voidtreckermods: (voidtrain)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] voidtreckerexpress2020-10-01 05:30 am
Entry tags:

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!
unfavorableinstigation: Nita in snowclothes, holding a snowball and ready to aim&fire! (She's gonna hit you... with a snowball!)

[personal profile] unfavorableinstigation 2020-10-04 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Nita looks quite bemused, now, and she nods. "Funny thing is, back home, anyone can be a wizard - in the sense that a lot more people who take the Oath aren't human, than are. Being a wizard is like, well, being a Doctor."

Could she assume this person was a doctor, then? With... a glove/duel-disk as a phone. What a world.

"Not being able to access up-to-date stuff from home is normal, sad to say."

Tucking the book in to her side, she held out a hand.

"So, I'm Nita Callahan, wizard of Earth. What about you?"
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350648)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 01:50 pm (UTC)(link)
... So that's where the brains of the operation is?
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350680)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 01:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Do I miss home...

[Now, she might miss less than she would have before. But even now... Even in the dark depths of despair...]

I miss Judai.
unfavorableinstigation: Nita looking right, holding a book. (I'm In The Book)

[personal profile] unfavorableinstigation 2020-10-04 01:52 pm (UTC)(link)
"Yes."

This time she cuts the proverbial knot, using a wizardry to solidify some air; improvised stools in the kitchen are commonplace, but maybe not quite like this.

"We can both sit here, together."

She's no empath, but she is empathetic right now. If Nerdanel can pick up on that, take strength from it...
shadowslipping: (Saddened)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't know that it would necessarily be the case, actually.

This train...it isn't sentient in the way that I'm used to. I've certainly taken trains between dimensions, or even simply to other cities, which were shadows of another, souls of another I should note- but I couldn't detect anything near that Engine Room wall. More than likely...

...If the engine is behind that wall, destroying what's there could potentially strand us, or far worse. However this train is thinking, or acting, it isn't in a human way...but at the very least, it knows certain things could spell doom for the passengers.

Truthfully, just from what I know so far...I would say that blocking the engine room is for our own sakes, lest someone attempt something drastic.
shadowslipping: (Saddened)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"E-even so, I haven't given my name after all..." As it is, Yuume nods. "...But, as I said- don't rush yourself while grieving, neh? ...Something that sudden..."

It's hard to keep the empathy from her words and expression, even when she's trying to convey sympathy instead. She doesn't want to know this from experience.

Knowing from experience is... "...Something that sudden always hurts. It'll take time to recover, from something like that."
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350689)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[If Judai were here, he'd have already found a way to fix this. That's what he did- Judai was the greatest. He would have solved this.

What would Judai do here?

...]


Even so, there's a way we can communicate with it. Even if it's not human, we can talk through a duel!
shadowslipping: (Smile)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hahaha...well, I don't know that 'anyone' can be a doctor either..." Oh.

She realizes something as she says that. "Ahh...but if you're not familiar with gloves...I should probably note that when I say 'Doctor', I don't mean the medical sort- I'm far from made for that..!" she protests with a small laugh. "Ah..."

Hands. Yes, right- she'll shake that, even if it's not her usual greeting. "Yuume Souryuu- 'Duel Doctor', from Earth- the 'Standard Dimension' to be a little more precise," she adds with a small smile. "Where I came from, there are four surrounding a more ethereal realm, all parallel to the other. This train is somewhat similar to the subway I would take between them actually... ...or at least, the seating carriage was," Yuume admits.

"Those trips aren't especially long after all..."
shadowslipping: (pic#13321640)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[....Yuume blinks.]

Ah...not to say that the inhuman wouldn't be able to duel...but...

[Hmm.] You do mean duel monsters, I assume, correct?

...Not everyone on this train seems familiar with that- I wouldn't count on the train having a deck to duel with...
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350614)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 02:02 pm (UTC)(link)
What else would I mean? And everything else has so far!
unfavorableinstigation: It is dark, but Nita is inside reading a book. (Dark)

Somewhat TL;DR-ing with theory here. XD

[personal profile] unfavorableinstigation 2020-10-04 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Nita's not sure how to answer that, much as it isn't a question to begin with. If this were back home, the Powers could have all sorts of reasons to hold back information - either it violated someone else's privacy, you already knew the answer or were close to it and They were going to wait for you to straighten yourself out first... or even They didn't know.

