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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I gotta admit, I have no idea what you're talking about." Demyx said with a little nervous laugh.

"I've never used an Interface, I think, because I don't know what it is." He'd at least know that, wouldn't he? As for him being collected...

Inwardly, he was kind of freaking out a little bit. He didn't want to let on for the moment, he'd scour his bag at the earliest opportunity for his phone to try and call Ienzo for an explanation, help, or something.

"You don't mean that." Devero is so startled by that assertion that he actually stops digging through his pack for a moment so he can stare up at this baffling kid. He watches his face for a moment, then rocks back on his heels. "Rust and ruin, you do mean that. How is that possible?"

With renewed urgency, he returns to pawing through his rucksack, disarraying all the neatly packed things inside. It's not until he's almost shoulder-deep in the bag that his fingertips brush a smooth, cool polymer surface. He seizes the item and pulls it out with a whoop.

The device he has in his hand, visible for just a moment, looks really unremarkable. Honestly, it just appears to be a small smartphone with a bright red exterior, slightly tapering to one end, with a really wide bezel around the screen. "Thank the virtues," he breathes, cupping it in both hands.

Demyx was watching him, he had the urge to go through his own bag, but he didn't know what he was going to find and he wasn't sure he wanted to do it where people could watch.

Instead, he watched the stranger dig something out...he still didn't know what he was looking at.

"Is that like a phone of some kind?" Demyx was familiar with the gummiphone. At least, he knew how to push one button and call one person, but details.

"A phone?" He actually laughs, although it's a short, harsh sound. "What, have you been bingeing period shit set Before?"

His hands close around the device, twist, and spread apart again. What looked like a phone suddenly splits open and rearranges itself, opening up into a much more delicate-looking piece of technology. In his hands its purpose may not be immediately obvious, but when he lifts it and fixes it on his left ear, it becomes clear it's some kind of headset.

"Oh, that's better," he sighs as his Interface boots up. He looks back up at the stranger and then makes a deliberate, obvious flicking motion of one hand in the other guy's direction. He watches for a response-- well, an electronic response, but he is just kind of squatting there and staring intensely.

It was so much worse than he thought, as far as Demyx knew, his gummiphone was the height of technology.

Demyx was watching and he had no idea what he was looking at. Not the piece that the device turned into and he certainly had no electronic responses to offer.

"You've totally lost me!"

He actually meant that.

Devero had been expecting-- okay, hoping-- that his ping would elicit a pingback from the Interface that he kind of figured this guy had but was being obtuse about. But... no. Nothing. His eyescreen lights up red for an instant as it flashes him an error message. He bares his teeth, grabs the alert box that only he can see, and throws it aside with far more force than is necessary to dismiss it from his vision.

He closes his pack back up and stands. "Okay. You don't know what an Interface is, and you don't know how you got here." He looks around the misty platform, triggering his Interface to connect to the local public feed. "Do you know anything that might be a clue as to what's happening?"

It was unfortunate for Devero's luck that Nobodies didn't work that way. Demyx blinked at him a few times and glanced around briefly. Leaves. Platform. Train incoming.

"No idea." He admitted with a bit of a shrug and a smirk. Even if he did know, he might've pretended he didn't, but he was honestly and truly stumped.

Devero grunts an acknowledgement, and slings his pack over one shoulder. Demyx isn't the only one who's noticed the wind picking up-- and he hears a sound now, distant but rapidly getting closer. His head comes up like a hound on a scent.

He glances at Demyx. "...Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Demyx asked, blinking first of all. "Oh, if you mean the train, then yeah, I hear it."

He had good ears, actually, good for picking up musical notes and melodies. He'd already figured out they were on a train station platform, he just didn't know how to leave.

"That's louder than any train I've ever heard--"

The train blows into the platform, both the sound and the wind of its arrival buffeting him. He stands firm against it even if he really wants to duck, though he does shield his face from the suddenly energetic leaves.

He drops his arm as the detritus started to settle again, and stares. "And that doesn't look like any train I've ever seen. It looks ancient!"

"I really don't know anything about trains. I mean. It looks like a train to me." Demyx admitted.

Honestly, he hadn't been so caught off-guard by a conversation in awhile. He was genuinely confused.

"An old train," Devero insists again, stubbornly. He stares at it through his Interface's eyescreen, moving one of his hands through the connection routine that should link him up to the transport local and public local networks.

Except there are no networks registering to his Interface's scanners. No networks, and none of the little pingpoints that should indicate the Interfaces of the other people he can see intermittently as the mist drifts and swirls.

He looks down at this kid beside him, and for the first time it really starts to sink in that there is something profoundly strange happening here. "Are you not bothered by this?" he asks, quiet and a little disbelieving. He's so flooded with adrenaline that he feels like he could box an exo bare-handed.

"Is there a difference between this train and some other kind of train?" Demyx didn't really know, but Devero seemed perturbed by it.

"Sure, but I'm not planning on sticking around, if anything this'll just be some weird dream I'm having later or whatever."

"All the trains I've ever seen are mag-lev," Dev says. He gestures with a hand, hovering it through the air in front of him. "They float."

Demyx's comment makes him snort. "I hope I'm more than just your weird dream," he says dryly.

In front of them, the doors of the train open. Dev glances once more at Demyx. "If you're going to take off--" People start to step off onto the platform. "--now might be the time to do it. Me, I think I want answers."

It was a good thing he explained it because 'mag-lev' meant absolutely nothing to him.

"Oh, I want answers first." He said cheerfully enough, because he was pretty sure he could pull a disappearing act at any time in the near future.

"Not every day I get to look at a train."

"I hope it's everything you want it to be," Devero says with an incredulous shake of his head. He claps the young man on the back (probably pretty hard, since he's not thinking about leashing his strength). Then he fists both hands around the straps of his pack and strides off down the platform, aiming to intercept one of the folks coming off the train.

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A New Platform [Intro Post December]

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