voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post August]

A New Platform [Intro Post August]

PLATFORM STOP: MONTH 19
(SYMPHONY)

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.

NAVIGATION ~ GAMEPLAY ~ SETTING ~ CHARACTER INITIATIVES ~ QUESTIONS

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Adrien got a name. That's all he needed to look up what this 'Bruno' looked like. And while he would keep Spark's warning in mind...

He had to ask. It was the closest he'd get to confirmation until he could approach his father. Which he couldn't do on the train, but he would either spiral downwards, or refuse to think about it entirely until he was standing in front of the man.

At least if he had at least something a little more solid, he might have peace.

He spots the man hanging up clothes. He also spots the rat which is a good sign in his book. People who were good with animals are at least a little good. He sends vague good vibe feelings through his ability to communicate with animals telepathically, not wanting to scare the rat as he approaches.

"Excuse me. Are you Monsieur Bruno?" He asked.

The rat was clearly a pet rat at least, black and white spotted. Its whiskers twitched curiously as it watched Adrien approach, and if he opted to try and communicate a bit more directly, he'd likely get the same sort of squeaky five-star review of Bruno that Antonio had gotten from the Casita's rats. He may be a bit awkward around people, but he really did love his rats and the feelings were mutual.

Bruno looked up from his work as he was addressed. "Yeah, that's me," he said. "Bruno Madrigal." He seemed mildly puzzled when he saw Adrien though, as if he'd seen him before somewhere and was trying to place it. "And you're..." It took a moment, but soon the lightbulb went on. "Oh, I know where I've seen you now; you're that kid from Spark's vision! I guess that means you're a friend of his?"

That is adorable and honestly, Adrien will probably ask specifically of things Spark said.

"Oh, his memories got played out? Or was that what you did?" Adrien asked because there was no reason to pretend he didn't know with what he intended to ask. "Yes, that's me. Unless things got really weird. I'm Adrien Agreste, his brother. Adoptive, obviously. Its a pleasure to meet you, Monsieur Madrigal."

Brother? "Never really heard of anybody having a cat for a brother before," Bruno said. "Even an adopted one. But... can't say it'd be the strangest thing I've heard of since I've been here, I guess." He shrugged.

"Anyway, that's great! Nice to meet you. And I'm glad the gatito's got some family around now, even if I'm sorry you're kind of stuck here now too; I got the feeling he was pretty lonely, even if he didn't say it. I mean, he hangs out with me a lot, so..." He gave a wry smile at the implication that one would have to be pretty lonely to want to hang out with him.

"It wasn't a memory though; it was a vision of the future. If my visions were of the past, it might've made things a lot easier back home." After all, no one could blame him for things that had already happened. "I'm guessing what we saw then was him meeting you on the platform today. Among other things, of course, but that was the only bit you were in."

"Live together for three years when the world is strange and it makes a pretty strong bond," Adrien said. Also the various storms that made them think they were brothers helped.

"I think you remind him of someone from his family. The family he was with before we met," he said. "And Spark doesn't hang out with people if he doesn't like them unless he's on guard duty, and I don't think he's guarding you. He may also be attracted to lonely people." Because he had certainly been lonely himself and with a comment like THAT...well, its telling.

Adrien paused at that. "Did he seem upset by the other stuff in the vision? You don't have to tell me what you saw, just...he has a tendency to be protective of me, so if he's worried about something, he might not tell me. Its easier for me to get something out of him if I know there is something though."

"Yeah, I know how that is," Bruno said. Ten years of living in the walls with only rats for company had definitely strengthened his bond with the Casita's rats anyway. And led to a few... creative methods of passing the time with their help.

"Maybe. He said his human back home, Dominic, could see the future too, so maybe that's it?" Or at least, used to be able to see the future maybe, if he was interpreting what he saw in the vision correctly. "He said he was helping with the vision because of him anyway."

"Honestly, he seemed more upset by how my powers worked before the vision started. I can't really blame him; it is kind of dramatic, probably especially for a little cat. He didn't ask me to stop though, and once the vision started he kinda forgot about that and just watched, staring at everything with his eyes really wide. There was one spot where the image of him in the vision looked sad, but I'm not sure why. It was an older man and a man who looked about in his 30s playing guitars and having fun together while Spark was off to the side eating a fish; he didn't really look like he was enjoying it though, for once. And there was another of him laying a fish on what must've been someone's grave too, but I couldn't really see any more details of that one."