If this were Nautilus, it wouldn't even be a question; they'd all been told by the Ascended and older Wakened how to tell if someone had gone back to Sleep and why.

She takes a seat as well, propping her head up with both hands.

"If I were to put words in its mouth-"

Nita starts, only to abruptly cut herself off at the imagery.

"That is, well, if I were to guess what it's thinking... it may just not know for itself. Just that it happens. Or-"

And here she sighs heavily. "If I wanted to be more cynical, I'd say it knows, and knows we'd like the truth even less. We're already angry at the train for all sorts of reasons; why add another?"

But that didn't sound quite right: it was used to anger, at this point. Wouldn't giving the passengers more reasons to distrust it just be another drop in the bucket? Or was it truly, somehow, their fault?

If it was that, Nita could understand: passengers who blame themselves for problems instead of the train... they'd isolate themselves, instead of unifying against a perceived/literal 'outsider.'
shadowslipping: (heh-?)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah. Well, speaking strictly on realms with duel monsters, duel monsters would not have always existed as such for example... [she starts, slowly speaking a bit more loudly and confidently as she enters 'lecture' mode.

She may begin to appear somewhat more familiar as she goes.
] Before such conflicts could be resolved in that regard, 'Duel' often referred to a structured battle using a particular weapon of choice. The earliest of duels typically involved blades- with the end result being anything from a simple cut drawing blood, or even death. The same followed when firearms came into being- after all, there have always been those who would wish to settle their disputes more violently. I believe a duel with fists is equally common, though the actual term 'duel' was used far less for that. Naturally there would have been a period of time where 'duel' be came an archaic term, but ultimately over time 'duel monsters' would gain popularity, leading 'duel' to simply refer colloquially to 'duel monsters battles'- much as it had with 'shadow battles' in the far ancient past, a...and...

[oh no-]

A-hm...I...I should perhaps leave you some room to speak yourself, ah...
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350680)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 02:08 pm (UTC)(link)
[Rei just.

Holds up the Disk on her arm.]


Why would I have meant anything else?
unfavorableinstigation: Nita Callahan kneeling in the woods, drawing a glowing blue diagram on the ground while reading from a book. (Drawing a Spell Diagram)

Re: Luggage!

[personal profile] unfavorableinstigation 2020-10-04 02:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Her grin brightened, just a little.

Then she felt it was time to explain. "It's something people on Earth - probably other places too, to be honest - do during, I guess the best phrase is 'harvest season'? One of the ways in which people display what they think about evil spirits... which is to say, not much. The places are meant to be scary, but in the sort of way where you can laugh at it, too."

And at the Lone Power - Who, of course, hated to be laughed at.

"If they're built right, then it's like an inoculation - a vaccine against the greater terrors, so people can see through them clearly when they deal with them... at least, I think that's how my Seniors put it!"

There came a wry look on Nita's face, then. "Feels like that was years ago."
unfavorableinstigation: Nita looking directly at the viewer, mouth slightly open, as if she's in the middle of an important or unamused expression. (Focused)

[personal profile] unfavorableinstigation 2020-10-04 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[In fairness to Ken, they'd been 'disappeared' for some time.

Still not pleasant to think about.]

Hugging might be in order anyway. Here-

[And down came the pull of memory. Home of a legend, a space battle, and then-

Destruction. Grief. And above all, a plan.

Nita doesn't ask if they're all right, though she's watching both of them carefully once they resurface.]
shadowslipping: (Oii oi)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
[wow,]

I don't know if you've noticed, but aside from many of the people on this train hailing from differing realities, many more are from differing times as well. For all I know with our uniforms, you could be from another century...

[Though she pauses, blinking at the duel disk.] Ah... ...Is that...

