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

[fun_thementalist]

Gen's eyes widened in surprise, then, twisting off the soda's cap as he looked over the ... "It's pretty, that's what I think. Because, very frankly, I don't know what it is."

"Hmmm ..." this was purely for Senku's amusement, "perhaps it's a toy? Or a weapon? Ah, it's a new piece of void technology, you're about to tell me this will allow us to ... that's a button ... receive video transmissions now, in addition to the radio ones."

Probably not, Gen thought. He guessed weapon might be closest, because those were probably the most useful to take apart.

[10billionpercent]

Senku grinned brightly, delighted by his guesses because of course he was. "I'm going to guess a weapon is closer to what you're thinking."

Gen had no idea. He pressed the button and tossed the ball onto the ground.

In a cloud of purple smoke appeared an adorable, tiny, pink kitten with two tails appeared and let out a very delicate meow. The ball seemed to bounce back into his hand and he tucked it out of sight in a pouch that was tucked into a utility belt of sorts looped through his pants.

"Eva got him for me."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen actually took a tiny hop backward, a reflex, even though he was pretty sure that Senku wouldn't throw a grenade at their feet. Well. Not an exploding-kind-of-grenade. Maybe a smoke grenade. Or a grenade filled with some kind of odd gas. It was hard to say. He didn't underestimate Senku, but he did trust him with his life.

He still wasn't expecting a tiny baby purple kitten to appear, giving a tiny little mew. Gen was very sorry, Senku, but. His heart melted.

"Awww, look at you," Gen found himself saying, getting close and kneeling down, offering his hand for the creature to sniff. "You're adorable. Why on earth did you get him, Senku-chan? I didn't think you had any interests in pets? Of course, he's cute enough to be an exception, isn't he? Fuzzy little guy ..."

[10billionpercent]

He did snicker slightly, amused by his boyfriend's antics. "I don't have an interest in pets." That was true enough.

"Orion is a pokemon, like Eva has. He's going to learn how to defend me." Senku explained.

Orion himself, looked like he was considering Gen, and what was now his human's feelings towards the stranger and he approached, letting out another cute meow, brushing his head against Gen's fingers.

"I did get some fabric and bear pelts, we are going to be busy." He thought he'd sneak that in.

[fun_thementalist]

"Awww, you're so soft," Gen told the kitten, "and Orion is such a pretty name. A pretty name for a pretty kitty! We're going to take good care of you. Especially if you'll be protecting us when you're bigger."

Gently, he scratched the kitten's little ears, his head, his back, lavishing the creature with attention. It's the perfect opportunity for Senku to sneak something like that in. And Gen realized that. He laughed a little, delighted.

"You devious mad genius," Gen said, fond and loving. "Buttering me up with cola and a kitten before you put me to work. We don't need to put Orion-chan back in that ball, do we?"

[10billionpercent]

Orion in turn was very happily purring at Gen's attention, rolling around. Wouldn't he like to pet his tummy? He wasn't at all going to grab his hand. Kitten promise.

Senku snickered, he was rather proud of this one. "Yeah, but I just need your hands, we'll be sitting around sewing." That was practically rest for Senku.

"Hm, I don't think we do. We do when we're leaving the train though."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen knew it was a trap, an adorable trap. But he willingly fell for it anyway, because. How could anyone resist a soft kitten belly? That hand would just be captured by a clever little kitten.

"You always want my clever hands to do things for you, my dearest," Gen teased back, as one of them was likely gently captured by a kitten. He hummed. "I suppose. These balls for the pokemon probably keep him safe, I'd think? And he's so small right now. What sort of creature does he grow into?"

[10billionpercent]

"Apparently they like the balls, it's not harmful to him. It's magic, somehow, I don't think he's just squished into a tiny space as I understand it." He crouched down and reached out to scratch Orion's ear lightly. "But..." He trailed off.

"We're supposed to be bonding." He commented.

