voidtreckernet | Day Twenty One: Engine Room to All Carriages

[Well this is a surprise isn't it? Senku has a couple of burning questions, but he's smart enough to ask them one at a time.]

How is it that people can be resurrected if they die on a mission?

Because passengers are tethered to the Voidtrecker Express. It is difficult to truly die whilst voidtravelling.

[ That's an interesting answer, and he would like every single detail about how they're tethered to the train but he suspects that he won't get something like that.

He flicks his glance at Gen. He holds up one finger. It was one down. He raised a second finger. They'd have to decide after that. Gen probably had questions too. ]

Keep in mind that I'm a scientist and I would like as complete an answer as possible. [ Here's hoping, anyway. ]

How does time work aboard the Voidtrecker Express, in comparison with how it works with Earth's twenty-four hour clock?

[ Time on Earth works based on the rotation of the planet, he wonders what the metric would be here, but he can't be sure. ]

Time in the void is not exactly comparable to time out of it. Time is only measured in the void because of those travelling within it. There are places of colour and places of darkness and a craft is programmed to travel within these spectra to simulate a day-night cycle comparable to a world with which passengers are familiar.

[ Gen held up a hand, and leaned in to whisper to Senku. He didn’t want anything he said to be accidentally taken as a question by the train. ]

None of that is at all ominous, is it, darling?

So time here is essentially broken? We could be moving backwards through it then, for all we know.

That's true. Not broken, maybe, but non-existent? Meaning we're operating on someone's clock, but not ours. I've counted.

[ Of course he has. ]

Well, obviously we experience time. Relativity, right? But things could be moving slowly outside of here, or hyper fast, or backwards as I’ve said.

... Seems like a good question to ask? [ Gen was leaning closely enough he’s pressed along Senku’s side, but he knew neither of them minded. ]

Yeah. Go ahead.

[ He doesn't want to hog all the questions after all, and really, it might lead to something else they can follow up. ]

How does time progress outside of the train relative to us - to the people we visit or even at home?

[ The second part he just thought of, because it occurred to Gen that they might get a weird non-answer like ‘time doesn’t exist for the void’. ]

[ It might be a computer answering them for all they knew - seemed a moot point - but Gen was still anticipating tricky answers. ]

Edited 2020-12-12 14:34 (UTC)

Time is complex but passes consistently for those outside the void. For those within the void they can only exit into a point in time that is later than the point at which they entered. The Voidtrecker Express can move to previous points in a limited fashion only to respond to catastrophes. Time on your worlds and the worlds you have visited progresses as it should for those worlds, regardless of interaction with the void.

[ There’s a lot to unpack there and maybe he’d need to take time later to do so, time where he’d remember that Senku was from his past but the version of Senku that he left didn’t remember this place - ]

[ But his eyes were wide as he only thought of one thing as he looked at Senku, horrified. ]

[ Time was passing in their worlds. ]

[ There is so much there to unpack, and point of entry to the void or not, that's really nonspecific as to how long they're gone. It's hard to say.

First thing is first, Gen looks shaken. ]

Hey. [ The most important part then, is to put his hands on Gen's shoulders. ]

Ryusui, Ukyo and Chrome have got this.

[ He's not happy, but they need to focus on that for the moment. He's been gone for months, it would be winter, it's just...unthinkable. But no. He needs to prove right now why he's a leader. ]

They will know what to do without us, nothing is going to fall apart, and everyone will be safe. [ It has to be. It just has to be. ]

But - [ Gen shook his head, thinking again and again and again - ]

It’s not them I’m worried about.

You were shot. He was smug. He knew he’d hit his target. You’ve been shot two months ago and I just left -

[ Gen could be mad at himself later for losing focus. This really wasn’t important now, was it? From a pragmatic point of view this was pointless to talk about right now. ]

I'm not going to go dying on you that easily. [ He runs his fingers through Gen's hair a moment. ]

We can figure this out later, okay? I'm guessing we're short on time here.

[ He does not mean that as a pun. ]

Even more than before, I want to know how this train works.

[ Gen leaned into that touch. There’s only so much stubbornness could stave off. Bullets and a lack of real medicine combined were pretty fatal. Not to mention Senku was the only one of them who had real medical knowledge. ]

[ He nodded, anyway. ]

Okay. Okay. Later.

We’re tethered here. We’re traveling weirdly through time and space. What ... what about how this works do we need to know in order to help everyone?

[ He’s asking. It’d be academically interesting to know more otherwise, sure, but Gen figured the point of their questions was to benefit everyone there. ]

I don't know, maybe nothing I guess. What else can we ask about?

[ He frowns, time limit, time limit. He has questions but they're kind of self-serving. ]

On the subject of time, when it forces us to go to bed, how much time do you think we're unconscious?

Good question.

[ And so he spoke up to ask the train; ]

How long are we unconscious for when we’re forced into our beds every night?

Time is relative. But in terms of the hours that you understand. Six.

[ 'Time is relative.' That's cute and not the least bit amusing. He looks mildly disturbed. ]

Are-

[ Nope, no, Senku needs to step away from the ICP for a moment just to pace a little bit. Six hours. Not what he's expecting, not at all. They're definitely not on a twenty-four hour clock. But. They might have a good idea how to figure out Tidus' clock. ]

Mentalist. This is insane.

[ Time crunch though. ]

What else? This can't actually be a void, there's light, but I'm not sure how that helps everyone else. I mean...as for things that help other people a wider variety of food, including the vegetarian options, that's been a concern or...

I guess we can’t really think of days here being like ... days on Earth. Which makes sense. I mean. Other planets don’t have 24-hour days.

[ Most people here have been kidnapped from a version of Earth, though, so maybe that’s why he kept thinking about its day as their standard. ]

[ He shook his head. ]

Those are requests, or demands, not questions. I don’t know we’d get good answers about it. Though ... it would be pretty nice to know the real way earning points actually works.

I don't know if that matters so much. Collectively we earn points and in theory we could get what we wanted. I have a lot really, so I mean if someone else needed something...

[ Gen's right, those are requests and probably not the best information to ask for. ]

Two more questions, we need to make them count.

We do. One each. And remembering this thing probably is going to take whatever we say literally so we need to phrase them carefully.

[ Gen chewed on his lip as he thought. ]

There’s a lot of talk about people thinking that we’ve stolen the train. Right? What happens if we’re caught?

Okay that's a good question. Maybe we can plan in that case.

[ He considers that for a moment. Contingency plans, right. He has to make it sound believable too, not like he's incredibly pissed that his free will has been taken away. It's not like he was doing something in his world. ]

Right. My last question. Considering that we want to help you, and that we've heard rumours that people believe we've stolen this voidtrain, what are the repercussions should someone with authority catch us?

Edited 2020-12-12 17:53 (UTC)

You would be arrested and the Voidtrecker Express confiscated. Unknown what the result of such a trial would be but it would not be in your interests.

This would not be a desirable outcome.

Thank you for your questions, passenger Senku Ishigami

Yeah, I would say being arrested and put on trial by the void police wouldn't be a great idea.

[ Gen noted, leaning in so the train wouldn't mistake it as his last question; ]

And if we're tethered to this thing, what would even happen to us then? Let's just, avoid that.

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