voidtreckerexpress | A NEW PLATFORM [INTRO POST JANUARY]

A NEW PLATFORM [INTRO POST JANUARY]

On the Train

Despite whatever Voidtreckers may have learned or how they feel about those revelations - or reminders - of the precariousness of their situation, the train flies ever onward.

"Good morning Voidtreckers, it is day one of the month of Poi. 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. The weather is dry but there is a chill to the air and a strong breeze." 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. Dairine, Okada Izō, Rapunzel, Satoru and Siebren; 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 thirteen new faces. Wearing hoodies in all four colours and 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 long with a grassy mound behind them. It is blustery and the air is cold, they will be glad of those hoodies.

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, windy platform; then the fog begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

Thirteen figures, 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, with cans of corned beef lining the shelves.

For passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage in various suitcases and bags. Those from purple who go to find their prize will find a large box containing a gingerbread train for them to share. Plenty enough to go around, even for the largest team.

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.

Snow Time: Rock Garden

Winter seems to have followed from Osiga and nested in the rock garden. There's a chill that nips in the air and a light snow (real snow) fills the air. A thin cloudy haze at the top of the carriage seems the source. Yet the kaleidoscope of the void will assure that this is no timely world stop.

People might have seen it occurring the night before. Snow falling heavy before tapering off with an odd precision, leaving a heavy blanket over the carriage 'ground'. By morning of Platform Day, a miniature winter has descended, ripe for snowforts, snowballs, angels and snowmen.

It's not just the climate that's changed. Many statues and rock features are missing or moved. Digging below the snow reveals soil now frozen but providing a barrier between the bare floor of the carriage. Keen eyes will see changes are made with safety and available space in mind. The fountain has been emptied but the pond and streams are frozen solid, allowing intrepid spirits to try slide-skating over the surfaces without the risk of breaking through. The mosaics are still around, and enchantments are in place to protect paintings and paper decorations from damp. Any plants have been sent to sleep or taken to safety.

The benches are still around. Paths and bridges are covered with fresh snow, but, as the day goes on, it's trampled down and or scattered. Najaran's woodfolk may be glimpsed near Jingyi's shrine or hiding in the shadows of rocks and statues still present, perhaps even buried in the snow and peeking out. Shy around humans, though those with pointed ears or Hylian lineage may find an easier time interacting.

There are signs on both doors of the carriage warning of the change and mentioning the dressing carriage will have winter gear, and it does: with hats, scarves, gloves and ice skates in a variety of sizes. Dispensers with warm drinks such as coffee, hot chocolate and hot water for tea are available in the Games Carriage.

Early the next day, the snow will be gone and the gardens returned to how they once were.

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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Hey, one never knew with life on the train. For all he knew, maybe that was normal in this guy's world; not everyone had the same values or hang ups after all.

And most of the medical supplies on the first level aside from the beds were stored away at the moment. The more obvious surgical equipment was on the upper level.

"Well if you're wearing an extra layer underneath it might be a bit warm yeah," Lea said. And circuits? Maybe this guy was an android of some kind too. "Especially with the hoodie, and after the weather on the platform. But how come you even have that extra, glowing body suit? I mean, it looks cool and all, but most people's clothes get straight-up replaced when they're brought here."

Is he assuming something? "I just came here," looking slightly perplexed. "You'd have more data on that than I do."

Something is amiss. Besides everything being completely wrong. Sure. Plenty of programs don't have a disk. He didn't originally. But does he not have circuits either? He resigns himself to simply showing him directly from disk, though reluctantly.

Faux reaches for his disk on his back, and undocks it, swiveling it around and activating its holo-screen. "This is my default setting, it's a part of my code," pointing to the area, "You can see it just there." He gives a shrug. "I don't know what else I can offer."

Lea gave a bit of a sheepish nod of agreement at the first bit. "Yeah alright, fair enough," he said. No one really knew why the train replaced everyone's clothing on arrival, and that included him. Yes, it served as a handy team marker, but there were other ways of doing that. Ah well...

But then the guy pulled what Lea had assumed to be just part of his bodysuit off; a ring or chakram about the size of a frisbee that apparently clicked onto a holder on his back. Like everything else on his body suit it glowed, having a glowing stripe running around it. But then he used it to project... some sort of hologram of himself? What even was this? And his 'code'? What?

Lea's confusion was evident on his face. "Your 'default setting'?", he said. And combined with what he'd said about his 'code', he made a somewhat educated guess. "So... are you a computer program or something?"

"Yeah, of course I a-" Faux realizes something then. The red haired program doesn't know what his circuits are. Nor his code. Now questioning his programhood?

It all makes sense.

Faux's mouth may be hanging open just slightly mid-word. Deactivating the disk, he rightens himself, but cannot help a slight visible wince from forming.

"You're not a program, are you?"

