voidtreckerexpress | Intro: Into the Void

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Intro: Into the Void

On the Platform

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 ten people all facing the tracks, all wearing similar clothing. 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 security gate. 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.

Boarding, it seems, is the only option.

The Train

A horn sounds and anyone not on the train will feed the need to board immediately. The train is empty. But it seems ready for you. The stores are full of food, the carriages are all clean. Every screen on the train is showing the same message.

The luggage carriage, strangely, seems full of luggage. Or at least the cases. Suitcases, bags, trunks. All empty. But it at least will make good storage for your own bags once you have unpacked.

Carriages

Just like the message reads, your ticket is required to enter your cabin. The names are written on screens outside each cabin but once you are inside bed choice seems to be up to you. It might mean there is a fight for the top bunk.

Room is right 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 find a pillow for each bed as well as extra blankets, in case it gets cold.

Departure

A second horn, to encourage any stragglers to enter and then the doors slide shut. It seems, for good or for ill you are riding this train to… wherever it is going.

"Welcome aboard, passengers of the Voidtrecker Express." A female-coded artificial sounding voice echoes throughout the train. The train begins to move, shuddering along the tracks, fog obscuring the view from the windows.

"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 tilts, the movement changes. It seems, as impossible as it might seem to some, that this train is flying.

"Entrance into Voidspace imminent. New passengers are advised to remain seated."
A shudder runs through the train. A lurch to the left, a jolt to right, the feeling of going far too fast and then a flash, bright colours that are almost 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 multicoloured ever shifting void.

Your journey has begun.

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"Maybe. I do no be knowing." But onwards, maybe the next bit of the long-ship would provide more answers. Through another set of doors she sees stairs going upwards.

"Do you be thinking it do be leading to the deck?"

Did train long ships have decks? Maybe that's where the sailors were.

"I'm not certain. The last train I boarded was haunted; it had neither crew nor conductor. I hope that isn't the case here." Though Sarai said that rather nonchalantly--as if such strangenesses were simple happenstance for her.

Mostly because they were.

"I suppose there's only one way to find out, though, is there not? I have your back."

"Haunted?" She hoped that wasn't the case here either. Junie said that lost vengeful spirits were just stories. But she wasn't sure. Some of the stories sounded real and it made sense that souls that were denied reincarnation would want revenge. But why would they be on a long-ship? Unless they were sailors?

Sailors were always drowning and becoming lost souls, there were lots of stories sailors told about them.

She started up the stairs, another door and she stepped through. They were still indoors. Not on a deck. But there was a long table with benches. An eating place?

"Huh, well, we found the kitchen, I suspect. At least they're not going to starve us. Well. Assuming there's food...Excuse me."

She slipped around the girl, pawing casually through the cabinets and cold chest. Well, in truth, then, there were certainly supplies enough for a good number of people for a while, and Sarai nodded to herself in satisfaction.

"There's supplies aplenty--we might get bored, but we'll definitely be eating." Though there might be a few things she could whip up, as well. "More than we might even need, but I suppose that depends on how many we end up with..."

Little One also explored, poking things, looking inside things. There was indeed a lot of food. That was a good thing, at least they wouldn't starve. And if they weren't meant to eat it... Well then whoever had brought them here should have thought of that before doing so.

"How long do you be thinking we will be here. I do be needing to go back."

"I could not begin to guess." Sarai frowned at that question. After all, the girl wasn't the only one who needed to go back. She needed to find out what was going on with the Calling--what had happened to Urianger and the other Scions...too many mysteries left on Hydaelyn that she needed to go back and unravel, blast it.

"I hope not long. I should be going back to my world myself, honestly." Not that the way things usually turned out made Sarai think such a thing would actually happen...

"Well we should all be going back. If this do be being a ship then we can be sailing it back to where we do be needing to go."

Easy! This ship was big but surely ten people could sail it!

"We do just be needing to be finding the deck."

"I've been on a sailing ship...this doesn't seem like it might have one. Though I'm not as familiar with how a train operates..." Sarai had sailed around Vylbrand enough to pick up at least a little bit of how ships worked. And infiltrated pirate ships to do the same. If this was like that, she'd agree with the child--it shouldn't be trouble.

But with a train, Sarai wasn't so sure. "We can but try, though, so why not?" At least until they found someone who knew more about such things than she did.

This girl has never actually been on a ship. She's seen them though, seen many of them on the docks so she at least knows what a deck looks like. So far she hasn't seen anything like that here.

