A New Platform [Intro Post August]

[voidtreckermods]

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PLATFORM STOP: MONTH 19
(SYMPHONY)

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BEFORE ARRIVAL

"Good morning Voidtreckers, it is day sixteen of the month of Symphony. Points have been updated on the system."
The voice of the Voidtrecker Express welcomes passengers at the same time as always, sometime after breakfast. With points updated, everyone can spend the morning shopping. Most people will be expecting the second announcement that comes a few hours later, as the colours of the void outside the windows blur more and more.

"Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. The weather is sunny with a cool breeze. 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.

ON THE PLATFORM

1. THE ARRIVAL

At first, all your character can see is steam billowing around them as they come to their senses. But as their eyes adjust, they find themselves on a platform. The stones are cobbled beneath them and there are small stone shapes lining the edge, decorative in nature. The sun is shining but there is a cold wind, blowing through the platform at intervals, almost biting in its chill.

They stand in clothes not their own, in a style they might not even recognise. They're carrying a rucksack on their person, and for a moment it seems to just be them, alone on this platform. Before the fog starts to subside, and they'll see they're one of Twelve figures: all facing the tracks, and all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies, the latter in one of four colours. Purple, red, blue or orange.

But then there's a roaring sound to get their attention, and out from the fog arrives a train. A sleek black, it reads The Voidtrecker Express in gold lettering on the side. Every one of the doors hiss as they open automatically, and out pours a strange assortment of people, over a hundred at least. Some are human, some less so, with a majority wearing the same hoodie of four colours as they do, though some sport outfits in a variety of styles.

The train doors close behind them, and the vehicle is cloaked in the same fog that hides the world beyond the platform. A group of people head towards the gates of the platform, their expressions blank and unaffected by their surroundings. Danielle Phantom, Fai. D Flourite, K'zeka Tia, Ruggie Buchi and John Connor They disappear through the barriers, but no one else can - all people can do is wait until the train re-emerges, finishing whatever changes it's making.

2. BOARDING THE TRAIN

After a short time, about ten minutes or so, the fog clears and the doors hiss open again. Everyone will feel a pull when they do, a need to board, and those from the train may encourage new arrivals to board. This feeling grows into one of apprehension and turns worse the longer they stay off-board.

For those that do board, they may find themselves in a few different carriages, but most likely the standard coach. A row of seats sit available, with a few tables between each. More likely than not, some cookies have been set out with jugs of drink, and cups available for pouring.

For those that don't, however, they're likely to attract attention if they're spotted. And if that fails... an unfortunate end will await them.

a. New arrivals will notice a screen and console in every carriage sharing the same message, and a stack of leaflets in holders by them offering further information to the curious (see 'Publications'). There are lavatories available on each carriage on one end, with another console with a deposit box under it at the other. This is the train shop.

b. It'll take some time for newbies to figure out the layout, even if there's only two directions to go in. Go one end, and you'll find the food stores and washing utilities. This month's key ingredient is broccoli, and you're sure to bump into others curious about what's in the stock.

c. Go to the other end, and you'll find the sleeper cabins. Plaques sit on the wall by each door with the names of their occupants, and one of these will be yours - hopefully, they'll figure out that swiping their ticket against the doorpad will open it up to them. 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.

d. At the farthest end in this direction is the luggage carriage, where passengers who have bought items from the train shop will find their purchases. These are scattered around the luggage carriage in various suitcases and bags, but there's also a small fridge and kettle here with bottled water, for those who want a quiet drink.

e. Of course there are the new additions to explore. A fireplace has been added to the library, complete with a rug and plenty of soft reading pillows. For those less inclined to sit still there is a swimming pool carriage, complete with foam fish. Plenty of fun for all.

DEPARTURE

Spend your time exploring, if you will. But people will have half an hour before a second horn sounds, encouraging any stragglers taking advantage of the fresh air to board. After five minutes from this, the doors slide shut. Veteran passengers know what will happen next, but they may wish to brief their new companions.

The train begins to rumble with activity, and the platform starts to disappear into a fog as the voidcraft moves. A female-coded artificial voice echoes throughout the train.

"Welcome aboard, passengers of the Voidtrecker Express. 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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NAVIGATION ~ GAMEPLAY ~ SETTING ~ CHARACTER INITIATIVES ~ QUESTIONS

Comments

GOSH

[sharpeyes]

The one whose soul is the same hue, but brightness comparable with Solus's doesn't seem to be actually startled by the voice speaking this close - his Sight is already open to try to peer after the one who left - but neither does he spin about immediately to face what he can only reason is a... reflection of him.

