voidtreckerexpress | 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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She does know him. Probably not the same version of him, not if the Fjord Soldat knows is dead, but still-- it's a point of connection. "No, not here," they say quickly. "I was. He. This ain't the first time I been kidnapped somewhere. Fjord was at the last place I was, for a little while. I. We were. Friends, I think." Fjord had let them bawl him out for being stupid, they'd watched each other's backs, they'd gone looking for trouble together. They're about 85% sure they were friends.

"Fuuuuuuck," Beau breathes. She rocks back on her heels, looking him over again, and this time when she's finished, her expression has softened a little into a complicated mix of sympathy and guilt.

Because Fjord had been kidnapped before, and she remembers the horrors of the Iron Shepherds' dungeon, and the state her friends had been in when they'd found them.

"He didn't say much about what happened, and none of us...you know. Wanted to press. For what it's worth, I'm glad you made it out."

Soldat presses their mouth together unhappily, feeling guilty but thinking that maybe getting into the whole multiverse problem and the "your friend is dead in another universe" problem will just upset both of them. "Me, too. He was. I liked him. He was an idiot, but I liked him. Is. He okay?"

"Yeah," she says. "Yeah, he's okay. Doing pretty good, actually. He's still an idiot, but we're kind of all idiots if you look at our overall decision-making process, so he fits in."

She pauses a moment, then thrusts her hand out towards him. "I'm Beau. Don't know if he talked about us much as individuals, but if he did, whatever he said about me's probably pretty accurate."

"Never did hear much about a Beau," Soldat allows, shifting the plate of cookies to one hand to free up the flesh one for a single, careful shake before stepping back again. "Nott, who stole things. Mollymauk, with the tail. The guy who made graveyard flower tea." Fjord had said "dead people" tea, but Soldat refuses to use that because it's inaccurate and needlessly startling, dammit.

"Ouch," Beau says, though she neither sounds nor looks particularly wounded. "And I thought we were close."

But then something he's said clicks, and her eyes narrow slightly. "Wait. Cad didn't join us until just before we raided the Iron Shepherds' compound. Fjord couldn't have told you about him if you met him then."

Soldat sighs a little, scrubs their now-free hand over their hair, and says, "That wasn't the kidnapping I meant, no. It's harder to explain the details. We were in. We were in a whole different world. He came there from. Some caves I think? Going somewhere to deal with the being that gave him the water powers?" They really don't want to get into the whole "he died which means he's probably not actually your Fjord thing", Beau. It's so complicated.

"I'm not saying we haven't done a whole fucking lot of cave diving, but I think I'd remember one of my friends disappearing," Beau says flatly.

(But he had, hadn't he? For a few hours. And then they'd found him in a seaweed cocoon, whole and slightly more able to throw a punch. Slightly.)

"Look, you want to help, right? You want me to trust you? Whatever you're dancing around, spit it out. It'll go a long way towards making that happen."

"Mostly I just don't want Fjord's friend to hate me," Soldat answers weakly. The hand over their hair slides down their face, then they give it a go. "Are you. Have you ever thought about alternate universes. Like a whole timeline where somebody makes a different decision, and the world changes from that decision, so there's. There's lots of you out there, based on big decisions you've made? Because. That's how it is. That's how it is for Fjord. The version I know. Was dead. Drowned, I think, in those caves."

Goddamn, that was a lot of words. Soldat cringes back a little, half-expecting anger in response.

"Not when I don't have to," Beau mutters, in response to the possibility of alternate universes. She's not drawn to delve into that sort of madness - forays into dunamancy are Caleb's realm, not hers - but she's not entirely ignorant of it, either.

Mostly, it gives her a headache.

She studies Soldat for a long moment, eyes narrowed, as though she's attempting to peel back his skin in search of any hint of deceit. He's not lying. She'd be willing to swear to it.

"Fuck," she says at last, and presses her eyes tightly shut, throttling down an entirely irrational knot of guilt that threatens to strangle her. Fjord - her Fjord - is fine. She has no way of saving his Fjord. It's not her responsibility to save an infinity of the Nein.

(She would, if they were in front of her. Even knowing full well they weren't hers, she would.)

"So, what, someone summoned him back from the grave?" A beat. "That mean you're dead, too?"

"Yes. Technically." Fine, they'll just... tell her everything. "Our life force. Soul. Something. It was stored in an item. New bodies were made. Then the train snatched me up, and." They shrug helplessly. So many goddamn words. "Brought the item with. So. Still dead, I guess."

"Huh." Beau opens her eyes and squints at him for a moment, remembering the clasp of his - warm, living - hand. "Y'know, I think that would technically make you a sort of lich. Cad would flip his shit. Or make it his life's mission to set you back to rights. One of those."

"I've heard the term before," Soldat agrees wearily. "It sort of fits. I still need to breathe, and eat. I can skip sleep for a while if I have to, but it catches up with me. No special healing comes with it or anything." They snort a little, remembering Fjord and his stupid tangling with the crocodile spirits all on his own. "Fjord even got his ribs all bashed up once. Had to half-carry him back to the inn for healing."

A New Platform [Intro Post May]

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