A New Platform [Intro Post April!]

[voidtreckermods]

On the Train

Two days after they return from their mission they are awoken as usual "Good morning passengers, it is day sixteen of the month of Egret. The shop has been updated and points have been applied to passengers tickets."

Those that go to check the shop terminals will find they have indeed updated, with the option to buy larger items and also animals. The morning goes on until just after noon there is a second announcement.

"Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." A lurch and a jolt and they are soon surrounded by the fog that means they are at a platform. Though the fog is thick, thicker than usual perhaps, there are patches on sunlight shining through and it is pleasantly warm.

The doors open and the first few to disembark do so with rucksacks on, hoods pulled up, silent and almost blank faced. Cu Chulain, Dio Brando, Disreputable Dog, Heiji Hattori, Loki Maedhros, Maglor, Naruto, Thor, Tobias Fangor.

They walk to the barriers, show their tickets and disappear.

But on the platform itself there are once again new faces. All are stood, waiting for the train.

For New Passengers

At first all they can see is 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 as people begin to shift or call out it will become apparent they are not alone.

The platform is not large and it holds eighteen figures all facing the tracks, all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies. It's warm but foggy making it hard to see much, but there are clearer patches bathed in sunlight found across the platform. 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. 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. The store rooms have been restocked with an abundance of onions, in case the passengers weren't bored of them yet.

Passengers who are not brand new will notice that the train has gotten yet longer again with a sixth sleeper cabin for new arrivals.

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. 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. The fog from the windows is gone now, replaced with a kaleidoscope of ever changing colours.

Welcome to the Void!

Comments

[najaran]

She shook her head. "I've been kidnapped too many times now to think it could be a dream, but usually when I am Gooligan is with me at least." she sighed, her shoulders slumping downward. "I tried calling a lot of times, if Gooligan could hear me and respond he would have by now." Her master, however, she was less and less sure of. "I wonder how we get back..." she said, looking up at the sky as best she could.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Kidnapped... no. Captured? Yes. Duo had been captured too many times to count. So many that he was beginning to feel like he was some kind of running joke. But so far no OZ soldiers had come running out to put him in cuffs and he hadn't been liberally beaten to within an inch of his life, so he was thinking it was safe to assume he hadn't been captured. Because as far as dungeon cells went, the platform wasn't half bad. At least there was room to move.

"I've no idea." Duo replied honestly, his smile faded and his expression became serious. "Don't even had a clue how I got here. One second I'm in a field with my friends, next thing I turn around and fog everywhere. Makes no damn sense."

[najaran]

She nodded a bit. "I was just opening the hatch to see what the land outside looked like and then I saw mist instead. The weird thing is the clothes though." she pulled at her own shirt looking down at it. "Being transported somehow, okay maybe that was a spell card or something, and that might even explain why Gooligan didn't come with me." Maybe. "But what kind of weirdo spell changes people's clothes, steals their earrings and puts their book into their bag?"

She realized she shouldn't have mentioned her book. But maybe if he wasn't a cepter he'd think she meant the kind you read, not the kind you fight with. All the same, she held the bag protectively to herself. She might not have Gooligan with her, but no way she was letting anyone take Knight and Gargoyle and the others.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo just stared at the girl for a long moment. There was a lot to unpick from what she was saying and not all of it made a lick of sense. But maybe...?

"Are you some kind of magician?" Duo asked with some scepticism in his voice. He didn't know how card tricks and Houdini magic could explain what was going on. "Like, you think this is some kind of illusion?" He looked around as if he could see the mirrors. There had been smoke, after all. Maybe they'd been knocked out and drugged? Something that could mess with their memories? It wouldn't be the first time OZ has experimented with their bullshit concoctions on him...

[najaran]

"Magician?" she asked startled. "Oh no." She held up one hand defensively and backed up. "I'm not even allowed to TOUCH my spell cards, and I don't even know what cards could make an ill..u...sion...." Whoops. Well now she was in trouble. Now they were all going to thin k she did this because she was a cepter and try and arrest her to force her to fix it when she didn't even know what happened in the first place... and the panic might be showing on her now teary face as it builds.

[maxwellsdaemon]

What the hell had he said? Duo turned toward her and held up his hands and tried his best to sound fix his mistake. Whatever it was. "Hey hey, uhhh look, I've no idea what I just said but I'm sorry! Please don't cry?" Crying was the worst. He just didn't know how to handle girls crying, or kids, or girl kids... It killed him inside and he hated it. Duo just didn't know what he had done to try and fix it!

"I just meant... you were talking about spells and being transported and things, I just thought... But hey, if I'm wrong, no harm done, yeah? It's all good! You don't have to worry!" Oh gods he wasn't doing a good job here was he? He needed an adult!

[najaran]

She tried to calm herself down, watching him a bit warily now. "You're not going to have me arrested and try to steal my cards?" she asked, just to be sure. "Because I didn't do this to us. I promise I didn't. But I lost Gooligan and Master Horowitz, I can;'t lose my other friends too." She sniffled a bit, still unsure and worried and fretting and - her stomach growled - hungry. It had been forever since she last ate. Okay maybe it was only a few hours, but with this much stress, that was practically forever, right?

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Arrest you? Kid I'm no cop and I'm not a thief!" Okay, maybe he had been a pickpocket as a kid and he had stolen more than his hair share of enemy intel over the years but he wasn't a thief! He had standards! Sort of...

"You're fine, relax! I don't think you did this." Unless... had she? Nah. That couldn't have been possible. If she had then surely she would have brought her friends along with her.

