multiversallogs | (no subject)

"Mm -- any choice he could have made would be a bad one, or it wasn't really his... If he shot the sun, everyone else would probably die -- and if he took his kids back, it was only because the sun allowed it. I don't think I like stories like that -- about being helpless. Topical, though, considering..." He gestures around them, indicating Baedal.

He steps onto the train when it pulls up and sits, since it's quite a few stops from Mog Hill to Howl Barrow. "We're on the Dexter line," he comments idly, indicating the El Train map on the wall. Then: "The green one, they're all colour-coded. It's four stops, then we transfer to the blue line and go three more stops to Lich Setting. They tell you which stop is coming up before you get there." He's not sure, but from reading over the Network, he's sort of gotten the impression Shrieky might not be able to read, and counting stops and seeing colours might be easier for him.

"I think if I was the man, I would have taken the shot." Shrieky replied, thoughtfully, "I know it would be bad for the world not to have a sun, but I feel like maybe the sun is turning against the world when it starts killing or stealing children. Maybe the sun had it coming."

Telling Shrieky about colours and numbers is actually a pretty way to get him interested in the process of navigating the El Train, and he studies the poster closely, counting back through the stops from where the blue and green lines meet. He finds Mog Hill, two words which is is capable of picking out (although he probably would have skipped the second L if he'd been asked how to spell it out himself) and the corner of his mouth tugs up into a grin, "This is kind of exciting, isn't it? Traversing the city like this?"

He glances to Wolfgang for confirmation, smile pulling up into a full on grin, "We could go to any of these places, if we wanted."

"When the sun starts actively working against your interests, it makes sense to do something about it," he says, carefully. "Even if it hurts you in the end as well." This is getting dangerously close to something he thinks he maybe shouldn't be saying somewhere as public as the trains, which he knows are monitored -- but it is just a story, isn't it?

Shrieky's enthusiasm is charming, and he smiles briefly, grateful to change the subject. "It is a nice system; in Izmir, where I lived before, the trains were never on time. And so slow -- have you been on the Skyrail yet?"

Important note: the Skyrail is fucking terrifying. It's useful, though, in that it has different stops from the El, and Wolfgang is not actually particularly bothered by heights. ... Well, of course not, he's like a million feet tall. (Ba dum tsh.)

Shrieky nods, but mercifully lets the discussion about murdering the sun drop there. It's a touch too depressing, and risks marring his new found fascination with public transport.

Instead, he abandons the map, and moves to sit beside Wolfgang with an expression of intense interest on his face, "The Skyrail? I've never heard of it. Is it like this, but going through the air?"

Because that's exactly what it sounds like. It's probably not a good idea for Shrieky to go on the Skyrail, at the moment he's still petty concerned about the long fall which could result in ineptly descending staircases, but... on the other hand, he is fascinated by the idea of it.

"Yes, it's -- there, you can see it," he says, pointing out the window -- off in the distance, up high (very high) in the air, one of the Skyrail cars is heading in the opposite direction. "It's almost all glass, even the floor, so you can look down while it's up in the air. I guess some people are awfully scared of it. If there's an accident, well... you're kind of stuck. It's pretty, though. Even with the fog."

Shrieky twists in his seat to stare out the window, his face close enough to the glass for a faint mist to spread across it with his breath. "It's... Oh. My goodness."

He wasn't sure what else there was to say about it. The car was far enough away that it looked like a toy, high enough in the air that he couldn't even fathom the possibility of full grown humans being inside it. Resting his arm along the back of the chair, he dropped his head down slightly, to rest his cheek on the back of his forearm as he stared out at it. "I can see why people would... would be hesitant to ride in that."

It looks kind of terrifying. But he also kind of wants to try it...

"Have you been in it?"

"Yeees -- a few times. Since they -- since I broke my bike, it's been easier to get around that way." Baedal is an awfully big city, and Wolfgang keeps finding himself having to travel from one end of it to the other in a day. It's hugely annoying, but what else can he do? He still hasn't fixed that goddamn bike. At this point, it would probably be less trouble to just buy a new one, but he is now stubbornly attached to the thing, since it's his only connection to his home world.

He glances behind them, out the window at the passing Skyrail car as it disappears behind a building. "I guess having two trains makes up for not having any buses. Or cars."

As the Skyrail car vanishes from sight, Shrieky redirects his attention towards Wolfgang again. He's not entirely certain what any of the things which the other man's just listed are, but he can hazard a vague guess, "Those are vehicles? Or methods of transport where you're from? I had noticed that people here don't seem to ride horses, nor have I seen a single carriage or cart drawn through the streets."

He looks out the window again, but nope, the Skytrain is definitely gone. "I'm sorry that your, uh, your bike was damaged. What happened to it?"

"Yes -- in Syriac Well they have hansom cabs, I think... carriages drawn by horses. Others, too, but you don't see them very often, no. I think it is too hard to stable horses or whatever else in the city." 'Whatever else,' because most of the vehicles he's seen so far have been pulled by miscellaneous alien-looking, four-legged animal things. "I saw one once, it was some kind of... of robot or machine or whatever you call that sort of thing when it's powered by magic, but it really freaked me out. It looked like it was made of metal hands."

And it was the size and shape of an ostrich.

"Oh -- I fell, and it got all... messed up." He makes a vague gesture to accompany that, sounding a bit flustered, which he hopes Shrieky will interpret as him being embarrassed that it was his fault -- he's actually floundering a bit at being put on the spot like that, usually he keeps his lies much closer to the truth. They're much easier to keep track of that way. "They're not hard to come by here, I'm just incompetent." Well, that part is true.

"Metal hands? Like a creature made out of gauntlets?" Shrieky shifts around back into a sitting position beside Wolfgang, "Yes, I can see how that would be quite disturbing. The devil does make work for idle hands, allegedly."

Shrieky looks mildly concerned at the blustering. He doesn't have any reason in particular to doubt what Wolfgang's telling him, but he can see that the other man is mildly distressed by the question, "I'm sorry to hear that, you weren't injured at all, were you?"

"Yes, and they were shaped like --" He holds up his hands in the same position -- it looks vaguely like some kind of animal head with a beak and two 'ears'. Imagining it twice the size makes it scarier. "So, this... uncanny valley effect. I'd really like to know what it was made of as long as I don't have to get near it."

He shakes his head, then brushes his hair back out of his face. "Oh, no, I'm fine, thank you."

Shrieky brings his hand up to cradle his jaw contemplatively. That does look a little strange, but it's hard for him to imagine it not just being this person's distinctively un-frightening hands. "Was there someone... I don't know, controlling it in some way? Or was it just roaming the streets?"

Shrieky acknowledges Wolfgang's wellness with a little quirk of his mouth, but doesn't press further, it's probably not good to try and push people into talking about recent accidents, even if you are curious.

Edited 2012-02-11 19:18 (UTC)