Something that should not be possible - then again, this entire place and himself being here should not be possible either. With that reminder to himself, it is slightly less disconcerting.

"Well now. This is quite the surprise."

He turns to face the fraction of himself, only to have to look slightly up to meet his gaze. Even so, the too-bright purple eyes are curious and gentle, rather than anything else - the latter even more so when he reads the confusion. And, since he has not encountered Hades yet, he makes absolutely no connection with anyone else.

"My name is Hythodaeus. With whom do I have the pleasure with speaking?"

[asheaveniswide]

There's not a lot he can match it to; the Ascians he dealt with by and large were not appreciably different on a fundamental level from the average person, their skill was simply astronomically higher. Elidibus was an exception, but the distorted Darkness that comprised the Emissary was also not like his kin, not even Emet-Selch.

Hythlodaeus doesn't quite align with what he'd seen in his dear, murderous great-grandsire either. He'd simply never encountered an un-Tempered, whole Amaurotine before. That it's one that is unsettlingly similar--

Different realities. In some other world, some other universe, was this what he was? Or is it just cosmic coincidence? He certainly doesn't match Hythlodaeus' appearance physically, beyond both having long hair. At seven and a half feet tall, built broad and sturdy instead of slim, he's well suited to a lifestyle of war and violence. The violet haired stranger on the other hand.. certainly was not. It's deliberate that he removes his own Resonance-fueled aethersight, and for him it's a visible change, black-red eyes returned to ordinary blue in a slow blink. Too many distractions.

"I wouldn't declare it a pleasure just yet," he says, reaching out to touch - and if he can, do nothing more than tip Hythlodaeus' head slightly to first one side and the other, brow furrowing. He's being careful. Very careful; he's perfectly capable of gentleness when he so chose and this warrants it certainly. "For the train's sense of humor may be making jesters of us both. I am Zenos." Of no surname given, his rank and title were irrelevant here, "I've seen something similar with the Hero of Eorzea, you can't throw a stone without striking one or two, but you're ... different, aren't you."

Also spoilers everywhere

[sharpeyes]

"Well. It is too soon to say that it won't be." A pleasure.

His eyebrow rises a little but he does allow the touch and, yes, he is indeed very real. And he doesn't melt at the touch, either, merely - lets it happen.

His lips purse at one of the statements, because he doesn't at this point know what a train is, but by the same token he can't make an educated reply. He'll consider it all the same, as he learns more.

"Hero of Eorzea... I think you know who you mean. I am... to you, what that person was when the world was whole." But...

"However, I could not have become that way - yet I apparently did. Utterly fascinating, the way this pushes the bounds of what is possible and what isn't."

Congratulations, Zenos, welcome to one of the rather few people who sees that switch of the eyes and does not immediately start focusing on the way you're different and potentially experimental. There is curiosity, certainly, but what he now remembers has taught him to not underestimate or take these fractions, or reflections, as anything less than worthy of respect.

Sorry for delays, midweek is always tough on tag times.

[asheaveniswide]

He'd almost wondered if this stranger would somehow be ephemeral, some bizarre void hallucination .. but no, he's definitely there. "How strange, to think the world is anything but whole."

Anything's possible, he supposed, but raised with matters as they are and not as they were, Zenos' perspective is shaped by what he finds familiar and ordinary. The broken state of souls, the fragile aether, the delicacy of all life is simply ... the way it was, and thus how it was supposed to be.

He lets go. Any lingering touch would be inappropriate at best, and beyond what even leniency might allow. A red shirt though.. perhaps he'd underestimated the amount of fight in such a narrow frame. He'd only qualified for purple - a royal color it might be, but it wasn't for those dedicated to combat, that was red.

"There's.. mm, at least two that I know of here, mayhap three. They're all miqo'te, and pretty easy to spot." A thought that draws a frown as his gaze shifts briefly away. "And yet the one I know best is a roegadyn woman of some stature and temper. Perhaps the many realities in their infinite possibilities simply prefers felines."

There's a pause and the faint frown deepens. "But I somehow doubt you relate to me the same way they relate to each other, for you are not of Garlemald. Unless you are and in some strange reality, we've lost an eye."

Never worry, RP is for fun, not pressure

[sharpeyes]

Hythlodaeus would not claim himself a proficient fighter, but he can stand his own probably reasonably well. And he is unlikely to try to fight alone, which gives a better chance for success.

But he does embrace his duties completely, without reservation - even if, ultimately, with his own personal flair.

