voidtreckerexpress | A new platform [intro post September]

A new platform [intro post September]

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.

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He hides a smile as the man almost swears again and it brightens at the mans display of just how frightened he was. He thinks its just pretend. He hopes it's just pretend, he wouldn't actually want to scare anyone!

"Sorry sir!" He grinned, "Loud noises? Are you really loud?" He had been, so far. But Romeo was sure it would be alright! At least they had a place they were meant to go to! "Shall we go and try and find it sir?"

Wade put a hand over his chest again and inhaled deeply. This had to be the politest small child he knew, and definitely the nicest so far on the train. It was truly heart-warming.

"I am the absolute loudest all of the time, but look, junior, you don't have to keep calling me 'sir' even if it is a nice change of pace. Wade or, hel-ck, heck, even Deadpool is fine." He paused, leaning closer to whisper. "That's my supercool superhero name."

Leaning away again, he spoke in a normal person voice. "Anything but sir, yeah? But like you said, let's see if we can find this cabin. I don't know about you but I would love to stop carrying this bag around. Feels like everything I own is in here."

Romeo's mouth dropped open, even as Wade kept talking he stared at him with wide eyes. "You're a superhero? A real one?"

An actual superhero? "Like from a movie?" He realises that they are meant to be finding their cabin so he hurries to catch up. The bag was sort of heavy he guessed, he hasn't unpacked it yet but he's not sure he even has enough things to be as heavy as this!

"Definitely, at least two movies, kid. Saved the world a few times and everything, but you gotta keep that info on the dee-el. Don't know what sorta chumps might be on this train, yeah?" He looked around as they walked, trying to spot something that may indicate the room the were looking for.

Right! He nodded. "I won't tell anyone si... mister De... mister Wade!" He shouldn't use his super secret superhero name if it was a super secret, after all. "I promise!" Maybe it needs more than that...

"Pinkie Promise!" He raised his fist to his chest, a solemn vow. "That means I got to stick needles in my eye if I break it, so I won't!"

He looked around, this train was very different than the one he had ridden on with Ginia.

Wade sighed, that was probably as close as he was going to get to dropping the honorifics until he inevitably scared the kid too much to talk to him. He did pause to stare a moment at the promise.

“You’re pretty hardcore there, junior. Makes ‘ride or die’ sound tame in comparison here. Where’d sunshine like you learn to make promises like that, huh?” He asked, starting to just open every single door he passed that looked like it could be opened.

"Elfnein taught me, she's my goddess. I didn't know it was hardcore though." Truthfully he doesn't know what hardcore means and he's not sure it's a bad thing.

He can't imagine Elfnein teaching him a bad thing though! He kept looking through doors until they finally came to a carriage that had lots of doors with screens. "Oh! Our names our outside this one, mister Wade!"

The door doesn't have a handle though, he's not sure how to get in!

“Oh yeah, totes hardcore, little man. But that’s a good thing, makes you look crazy cool.” Wade waved a hand around, presumably to emphasize his point in some abstract way. He paused when the kid called out, and backtracked to look at the door. There didn’t seem to be any kind of doorknob or anything. He reached a hand up to try to slide it and see if it was some kind of pocket door, but it did not move.

“Weird doors here, maybe we have to say a password or answer a riddle or something. That sounds appropriately magical.” He brought the hand not still holding his crumpled ticket to his face to rub at his chin. Maybe he should have read that information everyone else was reading. There were just so many words. Uhg. Maybe he should kick in the door. But then they wouldn’t be able to close it.

Oh.

Wait. There was one of those screen things next to the door. That was probably a thing. After a moment, he pressed his ticket to the screen and whispered ‘hell yeah’ to himself when it actually worked. “Well, it was like a riddle. A reading riddle. After you, junior.”

Edited 2019-09-06 00:28 (UTC)

Romeo grinned at being called crazy cool and then focused on the door. A riddle? Like in a story. He tried to remember if there were any riddles in Night on the Galactic Railroad because this train really reminded him of that book!

Wade was really smart though, probably because he was a superhero! The door hissed open and Romeo grinned. "A reading riddle! That was clever of you mister Wade!"

He skipped through the door, his mouth dropping in amazement at the two sets of bunk beds. "Wow they have beds up in the air!"

"Looks like they sure do, better claim one now if you want it, before anyone else shows up and tries to get it from you. Top bunk is prime real estate." Wade said, throwing his rucksack up onto one of the bunks. He was going to die around this child. Almost all the other kids he knew were little goblins, but this one was just a pure ray of sunshine. Almost like Yukio had been shrunk and dialed up to twenty from her normal eleven.

He started to dig through the bag he had thrown up on his bunk, immediately beginning to toss things all over the mattress. "Need help up or anything? I know I said the top bunk is where its at but don't climb up there if you might fall off, who knows what kind of turbulence this train is gonna get while we're getting the zees. Best to be safe than to be cool. Can't be cool falling on the floor." He rambled on, scattering polos all over his bed.

"Well if someone else wants it I wouldn't want to not let them." But there had only been two names on the screens so maybe it was alright for now. He began to climb up.

"Thank you mister Wade, but I'm a really good climber!"

He wouldn't fall and it wouldn't matter too much if he did. He opened his own bag and started looking through things. Another hoodie, more polo shirts, a notebook and some pencils. A bookmark...

He picked it up in his hands. It was his bookmark. The one Elfnein had made for him at the book party.

Wade turned to watch the kid climb up before turning back to making as much of a mess as possible.

