Event: Expulsion (Day 24)

[voidtreckermods]

"Good morning passengers, today is the twenty fourth day of the month of Apple." The morning announcement sounds as usual as dark turns to the ever shifting colours of the void outside the train windows. Some passengers may stir. It might be that they are an early riser or bad sleeper and get out of bed the moment the announcement wakes them or perhaps they roll over and go back to sleep.

Either way the morning rolls on for a few hours whatever they might be doing. Until a sudden judder runs through the train, followed quickly by another. Much like bad turbulence. Really bad turbulence. A third follows and there is a crackling sound before an alarm starts going off blaring loudly, the lights begin flashing red, white and red again.

"Warning. Void engines failing. Warning. Void engines failing. Warning Expulsion from void imminent." More shaking, worse each time, enough to knock them over and then a bang, the train plummets into darkness and lurches, sending everyone flying...

… They never crash land. Instead they float, suspended in the air. In the darkness it is hard to orient themselves or even understand what is happening. There’s a roar in their heads as pressure builds, their ears pop. "All systems critical." Breathing is hard, for one terrifying moment there seems to be no air to breathe.

"Oxygen levels stabilising." They can breathe, the pressure in their heads fades, their ears eventually stop ringing. "Pressure levels stabilising." They are still floating, suspended in darkness. "Gravity systems critical".

Emergency lighting flickers on finally, a red glow from either end of each carriage, in the cabins and along floor strips, enabling them to move without bumping into anything. If they can figure out how to move at all that is. Outside the windows is dark. Not the blackness of the void at night but the deep vastness of space. A few moments pass, enough time to just about process that fact before the voice over the speakers is heard once more.

"Passengers of the Voidtrecker express, due to technical issues we are currently experiencing void engine failure. Thank you for your patience as we endeavour to continue our journey as quickly as possible. We ask that all passengers help in securing the train for re-entry into the Void and on behalf of the Voidtrecker Express I apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Then there is silence. Broken only, no doubt, by the passengers on this now stranded train.

(OOC: Event information is here.)

Comments

kitchen - immediately after engine failure

[kumoko]

[ She's in the kitchen when the shit hits the fan, taking a break from the serious business of another day of The Floor Is Lava. The first jolt has her grabbing for the wall, the second has her chirp with distress and a little bit of nausea, and by the third roll she's secured herself - and probably anyone else in the kitchen - to the side of the carriage with threads. They have a secure front-row seat for the next string of emergency alarms.

Systems critical? Engine failure? Oxygen, gravity, pressure-- that's so many flags! Who made this piece of shit train?! Ah, she knew it was too good to last, and now she's gonna die in space--

Like hell! Time for Hero Spider to shine!

First things first, how are the other people in the kitchen doing? Second thing, why is the air full of knives?! ]

[afterburner]

[Briefly, there's a voice. It might not be understandable at first, but it does resolve when the language filter comes back on...] --kind of a jank outfit is this? The engines freakin' failed??

[ Look, it's the fabled spider! But Pete has said she's friendly, so instead of flipping her own shit, Renee has herself locked to the floor--instead of momentum due to lack of gravity, she's using her powers to keep herself fused there instead. It's why she's good at The Floor Is Lava too--why use the floor when you can use the ceiling? If it gives Tony more gray hairs, that's a bonus.]

Oh, hey, 'sup--the FUCK??

[Yeah Renee just realized that those were knives in the air.] Can you even get out of the way of those knives? You might want to. I'm gonna do to them what I've done to myself...

[She's got the grace to wait until Kumoko situates herself, and then in their spin through the air, all the knives just--stop. Gravity doesn't reassert itself--her powers don't involve that particular force--but they don't spin any more and they do seem to be frozen in place.]

Okay, at least we can get them in the drawers again or something--preferably before Pete shows up and impales himself or something. Please don't let Pete show up and run into a knife, dear God in whom I don't believe.

Cabin 1A and out in corridors later - Engine Failure

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ Thankfully for all involved, Peter's actually not in or near the kitchen when jolt happens. He's actually tucked away in his bead snoring softly and dreaming about something ridiculous to do with school, an incomplete math test and that stupid DailyBugle.net. He wakes up right before the harsh jolt thank to his spideysense and has no time before he's slamming into the ceiling. ]

Owww....

[ Peter whines, feeling a bit dazed from where he'd smacked his head. Another jolt he smacks his head again because his plan to use his webs doesn't work so well when he took his webshooters off to sleep. This time, he stays up against the ceiling despite that he's not trying to stick to it. ]

Not even out of bed and somehow got a concussion.

