A New Platform [Intro Post June]

[voidtreckermods]

On the Train

Like clockwork, the Voidtreckers are awoken by a familiar message this morning.

"Good morning Voidtreckers, it is day sixteen 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. They will be glad, when the doors open to find it is plesantly warm. A breeze flutters through the platform and the sun shines in patches through the fog.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing, walking silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers. Alleyana Tabris, Asriel Dreemurr, Dr. Otto Octavius, Evangeline A.K. McDowell, Homura Akemi, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Phineas Mason, Riku Replica, Saash, Sam, Shadow, Sherlock Holmes, Steve Rogers, The Doctor; 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. 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 warm and there are some flowers growing in pots near the barriers, bright blooms of colour within the fog.

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 eleven 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.

New passengers will find their ticket allows them into their cabins. They may need to negotiate for beds with their new roommates.

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.

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

[controlsthedie]

... Yondu's description of Peter sounds very familiar. Very, very familiar.

(Also, his ichor is gold, so Thanatos blushes gold. It's very embarrassing, and Thanatos has been doing it more and more the longer he's on this train in close contact with... people. Not just Zagreus. Though mostly concerning Zagreus.)

"Hm?" Thanatos looks at Mort sitting among some crumbs and a package of Pocky that's half empty. "Mort, those are for other people. You can't eat them all."

Mort squeaks like he's offended when Thanatos picks him up and puts him back into his little spot in Thanatos's hood. "He... eats and drinks sometimes. I've never seen him do so, but he's eaten a slice of cake bigger than him before. I don't know where it goes, honestly."

There are some things about Chthonic Companions one does not question. Divine creations can be very confusing.

[yondu]

He's starting to get that. His lucky that his coat, which is likely something that could be considered an unholy creation as it's made by a demon on the train, doesn't have its own unique bothersome qualities.

Though at the idea of Mort eating a piece of cake bigger than he is, Yondu's face pulls a 'confused as royal fuck' stunt. If there's anything about having a lifetime and a half of wear on one, it's that every facial expression has plenty to help exaggerate it. "S'alright, I got a lot of 'em." He's not mad about the mouse whatsit eating stuff just very confused by it. He expects strange things out of life at this point, though, so the surprise ebbs pretty quickly.

"So, I don't know if y'all are... somethin'... it seems like you're somethin', you and your other god-buddy, ya might not be somethin' so if you're not, disregard. You get along somethin' special when you're around, though. Anyway, I got somebody I think a whole lot of, but I'm doin' it to the point I'm makin' myself act kinda foolish around 'im."

'Kind of' doesn't really apply. He acts like a dumbass. He forgets words and tells him he smells good and tells him he likes that he's big in public. He's eaten his whole damn foot from sheer lack of experience and his brain just short-circuiting.

"I'm gonna tell 'im up front an' just get it over with. I never was straight with the last person what really caught me up. It probably ain't likely but I ain't got a clue what to do if he was interested. I spent my life takin' care of business and my kid, not much time to do anything but that."

[controlsthedie]

Sometimes, kids during Art Day decide that Mort needs his own slice of cake, and sometimes, Mort agrees and eats the entire slice of cake as soon as no one's looking.

As Thanatos listens to Yondu talk, his brows furrow with his own confusion. Something? Not something? Something special? He tries to parse what Yondu says about him and Zagreus. At least it sounds like it's supposed to be about them. Or is it about Yondu and someone else and just what Yondu is trying to say?

There's a long pause as Thanatos stares, unblinking at Yondu once he finishes. Thanatos tries to recall everything he just said, and he has no idea what Yondu is on about for the part about him and Zagreus. However, the latter part....

"Are... you asking me... for relationship advice? I'm the God of Death, not the God of Love."

Short tag because the response is easy.

[yondu]

"Yeah, but you're still a person."

As if anyone here did exclusively one thing. He shrugs it off easily, though. "I'll figure it out, I reckon." Because, well... he's been pretty close to being one thing for far too long and now he's stuck without it.

Sometimes short is the best

[controlsthedie]

"Apologies. I have no experience with anything you seem talking about. Romantic endeavors are not something Death Incarnate takes part in." Never have and never will. Thanatos has more important things to care for than his own heart.

[yondu]

"So you're stuck married to your job..."

He frowns, his expression not exactly sympathetic, but in that spectral range. "Well, still, you're person enough to talk to." And now that he's had a chance to talk without worry of being taken as weak or soft, Yondu knows he's done too damn much of it. Like a whole lifetime bursting him at the seams and turning him into a rambly old man. This certainly tempers the personal nature of it, though.

"Do you want me to treat ya like Death Incarnate all the time or just like a guy?" It's a miserably genuine question because of the baggage attached to it. "I don't gotta be personal with you or anythin', that's fine. I just admit, it's easier thinkin' of y'all as people when you spent the last couple of decades tryin' to fend somethin' like a god off from killin' your boy."

[controlsthedie]

The long pause at Yondu's question says just as much as Thanatos's eventual words after. Thanatos opens his mouth to answer but stops. His gaze becomes a little unfocused, his mind not entirely present in this moment. How does Thanatos want to be treated?

