A New Platform [Intro Post December]

[voidtreckermods]

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!

Comments

Lea- Kingdom Hearts- OTA

[hotheadwarmheart]

On the Platform

Lea was fully aware that not everyone would be up to coming out to greet new people so soon after the mission, but the new folks had to be directed on board somehow. Plus he always held out hope that he might see a few familiar faces. Especially certain ones.

Luggage Car

After retrieving his package, Lea noticed the boxes full of little blue bags. curious, he hunted around until ha found the one with his name, and when he did, inspected the contents. "'Keep them safe', huh?", he said thoughtfully. "Safe for what?" after a moment, he just shrugged, closing the bag and putting it in his pocket. No way to find out but to wait, he supposed.

He then set to looking around for Xion's too, assuming she hadn't grabbed it herself. And he wondered if maybe he should grab Xingchen's too to deliver to him, or if somebody else would.

Special Delivery- Closed to Taiki

The bag containing his gift for Taiki in hand, Lea began to search the train for him. He planned to check out what he thought were a few likely public places- mostly the more quiet ones-, but if he failed to find Taiki in any of them, he'd go check his cabin. If Taiki wasn't there, someone who was might have an idea where he'd gone.

Around the Train

Platform days were always hectic, but with everyone stressed already, this one was more so than most. Still, that didn't mean there wasn't stuff that needed doing. Lea could be found lending a hand with cooking as well as doing his part towards Blue's actual chore assignment that month. He might also be found kicking back in the library car reading one of the new books he'd gotten before he donated them to the library.

Luggage Car

[unfavorableinstigation]

This car was crowded today - Nita wondered why. The individual packages themselves were rather small...

"Your guess is as good as mine," she replied, pocketing her own.

"Hopefully they won't disappear on us after a week or something."

While the train might have been above that sort of trick, Nautilus sure wasn't.

Re: Luggage Car

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea looked confused at the mention of things disappearing after a week. "Why would they do that?", he asked. "I mean it'd be kind of dumb for the train to bring in all these, tell us to hold onto them, then just up and have them disappear."

Re: Luggage Car

[unfavorableinstigation]

"We can't really tell how long people are going to be on the train, either," Nita brought up as something of a counterexample.

"That, and I think I've heard of some coins that disappear when people try to use them; must be some kind of folktale back on Earth."

Re: Luggage Car

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Well yeah," Lea said. "But people who leave the train don't just vanish in a puff of smoke. Plus... eh, somehow I don't think the train is really the 'dumb practical joke' type. Especially when the results wouldn't even be that funny."

"The disappearing coins thing does kinda sound like something out of a fairy tail though. There's probably be some kind of lesson attached to it though, since that's usually how those stories work. Like, if you get the coins honestly you're fine, but if you steal them, joke's on you, sucker."

Re: Luggage Car

[unfavorableinstigation]

Nita only nodded.

"Nothing good ever comes from just taking, I'll tell you that - though, what does that make our mission, then?"

It was still an open question to her as to whether the train had gotten their consent before taking them from their worlds.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"I dunno," Lea said. "In my experience, the universe- or well, multiverse, I guess- doesn't usually ask nicely before throwing you a curveball or outright yanking the rug out from under you. You just have to learn to deal with it. At least the train's intentions seem reasonably good, as opposed to being idiotic or outright evil."

Would he have appreciate being asked? Certainly. But he wasn't expecting it. And the train wasn't trying to arbitrarily yank him around or messing with his powers like the bureaucracy and nature of the Tenscore Kingdoms and Diatu had done.

Platform

[melodiouspacifist]

There was nowhere to run.

It wasn't that he needed to flee from Axel, exactly, he was just surprised to see him. He was in a strange place that he didn't come to intentionally, in strange clothes and he couldn't leave, and Axel was there.

He couldn't duck out of sight, there was nothing there, no real shadows to slip into.

How was he going to play this? One grace, perhaps, was that his eyes had returned to their natural blue with Xehanort's defeat. He didn't think he could get away with pretending to be a Somebody. Was Axel on Xehanort's side? The other side? Did he know what Demyx was up to?

The brief moment he had to think things through was helpful. He decided to do what he did best - play dumb.

When he caught Axel's attention, which inevitably he'd look in his direction eventually, Demyx raised a hand and smiled cheerfully. "Hey, Axel!"

[hotheadwarmheart]

That... wasn't quite the familiar face he'd been hoping for. All things considered, it could be worse, but he still sighed in mild annoyance before replying. "Hey, Demyx," he said. "Fancy meeting you here. And it's Lea now, by the way. Got it memorized?"

[melodiouspacifist]

"Yeah, Lea, sure." Demyx answered and it seemed to have an uncharacteristic touch of sarcasm in his tone. He might have sounded like he was about done with everything at the moment.

"What're you doing here?" He asked, pushing a bit more cheer into his voice and talking, fast, with the intent of distracting Lea from that little slip. "I was just on my way somewhere and out of nowhere-" He mimed a little explosion with his hands. "Poof here I am, totally out of my way! Course you know, I'm probably late, so I've gotta run and all, great seeing you and everything."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Hate to break it to you, but you're going to be even later," Lea said. "Dark corridors don't work here, at least when it comes to getting from world to world. Believe me, that was one of the first things I tried."

"As for what I'm doing here," he said with a shrug. "Same as you. One minute I'm minding my own business, and then suddenly boom, I'm standing on a platform like this waiting for a train. Same with Xion; she and I arrived together. Dang train practically yanked us right out of our beds."

[melodiouspacifist]

Demyx knew. He'd already tried. "I don't think he likes it when I'm late."

Notably, perhaps, he didn't ask who Xion was. "I was just doing this and that." He said, as though that explained anything at all.

