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

[labcatte]

Bacon laughs. "No," they say. "Just a cousin. My aunt programmed the gods for AWO."

Maybe this is stupid. If he's a Griefer, he can probably guess who Bacon is just from that. But on the other hand, if he's not... well, maybe he'll be able to understand.

[helborn]

"Oh. Gotcha. That's pretty neat." He smiles at them. "Sorry, just... it's been a while since I ran into someone like me."

[labcatte]

"I think I weird out my adventuring party sometimes," Bacon admits. "But I mean, it's hard to take the gods seriously when you remember them growing up in your aunt's lab. Or when one of them will not stop complaining about how one of your friends seduced his high priestess."

[helborn]

"I mean, that's fair. For both points. Especially if it was one of the sort of 'sworn virgin' high priestesses."

[labcatte]

"Yeah, well, Delvar could maybe let it go," Bacon complains. "He already lost his tail over it once."

[helborn]

"Literal tail, or metaphorical?" Look, Bacon is a giant tiger. Who even knows at this point?

Delvar is surprisingly Jules-esque in many ways

[labcatte]

Regular sized tiger, really. Maybe even a little small.

"Literal," Bacon says. "It does that when he's upset."

[helborn]

"Huh. I know someone who's like that. ... He's a really nervous kind of guy. A good guy, just... justifiably scared of a lot of things."

[labcatte]

Bacon shrugs. "I mean, I do get why Delvar is like that. He and the other terr-- elementals are modeled after programmers on my aunt's team as an in-joke and god knows Julian's high strung and petty even at the best of times. I kind of wish he'd inherited something less annoying, though."

[helborn]

Julian. Is he going to keep running into familiar names? He struggles to keep the confusion off of his face. "Yeah, well. Can't choose your family, huh? Even if they're computer programs, I guess."

[labcatte]

"Tell me about it," Bacon says. "Though honestly, they're not bad, at least when it comes to immediate family. I mean, I get the impression from things my parents let slip that Papa's dad might have had a stick up his ass, but he passed away not long after they adopted me, so if he did, I don't remember. But the rest of my family's fine, both terrestrial and mundane."

[helborn]

"That's good. Family's a... hard group to change." You can get new friends, but new family is harder. Also it's... nice to hear of a world where two guys adopting a kid doesn't seem to be a big deal.

[labcatte]

"Yeah," Bacon says. They sigh. "God, I hope Abuelito and Abuelita are still okay. Tio Alain said they were when he came in with the rest of the group DARPA sent in after us, but they're getting on in their years, even with nanos. They're both about ninety and while both Abuelita's parents made it that long--hell, they technically outlived Papa's dad, if only by like a year--Abuelito's dad died a lot younger than that." They shove their hand back through their head fur, anxiously. "I've been living with them for about, god, almost half a decade? After we lost my dads, I wanted to be closer to family. And Tia Charley travels too much."

[helborn]

He just stares for a moment. Charley. Alain. This is almost too much. He shakes his head, trying to contain his confusion. "Yeah... I lived with just my dad my whole life. I don't know about any... uh. Mortal extended family. The god side... I mean. One of my uncles is a horse with eight legs."

cw: allusions to the I/O-verse's version of recent current events

[labcatte]

You saw their legal last name on the roster, didn't you, Casper? No wonder your head hurts.

"You mean Sleipnir?" they say. "Jeez, that is weird to think about." Bacon hesitates for a moment, then says, "If it helps, I don't really know much about my mom's family. Or anything, really. I've got a letter she wrote me while she was sick, but I mean, it was at the start of the plague years and people went pretty fast. So it's just the one and she doesn't really talk a lot about her past."

[helborn]

"Start of the... what?" His brow furrows in confusion. "What do you mean, 'plague years'?"

cw: current events are i/o canon for Reasons

[labcatte]

Bacon winces. "Oh right," they say. "You're from the past. Look, um, so there was this whole worldwide pandemic back the year I turned four and, uh, it lasted a while and got pretty bad before the end and basically changed a lot about... well, everything. That's how I ended up with Dad and Papa. Because Mama got sick and if she had any family they were all in Puerto Rico and she was work friends with Dad and knew that he and Papa had been thinking of adopting. So she named them as my guardians."

[helborn]

He sits with that for a few long moments. “Gods. ... I’m so sorry. I know you were young but that doesn’t change the fact that it sounds awful.”

[labcatte]

"Yeah," they say, softly, looking away. "It kind of was and I'd barely turned four, so I didn't have a great concept of what death is anyway. I just knew that Dad--only I didn't call him that yet, I called him Tio Steven--was taking me to his apartment so I could get babysat by them again and I had to stay overnight and then the next day after my nap, they showed me this tablet and there was Mama in the hospital bed and she told me that my Tios were gonna be my dads now and to be brave and good and that she'd be watching over me in heaven."

[helborn]

"I..." Steven. Gods, this is really some sort of alternate universe fuckery and he can't tell if he's amused or distressed or both or something else.

Dammit, he has to focus. "You've obviously had time to process it, so I won't go through the normal spiel. ... You're... if there's any sort of similarity between him and the... um. Steven I know who's related to a Charley... I'm sure he looked after you well."

He sighs deeply - if he hides this for longer he's just going to get them mad at him for hiding it. "His husband's name is Thace, isn't it?"

[labcatte]

Bacon stares at him.

"Papa's avatar name for AWO is 'Thais,' yes," they say slowly. "His actual given name is Thain. Actually, uh, I gave him and Dad a bit of shit over their avatar names. Dad went with his usual name he uses for gaming avatars, which is Barrow Tender, because he has to be an edgelord like that and then Papa just literally changed one letter of his given name and then decided he'd be cute and give his avatar the same surname as Dad's, so now he's Thais Tender, which is objectively ridiculous."

[helborn]

He just rubs his face.

"This is ridiculous. 'Cause you've got a lot of people in the same relationship setups as some of my friends, with the same or very similar names. I would like to file a complaint with the mutliverse and get compensation for this headache."

[labcatte]

"You're not the only one who thinks this is ridiculous," Bacon says, crossing their arms in front of them. "Tell me about these people you know and how you know them."

[helborn]

"Uh. The short answer is that the place I was at last was like this, and they were all there. Though uh. I'm guessing your world... it doesn't have supernatural stuff, does it?"

[labcatte]

"As far as I know, it's all significantly advanced technology," Bacon says, giving Casper an impatient look. "Who was there?"