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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"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."

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.

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."

He didn't make a habit of being late to see Ienzo because he always got kind of pissy and gave disapproving stares from behind a very stuffy cravat, so it was far more fun to poke at him when he was in a good mood. He'd been late before, but typically when he needed to be elsewhere. Now that he didn't have elsewhere to be...

"I'm not sure he's going to buy any excuse I give." He shrugged helplessly.

"I don't really want to." He said, gesturing at the train, although really he was not sure he wanted to put himself in a position to be at Lea's mercy if he decided that he was a threatening enemy. "I'll just get out of here, somehow, make a call you know?"

Lea shrugged. "Well here's to hoping you won't have to then," he said. "Depending on where and when you're from, you might have to be put back right when you left to avoid a huge space-time paradox thing. Cause it's pretty likely that you and I might not be from the same time as far as back home is concerned." He opted not to mention that they might not even be from the same version of 'back home'. Mostly because he didn't quite trust Demyx not to tell Xion if they encountered each other, and Xion had enough identity issues already.

"And unfortunately that's not gonna work. There's... really no way of getting home from here voluntarily, and gummiphones won't connect to anyone back there either. Crazy as it sounds, this is a whole different reality than the one we're from."

"Nothing I do can possibly be that important." That was kind of a big lie, but for him that was the kind of thing he would say. He eyed Lea warily. "You know, that thought already occurred to me." It was something he was trying to read in their interaction and coming up blank.

"No way!" Demyx exclaimed wide-eyed at the thought his gummiphone wouldn't work. It was supposed to work like that, no matter what world he went to, that was the whole point. Granted, he'd changed clothes did he even have it?

The Organization either picked up some gummiphones, he nicked it off of someone, or Demyx had his own, which he did produce from his bag. It was new enough, it was the exact same model as everyone else's and he was already pushing the buttons. He only had one contact, which was good because he didn't really know how it worked.

Aside from seeing Ienzo's picture as his phone tried to connect, it seemed to just be loading and loading....

"It's more that even if you weren't doing anything important, people would remember you being in a certain place at a certain time," Lea said. "If you suddenly weren't there, or were just poofed off to somewhere else while they watched.... yeah. I mean, I don't claim to understand how time travel works, but between here and where I was before here, you're the sixth person from back home I've run into, and all of us so far have been from different points in time. That's just asking for trouble."

Lea was... surprised to see Demyx with a gummiphone, but it at least somewhat settled the 'when' he was from. And put to rest any doubts about what side he was on, though how he'd gotten there remained a mystery. Maybe he'd been part of Isa's plan?

He waited while Demyx dialed the phone, and for enough time to pass that the other would realize that Lea was right and their connection to back home had been cut off before speaking again. "See? It doesn't work. Already tried it with mine. You might be able to get it to work with the train's comm system, but since your SCA- the digital watch looking-thing you've got on- does basically the same thing while off the train anyway..." He shrugged. "You can still use the offline functions though, like the camera. That's mostly what I've been using mine for, since I got it."

"I doubt it." Demyx wasn't at all still bitter about being sidelined, was he? He sounded a bit frustrated anyway, just for a moment.

He watched the phone try and try to connect and nothing. That sucked. Ienzo was the smartest guy he knew so if there was any way out, surely he'd have ideas. He disconnected the attempt at least.

He glanced at Lea and let out a wry laugh. "Oh no, there's no way I know how the camera works." He pocketed the gummiphone.

"All I know is I push the button, I see Ienzo, that's it." There wasn't any point in denying it with Lea looking at the phone. What he was going to do with that information remained to be seen but he was...frustrated.

"I can show you how to use the other features later, if you want," Lea said. "Really, assuming yours has the same journal feature that mine does, it'll save so much time if you ever need to explain what's going on back home to anybody. It's kind of an insane amount to get memorized otherwise."

"So... how'd you end up ditching that creepy old geezer's side? Did Isa- er, Siax- convince you somehow? Or did you just decide to leave on your own?"

"You've seen my mission reports haven't you? I'm not much of a writer." Demyx smiled, shrugged and stuck his hands into his pockets.

"It's..." He began because he couldn't really say he was motivated by altruistic means. He'd mostly been motivated out of spite. "It was Vexen, he recruited me. He had a compelling argument."

Demyx hummed. "Teach him to bench me."

"It's not a journal for us to write in," Lea said. "It's just called that because a good amount of it is based on journals someone wrote about Sora's journeys. Basically, it's a summary of all the relevant information about what's happening back home; not sure how far yours goes, but mine goes up to when I was pulled from back there, while I was still in training with Kairi."

