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

[priforprince]

“As if I’d helm such a shoddily-equipped operation!”

So much for composure. (And the quiet car.) Hibiki lifts a leg to try and wade through the suitcase chaos, her peace of mind well and truly disrupted. ”Your opinion contains a lone petal of truth. I’m assuming immediate command of this vessel!”

Hibiki....








.....no.

[knifewithnoname]

Little One watched her. Her way of speaking was difficult to understand and her attitude... Little One had never met anyone like her before. It made it difficult to know how to behave, what to do.

But then... She is taking over the train? "How do you be doing that?"

There were no sails on this long-ship, no helm either. No sailors to command. Little One didn't even know how it was moving, considering no one was actually sailing it. So what exactly was this woman taking over?

[priforprince]

Hibiki had brought out more suitcases than she’d thought. She struggles through the carnage, arms raised and hands fisted. “Someone must be manning the engine....I’ll gain entry to depose them by whatever means necessary! Revolution requires sacrifice!”

Revolution has a fancy bag stuck on its foot. Whoops.

[knifewithnoname]

She doesn't know what an engine was but no one is manning anything. None of the people on this train know anything, except the one man who seemed to think he did. But it's been hours and he's not been back to tell her that he had found a way off the train and now they were in a weird place of colours.

But this woman seems to think she can depose the leaders? Of whom there are none? By a revolution? With her foot stuck in a bag?

Little One laughs, "Your revolution do be going well."

[priforprince]

“Rgh!”

Ignore her, Hibiki’s pride demands. She tries to take a determined step free of the suitcase pile, but the bag clunks awkwardly when she sets her foot down. She kicks her foot free as quickly as possible - as if by being fast about it, she can make this obstacle have never happened - and stalks to the door, past Little One. The engine....This time, she’ll make it to the engine!

And she will have - behold - her dueling glove already in hand, out of nowhere!

[knifewithnoname]

The girl followed behind. Where had that glove come from? She follows a little behind, she's interested in what this woman will do and if she will actually be successful in her revolution...

Little One doubts it. But it will be interesting to see what happens.

[priforprince]

First on the agenda, apparently, is stalking through the train until Hibiki (with Little One in tow) reaches the sealed entrance to the engine. This is not much of a feat when one considers how close to the engine the quiet car is, but what Hibiki lacks in quantity of righteous stalk, she makes up for in quality..

Marching as close to the engine as she can get, she pounds on the wall. “You can hear me, correct?” Hibiki calls. “I, Shikyoin Hibiki, am relieving you of your position immediately! There are limits to inhospitality!”

Raising the glove, she tosses it with a mighty toss. “I DEMAND A DUEL!”

The glove bounces off and, in a freak of cartoon physics, flies back towards Little One. In case she wants a glove. You know. In her face.

[knifewithnoname]

Little One hung back, close enough to observe but not too close that she couldn't hide or run if anything materialised through the wall. She's not expecting it to, people couldn't walk through walls. But also far enough that she can claim she is not part of this revolution, if it all goes wrong.

The glove hits her square in the face. She reaches up to bat it away. "Hey! Be stopping that."

And the glove is picked up and hurled straight back at Hibiki.

i assume i don’t have to report “threw an armed hissy” on the shenanigans page

[priforprince]

Hibiki snatches her glove back out of thin air, focused on the engine and thus moving on instinct. Once she realizes she’s got her glove back, however, she stares at it in dismay.

“My challenge was rejected....?” The glove is stashed away. “Impossible.....Then, I’ll open my own path!”

And in the glove’s place, she draws a sword. A ridiculous and impractical sword, but still, a very real sword. That glints in the light and everything. This will show that conductor!

Nope it's cool and noted :P

[knifewithnoname]

Wait where did she get a sword? Where had that been hiding?

Also why does it look so stupid? Still she stood and watched as Hibiki futily hit the wall. It made a loud clanging sound but did not seem to even dent the carriage wall at all.

"I do no be thinking you will be getting through."

