maskormenacelogs | [SPOOKY TRAIN HONK]

[SPOOKY TRAIN HONK]

There is a mysterious quality to the air tonight...perhaps due in part to the reprieve from the zombies and strange monsters rampaging about? Indeed, the space you've wandered into seems to exude a kind of serenity that's been lacking of late...it's as soothing as it is suspicious, and it only gets stranger from there.

Whatever you were up to, wherever you were going...it doesn't really seem to matter much the moment you spot them — someone you never expected to see here, even in this weird world. Maybe they're a long-lost family member, lover, or cherished friend...someone you cared for deeply, someone who made you who you are today, someone whose absence leaves a hole in your heart to this day. There they are...and there they go.

No matter how fast you give chase (yes, even you most speedy of speedsters), they seem to be just barely out of reach, even though they seem to be walking a natural pace! And soon, they'll lead you to the platform of a train...

ARRIVAL
It might not sink in right away, but this quaintly-crafted locomotive is very unlike the subways and trains of the city you've been living in. Neither are its passengers — all of them somewhat transparent, somewhat glowing...and all of them quite content to be there, eager to greet and welcome you along for the ride.

While you search for the specter of your loved one, you will definitely encounter others who were charmed into climbing aboard as well; perhaps that'll be enough to shake you out of the stupor? Or maybe it'll take a bit more time to realize something's really amiss. No worries — there's nothing but time here; you'll find clocks have stopped, even if the Network is still accessible. Who knows how long it's been since you boarded, and when?

The train passes along to each of the cities in its own time at its own pace — even phasing through other vehicles in its path. As it collects its new passengers, there's a chance to finally, finally sit down and speak to that special lost loved one again! How many people can say they have that chance?!

ASCENT
When all the cities have been touched, finishing with that spooky city of Jeopardy (where more than a few spectral passengers are picked up, as well!), the train closes its doors and begins to accelerate. Faster, faster...then up...and up...to the stars! You have a plain view from any window to see the colors of the sky shift, the atmosphere part, and the blanket of stars overtake the view, leaving the Earth behind. It's quite beautiful...but also, perhaps, bad? You live down there, after all! Maybe it's time to call for help, or find a way off this mystery train...

ADIEU
Whether you've found a way into the escape pods or gotten the passenger cars decoupled from the engine, it means farewell to this ghostly train on its destination to the unknown. Or, maybe...you've just had enough of that life down below, and just want to stay with the one you've missed so much. It's not your place to decide, however, but at least...at least you'll finally be able to give a goodbye (or another one).

Those who don't escape will find their eyes fluttering open, as if waking from deep sleep, standing before the platform they'd boarded. And in their heart? The last few parting words with the ghosts of loved ones from another realm...

What a strange gift.

Details and questions here!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[honestly, Martin was pretty sure he'd learned his lesson thanks to the undead dog with Haru and was keen on keeping himself indoors after dark for a while. he had no wish to repeat the adventure -- it hurt, it was scary, and worse...it exposed a side of him to Haru he didn't like her knowing about. things he was made to do that he...really shouldn't have to do here. ever. the whole prospect of going out on his own, finding something new? probably a bad idea outright. better to stay inside, doors and windows shut, and not be a bother.

that was the plan before he saw the lanky, unmistakable shape of Peter Darkov walking outside.

before he could question himself much, Martin had already slipped on his shoes and headed out the door, foregoing a jacket. he couldn't tell; his blood was already ice-cold with dread. his stomach was flipping in anxious cartwheels and his throat was a razorwire knot as he trotted after him, unable to find a voice with which to call.

why should he? what was he going to do if that shape turned to face him and it was the very one he's convinced it is? there's really no thought or reason into this chase beyond the desperate need to know for sure, and yet...no matter how he chases, he can't catch up! and were it truly him, wouldn't his father stop at the sound of such noisy running to see it was him? would he recognize him? he's changed so much...

wait--

after some twists and turns and nearly losing sight of him, Martin catches glimpse of the figure slowing to a stop before a train platform. the scenery doesn't matter, as his eyes are ever-fixed on the back of that ghost as he hops back into motion to follow, hopeful that now, at last, he can catch up--]

oo1. all aboard

He's in Heropa when he sees her. A tall woman in her sixties with nut-brown hair, the thick black scarf she wears as a head band the only hint of her nun's habit. Bean immediate feels as though he's been stabbed in the heart. She should be dead. But then... the Porter brings plenty of people back from the moment of their deaths, doesn't it?

