voidtreckerexpress | A New Platform [Intro Post December]

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A New Platform [Intro Post December]

On the Train

It's only been a couple of days since the Voidtrecker Express took to the void once more, and many of the passengers are still recovering and recuperating after a very hectic end to their latest mission. Nevertheless, they are awoken by a familiar message.

"Good morning passengers, it is day sixteen of the month of Imagination. Points have been updated on the system."

They have indeed, and everyone can spend the morning shopping. Those who have been on the train for 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 the windows fill with the fog that means they are at a platform. It is warm outside with a pleasant breeze that flows down the platform, rustling the light spread of leaves that litter the floor.

As usual the first to leave the train notice nothing, walking silently, rucksacks on their backs, towards the barriers. Akemi Homura, Alfred the Poisoner, Donatello Versus, Chie Satonaka, Joscelin Fitzthomas, Ronan Lynch, Rose Tyler, Tangle the Lemur, Trowa Barton, Wester Mazaki and Whisper the Wolf all pass through the platform, not looking back before they disappear through the barriers and into the fog beyond.

But on the platform itself there are 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 the swirling leaves at their feet, moving in flurries and rattling against each other softly. As their eyes adjust, they will see they are on a platform, cement and packed earth forming a very practical, plain-looking shelter. Behind them is a set of barriers, and in front of them is a single track extending both ways into thick fog.

They are standing, in clothes that are not their own and a style 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 eight 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's 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 lead to something terrible. If that is not enough, there are plenty of people on the platform now, to encourage them onto the train.

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 (see
'Publications'). The store rooms have been restocked with more jars of honey, the ingredient of the month of Imagination, as well as sundries.

A new carriage has been added right next to the luggage carriage. It is a second medical carriage, or triage carriage. Downstairs is more open with beds and chairs, upstairs are two surgical bays for those that need immediate attention.

For those intrigued by the claim of a parcel for every passenger they will find several large boxes filled with small blue bags. Inside each bag is ten dark blue coins imprinted on each side with a silver snowflake. Each bag has a small label with a passengers name. On the other side of the label it reads: Keep these safe for now.

Of course for any passengers that have bought items, these are also scattered around the luggage carriage as well.

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 taking advantage of the pleasant weather and the doors slide shut. Veteran passengers know what will happen next, but they may wish to brief their new companions.

The train sets off, the fog obscuring the view again 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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Romeo found a smile for Tidus as he turned around, wobbling a lot. "Hello mister Tidus!"

He nodded, "I didn't think popcorn could be so heavy!"

Though it had been lots of work getting the first lot of kernels and the popcorn maker to the cinema. He just hopes Tidus wouldn't hurt himself this time!

"Madoka!" Romeo hugged her back tightly, trying his best to keep his tears in his eyes but failing as they spilled out. He squeezed his eyes shut as he held onto her tightly.

"I don't want him to go..."

He nodded his head. "Yes, it does." Not exactly the words he would have used, but they still worked. "It seems so. Always there is someone leaving us."

He was quiet for a moment at that. "If I can go home... I will likely see him again."

Romeo turns at the sound of a voice and looks at the man with teary eyes, before he sees the butterflies. They are pretty and silver and for a moment he just stares as they fly onto him, glowing as they landed on him.

He looked at the man and found a small smile, despite his tears. "Are these your friends, sir?"

He sets the can out and passes it to Eight for a sec as he kicks himself internally and grabs the bottle. He nods once, "You were." He doesn't elaborate. He got sick of them doing that in the hospital when he had no voice to tell them to stop and won't do that to anyone else.

He checks the cupboards and finds the disposable cups. He twists the top off the bottle and pours about half of it into the cup. "First, pain killer. Want that working through your system while we deal with the rest."

Galo turns and offers it to Rich. The liquid in the cup is blue in color and looks like medicine. It doesn't smell like anything and if he takes it. He'll find it doesn't taste like much either. But the pain relief will be immediate and strength will return just as quickly. The itch of new skin will happen on the heels of that and once he's done Galo will say. "Yeah, I know. Works super fast. It mends so, with your burns. You got some scars. Sorry."

He steps over to the sink as he says, "I'll give you minute then we'll make sure you don't need more of it."

Zechs would offer him a hand up, though he wouldn't be offended or even react if it were ignored. Certainly, Quatre was no less the pilot he was before, with or without this kind of ... reaction. It only showed that he valued Barton highly, in one way or another.