[Tapping her chin with her gloved hand, if Rei is somewhat perceptive, she might catch the KC logo on the glove. Yuume meanwhile...] Is...That a duel disk? I've never actually seen one but those look like card slots...
unfavorableinstigation: Nita looking right, holding a book. (I'm In The Book)

[personal profile] unfavorableinstigation 2020-10-04 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
"I've met more than one kind of 'Doctor', I can reassure you on that," Nita says, then lets Yuume explain.

"'Standard Dimension'... your world's from a set of five?"

Dimensional sheaths; she hadn't met someone who knew about them in ages, outside of those from her world.

"We'll be on this train longer than that, I'm afraid. So-"

She gestured to the wall behind them.

"How does being a Duel Doctor connect with what you were saying earlier? Might be we have other things in common."
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350680)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
You've never seen a Duel Disk?! This is the latest Academy model for Obelisk Blue students!

[she sounds incredulous.]
shadowslipping: (heh-?)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:17 pm (UTC)(link)
"Mmmm. It would be more accurate to say 'four'; the shadow's realm isn't so much a parallel dimension as it is a reality held between the four," she explains calmly. "Though I rather guessed that from the cots and kitchen..."

Ah, but earlier. "You mean about what I was detecting?" Well. No harm in explaining that. She'll pull up the screen typically used during a job- as many blips as there are souls in the nearby radius float on a 'radar' screen. "That would be...this. It detects living presences- souls, more accurately, whether shadow or otherwise. The reason 'duel doctor' is the full term, would be because of how connected Shadows are to Duels."
shadowslipping: (Sigh)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Aha....

[Oh boy.] Remember what I noted about points in time..?

...I come from the year 2138...actually I'm somewhat worried about 'spoiling' matters for you now at this point- given you have a duel disk, we're presumably from similar, or even the same realm...

[.................but then again she doesn't seem to have all of her ducks in the same pond...so maybe it'll be alright? She gestures with her glove.] ...Where I'm from, we use these now. That, or a D-Gazer and D-Pad, for Augmented Reality.
tokenloveinterest: (pic#14350662)

[personal profile] tokenloveinterest 2020-10-04 02:20 pm (UTC)(link)
D... Gazer? Augmented Reality? How does that work?

[She just sounds confused.]
shadowslipping: (Smile)

[personal profile] shadowslipping 2020-10-04 02:24 pm (UTC)(link)
'Augmented Reality' is different from Solid Vision, [Yuume patiently explains.] Essentially...instead of projecting something solid, data creates the image necessary through a screen- that being the 'd-gazer', over one eye. It's fairly thorough, so even though one eye remains uncovered, it still looks as if what's projected is real.

But unlike Solid Vision...it isn't there.

The glove duels however, are. They were created due to the interference between shadows and solid vision, [the woman continues.] Ahh...though, the matters of shadows are definitely a little much to go into...

...I suppose to keep it simple...Solid Vision became dangerous- so instead now, the spirits themselves come out for a duel. It makes things quite interesting! Some of them are quite particular, [Yuume chuckles.]
myblueskies: (someone needs help!)

[personal profile] myblueskies 2020-10-04 02:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Ken was such a good friend! Wormmon seemed scared but Ken was good at looking after him and it made Romeo smile. The train begins to shake and Wormmon screams, Romeo reaches out to pat his head, where it is poked out of Ken's hoodie.

"It's okay! We're in the void now, it will stop in a second!"

And it does, the light from the window changing to a strange, colourful shifting.
ramengroupie: (glad)

[personal profile] ramengroupie 2020-10-04 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Human food is good. Ken-chan and I are on a world tour to eat ramen!

We were.

[ And they will be again, once they've completed whatever it is they have to do here. ]

New York's gyoza were so tasty....
ramengroupie: (huh?)

[personal profile] ramengroupie 2020-10-04 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Duel...Monsters?

[ Ken thinks...he's heard of things like this, possibly. Maybe from someone on his soccer team as a child? You collect the cards, and make a custom deck....

It's that sort of game, isn't it...?

Wormmon, however, has his eyes on the Important Matters. ]


Oh! It's a bug!