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

[partofthecrowd]

"I do work a lot." Rui said, although she didn't get into her penchant for inactivity when she needed the break. Lately that break had been needed more often. She smiled instead.

"I suppose, this is quite a big train and yet.. not big enough."

[labcatte]

"I mean, as far as long distance transportation goes, it's probably better than a commercial plane or a bus," the tiger says. "We can get up and stretch our legs. But we're still packed in here like sardines."

[partofthecrowd]

"I...I suppose. I'm more partial to my car than anything." Rui admitted with a bit of a sigh. She missed it already.

"I don't typically travel much, or with other people for that matter."

[labcatte]

"I mean, who wants to when most jobs that aren't blatantly homicidal to their workers will let you do things remotely?" Bacon says, reasonably. "Or, well, that's how it was back home, anyway."

[partofthecrowd]

Rui quirked a bit of a smile. "I work for myself. I have my own company, so I can do all of my work from my penthouse." She explained easily enough.

"Most people still go to work, as far as I know." Not everyone was a high school skipping dropout like she was who went on to make a boatload of money by inventing something popular.

[labcatte]

Bacon nods. "That's how it used to be when I was tiny," they say. "At least according to my dads. But a lot of things went remote when I was a kid. Basically anything you could do remotely you would do remotely."

[partofthecrowd]

"That sounds far more convenient to me, but I don't really know. I work alone." Rui commented. "I haven't had a normal job before."

[labcatte]

"I mean, it definitely is, which is probably why it stuck around," they say, with a shrug. "And honestly, I'm not sure what counts as a normal job. I've always worked for my family. Mostly my aunt, actually."

[partofthecrowd]

"I see, but..." She considered that for a moment. "What is that like? I mean, what kind of job do you do?"

[labcatte]

"Programming," they say. "Computer modeling. Some nanobiology and bioroid construction?" That gets another shrug. "My aunt and her friends started a virtual reality game company to get funding for their FTL spaceflight and interstellar colonization projects, because it was too hard to get government grants for them, even with them all being ex-DARPA. I interned for them when I was in college and afterward I took a job with them creating animals and monsters for their flagship project, Another World Online."

[partofthecrowd]

"Ah, I see." Rui said with a bit of a nod. "An MMORPG." She knew that immediately of course.

"I invented a social media platform." She smiled a tiny bit. "GALAX. It's a mix between a game and just a place to gather online. It's connected to real life and turns actions you do into a game. It's been very good so far..."

She glanced away though, because her friends were trying to destroy it.

[labcatte]

"World's first Virtual Reality MMO, yeah," Bacon says proudly. "And GALAX sounds pretty cool. Though I do have to ask, is it that it keeps track of what you're doing IRL and feeds those actions into the game? Or do you tell it later what you did? Because I could see some privacy issues arising if it's the former. No offense if it is," they add. "I mean, fuck knows Silicon Valley runs on invasion of privacy and data mining. I'm a third generation programmer. I know."

It's one of those unfortunate truths of the whole business.

[partofthecrowd]

"It's sort of a mixture of both. You have to log into the app to activate your presence there, and if any of the real world events pop up, you opt into them and get rewarded." She explained to them.

"There is definitely a significant amount of surveillance, and that's mainly because my AI can pick up things so those events can be set into motion without requiring the people needing help to both have GALAX and have to use it. Like if there's a car accident, for example, an alert will go up calling upon anyone with medical training to run and assess the damage. It's essentially crowdsourcing public services." Rui explained.

[labcatte]

"Oh, so it's part AR game too," Bacon guesses. "Huh. That's-- that's kind of neat. But man, you probably need a pretty smart AI for that, depending on the scope of the area the game covers. Possibly smarter than the people who programmed them. Was it a worldwide release or just done locally?"

[partofthecrowd]

"I programmed her." Rui smiled.

"It was a local release at first, and most of the events happen in Japan, I have more reach there, but it is available worldwide. Most of my users are in Japan though. Millions of them. It's quite successful." She paused after a moment.

"My teammates are trying to destroy what I've built though."

[labcatte]

"Ah hell," Bacon says. "That's-- is it a dispute over who created what? And who's getting the credit and the money? I'd assume it was an issue of competition if they weren't your teammates... though I guess one of them might have started up their own, rival company."

Sorry. They'd be interested in talking to you about your AI work, but this seems more important right now, given that they think the Incident that landed them into this mess was caused by corporate espionage and not the regular kind.

[partofthecrowd]

"No, I built everything myself and I'm the sole owner of my company." Rui explained with a shake of her head.

"They believe in a different system where people have to rely on authorities which have been notoriously unreliable and think that people shouldn't use GALAX, necessarily." Rui frowned a little bit.

"We got a new teammate who started preaching about this and some of the others have joined in and expect me to agree that destroying my contributions and company should be acceptable to me." It was not.

"People also have access to my power, and this teammate doesn't like that either. Honestly, it's more frustrating than anything."

[labcatte]

"System for what?" Bacon asks. "Sorry--I'm confused. Where does relying on authorities come into this? It's just a game, right? It's not a cover for some sort of sinister other..." They wave their hands around. "Whatever.

[partofthecrowd]

"It's sort of like a game, but it has real world effects. So in my example of the accident, people get a video game reward for doing something good, they don't necessarily need someone else to come who's much further away to help. That's kind of the idea. A lot of social systems that are ineffective could be sourced that way, like charity. It's complicated." Rui mused.

"Also, since we have super heroes." She was one. "People also think everyone will solve all their problems for them."

[labcatte]

Bacon nods. "I think I get it now. You mean actual social services. The professionals. You want to crowdsource things like search and rescue and paramedics and so on." They frown. "So basically--and I'm sorry if I sound like an asshole for saying this--it's the Japanese version of Silicon Valley rediscovering basic concepts again, but for the gig economy? Only with added gamification?"

Then they blink. "Wait. Did you say you had superheroes?"

[partofthecrowd]

"The professionals haven't really been serving their communities. The other thing is that it gives it a platform for whistleblowers to unveil corruption." Rui understood the pitfalls and how strange it might sound to others.

"We do, the Gatchaman. They mainly involve themselves in discouraging alien misbehaviour. That's the team I'm presently working with. Some of them think they should save the world, but I think that for that to happen, they'd have to widen their focus which they also don't want to. It's a complex issue."

[labcatte]

"So is it specifically for underserved communities, then?" Bacon asks, curious. "And-- what do you mean, 'alien misbehavior?'" They shake their head. "Sorry, I just realized that the situation in your world and with your app might be a little more complicated than it seemed on the surface."

[partofthecrowd]

"Not specifically, but if somewhere did have decent social supports and didn't have such stigma around certain things, it could be complimentary. As it is, society is a bit of a mess where I am and corruption is rampant in my country." That was the unfortunate truth of her world. "Everyone's only trying to serve themselves at the expense of others."

She sighed. "Some aliens come to the planet to wreak havoc and cause problems. Attacking people, that sort of thing."

[labcatte]

"Oh god, don't I know it," Bacon says with a sigh. "My dad used to say that the cyberpunk future came true in basically everything but the aesthetics. Honestly, from everything I've read in the genre, he's probably right. Though I don't know if I'd say everyone's trying to serve themselves. It's more that just enough people are that the altruism of other people gets kind of drowned out by the greed of the selfish ones."

They add after a moment, "Huh. We don't have aliens like that where I come from."

[partofthecrowd]

"I realize talking about it makes it not altruistic by nature, but I really did make my program to get people to help each other and it is working, but I can't stop people from trying to abuse it either until it's brought to my attention." She sighed. "Human nature doesn't work like that."