voidtreckermods: (sparkly train)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] voidtreckerexpress2021-05-01 07:50 am

A New Platform [Intro Post May]

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!
officedragon: (thonking)

[personal profile] officedragon 2021-05-08 06:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. "Well, that makes sense, if I were ever to consider that, I wouldn't want to bother anyone else." But Hecate really couldn't hide her amusement. Her, married? Or in a committed relationship? No thank you, she didn't want her style cramped.

"Though it'd be nice if it gave more room...I suspect it didn't do that, did it?" It looked a bit bigger than the subway trains in the Underworld, but she'd at least heard of really posh luxury trains...and this did not remotely resemble that at all.

"I'm Hecate, by the by. Pleasure to make your acquaintance."
yondu: (0 9 6)

[personal profile] yondu 2021-05-08 06:47 pm (UTC)(link)
"Right. Yondu, Yondu Udonta." He taps his chest twice with his right hand and bows a little bit. His usual Ravager salute, before looking up at the train.

"Yeah, I ain't ever done the commitment thing either," despite some cursed tainted thoughts he'd best be setting on fire before they ruin what's actually good, "so you're gonna be in my boat of sleepin' in a matchbox."

He doesn't know the related rules yet. Just that, well, suddenly the train's all inconvenient an' he's gonna have to learn shit again.
officedragon: (disgruntled employee of the month)

[personal profile] officedragon 2021-05-08 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
A matchbox? Oh, wonderful. She missed her king-sized bed already. "That's great," Hecate said. No, she didn't sound enthused at all.

"So what do we do here, anyway? I admit I'm having a hard time imagining what a train might want with me." Not that she really wanted to explain exactly what her role was back in the Underworld, but it might just have to come to that.
yondu: (2 4 2)

[personal profile] yondu 2021-05-08 07:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"We do hero bullshit. Then make-up busy work or be bored between hero bullshit. Depends on how much you're willin' to help other people out."

Yondu spreads his hands and pulls a face.

"There's a cinema an' a music car an' a butt naked library an' a gym."
officedragon: (sweatdrop)

[personal profile] officedragon 2021-05-08 10:22 pm (UTC)(link)
Wait. He was kidding, wasn't he? "Hero bullshit? You can't be serious. If this thing needs or wants heroes, why did it pull me here?" A hero, Hecate was not.
"A number of mortal heroes, perfectly capable of doing heroic deeds and asking bards to sing about them later, and it yanks me from my duties?"

Not that she'd been terribly busy, but it was the principle of the thing.

"Oh. That sounds absolutely fantastic, let me curb my enthusiasm." Hecate's tone is dry, but her annoyance isn't at him, but at the train. "Next you're going to tell me we can't even complain, because there's no one in charge to hold accountable for...all this."
yondu: (0 6 1)

[personal profile] yondu 2021-05-09 12:21 am (UTC)(link)
He nods firmly.

"No, there's that bullshit, too. You can put in complaints with the train, but management can and will ignore ya." Wherever management is.

"...I always hate this part of the speech. Normally I woulda got out here already but I don't like tellin' people they got no choice in bein' conscripted. That just how it is, though. They didn't tell none of us first. I was dyin' when they snagged me."
officedragon: (startled)

[personal profile] officedragon 2021-05-09 03:51 am (UTC)(link)
Hecate considered that for a moment. That this train could somehow even cheat death. It didn't surprise her a bit that what she'd said was the way things were, here. But the fact that the train cheated death did, a little.

"So is the fact that you aren't dying now a consolation, or a disappointment?" Mostly, she was asking that because she was genuinely curious. Yondu's rough-around-the-edges demeanor didn't bother her a bit. "I'd rather you tell it to me straight so I know. I've never been inclined to shoot the messenger, as they say. I'm grateful, actually."

It gave her a better idea as to what she could expect.
yondu: (1 8 9)

[personal profile] yondu 2021-05-09 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
Difficult question to answer. What is it where you don't particularly like livin' but don't like dyin' either? Is there a state for that?

He just shrugs. "Train don't give a damn whether you was ready to go or not." And in that moment, Yondu had been ready. Sometimes his brain wanders back there still. Sometimes he's decent about scraping himself together and even manages to be almost happy. "Doesn't matter what kinda spot you were in, either. But I think most of us were livin'."

He points to the train. "There's a Death god on board though. Name's Thanatos I think? I don't know. You'll probably meet him. He don't like touchin' the ground much."