"Okay, so if I can't get out of here." He gestured with his hand. "Then how do I get out of here?" Surely, Lea couldn't have been there very long.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea noticed the lack of questions about Xion, which somewhat narrowed down the possibilities of when Demyx might be from. He also noted the extremely vague mention of what the other had been up to, though that was less helpful.

"Well at least this time you'll have a legitimate excuse for it," he said. "Which is probably an improvement."

"As for how we get off the platform..." Lea indicated the train. "This is our ride. And our home away from home for the foreseeable future. You should have a ticket in your bag, and it probably won't be long before sticking around on the platform starts to feel like a bad idea."

Around the train 🍰

[fun_thementalist]

Gen hadn't run into Lea yet, but he's often nosing around the kitchens. The ingredient this month was honey. Of course he wants to see what different people are doing with it.

He greeted the stranger brightly - at least he's sure he's seen that head of red hair around before. "Good afternoon - what are you making there?"

Re: Around the train 🍰

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea glanced up, recognizing the young man as one of those who'd proposed the upcoming meeting. "Honey roasted vegetables," he said, indicating the various ingredients he was preparing. "I've had to make a substitute or two for stuff we didn't have available, but it should still be good. It's pretty simple to make, and it's nice and warm and filling, which I figure everybody can use right now. Plus we've got a ton more honey now, so might as well use it."

[fun_thementalist]

Suddenly, it clicked. That video! The hair was distinctive. Of course, so was Gen's. So, he really did enjoy cooking a lot, didn't he? Though, he couldn't help but wonder who the 'Xion' he mentioned was. Not that it mattered for the moment. Gen grinned at him.

"That sounds like a delightful idea," Gen agreed. "Even the most picky eaters have to enjoy their vegetables when caramelized with a little honey. Would you like a hand, my friend?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Yep, there was really no mistaking either of their hairdos.

Lea did somewhat enjoy cooking, though having to do so on a large scale for most meals on the train still made it somewhat of a chore. He much preferred cooking in normal sized-batches intended for himself and his friends. But it was something he was reasonably good at and so he figured he might as well make use of the skill.

He smiled a bit and nodded. "Yep, that's the plan," he said. "Been trying to come up with ways of cooking veggies that will be fairly easy to do large-scale, and this is one of them. Plus I've got a friend on board who can't eat meat at all, so I wanna make sure there's stuff he can eat."

"And sure. There's more knives and some spare cutting boards in the drawers over there; we'll get the veggies cut up faster with two people." He indicated the drawers across the way where the kitchen implements were kept.

[fun_thementalist]

“That seems fair! I’ve helped with a few projects already, even if I’m really not great at cooking myself,” Gen chuckled sheepishly, “I’m just good at following directions.”

He went to get the cutting board and knife after Lea pointed them out, though he had known where they were kept. Gen gave him a bashful sort of smile.

“But it did occur to me that I don’t really know if there are a lot of people with allergies on board, if there’s stuff people can’t eat, and so on,” Gen told Lea. He grabbed some of the produce so he could help him dice them up.

[longforgottenpromise]

When Lea knocked on the door of sleeper cabin 4:D there is a small pause before the door opens, Taiki peering out.

He looks pretty exhausted, with a blanket wrapped around his shoulders but he smiles brightly when he sees Lea.

"Hello." He opens the door more fully. "Are you alright, Lea?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Taiki looked a bit rough. Not that Lea had expected much else after the last mission, but hopefully his gift would make that less of an issue in the future. "Hey, Taiki," he said. "I'm alright. And definitely doing better than some people."

"Is it OK if I come in for a minute?" It didn't seem like any of Taiki's roommates were in, but still, best to ask. "I won't stay too long, since I know you must still not be feeling that great. But I got something for you, and since today is a platform day..." He indicated the bag he was carrying to demonstrate the reason for his visit.

[longforgottenpromise]

"Of course, you are always welcome."

The room was empty, everyone out greeting people. Taiki stepped further into the room towards the table by the window.

He didn't mind visitors at all. He was feeling a bit better, though not enough for the hustle and bustle of a platform day.

Lea's words made him look surprised though. "Something for me?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea smiled and headed inside too, steeping aside slightly so the door could close behind him, then taking a seat on one of the lower bunks. He nodded at the question. "Yep," he said, still smiling.

Once Taiki had taken a seat too, Lea handed him the bag. Upon opening it, Taiki would find that it contained a Black Coat, identical to the one that Xion usually wore except sized to fit him. "It's a Black Coat," Lea explained. "I know you have problems when you're around violence and stuff on missions, and since Black Coats are supposed to ward off the effects of darkness, I figured it might help, you know? Make it so you they aren't as rough on you."

[longforgottenpromise]

Taiki opened the bag carfully, very confused at what Lea might have brought him. He pulled out the coat and glanced up at Lea as he unfolded it. He recognises it, it's the same as Xion's.

A Black Coat... Ward of effects of darkness. Taiki tilted his head, his eyes filling with tears at the very thought that Lea would have thought to buy something like this form him.

"Lea... Thank you."

Re: Lea- Kingdom Hearts- OTA

[thornsofmundus]

"I don't know either," Thorne.tcai says, holding up the one with her name and eyeing it thoughtfully. "Maybe they're some kind of quest token we'll need to do something later. Or maybe we'll be able to trade them in for special holiday goods when it gets closer to a winter festival--it will be winter outside the train soon, right? We did just have Halloween."

Re: Lea- Kingdom Hearts- OTA

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah, though honestly I wasn't sure if the whole Halloween thing was arbitrary or not," Lea said. "The last couple platforms have been relatively cold, but given that people can be pulled here from any place and time, there's really no way to tell for sure, you know?"