voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post September]

A New Platform [Intro Post September]

On the Train

"Good morning Voidtreckers, it is day one of the month of Nebula. 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 doors open. As usual, those who leave first notice nothing, walking silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers. A-Qing, Atem, Beauregard Lionett, Casper LeBlanc Jr, Donatello Versus, Frankie Bacon, Ichiban Kasuga, Kumoko, Lena Sabrewing, Mami Tomoe, Mono, Peter Parker, Reno, Shi Qingxuan, Tobari, Wen Ning; all pass across the platform, not looking back. And then they're gone, disappeared 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. The platform is open to a bright blue sky, speckled with a couple of clouds. It's very warm, enough that they will not want to stay in those hoodies for long. Behind them through the fogs is a set of barriers, set in a brick wall and in front of them is a single set of tracks extending both ways into that same thick 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 on the foggy, blistering hot platform; then the fog begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

The platform isn't large, but it is enough to hold the 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, perhaps ten minutes or so, 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'). They will also find a bunch of posters around the train and might notice the new clock in the standard coach.

The store rooms have been restocked with fresh ingredients, the ingredient this month is a strange meat, yaddon tail.

For passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage in various suitcases and bags. There is a box labelled for purple team containing a stick of rock for each member of purple team, including those who are new. Join in your teams success!

New passengers will find their ticket allows them into their cabins. In most rooms, the occupied beds are obvious, leaving the spotless, empty spaces for the newcomers. 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!

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"Yeah, I mean, kind of. Not as close as we could've been but..." He trailed off, shaking his head.

"Well." He exhaled. "We were friends who liked each other."

He was at least aware that Madoka was kind of young for perhaps some frank conversations.

"I'm sorry.. that must make it a lot harder."

Look, Madoka gets that he doesn't mean regular 'like' when he's saying 'like'. She knows it means that Casper and Prompto were a little more than friends - or maybe just about to become a little more than friends.

But it still means he lost someone special. Someone he will probably never see again.

"I know people leave all the time here, but.. that doesn't really make it easier for anyone."

"No." Prompto agreed. "It really sucks when someone leaves your life like that." He murmured.

Then again, the few precious friends he had, minus one, were missing him from their lives right now. It felt like a bad omen.

"I mean, it happens. You hang in there, but..." He didn't exactly have a plethora of people to lose and he hated it when it happened.

But.

Of course that 'but' keeps hanging in the air, even once Prompto's voice trails off. Madoka chews her lower lip for a moment, before she softly speaks up again.

"Why.. don't you tell me about a nice memory you have of him?"

Sure, it might hurt to remember him right now. But it's not like Prompto is going to not think about him, with this hurt inside of him, so Madoka figures she might as well put a slightly more positive spin on it.

"I'd like to hear.."

"A nice memory, huh." Prompto said with a shy smile as he thought about it, looking down at his hands.

"One of the times I realized I liked him wasn't really remarkable. We were just in the spa, soaking in the water, talking." He said. "He was...good to talk to. He listened and I didn't feel like I needed to hide things."

The problem was, Prompto felt like he needed to hide a lot from people.

That sure is the implication happening here, huh. Thankfully it's not something Madoka gets very personally offended at. She knows so many people on the train who seem to have trouble with sharing their feelings - it just seems like Prompto is one of them.

"Why didn't he make you feel that way..?" She instead asks, still deciding to focus on Prompto and his crush. About what made him feel good about it, rather than on what's making him feel sad now. "Was he just that nice..?"

"I don't know. Maybe..." He trailed off a little bit.

"Maybe it's because he's not from Lucis that I could talk about it or maybe because he seemed to understand that not everyone's life is perfect. I don't...I don't know."

It wasn't a trust thing. He trusted his friends. He just worried that if he was too much of a bummer they wouldn't like it. They'd tire of him. He didn't have a lot of self-confidence.

"I think.."

Madoka starts, though very slowly. Her tone is almost careful. Because Madoka is always already worried about expressing the things she thinks in any context, but when it's in this context, when one of her friends is hurting? She wants to make sure to be extra careful, even if it makes her worry at the same time.

"I think you'd find.. um.. that a lot of people understand that. And that a lot of people would want to listen to you, if you'd talk to them.."

She chews her lower lip for a moment, and then shakes her head. "But I understand that it's sometimes a little easier to do with some people than with others. And I'm really sorry you lost someone it was easier with.."

"Thanks." He offered Madoka a smile. "I'll just keep on keeping on, like I always do." He said, because that was how it went for him. Simple as that.

It wasn't simple at all.

"I don't know about that. No one really wants to hear sad stuff. I'm more of a...make everyone happy kind of guy." He smiled again, as though everything was fine.

Madoka gets the last part. Of course Prompto would want to make everyone happy - it's just how he is. He's way too nice for his own good. And most people like making other people happy.

But.. at his own expense? That sounds just a little bit too sad, and Madoka frowns to herself.

"I.. want to hear about the sad stuff."

Maybe it'll help if she's being direct about it? It's not like Madoka likes being sad, but if the alternative is having her friends hide sad stuff from her.. she doesn't like that idea.

"You can always tell me."

"Yeah?" Prompto couldn't help but ask, but he fidgeted with the cuffs on his wrists.

"It's just that there's a lot of sad things in my life and I don't- well it's probably not good to focus on it anyway, but outside of that, it would upset people. It's just not stuff they can fix though."

Noctis would want to fix it. He knew that. There was nothing to fix.

