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

[knifewithnoname]

She tilted her head at him as he crouches, confused for a second before she realises he is asking about the guns. "They do be being mine, I did be buying them with points."

She hadn't stolen them, if that was what he was getting at. "We do be getting points for missions and we can be buying things with them."

She had a lot of points and a dagger could only get her so far against monsters.

[subcircuits]

Oh, it's not whether or not they're stolen that he's worried about. He purses his lips, and tries again. "What are you doing on, er, missions that you need guns for...?"

[knifewithnoname]

"The last one we did be smashing a lot of robots." She sighed, it had only been a few days since that had ended, she's still exhausted.

"But the missions do be being lots of different places, red team do be always fighting though." She tilted her head and pointed to his purple hoodie, "Purple do be fighting too, but they often do be needing to be protecting people as well."

[subcircuits]

"But--" Devero feels like he's missing something. --Okay, that's an understatement, but there's a particular gap here that's really tripping him up. His eyes do move from her finger to his hoodie, then over to hers, and he files that comment about the teams away to pore over later. This is more important: "You're a child. What are you doing fighting at all?!"

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose at him. He was one of those people. Who thought that kids couldn't fight.

She shrugged, "There do be being lots of children here, we do all be fighting. All worlds do be being different and in my world it do be being normal for children to be fighting."

That's a lie. But so far she has met no one from her world at all so she was relying on no one being able to verify that.

[subcircuits]

It's not that he thinks kids can't fight, it's that-- "You shouldn't have to!" He's so rocked by this that he actually sits back on his ass with a thump, staring at her with a profound concern. His voice is bewildered. "Every kid is precious. Every kid needs to be protected!"

Sorry, kiddo, he hasn't gotten the hang of this "other worlds" thing yet.

[knifewithnoname]

She's used to people whose worlds are different than hers. This isn't even the first time an adult has told her she shouldn't fight. However she's never seen one so shocked that he has fallen over.

She wrinkled her nose. He reminded her a bit of Tony, with his belief that children should be protected.

"Do that be being your job? Protecting children?"

[subcircuits]

He actually laughs-- not at her, but at the idea of him doing anything as important as guarding a creche. "Me?" he says incredulously. "They wouldn't let a screwup like me anywhere near kids!"

[knifewithnoname]

She is almost offended at the laugh until he speaks and then she tilts her head, interested.

"Why do you be being a screwup?"

[subcircuits]

He's...never had to explain this to anyone but another adult before. And as unfamiliar as he is with actual children, he has no idea what appropriate to share with one.

He considers it for a moment, before finally saying, "I used to have a-- a really dangerous and important job, guarding and protecting people. Adults, trying to do their jobs. But I-- I made a choice, doing that job, that my superiors didn't like, and it got taken away from me."

[knifewithnoname]

"You did be disobeying them?"

It was right then, if he had made the wrong choice that he would not have his job anymore. Lucky for him that he still had his life.

"So what do you be doing now? If you do no be having your job anymore?"

Obviously before he had been kidnapped and brought to a train.

[subcircuits]

"...Sort of. I made some modifications to a piece of equipment when I wasn't supposed to. It helped me save people, but I hurt myself and another soldier who had to pull me out."

So yeah, lucky for him that he still had his life.

"I don't work for Gov anymore, but I can still work, so I got a different job. Now, I get to help improve the equipment I used when I was a Guard."

[knifewithnoname]

He saved people and lost his job? Because he had also hurt someone and himself? How light addled were the people he had worked for?

"So you do be still having a job, just a different job? Doing what you did be doing to be losing your first job?" Modifying equipment, improving equipment.

It seemed he had gotten out of that pretty well. Honestly.

[subcircuits]

...He had never quite contextualized it to himself like that, and he looks a little taken aback by the simplicity of her summary. "I... I suppose that's it exactly," he says. "Yes."

[knifewithnoname]

She nodded, "That do no be being too bad then, there do be being worse punishments for disobedience."

Many worse. She tilted her head. "Do you be needing help to be standing?"

[subcircuits]

"It's not a punishment when it's a logical consequence of your action," Devero murmurs-- a little automatically, a little distractedly.

He comes to himself when she points out that he's still sitting on his ass on the train floor. With a self-deprecating laugh, he shakes his head. "No, thank you." He stands, but immediately feels strange towering over her and kneels again. "My name's Devero."

[knifewithnoname]

He is very very tall, she is glad when he kneels, it's easier to see his face.

"You can be calling me Buttercup. Or B if you do be wanting to be being." She smiled, "It do be being good to be meeting you, Devero."

[subcircuits]

"It's good to meet you too," he says. "Do you prefer Buttercup, or B? --Oh, and are you a he, she, or something else? I'm a he."

[knifewithnoname]

She blinked at him at the questions. Having a name was still something new, having two was newer and being asked to choose was weird.

Also was she a he or a she or something else? She's never been asked that before either. Did people in other worlds get to decide those things? He was a he, which was what she had guessed. But she had never thought she might be wrong about such things nor had she known there was a 'something else'. That was something to think about.

Every person she met on this train awoke new questions in her head. Sometimes she was exhausted just from all the thinking.

"I do be being a she." That was a start to the answers at least. As for the name. "It do no really be mattering... I do be liking both."

[subcircuits]

He accords her a serious nod. "Thank you for telling me," he says-- and as he does, his hands move through a series of subdued gestures as he makes a note of that for himself. It's not like she has a public tag he can access for that info later, after all.

He stands up again, turning back to the ICP and frowning at it. "So this thing is touch-operated only, then?"

[knifewithnoname]

She sees the hand gestures and wrinkles her nose, wondering. But then she looks up at the ICP and nods with a small grin.

"Yes you do be needing to be poking it to be working it. But it do no really be being hard. I can be teaching you if you do be wanting."

[subcircuits]

He nearly tells her no. He nearly tells her that he doesn't need help figuring out how to use a manual interface. He nearly makes a total ass of himself in front of a small child.

But he doesn't.

She's been here longer than he has. She obviously knows more than he does about how things work on this-- this train that he felt compelled to walk onto, than he does. He is in no position to be refusing her offer, not when it is so kindly made. So he steps back from the terminal to give her a space to join him, and he folds his hands behind his back almost like he's standing at attention, and he says, "Yes, please."

[knifewithnoname]

She nods at him, balancing the guns carefully against the wall before moving closer to the ICP.

"The two main buttons do be being these two..."

She began, going through the different parts of the ICP with him patiently. She had known nothing when she first arrived on the train so she liked being able to show people things, it made her feel that she knew things now, that she had some power even if it was not much.

[subcircuits]

And Devero, for all his frustration with the pure awful simplicity of the terminal in front of him, is an attentive pupil. He follows along as she shows him how it works, and when she's done he thanks her-- sincerely, even, because the damn thing is way more simple than he feared and she's saved him some more frustration trying to wrangle it to do things beyond its capability.

"Thank you for your help, Buttercup," he tells her. He hesitates for a moment, eyes going to her guns as if he's going to say something more about them, but-- no. Not now. "I hope I see you around."

And with a little nod to her, he sets off on his own to start exploring the rest of the train.