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 really do like it, that and the spa car have been my favorite parts of being here," Koumyou agrees.

And yes, past tense.

He's got a third favorite part of being here now.

~~Even though he hadn't meant to form any attachments.~~

"I quite like the spa car," Devero agrees, grinning crookedly. "Maybe a little more now than before." And this despite all the tears and Feelings and anxiety attacks from just the past-- what has it been, an hour? Maybe?

So little time, and yet his life has so profoundly shifted.

Maybe being stuck on the interdimensional abduction train won't be so bad after all.

"Do you, now?" Koumyou asks with some amusement, glancing back over his shoulder. "I can't imagine why."

It's a mystery.

But at last, after however many cars they trot through, the dining car! Koumyou only finally lets go when they're in front of the machine, going to fetch a couple bowls and spoons.

"I bet ice cream's a daily thing where you're from, isn't it?"

A total mystery, really.

Devero also quite likes the dining car, actually, but that's probably just because it's the car that reminds him the most of home. "It's pretty much always available in the comm-kitchen, yeah," he says with a chuckle. "I try not to indulge in sweets too much, but sometimes our head chef will make some fancy ice cream in-house, and who could resist that?"

"Not a big fan of sweets?" Koumyou can't imagine not indulging in them too much if they're always available, if one likes them.

"You'll have some with me, right?" He asks, already dispensing some ice cream into a bowl, "I learned just the other day not to eat it too fast, or it hurts."

Much to Siebren's absolute dismay.

"Oh, I didn't say I wasn't a fan," Devero points out. "Just that I don't indulge too often." ~~Don't get him high and then leave him around a tin of cookies, though.~~ "You know: 'a balanced diet is a pillar of wellness'."

His lips twist a little as he looks down at the other man. He's trying not to laugh, promise. "You got a brain-freeze, didn't you?"

"Is that what that's called? It was terrible!" One bowl nice and full, and a spoon stabbed in, and he tries to hand that one off to Devero. "Oh, do you want tea? It's a good combination, I think."

He really can't say much about a balanced diet. Devero's seen what he looks like under his very flattering uniform. The priest could do with more calories, not less.

One snicker escapes him. Just one. "It's not any fun, that's for sure." He takes the bowl willingly enough, and starts poking around for fixings. Maybe some--

Honey. Of course!

"Sure, I'll take some tea, thank you," he says. He shows the jar he's picked up, complete with dipper. "Do you want honey too?"

It's fine, laugh at him. Even if Koumyou whines about it, he knows it's funny. That's at least half of why he hams it up.

"What? On ice cream?" Koumyou pauses in tea-making to blink over at Devero. He's never considered adding anything to the ice cream, let alone the honey. "I guess I'll have to try it!"

Why not. It's apparently a day for trying new things!

Devero makes a face, exaggerated for effect. "You've never had honey on ice cream??" It's not actually a surprise, but it's just-- it's so easy to joke around with Koumyou. What would the people at home think, seeing dour and over-serious Devero play-acting outrage like this?

He snatches up the priest's bowl while he's distracted with the tea and starts to drizzle honey generously over both servings of ice cream.

Koumyou laughs, and pretend-snatches after the disappearing bowl--! Before he just focuses on the tea. "It's a day for firsts, it seems like!"

It's not even a joke, really.

"I wonder what else today has in store?"

And just like that, Devero goes from teasing to shy. "I don't know, but I'm looking forward to finding out."

"..." Look at that shy guy. "You're adorable!"

Sorry Devero, Koumyou just calls it like he sees it.

He takes their teas over to a table and sits down, setting Dev's in front of the spot right beside him. And then he busies himself for a moment with pulling his own hair out from under himself, still loose as it is. He pulls it all over a shoulder, and a flash of light from the gaudy band around his arm produces a comb, which he starts trying to tame the ends with.

That doesn't help. He only turns redder, ducking his head into his shoulders with a smile. "Thank you."

He slides into the seat beside Koumyou, passing over one of the ice creams. He picks up the tea in both hands and inhales the rising steam, curious to see what kind it is.

