A new platform [intro post September]

[voidtreckermods]

For those on the train

“Good morning passengers, it is day one of the month of Bassoon.” The train announces the morning the month changes. It seems the train counts months in days of thirty. Team Points have been updated on the system.

The day continues as most days do, chores, eating, getting ready for another day. But those who suspect that a change of month may bring something else are correct. It is only an hour or two later that there is another announcement.

“Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void imminent.”

By now they should know to hold on as the train jerks and jolts. There is only fog outside the windows but the train soon comes to a stop. The doors hiss open.

As they exit into the fog they may notice Evie exiting from the luggage carriage door. Much like Hibiki the last time they were on a platform. She leaves the train, backpack on her back as she walks through the station. She heads no call, reacts to no words and cannot be stopped as she walks to the ticket barrier and disappears through it.

Strange. But even stranger still is that there on the platform that whole time is Evie. Dressed in purple, backpack on back, with her are others. Waiting for the train.

For new arrivals

At first all they can see if 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 your back. For a moment it seems to just be them, alone in the white haze but then the steam begins to fade and they realise they aren’t alone.

The platform is not very large, but it hold twelve figures 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 ticket barrier. 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.

Out step a selection of people, some less human than others, wearing clothes just like those worn by those on the platform.

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.

Once on board there is lots to explore. Passengers both old and new will hopefully be delighted to see the boredom of this train journey is somewhat alleviated by the introduction of a game carriage. Plenty of games, both familiar and new to play with your new travelling companions.
Each ICP shows the same message. If Red team go and look they will find a box in the luggage compartment that contains their prize. A dralite themed cake lolly each. There are enough for the new members of Red team too, share in your teams previous success!

The food stores have been topped up with new fresh food. Salmon has taken over as the primary ingredient of choice. Hopefully everyone likes fish!

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. For those who boarded two weeks ago they will know what is coming next.

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."

Hopefully someone warns you that you really want to heed that warning because a moment later there is 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 voidspace.

Comments

[internetsexsymbol]

Whoa. What did this guy say about being an elf? Like a high-fantasy elf, or a holiday department store elf? If people can resurrect in other dimensional malls, they must have good salaries.

"Huh, awfully determined of you...I like it!" Reigen's already seen some less than human things both here and back home, so he can roll with an ex-ghost elf man. Who's he to judge?

At the admittedly corny alliteration, Reigen gives Curufin an amused smirk. "Ha. I've been here about five minutes, give or take. I guess you're in the same boat. Or train."

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin would die laughing at that joke! And he'd say he was more like a high-fantasy Elf, so the high salary wasn't an issue.

"I was determined. Elves are bound to the Earth until its ending; we don't have any other place to go when we die. Actually, we're supposed to go to the halls of our death-god, Mandos, there to await judgement for our actions in life, and possibly to be gifted with re-embodiment and another chance at life. I had no intentions of letting him judge me and possibly be sentenced to eternity in those dark halls. So I refused the summons of Mandos and stayed in Middle-earth as a ghost. And that's when I began to experiment with reincarnation and found I could do it myself, I didn't need the gods." Ex-ghost Elf man, you betcha!

For a fierce high-fantasy warrior Elf, Curufin has a fairly corny sense of humor, and he indulges it whenever he can! "I guess we are in the same boat. Train. Whatever." Grin.

"So if you've been here for five minutes, where were you before you came here? What was happening in your life?"

[internetsexsymbol]

Reigen makes a mental note of all the terms he doesn't recognize...death-god-man? Middle-earth? There's a lot to unpack here that sounds like it's from someone's fantasy novel pitch. "Huh, is that how it works...guess you can't cave to the system." That's what he's taking from Curufin's story: when the going gets tough, stick it to the man!

"The only ghost I know on a personal basis is trying to become a god himself, is that even possible? He's a weak bastard, so it's not working out so far." Why yes, Reigen will take any opportunity to insult Dimple if it comes to him. Coming across an ex-ghost who'd know about godhood might also give him the chance to let the little green guy down gently if his dreams are impossible.

"What was I doing? Oh, you know, arranging appointments to handle some cursed objects, handling some paperwork. Just another day at the office, and then boom! Nothing but fog! My employees are nowhere to be found either."

