voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post October]

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A New Platform [Intro Post October]

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!

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Inigo shakes his head, but only then realises that it's not exactly like Jingyi can see it while they're moving like this, so he speaks up verbally with a: "No."

Not that he doesn't try to think of it in this moment, but it's too hard.

"I was too young."

By the time he was old enough to actually remember the songs, there no longer was any reason to sing, and then there no longer was a mother. He'd feel worse talking about his mother if things hadn't ended that way, really, with Jingyi's little 'could imagine'. He wouldn't want to rub in happy memories with his mother if Jingyi doesn't have them, but it's not exactly like every memory of his mother is happy. It makes it feel weirdly more fair.

"I just remember her singing voice, but not the words."

To degrees, families are curiosities to him, though he didn't feel particularly bereft of one. Too many of his generation had been in similar situations, and he'd never lacked for companionship, partly by personality and selecting himself a best friend because he could. Because A-Yuan had needed one as much as he had, and Jingyi even as a child had been opinionated enough in what he believed, and in what he wouldn't let stand.

(Children are cruel, not necessarily through thoughtful choice. Not at three and four and five, but even then, he would not allow cruelty to pass uncommented on. No shunning a child for being a stranger, for not having memories to share, for being quiet.)

"Do you remember the melody?" The sounds, he thinks, as someone so inclined toward music by clan teaching and a lifetime of learning how to use his fingers to pull music out of strings, to fight with it, to communicate with the dead using it. He flirted with flute, too, out of his starry eyed wonder for Wei Wuxian, and the one of his sect leader's favouring.

"Maybe.."

Inigo's voice trails off, only to be replaced for a moment by a few hummed notes.. and then a quick shake of his head. "No, that wasn't it."

The guy doesn't give up right away though, making a few more attempts, a little different each time.

The last attempt, however, just ends with a sigh.

"I don't think I remember it exactly." It has grown so vague in his memory, something that didn't feel as important as everything else. Something he didn't bother to hang on to as intensely, in favour of more important things. "I'm not even sure if it was an actual song, or if she was just making something up while we were spending time together."

Jingyi listens, to each abortive attempt, keeping the collection of sounds in his head up to when Inigo sighs.

"I don't see how that's different," he says. "If she made it up for the two of you, it's still a song. A song for you two."

It might be part of his clan, musicians by their trainings and nature. Composing music wasn't uncommon, in whatever forms, and it didn't need to be the kind that was weaponised, or that settled spirits, or anything of the kind. Hanguang-jun had written a song for his soulmate and the way their selves twined around each other. Music didn't need to be codified in tradition, in Jingyi's eyes.

He ends up humming then, a flowing mixture of the small pieces Inigo had given him, weaving them into something different, harkening back. Just a lifting and lulling flow of sound, wordless for a song he's never heard, and never will.

Honestly, he knows very little about music. Sure, Inigo is a dancer, but he's a dancer who has learned to dance even when there is absolutely no music around, considering the state of his own world. It's why he's much better at dancing than he is at recognizing anything about music, so he's not sure if there is or isn't a difference, while Jingyi is pointing out the latter.

Instead Inigo settles right back in when the other starts humming like that, recognizing the notes at least from what he was attempting to sing a moment ago - even with his limited musical knowledge.

"It sounds like you really like music," he finally remarks with another barely audible mumble.

And sure, sure, he knows that Jingyi must at least somewhat like music, since he's able to play an instrument.. but he means it a little beyond just having a functional liking of music here. The kind of thing that can make one happy.

He holds the last note of his stitched together melody, one ear flicking back when Inigo speaks. Jingyi didn't have a firm idea of enjoying music or not, it was so woven into his life; he learned the qin, some of the flute, had a keen ear and no shyness in calling out less than pleasing melodies of all kinds. He had pride in his clan, and their music, and his knowledge, a confidence and surety of it, but like? Dislike? Like doesn't feel as if it has a place in any of this.

"I don't know. I'm a Lan, music is part of our foundation. Is it liking it? I can't imagine any way of living where music isn't part of it."

He fights with music, studies music, meditates to music, communicates with music. Smack talks people for being shitty at music.

He laughs, thinking on the idea of music. "I guess I do. It's why the idea of that thing, the karaoke machine? Appealed."

