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

[subcircuits]

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.

[its_dad_sanzo]

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?"

[subcircuits]

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

[its_dad_sanzo]

"..." 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.

[subcircuits]

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.

[its_dad_sanzo]

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?"

[subcircuits]

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.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"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."

[subcircuits]

"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?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"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!"

[subcircuits]

"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?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

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."

[subcircuits]

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?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"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.

[subcircuits]

"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."

[its_dad_sanzo]

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

Help?

"Were you an orphan, perhaps?"

[subcircuits]

"An... orphan?" That's an archaic term that he doesn't recognize, even with the train's help translating. "What's that?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"You know, like... if your parents died in a war or something, when you were young."

There was another possibility he'd seen plenty of times, too--

"Or maybe they were just really rotten?"

[subcircuits]

"Oh. Oh, I have no idea what they're like," he says with a little laugh. "They never claimed me, and we're not supposed to reach out if they don't make a claim." He finds a smile, though this one is a little crooked. "I was 100% a creche kid. Which is fine, obviously, they were never under any obligation, I know no one is, but--..."

He trails off. At home, he wouldn't have to qualify that 'but'. Anyone whose parents didn't claim them would know what that 'but' meant, because no matter what the caretakers said, it sucked to be one of the kids left behind on family days. It sucked to know that out there, two people had made a decision to bring you into the world, and then another decision to have nothing to do with you. His parents hadn't even opted into correspondence.

But this is an old hurt, worn as flat and smooth as a river stone by time, so he shrugs and scoops up some more ice cream. "Your Kouryuu is very lucky," he says, and sticks the spoon in his mouth.

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou reaches to take a hand anyway, if he can.

"Well, I think you're wonderful, so it's their loss."

[subcircuits]

There's another one of those little hesitations, that moment of uncertainty when Koumyou takes his hand where it seems like he might be waiting for it to be yanked on or raked or slapped away. But the other man just holds it, and goes and says something like that, and the moment definitely passes.

His smile might be a little wobbly as he shares it with Koumyou. His eyes are definitely prickling a little. "Thank you."

He is determined not to start crying again, though, so after a fierce squeeze of his fingers he takes his hand back and goes for another scoop of ice cream. "Tell me more about your son?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou also goes back to his ice cream, working around the edges inside his bowl as it slowly tries to melt.

"Oh! Well, what do you want to know about him? He's thirteen, and has hair so gold it almost looks like metal! And the biggest, brightest eyes! He's the cutest kid in all existence, as far as I'm concerned. And he's so serious! He's always trying to scold me, with his grumpy little face."

[subcircuits]

Devero wants to know anything, if for no other reason than to see the way Koumyou's face has lit up as he talks about him. He actually is interested though, interjecting a soft, "It's a pity you can't show me a picture," once Koumyou's described his son.

"He has to scold you?" he repeats back, getting that sly teasing tilt to his mouth. "Really? How strange, I have no idea why, as you also are absolutely serious all the time."

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Maaaah, maybe I'll ask the train for a picture! You never know, it could work!"

That tease gets a laugh out of Koumyou, all bright and bubbly.

"It's true, it's true! And I would never skip out on giving lectures, or smoke where someone could see me."

Or need to be reminded to eat.

Or woken up before he could drown in the bath.

[subcircuits]

"You should," Devero encourages him. "I'd love to see him."

He snickers. "Are Sanzo priests expected to give a lot of lectures?" he asks. "And expected not to smoke?"