#ee open

The snow falls on her red hair. Tiny spots of white sprinkling on a sea of flame. She stares at the wide lake as they walk by, the only darkness in a field of white.

“Why doesn’t snow pile up on the lake?” Daisy asks, watching her breath form very visible clouds. 

Sister hums thoughtfully before she answers. “Because they melt when they touch the water, I think.” She looks back at her. “Careful of where you’re walking.”

“What if the lake freezes?” Daisy poses another question, before she realizes she doesn’t recognize the voice coming out of her. No, there shouldn’t be a voice. Who--what?

“Then the snow should pile up,” Sister grins her direction, but not at Daisy. 

“I see,” her mouth replies. Her feet move to step on a particularly white sheet of ice. “This part of the lake is frozen,” a lifeless mutter. Sister looks panicked then, and makes a sound, as if to resonate with the crack beneath her feet.

And then, she’s falling. Looking up at the surface of the water, where Sister helps the girl out of the cold water. Daisy watches, as she slowly sinks deep down into the lake.

She can’t call out. She can’t make a sound. She can’t move.

It’s dark.

But through that crack in the ice, the moon shines. The moon sees. The moon finds.

---------------------------

Daisy wakes with a start, to the stern voice of a new Dot wearing a new character. She only shifts in her bed with a mind to ignore the annoyance, but she forces herself up eventually.

Once Dot finishes announcing her business and leaves them all to theirs, Daisy shrinks away as if to hide from the sky. It’s a fake, she's sure, but she takes special care not to look directly at the bright full moon glowering down at her. So Daisy pulls her hood up and hides her face, and she quickly slinks away to any ideal place to be alone.

In the dark of the movie theater, a movie’s playing. Daisy is seated there, quietly and completely inattentive to the movie. 

She doesn’t know what kind of movie’s playing, but she’s quite focused on playing with the red string in her fingers.

Little paper Vepar is seated next to Daisy, the puppet’s head facing the screen. Apparently, she’s paying close attention to the movie. There’s even a small bucket of popcorn next to her.

Vepar leans onto the bucket of popcorn. ...... Perhaps she’s sleeping. But Vepar lifts herself up and turns their head towards the newcomer in the theater who had just spotted the two. 

Daisy’s fingers don’t stop working in her game of cat’s cradle, but her head soon follows.

After dropping their bag off in their room -- thanks Dot, but they’d rather handle their own stuff -- Vi turns to the door. A slight head tilt, and they’re grabbing the marker, simply writing “Occupied” on the sign. They turn they’re head to look down the hall, eyeing the lounge. Seems like a pretty decent start for their “exploration.” Looks like the others had found interest in the other areas, anyway.

Casual steps through the lounge, their hand lightly running across the bar. Vi wanders the room quietly, passing over the bookcase, the jukebox, the various seating. They don’t take any particular interest in any of them, merely looking them over as they walk around.

They pause at the stage, looking up at the curtains. They stand there for a good few moments, just staring at the stage.

Suddenly, they jerk around so they’re now staring at the entrance to the lounge, and to the one that just entered. Vi offers nothing other than the acknowledgement of the other’s presence.

Silent.

Watching.

Shuten-douji is in a good mood.

There was drama last night. Even she found herself quite upset, and she couldn’t simply shrug it off. But for now, she’s in a good mood.

Shuten-douji’s smiling as she looks out the window in the ballroom, watching the snowy mountain peaks pass by, a gourd of sake in hand. There are new things to find in the train, but for now, she’s satisfied with admiring this scenery.

She hears someone enter the ballroom, and she grins at them. “She seems happy, you glare. About what?” Shuten-douji gestures outside, at the mountains.

“I feel right at home,” she giggles, drinking from her gourd. “The hot spring has returned. I can drink again, and have no cause for misery.” She holds a finger up. “You need not remind me what was lost last night,” she says curtly, then drinks again.

“And so? What brings you here? Have you come to shop?” she waves towards the door, to the gift shop. “Or are you to confess your sins in our brand new church?” Shuten-douji smiles.

Piles of food lined the countertops of the kitchen. The doors to the cabinets and pantry lie slightly ajar, revealing empty shelves. Even the items from the refrigerator had been pulled out and lined up neatly against one another. Amidst all this was Sawbones, clipboard cradled in his arm as he scribbled down various tallies. 

The recent theatre had left him feeling a bit disheartened - useless, even. And, as if she were able to sense all this, Dot had given him a new rule that only provoked these feelings. It was frustrating, but what use was there in trying to fight against her? It was clear just how much power she had over them. For now, all they could do was lay low and do as she said...

Though, that wouldn’t stop Sawbones from trying to lessen the impact of Dot’s new rule. He was still in the middle of taking inventory of the train’s food supply when he realized someone had joined him in the kitchen. He kept his eyes trained on his paper, still scrawling numbers as he spoke.

“Hi, don’t mind me. Just trying to make myself useful around here.”

He paused for a moment, tapped his pen against his clipboard as he double checked his work.

The observatory was thankfully still a part of the train, and still relatively pleasant despite the endless thud of rain hitting the windows. Sepia thought that once the dust settled and Dot let them be (for the moment), she could at least relax, but her nerves were still frayed from the theatre. These rules and Dot’s demonstration of them were just adding insult to injury. Or injury to injury.