"Mm... a little more than half whole, gauging by the density of souls. Although I don't believe it will become more whole, given there are some... problems with the rejoinings."

And while he will ever miss the past they loved, he can see why stealing the future from whose who are there might be worse. Especially with how they mended what the past he is missing broke.

"And if the one who left is miqo'te, not all, no." He gently indicates in the direction of Aelienor, who is very much not a miqo'te. Nor a roegadyn, not that he has seen one.

And then he shakes his head. "I do not think the name Garlemald sounds familiar, but then again, I have been outside of time's flow for some millennia, I have some catching up to do. But no, I meant not that we are what they are to each other, but I am to you as their original soul is to them. Similar yet different."

[asheaveniswide]

Ah. The rejoinings. That does settle one question. As far as Zenos is concerned the only ones who even know about that are the Ascians and their pawns. So which would this be, Ascian or pawn?

Aelienor hasn't yet been paid attention to, attention thoroughly elsewhere, and now he only had mundane vision to rely on; a note is made to investigate, but he already knows the sort of welcome to expect from any Eorzean. "Unfortunate the train gains another and lose that one. K'zeka was ... astonishingly even-handed for his ilk." So much so that they could even share a living space with minimal complaint. Granted, Zenos did do his best to minimize unnecessary engagement, but still.

Whether Zenos means a Warrior of Light or a miqo'te remains to be seen.

"How similar, I wonder." Not much if he had to guess, everything he was good at surely didn't suit this one's lifestyle. And yet, the red.. "Nothing idle questioning will discover, I suspect. Yon vehicle is called the Voidtrecker Express. It has decided you are needed in its ongoing goal to save entire stars and its missing crew, you have neither a choice about being here or an avenue to leave should you not desire this path."

Information that is generally presented in a kinder way by others. He crosses his arms over his chest, gaze shifting away. "It is alive, and does what it can to keep us content. In return we fight, and visit stars and peoples that would otherwise forever be beyond our reach. I suggest enjoying it as much as you can, for much like an ordinary train there is not yet a way to turn it aside from its chosen track."

return of the endwalker spoilers

[sharpeyes]

Neither, really, but for the moment Hythlodaeus lacks the words to answer that. Zenos will have to figure it out for himself.

However, when he gets to the part where the train is moving to save entire stars, Hythlodaeus stills entirely, almost not breathing, his eyes widening slightly, for a moment in wonder and then a mixture of emotions. Relief, hope, joy.

He murmurs, mostly to himself, "oh... so she did not find or snuff them all."

Meteion.

A moment, and he takes a slow, long breath to calm himself, center himself into the present. Tilts his head slightly.

"And do we manage to save those stars?"

It's an important question, as he has seen what may happen with overly powerful, unusual living things that quest to different stars that do not fare well.

[asheaveniswide]

Meteion's reach simply might not extend to entire new realities. Is there any knowing if the Void vessels even travel the same one that they are familiar with? How would anyone be able to tell?

This matter of 'she' and snuffing out presumably worlds draws a long pause, as does the reaction the violet haired man has to the thought, but nothing is said on it. He'll consider it at length at another time. Whatever that's about, there's nothing he can do presently one way or another.

"...Yes, for the most part." Not always. "We can't know what the long term effects of our interventions are, but the crisis we are called to handle is almost always inevitably mitigated. I am vague on what precisely happened in the few events where success did not follow, but there were near as I can tell, extreme extenuating circumstances involving ... ah, time paradoxes."

And space shadow tentacles, by the way he heard it, but he really can't explain that one. The train sits there, gleaming black and gold, and he studies it for a silent moment or two before continuing. "Although we are all unwilling victims in this effort, I have found it singularly rewarding and would be here by choice were there a choice at all. If nothing else it has opened an avenue to the heavens that my people were not yet quite capable of reaching on our own, and not to find a cold and joyless emptiness waiting for us, but billions.. trillions of stars, all linked through that colorful chaotic mess they call 'void'."

"..On that note don't look at it too long."

[sharpeyes]

"Ah. So that is what it is." Hythlodaeus is mulling over the words, and their implication, but the wonder has not diminished.

Though the last part makes him give a small, startled laugh.

"I rather discovered that for myself, but the warning is very much appreciated." There is a softness, a relaxation in Hythlodaeus, with the reassurance that Zenos would have chosen to do this if given the choice. That they are still alike as well as different.

A slight head-tilt.

"Has it been bad enough for you that you needed help? And if so, was there anyone to provide it?"