That question got a bit of a deadpan look. "......A cat."

[fun_thementalist]

"But?" Gen asked, since that seemed like a leading statement.

He was smiling warmly as Orion gently gnawed on a captured finger with little kitten teeth. "Well. In that case. I can certainly help you bond with him. We have ample time on this train, I don't believe that will be hard.

Gen raised his gaze and gave him a deadpan look in turn. "Yes, but Eva said he'd be for your protection. So, will he ... breathe fire? Sprout tentacles? Grow into a twelve-foot-all cat? I don't exactly take anything on face value on this train anymore, dearest."

[10billionpercent]

"Eva said it's like putting them in stasis." Senku said with a bit of a sigh. He didn't like the sound of that particularly.

"I don't think so I think that's it, Orion's just a cat with two tails. He's a psychic pokemon." Senku offered.

[fun_thementalist]

"... Stasis. Like being ..." Gen didn't want to say it, but it's hanging over their head. Like a great elephant hanging from a hair hung from the ceiling. He couldn't help it, he scooped up the kitten to cuddle him for a moment a bit more closely.

"A psychic kitten, hmm," Gen looked down at their new furry friend. "You take after me, then, don't you? You can't help me cheat at cards, little one, that wouldn't be fair. I can do that fine on my own."

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah. I'm all for keeping him safe, but I don't want to put him in stasis longer than necessary, even if he doesn't know he's in stasis."

Orion let out a surprised mew but still appreciated the proximity to this human and maybe, just maybe, if he reached up his paw he could get that white fringe dangling there enticingly.

He snickered lightly at that. "I don't think he knows card tricks. Eva thought it would be easier to bond with him if we had an empathetic link." Senku explained. "She's...probably not wrong. That's why I think I've managed to get so close to her. I always can tell what her motivations are. There's no secret there."

He paused. "I can tell that about you too, no link required." He smirked. "But I don't have years and years of being around her."

[fun_thementalist]

"Yeah," Gen echoed. "I wouldn't want to do that to him, either. So. Just when it's necessary. It's not as if it's terrible to carry him around, look. He barely weighs anything."

Orion could manage to reach that overhanging lock of hair! As the kitten bat at it, Gen had to smile, fond and already won over by the pokemon. Maybe Orion was Senku's, but why wouldn't he try to care for and protect the little kitty too?

Gen had to laugh softly. "An empathic link, hmm? I guess what we have is just more natural, then. No magic required."

He glanced at Senku, fond and warm, but deciding to tease. "Unless we somehow stumbled on a secret bond between soul mates, dearest. Destined to meet as determined by the stars ..."

[10billionpercent]

"Not unless you're secretly a wizard or something." He said with a light snicker. He didn't mind Gen playing with Orion, it was fine. He was probably going to wind up bonded to both of them that way, but he didn't mind that so much.

Senku stared at Gen. "That's not how anything works." He protested lightly. "That's...the soul is not quantifyable! And the idea that people are just linked because of somet intangible asset, that's not how attraction works."

[fun_thementalist]

"Ah, if only I was secretly a wizard, my darling," Gen giggled a little, and humored the kitten trying to try to catch his lock of hair between his paws, now, like he wanted to gnaw on it.

His eyes twinkled as he looked at his boyfriend. "Oh? And how else would you explain it, my dearest Senku-chan? We're so incredibly compatible, so very much in sync, attracted to one another so quickly after we met. Drawn together by an unseen force. If we're not soulmates, darling, how would you explain it?"

Oh. This would be fun.

[10billionpercent]

"How would I-" Senku looked scandalized. "Not like that. That's so whimsical and full of crap!" He flailed a little bit.

"Listen here, Mentalist. Feelings of attraction and attachment come through chemicals in the brain that cause a person to feel things." Senku explained, his thumb tapping his forehead.

