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

[yondu]

"Oh, I know. I'm hopin' mutual interest will help protect it. I wish the train sold insurance policies 'cause I don't wanna keep buyin' the thing an' I'm pretty sure I am."

He drums his fingers on it.

"Yeah, these ain't meant to handle biomatter, either. Y'all are still gonna have to do that manually. Too many processes to send it through. You could chuck some raw carbon in there to make whatever with but it ain't made for processin' anything what was once alive."

He tips his head. "Maybe if y'all ever get that lab you can move it up there. Maybe get you somethin' bio-specialized to go with it." Or develop it from scratch.

[morganizedchaos]

"Our recyclers could handle organic stuff. People threw lemon peels and stuff in there all the time." Recycler, compost heap, same difference. "The 'raw material' you got back out of it wasn't super fun to touch, but you could put it in the fabricator to get medical gel and fertilizers and shit like that."

And 'exotic' material was even worse to touch, even if it's also fun in a weird way. Like the combination of jello and a cursed image post come to life.

Ghost flips a couple pages into the manual, reading even as they continue to talk, because he can multitask that way (unfortunately, for everyone around him). He has to squint at it a little, though. The train can translate a lot, but a manual written by a completely alien sort of species is still organized in a way that's not immediately intuitive. "Looks like this is more technical about hardware specs than the process itself," he says.

[yondu]

"I could probably pick a book up on it eventually, if they ain't got enough for you to glean. I grabbed a holovid of some Kree info while I was at it so I'm guessin' I could grab a few of their science books. At least what deal with the more ethical stuff."

He sneers a little because the Kree like to put on a face to the public that doesn't accurately reflect their military experiments. A chafed thought about it enters his mind, still more bitter that people doubt that it happened than having gone through it.

"I grew up around it so I know how to use it an' I knew what to look for." He pulls a toothpick out of his pocket. Those sharp teeth had a habit of gathering anything remotely sticky and constant Terran food had the bad tendency to bug the hell out of him. "Unfortunately I ain't an inventor. I can fix what you put in front of me an' what I learned already."

[morganizedchaos]

The 'more ethical stuff' comment gleans a snort. "Scientific advancement's the same the universe over, huh," Ghost says, synthesized voice quiet enough to count for muttering. Looks like there's at least one person Yondu won't have to try too hard to convince of the shadier side.

Ghost closes the manual and regards the printer itself with a slightly less excited, more considering expression. "I'm not a fab tech, but I helped Mary with her portable," he says. "Her hands aren't steady anymore, so she needed to borrow mine for the complicated soldering bits. And my brother actually is an inventor and researcher in this kind of shit, among other things, so I've got a decent idea what I'm doing, myself."

[yondu]

He gestures to the mess of scars around his fin, fingers wriggling. "Scientific advancement."

It's probably odd that there's not that much anger, there. He is mad about it, but in the way that the Kree are simply the Kree and he's accepted this. There was nothing he could do about it. The anger lies still with the people who put him there.

But that's beside the point.

"Ya might be able to use this to patch somethin' together by bits. That was my plan. Wanted some stuff I knew the train wouldn't do for me."

[morganizedchaos]

Ghost nods. "I could say something similar, but I'd have to gesture at all of me," he says. Humans definitely have their share of it, don't be mistaken for a minute, Yondu.

But he nods. "I have something in mind, but I'm pretty sure there's at least some of the bits I'm going to have to order," he says. "Would've been nice to get that lab car."

[yondu]

He's gathered that, too, from what little he's heard. But there's yet to be a Terran Empire in his universe, and Kree make a real habit of dropping onto planets and fucking around with the natives for knowledge.

Give them time and more planets, he supposes.

"If y'all move it to that area in the quiet car where they got the half-ass lab let me know. So I don't think someone just took it apart an' scattered it like a damn treasure hunt."

He puts his hands on his hips and surveys the work. Welp! Bastard is in now. "Guess y'all are free to play with it or whatever." He did his part. "I guess if you get the stuff for your bio portion, we could put 'em in the same place or somethin'."

[morganizedchaos]

"Don't look at me, I don't go in there," Ghost says. "There's not nearly enough space with the projects people already have going on. I'd rather hide in that corner of the storage car with the soldering kit." Which he'll probably have to do, anyway, but having people bonking into each other's projects sounds like a bit of a recipe for disaster.

"Bio stuff should probably go to medical for now," Ghost says consideringly. "They're at least adjacent." Don't mind him coming over to poke at producing a bottle, though. "Any idea how compatible this will be with other tech?"

[yondu]

"Very compatible. I can make Kree tech fit with anything. Xandarian tech? Not so much."

But he also has way more experience with Kree tech.

"Holoscreen should have some stuff and the guide should have suggestions. There's a few folks good with magitech around, too. So they could probably improvise some stuff if nothin' else."

[morganizedchaos]

"That's good. I assume it does custom designs, but how compatible the modelling software in question would be was kind of up in the air."

Possibly he's more familiar with the software end of things. Ghost taps a hand on the holo display. "Probably not something the average person around here is going to need," he admits.

[yondu]

"For the most part modeling software does the same thing when you go to print. 'Here's the shape, put the stuff in it'. Kree liked their stuff extra compatible.

"It's why I ain't took my original translator out. I want it to keep pickin' up what the SCA is indirectly teachin' it." And if he should go at some point, the translator would still have it.

The more people speak around it, the more the Kree translator catches on.

[morganizedchaos]

Ghost makes a low whistle of appreciation. "Now I'm kind of envious. I'm used to proprietary bullshit everywhere you turn - unless it's one of the companies known for ripping off the others. Then you might get some compatibility with the schmucks who got ripped off, if you're lucky."

[yondu]

"Kinda funny to say, 'I didn't realize how lucky I was.'" Especially considering how he came to know it. But standing out as one of the ship's aliens and being overwhelmed by Terran tech for all this time has been a little sobering.

Sure, being loosely human-shaped naturally makes it a little easier, but it's about like an echidna and hedgehog wandering by one another.

[morganizedchaos]

You would compare yourself to something covered in spines, Yondu.

"Doesn't mean it wasn't shitty at the time," Ghost says. "It just means that you're somewhere now where life doesn't exclusively suck."