He follows her, being sure to keep out of sight as he trails her down several blocks and around corner after corner. On the way, he pulls out his phone and brings up the ImPort directory. Scrolling through the C's, he confirms his doubts— the names go straight from Carl Grimes to Carol Danvers. No Carlotta on the list.

But she's here, his heart argues against his brain. She's right in front of him. By the time he looks up from his phone, she's standing a half dozen feet away, waiting for him patiently by the platform of a train that definitely wasn't there yesterday.

"Took you long enough. I was beginning to wonder if you would ever catch up to me, or if you were avoiding me on purpose."

Her voice is fond, teasing. Just as Bean remembered.

"Seems like I couldn't be rid of you if I tried," is Bean's only answer.

Despite his better judgement, he listens to his heart and boards the train.

oo2. stop the train, I want to get off

It doesn't take long for Bean to regret his rash decision to follow Carlotta's spectre onto the train. Bean has left Earth's atmosphere before. And granted, he didn't have a window seat that time four years ago, but he knows what Earth looks like from space. He shoots Sister Carlotta a betrayed look, and immediately leaves her side. He got his reunion, he has closure now. He doesn't need her to trick him into joining her in whatever afterlife is waiting for her here.

He stalks down the corridor of the train cars, looking as determined as a ten year old can look. The first person he comes across who he recognizes as an ImPort gets stopped, their sleeve tugged on as he issues a grave warning.

"We need to get off this train."

1: Arrival

"Max?" Bart called, startled by the figure he saw out of the corner of his eye. He had to follow, had to, because the last time...well, it had been in the middle of that fight with Professor Zoom and the negative Speed Force, but when it was over...his mentor had vanished again. Dead? Maybe, but with their history, there was a chance. All one needed to return was the right lightning rod.

It was why he followed the aged figure outpacing him, wanting one more chance, one more conversation, anything. "Max! Please, wait, I need you!"

He's pushing towards the train, struggling to catch another glimpse of the figure he's following, and he turns to the person next to him, desperation clear in the teen's eyes.

"The old man, about this tall, fit, moves like he's got all the time in the world, did you see which way he went?"

[ooc: Bart is chasing his mentor, Max Mercury in his civilian guise.]

2. Trapped

He felt it the instant the movement shifted, and the train took off, and ran for the nearest window. Bart couldn't help a few indecipherable curses in Interlac as he saw the dwindling city as Jeopardy faded into the surrounding desert. They were airborne, on a train, and nobody seemed to care. He'd found Max, or what had seemed to be Max, but their conversation had felt wrong. It wasn't the man who'd trained him, taught him to be the hero he'd finally grown into, and never lived to see it.

And it hurt. As much as watching things shrink away. Then he remembered. The nanites, the very things that made their lives possible here on some level. They didn't work past the moon, which meant if they went into space...

"Oh, gods. We have to stop the train."

He reaches for the first person who seems more than one of the insubstantial phantoms he'd been chasing, and tries to get their attention. "We're leaving Earth, the train is flying somewhere, and if it goes too far, we're all dead."

3. Wildcard

[Want to rescue Bart specifically, have another scenario in mind? Hit me up on PM or

Bugly42 to plan]

Edited 2019-10-18 05:41 (UTC)

Bart has been trying to get the attention of his fellow ImPorts as soon as he realized they were leaving Earth. But the kid tugging on his sleeve and saying that has him grimacing.

"Yeah, but it's like they're all too involved to realize. And if we just separate the engine..." he doesn't know exactly what their acceleration or trajectory look like, but he doesn't think burning to cinders on reentry is a better alternative.

She keeps catching sight of him from the corner of her eye after she's released from Aegis. At first, she worries that she's losing it again, that she should turn right back around and tell Aegis they need to keep her indefinitely. But it keeps happening, and finally she doesn't ignore it.

Violin case on her back, she pushes her way through the crowd - in and of itself probably a sign that she's had just about enough, thanks - following the glimpses she manages to catch. The back of his head, his profile, his smile. A sweater. Is that a knife? Of course no one in Maurtia Falls sees him, but she's already learned, in her few months living here, that they're experts in not seeing what they don't want to. It's part of what she likes them.

Right now, though, she wants them to get the fuck out of the way so she can see if Leonard Peabody is really here or if she should check herself into a psych hospital ASAP.

Just as she's about to give up, turn around and head back to the corner where she was going to set up some street music, she spots him in full, there on the edge of the sidewalk, smiling at her. He doesn't say anything, but he tips his head, nods for her to follow.

