A New Platform [Intro Post May]

[voidtreckermods]

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!

Comments

C

[irrationally]

Please, Lena. You can't mention terms like shadow realm out in the open and not expect people to get curious!

Because it sure is making Alice curious. A talking duck isn't all that weird - it wouldn't be that weird even if she hadn't met Della already. But talk of a shadow realm? Now that's something else entirely.

Hence why she curiously glances over at Lena.

"What is this 'shadow realm' place?"

[outofyourshadow]

Lena glanced up, blinking a bit. "Shoot, did I say that out loud?" she asks.

She's getting a bit more used to seeing these strange kind of people, but...it's still a little weird.

[irrationally]

Alice slowly nods.

No use in lying about it, after all.

"You certainly did." And pretty audibly too. It's not even like Alice had to listen in or strain her ears to hear what she was saying.

There's a slight pause on her end, and then she just asks: "Was I not meant to hear that?"

[outofyourshadow]

Hesitating for just a moment, Lena shrugs a little. "I mean, that was my fault. I generally don't talk about it, but I guess it just slipped out this time."

Probably because of the weird colors against the darkness...if she doesn't know better, she could fool herself into thinking it is the shadow realm.

[irrationally]

"Well, perhaps you should talk about it this time then."

If Lena insists on not wanting to, or if Alice gets a sign that it's a painful thing to talk about, then she may back off on it. It's not like she wants to hurt some random person on this train like that, after all.

But for now the curiosity is still too strong. Lena can't just mention it and then not explain what it is.

"I've never heard of such a place before."

[outofyourshadow]

She pauses a moment, sorting through her feelings about the topic. While it still isn't really her favorite thing to talk about, she finds that it doesn't really bother her as much as it used to. So she figure it'd be okay to talk about...a little bit.

"It's...not really a fun place," she starts slowly. "It's kind of like...like a negative image of the regular world, made out of perpetual night and darkness."

[irrationally]

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.

[outofyourshadow]

To be honest, Lena wouldn't have minded a snarky comment. But she is being pretty serious right now as she considers her answer.

"Sort of. It's kind of like being in a pocket dimension. In the Shadow Realm, I could still see everything that happened in the regular world, but I couldn't really interact with anything. Sometimes I might be able to knock something over if I passed by it, but I couldn't...talk to people, or move too much, or anything."

[irrationally]

"That's so odd," Alice remarks, before anything else. "It's as if you're off in your own world, yet not at the same time."

She feels like she wouldn't like it very much if that happened to her. London is already a crappy enough place, but to be stuck in a place where she couldn't interact with any of it either, just having to watch?

It'd suck.

"How did you manage to end up in a place like this in the first place? I doubt you followed a rabbit down a rabbit hole."

[outofyourshadow]

"Something like that, yeah."

Lena hesitates, fiddling with the friendship bracelet around her wrist. It helped sometimes, as a reminder that things were different now. That all this was in the past.

Still...it could be hard to talk about.

"I kind of... was technically from there," she admits after a long moment. "I got sent back for a being a little too...free thinking."

A very abridged version of everything that happened, but she got it out there, at least.

[irrationally]

And people say her world is weird. Alice is slowly starting to think that Lena's world is so much curioser than her own - even more curious than certain parts of Wonderland.

"How can one come from such a place?"

If it's seperate from the rest of the world?

"Are there more people there than just you?" Just a whole group of people living in a world slightly parallel to the one other people live in?

[outofyourshadow]

"As far as I know, there aren't any others like me." At least she's pretty sure, but then again, Lena hasn't really considered that before. Probably not, but...

"And I was...created from the shadow of a sorceress."

[irrationally]

"Oh." It's an observational 'oh', not a surprised one. Please, being born from the shadow of a sorceress at least isn't as weird as the whole shadow world concept. This just sounds like something out of a fairytale.

"I must say, you look rather normal for someone who was created that way." Especially since Alice isn't bothered or weirded out by the whole duck thing. "You look just like everyone else on this train. I'd assume you would have looked more.. shadowy, somehow."

[outofyourshadow]

She managed a small smile. "Thanks. It's, uh...a bit complicated, but I'm not really made of shadow any more. Part of becoming independent, and rebelling, and getting a form of my own."

She didn't really want to go into the details, so that'd have to do for now.

[irrationally]

Someone becoming a person after having been a shadow. Being born from a shadow, having lived in some weird shadow world..

Huh.

If Alice didn't know any better, she'd say that sort of thing would come straight out of a story book.

"It sounds like you've been through a lot, even before you ended up here."

[outofyourshadow]

"You could say that, yeah," Lena replied with a smile and a shrug. "But I'm guessing that I'm not the only one."

With the number of people on the train, there were bound to be some different stories.

[irrationally]

"True." Alice herself has been through a lot too, after all, even if it's of a slightly different nature.

"Though I must admit that this is the first time I've heard of a story that is anything like yours. Perhaps you might not mind the train as much, if you're used to so much worse." Alice pauses before pulling her shoulders up into a shrug. "Though it's still not ideal, of course."

The train probably isn't a great place to anyone, she ventures.

[outofyourshadow]

Lena shrugged a little. "To be honest, I wouldn't have minded a little less excitement." While she didn't mind the craziness that followed Webby and her family, and she had her own magical responsibilities, she'd been looking forward to a more normal life.

Guess that just wasn't meant to be, though.

"So what is the deal with this train, anyway?" She'd mostly just skimmed through the welcome material.

[irrationally]

Alice shrugs, as if the answer she is about to deliver is something entirely normal and causal.

"It moves in the space between different worlds to take us to places where we are expected to play heroes and save the world."

.. yes, a totally normal and casual explanation.

But after Alice's own little Wonderland escapades, it's not quite as strange to her anymore.

[outofyourshadow]

"...huh. Okay." Honestly, given her own origins and abilities, a train traveling to different worlds wasn't the craziest thing she's ever heard. It's really the hero part that gives her pause.

"So, no pressure."

[irrationally]

"That does seem to be the message that it's giving out."

Since Alice is very well aware at this point that not everyone has done the things she's done before she showed up here - freeing a whole world all by herself. A lot of people don't seem to have much heroic experience at all, or seem to worry about their abilities.

It's the reason why she crosses her arms across her chest and frowns.

"Even though I have no idea how this train picks the people it does to draw in here."

[outofyourshadow]

"Yeah, I was just about to ask about the criteria," Lena says, frowning a bit as well. "Because clearly 'willingness to be here' isn't one of them."

[irrationally]

Oh, most certainly not. Alice does know that much.

"There don't seem to be any criteria at all." Which would mean the train just selects people randomly - but that would make no sense with what it told them.

Then again, Alice just likes to assume the train is lying anyway.

"I can't think of a single thing all of us here have in common."

[outofyourshadow]

"Cool. Sounds great." Honestly, Lena didn't mind helping out too much if she was needed. Protecting people is what she's decided to do with her powers. But a heads up just would have been nice.

"And lemme guess, no way of getting back home either?"

She'd gotten a bit of that, when she hadn't been able to go anywhere except the train. But she just needed to know what she was dealing with here.

[irrationally]

"Not unless the train randomly selects you to, apparently." Granted, they don't know if the people who walk off the platform and go through the gates are truly going home.

But they're at least no longer on the train.

"But even that doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason to it. You'd probably have more luck asking a cat why it is smiling than asking what the reason behind anything here is."