But his eyes are on Koumyou even as he does, watching him-- watching his glorious hair.

The tea isn't anything terribly fancy, just something light and fragrant he'd found went good with ice cream.

Koumyou spends a moment teasing out some of the tiny knots and snags already forming in his half-dried mass of hair. But once there's ice cream in play, he sets the comb down on the table in favor of trying a spoon full of honey-and-ice-cream.

"That's kind of weird," he pronounces after a moment of thought, "but I like it? Is this how you eat ice cream where you're from?"

It is a good combination, especially with the honey-- which Devero takes a moment to add to his tea as well, actually!

"There are so many ways to eat ice cream where I come from," Devero says with a laugh. "But if there had been any chocolate sauce here, I would've gone for that first. Ooh, or mango, when it's perfectly ripe and juicy." He pops a spoonful in his mouth and hums appreciatively, even if all he has here is honey.

"I think that could easily get way too sweet for me," Koumyou says thoughtfully, in between spoonfuls of ice cream, "I'm not used to so much sugar, you know?"

It wasn't that they didn't have candy, and doughnuts, and all that stuff where he was from, he just... preferred sake, if he was going to sneak something into a temple. And tobacco.

And, to avoid getting another horrible headache, he sets his spoon down and takes up the comb again. Gotta pace himself. Brain freeze is the worst! He doesn't need a second shot of that to take it seriously.

"So, what other stuff do you like? We can't really control what gets stocked in the kitchen, but you never know what might turn up."

"I bet you'd like savory ice creams, then," Devero says. "I usually find them a little weird, but I've had some good ones. Envis makes this incredible olive oil ice cream-- that's the head chef at the comm-kitchen back home. They's incredible."

He makes himself look away, sipping at his tea as he considers. "I like all kinds of things. Spicy curries, shiro be kibbe, chili. A sizzling hot schnitzel just out of the pan. Almost anything with chickpeas. Mango, whether there's ice cream with it or not. Pâte à choux, although I've never had any as good as the profiteroles made by the baker in the creche I grew up in." He sighs wistfully, then looks over at Koumyou.

"What about you?"

"I understood about half of those words," Koumyou says with a laugh, but it's not like it's unexpected. Different cultures and different worlds, after all!

"Oh, I'm pretty boring," Koumyou pauses his combing to take a sip of his tea, "I usually just eat whatever Kouryuu brings me, but sometimes when he's traveling with me we sneak off to have fried squid, or shabu shabu. Or barbeque!"

"I'd offer to take you on food tour, but that's not really an option here, is it?" Devero sounds a little wistful about that.

He perks up soon enough. "Oh, shabu shabu! My mates and I would go out for shabu shabu all the time when we were stationed in Kinshu." --Wait, hold up a second. "Who's Kouryuu?"

Koumyou gasps, "You have shabu shabu on your world? That's amazing!"

Comb back on the table, the priest switches back to ice cream. Can't let it melt, after all.

"...Oh, Kouryuu's my son! I can't always take him with me when I travel away from Kinzan Temple, but I like to when I can."

There is a change that comes over Devero's face when Koumyou says that 's' word. A softening, a yearning, one that settles into the corners of his eyes and mouth with ease of long inhabitation. He props his chin on a fist and turns to regard Koumyou directly. "You have a son?"

"I mean, officially? No, but..." Koumyou laughs lightly, "I think of him as my son, anyway."

But after he glances over at Devero and sees how the other man is looking at him, he has to ask, "Are you alright?"

Devero doesn't look upset, per se, but. Best to check.

"He must be very important to you if you wanted to family-claim him," he murmurs. Lucky kid.

He actually blinks when Koumyou asks him that, sitting up again. "I-- I'm fine?" he says. And then a moment later, "A little envious, maybe. No one's ever wanted to 'claim me."

"I feel like I'm missing some really key context, here," Koumyou says after a second of thought.

Help?

"Were you an orphan, perhaps?"

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