"I feel a little bad that I lost my home, but not as bad as I should, probably." He admitted. "I mean, it's not as bad for me. It's not like...it's not like I had anyone waiting for me. I still have my friends with me. They all lost their families. I got really lucky. So it would be really unfair to be...sad about it."

"Why do you think it's unfair..?"

Not that Madoka doesn't kind of get it - the answer lies in his explanation, after all. There's a very heavy implication that it's unfair for him to be sad about it when other people are having it worse. And sure, that's a feeling that Madoka herself understands very, very well.

But at the same time she doesn't want anyone else to have to feel it, even if she struggles with it herself.

"It's not.. like there's only a limited amount of sadness in the world, right..?" .. Even if that might have been a good thing if there was, under certain circumstances. "Just because someone else is sad, doesn't mean you can't be sad too."

She tilts her head a little, thinking as she speaks on. "It's not like someone has to earn the right to be sad.. It's just a feeling no one can help, I think.."

"Someone's gotta keep everyone moving. It's sad, yeah, but my friends had all these people that they cared about and loved who just up and died all of a sudden and that...that has to hurt a lot." He sucked in a little breath.

"I'm sure it hurts more when you love someone a ton. I don't really know." Prompto shook his head.

"By the time my parents bailed I didn't love them like I should either." Are they dead? He had no idea. Possibly. Maybe. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Maybe there's something wrong with me."

Whew, talk about giving her a lot to ask or talk about. Madoka can hardly keep up with this information that's being thrown her way, but she knows that it's not exactly like it's easy to stop a waterfall of talking and throwing out your feelings when you get started on it.

And the last thing she wants to do, considering what Prompto already told her, is to tell him to stop or slow down. So Madoka thinks for a moment, shoving all the things about asking about the 'bailing' or explaining about the balance between your own sadness and other people's aside for now to instead say something else first.

"Um.. You know.."

She looks meek as she says it, because she doesn't want to come across as rude, but..

"I.. I kind of feel like you're really hard on yourself.. Um, when I hear you talk about your feelings like that. Especially since you don't seem to be as hard on other people at all.."

He was quiet for a moment at her observation. He cannot even deny that. Of course he was hard on himself. Who else was going to be?

He knew what a disaster he was and he had to put up a front. He needed to show he wasn't a disaster because no one would like him if they knew. They hadn't liked him, his peers, at the time.

"Maybe." Prompto said softly. "I know that I can't afford to mess anything up."

Madoka shakes her head.

"I think you can."

Sure, maybe not during missions. Or other tense situations. Madoka has had that feeling herself before as well, after all.

But to constantly carry that with you? It seems impossible to her. Who could possibly carry that burden for their entire life and not collapse under it?

"I mean.. doesn't everyone makes mistakes sometimes..? It's only natural."

"I really can't, I just don't..." He waved his hand. "I don't want to lose what I've still got, so making mistakes..."

Prompto, at the heart of it all, was just scared. It was irrational, maybe, but he was afraid.

She does realise that there must be some sort of core belief underneath it. That something did go wrong before - whether it was really because of him or just because he perceived it as being his fault still being up in the air - and Prompto is blaming himself for it.

It's why she doesn't point towards stuff that might have happened back in his own world that she doesn't know about, but instead asks:

"Have you made even a single mistake here though..? And did you lose something because of that?"

She can't imagine it.

"Hm? No, course not, I'm a total expert at not being a disaster by now." Prompto flashed her a little smile.

He thought he was a disaster the rest of the time, but as long as he kept that under wraps everything would be fine.

"See? Then.. why worry so much?"

Granted, Madoka knows it's not that easy.. especially since she herself is very much a worrywart central resident. But she's trying to make it seem a little bit easier for him, because she's hoping she can give Prompto the courage to worry at least a little less.

"Just do your best. And.. um, if something goes wrong sometimes.. that's okay too. I do things wrong and make mistakes all the time, but everyone here is so kind that they'll just forgive you and let you try again."

Sure, it's still not always easy with her own insecurities, but she's trying. And she knows Prompto can try too. She's such a bright person.

"Because I... honestly don't want to go back to how things used to be." Prompto said softly.

His childhood had been far from idyllic and he didn't know if he could cope with those kinds of feelings again. He would rather not.

"I still have to try."

Her eyebrows knit together in a frown. Partially confused, but mostly just worried.

"How would they go back..?" Sure, maybe she can get that fear back home. Even if she doesn't know what he's so afraid of going back to, she guesses that his circumstances could revert there in some way, but..

"I-I mean, all of us are stuck here. As long as we're still stuck here, none of us have to go back to anything bad from before..!"

"Oh, no, I just mean, I don't want my life to be like before where I was alone and stuff." Prompto said, shaking his head a few times.

"I was alone a lot growing up."

"Well--!" Madoka starts, suddenly looking much more decisive. Her expression even shifts to match the tone she's using. Look at this determined young little teenager.

"You won't ever have to be alone here!" Mostly since Prompto probably has plenty of friends here already, she thinks. Or just because people on the train are really nice, and she doubts anyone would hesitate to befriend him.

But if he needs a bit more reassurance than that, then..

"Because I'm right here with you, aren't I?" And sure, Madoka could disappear at any time. Any of them could. But Madoka has been stuck on the train for so long now that she's willing to bet on these odds.

It might have surprised her, but he actually didn't. He was shy and awkward and was not great at the whole making friends thing all together.

"Thanks Madoka." He did smiled warmly for her however. She could disappear, but he wasn't really thinking about that.

Even if it would hurt later, it would be better to have friends in the meantime.

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A New Platform [Intro Post September]

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