[ He shakes his head and immediately regrets the action. ]

....where'd the gravity go?

Re: Cabin 1A and out in corridors later - Engine Failure

[hibana_incursa]

[ Gwen's curled up on her own bed when shit hits the fan. The first warning she gets that things are even going wrong happens before, her spider sense waking her up with a gasp. Grabbing her webshooters is a no go, as gravity decides Fuck This Shit I'm Out is it's theme-song and Gwen has a second to flip herself over, landing on the ceiling feet first. As her webshooters float by, Gwen makes a grab for them and then crawls over to Peter. ]

Engine failure. The train's stopped. We're kind of in trouble.

[knifewithnoname]

Standard Coach

She was on her way to the kitchens for something to eat when it happened, walking through the standard coach. She almost stumbled a few times as the train shook. Stupid train. But the shaking reminded her of when they went in and out of the void, were they going to another world? She looked at the device of her wrist and poked it a few times but no words appeared.

A moment later all that was forgotten as she was flung off her feet and into the air. Where she stayed. The next few moments were terrifying, her head felt like it could burst, she could barely breathe and it was pitch black. The voice was saying words that made no sense, words about oxygen and gravity. Lights flickered on and she was still in the air. She panicked, kicking out with her arms and legs, trying to reach anything. She kicked off on one of the chairs.

And off she went, off a window, a ceiling, the floor, a chair, a table. Like the ball Conan had been bouncing around in the gym. Except the ball was her. "Help! Be helping me! Anyone!"

It's even more terrifying than when she had been grabbed by the eagle. At least that had made sense. She had been in danger of death but at least she knew it. Right now she knows nothing, not even which way is up and the emptiness is far away from her, slipping far out of her reach, like any semblance of orientation.

Stores

Some time after that particular starting stumble has been dealt with she makes her way slowly, ever so slowly, clinging onto chairs, rails, anything that she can grip, towards the store room. She still doesn't really understand what is going on but the voice had said secure the train. She doesn't know what that means either but if everything is flying and it probably needs to not be flying. So she enters the store room and stares around in bafflement.

"But how do we be making it all no be flying..."

Spider-Man to the rescue!

[hashtagparkerluck]

Remember what Peter had said about his ears being good? They are. and with the sudden change in pressure and the brief feeling like couldn't breath his senses go on overload. So even though he's in his cabin, still dealing with the terrible headache, he hears Buttercup calling for help.

He quickly locates and applies his webshooters before firing a web to the door and then swiping his ticket so he can head right for the little girl, he gives himself a boost because he knows how this works and moves as fast as he can possibly get himself to go.

When he sees her floating helplessly, he fires off another web to attach to her pull her in closer.

"It's okay, It's okay, I gotcha!"

Stores

[afterburner]

"We make it not fly. Though I can't make something show up that's not already there, sadly." Renee can't help but sound a little bit smug as she steps up behind the girl--which kind of sucks that there are kids here, but it wasn't like Renee made the train roster herself, so.

"So I can't make us all not float, but I can make all that floating stuff freeze in its place, and then we can just pick it up from where it is and put it back where it belongs. Oh, I wonder if Charlotte would make webs to hold the stuff in place once we do? That's actually a pretty good idea."

Okay, maybe in a real pinch she could make the entire population of the train not be stuck in zero-grav, but she'd probably have to have them all in the same room, and be down for the count with a migraine for a day or two afterwards...

stores

[happyends]

Madoka was wondering that same question, really. And was just as baffled about it. But for a lack of a better plan, she just started trying to do what she could do here..

.. even if that didn't end up being all that much. If the other girl looks around the store room a little more, she may spot Madoka clinging onto a rail with one arm while apparently having gathered as many of the floating items (so, not a whole lot, considering it has to fit in a 14 year old's arms) as she can with the other. She's frantically holding onto them, but that means it's a little hard to move from the spot she's currently at now.

It's probably why she sounds a little relieved to hear someone else have entered the room. Even if it's a fellow young person rather than an adult who might be able to do a bit more in this situation.. But she'll take what she can get.

"Ah, Buttercup--! Um, do.. do you think there's any place we can put these things?"

If not just so Madoka can stop literally hanging onto that rail and being unable to do anything else. It's cold!!

Voice - over the ICP

[enthunder]

[ the ICP chirps again less than a minute after the final announcement. ] Hm... Lightning speaking. Everyone, respond on your nearest ICP. Just your name is fine, but if you need help, say where you are.

Voice - over the ICP

[afterburner]

[At least the response button's easy to find in the somewhat dark. Renee stabs it with a finger--she's responding from the kitchen!]