[najaran]

She leaned back against whatever she could, breathing in relief. Her face was comically easy to read. "Oh good," she said, shakily. "Okay. I'm sorry, I thought my Master was kidding when he told me how much people hate Cepters...." she shook her head a bit. "It's not fun being hated for what I am," she said softly. "Some places they'd blame anything that went wrong on Cepters and other places... Well maybe some Cepters should have been blamed at least..." she had to be fair. Soron would have been fine if not for the Black Cepters.

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Lady, I've got no idea what a 'Cepter' is beside a big, fancy stick royal people carry and you don't look like a fancy stick to me." Duo lowered his hands, his own expression one of relief that this girl wasn't freaking out on him any more. "I'm sorry that you're hated for some reason, but I don't know you enough to hate you. You seem alright to me." He gave a bit of a shrug then. Looks could be deceiving after all. Maybe she was a bad person and deserving of being hated? Maybe she was just misunderstood? Maybe she was just the good guy who the bad guys painted as a bad guy to make themselves look good? That one he knew a LOT about, first hand in fact.

[najaran]

"No, no Gooligan is a stick. Well a man-headed cane," she said, trying to explain, not realizing she was being more confusing. "Cepters are people who can use parts of the Culdcept. Some bad Cepters have done a lot of damage, so a lot of people hate all of us. But my
Master taught me how to be careful," she assured him quickly. "And he and my father and Gooligan and everyone made sure that I learned to protect people," she promised.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Wait, there was an actual stick? Duo was well and truly confused now and he just stood there staring, his smile gone, baffled completely by the words coming out of the girls mouth.

In the end all he could do was shake his head. "Sweetheart, I've no idea what any of that meant!"

[najaran]

She looked confused for a moment. "What, any of it?"

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Not a single thing." Duo gave her a rueful smile. "I mean some of the words I understood, but in the context? No way. I've no idea what any of that meant. Sorry."

[najaran]

"Okay...." she said, trying to consider. "Gooligan is a man-headed cane. but he's a good one. We've been together for ten years now, ever since I found him in my Master's attic. He doesn't remember anything from before waking up to me teething on him," she said with a wistful smile. "He's been with me forever since," she said fondly. And then she remembered that for once, he wasn't, her hands were empty. She sighed a bit.

"As for the rest... I'm a Cepter. I'm... generally not supposed to tell people that. But I forgot again," she said with a wince. "Cepters are people who can use the cards that are the broken pieces of the Culdcept. There have been some really bad Cepters that used their cards to hurt people, so a lot of people hate all of us for that." She looked down, scuffing her foot a bit. "But I promise, my cards would never hurt anyone," she said, looking up earnestly. "At least, not anyone who wasn't attacking us. I promise I'm not going to attack anyone or anything just because I'm a Cepter."

She still remembered that night in her cell, before Alta broke her out, wondering if that's how other Cepters were treated. But maybe if she could make more friends, maybe people could see that Cepters could be like her father and like her Master, good people. Maybe she wasn't the best herself yet, and she had a bit of a temper sometimes, but she was trying, and that had to count for something... right?

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo really appreciated that the girl was trying to explain herself. But it just seemed like she was doubling down on all the mess of words and nonsense from before and adding in more strange things that he just had no idea about.

It was at this point that things were slowly beginning to click in his mind.

He held up a hand, stalling any further explanations from the girl and gave her a serious looking frown. "I'm gonna say a word... Tell me if you know what it means..." Duo looked around, making sure there was no one within earshot before he spoke. "Gundam." Where he was from there was no one in the Earth Sphere of the Colonies who didn't know what a Gundam was.

[najaran]

She considered the word for a long moment, trying to think of if she had ever heard it in any of her lessons, but she drew a blank and shook her head. "Is it a kind of food?" she guessed. Mostly because all of this nervousness was making her hungry.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Bingo.

Duo looked stunned for a second, but then he shook his head and gave a low, humourless laugh. "Yeah, it's not food." He gave the girl a curious look then. Really taking her in. "... I don't think you come from the same place I do. If you don't know what Gundam's are and I don't know what Cepters are. I think... I think I might have lost my mind!"

[najaran]

She frowned thinking, then blinked. "Or maybe this is one of those other worlds that Miss..... Mistress" she does not want to be hit again, "Grubel was talking about, where the Culdcept fragments are seen and handled in different ways. Maybe we both got kicked out of our own worlds somehow?" That... would explain a lot, maybe. But not their clothes... Or why Gooligan was gone. "I wonder if he's with my clothing wherever they put those..."

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Yeah, clothes..." Duo had no idea what she was talking about, again, but he could understand the clothes part. He looked down at himself. Black slacks and a purple hoodie. There was a bag on his back as well but he'd not had a chance to look through that yet. He'd do that later when he had a bit of peace to gather his thoughts. "... Why purple? Red and black is more my colour."

[najaran]

"How do you feel about orange? I like purple. We can trade," she said with a grin.

[maxwellsdaemon]

"Orange would be worse!" Duo laughed. He'd look like a Halloween reject. But he supposed beggars couldn't be choosers.

"Don't even know if you can trade. Wouldn't want you getting into trouble." He flashed her a big grin. "It suits you though."

[najaran]

"How could we get in trouble for trading clothing?" she asked, confused.

[maxwellsdaemon]

Duo just grinned. "How did we get here? Who knows? Will we get into trouble for swapping clothes? I've got no idea! I don't even know why we're different colours yet."

[najaran]

She laughed. "I don't know either. Almost makes me want to trade clothing just so we could find out. At least if someone came to yell at us we could talk to them, right?"