"My interest in you is primarily composed of dopamine, that's the rush you might know that comes through your system when something is desierable or pleasurable. That's the first step. I'm attracted to you because of dopamine, and then serotonin decreases so I find myself thinking about you far more than I would think about someone else. Then when I would reach the point of wanting to get your attention that's norepinephrine which stimulates my memory so that I'll remember little details about you, or moments I find particularly interesting."

Senku exhaled. "When you reach the point of total romantic attraction to someone you're just filled with norepinephrine and dopamine to the point that's how you get flooded with feelings about the other person."

"The fact-" He continued to lecture as he'd been completely tricked into doing. "That we live together and have attachment to each other is very much likely due to vassopressin and oxytocin, other neurological chemicals that essentially associate contentment and happiness to the connection we share with each other in the human body."

Senku breathed. "In short, romantic feelings and feelings at all are all caused by your brain, that's how I would describe it."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen had to try not to giggle as Senku ranted, not wanting to interrupt. His eyes glittered as he went on and on. Really. It's obvious to just about anyone that Gen was completely delighted, that he got exactly what he wanted from Senku.

"So, what you're saying, my darling," Gen's eyes glittered, "Is that you think about me constantly, that you want my attention all of the time, that you're always daydreaming about me ... that you feel so very strongly to me ... and that you always want to be with me."

Leaning in, even with a squirmy kitten, Gen would try to steal a kiss from Senku's cheek. "So sappy, Senku-chan. But I feel the same way."

[10billionpercent]

"Putting words in my mouth." Senku grumbled, blushing lightly but that wasn't true at all, he'd just given a full lecture that just said that.

Before Gen could get too far away, he kissed his lips.

"You goaded me on purpose." He complained, looking into his eyes a moment before he pulled back.

"You and your mentalist tricks."

[fun_thementalist]

"You don't really sound like you're complaining, my dearest," Gen said, sounding a little dazed and happily so after their little kiss. He was blushing a little, and grinning from ear to ear. "Do you know how passionate you are when you're defending science, Senku-chan? I can't help myself."

[10billionpercent]

"I wouldn't have to defend science if you didn't spout such nonsense." Senku retorted and then scooped up their new kitten and lifted Orion up onto his shoulder.

"We've gotten distracted from the list of things we need to do here." Senku snorted. Shocking, that.

"We also should look at what we have to see what we need, and what we can use. I think I'm actually out of some of the basics."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen giggled, completely unrepentant. "Oh. I know."

That's why he did it.

"Are you really?" Gen asked, tilting his head a little. "We really do need to take stock of all the stuff we gathered. It's easy to think it's kind of limitless with the Arms Band holding it all."

[10billionpercent]

"Science is offended by you." He said, pointing at Gen.

"Yeah, look." Senku summoned his rocks and sticks and he was down to seven and six respectively. "Fortunately I've got some bones to make some knives with since I'm down one, on top of that, but..." He hummed. "I've also got some things I need to scrap."

It was just time to clean out the inventory, that was all. He produced a set of twelve small jars with various flowers and plants inside, a few scraps of wolf pelts and other furs. "We can use these for accents, if we want...on something."

[fun_thementalist]

"Oh, those are pretty," Gen agreed, leaning in close. "We can decorate all sorts of things with these."

He hummed thoughtfully. "I should show you all the robotic parts I've found, but I don't want to scatter them all about where someone could step on them! That'd be worse than if we had LEGOs lying about."

[10billionpercent]

"That's what I stole your bag for, and why we made crates. I just have to summon the crate or bag and we'll have the parts." He was undecided what to do with them all.

"So these plants I don't need, we can keep the fur samples. Maybe I'll put them in one of the jars. If you don't want them, we'll just scrap them."

[fun_thementalist]

"Ah, I can certainly use the plants, my dear," Gen told him, eyeing those with interest. "Even if they have no other use but as pretty little distractions, you know I'm fond of those."

He tapped his chin. "Though I'll probably keep more of them on me, now that I know we've a lot to spare."