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]

"Makes sense that that turnover would include leadership," is what Asch thinks of the matter, but that does bring up something he'd wanted to ask. "What happens when people leave? Other than some new arrival getting put into their room." He'd figured out that much from the fact that the people in his and Jade's cabin weren't new; the little room wasn't exactly homely but the other beds felt lived-in.

[worthallthis]

"We don't know." Which is a shitty answer. They shrug helplessly. "Sometimes people come back, but they never remember leaving, it's just like they stepped out and stepped back. The train has said she doesn't send people back into danger, but. That's really all we know."

[oncedriven]

Not the answer he was hoping for, but a fair enough one. Asch nods. He's not sure he trusts that statement about the train's intentions, either, though he might be overthinking it. The person in front of him believes it, at least.

"Had to ask," he says. "And there's no indications on who might leave and who won't?"

[worthallthis]

"Well. Sometimes the name will go gold in the passenger roster first," Soldat says, running their free hand over their hair. "And they'll get withdrawn. But Not always. Sometimes names will just come back from being gold without anyone leaving. If there's something else, I haven't seen it yet, though. I've only been here two months."

[oncedriven]

"Two months longer than me," Asch points out, before taking another cookie. "I'll keep an eye out for that, though. An inconsistent clue is better than no clue at all."

[worthallthis]

"It is. Might give people warning, I guess, even if it doesn't always pan out." They haven't been in the habit of checking the passenger roster, not since memorizing where the people they care about have cabins, but after Prisoner's disappearance, maybe they'll start checking a little more regularly. "Has anyone shown you the ICPs and things yet?"

[oncedriven]

Asch shakes his head. "I've been mostly worried about the physical lay of the land," he says. "I figured the computers could wait."

[worthallthis]

"The layout's pretty straight-forward, but I get it. Trying to remember where the gym car is compared to the training car or the spa car." They shake their head a little. "The order really doesn't make sense, to be honest. There's good intel in the computers, though. And pamphlets."

[oncedriven]

"The paperwork I read," Asch says with a nod. He doesn't trust it, exactly, but it's served as a decent enough starting point. "As for the rest - figuring out where people spend their time is as important as any of the rest of it." He can't do that without observing them at least a little bit, which means a lot of train-wandering.

[worthallthis]

"All over," Soldat shrugs. "But mostly if you're just looking for people, for the most concentrated presence of them, not not specific ones. You'll want the standard car, the dining car, the library, and the training car. Generally people spend the most time in those ones, I've found." And this is, in fact, a thing Soldat cares about. They need presence around them, the quiet noise of people going about their day.

[oncedriven]

Asch is the opposite - he's a space-needer, and there's not exactly any rooftops he can climb onto around here. Plus, it helps to know where to avoid when Jade's having a moment and needs to literally vent his ice.

"Thanks," he says. "...Hard to understand why anyone would make much use of the training space when it's so narrow, though."

[worthallthis]

Soldat looks amused. "I've fought in worse. It's workable, depending I guess on what you're trying to practice. You get used to keeping to the space available. Stop by some evening. I'm always in there after dinner."

[oncedriven]

"For purely physical work, I suppose," Asch says. "But blades don't tend to do a lot of that. And most of our weapons are large."

Jade's spear is actually one of the smallest blade weapons he's ever seen.

[worthallthis]

"I'm sure there's a way we can manage it," Soldat muses. "Some kind of specific set of moves that keeps the weapons long-wise. I'd have to see your weapons, I suppose." And now they're curious what Asch even uses.

[oncedriven]

Well, that can be arranged, Soldat.

Asch barely even seems to concentrate before a sword appears - not a normal sized one, no, but an absurdly large anime greatsword, almost as tall as he is with tip touching the ground and hilt pointed straight into the air. The blade is almost entirely purple-black metal, but seems to have an aura of shadows to it.

Asch catches the hilt in one hand before it can fall over (though as clearly magical as it is, it might well not have, and he's just holding it for show), and says, "You see the problem."

[worthallthis]

Soldat is, by now, used to weapons appearing out of nowhere, but they are also used to people warning them. So they twitch back, hand going to one of their knife sheaths automatically, and then kind of glare a little at Asch for not even giving them a heads up. There's not a lot of ire to it, though, just annoyance.

"That is the most ridiculous weapon I've ever seen," they say after a beat. "And I've seen some really ridiculous weapons. It must be slow as hell. What is it for, cutting down horses?"

[oncedriven]

"If it was mundane, it would be," Asch grants. "But blade weapons don't entirely follow the same rules as normal ones. I'd offer to let you swing it, but..."

That'd be weird, given that they've only just met. Still, the blade hardly seems heavy at all as Asch lifts it from its resting position before letting it vanish. "It's on the larger end, but by the standards of 'big' blade weapons, it's not that unusual," he says. "And - sure, horses, we'll go with that."

It is definitely not for cutting down horses.

[worthallthis]

They can tell he doesn't mean it for horses. "You don't seriously use that on people, do you?" Soldat counters, eying it with misgivings, if that's the case. "That's absolute overkill. Or do you have some kind of large monsters where you come from?"

[oncedriven]

"If I have to." He'd rather not have to; that much is obvious by his tone. And for all that greatswords have a reputation as weapons of execution, especially those in the hands of dark blades, it's not the weapon he actually used for that.

He lets the blade dissolve into shadows again, and says, "We do have some monsters, but mostly in the wilderness. These days I mostly spar with other blades and their partners, and plenty of them have weapons just as absurd. The Aegis' swords aren't much smaller than this and Lloyd uses one in each hand."

Lloyd Irving is an absurd maniac but also walking proof that blade weapons don't really play by the same rules.

[worthallthis]

Soldat shakes their head. "Weapons that don't obey the laws of physics are the worst. How do you even defend against that kinda thing."

[oncedriven]

"It's an even playing field," Asch says with a shrug. "All blades can manipulate ether into what you'd probably just call magic. Some are definitely more powerful than others, but the way that relates to the weapons we can summon is loose and iffy at best. It's definitely a problem from the perspective of people who are just normal humans, but usually blades aren't fighting normal humans, we're fighting other blades."

[worthallthis]

Buddy, that doesn't help Soldat know how to defend against you, which is frankly the point here. They get nervous around people they don't know how to protect against. "And none of you ever fight regular humans?" they ask, skeptical. They've rarely known someone with power to not use it on regular people.

[oncedriven]

The power in this situation doesn't actually, historically, belong to blades, is the problem with that analysis, Soldat.

"I wouldn't say never, but most blades aren't stupid enough to call down that kind of attention on themselves," he says, somber. "And until very recently, we didn't get a lot of choice in who we fought, anyway. It's only been about three years that we haven't been reliant on human drivers to exist."

You could hear a pin drop in that bitterness. "It doesn't matter how powerful you are when someone else controls whether or not you get to live."

[worthallthis]

Soldat's mouth closes, almost with an audible snap. That does, indeed, change the picture entirely. That last statement is something they readily could have said, of HYDRA. Of seventy years of their life. After a pause, they say, "That's awful. I'm sorry. How did you all get free."

[oncedriven]

They may not literally be swords and so on, but blades were certainly treated as nothing more than person-shaped weapons.

"A long story involving a couple of artificial blades, a couple of normal blades, and a couple of humans all banding together to tell God off," Asch says. It's the short, kind of flippant version of the story. "And then fundamentally changing the way blades work so that we aren't stuck without options anymore. I didn't wake back up until after that."