"But Spark here didn't really seem upset by any of it, ay least. I think he just liked seeing his family and friends again."

"Yeah, that was my thought. He speaks pretty highly of Dominic," Adrien said. "And he likes to help his people."

He frowned a bit at the first part. "Spark also has a...hard time dealing with things that are unexpected when he had expectations. Like totally out of left field is fine, but if he thought something was one way, he's never done well when it ended up being another." Its been a problem before, and its certainly made things harder for Spark personally when he got an idea in his head that wasn't right. Like how he isn't a person.

"Not enjoying fish? That must have been bad," Adrien said which is. Concerning. He'll have to see if Spark had any idea about that. At least the grave made enough sense. "Talkers live longer then normal cats. The grave could have been anyone he knew," he murmured.

"But...yeah, that's probably true. Its been a while. I don't think he's even visited home since Nautilus," he said. He couldn't remember a time, anyway. "Still, thank you. At least I know what to look for now."

"Though...speaking of visions, I should admit that I didn't approach you just to say hi."

"Yeah, he's a good cat," Bruno said. "Even if he is a bottomless pit when it comes to fish." The last was said with an amused smile.

The next bit was... not exactly surprising, given what they'd been talking about. "I had a feeling you might not have. Though a vision's gonna have to wait til I'm done with the laundry, anyway; it takes some set up and I couldn't do it in here without making a big mess anyway."

"He really is a good cat," Adrien said with a fond smile. "I'm pretty sure its a trait all cats are bottomless for something."

Adrien nodded. "That's fair. And I don't need like...a full reading of my future of anything? I don't know how much you control or if amount matters. I just...I strongly suspect something and if I can confirm its true or not before hand, it would go a lot better for people, whatever the answer," he said, reaching down to help hang up clothes.

Bruno smiled a bit too as Adrien pitched in to help get the rest of the laundry hung up. "Maybe. I've always been more into rats than cats though overall. As you might have guessed."

He glanced down at his hoodie pockets, both of which now had small furry faces peeking out, the black and white one joined by a brown and white spotted one. "These are Margarita and Rosalita. They're really too small to let them run around on their own with so many people walking around, but I feel kinda bad keeping them in their cage too much too, so..." He indicated his solution.

As for the vision request, he made a thoughtful sound. "I don't usually have a lot of control of what comes up in a vision," he said. "But if I try to focus on a specific person or question while I'm doing it, it might help some. What is it that you want to know?"

"I did get that impression. Though its not impossible rats and cats can get along, it can just be...a little tricky," he said with a small, amused grin, looking down. "Hello Margarita, Rosalita," he said with a wave, sending the message in their head as well. "Its nice to meet you."

He looked up at Bruno. "Nothing wrong with that. I used to walk with my pets around all the time in Nautilus. Though only some were small enough to carry comfortably.

At the question, the smile falls and he straightens up. "...I'll need to explain more context," he said. "In private. But the basic gist...I think my father is doing something very bad. And if I'm right, convincing him to stop won't be easy because I know why he's doing it. And if I'm wrong...well, there's a lot of risk in that too." He sighs, picking up another piece of laundry. "Its one of those things where I hope I'm wrong...but I also have to assume its true because I can't ignore it if I'm right. If I could have confirmation then..."

The telepathic greeting got the attention of both rats and they looked up at Adrien, whiskers twitching curiously. They clearly weren't quite sure what to make of this new attempt at communication, but they weren't bothered by it. 'Hello? New human?', one replied.

It was difficult to tell which with them so close together, but their 'voices' were distinct enough to tell when the other spoke. 'You smell like cheese,' the other rat commented. 'You have some cheese, new human?'

Unaware of what his rats were saying, Bruno frowned slightly. "Sounds like something pretty serious," he said. "Alright; once were done here, I'll get what I need and we can see about setting up to have the vision. Hope nobody needs to use the upper floor of the music car for a little while; that's kinda the only place on board that's big and open enough for it that's not gonna have people passing through all the time."

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A New Platform [Intro Post August]

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