First

[thefirstinara]

[Inara doesn't bother searching the train just yet. There has been a critical shift in the universe, something that she can sense even as lacking in power as she is currently. This train is clearly not the train that she first boarded, and she is at a loss to explain why or how, or more importantly where she is. She glances, turning slowly and

Comments

[spoke_the_word]

Another? [She looks up at Inara.] This is an odd one... even by this place's standards... [She stands.]

[thefirstinara]

[It's easy enough to cover her surprise at finding someone else with a polite smile and a cautious nod. Normal people tend to assume that anyone else they encounter is a normal person also, but she knows that she needs to be careful]

Odd? I don't think of myself as being especially odd...

[And then she glances around]

If it was me that you were referring to, that is.

[spoke_the_word]

No? You're completely normal? Hm, maybe I'm feeling something else... [She floats a little closer.] Or maybe I've just been here so long that I'm losing my grip on the real?

[thefirstinara]

[She eyes the other girl cautiously, trying to cover it with a casual, dismissive smile. In her experience it's a very bad idea to tell someone exactly what you are as soon as you meet]

Completely normal is, of course, a matter of perspective, but from my own there is nothing exceptional about me...

You live here, in this place?

[Because when in doubt, changing the subject is always a good idea]

[spoke_the_word]

[She catches this but pays it no mind. Something is off here.]

I guess you could call it that. I just kinda wound up here and there's no way off the train.

[thefirstinara]

[She blinks]

No way at all? Surely one could, if they were inclined, just jump off...

[She ponders this a bit more, going quiet. Or step sideways through the dimensions, but she doesn't have enough power to do as much currently, much less sense if it's even possible]

[spoke_the_word]

Jump out where? [She points at the window. Apparently they're going through some serious turbulence.] Into the midst of the void? What tells you that's a good idea? [She floats upward a little, over Inara, to look at another window.] If you look, then, at another window, everything's completely different.

[thefirstinara]

[She has started to notice the floating, clearly this isn't the mortal world if such a vortex exists outside and it contains such people]

Where are we, exactly? Some sort of afterlife?

[spoke_the_word]

It's not impossible, but nobody really knows where we are, aside from being on this train. I'd help, were that a possibility. However, it is not.

So, what do you wish I call you, anyway...?

[thefirstinara]

[At that, her instincts finally kick in. She smiles and gathers the layers of the personality that she's collected around her over the years like veils, her expression kindly and professional]

I apologize...I've been remiss. I am Inara Serra. And yourself?

[spoke_the_word]

My name is Patchouli. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss Inara.

[thefirstinara]

A pleasure.

[She nods, a gesture halfway between a curtsy and a bow, and looks around again more carefully. It would seem that the girl doesn't present an immediate danger, but while it would be foolish to completely let her guard down she can likely afford to relax just a little bit. Having what meager power she has at the ready is taxing and depletes what little resources she has stored]

I don't suppose you can tell me what you know about this place?

[spoke_the_word]

[She holds a hand out to her.]

I can't say it'll help much, but I'll try... As you can tell, we're on a train. There's no known way off, and it stops only once in a while in more inescapable places... so, sort of just a temporary extension. We don't know just how long it is, but it seems to go on forever. It has... almost anything you could want. It's a strange place. Varying cars have artificial representations of various environments...

[thefirstinara]

[She tries not to balk visibly at the offered hand. The girl obviously isn't just a normal human and a lot of information can be communicated by touch. After just a second keeping up appearances outweighs the possibility that something awful might happen, though, and she takes and squeezes rather than shakes her hand in greeting]

Then a somewhat more complex set of connected dimensions, likely. Is there a central authority figure, some kind of commander or deity?

[spoke_the_word]

[She doesn't seem to want to let go.]

We don't know for sure. Nobody's found any such thing. We do occasionally hear the voice of the conductor, but we've never seen him or her.

[thefirstinara]

[She subtly disentangles her hand, firmly but without outward discomfort, her expression not shifting]

You've heard their voice but you can't tell if it's a man or a woman?