[so_dark_a_road]

It probably does sound like high fantasy stuff. Curufin just thinks of it as all real because he lived it. "You're right, I couldn't cave to the system." Ha ha, the pun may not have been intentional, but it was funny nonetheless. The Halls of Mandos were located within and below a mountainside, so they'd count as caves, even if they had marble pillars and other fripparies. Yes, STICK IT TO THE MAN!

"You know a ghost who is trying to become a god? This sounds like a great story. I don't know if it's possible in your world. It's not possible in mine. The gods are a different kind of being than Elves or mortals, though they can take Elvish or mortal forms if they want to. It just doesn't go in the other direction. We're stuck with being whatever we were born to be."

"You are an administrator? I was a warlord, but I had to manage the territory, so I had a desk full of paperwork. I sympathize. It's not the most interesting part of life, even though it's essential. Sorry you lost all your employees when you came here." He chuckles. "I wonder if there is a train carriage we haven't noticed yet -- full of desks and office chairs and phones and computers and water-coolers?"

[internetsexsymbol]

Hooray for unintentional puns!

Reigen laughs at the news that becoming a god is not possible for ghosts. In your snotty face, Dimple. "Yeah, he's an asshole. My student found him trying to start a cult, and he's been hanging out like a bad cold ever since. At least he's good for eating weaker spirits." Maybe he wouldn't crush Dimple's dreams just yet to make sure he stuck around. Not like he was likely to listen to Reigen anyway.

"Something like that? I'm self-employed: I happen to run the most reasonably-priced spirit consultation office in Japan! There's still paperwork, though." He waves dismissively at his apology though. "It's fine, they're definitely alive. I don't know if whatever took me here got them too, but I'm not worried about it." Mob and Serizawa both have a lot of psychic power on their side, so if there was something up, they could probably take care of it.

"...if there's a water cooler carriage, I'm leaving." He had to sell those for years before he got tired of it, so a room made entirely of water coolers sounds like something out of an ironic dream he might have.

[so_dark_a_road]

"A ghost is trying to become a god and start a cult that worships him? And he eats other ghosts? Troublesome. In our world, spirits are forbidden to communicate with the living. Although I broke the rule myself, a few times. Apparently in your world, nobody's making rules."

"Ah, now I see! It's your business to deal with spirits. And people pay you for that work? Interesting." And good that Reigen's people are not dead, that no disaster preceded Reigen's exit from his own world.

"So, I guess the VoidTrecker Express is not going to make us into office workers." Chuckle. "Slaves of the desk and the water-cooler. Haaaalp! I'd dive out the window."

[internetsexsymbol]

"Exactly, the world of spirits is a lawless land where I'm from. That's why psychics need to put their natural gifts to good use. It's like anything, what's the point of having a skill if you aren't planning on using it?" He shrugs noncommittally. it's not exactly a huge deal in his opinion.

"People have a lot of mundane problems that are the work of evil spirits, and I have to make a living somehow. It evens out."

Curufin gets a very dry laugh from the water cooler comment. "I'd be right behind you. I've done enough work at cubicles, never again."

[so_dark_a_road]

"Lawless spirits, that must make life interesting. You're a psychic? Can you tell if there is a spirit in the environment? Not that I think there are any on this train. Except. . . we have no idea who is the engineer and if there are other staff, do we? They're invisible to us, whether they're hiding in the locomotive or wherever they are. Could you use your psychic gifts to detect them?"

He has to smile. "If I blamed an evil spirit every time I dropped my pencil or my wrench, I'd have to be calling on you incessantly. But I suppose people must take a different view of human problems in a world that includes lawless spirits. I'm nobody to talk, anyway, considering how afflicted my world was with a couple of angelic beings gone wrong."

And he joins Reigen in a laugh. "We'd be falling through the Void, happy landings! But NEVER, NEVER CHAINED TO A DESK. Freedom or death!" He punches a fist into the air and looks fierce.

[internetsexsymbol]

"Well, if there are spirits, they're being overpowered by the energy of the force behind this train. Which is everywhere, so right now finding the source would be difficult. It's like my abilities have a head cold, you know? I'll have to assess our new environment for a bit in order to properly acclimate to it all." He figures that sounds like a logical enough explanation for being useless right now. Aside from the fact that he doesn't have any abilities, of course. "To be able to send my sixth sense out of whack like this...this must be a really strong entity." He can guess that much is true even without psychic powers.