And though part of her thinks about throwing a truck into him, she stands rooted to the spot for almost a full minute as he crosses the street, dodging congested traffic easily. When he's almost out of sight, she shakes herself free and follows, hurrying over cross walks, pushing past people. She can feel - hear her heartbeat pounding, hear a high ringing in her right ear. It won't go away, so she ignores it, or tries her best to.

He leads her to a local train station, and if the train looks weird - it does - she barely notices it. She feels like she's about to break into a run to catch him, like he's purposefully using his longer legs to keep eternally ahead of her. And when he gets on the train, she does run, afraid it will leave before she can reach him and - she doesn't know what she'll do when she finds him. Everything is too twisted up in her chest to think that through right now. She'll worry about it once she's on the train.

Derek is willing to take what he can get. Laura's not corporeal and he can't hug her or, conversely, smack her for insisting on leaving him in Brooklyn for a "quick" trip to solve the mystery of the fire in Beacon Hills from which she would end up never coming back, but she's there and he can talk to her again and beggars cannot be choosers.

Yesterday, he'd been on his way to work when he'd seen a flash of red in the eyes of a woman he thought had looked like her, but until the flash, he'd written it off; he sees women who he thinks look like his sister Laura all the time, mostly because he never stops missing her and it never really gets easier, even after all these years. The red eyes called to him. The fact that Stiles had been from well before Derek had been meant that it was entirely possible that Laura could be here, alive, too. So he'd given chase and he'd followed her onto the train against his better judgment because she kept herself just out of reach. It hadn't been until they'd both gotten on that she'd finally turned to face him, reaching both of her hands up to touch his face reassuringly and apologetically. He couldn't feel it, so when he leaned into the touch, he got nothing from it and yet, he stayed.

Easily, it felt like the best decision he'd made in years. They talked for hours until Derek had passed out with his head leaned back against the window of the train. When he'd woken with a start, a crick in his neck and a panicked feeling in his chest, Laura had been there to reassure him that she's not going anywhere.

Derek is so busy talking to her that he almost misses it when Vanya passes by the windows toward the door. He only just catches sight of her profile outside the train and does a double-take before getting to his feet to get a better look.

"What is it, Der?"

"Vanya?" he asks himself more than responds to his sister.

"Oh, cute! Flag her down, I want to meet her. It's not every day your baby brother makes a new best frieeeend," Laura teases him in a sing-song voice and Derek waves her off dismissively.

"Shut up," he says, rolling his eyes, moving away from Laura and toward the door to see if Vanya is, in fact, about to board. When did she get out of Aegis? How long has he been here, anyway...? He's sort of lost track of time.

"Ozzie?"

He can't believe it. He often hoped Ozzie would show up here, but he never really thought he would. And now there he was. Jonathan ran to catch up to him.

"Ozzie!"

"Hey, Jonathan! What's up?" Ozzie turns toward him and smiles.

"Ozzie I--"

He doesn't know what to say. 'I'm sorry'? 'I should have kept you safe'? 'I missed you'? His mind races through all the things he could say, but his mouth is dry and he can't bring himself to say any of it.

"Look, I'd really love to catch up, but I don't want to miss my train. Unless you're going the same way?"

He hadn't been planning on it, but what's ending up a few miles out of his way if it means he gets a chance to talk to Ozzie again.

"Yeah, I...I'm coming, too."

He hurries on board after Ozzie, taking his seat.

He spends the next few minutes eagerly trying to catch up with him, though Ozzie doesn't really seem to give any straight answers about when he got to this universe or what he's been doing. Still, Ozzie seems cheerful enough, and there certainly doesn't seem to be anything wrong. It isn't until the train takes off that he realizes something is a bit off. He doesn't panic, though. Not yet.

Instead he just peers out the window before asking, "So, uh...where exactly is this train going?"

Arrival
Anders knows that he should have known better. That little voice in the back of his head was telling him that this was a bad idea.

But the second Anders saw Karl, he had to follow him. He had to tell the man all about what he's been up to, share the adventures he's had since coming to Earth, and even before then, of the adventures he's gone through since he met the Warden and Hawke.

"Karl, where are you going?"

When Anders reaches the train, Karl finally looks back and smiles at Anders. There's a surge of relief when there's not a trace of the sunburst burnt into his forehead.

"Hello, Anders."

"Karl, there's so much I want to tell you."

"I'm sure there is. Come, tell me all about it." Karl gestures with a hand and Anders joins him on the train.

Ascent
Anders looks out the window, and the sky above. It starts out rather lovely, but then it registers that they're going up into space. "Okay, that's not good."

