Intro: Into the Void

[voidtreckermods]

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.

Comments

[mtsilver_conquor]

The Train
[Outside of the compelling feeling to 'stop checking the train out and get on it', Eva is slightly alarmed and nonplused about everything. She's no stranger to weirdness, but even this takes the cake and she's honestly upset that her clothes have been replaced with clothes that don't even have a proper belt she can hook Princess's pokeball to.

But she's also curious about the train and fellow passengers, and can be found walking the length of it, Princess riding shotgun on her shoulder/rucksack, the pink pseudo-rabbit-like pokemon's vestigial wings flared for balance.

At some point, she does stop and look at a screen.] -Month of Apple? Really?

[Say what?]


Departure
[It's only via a combo of luck, experience with sudden lurches/jolts (Look, take off on a fearow sure is Something), and having experienced at least one janky teleport landing gone wrong that she manages to stay upright.

Barely. Her pokemon isn't so lucky. Princess takes a tumble, wings only marginally useful in slowing the fall.] Princess!

[The clefairy shakes himself with small 'pi-ai' like sound as he sits up.] Ugh.. Next time we're going to sit, ok>?


[Later on, she can be found in one of the seats in the Standard Coach, chin in hand as she stares out at the void every so often. Princess is curled up on the table and seems to be snoring.]

Departure

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ Peter is not so lucky either as the sudden jolt forces him suddenly slam into the side of the wall. He barely has time shake the jolt off but this time he's ready-he latches onto the closed window with help from his powers and braces himself just as the train rolls, lurches-whatever it is again. ]

[ This time, Peter stay exactly where he is, stuck on the window and not moving beyond the jolt that shook through him but he doesn't end up on the floor at least. ]

[ Once he was sure it was safe to, he unsticks himself from the window and glances out-noting the multicolored swirl that's hard to focus on. He pulls attention from the window the disgruntled look on his face and light shake of his head. ]

Well that was... weird.

[ His eyes fall on the little pokemon. It's cute but he's never seen anything like it. ]

Uh... is uh... she? Okay?

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Honestly, that he stuck to the window isn't even a thought. She just assumes Peter is a psychic and that is that.]

Yea, for a train at least. Still not as bad as an onidrill take-off can get.

[All said while squatting down to check the clefairy over, who clambers back up to his spot, Eva steading him as she stands.] He, actually, but yea. Princess is a hardy pippi, aren't you?

[The pokemon seems to nod with a 'pi!'] It's ok though. I made the mistake too when I first caught him.

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ And he just assumes she didn't actually see him use his powers, so bullet dodged. ]

O-Oh? Uh... Princess. [ He tests the name, looking at the creature with curiosity. ] Glad you're okay.

....wait.

what do you mean 'caught?' [ His attention moves back to Eva. ] usually people say they 'adopted' a pet.

[mtsilver_conquor]

[The clefairy's ears twitch as he looks at Peter, one wing seeming to 'wave'. Or maybe he's just steadying himself. It's hard to tell.]

He's- He's not a pet. He's a battling pokemon- from my world, though I guess he could be a pet...

[Eva yelps as Princess digs his claws into her shoulder with an unhappy sound.] Or not. I don't think he'd be happy with just that.

[hashtagparkerluck]

[ And suddenly, Peter's eyes have gone wide and snap right back to the clefairy and then to Eva. ]

Whoa. Are you shi-uh-messing with me right now? A Pokemon-Oh my god, that's awesome.

can I get a spinarak? please tell me I can get a spinrak. I mean, I don't really wanna battle, I just wanna hang out with it.

It'd be like my spirit animal-uh-Pokemon.Sorry, I didn't realize because I've only ever seen like them drawn like-uh-cartoonish and on video-games.

[mtsilver_conquor]

He really is a pokemon.

[Wait. Hold the phone on everything. She's now hella confused and more than a bit alarmed and it shows in tone and how she straightens.] How- How can you not have seen a living breathing pokemon? Even in cities such as Yamabuki or Kogane, there's wild pokemon like ratta or poppo around, even on the news and such. W... Where you kept you hidden from the world because you're a psychic?

[She's heard of people doing that, or trying to at least. Juniper's assistant, Cheren, was one such case, even if it was minor'.]

[hashtagparkerluck]

What? I'm not psychic. I'm just- [ He has to stop himself from saying that he's just really sticky. ]

Uh... they don't-uh... has anyone explained the multiverse to you, yet? 'cause Pokemon don't actually exist where I'm from-we've just uh.. heard about them... somehow.

[mtsilver_conquor]

How else would you stick to a window...?

[The most dubious look, but the question draws a small frown before she nods slowly.] A bit. It's- It's still confusing, but I understand enough to know this isn't my world at least. Nothing I know can pull off what's outside the window...

[A nod towards the void. Technically, she does know of something (a fully mature giratina) that could, but that isn't something she's willing to even think about.] So, if you're not from my world, then how do you know about pokemon?

Later on

[knifewithnoname]

[Little One has taken to exploring the train. If she is trapped here, and she is, then she wants to know about her surroundings. Some of the carriages are full of strange things, like the kitchen. It looks like no kitchen she's ever seen. But some, like this one, are understandable.

