voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post May]

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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!

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"It isn't, really." Rui said, shaking her head as they walked.

"The internet is like a big worldwide encyclopedia, on a screen instead of a book. You can get all kinds of knowledge from there, and some people use it like the classifieds in a newspaper." She continued. "And they sell goods through advertising the product on one of the webpages."

She smiled a little. "If you order something from someone online, usually it gets delivered to your home so you don't have to go out at all."

That's still more complicated than she's used to, really. After all, screens weren't really a thing in her world - and though she's seen them on the train a lot, courtesy of the ICP terminals, they still feel so odd to her. Screens with moving images behind them.

.. and, apparently, there's also screens with.. encyclopedias behind them? And salespeople?

"How do they manage to fit all of that in one screen?" That idea is just baffling to Alice. Even after everything she's seen in Wonderland. Somehow that made more sense than this still, no matter how ridiculous it was.

"Just like a book, you can go to different pages. It's just like a very compact book. You would touch or use a mouse to select a page and it would open the page. It's a lot of wires and stuff." She said, although hardware wasn't her expertise. "It's really a complicated system, but all the person using it needs to know is how to open the pages. And you can look for just about anything and all kinds of information will show up."

"That sounds like magic, more than anything else."

Even with the technology she's seen on the train, it's hard for Alice's head to wrap itself around the fact that this is just normal in some worlds. In fact, it feels easier to think of it as magic. As something whimsical one may find in Wonderland. That's so much more understandable.

"Besides, I'm not sure if mice would enjoy being used for that. They tend to be very touchy about those sorts of things." Or so the talking mouse she met was, anyway.

"It's not magic, unfortunately. It's a lot of work really." She quirks a little smile and then blinked at the mouse comment.

"Oh, no I didn't mean mouse like the animal. I can understand the confusion. A mouse is an electronic thing you can use to make things move on the screen." Rui explained. "Most people don't have the kind of computer where they can just touch the screen to make things happen."

Touching.. screens.

Mice.

What a world.

"Why would anyone call it a mouse then?" After all, it's not an actual mouse! Why cause that confusion in the first place? You might as well think up a whole new word for it, Alice thinks. It'd be easier.

She chuckles. "You know, I don't know. It's been like that since I was a kid, everyone had these things. I couldn't tell you who called it that."

Rui's knowledge was fairly specialized.

"But ultimately I click on the mouse, I pick what I want and it gets delivered to my apartment and I don't have to go out."

"You may enjoy the train shop then."

Not that Alice knows much about it. She hasn't used it too often herself, especially since she hardly knows how to use the terminals to talk, let alone figure out how to use the train shop more than just very occassionally. But it seems like it's a lot like this thing Rui is talking about here.

Granted, it's like they're all stuck in a big apartment they can't leave here on the train in the first place. But in the worst possible way.

"It works a little like that, even though there are no.. mice." (Still weird.) "Though you may need to get points to spend here first."

"That's good to know." Rui said with a nod. "I might, it might be the same idea. You order what you want and it gets delivered then?"

She couldn't help but ask about that, but she wasn't too sure what she could get, or how to get points. "Can I buy points?"

Alice nods in response to the initial question, but it's the second question that gets her to really look at the other. There's something in Alice's gaze, though it's hard to place. A little curious, perhaps, or a little puzzled.

"Do you have money on you right now?"

"Well...I don't know." Rui admitted. "I'm assuming somewhere in my pack I'll be able to find my wallet." She blinked at Alice.

"...Was I robbed on top of everything else?"

There's a slight pause, but it's mostly one that's necessary for Alice's expression to shift. First looking a bit surprised, but then looking almost - but not quite fully - amused as she looks away from Rui.

"Is it not common for someone to be stripped of their possessions when they are kidnapped where you come from?" If anything, Alice figures that getting money or items is usually the whole purpose of kidnapping in the first place, at least back in London.

Even though this train doesn't seem to have much of a use for them, compared to the way petty criminals would have back there.

"Of course it didn't let us keep anything. There should only be one thing from home in the bag it gave you. The rest is just more of these clothes for the most part."

She blushed lightly. "I...well, you have a point." She let out a loud sigh at that and shook her head at herself.

"Ugh." Rui made a face and tugged at the orange shirt. "More like this? But it's so ugly."

