voidtreckermods

LIBRARY

This a double carriage. On the bottom floor there is a corridor running along one side, with a door to enter the carriage itself in the middle of the corridor. Up the stairs on either end of the carriage, the space is open, relatively.

Downstairs appears similar to a public library. The walls are painted brightly and lined with shelves, most of which are empty. Labels indicate that fiction books should be stored here. The wall facing the door is alternating windows looking out into the Void, and posters that seem to be large, blown-up book covers for the more popular fiction books in the train.

Four tables with linked chairs are spaced throughout the car, each one painted one of the team colours, and beanbag chairs similar to those found in the Games carriage can also be seen scattered in a pile in one corner.

A little wooden train with shelves built into it winds its way through the tables, its shelves filled with all of the previously-purchased Merry Little Void Train literature and the first book of several of the encountered but unpurchased MLVT series, including several colouring books. There's room on its shelves for far more than it currently contains. Kheli the rabbit is painted leaning out of the engine window, waving.

Along the far wall to the right are two scanning machines, which can do the following: register new books - as a helpful tutorial on the screen will inform you; provide summaries of books if given a specific title; or check books out if presented with a valid ticket. Passengers can have up to eight books checked out at a time; if someone walks out of the carriage carrying a book not checked out by them, the ICP speakers in that carriage will beep obnoxiously for ten seconds.

Upstairs resembles an academic library. The wall next to the stairs is a similar bank of windows as downstairs, although lacking the colourful posters, instead dotted with landscape paintings of previously visited worlds and unknown worlds both. Rows of shelves divide the space into six smaller workspaces, each with a single-person desk with lamp and bookstand and another window above, bracketed by shelves on either side. The bookshelves muffle sound, creating semi-private spaces around each desk.

The shelves are empty, with labels on each shelf indicating that non-fiction books belong up here.

We will not OOCly be tracking books being checked in and out. If a book is not being returned, please reply to that book's comment to let people know that it isn't available.

Please comment below with any books your character is registering with the library computers, using the following form, to either the fiction or non-fiction top level and under the correct genre or subsection with the book's title as the subject header:

BOOK SEARCHES ~ FICTION ~ NON-FICTION
FICTION: Merry Little Voidtrain ~ Action/Adventure ~ Crime ~ War/Epic ~ Drama/Slice Of Life ~ Horror
NON-FICTION: Void ~ Historical/Travel ~ Educational ~ Entertainment ~ Arts/Sports ~ Philosophy/Religion ~ Health
OTHER: Recipes ~ Passenger Documents

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

* Contact with Anan, rooftop (Llama 6):

Question: According to the train, our worlds are not void-active. Would you happen to know how we were collected without ever seeing the train?

Answer: That is the biggest mystery. Tethering someone to a voidcraft is a whole process, void active worlds have whole areas of study, and being a void entry technician takes more study than being a void traveller. Much more considering void tourism. My assumption for how you didn’t see it is that it has camouflaging technology, a stealth mode as such. But that doesn’t explain how it grabbed you.

Question: What is the process of tethering under ordinary circumstances?

Answer: There needs to be a three way connection, to travel in any way that isn’t just going to unmake you or something equally terrifying. Part of you needs to remain tethered to your world and then you. The part of you that travels, tethering is basically taking that part of you, leaving part of you to ensure the connection and connecting you to the craft. For most people you’d go to a tethering point, be prepared by scientists who make sure everything goes smoothly, you are pulled into a liminal space where the actual separation occurs. The void technicians ensure that the world tethered part of you is kept safe as the travelling self moves further into the space, entering the void platform. Platforms aren’t actually anything, they’re designed that way to help ease the mind through the transition into the void.

Additional information: The void is a space between spaces. It’s a place as well, like a different plane? Some worlds have multiple planes, but this is separate from that.

Hypothesis: Either we only have a two point tether, or some part of us is collapsed in a heap where we came from.

Question: Do you know how to sever the tether?

Answer: You return to the point of entry and become whole again. A technician would normally make that connection.

Hypothesis: Is there a connection point for us, if we find it?

Question: [Asked about the SCA, see SCA experiments]

Question: What are the odds we’re being listened to?

Answer: Unlikely. Comms are likely logged, but my train does not have remote listening.

Question: What does a void missionary do?

Answer: That has as many answers as there are missions. Most of the time it’s small things. Sometimes it’s to collect and preserve history. Sometimes it’s to add help if a large disaster happens. Most worlds can look after themselves but sometimes infrastructure is ruined or a small world is threatened by a large threat. Mostly though it’s to add to the efforts that people on the world are already making.

Question: We’re not from the same world. Have you heard of anything like that? Scooping people up from parallel worlds?

Answer: I’ve never heard of anyone being taken against their will. Parallel worlds are common enough, so much that there are laws against visiting your parallel world.

Question: Can the train lie?

Answer: I’d say a voidcraft can’t lie. They are machines at the heart of things and not intelligent in the way you might think of an artificially intelligent being such as I have seen on other worlds.

Question: Do you have access to your engine carriage?

Answer: Yes. Most voidcraft run on autopilot but pilots have access to the controls. On a large mission craft I’d guess it would just be the captains? Leaders? It wouldn’t be everyone.

Question: Do you have a mandatory sleep period? How many hours a day on board your craft?

Answer: Yes. Resting periods are standard for voidtravel. My voidcraft is synced with the planet I trained on, with eight hours of light and ten hours of darkness. I grew up on a spacecraft with unnatural light, but it’s meant to help those that are used to a planet with rest and general health. Small craft have shorter rest periods, larger craft have longer ones.

Question: This world is where your non travelling self is being kept?

Answer: Yes.

Question: Could you tell me about voidsickness. What is it, how do we prevent it and more importantly, how do we treat it?

Answer: Voidsickness can happen if the a tether is unsecure, but also if you’re in a voidstorm or voiddust gets into your craft. Symptoms include dizziness and nausea, hallucinations, memory loss, emotional instability, mood swings. Lowering the risk is done through good diet and exercise, keeping yourself busy, sleeping well. If someone has voidsickness, get the person on solid ground as soon as possible, off the craft. The only way to cure a bad case is to fix the tether.

Hypothesis: The train doesn’t want us to understand this. But why?

Question: What do you know about the Void Ministry? Should we really be afraid of them?

Answer: I don’t know. Their job is to keep everyone safe, but if they think you’re a threat..I’m wary of involving them until we have more information.

Hypothesis: The train is hiding other factions from us. No reason why. Including Void Missionaries.

* A report was made to the other passengers on board, by me, based on my conversation with Anan. The psychological effects of being warm, safe and complacent are especially strong. They were not very interested in hearing what I had to say, nor are they interested in entertaining any potential danger from the train itself. (Llama 6)

I find myself frustrated to no end over this development and I’m hesitant to pull people into this further when they so clearly are uninterested. I probably just need a good night’s sleep. I’m used to people arguing and debating with me, but they’re so stubborn and not willing to listen, it actually annoys me.

Library

Encountering Anan - Part Two