audio | un: wisdom | wedding day three

[mashiara]

Right, so this happened. Again. In case the lot of you who get the whole feast for a third time also see the bride go missing, a heads up:

The conductor can track any ticket or numbered staff member on board. Any. The man needs help beyond anything I have the time or ability to give, but he's far from the worst when it comes to devotions to the train. The staff serves it tea every morning. Before any of you are up. We don't all sleep, do you know? I haven't slept since I got on board.

Either way, see about asking him where she's going if she disappears again tonight.

And if any of the staff tell you about being kind to the train, praying to the train, polishing the train for the train, don't laugh where they can hear you. The chamber maids cry about it later. How misunderstood, they say, the train is. How unenlightened the ticket bearers, to not understand the train's benevolence. If I have to hear that one more time I'll scream.

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un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[somebadnews]

[ Hold on. He's done everything he can think of to stay awake, but this is the first he's heard of the staff being granted a free pass. ]

You haven't slept, and you think it's because you don't have a ticket? They're not serving you anything differently than the rest of us?

Re: un: ut malum pluvia | audio

[mashiara]

I'm staff. Official. Thank the conductor after his incredibly limited conversational understanding of anything beyond the sacred nature of the train's limited number of tickets.

We eat what you eat. My guess is this thing I'm wearing as staff is keyed against whatever has you all dreaming regularly together.

[somebadnews]

[ Oh he knows all about the conductor's weird ticket obsession. The difference is he thinks she's the lucky one. ]

What, like a badge? [ Obviously he needs to have a conversation with the staff that ends in borrowing one. ] What else happens when everyone is asleep?

[mashiara]

We clean and restock all the areas the passengers aren't in. A few wish they train goodnight. Some staff look like they pray. Though this explains why a few people seem to sleep on the benches.

( those without tickets, that is. )

It's not a badge, it's a string. And it's not all staff. No, I don't know why, but there's not been anything nefarious about it so far. Unless you count being forced to say good morning to a train as nefarious.

[somebadnews]

They're forcing passengers to sleep so they can use their dreams, but exclude the staff. They wouldn't be doing that unless they were paranoid about something happening to the train if they let their guard down. That, or the passengers are the ones in danger, and they're preserving the staff to keep them safe from whatever the others are being subjected to when they go to sleep.

[ He needs to get his hands on that string. ]

How did you get them to hire you? The conductor was adamant that no one without a ticket could ride.

[mashiara]

Some staff. You like to make assumptions, don't you? It's not everyone. The nefarious ways the train's fueled doesn't appear to have any ill effect, not on the sleepers, or the ones who stay awake. I've looked.

( because this state of existence is frustrating on several levels. )

I talked with him. Painstakingly.

[somebadnews]

[ Doesn't 'appear' being the key word. Being forced to sleep every night is a lot more vexing than the alternative. She hasn't said anything about being able to take off the string that seems to be behind her ability to stay awake without consequences. ]

That was it? You swore allegiance to the train-cult and they gave you a magic piece of string? [ From his encounter with the conductor, it seems unlikely that he'd be doing them any favors. ] What about the rest of the staff? They had no problem showing you the ropes?

[mashiara]

You have a certain way with words going places no one invited them, don't you?

( she did no such thing, and he's being predictable in this short conversation for making verbal leaps in conclusions. light help her! )

I agreed not to steal. Or minimally, not to be caught stealing from the more sensitive partners. Read that correctly as those with the best compartments and largest desires for being unbothered by anyone else. Make educated guesses who that includes.

As far as training goes, give credit to the staff and myself. New staff aren't rarities. There's very few ways for us to cause mischief we won't be known for.

[somebadnews]

[ He outright ignores her vaguely insulting question. At least he's asking some. The train has taken too many liberties with them, so she'll have to forgive him for skipping to the point. ]

Meaning the wedding party. Were you warned what would happen to you if you stole from them?

[mashiara]

They don't all stay together, the man with the herbs stays there too.

( And that's all she says, because Five is pushing her very thin patience beyond the point of her not snapping. She, instead, aggressively fluffs pillows.

He can't see it, but he can definitely hear Something Happening. )

[somebadnews]

[ Five frowns at that answer that isn't one, and the telling noises after. If he offended her, he remains oblivious, and assumes she's aggravated because she's in denial about the train-cult. ]

...Anything else you picked up in all those extra hours you've spent wandering around?

[mashiara]

( Five please, the train cult is so very real and she's so Very Tired Of It. )

Not anything useful to what strangeness is going on, I'd have shared it if there was. In the mutually awake hours, that young man Buck is planning to say what strange things we saw the last two mornings in the rubbish being hauled out. Those dream boxes being used, and nonsense about what living dreams can or cannot do.

[somebadnews]

[ If they can do what he's heard rumors about, they really should be upping the effort to find them. ]

I assume you've been looking for the boxes, since you've got access the rest of us don't. It might be the only leverage we have.

[mashiara]

... No, because I don't have unlimited access to pilfering through everyone's things. Ask that Karsa about the boxes if you must.

[somebadnews]

I should have guessed Karsa was behind the arrangements. Facilitating a grudge for the Merchant again?

[ Look he was in a bad way when he boarded, he obviously missed a few dealings. ]

[mashiara]

According to her, the man's paying favours to an old friend.