely would have paniced more. But this is a compromise she can live with.

(Maybe she should just keep calling him by his name to a minimum in general, she thinks, to keep the awkwardness to a minimum as well.)

"It was being attacked by soldiers," she explains. He probably knows what the concept of a soldier is, even if he hasn't dealt with space stuff, so the girl figures it might give him a slightly better mental idea of what they were doing. "And we were trying to defend it."

There's a slight pause, and then said with a bit more awkwardness born from her own unease with the concept: "These missions usually have a lot of fighting.."

Her shoulders sag a little when he says that - in a way he should be able to feel, considering he's got one of his hands on one of her shoulders.

"But.. being sad all the time doesn't make anyone alright either." Not that she isn't still sad on the inside. Of course she is. It hurts so much to see someone leave and know you will never be able to talk to them ever again, never be able to see them again.

But she doesn't want to cry about it. Not like she has before.

"After all.. people leave every two weeks or so. By the time you start to feel like you may be able to get over it a little.. the next group of people already leaves." There's just no time to get over it before you get hurt all over again.

Madoka shakes her head. "So I want to try being strong instead. I want to try to smile, and help others to smile as well.. I don't want us to always have to be sad, just because people come and go without warning here."

Madoka smiles. Despite the ~~AWFUL BULLYING~~ gentle teasing from a moment ago. "Oh, don't worry. You're on laundry duty this month!"

Did she memorize the chores of each team when she checked them out? Madoka sure did. Mostly since it's easier to offer help with them to new people who may be confused about how something as simple as washing machines work. Or blenders.

But that's not the important point here. Which is why she shakes her head, instead casting a curious glance at him.

"Are you really excited about eating my food, Tidus?"

That's a lot of information to take in all at once. Though Madoka is really trying to think about all of it. So he's bonded with a youkai who is actually not all that bad.. It's a little like the pact she had with Maru, back when he was on the train, right? Though he had been a vampire rather than a youkai, and she hadn't shared a body with him..

.. it's pretty complicated.

So rather than focusing on that, she thinks more about the first part of what he says, deciding to speak up about that.

"So that's what makes you different from the other mister Wangji and his partner..?" She may not have known Wei Wuxian well, but she does remember those two getting married on the train. "Both of you are connected to youkai, and the two of them aren't..?"

Well.

At least the animal ears are useful to be able to tell them apart in that case.

"Yes, um.."

Oh, gosh. It's not even that the concept of a teddy bear is so terribly difficult to explain. They're rather simple things when it comes down to it. But just the idea that she has to explain what they are to someone is very wild. Madoka has had to explain many concepts she considered normal to other people who had no idea before, but never something like this.

"It.. looks like a small bear. But it's just a stuffed toy. They're usually really soft, and because of that really comfortable to hug.. It's nice for when you're feeling lonely, or scared." The last part is added with a slight blush on her cheeks. After all, Madoka is 14 - right at that age where she still loves plush animals, but feels just a tad embarrassed about admitting to it, since other people may find it too childish for someone her age.

But her explanation wouldn't feel complete without it. He might not see the sense in those things otherwise.

There's just a small raise of Alice's eyebrows, a small gesture to imply 'yup, you nor any of us really have a choice about this' without voicing that part out loud.

Instead she glances at the crowd of people in multi-coloured hoodies before looking back at Rui.

"Are there non-humans in your world?" Sure, there have to be if the other said she met them, but-- "As a regular sort of thing, I mean."

Because whereas non-humans were normal to Alice too before coming here, she wouldn't say that opinion was generally shared in her own world.

At least Alice doesn't make a snarky remark. Even though it'd be so easy, even though it's right there in front of her. It'd be so easy to remark on how of course a place called the shadow realm doesn't sound like a fun place.

But she's holding back. It seems like Lena isn't talking about it super easily, so Alice is doing her best to be at least a bit accomodating over here.

"So it's the same world? Just.. different?"

Not like Wonderland then, she thinks.

[ She nods.

Very calmly, too. There seems to be nothing weird about that idea to her. ]

Of course. I followed a rabbit into its hole and then ended up in another world entirely.

[ What, is that not something every child just does at some point? ]

Oh no, this whole scene is so cute, Alice can't handle it. It's so adorable that the drone actually reacts to him like that, tryting to show indignance in its own little way, even though it isn't able to verbally communicate it.

"You two look like you're getting along well."

No matter how guarded the girl usually is with her emotions, there's absolutely no way she can surpress a smile in the face of this particular sight.

It's a smile that lingers if the drone comes over to her. "Hi there."

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