He was mildly surprised though, at how Demyx came to switch sides. "Vexen, huh? That's a surprise. Guessing he was in on Isa's plan too?"

"That's what he said." Demyx looked serious for the moment. "He picked me because we don't know each other and we have no actual relationship so no one would suspect me. Also, I wasn't doing anything. Xehanort wasted my time."

Demyx huffed. "Pretty sure he sweet-talked me and he tossed me aside the second he could."

He actually sounded a bit mad about that, but really, he came all the way to the future for that?

"I was working with Ienzo anyway, and he's gone."

"Xehanort is wasting everyone's time, whether they know it or not," Lea said somewhat bitterly. "Plus a lot more. No one but him is ever gonna get anything out of being on his side. So congrats to you an Vexen being smart enough to realize that and ditch him."

"And technically you're the one who's gone; Ienzo is still back where he was. The results are kinda the same though, at least as far as being able to contact him goes. Far as I know, no one's figured out how to get a message back home from here."

"I'm not totally stupid." Demyx admitted. "Larx and Marly had a bad plan that was never gonna work." He'd known about it. He probably wasn't supposed to at the time, but he did. "So I wasn't surprised when it didn't."

"Like I told her. I don't have to be smart, I just have to be smart enough, and not take stupid risks." Demyx hummed. "Having at least someone on the light having my back was enough of a safety net, even if he might've thrown me to the wolves in the end." He didn't actually think Ienze would do that.

He sighed and smiled. "Man, he's gonna bitch so much when I'm late. He's as stuffy about being punctual as he looks."

"That's kinda a thing with them, I've noticed," Lea with a bit of a wry smile. "Though honestly, against anybody below Xemnas' general level, Marluxia might just have the power to pull something off. Guy's tougher than he looks."

"He also doesn't know when to shut up," he said with regards to Ienzo. "Don't get him started on any science-related topic, or he'll talk your ear off. But otherwise he's a decent guy. He might get mad at you, but the worst you'd get is a tongue lashing."

Weren't they all tougher than they looked? Still, he wouldn't want to go toe to toe with Marluxia. Either way, their plan was horrible, it failed, that was his take away.

"Oh, I know that." Demyx said, slightly amused. "He also glares, he's pretty good at that."

"Ooh, you've rated a glare, hmm?", Lea said. "You must've really annoyed him; I haven't seen him glare since he got his heart back."

And honestly they were. Some more than others, but it wouldn't really do to underestimate any Organization member, current or former. Or anyone siding with the Guardians of Light, for that matter. Sora in particular.

"I might've touched his computer-thing." Demyx snickered a little bit. He got glared at, yes, and a warning not to touch anything.

Was Lea expecting anything different?

Lea gave a bit of a wry smile. "Yeah that'd do it," he said. "Ever since that time Xigbar spilled coffee on his laptop, he's been protective of his electronics. He claimed it was an accident, but knowing Xigbar, he might have done it deliberately just to see how Zexion would react."

And no, not really. But he was so used to it at that point, that it didn't hurt to be reminded from time to time. He was always the reckless type, but it wouldn't be good to get careless.

"Yeah, probably." Demyx agreed, looking a little more serious for a moment. He hadn't been thinking much about Xigbar lately. He'd liked him well enough the first round, but the second...Everything was so much more complicated.

"Anyway, yeah, it's good to see Ienzo and all that. He's a good contact point I guess." Demyx responded. He wondered if Ienzo found him unnerving. He'd relaxed a bit, since his eyes reverted at least. Then again, so had Demyx.

"Yeah, Ienzo's generally a good guy," Lea said. "Even if he's the type who, if you ask him what time it is, will tell you how to build a clock."

"But anyway, getting back to here and now, if you've got ay questions, I can try and answer them. There's an information pamphlet-type thing people have put together for new arrivals, but those are inside the train, so..."

Demyx laughed at that. "I know, he's so stuffy sometimes." He giggled. It was more amusing than frustrating most of the time.

"Nah." He waved his hand slightly. "I'll figure it out since I guess I can't leave, for now." He wasn't going to stop trying but for the moment...

He raised his hand properly. "See you later." Demyx said before setting out to explore the train.

"Definitely," Lea said, chuckling a bit.

He then nodded as Demyx left to explore the train. "See you around." He'd have to remember to tell Xion that Demyx was here. And while he was no real threat, it was likely gonna be interesting having him aboard.

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A New Platform [Intro Post December]

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And wrapped! :3 TY.