"I mean, that kind of thing people will dismiss as clumsiness...weaker spirits will generally do things like haunting objects or hanging out on people's shoulders. Maybe even building hauntings if they're bold enough."

Reigen's own punch to the air is a little weaker. "Haa, freedom or death..." He's not sure how he feels about the whole falling through the Void thing. "...you think the Void has a ground?"

[so_dark_a_road]

"Your abilities have a head cold?" He chuckles. What a wonderful metaphor! "I can sense a great power here, but I can't identify it. It isn't exactly like anything I've ever experienced before. I think it may be blocking me from determining anything in detail, such as whether it's a personality or just a great force. If your abilities get over their head cold anytime soon, I'd like to consult with you."

Curufin can't tell that Reigen doesn't have any abilities. His own ability to sense such things mainly works on other Elves or races related closely to Elves, or on those who reach out to him psychically. Besides, what Reigen says about the VoidTrecker being controlled by a strong entity makes sense. How else would it be able to traverse the Void itself?

"Very weird, spirits haunting objects." He grins and lifts his notebook, frowning at it in a theatrical fashion. "Don't you dare turn the page when I'm still writing on it!" he says, admonishing an imaginary spirit.

"Actually, I'd be surprised if the Void has a ground. I think it's just eternal and infinite, as all the songs of all the worlds say it is. And all the scientists." Smile. "Good if we never have to jump out the window to prove our desire for freedom."

[internetsexsymbol]

"Don't worry, you'll be the first person I tell if I sense anything." Though Reigen isn't counting on it. Even if he gained the ability to see a few ghosts after a certain incident, sensing them was another matter entirely. Hopefully he could find a few obviously visible phenomena to bullshit things before the powerful ex-ghost elf man figured out he was lying.

"Oh, absolutely weird, but I guess it's free space. Don't even get me started on the spirits that come out of computer viruses." Reigen can't help but snort a little at Curufin's dramatics. He enjoys this guy.

"Hm...when you put it like that, maybe eternally falling through the void is slightly worse than death." The existential horror...shudder.

[so_dark_a_road]

It'll be a while before Curufn figures out that Reigen isn't quite telling the truth. Especially if he has some ability to see ghosts, and any actually turn up on the train or some world they visit.

"Computer viruses produce spirits?? Now that I would call strange." He grins. He can tell Reigen likes his theatrics. He enjoys Arataka, too.

"I agree. I would not like to fall forever through such a space. I've no idea how a person would escape from such a situation. . . unless another VoidTreacker train showed up to save us." Another grin.

[internetsexsymbol]

"Yeah, spirits are getting with the times! They have to if they want to actually haunt anyone today." Most of those 'cursed computers' Reigen got in were just filled with malware, sure, but no one could say he didn't solve the problem!

"Jumping off of one train only to be met with another...I'd probably chalk that up as it being my fate to be on a train at this point in my life. If fate's even real." He shrugs.

[so_dark_a_road]

"The poor spirits, some of them must have worse problems keeping up with the times than even a First Age Elf does! I wonder if they have seminars and webinars to catch them up to modern times?"

Malware and adware surely qualify as evil spirits. XD

"What a strange fate that would be, jumping a new train every time we jumped into the Void. I think Fate is real, but it doesn't seem to control all of life. I'm sure that a lot of what we experience is just crazy randomness."

Hey this song's a jam

[internetsexsymbol]

"Heh. If I find a ghost webinar, I'll let you know. Maybe you could use one yourself?"

He's teasing, even though he has no clue how old Curufin actually is.

"Is that how it works? I buy it. I'd like to think I have a little say where my life goes."

Guaranteed to get your feet tapping. XD

[so_dark_a_road]

Curufin laughs. "I would surely listen to a ghost webinar. Yes, let me know!"

Curufin knows Reigen is teasing and thinks this is funny. And one of these days he'll get around to mentioning that he's 2805 years old.

"I'd like to have some say in where my life goes, too. But I guess we have our work cut out for us, trying to evade both randomness and Fate."