voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post October]

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A New Platform [Intro Post October]

On the Train

"Good morning passengers, it is day sixteen of the month of Horsehoe. Points have been updated on the system and new stock is available."

They have indeed and everyone can spend the morning shopping. Those who have been on the train a while will be expecting the second announcement that comes a few hours later.

"Shortly arriving into a designated void platform. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one." A lurch and a jolt and they are soon surrounded by the fog that means they are at a platform. The first thing they may notice is that this platform is inside a basic shelter, making it warmer than the last couple at least.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing as they walk silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers. Adora, Alex Hashimoto, Catra, Cloud Strife, Elizabeth Midford, Feanor, Gerome, Gladiolus Amicitia, Glimmer, Ifrit, Isabella D’Oro, Maru, Nari Reno, Noctis Lucis Caelum, Prompto Argentum, Scorpia, Siobahn Chereshei, SXT-2, Tamamo-no-Mae, Tony Stark, Uta, Zidane Tribal

But on the platform itself there are many new faces. Wearing hoodies in all four colours in various states of confusion.

For New Passengers

At first all they can see is steam. Billowing around them as they come to their senses. The second thing they will notice is it is gloomy, even without the steam and fog. They are in a wooden building, open to the tracks on one side. It in a creaky shelter, cobwebs hang from the rafters and there is a peculiar whistle as wind finds its way through the cracks.

They are standing, in clothes that are not their own, styles they might not even recognise. They are carrying a rucksack on their 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 large and it holds nineteen figures all facing the tracks, all dressed in cargo trousers and hoodies. Both left and right the tracks disappear into the mist. Then there is a roaring sound and out of the fog arrives a train. Jet black with gold writing on the side. The Voidtrecker Express. There is a hiss as the doors slide open and out into the gloom step a selection of people. Some are human, some are less so. Most are wearing the same hoodie in one of the four colours, red, orange, blue and purple though some are sporting different clothes in a variety of styles.

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. If that is not enough, there are plenty of people on the platform now, to encourage them onto the train.

Indeed whereas usually there is plenty time for people to be met and brought slowly onto the train, the whistles blow a lot quicker this time, as if hurrying the passengers along.

Each ICP shows the same message and next to the screens there are stacks of leaflets written by those on the train, with further information. The store rooms have been restocked, with… teddy bear shaped luncheon meat being the main ingredient to be found. There are plenty of other staples.

A new carriage has been added, those that go to investigate will find a room full of lockers, designated as the Armoury. Even for passengers without weapons it is somewhere to secure possessions. There are instructions on how to use the lockers and enough for everyone to claim one.

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 over the noise of the hail stones to encourage any stragglers braving the snow and the doors slide shut. Veteran passengers know what will happen next, they may wish to brief their new companions.

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. Entry into Voidspace in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

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 the Void!

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"Okay." She nodded, picking up the cards to find the start and end games. "Do we be choosing the cards?"

She could just read the instructions herself, but it gives him something to do that isn't being leaky eyed.

[ Oh, Wormmon does not like the looks or sound of that!

Though his worries are rather...personalized. ]

Is the train scary?

Sadly for Xander...

"He is." She murmurs. "It is to death that he goes."

A strained bond, she could live with. Did live with. A broken one... well. It's not the first time. She managed last time. She will do her best to manage now.

She curls into his hold, one shaky hand petting a feather.

"Thank you...for being here.

"Good." She murmurs.

"May he stay that way, Valar Valuvar! We do not need more trouble."

For a moment Inigo worries that Roland may not speak after all. That he'll make some excuse, change the topic, or maybe even just outright leave. But even as Inigo worries about it, he knows there's nothing about it he can do. All he can do is just stay here, staring at Roland, hoping that something about his gaze will be enough to help will the other to open up the potential hurt in his heart.

And then he does speak.

And the story.. It may be about another time, about an entirely different world, but it's not unfamiliar to Inigo. Having been born as the son of the Exalt, having landed straight into war when he went to the past.. Inigo gets it. He knows it. He can imagine what things must have been like in Roland's world, the messy omnious brewing of oncoming war, his desperate attempts to avoid it. Inigo looks at Roland's frown, wondering if that's what his own father felt like as well, trying to avoid the revival of the Fell Dragon.

But it's not a thought he lingers in for long. Inigo does wait for the man to finish speaking, but the moment he does, those final words - I'll keep at it, come what may - searing into his heart, he doesn't wait anymore.

