We're all in this train-gether 🚂

[adregem]

Who: OTA. If you’re a passenger with a ticket on this train, then you are most welcome here!
Where: Upper Music Car
When: Imagination 18, at around brunch.
What: Welcome to the train’s first ever community open forum. Come for the food, stay for the best discussions ever.
Warnings: Lots of top-levels for easy access to relevant topics to your characters, but apart from that, nothing right now! (Not a warning but a heads-up that one TL will be dedicated to the dissemination and discussion of the bonus trek during the last mission. For your OOC reference, please see here.)



Someway through the 18th of Imagination, an announcement for the already spoken for meeting is shared by the ICPs, giving people twenty minutes to come to the upper Music Carriage for the gathering. While the chairs mostly face the stage, they’ve been curved to allow people to face their fellow passengers too, so not to put the sole focus in one place.

This is a meeting for all, and everyone will have their chance to speak and be heard.

The promised snack table sits to one side of the room, and on the stage, the white board from the standard coach has been brought in, written on it bullet points for the planned topics. To assist in the flow of discussion, familiar moderators stand in place to help jot things down, carry conversation further should one idea end while another is ready to begin, among other such administrative tasks to organize the forum. Plus, the ICP’s are in constant use all throughout the meeting, with basic announcements about what’s being discussed now, and how more people are still welcome to catch up to the Music Car if they hear something that interests them.

Grab a plate, settle down, and let’s get to work.

(OOC: Specific top-levels will be set-up for ease of tagging. Select ‘Show Top-Level Comments Only’ if you would like to skip ahead! And as much as possible kindly keep to a single thread in that TL, unless a very special or private point has to be made with regards to the subject! :) Of course if you will be tagging the snacks table, the extra suggestions, or the meta-thread, this does not apply any longer.

Also, very important: Please see here for an example format of how documentation of missions can go! It is most relevant during the discussion on information gathering.)

Comments

Webmind Topic the First - Books/Library

[iamnotgod]

[People may have noticed that Webmind is holding a book...

He doesn't draw attention to it immediately, however, and he looks quite serious.]

We must seek out more information about the Ministry, and the Voidtreckers as an industry in particular. What sorts of factions there were, or are, and any other indications as to what we can expect the Ministry to throw in the Voidtrecker Express's path in the future.

Further, the existence of any sort of threat in the void appears to be a collective blindspot for the Ministry and the worlds it supports; I anticipate further research in that direction to be less successful, but we should at least make the attempt.

It would be most appreciated for those who are able to, to donate points towards this endeavor, if not their time. Simply workshopping various word combinations on the shop or within the search function of the ICPs in the Library themselves would contribute immeasurably to this effort. I know I have, if only subjectively, more time in which to come up with word combinations that might yield results, but that does not mean I should expect to be able to solve this by myself.

I did, however, manage to find this.

[And here he holds up the book.]

It features some information pertaining to the 'Inspectors' that once intercepted this train. I shall leave it here through to the end of the meeting, for those who wish to peruse it.

[Creating a bit of incentive for people to stay the whole time, perhaps...]

[enthunder]

About the Voidtreckers. Something I noticed... in all of the books and shows we have, the Voidtreckers are in different uniforms. Colours, designs... Except the one I picked up early on, called-- uh. [ give her a second, it's been months ] Right, When The Voidtrecker Came To Town.

Never bothered looking for any leads, but it's there if anyone wants to check.

[ and she's just going to check that book now. ]

[azrthmtrnznthos]

I remember when we had the void inspectors. I can tell you they were actually very professional in their interactions, at least with me and one other from what I recall. They actually also seemed very sympathetic, as I had to flee my cabin for the quiet car due to the press of minds and emotions. They also seemed very concerned that none of us were here voluntarily.

[iamnotgod]

[Webmind turns to look at her, curious but pleased at the additional information.]

That is somewhat relieving to hear - unfortunately, the Ministry has since released a report presumably from the Inspectors, to warn all voidcraft that we are potentially being smuggled.

I do not know how they would react to us now, but it is important to remember that these are people just the same, so I thank you for that.

[azrthmtrnznthos]

Considering that we're being kidnapped, that report might not be wrong.

[Raven feels a need to point that out.]

They were very definitely people. At least the two that interacted with me were. They were very concerned about if I'd received training or not, as a fellow psychic.

