voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post January]

On the Train

After a very quiet latter half of the month of Catfish the calendar clicks over. Passengers wake up in their beds as usual to the passenger announcement. "Good morning passengers, it is day one of the month of domino.".

Those that have been on board a while know that new months usually come with new people and so the message a few hours later will not be a surprise. "Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void imminent." A lurch and a jolt and they are soon surrounded by the fog that means they are at a platform.

It will come as a relief that no one leaves this time, no one with packed bags to walk silently towards the barriers.

Added to that the platform itself holds more people then it ever has before. Twenty one figures, all the colours are represented. The ground is icy and their breath pools in white clouds around them.

For New Passengers

At first all they can see if steam. Billowing around them as they come to their senses. They are standing, in clothes that are not their own, styles they might not even recognise. They are carrying a rucksack on their back. For a moment it seems to just be them, alone in the white haze but then the steam begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

The platform is not large and it holds twenty one figures all facing the tracks, all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies. The air is cold, the ground icy beneath your feet. Both left and right the tracks disappear into the mist. 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 into the cold step a selection of people. Some are human, some are less so. They are wearing the same hoodie in one of the four colours, red, orange, blue and purple.

The Train

The doors hiss open. Those from the train may encourage those on the platform to board. It’s not like there is 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 not be a good thing also it’s very cold out on the platform. The train is warmer.

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. The store rooms have been restocked and it seems that water chestnuts are the month of Domino’s ingredient of choice! Any of orange team who who go to check the luggage cart will find a parcel containing gingerbread snowflakes, decorated with icing. One for each of the orange team, including new members, come share in the reward!

New passengers will find their tickets allow them into their cabins. They may need to negotiate for beds, especially if they want a top bunk!

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 and you will hopefully find a pillow for your bed if it has not been nabbed by a roommate, there are also spare blankets for if it gets cold.

Departure

A second horn sounds to encourage any stragglers and the doors slide shut. Veteran passengers know what will happen next, they may wish to brief their new companions.

The train sets off, the fog obscuring the view 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."

Hopefully someone warns you that you really want to heed that warning because a moment later there is 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. The fog from the windows is gone now, replaced with a kaleidoscope of ever changing colours.

Welcome to voidspace!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She rolled her eyes, of course it was rude to point. That was the point of pointing. "I did be being trained perfectly." She snapped, wrinkling her nose again. There was absolutely nothing wrong with her training, except that it wasn't finished. But she was learning on this train and when they finally got back she would know things that her guardians could never dream of.

She has her eye on the knife, she has her own but she hasn't drawn it, not yet. "They do no be being here, neither do yours be being. That." Here she pointed at the train. "Did be taking you from your world. You do no be being there anymore and you can no be going back."

"What do you mean I'm no longer on Canto Bight?" She asks, incredulous. No, that's not possible. If she were taken off-planet... The Mistress is going to beat Jocko bloody. She knows that with the same certainty that she knows her eyes are brown. Unless Jocko were dead. Was Jocko dead? No. No he wasn't.

"And if you were trained perfectly as you claim, you would know that pointing is rude."

She rolled her eyes again at the slowness of this girl but doesn't point out the obvious. Instead she sighed and spoke slowly, like she was speaking to a younger child. "I did no never even be hearing of Canto Bight. You do no be being there anymore, this do be being a different world."

She's not exactly sure what world the platform is on, or worlds. All the platforms have been subtly different so far.

"What system is this then?" Misa asks. She understands the part about a different world, but maybe she can make it back to Canto. Maybe she can see to getting back to the Mistress and seeing if Jocko is alright. Because the Twi'lek wouldn't allow anything to happen to her. She knows that.

The girl's odd speech patterns don't bother her. Freema had them too. She didn't speak Basic very well, but her native tongue wasn't a common one.

System? She didn't know what that meant but she also wasn't going to give the girl any excuse to be calling her stupid so she just wrinkled her nose again.

"The train do be taking us into the void and then to different worlds. The void do be being the... in between bit I do be thinking."

Peter probably knows some science magic words about it. But she understands enough, in her own way.

"So, it goes through hyperspace?" She's not quite sure she's following along with what the girl is saying. The problem with not having very good Basic.

But, she's trying to understand, and she hasn't threatened the girl with her knife. No reason to. Yet.

"Yes." She has no idea if hyperspace is the void or actually what hyperspace is at all. But she nods, if that's how the girl wants to understand it then that is fine with her.

"It do be being weird and will be giving you a head hurt if you do be staring at the colours. So do no be doing that."

So, they're going on this ship, that goes through hyperspace. But no one can tell her what system this is.

She waves away the concern about the star lines. Really, from everything she's been told, hyperspace is boring. There's nothing to do, and just bright white lines to stare at. "Hyperspace is supposed to be boring." She doesn't want to go to hyperspace. "I wonder if they can take me back to Canto."

"There do be being no they. We do no be knowing who do be driving the train and even if they did they would no be taking you back. Why would they be kidnapping you to be just giving you back." She rolled her eyes again.

The void was sort of boring, it gave you a headache if you looked at it too long but there wasn't anything there.

"Because the house would pay ransom for me." Or, she liked to think so. The courtesans would, anyway. And Freema and Jocko. The rest? Maybe not. Her tone is one of self-importance, and obviousness. Why don't you understand, oh bossy one?

"I do no be thinking trains do be caring about ransom money." She pointed out with another eye roll.

"There do be being many people who do be being important in their worlds here and the train did no be taking any of them back. So I do no be thinking it will be taking you back."

No matter how rich her house was.

Misa straightens her back. She's not very tall, but sometimes, she has a presence to her, and she gathers that around her like a mantle. "I have no doubt they were important to someone." She says, icily. "However," she continues. "We will see who goes home." She says.

Sometimes she hated being small. When even annoying stupid face girls like this could tower over her and think they were better than her. Still she looked up, meeting the girls eyes with a sneer.

"We will be seeing."

She smirked.

A New Platform [Intro Post January]

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