He wouldn't start a conversation as they walked through the train toward the kitchen, but he would subtly make certain people who were just barrelling down the hall, possibly not paying attention, wouldn't run down the other pilot. Watching out for him in ways that he could, even if it was inconsequential.

Romeo had suffered more than enough loss for ten people, or so it seemed to Alfredo.

"We'll do it together, then."

Sharing in the joys, and the sorrows, as best he could - that was something Alfredo could offer.

Something he'd more than likely missed out on - caused - back home.

That Tidus intervenes is a help because Senku had been feeling helpless in that moment. He couldn't fight Roland, not really. He knew that, and yet when he's released Roland might have backed off, but not nearly as much as Senku did, putting space between them.

He felt...no it didn't matter. He had the urge to squirm out of his skin which he hated, but he squashed it down. A long, slow, deep breath as he compartmentalized. "You have my attention." Senku was just going to ignore it for now, but his tone is a bit more deadpan as though he didn't lose his temper or he didn't feel upset or overwhelmed. He was hiding behind his facade of calm, rational person.

"There's no point in that." Senku responded evenly, outwardly calm no matter how chaotic he felt. "It's broken."

Webmind could calculate exactly how close he could be without "being in the way" - and so he did, and stood there to provide as much companionship as physical distance could convey.

After, though, Webmind smiled - gentle, and comforting, or as much as an emoticon could be.

"It really was beautiful - full of depth, I'd say."

There were friendships, and then there were friendships.

Zechs paid more attention this time, watching how Yoite watched him in turn. "I had asked, do you have any known allergies or intolerances?"

Of course, if the boy was simply having problems focusing, that was likely understandable if he needed food.

"Yes," Zechs said, calm, but no less blunt about it. "That is one theory. We are also not given much information about our current circumstance, or the history of this vessel, or the Ministry that supposedly oversees transports such as his. What we've been able to determine - or at least, so far as I've been told - has been through our own impetus, our own investigations and reconnaissance."

"Oh, I'm not worried."

Well, not really, so technically Alice isn't lying. She too came out to stretch her legs for a moment, but once she spotted Xingchen, she figured she should at least check up on him. If not just for the fact that he's important to A-Qing - and that girl has suffered so much already. She doesn't deserve more of it by seeing people who are important to her hurt.

"I merely wanted to ask if everything ended up going alright during the mission for you." Especially with the way it ended. That big fight.. Alice has no idea if Xingchen had been part of it too. Everything had been too chaotic to pay attention to who was around and who wasn't. But she can't imagine he of all people would have fared well in the middle of that.

If it helps - or even if it doesn't, really - Alice seems completely unfazed by the shouting, no matter how intense and out of nowhere it is, especially for the situation. She just stares at him, not even doing as much as blinking when he shouts. Like she's just used to this. (Really, that is the kind of treatment you'd get for speaking up to someone on the streets of London most of the time..)

If anything, it's his plea for forgiveness that makes her finally blink, looking vaguely confused as she slowly approaches him. People regretting being rude to others, what's that? Do people actually do that? Sounds fake.

"A.. key?" At least she seems willing to help in return for him apologizing. "You don't need a key. You just have to put your ticket into the machine and it works."

After all, Alice is thinking of a very literal key, like the one you'd insert into a door..

"A train?"

That question mark at the end of her statement is definitely audible. Even Alice knows what a train is, after all, and she's well aware by now that she's not exactly the most up-to-date person on the train. Granted, it's not unheard of that people could end up here from times or places without trains, but it seems to be uncommon.

At least it would explain this person's fear. And that-- that thing she's doing with her bag, whatever that is. Alice isn't quite sure.

"Don't they have those where you come from? They're vehicles. Like.." She pauses, trying to imagine what may be present in this person's world. ".. carts?"

That seems like a safe bet, right.

"Hmm."

There's an affirmative sound coming from the girl. Alice is just sitting there with a cup of tea, but she figures that despite lack of social tendencies, she may as well answer a question when it's asked.

As long as it isn't an annoying one. But this is clearly just a new person looking for answers if they're asking something like this.

"I wouldn't look at it for too long though, if I were you." Alice gives a brief glance over at Bulla. "You'll get a headache."

"It's okay." Inigo shakes his head with a smile. If anything, he feels a little guilty for startling her! But he figures it's no big deal, so he shrugs it off, getting up and walking closer towards her.

