eastbound | audio | un: wisdom

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audio | un: wisdom | wedding day three

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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The train is a sentient being, and the staff doesn't sleep?

Are they feeling any particular effects beyond their overflowing sentiment and apparent disregard for biological imperatives?

Hmmm... If the train has a spirit, I wonder if I could try to talk to it.

[ A lot of this information is interesting, and perhaps a little concerning, but most importantly... ]

You haven't slept? For a week?

[ Stephanivien has been falling off like clockwork, though he's also still in possession of his ticket... which, speaking of... ]

Would physically transferring the ticket transfer the effects of it, do you think?

[ If it can, at least he'll be able to offer one of his compatriots a solid night's sleep. If not... perhaps it could be useful in finding where Prassenze keeps disappearing off to.

Assuming Prassenze even has a ticket ]

Edited 2023-04-16 16:38 (UTC)

Speak with the conductor and tell me what you make of him. What effects? I haven't seen anything affecting health, even when this lack of sleep should be. It's not that they can't, technically. There's no exhaustion. No signs of sleep deprivation.

I have no idea how aware the train is. Are they not all supposed to be that way?

... You can talk to spirits.

( just. flatly stating this. )

How misunderstood the train.

I haven't slept. It's driving me crazy that I'm not crazy, but there you have it.

( it's convenient in one sense, but she wants these things to be deliberate on her part, not on someone else's! )

It'll still be yours, but yes, possibly? Take your chances asking the conductor, this isn't anything I know.

The train. The absurdities have my teeth aching!

( from gritting them so she doesn't say anything she shouldn't when that holding back is Frustrating and Necessary, make no mistake. )

[ 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?

If it isn't having any ill effects, however, that's at least some relief.

And it's only those with the tickets who are getting the guaranteed 8-hour metaphorical conk to the noggin?

[ How, though, is the question. Tickets, tied to the conductor, and to the train? ]

I can't say I know of any sentient trains, but I suppose its not truly out of the realm of possibility, possibly the train is in possession of some sort of mammet heart? I have heard that those can grow personalities of their own, if they run for long enough, or are so heavily influenced by magic of certain types.

Goldthread bitters.

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.

Not sure, I think those without also sleep. The tickets are tracking, the train is something else.

( you know what, this isn't making her feel any better. a magic train is too much anyway, but if it's actually sentient, she wants off yesterday. )

I think you would get along just fine with the staff in their morning hellos over train tea.

[ 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?

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.

I'd be willing to swap my ticket for your pass, if you think it would make a difference, in that case. Perhaps worth the experiment if nothing else.

[ Hey, a sentient train is better than a possessed, doomed phantom train. Count your victories. ]

I confess, from an engineering standpoint, I am quite curious as to how one mught go about constructing a sentient automata intentionally. I confess myself less curious into the rituals of serving said locomotive tea and crumpets.

[ On that thought... ] Would a train even like tea? I feel it would only be detrimental to it's inner cogs and components.

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.

I have not met him in person so far, but this is interesting.

Such technology as it is does not exist where I am from, but we do have some machinery and in general, no, it is not sentient. Nor revered by its user.

Oh, yes! I'd need to find a quiet place so I won't be interrupted because my powers are a bit dampened, but I think if there's a soul there I should be able to make contact, or at least identify that there is one.

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.

Huh.

( only a momentary pause, before: )

So they're all a little more loose in the head than I guessed. Here I was trying to be generous.

Your powers are dampened here... your powers. Which include talking to spirits.

( help her. help her, what is this place. )

Fine, try talking to the train. I give up! I have too much else to worry about. Tell me if the train talks back.

Hm, I'll let you know !

I do think it's unusual behavior, yes.

I wish I could have the chance of not sleeping. This has been very inconvenient.

[ 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?

Regular rest of important for all thinking people, you're just getting forced to take enough of it on someone else's schedule.

( a pause before her grudging agreement: )

I... also dislike anyone trying to force my habits to fit their pattern.

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.

[ 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?

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. )

Exactly. I do not require much sleep usually and it's easier to get quiet time at night sot this has been... annoying.

( a long sigh out through her nose. )

This journey is supposed to end soon, isn't it?

[ 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?

Well, given how time is working these days, how soon do you think 'soon' is?

You saying the train's sentient?

( Cue him giving the biggest side eye in his compartment. It's not like he's done anything altogether embarrassing, but he doesn't like the idea of the train being ....aware. )

I'm saying staff act like it is. Are you resting enough?

Time is working perfectly fine! People having memory issues isn't the same thing as time going backward, nothing outside is repeating itself, just people here forgetting to day. Twice.

( she's here sounding Stubborn about this because everything's weird enough, do not add TIME TRAVEL into this thank you, the wheel need only spin back around not have moments of turning backward )

( 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.

Which is all well and good, but no one else but us knows that.

Besides, we had seen time be messed up before so it was not an altogether out there assumption.

[ 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.

... You what.

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

We visited a land where time and life and death themselves wee altered, distorted.

Life and death have been distorted in all this world by the sounds of it, but time? In what way was it distorted? Moving too slow? Too fast? Backward?

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. ]

It seemed to be going too fast. And cycling. Animals would live, die, decay and then jump back to life in a matter of hours.

If I say yes will you leave it?

( Enough has never really been a word in Dean's vocabulary. )

It's transdimensional, right? The train?

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

No, it won't. Unless you're one of the rare people who actually rests like you should for healing.

( she doesn't mistake him for one, based on their limited interactions so far. )

Transdim... no, no, I don't think this Abyss or Cradle or whatever we're in is outside of the world we've been pulled to, if that's what you're asking.

I rested enough.

( His definition of enough. )

So, what it's -- netherworld but on the same plane?

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