[enthunder]

Raven's right. The Ministry have done nothing apart from a routine inspection, filing some paperwork and broadcasting a general notice about an anomalous craft. That just shows they're bureaucrats. I used to have to do that shit all the time.

[And she's done leafing through the book.] And according to this, the inspectors are just like that as a species, so we can't even add 'intimidation' to the list...

[happyends]

[ Madoka is so nervous about speaking up, but-- ]

Um, if I remember it right.. Didn't some people back then go with the inspectors to file a complaint with the Ministry about our situation? I think it was Reigen-san and someone else.. [ Of course she mostly remembers Reigen since that's the person she talked about it with. ]

[blitzcheer]

Oh yeah, Curufin can talk more 'bout this, but he told me about it. They got whizzed into some room without remembering the trip, and were asked to fill out the complaint they had. I told a few people, uh -- maybe they remember the details better? [ Lightning? Roland? ]

All I really remember is they didn't give any way for us to get in contact with them. The trip between the train and the room is a blank, but Curufin remembers everything 'bout being in the room. Wasn't much interesting about it, I think.

[enthunder]

[Her nod to Madoka is as encouraging as she can make it, which is to say, it's neutral and mildly approving.] Sounds right from what I heard. We heard about it after they got back.

Seems to me that if we were the rightful, trained crew of this ship, then we'd know all the ways to get in contact. We'd have access to the control car, for one thing. [Oh, right. Speaking of contact.] Tidus, weren't you and some others leaving messages on the worlds we'd been on? Still doing that?

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Curufin starts casually moving towards the table where Webmind laid The History of System #392. If Lightening wants to look at it first, he'll hang back and wait his turn, even if he has to wait till the end of the meeting. Otherwise, he'll grab the book as soon as it's available and go back to his chair. ]

I agree with Webmind, we need more written information, and I'd be happy to donate points towards that project, if people can give me ideas as to what to ask for in the book section of the train store. I'll read any titles already in the library that are relevant. I've been meaning to do that.

As for the Ministry, yes, that was me that went along with Arataka Reigen to file a complaint with the Ministry.

Raven has a different impression of the Inspectors than I do, but maybe there are reasons for that. The instant those two thuggish-looking officials opened my cabin door, I had the feeling that they were a threat to me and to all of us. That's why I picked up my sword. Maybe that caused them to assume I was a pirate! They threatened me with violence if I didn't put it down, and so I eventually did, not wanting to get my roommates killed. They asked very few questions, merely that we each verify our identity information. And they answered very few questions, but they did say that they were there because we were an anomaly, whatever the hell that meant. And when they were told that we hadn't been asked for our permission before being recruited as Void Warriors, they said that someone could go with them to file a complaint. Reigen was the one with the courage to go, and he asked that I go with him, which I did. I don't remember the route there or the route back, but we came to a dingy little white-walled office with nothing in it except a desk and the papers we were supposed to fill out. When we were finished, we found ourselves in the train's luggage carriage, as though we had returned from being dead. I was a little disconcerted by that, though I covered for myself with laugher, as I always do.

And no, they never gave us any contact information. I agree with Lightening, if we were the rightful crew, we'd have that information and we'd have a lot more access to the hidden areas of the train.

[azrthmtrnznthos]

That feeling, of them being a threat? That was all over the train, and amplified as everyone was feeling it. It remained even after the Inspectors left, and the impression I had at the time in the aftermath was that it was because particles of the void had gotten in here.

[Raven isn't disagreeing, but she'll add more information.]

That all-permeating feeling of paranoia and threat, by the way, is why I wasn't my cabin. I'm an Empath--and while my shields are strong, everyone already feeling on edge along with my own trying to remain in control sent me fleeing for space and quiet. At the time, I was in the last sleeper car room to be inspected, and it got to me. Which is why the Inspectors found me in the Quiet Cabins, and when I mentioned what I was and why I fled, they were concerned if I'd had training and offered to let me stay there.

[She shrugs.]

I'm not discounting your experience at all, Curufin. But mine was different and that was how.

[iamnotgod]

[Webmind quietly takes this as a moment to bring back up something he himself had to read up on after the fact.]

The Inspectors did mention that in their report, "Every care was taken in boarding yet due to erratic behaviour of the craft itself inspectors were unable to prevent a small breach of void dust, which caused heightened feelings within the passengers,"

While I would not be surprised if it was a matter of 'he-said-she-said', in terms of ultimate responsibility, I can understand how that does not make the situation itself the Inspectors' fault.