Why they need quite so many chairs for ten people is beyond her though. She walks down the aisle, hand stretched out to touch the chairs as she passes them. She stops as she sees the woman. The woman herself isn't really worth noting, one of those she hasn't already met out of those on the platform.

But the creature. Like nothing she's ever seen before. A bit like a rabbit, but not. "What do that be being?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

Hmm? Oh, this is Princess. He's a pippi. He's a pokemon- from my world.

[Gods and Legends, she hopes she doesn't sound as awkward as she thinks. It's still a trip wrapping her mind around the concept of other worlds.]

[knifewithnoname]

Princess. It do be being called that? [Weird that someone would name an animal at all. Or a pokemon. She had never heard of pokemon before but this day is turning into a list of things she has never heard of before.

She scrunches her nose as she looks more carefully at the creature and wait a second.] Your world? What do you be meaning?

[mtsilver_conquor]

[She nods, then pauses.

How to explain to a child... Oh fuck it.] Arkea -the world I came from- isn't the same as yours, nor is it the same as the others. None of their's have pokemon... I was in a different place before I was on the platform I was on my way to work, and then I was taking a train.

[knifewithnoname]

Yes we do no be having pokemon. [That made much more sense actually. As weird and strange as another world was it was somewhat better than the idea all these strange, weird and wonderful things existed on her world and she had just never learned of them.]

I did be being in my room and then I did be being on the platform.

[Of course just because it was a slight relief didn't mean it answered anything. If this is a different world then how did she get here? How did any of them her here?]

You do be taking your... pokemon to work with you?

[mtsilver_conquor]

That must've been terrifying, and I'm sorry you had to go through it. We'll figure this, one way or the other, ok?

[She offers what she hopes is a sympathetic smile, meaning what she says.] But yes. Princess comes to work with me. He helps, actually. He might not look it, but the little guy's powerful.

[There's a fond smile at the snoring pokemon. Powerful isn't even half of what Princess is - of what pokemon even are.]

[knifewithnoname]

I did no be being scared. [She pulled a face. This train ship was so strange, full of people telling her that they were sorry and they would help her. It was because they were all light stricken she supposed.

But for now she is more interested in the sleeping creature.] He do be being powerful? Do he be being a hunting ani... pokemon?

[mtsilver_conquor]

My bad.

[It's less light stricken and more the fact you're a child, Little One.

Eva's face scrunches for a second before she shakes her head.] No. He's a battler and while there are some who decry it as a bloodsport, such as Plasma or Aether, it's not. It's actually quite safe. If it wasn't, I wouldn't ask it of him nor would I have gone down the path of a professional Trainer.

[Typically, but she's not about to explain to a child who hasn't grown up in her world the darker, more brutal side of the sport, or the underground batting scenes or anything of the like related to Orre, Holon, or Ferrum.]

the train

[enthunder]

[ The first time Light sees Princess, she fleetingly wonders how someone's managed to smuggle a Moogle onto a train platform. The second time, as Eva goes through the the train and stops at a screen, she's about to take a better look when the other girl comments on the screen. ]

I'm just glad there's some way of measuring time here.

Re: the train

[mtsilver_conquor]

[Sorry no moogles here, just a cute pink pokemon who's wings and ears twitch as Princess glances in Lightening's direction.]

Honestly, same. But- Apple? That's... that's a fruit, not a month.

Re: the train

[enthunder]

[ She shrugs, not disagreeing, but lacking any tangible memory of month names to offer in return. For all she knows, Apple might be a month. Sounds pretty stupid, though. ] Makes you wonder what next month'll be called, huh?

[ Is... Is the Moogle looking at her. She looks back, head tilted. ] Uh, Lightning, by the way. My name.

[mtsilver_conquor]

It does, but first, we have to get through this one.

[There's a shallow bow of greeting from the young woman before she straightens, tucking a strand of hair behind an ear.] Nice to meet you, Lightning-san. I'm Eva, and this is Princess.

[enthunder]

Eva, Princess. Got it. [ She snaps out of her staring contest with the fuzzball and nods back.

Small talk. How do. ]

... Is Princess from your home world?

[mtsilver_conquor]

Yea. [Nod!] He's a pokemon -a pippi, which is a rare species, so I'm actually really lucky I found him. He's one of the first I caught, actuall, though he was smaller... maybe half the size he is now.

[enthunder]

He must be pretty special. It's good that he's here to keep you safe.

[ Pippi, not Moogle. Got it. She's so used to Yuna and her summoning that it doesn't feel too odd that she'd meet another tamer-type warrior here, but all of the aeons were... well. Bigger, for one thing.

Wait, she just realised what Eva said. One of the first? ]

You have more?

[mtsilver_conquor]

I do, but not with me.

[She visibly deflates for several seconds before shaking her head.] I can't think of why that'd happen either. I mean, why take me and not my pokemon? It just doesn't make sense. I don't have the rest of my stuff either, so I can't even show pictures of them or what Princess could grow into with the right stimulation.

[There's a small laugh as she reaches up and scritches under the clefairy's chin.] but at least I have Princess. I can- I can live without the rest. But, what about you? Do you have anything from home?