Under other circumstances, Lea suspected that both their expressions would probably be rather comical just then. But at the moment it was too confusing to be funny. "Not last time I checked, no," he said. "I'm human." He wished he could say he always had been, but well... "A lot of those on board are, but we've really got all kinds. I think you're the first program though."

His shell drops.

Oh no. Not again...

Horrified at how he had acted to everyone here so far, it was bad enough that he hadn't noticed his own user's identity when they had met back in ENCOM. But did he have to fail at every single meeting with a user? Could he be anymore clueless?

To his relief, he manages to keep a collected expression as he re-docks his disk. But ultimately knows this is just prolonging the embarrassment.

Sticking his finger up, his voice betrays him as he chokes out, "In my defense, everyone is a program from where I come from."

Now fully processing it, every single one of those around him are users. All of them! And from other systems! He hadn't even known that was possible! Incapable of holding back an embarrassing flicker of his circuits this time, he palms his face and brushes back his hair, and then faces this user again.

"I've only ever met two users before," Okay, three, but in Faux's mind the mini-user, Sam_Flynn, only counts as a partial and therefore rounded down. "and even that is not normal."

Edited (posetd accidently and unfinished) 2022-01-10 06:30 (UTC)

OK, Lea couldn't help but chuckle at the other man's obvious embarrassment. But there was nothing mocking about it. If anything he was laughing at the situation, and how unintentionally awkward their misunderstanding had made everything.

"Well I've never met a program before," he said. "And none of this-", he gestured vaguely to their their surroundings to indicate the entire situation, "-is normal for any of us either. So don't worry about it. Everyone's just been kind of thrown together on this ride so there's bound to be a few misunderstandings here and there."

"So let's just... start over, hmm?" He offered the program a handshake. "Hi, my name's Lea. Got it memorized? And you are?"

Starting over sounds great.

Faux takes Lea's offered hand, knowing the user greeting. He's hoping the nervous charge that gathered within his circuits doesn't cause any problems for Lea as he gives it a shake. It's more of a program issue rather than a user issue though, but he isn't too sure, especially within this strange place.

Pulling off the best smile he can muster, "Greetings. My name is Faux." He isn't too sure why Lea insistent on him memorizing his name. trust issues? Or is it just eccentric user language? "And yes I have. Will you require proof?"

Lea definitely felt a kind of static tingle when he shook the program's hand, but because it wasn't the kind of sharp zap one got from a built up static charge, it just felt a little odd rather than slightly painful. He chuckled again at Faux's response to his catchphrase though. "Man I gotta stop using that catchphrase to greet new people; everyone takes it literally," he said. "No, I don't need proof. And it's nice to meet you."

"So, how much have you been told about this ride we're all stuck on? I know there's pamphlets and stuff to cover the basics, but sometimes it's just easier if someone explains stuff in person."

He points to his sack discretely set aside by the wall with a pamphlet on top of it and his ticket underneath. "I read one, before I came here, and I, ah, seem to have thoroughly misunderstood it's information."

Faux then considers Lea's offer. He really doesn't want to be more of a bother to the user than he has already. Though he admits, that gathering the same information would be a far slower and clunkier process in this system, filled with the same foreign terms scattered within his understanding could trip on. He's not sure his circuits could take another misinterpretation of this magnitude so soon after.

With a nod, he resigns himself to the offer. "An explanation should suffice, thanks."

Lea nodded. "OK, then," he said. "First, the basics. I'm sure you've figured it out by now, but you're not in your own world any more. This train- which is alive and has a mind of its own, by the way- brought us here from our own worlds somehow to serve as its crew. Its overall mission, and ours, while we're here, is to help worlds that are in trouble. And I mean big trouble; stuff that's way too much for the locals to handle on their own."

"We stop at a different world about once a month for a mission like that. These color coded uniforms everyone gets on arrival? That shows what team you're on. Different teams have different jobs, both on missions and when it comes to chores that need to be done on the train. Chore assignments rotate monthly, but when it comes to missions, usually red team get the jobs that require the most fighting, orange gets the jobs that take more brains than brawn, and blue and purple fall somewhere in the middle. You don't have to stick with your assigned team's mission though if you don't want to; just let the team leaders know if you'll be doing another team's mission so everyone's on the same page, and you're fine."

"Any questions so far?"

His eyes widen the further on Lea goes into his explanation, but he nods with every piece of data.

So, it's true. A train's conscripted him to do heroic, warrior stuff. Isn't that more a security thing? What would this train need with him? He couldn't even save his own system from his brother. He... couldn't even save himself...

Whatever the specifics, this train has some sick sense of humour. Almost as if it knew just what to use to get the strongest reaction.

"I think this train has either made a big mistake," he frowns, briefly glancing at the red clothing on the floor, "or it has a malicious motive. I'm no fighter." He gives pause, attempting not to snap out at Lea, "It would have been better off stealing someone like Tron, he's the hero of my system." He's the one that deserves to live amongst the users, who could do the most good. Even Ram is a better fit than he is.

