#matrite

The Hotel Car was a hot bed of activity, bell hop uniforms sans bodies to fill them dashing this way and that to cart around luggage racks and the like for unseen guests. The girl and her companion practically danced their way through the throng to avoid getting run over, barely avoiding near misses by runaway racks to make it to the front desk. 

“So who is this person we came nine whole cars to find again?” Baddel asked, slumping against the desk to catch her breath. She was pretty sure that last bell hop had stomped a pinky toe flat inside her shoe from how it was hurting. “And why couldn’t we have waited until after whatever this rush is?!” 

Ace, seemingly unruffled by the scrum, climbed his way onto a stool next to the desk and lit up another one of his trademark cigarettes before reaching over and giving the desk bell a light tap. “I told ya, kid,” He explained as an empty suit stepped up to the front desk in answer to the bell. “if there’s anyone who can see about getting our hands on an uncorrupted tape of your memories, The Cat’s the one we need to see.”  “Is that a codename or something? Are we in a spy thriller in addition to a freaky scifi novel?” Baddel was starting to get to the end of her patience with all the dead ends and square ones they’d been finding themselves in. Every bit of hope seemed to be designed perfectly to dash on the slightest scrutiny. “And for that matter, where are they anyway?”

Simon hadn’t been sure what he’d find on the long trek to the front of the train, but Samantha hadn’t crossed his mind. It was one of her dumb puzzle cars, no doubt designed to trick passengers into paying her with something or other. Either a favor or some prized personal possession.

He didn’t want to interact with her at all, and especially not when he was already emotionally distraught as it was, but the nature of the car was almost certainly going to require it. Giving a frustrated groan, he headed in her direction.

Something had clearly happened to frazzle the boy, as he looked like he’d been crying. And his number was far higher than it had ever been, as it was visible at the collar of his hoodie, though only barely.

verse is v2 | fall of the apex, or canon book 3! basically an au where simon confronts grace rather than going to samantha for help.

“So, are you going to tell me what’s going on with you now?” Simon had waited outside the cave all night. He hadn’t slept at all, mind swirling with thoughts about what was happening between him and Grace. He cut her off as soon as she started to walk out, not allowing her to get past the entrance.

“You shouldn’t go that way.” the voice is quiet, barely above a whisper. It sounds almost fearful. The lady who speaks peeks out from the shadows of a crumbling, derelict house.

When Amelia had been directed by One-One to fix each glitched train car individually, she had thought it was fair enough. She was trying to atone for her mistakes, and so fixing what she had damaged seemed to be the next logical step. However, she never would have imagined just how awkward and truly difficult on a personal level this would prove to be.

She had to pass through failed train cars with their experimental Denizens staring her face to face. Some friendly, some antagonistic. Some of them a ghost of the voice from her former lover, others resembling him in other ways beyond verbal. She had seen the direct impact that she had on the train, and how certain parts of it had become hazardous for both Passenger and Denizen. Missing orbs and malfunctioning components. Half finished walls and perpetual mornings. The work of her Steward on the conquest for materials, no doubt.

And though she should have expected it due to the nature of the Denizen she had currently stumbled across, she was still caught slightly off guard by her sudden presence in the car that she had just entered. There was only one cat that she knew on this train to be well dressed with white fur and piercing yellow eyes.

Once the shock subsided, the elder seemed relatively unphased. If anything, she was dreading the interaction because of the schemes that tended to be associated. She couldn't be sure whether or not the feline remembered due to the sheer number of Passengers that she tended to interact with, but she had actually ran into a younger Amelia before she had taken control of the train. Which is what led to her being aware of her technological capabilities in the first place. It was very possible had she not ran into her that first time 30+ years ago that she would've never thought to use her as a lacky in the first place. Funny how things tended to catch up with you in that way.

Playful brows rose as she finally saw that same face she hadn’t seen in weeks now. It was funny how much she’d missed her sister honestly. She’d just grown so accustomed to having Lilith around and talking to and teasing her that these weeks were alienating.

“About time you showed your prissy face around here, sister,” Eda teased, her chin raised in an almost haughty manner, like the way they often greeted each other before they’d made amends. And yet where coldness had been before, it was so hard to keep from laughing as she did it. “Well, am I getting a hug or what?”

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