[priforprince]

Hibiki remains defiant. And on the offense. “The ideal I envision for myself....” Clang. “Shall absolutely be realized!” Clang. “That is - the meaning of genius!”

EXTREMELY OBSTINATE CLANG. The shock from that last impact runs up Hibiki’s arms, and she shivers, staring at the barrier before her. Impenetrable....? No, it can’t be....

Is there a weakness, something, anything?

[knifewithnoname]

"I do no be thinking genius' do be loosing fights with train-ships."

Said the girl who was leaning against one of the cupboards, watching this display with a mixture of surprise and puzzlement. She had never seen anyone attack a wall with a sword before.

She tilted her head, "I do be guessing your revolution do be being dead."

Of course this means that Little One is still stuck on this train too, but she still takes some pleasure in seeing the woman who had been rude to her fail.

[priforprince]

“Refrain from catchphrase-level verbal tics while I’m in distress!”

This is, to be fair, not fair in the slightest. Under typical conditions, dialect and other quirks of speech that stop short of sentence enders don’t incite Hibiki’s allergy (with the occasional dreamin’ exception). But these are not typical conditions. This engine won’t yield! The conductor won’t appear!

Will her challenge.....go unanswered.....?

Sweaty palms adjust their grip on the hilt, and Hibiki lunges forward, as if she’ll be able to impale the engine door open now that whacking it hasn’t yielded a weak spot. Take her strongest, sublime whirling dance! “HAAAAAH!”

Petals flutter through the air. Little One might want to step backwards, should this go south.

[knifewithnoname]

Little One does step back because stabbing a solid wall at speed looked like a very bad idea indeed. She doesn't even understand what the woman is saying so dismisses it as more stupid things that she doesn't need to worry about.

Hibiki's sword hits the unyielding metal with a dull thud, the wall is indeed impenetrable and so left Hibiki with a lot of momentum that needed to go... somewhere.

[priforprince]

And go somewhere that momentum does.

“Ghk!”

Hibiki is suddenly every bit as still as she’d previously been moving, sword still touching the wall without so much as a dent. The shockwave could all but physically have been seen ricocheting back into her body, sweeping back up her arm and to the top of her head, where her one loose curl has flown upwards from the blast. Slowly, it drifts back down.

When it falls into place, the sword falls from Hibiki’s fingers and clatters to the ground. She remains in the same position, however. Jaw agape.

This hallway has a new statue.

[knifewithnoname]

The sword clatters to the ground and for a moment the girl wonders if the woman is dead, it's stupid because a train can't kill someone. But... Why is she not moving? Why drop the sword?

Carefully she creeps forward until she is close enough to carefully poke Hibiki. "Do you be being alright?"

Everything is strange today but this woman is turning into the strangest person she's ever met!

[priforprince]

Hibiki jerks back to life at the sudden poke, sucking in a breath. Where is she?! What? Why’s she facing this....

This completely.....undamaged wall.....

The dumbstruck staring continues, except now Hibiki also casts her eyes downward. She’s shaking, a little. Her hands close into fists.

This train.....this train....dares......

[knifewithnoname]

"I do no be thinking you can be breaking it. It do be being stronger than your sword."

It was maybe brave to try but good warriors always knew when a fight was unwinnable. What they did with that information depended on the fight, but this woman didn't look like she had accepted that she would loose, not at all. She looked shocked.

[priforprince]

Hibiki is....coming to that conclusion, yes. Which is why she’s scooping up her sword with an angry grunt - “Hrngh!” - turning on her heel, and marching back down the corridor with her hackles up, both elbows and knees all but at right angles. She can’t stand being by this infernal engine for one nanosecond longer! SO THERE!

She doesn’t know where she’s going, mind. But anywhere is better than here!

[knifewithnoname]

Well at least she does eventually know when to give up. But now she is going somewhere, still with her sword that he pulled from no where.

After a few moments the girl followed, this woman was proving interesting and she wanted to see what would happen next. She followed at a distance, to watch but to be safely out of the way for when the next stupid thing she did went wrong.