Yeah, it's Renee, and the spider's here with me. Charlotte? We're safe. [Safe enough at least with floating knives about, but Renee's helping take care of that...]

[siriusly]

Manabu here. Does void engine mean anything to you?

[faithfulsupport]

Lightning, it's Ignis.

[Something crashes next to him and he cringes. He's been trying to help and heal those he's found.]

Are you alright?

Re: Voice - over the ICP

[hibana_incursa]

It's Gwen. I'm in the Lavender Death Room. Alive and Fine.

Re: Voice - over the ICP

[unholyandbroken]

Jessie Custer, unofficial smoking car location wise.

[hashtagparkerluck]

This is Peter. Parker.

I'm just in Cabin 1A. All's fine at the moment though.

Some time later

[knifewithnoname]

[She had heard Lightning's voice, sometime in that crazy first few moments when she'd been bouncing around like a ball. But now Peter had shown her how to move she had gotten to a screen.]

I do be being alright, miss Lightning.

[happyends]

Um, this is Madoka Kaname.. I-I'm fine, just a little cold.

[tinkerheart]

Feanor. I'm on my way to the dining carriage. [Don't ask him why...] Do you have any idea why it suddenly got so cold?

[siriusly]

Cabins/Corridor: Initial check-ins
Wow, he'd even been dozing off about life back on the Galaxy Railways, and here we are -- back in zero-G. For a bleary moment, Manabu thought he was back in a simulation, but...no. No, the lights are a universally bad sign, and a jarring one at that, and he's up and at 'em without a word.

"Hey! Everyone alright in there?"

Right to work, Manabu takes to drifting from cabin door to cabin door, pounding on it and calling the same thing, waiting for response and using the overhead rail as a means to anchor and move himself along in a steady float.


Medbay

"Ah, jeez...!"

Opening up, Manabu finds quite the mess floating around -- can't exactly bolt down iodine or surgical instruments, can you? But the sharp-pointies can't be left floating around for people to drift into or collect for their own devices, so Manabu takes to gathering up what he can, using his pockets and a biohazard disposal bag as a means of carrying them until he can get them stored away.

"Oh, hey--" Glimpsing someone drifting in, he turns himself partway. "Here to help, or here to get help?"

Medbay

[runs_on_batteries]

Tony had been sleeping a little later today than he had recently. He'd started up a regiment of taking sleeping pills to avoid his nightmares and it seemed to have done the trick. Those don't really work though when you abruptly are thrown into the bunk above you and into the wall next to you. Those were mild irritations compared to what happened next.

The knowledge that he was on a stranded vehicle in space had crippled him with panic for several long minutes in his room. He'd somehow pushed past that enough to get himself moving to the medbay.

By the time he was navigating himself into the room, he was feeling shaky and fighting back memories that kept wanting to take over his mind. He shoots Manabu a stressed out glare and grunts as he pulls himself further into the room. Between clenched teeth, he hisses, "Anxiety pills. Quick!" He takes a labored breath before he can clarify a little more. "Ativan. Blue jar."

[deductiongeek]

Gym Car
Conan had been in the gym car when it happened, running though more soccer drills. The first of the turbulence nearly throws him off his feet. The second shock succeeds in tossing him onto the floor.

Before he can do anything, the lights are out and the gravity is gone, leaving him to figure out how to move anywhere when he was stuck floating in the middle of the darkened gym car.

Hallway outside 1B
Conan had decided that the worst part of this was the cold. He could get used to the darkness(although he really missed his night vision glasses. Navigating in zero gravity wasn't that difficult as long as you stuck close to the walls.

But even wearing every item of clothing he possessed and carrying a blanket everywhere he went, he just couldn't seem to keep warm/

Gym Car

[afterburner]

Well, Renee had promised the woman on the ICP that she'd go check the cars. It made sense to her, since while yes, the gravity was gone, it didn't make that much difference to her when she could kinetically make herself stick to the floor.

(It was probably better than flying at top speed through the cabs--for herself and others, as well...)

By now, her eyes have adjusted to the dark, though she still squints to see a little bit. Just because the red glow means her powers are active doesn't mean that helps her see at all. She'll take it, though, because she's not stuck floating.

"Anyone here?" She thinks she sees someone, but that could just be a beach ball or something, because who knew what all was in that closet...

pretty much anywhere you want, ota!

[happyends]

Sure, this whole situation is weird. And kind of scary. And mostly just really hard to deal with. But Madoka has gotten some information that has led to her assigning herself a task to do. Because as long as she can focus on that, she doesn't have as much time to stop and think about this situation and start to feel scared again.