"What kind of idea were you having?"

He glances between her and the wall.

"Some mural?"

Partner is.. a pretty broad term, huh. And honestly, Inigo isn't too sure in what context to take it here, but does it really matter? Calling someone your partner means that you're really close to them regardless of the precise details, so of course Adam would be feeling bad about that.

Understanding well what that's like, Inigo gives the other a sympathetic look.

"Yeah.. I understand that. It's hard when you don't know exactly where all these people are going once they leave, isn't it?"

"He did? That's so nice of him!"

But while Inigo means that, he sounds a little distracted. It's not hard to tell what exactly has got him distracted in the first place - he's still staring over at the microscope, like he's trying to figure out what it's all about. Senku's explanation is one thing, after all, but.. is a thing like this somehow supposed to make things bigger? How even?

Besides--

"What kind of things would you look at using that?" Inigo points at the slide. "Is that leaf that interesting?"

"It just doesn't work like that. You have to put your ticket in the side to use it, and even then you can't network with it."

[She falls quiet for a moment, thinking about it, before continuing.]

"Just so that we're clear, what do you mean by network with it? I think I have a guess, but I just want to be on the same page."

It may not be Madoka's team's turn to cook, but the girl can't help but often find herself in the kitchen anyway. Partially since she just loves to help in any way, but she also thinks cooking is fun! But when she enters the kitchen today to see if she can do something to help, she finds an unfamiliar person cooking there already.

The tiny girl stares from the doorway for a few moments, but then slowly approaches the man, bowing politely for the stranger.

"Um.. Excuse me, sir, but what are you making?"

Imagine just being handed food this easily in the kitchen. Sure, everyone makes food for each other, that's the whole point of the chores system, but Madoka is sweet and polite enough to be all wide-eyed about it the moment this person suddenly hands her that dish.

"W-Wow! This looks so amazing!" Sure, she's easily impressed, but Madoka is pretty sure that even by regular people standards this does look really good! "Did you just make this, sir..?"

It's not often that you're heading around the train and suddenly hear that kind of near-philosophical question just being uttered like that. And yet that's apparently what's happening today, making Madoka stop in the middle of making her way through the games carriage to get through the train.

She blinks, staring over at the person who asked it. It's only then that she realises it's Yugi. And it's the recognition combined with her regular tendency for concern that makes her step over towards the other, frowning slightly.

Madoka gets the question, it is something she has thought about in the past, but hearing someone else say it - at least she knows in her own case that it's mostly just low self-esteem! - is concerning enough that she folds her hands together, slowly asking..

"Um.. Are you saying you don't feel like you know what yours is..? Are you worried?"

Her eyes grow a little wider as she stares at the chocolate, scooting just a tiny bit closer.. It can't hurt, right, Ple Two still has plenty of space to work with!

"You wanted to treat us..?" Granted, it shouldn't be surprising. Madoka knows that Ple Two is infinitely kind where it counts, after all. But sweet gestures like this always manage to catch the girl off guard - though in a good way. Because she's smiling a moment later, maybe even with the tiniest blush on her cheeks joining in.

".. That's so sweet of you," she says as she takes the chocolate. (Maybe it's a bit of a contrast with the whole gun thing going on here, but still..) "Should I break it in two so we can both eat half right now? I bet it's really yummy."

Well, that's definitely enough to tell her whether or not the girl remembers, right? There's no way there's another random Raven out there who would know Madoka somehow when they're not even from the same place.

So the surprise in her eyes changes very, very quickly into relief, and for a moment Madoka has to even clasp her hands in front of her mouth. As if she's that touched just by seeing the other girl, after thinking she was gone forever.

"Oh, Raven..! I missed you so much!"

It's hard to tell if it's a good thing that she's here again. They're kidnapped by the train, after all.

But it can't beat out the relief of seeing a dear friend again after all this time, not right now.

"Ah..well it doesn't have a name yet. I usually decide that after it is cooking." And right now it is basically a pile of ingredients..some of which has been combined. He is thinking honey on top of whatever it ends up being when it is done.

Xie Lian's cooking has often been used as weapons and never really been edible but..there is a first time for everything.

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A New Platform [Intro Post December]

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cw: mentions of past trauma

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Mmm - mini timeskip? Or group threads with newbies, maybe?

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train

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kitchen

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