poly_chromatic

Thus begins a new year and let us all hope it leads us to places better than the last. After all, last year loved ones were lost, hurt, killed by a string of crimes that horrified us. At the time I could only be grateful no one precious to me was lost.

[Can you just hear the smile in his tone?]

Let us all begin again and use this fresh start to welcome friends and family, yes?

It would be a crime not to when we have no idea how long our time with them will last.

Private Package Sent To Cain//Marked "From A Secret Admirer"

Cain will get a box with a doll and a coffin inside. The doll will be sitting on the coffin and it will be easy to see that the doll looks exactly like Cain. Dresses like him, has hair styled like him, has his eyes... If one lifts the coffin lid then two more dolls will be found inside. These dolls will look just like Augusta and Suzette with their eyes staring up at you and with little smiles on their faces. Suzette will be holding a bundle of white-dried roses that mean "death is preferable to the loss of virtue" while Augusta will be holding Suzette as if she's protecting her from the person looking at them.

A note will be attached saying:
"~Merry Christmas My Original Sinner~
~Apologies for the delay~".

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[What is with that tone?]

Quite the premonition.

... I don't believe we've met before. My name is Nobori.

We haven't. My name is Alexis.

It's a pleasure to meet you, Sir Alexis.

Is it? A pleasure, I mean.

[No, not really. Nobori's just unerringly polite.]

It is as much a pleasure as circumstances would allow. [Being kidnapped by some otherworldly City plagued by strange curses kind of puts a damper on things.]

[Polite people are adorable.]

Then it is a pleasure for me as well.

It sounds like you have been here for quite some time.

Tell me, in your travels along these tracks, unfamiliar to myself, and less so to you, what did you encounter upon exiting the tunnel that was the year which preceded? It is impossible for me to anticipate what lies beyond that shadow we approach, but perhaps we will take the same route you've already taken to the same terrible terminal.

[How about a polite person who speaks in train metaphors, then?]

It is best one not take the same tracks I do for there is a shadow at the end of the tunnel rather than a light. Yet it is in darkness that I find peace. The tracks will fail in the end but there is a finality to that which I appreciate.

Now, where will you go in the end? Will you follow, ride in my car, or change your destination?

One might think to ask why such finality would appeal, but that just might be prying.

If it serves the purpose, I would like for you to consider me a wayfarer, waiting at the rail yard. I have no destination in mind, but wanderlust prevents me from stagnation, so I might partake in freighthopping.

Wayfarer do not do well on this journey. More often than not, they are forced to depart before they reach their destination. After all, this track is privately owned.

Privately owned? Interesting. There might be no hope of reaching the final destination, but perhaps arriving at the final station is not so necessary as the rest of the journey?

An intriguing theory but inaccurate as well.

Then, it seems we have reached a junction.

[He switches to video, apparently being recorded from a bit of distance now. He's wearing a red and black striped coat, a conductor's hat, and white gloves. A little too flashy for a uniform.

He waves a hand out in front of him with great flourish, the other bringing the rim of his hat down.] Changing the points! [The hand that was at his hat now points in front of him.] Point and call to signal OK!

[He tops it off with a two-fingered salute.] Depart!

[... it becomes increasingly evident that he switched to video for the sole purpose of pointing and calling.]

[On this end is just a man with styled hair and glasses resting on his nose. He wears a clean suit and sits in a high-back leather chair with a grace that suggests upper class.

The look on his face is one of amusement.]

Quite the display. It must mean something to you to have to provide a visual presentation of the action.

Even if the tracks we follow must diverge, I hope that both our travels will take us where we need to go.

We must continue, without stopping.

[He bows from the waist; this and the animated gesturing, atypical for conductors in most countries, both suggest he's Japanese, despite the eccentricities.] I feel like I must say "it's a pleasure to meet you" once more. [Because it's the first time he's gotten to actually see him!]

Pointing and calling forces you to pay full attention to what you're doing, therefore decreasing the chance of error! It's very useful, so we implement outside of the Subway as well.

You have quite the flare for the dramatic.

[It's adorable. Really.]

[Wow, Dad. You're really awful, you know that? You shouldn't have. I mean, you really shouldn't have.]

[Maybe next year you'll remember to give your father a present, Cain. Because really? Ignoring me? Rude.]

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