Wouldn't it? Just to go back to how most everyone treated him back home? Everything was so much simpler before... Thanatos sighs. That before time will never be again, and in some ways, it's for the better. For Thanatos... he's not so sure. Does he truly have a choice? Back home, he's feared and hated by many, and even those who accept their deaths still have little reason to linger near him. He's regarded differently by family and coworkers, but he's also more dependable toward his duties than he is now. And Zagreus...

"It... would be easier if I was just Death Incarnate to everyone, but... treat me how you will."

Thanatos is still struggling with the whole personhood thing.

[yondu]

Easier, huh? Well... in a way it was easier to be a reviled Ravager captain than it was a friend, a teammate, whatever the hell he is here. Just some guy that sits at tables playing with locks.

He reaches back into the snack box and pulls out a stroopwafel, reaching it out to him.

"Offering to the death god? I ain't tried 'em yet."

Somethin' in between, maybe. Sometimes gods just look like they had a hard day. And they all had a hard day.

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos pauses.

"Ah. You want me to leave." Why else does someone give offerings to Death Incarnate? They want him to stay away--the only favor he cave give. Well, Thanatos did say it would be easier for people to treat him like that. Now, he has to do the same. This is what he wants, right? From everyone?

Internal debates aside, he completely misunderstands why Yondu is giving him the stroopwafel.

[yondu]

"Y'all got wierd rituals, I don't know how your shit works. I'm givin' you another snack."

He continues to hold it out, smiling a little now 'cause hell, he can admit when he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. Wierd Gaian gods got him clean flummoxed.

[controlsthedie]

He sheepishly takes it. (For Mort.) Yondu isn't the only one who is a little flustered.

"The only time I am given offerings is when someone wants me to say away. There is no other reason to pray or offer me anything."

And most of the time it doesn't work because he's not the one actually deciding things. He's just the one who carries out the deed.

[yondu]

"Well, I'm already dead. You told me you were the one in charge of what happens to me 'cause it wasn't technically violent. So..."

He doesn't really want that to be his death. He feels like he spent so much of his life being hated he didn't really get much of the good that's supposed to come with living. But if it is how it ends and the train gives up on him, until he finds the death from his universe or rules that generally apply, then Than is the one gets soul precedent, he supposes.

[controlsthedie]

"You're alive at the moment and could die again. Besides, I'm not in charge of anything. I don't decide those things, much less those of another world."

It's a misconception that Thanatos dealt with back home over and over. Thanatos thought his duty would have carried over, but after visiting three worlds and not feeling the pull of threads needing to be cut have thoroughly convinced Thanatos that he was not here to be Death. (Again, why is he here on the train then? What makes this worth risking his world's destruction?)

"I simply carry out the act and guide your to the Underworld... if we were on my world."

[yondu]

He must note that Thanatos is the most scantily clad bureaucrat that had a conventional body type he's seen in his life, but he doesn't say it out loud. He seems real aware of the particulars and the rules, though.

(Being the primary record keeper for his own ship, he can't really hold him in contempt for that, it's just worth noting.)

"Then you might as well enjoy the break given none of us are due to be dyin', like you say."

He wrinkles his nose as he looks off to the side. "Not so much worried about me dyin' but there's a lotta other people here that have this place as their last shot. That's part of why I got the cuffs... In case Ministry folks catch up to us. Wanted to show people how to get loose if they had to."

[controlsthedie]

Not following the rules or attending responsibilities are what causes most of the godly power battles and widespread death on his world. Also... Thanatos wouldn't call this train a break. (Unless breaking him counts as break)

"The... Ministry folk?" Thanatos's brows furrow. What ministry could Yondu be talking about? "The Void Ministry? What would they want with us? Aren't we completing our missions?"

They're doing the job. Why would they be getting punished?

[yondu]

"We're still doin' the right thing, technically? But from what I heard the ministry doesn't take too well to decommissioned craft roamin' around and uh..."

He gestures around

"Some of us'd be dead without it. I ain't so much worried about me. I did my whole life an' messed it all up. But there are a bunch of kids here that need this train an' I wouldn't feel right without given 'em every last scrap of time I could buy 'em."

It's a matter of karma and being even remotely a decent person.

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos looks at the train with a renewed confusion. Decommissioned usually meant that there was something wrong, something no longer suited for its task. However, this train didn't seem to be falling apart. It may not be the most comfortable of things, but it is serviceable. The... AI then? The thing Devero said was controlling the train?

"I... see..." Thanatos says, and he doesn't like the hesitation and confusion in his voice. He's had to reap the souls of children before, but at the same time, he doesn't want these children to suffer or just... end. They should be able to live their lives... right? And people who get a second chance like Yondu?

He's not sure what's right for him to do anymore. "They've found a good ally in you."

[yondu]

It's hard to accept the idea of himself as anything but a bad person. Most definitely not someone deserving of a second chance. But he doesn't reject the statement, not out of belief but because after everything he's heard Thanatos has been given too much to doubt.

"Yeah, I think the same could probably said for yourself. I guess you got a pretty good idea of what a life's actually worth."

[controlsthedie]

A good ally? Him? Thanatos has trouble believing it. Death Incarnate has no purpose here. Anything he's doing can be done by others, and in many cases, they can accomplish things even better.

"... Life can be both strong and fragile." Thanatos closes his eyes. "More the latter back home." If there is any life left that won't need to be instantly reaped upon his return, Thanatos will be amazed.