“Alright then, spider monkey, you know what you can do better than anyone. Try not to bust your head open.” he said offhandedly as he picked up a familiar piece of red and black spandex/leather blend. He tugged the mask over his head and tucked the edges into the hoodie. Nice. Now maybe the remaining teenagers on the train wouldn’t bully him so much. Teens were just the wooooooooorst.

He sidled over to the other bunk to peek at what the kid had. “Whatcha got there, sunshine, sure looks...uh... glittery?”

He wouldn't bust his head open! He liked Wade though, he was very friendly! Romeo was very lucky to have such a nice person to share a room with!

When he looked up from staring at the bookmark he saw that Wade had something on his face. A mask! That must be his superhero mask! Just like in the movie he and Joss went to see! He held out the bookmark.

"It's a bookmark. Elfnein made it for me when we had a book party, she's my goddess but she's not here... I don't know why she's not here or why I'm here but we're meant to be a team so it's really bad that I'm not with her!"

He's trying to keep his spirits up but he's very worried about her!

"I'm sure she's doing just fine, probably back where ever you're from, right? Seems like just random people got picked up. Maybe the train will circle around and pick her up next time." He dropped down to get out of the kid's space. That definitely sounded like something that could maybe happen. Who even knew how this weird train worked.

He shrugged to himself, shoving his clothes to the foot of his bunk before climbing up fully. "So like... what's a book party? Do you sit around just reading or like writing books or what?" He'd never been super big on reading for fun, it was always difficult to not get distracted. It was worse recently. Probably a few too many hits to the head but who could say?

She probably was back in the heavens. She would think he had disappeared. He had disappeared... She would be very worried.

Maybe the train would get her but that would mean she was here and not where she was meant to be. She had to be in heaven, so she could help people!

It's scary to think about so he focuses on the question about the book party. "It was really fun! We all brought our best books and dressed up as characters from books and ate lots of food! Me and Elfnein made so much food we gave everyone food to take home and still didn't need to cook all week! We made bookmarks and all our friends came! It was really fun! Me and mister Waver read the Odyssey and that's a really big book!"

"Dam...ng, yeah, the Odyssey is a really big book, isn't it? Pretty sure I read that in school once or twice. Maybe that was the Illiad. Who knows, school was forever ago and I've always been more of a comic guy." Wade crossed his legs so his ankle rested over his knee. He was already going stir crazy trapped in a small space. There definitely had to be something he could get up to.

"Do you normally read alot? What's your favorite book? I don't think I've finished one in years."

It was a big book and very complicated. He had been lucky that mister Waver had helped him understand it! He liked comics too though! They were easier because they had pictures.

"I really like reading though it can be tricky because I don't know lots of kanji yet but then I got some goggles and they showed me hiragana underneath kanji so I could use them if I got stuck!" He smiled. "I like lots of books! How can you not finish one? Don't you always want to know what the ending is?"

Sometimes he had to stay up all night just so he could get to the end!

Wade tried to remember the last time he had read a real book that didn’t have pictures or something in it. Maybe something Vanessa had brought home, definitely nothing of real value PF (post-Francis that is).

“I just get distracted with all those words, but if I really want to know the ending,” he leaned off his bunk to whisper conspiratorially, “ I’ll just skip to the end and read the last few pages.”

he leabed back again, folding his arms behind his head. “Sometimes, in comics, it’s fun to skip to the ending and then go back to see how the characters end up there but you don’t have to worry if you don’t get through because you know what happens!”

"That's cheating sir!" You couldn't read the end before you read the middle! But it was fun? He had never tried it.

"Doesn't it ruin the fun?"

“Nah, not even a little. Sometimes seeing the end helps you understand how you end up there, you know?” Wade shrugged. “What’s the harm in takin’ a little look-see at the future if you know how?”

"I never tried reading like that before! I will try next time!" He liked the idea of being able to see the future! Even if it was just in a book!

"What do you like doing if you don't like reading, mister Wade?"

Wade hummed, biting his tongue to keep from saying the first thing to come to mind. That was definitely NSFS (not safe for sunshine, that is).

"Oh you know, practice with swords so I can protect people back home, watch TV, long walks on the beach, normal stuff mostly. The hero thing really takes up alot of my time now that I think about it." There, that was perfectly safe and made him sound cool to boot. Hopefully nobody he knew would ever turn up on the hell train and call him out.

"How about you, mmmm whatcha do when you're not reading books bigger than your head?"

That all sounded fun and also good! Practising was always important, as was protecting people. Watching TV could be fun though it wasn't something he had done lots and lots of yet and beaches were the most fun!

"Did you play beach volleyball before? That's a fun game! I like doing lots of things sir but mostly me and Elfnein answer prayers from people, so we go and help them because sometimes they lose their pets or need to make a valentines dinner and all the resteraunts are full so we go and help them! Sometimes we got to fight ayakashi, monsters that living people can't see but try and ruin everyone's day! We learn lots of stuff too!"

He grinned. "I like drawing too and singing and dancing!"

"You know, I don't think I've ever played beach volleyball. The super powers would make it unfair anyway. Wouldn't wanna be unfair to other people, huh?" Sunshine was honestly going to kill him. Perfect cinnamon roll, too good, too pure. Even if he just said something about fighting.... demons maybe? still, he was adorable.

"Now, drawing and dancing I can get behind. Think there's any art supplies on the train?"

"It's really fun! And I guess maybe... You could play it with other people with powers and then its not cheating!"

Surely. Because it would be sad if he could never play volleyball just because he was a superhero!

"I don't know! We could go and look though!" Art supplies would be fun!

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A new platform [intro post September]

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Like w/ LO, I am sorry I am a mess and so very, very late.

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