A New Platform [Intro Post October]

[voidtreckermods]

On the Train

The train continues its journey

"Good morning Voidtreckers, it is day sixteen 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. Asch, Ayumi Uoshida, Cleopatra Selene, Della Duck, Ghost, Hanuel Min, Jaisyn Solo, Jonathan Sims, Martin Blackwood, Nie Huaisang, Vermouth; 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 four new faces. Wearing hoodies, three in purple one orange, 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 relatively small, a brick wall behind them and cracked flagstones on the floor. It is cold, icy cold but the wall at least shelters them a little.

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, freezing 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 four 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'). The store rooms have been restocked with fresh ingredients, including yadon tail, 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. 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!

Comments

[knifewithnoname]

"He did be getting me that." She pointed to the plush hedgehog that was currently being used as a target. "He did be saying they did be having spikes and would be attacking their enemies with them. He did be saying they did be being small so people did be underestimating them but they did be no be being defenceless."

Fierce tiny spike warriors. Except this one seems to want to take a nap and not fight at all.

[irrationally]

.. ah. Now Alice understands it. It's not even a prank being played on the girl - or it doesn't sound like it is from this description, anyway.

It's just a plain old misunderstanding.

"Yes, hedgehogs do that," Alice slowly explains. "But only if they feel threatened."

.. Like, say, if a shrill woman is threatening to have them executed.. but adding that example might only make things more confusing, she figures.

"They are not aggressive creatures in the slightest. They just do it to protect themselves."

[knifewithnoname]

Not aggressive? But that was an utter waste of a creature. They had cool spikes. How could they not be aggressive?

She sighed again looking at the sleepy hedgehog and then at Alice.

"So if we do be threatening it it will be attacking?"

Maybe not so useless after all...

[irrationally]

Maybe she should have known the girl's thoughts would obviously go in this direction, huh.

"No, it doesn't quite work like that. If you threaten it, it won't be scared enough to start attacking something. It will only try to defend itself."

Alice shakes her head. "If you wanted something that could attack, you probably would have been better off getting a dog or a cat." Isn't the main purpose of hedgehogs just.. being cute? Alice would think so. She thinks this little spikey beanie bean over here is adorable, thanks.

[knifewithnoname]

"Well that do be being a start." Better than nothing. She sighed again and glanced at the useless little thing and then back at Alice.

"They do no be being made of spikes."

Honestly what was the point of such a sleepy pathetic creature being made of weapons. This made no sense.

[irrationally]

"Well, just consider it. If you did not want to fight, but also did not want others to hurt you, what would you do?"

Rather than waiting for an answer, since it's mostly a rethorical question, Alice gestures at the tiny animal.

"You make sure no one would ever want to touch you, let alone eat you up. That's what those spikes are for. They can roll up, so they're left as nothing more than a very, very spikey ball."

[knifewithnoname]

Not want to fight but not want to be hurt. Such creatures were difficult. If you did not fight then you could not complain when you got eaten.

But that was why it had spikes. To roll up as a spikey ball. No one would eat a spiky ball.

"I do be understanding." She wrinkled her nose with another sigh. Today was a very sighey day.

[irrationally]

Alice glances between the girl and the creature. She can understand why the other is sighing and seeming kind of annoyed at the idea. She ordered something, and now she's stuck with it, and it's definitely not the girl's style to care about an animal just because it's cute.

Especially when it doesn't serve its intended - or imagined - purpose.

But after considering that thought for a moment, Alice shakes her head.

"You should keep it around all the same, you know. You might find that it has some hidden purposes."

.. namely being a cute companion, but Alice is pretty sure the girl wouldn't see the value of it if she were to word it that way. But she has a feeling that the girl might instead learn about it by just.. well, experiencing it.

[knifewithnoname]

"A hidden purpose?" Wei Wuxian had said that people underestimated them because they were small. So perhaps it would be more useful than it had so far proven itself to be.

