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

[oncedriven]

"Alive, but not organic." He doesn't mind the nosiness, apparently. Basic information about blades is common knowledge to him and there's no point hiding it just because it's new to the people here. (It's personal information he'll get cagey about.) "The majority of my body is solidified ether - you'd probably just call it 'magical energy.'"

Probably, since Murphy doesn't seem to have much ether around him, regardless of skin tone weirdness. (He's seen weirder blades, even if a lot of them are human-passing.)

[zombiemessiah]

Like dried out magic putty! Got it. Totally understood now.

"Well, that explains some things. I'm not magic or anything but I can usually tell when a person is a little unusual."

He just going to leave the brain smelling thing out of this portion of the conversation.

[oncedriven]

Wow, he's not dried out, you're just a crinkly old man, Murphy.

Asch raises his eyebrows only as a form of commentary, pointedly taking a slow pan of his head up and down Murphy's red-matches-the-outfit look as if to say 'like you're not a little unusual yourself?' But he lets it lie. He's here for the big picture questions, not the little ones about specific people. That can come later.

"Point is that my vitals wouldn't be anywhere comparable to anything it measures off a human, so..."

Asch gives the concept a last frown, and instead says, "How much of the train would you say is 'a little unusual'?"

[zombiemessiah]

"Most of the train would say I'm a lot unusual. I just embrace it at this point!"

He spreads his hands with a shrug. Actually he deeply misses being normal. But his little girl gave him her whole life to make sure he could live, and if he had to do it in a state of being this, weird as hell, he'll do it for her.

"You sound a little touchy about being strange. Don't worry, almost everyone here is some kinda freak, just to varying degrees."

[oncedriven]

Asch shrugs, not giving anything away on his personal issues front. Yes, he's a little bit of a terrifying monstrosity of science by blade standards, yes, that's why no one except Jade and Mythra know the full details.

"That's good to know," he says. "Though when you get this many different worlds involved, I guess it makes sense that everyone is weird to everyone else."

[zombiemessiah]

"Oh, don't underestimate our ability to be weird at home, too. Most of us have been one-eyed kings in the land of the blind, and now half of us just don't know how to deal with being the peasantry."

It's astounding how hard people try to be the best, the brightest, the strongest. And they're all confined to the whims of a train. And he's got a feeling if they 'beat' the train, then what's chasing the train will be so much worse.

"I've been held captive enough to tolerate it. Not be happy about it, but there's food and decent company."

[oncedriven]

The reference goes entirely over Asch's head, but he gets the intention, at least.

For his part...

"I guess some of them don't have any experience with how being exceptional can make you a target instead of a king," he says. Which probably explains plenty about why he's cagey about his weirdness, really. "At least it's a cage with legroom."

And privacy in his own head. He'll take a physical panopticon over a mental one, thanks.

[zombiemessiah]

"Or they're used to winning despite that. But yeah, at least it's that. I had this one abduction where they made us sleep in boxes? Talk about uncomfortable. We's wake up standing up. Apparently, they didn't realize that my d-"

And there it is. The sassy bitch that is Alvin Murphy has a thought that stutters him. Just drags out a distant look that lasts a full three seconds before he stamps it down.

"Well, the boxes were damn uncomfortable."

[oncedriven]

Asch snorts. "Even if you get out, you don't forget the way it feels." So, yeah, definitely there on that front.

The aborted comment gets another incredibly flat look, before Asch finally says, "Yeah, I imagine it would be, with your build," and just fucking. Leaves it there because he's not going to touch it.

[zombiemessiah]

"W-"

And then suddenly he cracks a smile and chuckles, realizing what it was that Asch had thought he was going to say. He'd been about to mention that they didn't realize his daughter could communicate with the zombies around them even if he couldn't, at the time.

"Don't we all have that problem?" Is what he just goes with, and waves it off with a floppy motion of his hand.

[oncedriven]

"No. Blades don't have blood." So, that's one problem skipped.

[zombiemessiah]

"I bet the vampire's gonna be real disappointed to hear that. Sort of limits your party options, too. I guess Blades got their own ways of having fun though, right?"

[oncedriven]

Congrats, Murphy, you've found a conversation he really does not want to be having, on either the personal or 'society treats blades like shit, actually,' levels.

The result is an extremely not-committal grunt and a, "So how long have you been here?" to move the subject right the hell along.

[zombiemessiah]

"Haven't been on a mission yet. So I'm looking forward to that."

Blandly stated. "I guess they range from boring to full of demons. That's what I've heard."

[oncedriven]

So, not that much worthwhile information to be had there. Asch just nods. "Anything else you think is important, then?"

[zombiemessiah]

"About the missions or the train? The only thing I can think of is that every single person here is dangerous in some way or another. So don't worry too much about the kids, they kick way more ass than you'd expect and some would probably try it for suggesting otherwise."

[oncedriven]

That's good to know, he supposes, but Asch gives a one-shoulder shrug to it. "Plenty of blades look like children," he says. "Some of them even act like it. Doesn't mean they aren't just as dangerous. We don't really age the way humans do."

[zombiemessiah]

"So are all of you born the size and shape you stay or are you bitten and turn into a blade or what? ...That last part of the question wasn't even me being an asshole that time. It's surprisingly relevant."

[oncedriven]

"Active blades generally only have one shape across their entire existences," Asch says. "When we're inactive, we're just core crystals." Yes, technically, you are talking to a glorified magic rock right now. How's that rate on the weirdness meter? "We're not even all human-looking when we are, I used to know one who looked like a creepy cloth puppet. There's a sort of symbiotic relationship between us and humans, but we're not vampires."

[zombiemessiah]

At this point he really accepts anything. But not putty, ultra new age rock. Got it.

"What do you get out of humans and what do humans get out of you, then?"

[oncedriven]

"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."

[zombiemessiah]

Murphy spreads his hands. "Hey, you brought it up." Then makes a round motion in the air with one.

"But you might find some people here can manipulate ether on their own. There's all kinds of people here."

[oncedriven]

"Yeah, I encountered a few already," Asch says. "It's not like we natively call it 'magic.'" That's a term that other people seem to expect, but it's not theirs.