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]

"Welll, let me just suggest, I'm far, far easier to motivate?" Gen said, raising his hands just a little, but smiling like it was a joke. "I find candy very motivating. Or soda. Or, even, just a little word like 'please'. I'm a bit allergic to hard work, but people are good at dragging me into helping them, and nobody's needed to threaten me here yet to do it. I promise."

Gen laughed a little, allowing himself to look a little nervous, really help sell it. "Besides, there's uses to keeping me in one piece, human or not, I can assure you."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

Alleyana sighed, and lifted her singular, gloved hand to rub at her forehead. Carefully, because she was used to wearing needle-sharp gauntlets, so it was habit to only use the pads of her fingers.

"You're probably safe from me. Humans just tend to be asshole to elves, where I'm from. So I've mastered the art of out-assholing them, that's all."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen considered that with a blink, and a little tilt of his head. "I can understand that, at least a tiny, little bit, my dear. I'm usually not the biggest one in a room, and lately back at home, people were a lot pushier for a hot minute about might making right. Being just crafty enough to survive is a good strategy - and if yours was becoming intimidating enough to, well, you pull it off extremely well."

"But! We don't have elves, where I've been taken from," Gen told her. "You're not the first I've met here, but the ones I've seen are usually ... blonder?"

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"...Blonder?" That hadn't been the word she'd expected to come at the end of that sentence. Maybe 'taller', or 'politer', or even some variation of 'less fucked-up looking'.

[fun_thementalist]

"They're also daintier? More fragile-looking," Gen told her, thinking specifically of Glorfindel now. "More like they're going to be crushed the next time we fight killer robots. I'm pretty sure if one came my way, I'm going to run where you're standing, it's going to be kind of instinctive."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"That's a pretty good instinct," Alley admitted, "even without my shield, I can soak a hell of a lot of damage. That's my job, in a fight."

[fun_thementalist]

"It seems like you were pretty good at it, too, if you don't mind me saying so, my dear," Gen observed with a little wry humor, testing the waters there. "Even if it proved pretty expensive for you."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"Right," the Inquisitor grunted the single word, folding her arms stiffly. Maybe not the best joke fodder, then, at such an early point in their meeting.

"So, what do you do in a fight, or are you a civilian?"

Bird bones could still be a mage of some kind, after all.

[fun_thementalist]

Lesson learned, and Gen easily turned the jokes onto himself instead, a seamless transition. But, boundary established.

"In a fight? I run away, very quickly, in the other direction," Gen half-lied. "I'm am very civilian. Very ... squishy, you could say. I'm really not even sure why I was kidnapped in the first place?"

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"You can't tell just by looking, where I'm from," Alleyana said, simply, "someone built like you could still throw lightning and fire, or raise the dead. Maybe use a crossbow. But I doubted you'd be an up-close fighter, or be able to really pull a longbow."

[fun_thementalist]

"Ah! You have magic, where you're from. Real magic, anyway. I admit I'm a little jealous," Gen said with a grin. "What I wouldn't give to be able to throw around lightning from mid-air, that would be pretty incredible."

"No, I'm an entertainer by trade," Gen said with a cheeky little bow. "I'm a Mentalist - that's a fancy way to say a magician - and that's in a world without real magic, my dear. So unfortunately, no balls of fire are involved without a bit of chemistry and planning."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"I suppose it would have its perks," Alley agreed, but... she wouldn't choose to be able to throw fire and lightning, personally. Maker knew she attracted enough demonic trouble without the constant thread of possession.

Envy had been more than enough for her for this life-time, thanks.

"...What is a magician who doesn't do magic?"

[fun_thementalist]

"Ah, if only I could show you, my friend, the full extent of what I could do!" Gen lamented with a little drama. "But I could give you a few demonstrations, if you'd like."

He pulled out a card 'from mid-air' as he spoke, twirling it between his fingers. Gen was certainly fast enough that it would appear as if he'd pulled the card from no-where. "Perhaps I'll even impress you."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

Alley knows what cards are, at least. Thank the Maker, not everything on this train is completely batshit.

But having one appear out of nowhere is veering right back into batshit territory.

