Video 001

[excessivehubris]

[Someone’s cell phone, device feed, whatever turns on, upside down and turned outwards so its hard to tell who’s contacting the network. Instead, it shows a feed of the inside of the Abax Central Station and the sound of rapidly approaching trains can be heard

Comments

[video]

[hung_garian]

No, the trains don't feel like us, well done. That'd be because - wait for it - we aren't trains.

[Deliberately missing the point of a post not directed at him in the first place? That's typical of him, I'm afraid.]

[video]

[excessivehubris]

[Sorry he's distracted and distracted and ... now looking down at the device and at you as if you're mentally deficient.]

What?

[video]

[hung_garian]

[It's not an inaccurate assumption to make.]

It's a reply to your cryptic declaration. You know, about the trains? I'd be more worried if they did feel like people. 'Cause, y'know, that'd make public transport kinda skeevy, in a Thomas the Tank kind of way.

[video]

[excessivehubris]

[This conversation should go swimmingly!]

Do you normally start a conversation off by assuming the person your speaking with is cracked enough in the head to be talking to trains?

Because that is a little presumptuous.

Video

[carrytheshield]

[Have a concerned look from James.]

Hey, are you okay?

What was that noise? Where are you?

Video

[excessivehubris]

[Give him a moment James, he's not really focused on the idea that this device had recorded his words or that anyone would talk back. He's also got a niggling feeling that there's something he should be aware of with this but it's juuusstt out of reach and ... wait, what?]

Ah, hello? I do beg your pardon, I didn't catch that?

Video

[carrytheshield]

Do you know what you're holding?

[This is old, but unfamiliar technology for James, but he knows what it is from books.]

Video

[excessivehubris]

[Sorry James, the picture is going to waggle a bit as he turns the phone over in his hand.]

I've been told it's something called a cellphone and apparently quite the groovy thing at some point in history.

[Video]

[groovy_mutation]

[As he should be with Raven still, they're close to where his other self is right now. He'll reach out with his mind to try and feel what's going on, to understand and--- he'll flinch, blinking rapidly and hold his head a little. What even...]

Ah... thank you, my friend. I will certainly have to go take a look, there was some change of clothes where I am now, but nothing to my tastes.

[Retro. Psh.]

Have you found a place to stay for the moment?

[Video]

[excessivehubris]

[The headache is quite a spectacular thing as is that icy shock of fear along the spine. He'd given a brief active tendril to the station, only to yank that back quick, now it was just the open, passive read that he couldn't shut off. There is something just out of reach and the curiosity is keeping him in place, when he should have retreated long ago.]

Just had to dig past all the denim. Honestly, why blue jeans are so popular I do not...

[He trails off as a train can be heard coming louder and if Charles is still in any sort of contact, he's not going to like the backlash. The train passes and with it the urge to run back up the stairs and he exhales as breath, swallowing down the desire to vomit.]

I go back to the hospital when I need a shower.

[Video]

[groovy_mutation]

[And the his stomach flip flops, nausea hitting him good and hard, though probably not as bad as his other self as he's only getting it second hand really.]

Whatever is going on where you are, you shouldn't stay there. Not alone. If you need a place to say you should come stay with us, or even in the surrounding area.

There is running water, though you won't be able to get any warm or hot water, which I'm sure you've found out from the hospital already. A bit nicer with company too, yes?

[Video]

[excessivehubris]

[He'd shield you if he could but since he can't, he at least retreats from the rails, backing up to a distance that is more bearable, hopefully for them both.]

I'm down in the underground ... the trains. [He begins, before simply ghosting back the mental clarity of what he's been experiencing. The ebb and flow of that horrible, mind shattering presence from that first night. How he's grown to at least understand it's connection to the flow of the trains.]

It doesn't like to be poked, however, I don't suggest you try it.

[He goes quiet at the offer but then shakes his head.]

The others in your group get agitated when they look at me and I'm not you. They expect your words out of my mouth and it makes them uncomfortable when those don't come.

[Uncomfortable and their thoughts became hard to bear, the knowledge that in these small ways, he was letting them down, disappointing them. Just like Sharon.]

Not welcome, just like Marko.

I think it's best if I keep to myself.

[regeneracy]

I'm kind of hoping trains don't feel like us. Since we're not big and metal and everything. [She looks concerned.]

Are you...okay?

[excessivehubris]

Its not the train.

[He says quickly before having to frown.]

At least I don't think its the train. [Though whatever he was feeling did seem to intensify, focus, with the trains.]

I'm sorry, what?

[regeneracy]

Maybe you should...get away from anything train related. [Before people start thinking you're crazy and everything.]

[excessivehubris]

[Probably too late for that and he's not one to care. Well, at least not much.]

It's not the trains. There is something here. Something that ... [Charles manages to bite his tongue before he continues with that line of thought.]

I felt it when I first came here, from the hospital. Its still here, even now.

[Audio]

[missedtwoyears]

[So many questions Shepard could ask. So, so many. So she'll start with the catch-all.]

What do you mean, the trains don't feel like us? [It's a little bit sharp, though not really hostile.]

[Audio]

[excessivehubris]

[He gives the device a quick, wry look.]

Not the trains. I've not gone that far around the bend, [yet].

A ... sort of presence. Its hard to describe, hard to get a hold on but it doesn't feel like anyone from the hospital.

The trains ... the sensations just get stronger when the trains come.

[Audio]

[missedtwoyears]

So there's something on them.

[Left unsaid: or yeah, you really have gone that far around the bend.]

You said it's hard to describe. Can you try?

[Audio]

[excessivehubris]

Possibly, I honestly can't tell.

[The one brief attempt he'd made at it had sent him scurrying back to his own mind with his tail between his legs.

At her question, he gives his head a shake.]

Its mostly sensations. Like someone walking repeatedly over your grave and a ... [his words drifted off because he didn't want to further the opinion that he'd lost his mind.]