Sepia sat on the edge of the fountain, closer to the door than to the windows. There wasn’t much to look at outside, and aside from that she’d brought her own distraction. But the puzzle box in her hands wasn’t much help either -- as much as she tried to focus on finding solutions, her mind kept wandering to other things. She considered just smashing the thing open when someone opened the door and saved the poor box from its potential demise.

“Nice--” she started to say something in greeting and stopped. She was silent and still for a few seconds, focused intently on some inner struggle. "Nice...” She repeated the word, but even saying it again didn’t seem to help.

All he had to do was burn them.

Easy, in theory. Just a motion of his hands, gripping the contents of his letter, moving them the scant few feet to the open flames of the stove. Then, letting go, and letting the fire take them, burn the paper and its contents to ash, and as they flickered up in smoke, he could forget all about what was in them. Put it, put temptation, out of his mind. Simple. It would take only a moment, and all he had to do was fucking drop them in--

Harley stood in the kitchen, alone, by the open flame. It had been burning for several minutes, now, and the room was beginning to become uncomfortably warm, the chemical-sweet smell of gas and heat invading the space, but the sweat that dropped down his brow had nothing to do with the temperature. 

He just--

His eyes kept being drawn back. Back to the pictures, the words, back to the handwritten addenda on the back of one of the postcards. Flame to paper, paper to flame, and it shouldn’t have been as difficult as it was to make up his mind, but it was. 

“Jesus.” he breathed, to himself, and his fingers twitched towards the fire, his brow creasing, and if he just threw them in now, right now, just do it, do it, do it--

The cabin door slid open behind him, whisper-quiet, and Harley swore under his breath, snapped off the gas and hastily gathered the papers. He folded them in half, inelegantly, and crammed them into the pocket of his jeans, whirling around to face the intruder, and all of his lackadaisy and languid was gone, replaced by startled eyes, rigid shoulders, animal tension.

For a heartbeat, and then it was gone, exorcised from him in one long breath, his eyes closing. He unclenched his fist in his pocket and drew his hands out, now empty, and offered the newcomer a hollow smile.

It was unlike anyplace this young man had ever been before, this “Echo Express.” Almost like it had come from some... train centric alternate universe. Ahhh... how cool... Er, wait, don’t get carried away now. He had only just arrived and he was already getting lost in his imagination. 

[ x ]

“Haaahhh... Jeez. Be cool, be cool. You can be someone else here. Don’t forget that.”

He sighed and looked at himself in the mirror. He rubbed his eyes softly, attempting to wash away the dark circles underneath, just as he had countless times before. No luck yet again. He slapped his cheeks and put on his most confident grin... which is to say, it wasn’t very confident at all.

“Right then. Let’s go make some.. ah.. friends?”

The boy took a look around the new room he would be staying in for... er, how long was this trip? Did the invitation say? Well, he guessed it didn’t really matter. What did matter, however, was picking an “alias.” Supposedly they needed one... Mmmm, but what did it have to be like? He was sure the others had already decided on theirs. One brief look at them on the platform and he knew they seemed more put together than he was... Agh, don’t put yourself down now! 

The young man, lost in thought, left his room and started down the hall way. What could his name be? It had to be something cool. Maybe something sophisticated... a little sexy? What kind of person did he want to be? What kind of person COULD he be?

Feeling himself bump into something finally broke him out of his, if you’ll excuse the pun, train of thought. He looked around and found himself in the lounge car that Dot had escorted them into, and upon further inspection, it wasn’t something he bumped into, but someone. 

“A-Ah...! Oh no... I-I’m sorry... er.. I mean...”

The young man suddenly bowed in apology, then shot straight back up into an incredibly stiff position. So much for being someone else. You aren’t off to a great start... Oh, right. Introduce yourself! Quick! Don’t make this weird! 

Unable to look the person in front of him directly in the eye, the boy looked around at his surroundings frantically until finally settling on the strand of hair that hung in his face.

“Ah.. err... I am.. uhh... Rrrr... Oh! Uh! Red! I’m Red. My name is Red. Who.. um... are you?”

By all means, she had fully intended to explore as much as she can of the ship. Daisy had just decided to start from the deepest part she can find, ending up in what seemed to be the observatory. 

But the place turned out to be hauntingly beautiful with a wonderful atmosphere, and it put her at ease. So, she had instead decided to just take a break here for now, having seated herself by the fountain. She took several moments meditating before she completely forgot about her break, and started playing with paper.

Daisy is intensely focused on folding the pieces of paper in her hand, only occasionally looking away to either use her pair of scissors, or to take a brief look at her surroundings. By her side, in different colors, were differently-shaped paper flowers.

She doesn’t notice the newcomer in the room, who had already drawn close, until she’s finished several other flowers, and she flinches in shock upon discovery. Daisy gives them an awkward smile, before slowly waving a hand at them.

She blinks, looks away, then looks to her flowers, and back to the person. Daisy picks up one of the pink flowers, and takes out a pen. After writing on one of its petals, she hands it to the person.

Nice to meet you