"...Sure, why not."

Break her brain, she's not using it anyway.

[fun_thementalist]

"You haven't seen anything like this before?" Gen asked her, as he produced a deck from the game's carriage and then began shuffling the cards.

If her eyes were very sharp, maybe she'd even be able to spot there's no magic being used. Just slight of hand, like a thief.

Gen spread the cards after shuffling them, and told her, "Please, my dear, pick a card, any card. Memorize it ..."

He split the deck in half once she took the card, like he was going to shuffle it once more, and invited her, "and then place it back here, please."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"Alright, sure."

Alley stuffed her ticket back into her strange coat's front pocket, and reached for a card. Pinching it was hard. There was a visible shake in her damaged fingers.

She said nothing, and silently dared him to do otherwise. Instead, she looked at the face of the card, and put it back where he indicated.

"The pictures are different, but we do have cards on Thedas."

[fun_thementalist]

Gen saw, but didn't say a word. His expression didn't waver, still a sharp little look, an innocent smile on his lips. He made a mental note to use different sorts of tricks in the future, but also, not to make it obvious.

No sense to insult someone, or injure their pride.

"Well, then I hope at least this part of it isn't boring, my dear."

Card in the middle, Gen placed the top of the deck on top of the first, held the deck flat in his palm, since they didn't have a table - and snapped his fingers.

Flipping over the top-most card on that deck - he revealed the one Alley had chosen. "Is this your card?"

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"It is," Alley's suitably impressed with the trick, although she has to ask, "the whole deck isn't the same damn card, is it?"

[fun_thementalist]

That got a genuine laugh from him, and he spread out the cards in a fan so she could see they're all different. "This is just one of the many decks from the games carriage, my friend. Untampered with. I have my own personal card deck, but I use that one for fortune-telling on the train. I don't want people thinking I'm cheating when I'm performing for them, after all."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"They look nothing like the Wicked Grace cards I'm used to," Alleyana says after a few seconds of looking at the assorted patterns and numbers on the fanned out cards.

"Other than in shape, I guess."

Cards are cards, after all. Just a matter of what's on them.

"Is your fortune telling another trick, then?"

[fun_thementalist]

"Our realities are probably very different," Gen observed, looking fascinated by the idea, "which of course fills me with all kinds of annoying questions, which I will endeavor to sit on. Curiosity is one of my fatal flaws, unfortunately."

He hummed a little. "Don't tell anyone," he winked, because why would Alley keep this to herself? And clearly Gen was happy to admit, "I can't actually see the future. Someone on this train might, I've seen pretty incredible abilities already."

"No, the fortune-telling I do is more ... of a story. Based on how my audience is reacting, I'll change and adapt it. I try to keep things encouraging, even when the cards look negative. After all, in a world without magic? Stories and fortune-telling are more to inspire people and entertain them - which, in a way, does alter their future," Gen explained.

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"So you're a con-artist who uses his powers for good."

That's Alley's assessment of what he's saying here, though is she wrong?

"Creating self-fulfilling prophesies to give people hope."

[fun_thementalist]

Rather than look offended, Gen looked particularly flattered.

"You say the kindest things, my dear," Gen told her, smiling brightly. "That's exactly it. Sometimes I might try and be humorous instead, or try and give advice. But, really, it's all for the sake of entertainment. I can't really say I've got anything particularly profound to say, but if I can give people hope? That's a pretty good day."

[inquisitor_lavellan]

"Hn," Alley's not going to be a judgemental ass about it, anyway. She's always seen things in shades of good and bad, never wholly one or the other. And isn't what this guy does... similar to Cole? In a way?

Just, more mundane?

"I know someone like you, on my world." Right down to seeing the value in entertainment and hope, going by how Cole's new girlfriend is a traveling bard.

[fun_thementalist]

"Oh, really?" Gen looked both amused and curious. "Someone who's an entertainer? Or perhaps they only know the value of a good joke from time to time? I hope it's someone who wasn't particularly on your bad side, it won't end well for me."

And despite that being a very real concern for Gen, he played that like it was a joke, and winked at her.