A new Platform [Intro post~ August]

[voidtreckermods]

For those on the Train

"Good morning passengers, it is day sixteen of the month of Apple." The train announces as always as everyone wakes up the morning of the sixteenth. "Due to your success on Hub World #5739 your team points have been updated on the system. The on train shop has unlocked new stock."

For those going to investigate it might seem like the boredom of the last two weeks will be alleviated a little. More so after a few hours when there is a second announcement.

"Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void imminent."

By now they should know to hold on as the train jerks and jolts. There is only fog outside the windows but the train soon comes to a stop. The doors hiss open.

As they exit into the fog they may notice Hibiki exiting from the luggage carriage door. She hasn’t been seen since the Hub World and they might be forgiven for believing she stayed behind. But here she is, backpack on her back as she walks through the station. She heads no call, reacts to no words and cannot be stopped as she walks to the ticket barrier and disappears through it.

It is impossible to follow. But you soon may be distracted because this platform is far from empty.

For new arrivals

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

The platform is not very large, but it hold twelve figures all facing the tracks, all wearing similar clothing, even if one of them is a spider. The tracks stretch left and right into steam, or perhaps fog. Nothing can be seen to either side. There is a wall around the platform and the only entrance is a ticket barrier. It cannot be open, nor do there seem to be any staff.

What there is, is a train. Jet black and gleaming where it stands on the rails.Voidtrecker Express is emblazoned in the engine in gold. There is a hiss as the doors slide open.

Out step a selection of people, wearing clothes just like yours.

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.

Once on the train there is plenty to explore. A new sleeper carriage has appeared as has a medical bay. Neither were there before those already on the train had disembarked to meet their new travelling companions.

Each ICP shows the same message. The food stores have been topped up with new fresh food, though it seems that eggs are still predominately on the menu.

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. Those who boarded two weeks ago will know what is coming next.

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.

Comments

[bombashbunny]

"It was an interesting fight, based on the rumor. What I gathered from the people I tended to be around there was a machine that was from far away and it essentially put on a tournament with beings from other worlds." She crossed her arms, trying to recall what all she'd heard. "One of these beings was rumored to be an actual train. There was another that was a jester as well." She straightened up and gave a small shrug.

"I don't know what a 'video' game is, but it does sound like some fantasy that kids may take to." Not that adults couldn't play games in Eorzea, but they definitely weren't a 24 year old sitting in front of a computer trying to make it for raid time or anything. More of a triple triad type setting.

"Yes, though I am beginning to think being here is not all that impressive." Recounting the rumors of the adventures the Warriors have been on it really felt that this was not so impressive. There were much newer rumors from Ironworks that the Warriors even disappeared and haven't been found - traveling in this manner seemed to be a little too close to her. "Who brought us and why they did is more important than how they did it, I think."

[afterburner]

Ohhh no, not another tournament style challenge...not that Renee had ever taken part in one of those things herself, but she'd heard enough about that sort of thing from the older X-Men. Why was it that aliens seemed to love, even crave, seeing humans fight in matches like that?

Renee didn't get it.

"It was more my brother's type of thing anyway. A game played on a video screen, with a controller." She made a mime of doing such a thing. "I don't think they have those here, and I probably wouldn't play them anyway..." Partly because the memories were a bit of a sore spot.

Ash had a point. "Yeah, it's sort of boring to be here, that's true..." She furrowed her brows at that and frowned. "Then again, getting the answers to that doesn't seem like it'll be easy. Everyone I've met so far is in the same situation we are, and I haven't seen the conductor, or even a place where we might see him or her..."

[bombashbunny]

The idea of a video screen wasn't entirely foreign to Ash, though she was imagining something different from a TV or PC monitor. She didn't quite get how one could use such things for fun, but people were interesting and creative by nature. Either she'd find out or she wouldn't, and either was okay.