It better be. She nodded. "I will be keeping it." She had already told the other man that. She had to learn how to look after it. She wrinkled her nose.

"What do you be thinking it will be eating?"

Not much. It's so small.

[irrationally]

.. what do hedgehogs eat? It's a good question, and Alice isn't entirely sure of the answer. It's not like she's kept a hedgehog as a pet before, and it's not like Wonderland was logical enough in the slightest to explain to her how they kept all those hedgehogs at the Queen's grounds alive...

So she's quiet for a few moments, trying to figure it out before she speaks up.

"Perhaps they eat the same way as rabbits do? They are more or less the same size.." Because that's clearly how it works. "Perhaps it would be fine having vegetables or fruit."

[knifewithnoname]

Same as rabbits. That was easy there were lots of rabbits on the train. They ate green things.

"I will be seeing what it do be wanting." She could let it loose with some vegetables for a while, see what it ate.

"Do you be thinking it will be eating meat?" She hadn't got a good look at its teeth, to see if they were sharp.

[irrationally]

"Isn't it much too cute to eat meat?"

.. apparently this is how Alice judges any animal's diet. To be fair, kittens are cute, and cats eat meat.. but that's different, okay, clearly this hedgehog is way too small to eat meat, she figures.

(Don't tell Alice the truth, who knows if her brain will be able to handle it.)

"I could not imagine a thing like this gnawing on my toe if left unguarded."

[knifewithnoname]

"I do no be thinking..." Was cuteness linked to meat eating? She was pretty sure worms didn't eat meat and they weren't cute.

But Alice is certainly more of an expert on cuteness than she ever is.

She looked down at the little creature, that had now curled up next to its plush counterpart and was probably asleep.

"No. It do no be looking like a toe eater..."

[irrationally]

At least they can agree on the fact that it isn't a toe eater. That's a start.

Though Alice doesn't reply to what the girl is saying right away, since she is much too busy staring at the way the hedgehog has cutely curled itself up.. Ugh, it's so cute! It has absolutely no right to be this cute! If only she could immortalize this moment..

But Alice does manage to snap herself out of her cuteness-induced haze a moment later, instead speaking up with: "I have known someone who used them as croquet balls."

You know.

Just as a little fun trivia fact. But Alice can't help but think about it, everytime she now sees hedgehogs.

[knifewithnoname]

"They did be using them as balls?"

Well that was an idea. Spiky balls. If there was a way of throwing them at enemies. But if they were so small and pathetic they might just die.

"What do croquet be being?" She asked, because she had never heard of it before.

[irrationally]

"It is a sport." Not necessarily what most people might call a 'sport' by modern standards, but it's not like Alice is aware of said modern standards tending to be a little more.. wild when it comes to sports.

"You use a hammer to knock balls through small gates. But the person I was playing with prefered to use flamingos and hedgehogs."

[knifewithnoname]

"Flamingo's that do be being... birds?"

Birds hitting hedgehogs? Like balls. Through gates. "They do be having long legs yes?"

So they kicked them? Didn't they get spiked?

She has so many questions.

[irrationally]

Alice nods, confirming that the girl is indeed thinking of the right birds. Or at least, she assumes so - it's not like there are that many birds in existence with long legs..

"You were supposed to tuck them under your arm and hit the hedgehogs with their heads."

Does this not sound totally normal.

Clearly.

[knifewithnoname]

"Oh." She wrinkled her nose again, utterly confused. What a weird game this was. Didn't they get spikes in their heads? And what sort of birds would let humans pick them up and hit spike balls with them.

"Do they no be pecking?"

[irrationally]

"Of course. That is what those creatures tend to do."

They are wild birds, after all. No one ever said the game that the Queen of Hearts was playing was exactly practical - much like anything in Wonderland.

".. so, honestly, the game did not get all that far. The hedgehogs kept running away too."

[knifewithnoname]

"I would be running away too if someone did be trying to be hitting me with a bird."

What a weird game. What a weird place Alice came from.