With the very little distance between them, Inigo outright launches himself at Roland, wrapping his arms around the man's torso, tightly clinging to him. Jumblie jumps up from Inigo's shoulder over to Roland's, as if her nature and her connection to Inigo's heart make her way to comfort Roland as well. Wanting to spread some light inbetween the combined darkness of their fates.

"Roland.. I'm so sorry." There's no tears, for better or worse. But Inigo's tone is emotional all the same. Of course a heart as soft as his can't help but immediately imagine the pain Roland must have felt, everything he must have been burdened with. "That's so much to carry. No wonder.."

Inigo doesn't finish that sentence, but he does think about it. No wonder that Roland looked so tired sometimes. Back on the vulcano specifically, when that story about the train in the past must have made him think about his own situation, his previous failure as a leader. All those times on the train when Roland seemed to drown himself at work, and even when Inigo dragged him along to eat dinner with him, he sometimes still saw it in the man's eyes.

This has been here with him. In the back of his head. All the time. How would he not be tired?

His heart races with worry and the desire to somehow make everything, even a situation as big and bad as this, okay again. Inigo pulls back his head. His arms still cling to Roland, but his desperate gaze tries to seek out the other's.

"I-- If you're worried about your world, then.. Maybe once we defeat Grima, I can ask Naga about it! She's a god and can move people to different worlds, maybe she can help fix it somehow!" His words come so hasty, tumbling across his lips, like Inigo can't say them quickly enough. "I still have the Brand, so she should recognize me as a prince of Ylisse and at least listen to what I have to say.. I.. I'm sure she'll realise it's important..!"

Nerdanel is... unusually light, even for Persephone. Almost... not entirely solid.

But she manages to get up and move with only a little prodding.

"Thank you so much."

"I'm okay. You can write some other names!"

Wormmon thinks. Who else is in their sleeping car....?

"One is Adam. And the Professor!"

And one other person, but two is good for starters, right? These are the two Wormmon knows, so Ken-chan can provide the final name. Wormmon still doesn't remember all the fancy words in the Professor's full name, either, but one look at him and you CLEARLY know he is a Professor, so maybe that'll be okay...?

....Oh, no. Wormmon made "Ichijouji" too big.

HE IS RUNNING OUT OF ROOM FOR "KEN".

"I'll keep that in mind then," she replies- though she truly hopes she doesn't have to inconvenience anyone... "Until then-"

With that, she's into the shadow, and out from under the other side of Orisa- making her way to the rest of the train.

[ Jin Ling won't mention he thinks Sizhui is cute in purple, but then again Sizhui is cute whenever...

he just rubs at his head and rolls his eyes. ] You mean like the rest of everything here? With the... ah, "train" and stuff.

That's what I just said, didn't I?

[ he's definitely huffy and prissy, but at least he's not as bad as he was just about a year ago. he looks somewhat amused now though. ]

And what did they do if it turned out to be impossible?

Edited 2020-10-25 13:46 (UTC)

Like another realm...?

[ he looks around station. ]

And then where is this?

A soldier! See, that's exactly the kind of information she was digging for. Alice doesn't even need much more explanation than that, really. Just this is enough to satisfy her, so instead she just nods at the last thing he says.

"This train does truly make us all more or less equal. I believe that there are even people aboard this train who are considered to be gods where they come from."

See, she's even willing to offer up that piece of information in return for what Zechs said. That's totally fair, right.

"Me?"

That question completely snaps her out of her hugs train of thought, giving Xander a slightly curious glance. It lingers for a moment before she shakes her head.

"Of course I'm fine." And sure, while that's the default answer - even when she knows he can quite literally sense her emotions! - she does mean it this time. "I knew some of the people who left, but I wouldn't say I was particularly close to them. That girl with the fox ears and the odd person with the birds for a head were my roommates."

Look, she doesn't know how to else describe SXT-2 other than the birds-head description.. Especially when Alice doesn't know the word 'cryptid'.

"I mean. I lived in a tower. I was only sad because I couldn't leave, but Mother would always say something..." Maybe that was why she wasn't exactly sure if showing it was a good idea or not because back there it really wasn't.

Edited 2020-10-25 15:18 (UTC)

"You're welcome... What will you do now?"

She figured she should at least ask, right?

Huaisang sighs at the question, even though Mingjue is here it's still a difficult thing to talk about.

"The last thing I remember is my brother's funeral."

Listen, girl, we can't all have gods to neatly seperate these things for us, okay. Some of us have to figure it out for ourselves!

"I suppose," she says with a nod. It feels weird to put it like that, especially with Alice being entirely unused to the world being that black and white, but if it's helping this girl understand, then.. sure. Whatever.