The moment she manages to get around well enough by herself by clinging to just about anything that's bolted down, she starts moving around the train while carrying an extra blanket at a time. First mostly around the sleeper cars, but then slowly throughout the rest of the train as well. And if she spots anyone at all who doesn't look like they're dressed warm enough or doesn't yet have a blanket, she's going to try and make her way over to them.

Somehow. Give her a few moments, it's hard.

"Um..!" She'd show off the blanket to draw attention, but she's got it tightly clutched under one arm to keep it from floating away.. "Are you cold? I can help..!"

[pleple]

On hand on the wall - the lack of proper handgrips is absolutely the worst part of this - Ple Two is having a relatively easy time of it, which means she can focus on watching her roommate's flailing.

How adorable.

"That's kind of you, but I'd rather keep myself warm by moving." The hard part is actually finding something to do.

[pleple]

Gym - Engine Failure

[ Ple Two seemed to perk up a split second before the train even shook - and again, and again. This kind of shaking resembled an unstable atmosphere on Earth more than what she was used to from a space ship colliding with objects or being bombarded, but soon after things got more familiar. Blaring warnings, no gravity, darkness, changes in air pressure - actually that's scary, and she wonders if they'll all just die of the lack of oxygen from a mechanical failure none of them even understand.

But no, there's air a moment later, and she gasps for a shaky breath as emergency lights provide enough to move by. ]

Have you ever moved in low gravity?

[ She asks of whoever's nearby, as she grabs the ball she'd been bouncing off a wall, spins, and tosses it to leverage some momentum towards an easy handhold. ]

Kitchen, a bit later

[ Normally when you prepare food in low gravity, it's in a kitchen meant for it, but here's Ple Two just staring at a floating knife, comfortably drifting while she ponders how to anchor any kind of pot or pan to the stove. ]

We might just have to hold each other in place to even cook... and then eat with our hands?

[ So uh, no over easy eggs today. ]

[knifewithnoname]

"I think it will be being safer to just be eating cold food."

She is trying to be helpful and tidy things away as best as she can. She had made good progress in the store room. It was just difficult when things didn't act the way you expected them to. She's getting more confident in moving, able to chose a place to grab and then glide along to it rather than clinging to ever handhold she could find.

"Do eating even be working when gravity magic do be broken?"

Because food went down and gravity magic was what made things go down...

Tony and Ash: Waking up to Chaos

[runs_on_batteries]

To his roommates' relief, Tony had begun to take sleep aids and his nightmares had dramatically been reduced. Even the ones he did have, usually weren't enough to wake him or anyone else. They were just the kind that continued to disturb you once you were awake again. Progress, maybe?

However, nothing was truly helpful with sleeping when you were comfortable and snoozing one moment and the next you were colliding with the bunk above you. Tony woke with an angry, pained curse and pushed on the bunk that his nose had been pressed up against. The next moment, the train was jarring again- throwing him into the wall. "What the hell is going on?" He hissed before being thrown against the top bunk again and back to his own mattress. Disoriented from both just waking up, the darkness and gravity not picking a side, he can't seem to get a hold of anything to keep himself from being thrown around till everything goes still and he is floating instead of laying in his bed.

He was going to strangle someone...

[bombashbunny]

Ash was not one to complain about the stirrings at night, nor was she one to really move around if something woke her. Normally she would just keep her eyes closed and slip back into sleep none the worse for wear. She was not so good about nightmares or comforting people, so it was something she never particularly asked about. Silently? She was glad for the calmness as of late.

Unfortunately the train had other ideas this morning as it violence ntly shuddered, throwing a once asleep mess of hair into the wall towards the ceiling. She heard what sounded like a pissed Tony curse as she tried to get her bearings, panicked breathing uncharacteristic of her. The peace didn't last long as she was thrown against the wall yet again, her ears going as flat against the top of her head as she could manage to try to keep from hurting them. She had thrown her arms out as a reaction to try to break the fall. It worked, it hurt, and she landed heavily back into her bunk with a grunt.

She tried to slow her breathing and respond to Tony, but she was thrown again - this time tumbling out of her bunk and towards the floor in a mess of limbs and hair. Panicked, she flailed and tried to right herself to stand, but instead lashed out and continued to float. She banged her shin pretty hard against one of the bunks and sent herself spinning and, in her panic, she had one clear thought: why the actual fuck hadn't I gotten something to tie my hair with?

Honestly? There was a relatively high chance some limb of hers would catch Tony, or he'd get a mouth full of hair, or something like that. She never claimed to be graceful.