"I can't believe you'd say something like 'it's part of our foundation', and then still question if that means you like it.."

It's said with a hint of amusement to his half-mumbled tone though. It's just cute, okay, the way Jingyi says it while questioning at the same time, even though he seems to land on an answer a moment later. It's only made cuter by the fact that Jingyi is such a direct and honest person, so Inigo knows it's not like the other is just waffling on admitting something or not.

It's just Jingyi's thought process in real time - and he's getting to follow it. It makes him smile a little.

".. What is a karaoke machine though?"

Apparently.. he hasn't noticed yet, for better or worse...

"We're also taught to meditate and be quiet. Something being foundational doesn't mean you always like it! We mostly eat vegetarian meals, but I still like chicken more than I do most vegetable dishes..."

He snorts, but his head doesn't shake like it might have otherwise, not with where he'd asked Inigo to hold on. He banks into lazy, tight spirals, closing his own eyes and operating on proximity and awareness that few flew during these short stints in any larger sort of off-train space.

"Jake Peralta explained it to me—I kind of ordered it not really fully getting what it was? It's this thing that makes colours on itself when it plays, but that's not the point. Probably. It's kind of pretty, but the point is it plays music to songs I've never heard of, and there's this other part that shows the words? You sing along and the machine cheers you on the whole time with hearts and stuff."

Parked in the music carriage, who needed to even know about it? Other than the poor person complaining about its squid-people dancing videos...

The absolute biggest upside of being friends with someone from a world with a level of technology similar to yours is that it's so much easier to follow their explanations when it comes to anything that has anything to do with technology. Inigo's more 'modern' friends often confuse the heck out of him with it, but despite having no idea of what the machine is, Inigo can instantly grasp the concept just from what the dragon is telling him here.

"Songs you've never heard of? You mean like the ones they have in the music carriage?" Don't worry, that's a culture shock Inigo has had before too. And over.. and over.. He's still not fully used to the music there, really. "Like that one song that goes.. 'I'm all about that bass, about that bass, no treble"?

...

Inigo pauses, and then moves his head up a little, adding: "I'm still not entirely sure why she is singing about fish and problems."

Oh, heavens, the music carriage songs. He had limited exposure to them, but what Inigo says definitely makes sense for what contact he has had.

"Yeah, like those ones!" There's so much going on, at times so discordantly to his ear, and other times worming in and creating odd hybrid melodies. He feels like what Inigo says is something he's heard sung before, though he can't make any more sense of it than Inigo does. In fact, it might be worse.

"Bass is a fish? Maybe they're fishing in a privately owned lake."

Not because that made more sense, but it did at least make more sense to him.

"There was this one getting sung that was something about a baby being a firework to show what they were worth. Who would compare a baby to something that explodes in the sky? Why would anyone want to? Let alone make babies fly. Such weird things they sing about," he says, continuing his lazy spiral. "I assume there's poetry involved, but I know nothing about whatever poetry they're referencing."

.. honestly, that's the explanation that comes the closest to making sense to Inigo as well. He does suppose it would be trouble if you were fishing in privately owned lakes.. but then why make a song about it? Other worlds are so confusing.

But thankfully Jingyi just happens to bring up an example that Inigo has already done some extensive research on. It puts a smile on his face, and he sounds almost a little proud when he speaks up.

(Granted, that pride would fade instantly if Jingyi were the fly any faster, but the speed right now is very much something Inigo can bear.)

"It's a term of endearment in many other worlds," he explains. Not his own, hence why he says 'other', but still! "Calling the person you like 'baby' or 'babe'. I imagine that singer was most likely singing the song to her beloved.. Even though I'm still not really sure why said lover was being compared to firework."

Jingyi has engineered today's riding so that he can't actually look at his rider (or riders, when he will take Sizhui up as well), so he's more creative in how he communicates his disbelief. The stark silence that follows Inigo's announcement turns into abrupt laughter.

"People call their lovers infants? You know that's literally a name where I'm from, so it's only a term of endearment if it is your name. A-Ying, I guess, or Yingying, or their family name followed by Ying..."

Wei Wuxian would be an example, but he feels weird enough when he refers to either of his seniors by their courtesy names, and he only knows their birth names because the two of them call each other by them at all times. Otherwise it was unlikely he'd have ever learned.