She couldn't help it, that was quite the blow. "Can't I at least wear what I want?"

"Oh, trust me," Alice says, making a small half-dismissive hand gesture. "It's all going to be orange."

After all, if you show up in one colour, then everything in that bag is going to be that colour. Enjoy it, Rui. You're now fit to be the pumpkin ruler during Halloween.

"You can buy clothes the same way you would.. buy them.. 'online', I suppose," Alice explains. She still sounds clearly uneasy with this way of thinking about it, but look, she's trying. "But those cost points too. And it will most likely be a while until you have earned enough for that, so it seems you will be stuck with the orange until then."

"All of it? Why?" She looked rather flustered. "Who would pick orange as an actual colour?"

Rui thought it clashed with her whole look, thank you, she had no desire to be the pumpkin ruler of the train.

"I can't decide if that's the worst news all day. It probably is." She reached up to tug at a lock of her hair too, wishing she'd grown it out a little, but it was easier with her wigs not to.

Alice refrains from answering the question about who would pick it - since she thinks it's obvious, after all, more of a rethorical question than anything else. The train picks it, of course. Just like all of the other awful decisions it's made about the train.

No, rather than answering that question, there's something else that she's getting curious about because of what Rui is saying.

"Do you care that much about how you look?"

Look, it's not a judgemental question! Alice cares a lot too! She's just curious.

"Very much so." Rui sighed. "It's one of my main interests and it...holds significance to me. I suppose it doesn't really matter, but..."

This was depressing and weighing heavily on her already.

"I realize how shallow I sound." At least she was self-aware.

"I think there are worse interests to have than caring about the way you look."

It's not entirely reassuring, but not entirely dismissive either. Alice isn't too great at comforting other people, after all, but she does mean what she says. There are people who love to hurt others - that's far worse than caring about how you look.

Besides, it's not like Alice is entirely indifferent to her looks either, though it has much more to do with the way she comes across to others.

.. maybe it's like that for Rui too, she wonders. And she'd feel bad if the other was trapped into looking one way, all because of the train then.

"I don't have spare clothes, but I have a makeup kit you could use, if you're interested in that sort of thing." Look, Alice may not be able to tell if Rui is a guy or a girl.

But it's not like she's the type to think makeup belongs to any specific gender, so.

"I suppose that's true." She commented. It was just one of the things Rui enjoyed and she indulged in. She supposed she was probably spoiled, but it was hard earned spoiling. She worked for it.

"You do?" She asked and smiled tentatively. "Do you think I could borrow it?"

It wasn't really everything she'd like, but maybe a little makeup would help her feel a little more like herself.

She pulls her shoulders up into a tiny shrug.

"If you promise to not make a mess out of it." Alice needs that kit too, after all! Please, how can she go around the train without wearing copious amounts of eyeliner? It'd ruin her goth cred.

"You don't seem like the type who would mess it up, so please make sure that I've made a good judgement here."

.. Granted, Alice totally isn't above threatening to stab someone over ruining her makeup kit.

But at least she'll wait with that until after it's actually ruined. She's slowly learning how to be a bit polite. Maybe.

She laughed a little bit. "Trust me, I've been putting on makeup for ten years, I know what I'm doing." Rui seemed to be a bit lighter at that.

"Some people think I look better without it, but I don't really agree." The only reason that could be, probably she figured, was because she was nineteen.

"Does it matter what other people think?"

It sounds like Rui is plenty capable of shrugging off those opinions herself, considering she was wearing makeup all the time, even with people telling her she shouldn't. But Alice is so anti-listening-to-people-with-shitty-opinions that she can't help but say it all the same with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

"You should just look the way you want to look. Putting on makeup is just a form of self expression."

"It seems to matter to them what they think." She observed wryly. "And I agree with you, that's how I see it." She smiled slightly.

"I appreciate your help."

Wow, look, she's even getting some thanks! Maybe Rui isn't so bad, even if some of the things she said before are hard to understand for Alice, considering the kind of world she comes from.

There's no 'no problem' or 'you're welcome', but Alice implies it all the same with the way she pulls her shoulders up into a shrug. Sharing a bit of her kit with someone else isn't too bad, especially if Rui may end up using the colours she doesn't use a lot anyway.

"I don't think a lot of people on this train seem to care about other people's appearances, for what it's worth."

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A New Platform [Intro Post May]

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