Ash wasn't quite ready for someone to so readily accept the thought that being on the train wasn't that impressive - she had assumed that traveling between worlds was exceedingly rare and incredibly dangerous. She didn't linger on the thought for long though - easier to just move on and contemplate it later when she wasn't in the middle of a conversation. "Is anything in life ever easy?" It was less of an actual question and more of just an acknowledgement.

"Well... The conductor is either smart or a coward for not wanting to face us regardless of if they brought us here... Or it may be the case there isn't one directly on this train at all." As she spoke she furrowed her brow and crossed her arms, one hand coming to her chin as she thought. "I know that I can make automatons that are able to attack my enemy without my input. It'd take a lot of work, but a magic train could probably function the same way?" It was an outlandish thought, yes, but so was the idea of being on a train in the Void Between Worlds.

[afterburner]

Renee had meant more 'boring' in that there didn't seem to be tons to do. She'd ridden on trains before, and it was always a lot of looking out of the windows, reading, or sleeping. And you could only do so much of that before you were bored out of your gourd...

"Maybe both." A coward and smart? Renee hadn't actually ever met any villains, but a lot of them sounded something like that, from tales told to her. That life question had sounded rhetorical, so she hadn't bothered to answer, there.

"I don't know much about magic, but I'm pretty sure if you're knowledgeable in it, there are ways you can set it up to operate without extra magic or input, so advanced technology or advanced magic, take your pick." Renee made a face at that.

"Just makes me kind of think that we're actually in deep trouble, we just don't really know all the details. And like you said, we don't have any good way of getting information. Other than whatever they give us." And she didn't like that one bit.

[bombashbunny]

An option of 'both' never really occurred to Ash - she mostly just found people as people. Strong in their convictions and ideals, and (the Garlean Empire was) generally willing to run themselves into the ground over them. She wouldn't really call it stupid, if only because everyone tended to do that for the things they believed in. Some were just less inclined to be blinded by their 'purpose' than others.

Ash listened to what Renee had to say before she responded, but she did take a strand of her hair and twirled it around a finger as she thought. There was a moment of silence as Ash collected her thoughts before she spoke again.

"I think you're right - I misspoke. Advanced technology, though if this train is truly unmanned by a conductor then this train is much more advanced than my automaton queen." Ash had built the queen with the help Stephanivien and she was very aware of how it worked, but it was harder for her to wrap her head around the idea of a self driving train that had to run so many other systems on top of navigate. The queen had to make relatively stupid decisions in comparison to keeping a train full of people alive. "The scale of an autonomous train is daunting to me, but I would think not entirely impossible." She just didn't know how you would do it.

"Trouble is one way to frame it. It is just the next challenge in our lives." She tended to brace the inevitability of situations such as this and preferred to just keep moving. "For now I think it is best to wait and see. Share what we learn with each other." If you crowd source information, eventually someone would put the pieces together. That would require everyone to trust each other, though, and Ash admittedly didn't know anyone well enough to have an opinion on such things.

[afterburner]

"Eh, I could've just got lucky--even a stopped clock is right twice a day, as the saying goes." Renee shrugged at that. She was pretty sure also that some of the geniuses on her world could've managed an automated train without a problem. Only thing was there was only one she knew was actually here, and she was pretty sure Tony Stark had exactly jack and squat to do with all of this.

"Yeah, I think I agree with you there. I'm not usually a fan of 'wait and see', but I can't see another option, either." She shook her head at that. "Oh...right. I'm Renee Corbin. You got a name?" Because 'Easter Bunny' or 'Ears', while plenty cutesy, were also rude as hell, and even Renee had her limits.

Sometimes.

[bombashbunny]

Ash wasn't much of a 'wait and see' person either, if she were to be honest. She tended to be someone who spent less time planning and more time acting, but there was so little to act on here on this train that she found herself with no other option but to wait and to see.

"Oh - Ash. Just Ash." No last name, nothin' fancy. "It's nice to meet you. I'm sure we'll be seeing each other around more." Obviously. There wasn't much room to avoid someone. That was probably, very likely, a small friendly sarcasm. Ash admittedly liked Renee and there was a comfort that she'd made a possible friend already.