"Comparing them to fireworks is even worse! I can send up fireworks," he says, and he lifts one taloned paw to actually do that, sending a streak of blue-white light up and overhead, hitting into the barrier and then bursting into a showering of cool sparks of blue and white light, without the sound of a firework done through black powder means, "But unless you're saying your lover's like a warning sign that you're in trouble and need help, seems kind of inauspicious."

Look at them, inventing their own lingo by merit of not understanding outside culture associations and the like.

Ah.

Yes.

Sure. Jingyi can randomly create fireworks, because why not. It's not something dragons generally can do in Inigo's world, as long as he's not counting Naga in that category, so it's pretty wild to him.. but then again, he's been on the train for such a long time now. Constantly seeing new, wild things is basically his daily reality at this point, and so he doesn't remark on it.

Instead he puts his brainpower towards a purpose that is clearly much more productive: thinking about modern song lyrics.

"Maybe they are comparing their lover to a specific quality firework has." Because Inigo doubts the song was meant as something negative. That just seems too mean, and so he doesn't like even considering it. "Since firework explodes. So maybe they are saying their lover is.. passionate!"

That sounds plausible, right?

Inigo thinks it does.

"Perhaps all we have to do is master these modern forms of poetry to understand these songs."

Jingyi, still trying to understand what in a firework would be a desirable quality in a lover, puzzles right on back.

"I mean, maybe it's that they're loud? Or flashy? Or they're more dramatic at night? They do explode, but that's kind of over too fast, isn't it?"

He's thinking about attention spans, and how the memory of a firework might linger, but the truth of it passes so swiftly as to have been barely there at all. The smoke lingers. Maybe that's relevant?

He huffs out a sound of amusement tinged with exasperation.

"I think we've got to, even if it's not modern, it's future. What's so modern about these things? Tell me how, Hey, I just met you and this is crazy, but here's my number, so call me, maybe is some modern revelation instead of a future one where people have numbers! ... Which I think are the things we used on that illusion Diagad world to communicate? Instead of the SCAs."

H-Hey, dude, don't grill him on the modern part! It's just what people have called it in front of him, okay, so he's just copying it. He doesn't know how else to differentiate it from their sort of worlds, other than calling it 'otherworldly'-- but technically that just means their worlds are otherworldly compared to each other's too.

"Well, I imagine some of them are more straightforward than others.."

Like the masterpiece Jingyi is reciting here. (Inigo feels like he might have heard that song before too, if not in passing..)

"But why are you only thinking about the negative sides of firework? No one would write a song to insult their lover!"

It's Jingyi, he always argues.

Though Inigo has a point, and so Jingyi, who has been looking at fireworks as what he uses them as (what do you mean people have firework shows, they're signal alerts, okay) tries to consider a positive side. A good side to fireworks.

Then he strikes it, all at once, and his voice lifts and has a very happy, self-satisfied air.

"Because your lover always comes to save you when everything else has gone to hell!"

This is probably not the intent, but it's at least more like it.

There's a slight pause after Jingyi gives that answer, a silence only filled up by the air swooshing by them as they're flying. But it's not a concerned pause or a pause because Inigo thinks that idea is ridiculous.

No.. instead he's trying really hard to hold back a laugh, because he doesn't want Jingyi to feel like he's laughing at him - but he's fighting a truly losing battle here, considering the laugh escapes Inigo's lips a moment later all the same.

It doesn't sound like he's mocking Jingyi though. Instead it just sounds genuinely mirtful.

"That's probably the cutest thing I've ever heard you say!"

Now he's getting more of an idea about your concept of romance, Jingyi.

When your formative concept of romance ends up being your best friend's dads... you might have a certain give and take understanding of how you come to each other's aid while also largely fighting side by side. Perhaps a little influenced. Particularly when you use a firework... to summon... one or the other of said dads...

"What?" He sounds surprised, genuinely caught off guard by the laughter and the statement. "How in the world is that cute?"

"How in the world isn't that cute!"

Sorry, Jingyi, Inigo might be getting straight up giddy now while he's still sitting there on your back. But how else is he supposed to react to a statement like that? Especially when Jingyi said it so eagerly! Everything about that is positively adorable.

"I mean, out of all of the things you could be looking for in a lover, it seems that them coming to save you when times are most dire is something you sound so happy about!" And how isn't that cute. Rather than going for something shallow, or something weird, it's such a pure thought that left Jingyi's mouth just now.