"Have you been being on a train before?"

If so she might know what they were looking for, because if a train deck is different than a ship then this girl has no idea.

"I have, but it was haunted, so I never saw a conductor--I did find something that I suppose you could have called a deck, but it was full of ghosts as well. I don't think a deck was where the train was controlled, either." Sarai shrugged at that, well aware that she was completely unhelpful, here.

It wasn't on purpose, however.

"I'm not sure I ever found where the Phantom Express was controlled, though, sadly. We got the train to stop, and then we were able to exit it." This train didn't seem quite as simple...

"Oh..." She's struggling to understand all of that but ghost ships are common scary stories so she guesses the same could happen to a train. Sailors dying and remaining trapped on the world, their souls unable to reincarnate, haunting the seas for eternity.

"I do no be seeing no ghosts here though."

Nothing at all. Though she has never actually seen a ghost and Kant had told her they were just silly stories, not real at all.

"How did you be getting it to stop?"

"Nor do I, thankfully."

But then the next question she was asked...my, that was loaded. Sarai furrowed her brow for a moment, but she'd never particularly been inclined to lie.

"We broke it, basically. Beat the ghosts up until they dissipated, and then the train stopped." Sarai wasn't sure if the train itself had actually been broken--she hadn't bothered to stay around to find out.

"Oh. Well that will no be working here unless we can be finding the ghosts to be beating up."

But it's a good thing she has found someone who knows how to beat ghosts up, because this girl doesn't have a clue. Can you beat them up just like a normal person?

"Indeed." Sarai's brow furrowed, then. Well, at least she could. Were he here, Dread could--whether that's because they're Warriors of Light or something else, however...a question to leave up in the air, because she couldn't answer it.

"I haven't seen any so far, but I suppose they could be peaceful ghosts, and not inclined to bother us. We might have to keep on the lookout for harmless pranks--though I'm not certain what could be done with peaceful ghosts, either. If that's the case, I suppose we might have to try talking to them."

She's just not sure, now.

"Do there be being such a thing as peaceful ghosts?" The girl wrinkled her nose. Surely that was the point of ghosts, they existed because they weren't peaceful. If they were peaceful they would have reincarnated and not be ghosts any more.

She's not sure it's even possible to talk to ghosts, but honestly she's never seen one and Sarai beat up a train full of them so she figures she knows what she is doing.

"While I've met some, it's more...they had unfinished business, and if they were angry, they wouldn't get resolution. If that makes any sense. It benefited them more to be peaceful." At least, that made sense to Sarai, so.

And they'd manifested and let her talk to them, if anything...not like the ones on the Phantom Express. It was sort of difficult to explain, but she'd done her best.

"Oh I do be understanding." Sort of. It seemed ghosts were a lot more capable of thought than the stories she knew made out. But more interesting was the fact that Sarai seemed to know about them, had beat them up and met some less angry one. She must have lived an interesting life!

"Maybe you can be talking to these ones. If we do be even finding them."

"Well, you can be sure I'll certainly try!" If only because Sarai, at least, would rather try to negotiate than fight, if she could. But if it came down to it, she'd fight if she had to.

"I haven't seen anything suspicious yet. I mean. Aside from the train...the whole thing there, that's pretty suspicious."

"It do be being very suspicious. But I do be knowing what you do be meaning." Nothing suggests it's filled with doomed spirits, it's just a train and it seems to be empty except for them.

"Someone did be bringing us here and they did be putting us in these clothes and giving us these bags."

"Yes, I believe that your theory's the correct one, but I'd kind of like to know the how and the why. But if everyone here so far is like you and I--meaning fish out of water--that seems unlikely."

Sarai frowned at that, but all she could do was the usual thing she tended to do when she arrived in a new place--stick her nose everywhere she could, and hope it didn't get taken off when she did so.

"Well maybe they do be being somewhere else." She shrugged, it was strange indeed.

"Maybe they will be telling us why soon. When we get to wherever we do be going."

"We could be so lucky," Sarai said, grumbling just a bit. "I suppose we ought to try to get settled--the sooner we go, the sooner we can get there, right?"

And then, hopefully, get back home. Not that Sarai believed that would come easily. Not for a second.

"I do be hoping so." She nodded, "We will be getting there soon I do be being sure."

Maybe. Sea journeys could take weeks... Who knew about trains. But Sarai was right, there was no point worrying until they go there.

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Intro: Into the Void

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