Maybe an example will enlighten it all a bit.

"Back home there was a man who took in young children who had lost their parents. Who had nowhere else to go other than walk around on the streets all day. Everyone considered him good, noble, for giving these children a roof above their heads, for feeding them." Alice shakes her head, looking away from the girl, as she frowns. "But he wasn't like that at all. In all actuality he was merely brainwashing these children. He was taking away all their memories in order to completely deprive them of any free will. He was making them puppets."

It's hard for her to contain the anger in her voice as she says it. Just the memory of him is enough to rile her up.

"And then he was selling them to all sorts of unsavory people to use them as they wish." Look, she'll at least bother to leave out those details for a kid. She thinks this girl is kind of mature enough to handle the rest of the story, but that would be a bit much. "What else could you call a man like that but evil?"

They just believed it. Even if it was impossible. [ How is that, in and of itself, possible? No idea. Alice sure seems convinced of her own words though.

After a while you just get used to Wonderland logic, even when it's still strange to just about any regular person. ]

Our situation is a little like that too. If you question everything here, you will only give yourself a headache. You just have to accept things being the way they are.

"I can write those!" In what colour though, that is the question! There are so many good colours to chose from and he doesn't know Adam or Professor at all! So he doesn't know what they might like...

It's a bit decision and he glances at the poster to see Wormmon's problem.

"Maybe you should put 'Ken' on the line under it!"

"That.. must be odd for you then."

His voice is still a tad more quiet than it'd usually be, maybe a bit less spirited, but Inigo is trying to build back up to how positive and smiley he usually looks really quick here.

"From going to a situation where you only had one reason to be sad to one where there's so many more reasons."

"Gladio, I knew briefly. I'm sorry." The worst part about comforting losses like this? Roland doesn't even know where they go after they walk past the platform. It's only a kindness to them, to assume that they're back where they must be.

"Hey, that's good to hear though. And if there's anything I can do to help you out even in a small way today, let me know too. Platform stops are always mixed bags."

"No worries at all. I'll do my best to help." He's earnest-sounding enough about it that there's little to no room to doubt his intentions. He takes up a seat again, right where he was when the train jolted to life moments ago, before speaking.

"Personally, I've been to three different worlds since I boarded this train. But on our mission logs, the oldest passengers have landed on about ten different worlds in total. They can range from the most fantastic places your imagination can think about, like a world that has people living underground, or a planet covered in snow. But they can be simple too, like a planet that's mostly outdoors and for having a holiday by the seaside."

Roland hopes he's painting a vivid enough picture for Xingchen. He's been described as charismatic, but not quite the colorful storyteller.

"Right, sort of. It's like a good game of poker. Never show your hand, make them believe they're winning until you play it."

He tilts his head, looking at her curiously. "Do you know poker?" he asks.

Crowley personally doesn't feel any strong desire to manipulate others on this train, all of his closest relationships tend to be children, which wasn't on purpose, just how the cards were dealt. And somehow. he felt a desire to help these children, teaching them how to cope with their situation. Maybe that made him weak, but he wouldn't admit it.

A hoodie? Was he talking about the strange jacket design she was currently wearing? It had to be because the shirt underneath it didn't have a hood. She wants to guess the word "hoodie" was a cute nickname.

But his next set of questions and explanations will catch her attention. What does he mean by the train assigning colors based on skill? What was the train? It couldn't be the metal contraption in front of her? Whatever the case, he asked a question, may as well answer, "I'm pretty good in using a knife, I have high accuracy in throwing darts, I'm pretty good in a fistfight, and can use magic."

All very vague responses, she admits, so she will begin to explain about her magic, "My abilities are a sacred ritual passed down in my family. Everyone has the ability to sense the voices and feelings of nature, spirits, and of the living. It gives us the power to create a song to summon and control the weather and wind. Not just that, we could use the help of those living in an unknown area, for the caster, to better synchronize as well. We call those rain partners."

There was more to her abilities, but for the time being, decided it may be too much to explain in one go without learning the fundamentals. Most people have a difficult time understanding the light version of her explanations. Then again, there weren't many spiritual individuals in her world, outside of her family and nation.

"Does it help in ringing any bells over the reason I was assigned to this team," asked Nike next, wondering if it'll help in any way to figure something out.

"Of course. Of course. You've helped me. I--I understand how you feel." Her lightness is as disturbing as how see through she was getting, but Persesphone isn't going to think too hard about it. She coaxes her along to the greenhouse, hoping a bunch of green will help.

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A New Platform [Intro Post October]

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ugh i'm so sorry, dw ate this notif!

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