It's just even cuter in contrast to his other suggestions, or his usual complaining.

"Hey, hey, don't you know that I'd come save you too whenever you need it? Just call me whenever you're in trouble, and I'll be right there! We don't need to be lovers for that, you know."

Surprisingly, perhaps, having this called out like Inigo does actually manages to fluster him to some degree of not knowing what in the world to say.

"Shouldn't I be happy?!" It's the ultimate form of support, isn't it? Inigo could probably feel Jingyi's fur standing on end, though it was more of a soft movement and getting more fur suddenly in his face as Jingyi turned from relaxed form to full fluff. Which was admittedly not a long lasting response, but there it was regardless.

"Of course we don't have to be! I was just trying to think of something positive a firework could be like that you'd want in a lover!" Which to him is, yes, having someone willing to show up at his side when all hell has broken loose, thank you. "What kind of a jackass would only show up for their lover and none of their friends? I'm not sure I want to meet them..."

He was grousing by now, but in such a way that it's good dragons can't blush, and Inigo wouldn't be able to see his face any better than he can see Inigo's right now. Heavens, it's natural, isn't it? To want someone you love at your side when things are hard. It's not different to him in the sense that the friends he cared for deeply are the same kind of support, and he's aware that it's selfish, too, because it's the wanting of that person at his side, just like he'd want to be at their side, shoulder to shoulder, when they were facing their own difficulties.

"If you wanted romance couldn't we talk about flowers? Moonlight? Whispering winds and the brush of a candle's heat against your palm or the lingering warmth on a pillow beside you, come dawn? There are such better metaphors than fireworks."

That this was all from not getting future-modern poetry in song has been lost somewhere along the way.

The complaining isn't too strange. After all, it's something that happens pretty much every day by Jingyi standards - and yet there seems to be something a little more about it right now. Inigo is quiet, just listening to the other grouch on and on like that, but his brain sure is buzzing with the thought at the same time.

There's something a little more to it. It's almost as if..

".. Jingyi." Sorry to cut off your fireworks rant, bro. But Inigo can't help but ask this with a smile on his face: "Are you embarrassed?"

Look, he just never expected this table to be flipped around! Usually he is the embarrassed one! Or flustered one, whatever!

Lans, generally speaking, don't lie. At least not directly, which is why, even with his fur returning to it's usual state, Jingyi says, "That's what you're choosing to focus on?!"

Which is a yes, without having to be a yes.

"Yes, because that's also cute!"

Don't worry, Jingyi. It's all still said with love. Pal love, that is. It's just a nice moment of Inigo realising just how fond he's grown of someone. Knowing that little things, like Jingyi saying that stuff or getting all flustered, makes him feel weirdly happy, his chest weirdly warm.

"I just like seeing this side of you, you know." Or.. maybe more like 'hearing' it, since Jingyi is still in dragon form and can't exactly face it.. How unfortunate that Inigo didn't get to see the faces the other would've made in his human form.

And to be open about his own feelings in turn, just so Jingyi won't feel like the only vulnerable one here, Inigo shakes his head and adds: "It makes me feel all happy."

Which doesn't really make sense to Jingyi, but his ways of learning about people or feeling close to them is more the direct questions or incidental sharing that happens over time. He's happy when his friends are happy, he's protective when they're sad or sick or conflicted. It's not particularly complicated social mathematics, but it doesn't need to be.

That's more where respect and boundary pushing comes in, but there's less of that with peers and juniors. More of a concern, when people are of an older generation.

"I really don't get why," he says, ears flicking back, one swiveling to stay tracked on Inigo. "You're happy knowing I get embarrassed?"

Bro, please, you say that as if people never laugh when Inigo gets all embarrassed.

But there's a little more to it here. Sure, there's some amusement in it, since it is kind of funny. But Inigo wouldn't let that be the leading emotion here, especially since it's some genuine happiness he's feeling.

"It's like I'm seeing more of you."

After all, it feels like Jingyi doesn't get embarrassed as easily as Inigo does.. But let's be real, Inigo is basically the undefeated champion of easy embarrassment.

"I like that. Seeing all these different sides of you." (Jingyi can keep the drunk side though, it's fine, he doesn't need to see more of that one.)

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