Regardless, he stores all Lea's info in his memory banks, not dissimilar to how he had to adapt to Clu's, waking up in the last foreign system he found himself in. Different rules, different system, same situation. He's still lost.

He looks back up at Lea, softening his previous expression. It wouldn't do to dwell on such thoughts in front of someone trying their best to help him. It's not Lea's fault after all.

"As for questions. Chores?" Now that's what he can do.

"Hey, don't sell yourself short," Lea said. "I wouldn't be anyone's first choice to be a hero either; back home I only got the chance because they were kinda desperate to fill a Guardian slot. And we've got all kinds here, from hardened warriors to little girls, genius mages to talking cats. Everyone has something they can offer." 'Tron' though... why did that name strike him as being vaguely familiar? Maybe he'd heard it or read it somewhere...? Ah well, he'd figure it out later.

"As for chores, Blue team's doing the cooking and meal preparation this month, but all the other chores are some form of cleaning. They're divided up into laundry, cleaning the kitchens and bathrooms, and cleaning the public areas and bedrooms. Red team is assigned to cleaning kitchens and bathrooms this month, but you can work on something else if you'd rather not do that; no one really keeps track of who's doing what, so as long as everything gets done, no one seems to mind."

"The laundry facilities are on the second floor of the stores car. The first floor of that same car is where all the supplies are kept, from cleaning stuff to food." Which reminded him... "And speaking of which, what do programs eat, anyway? Can you just eat regular food, or is there something special you need?" Best to find this out up front to avoid any unwelcome surprises.

Lea doesn't know Faux's not selling himself sort, he's done all that and failed. Not wanting to be anymore rude than he has been so far though, keeping silent is better for Lea. And it's not like he understood half of what the user had described, anyway...

As for Lea himself, he makes a note of this 'guardian slot' subject. Perhaps it's a security role? And why were they so desperate to fill it? Who are 'they'?

Thankfully Lea returns to safer subjects, and his attention hones onto the details, of what he could manage.

"Understood. Thank you for the explanation." he gives a nod, "I will perform the necessary chores." They're users after all. Then he takes a breath, "Just one question. What's a laundry, kitchen and bathroom?" He thinks he may have heard about two of these terms from his creator, but the user had never actually taken the time to explain any of them. Typical of Flynn.

As for the eating thing- An actual familiar question!

"We don't. We consume energy. Ahh, glowing liquid..." quickly simplifying. He's already explained this to Flynn before. "Comes in different colours and strengths." Hoping he doesn't have to get anymore specific than; chug down a refined source at your own risk.

But user food... Could he actually eat them? "I've never tried user 'food' before." he turns to Lea, "I honestly don't know if I could eat it."

Honestly so had Lea, in his own way. Which was why he knew that Faux would be able to find a way to help no matter his background or perceived unsuitability. It was just a matter of being given the chance.

Meanwhile, he chuckled slightly at the question. It was a valid one he supposed, but still unusual. "It'd probably be easier if I showed you rather than just trying to explain," he said. "May as well give you the 25 munny tour while I'm at it, since that way we can check the stores car to be sure there's a supply of energy there for you. Probably best for you not to try User food if you can avoid it, at least until you've had a chance to get acclimated. Luckily, the train's pretty good about providing for people who need unusual things to eat, but it doesn't hurt to check."

Another user word he doesn't know. Faux simply nods and files Munny away for later. He's now getting the impression he's going to have a fair few stored away from now on. The chuckle from Lea gave him confirmation he had least said something right.

"I've never seen user food," he shakes his head, then remembers, "except for an orange; that's a fruit. I know that." Little off subject but it shows he's not completely out of his depth. He will however be very appreciative if he does in fact have some energy of his own. He kinda skipped his allotment when he had woken up that mili.

Picking up his things, he shoves the ticket into his sack, and waits for Lea to start this '25 munny tour'.

"Well you'll definitely get your chance to see some on this trip," Lea said. "Especially if it's Red team's turn to cook."

"Anyway since we're back here, we'll start from the back of the train and work out way up." He led Faux to the far end of the triage car, and opened the door to the luggage car. "This is the luggage car, the furthest back car on the train. No, we don't know where all the suitcases and stuff come from either; none of them are ours, and they're all empty. It's also the smoking car for people who do that, plus the car you end up in if you have to use your SCA's emergency evacuation button, which is why the triage car is right next door, even though the main medical carriage is further up."

"It's also where you can pick up things that you ordered from the on board shop. Aside from snacks- which you get immediately- anything you buy will be waiting here for you to pick up on the next platform day. You may have to hunt around a little if it's something small, but it'll be there."

"And triage is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. A place to patch up people who had to evacuate on a mission and decide if they need further medical care. Thankfully we haven't needed it too often, but it's a great thing to have for when we do need it."

"Any questions before we move on?"

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A NEW PLATFORM [INTRO POST JANUARY]

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