Looking up and down the corridors, he says, to nobody in particular, "Tell me there's a way off this train."

Leonard, unlike Laura, doesn't make himself available once she's on the train. He keeps moving through the cars, staying just ahead, pausing to smile at her over his shoulder every time she thinks she's had enough. He walks right by Derek and his sister, doesn't even seem to notice them, and Vanya - intent on just getting him in arm's reach, grabbing him, slapping him - almost misses them too.

She does her own double take, almost tripping over her own feet down the aisle as she stumbles to a halt.

"Derek?"

She turns his name into a question, like maybe he can answer - the frankly many questions she has right now. Her eyes dart to the woman with him, and she seems somehow - not as real as he does. Her eyes move immediately to Leonard, watching him as he leans against the bulkhead, watching her. He looks like the woman with Derek does - not entirely there.

Yeah, that's definitely Vanya, Derek finds himself thinking with a familiar twinge of endearment when she nearly trips herself doing her own double-take after walking right past he and his sister like she's on a mission or something. His hand shoots out to touch her arm to steady her, but he pulls back just shy of actually doing so when he can see that she's managed it on her own.

"Hey," he greets.

"Oh my God, she's so cute, look how tiny she is!" Laura squeals excitably from just behind him and Derek's face goes red, having no idea whether or not Vanya will be able to hear her. He's heard others but he's been so focused on Laura that he doesn't actually know whether he could be able to make out what they're saying or if the dull buzz of conversation would actually be what he heard if he tried.

"When did you get out? What are you doing here...?" he asks, ignoring Laura's comment on the chance that Vanya didn't catch it.

Even if she couldn't hear Laura, there's no missing the way his face goes red. She blinks a few times, looking between Laura and Derek for a moment, still putting the pieces together.

"I'm - um, a few days ago." He hadn't reached out to her, so she figured, he was so nice coming to visit, maybe he just needed some breathing room. Except it was getting less like breathing room and more like she should be worried, wasn't it? Vanya's not great at reaching out, even after he keeps showing up.

She glances at Laura again, then at Leonard. He's smirking, now, still silent, just watching. That makes sense, she thinks sourly: of course he'd just absorb what he can. How else will he be able to twist it against her later?

"Is this, um?" She has absolutely no idea who Laura is, so V just nods at her awkwardly.

If it's even possible, Derek's face goes redder still and his eyes close in a slow blink to keep from swatting at his sister from behind when he sees Vanya looking back and forth between them suggesting that maybe she did hear it. Well, he's overdue for his sister humiliating him in front of his friends, after all. It's been a long time.

"Oh...damn, how long have I been on this thing...?" he wonders, frowning slightly, realizing for the first time that he might actually be putting his job in jeopardy and it might actually matter since he hasn't got a safety net of his fortune from home.

Derek opens his mouth to both apologize and introduce Laura when Laura chirps her own name, first and last, and holds a hand out for Vanya to shake, reflexively, as if she isn't largely just a whisp of cold air resembling the werewolf that once was.

"My sister," he says quickly to cut Laura off. "...my big sister," he adds with a soft hint of significance that Vanya will understand. He hadn't told Vanya how exactly Laura died or at whose hands, but he's said she'd been murdered. He might as well have just added, "you know, Laura? The dead one?" for all intents and purposes, but he obviously doesn't.

Laura reaches her hand out, and Vanya is typically slow to shake hands, but she still has the automatic reaction of knowing it's customary: she reaches out, and her hand immediately passes through the outstretched one, right about the same moment as that significant comment from Derek.

"Oh," she says softly, staring at the hand she couldn't touch. When she looks up, she turns to stare at Leonard for a moment. His smirk is gone, and he's watching Vanya openly. When she doesn't look away, he gestures just slightly, a curl of his fingers. Then he turns and heads into the next car.

"Wait--"

V clenches her jaw, looking back to Derek and Laura. "I'm - ah--" None of this makes sense, and she shakes her head sharply, trying to think past the sudden need to follow. "I'm sorry, it's - I'm glad I...got to meet you," she tells Laura, though something in her tone seems to add sorta, because she is not entirely sure anymore how real any of this is. Are they even really here? Is Derek? On a whim she reaches out, touches his arm just to make sure he's actually there. "I need to - find out where he's going, can you--?"

It's always been difficult for her to ask for something, and she wants him to come with her. But this is his sister, you know, the dead one, and Vanya has to glance at her, too. Maybe they can both come, unless, of course, this is some mass hallucination in which case, what does it matter?

"Oh, right, sorry... So obnoxious. Mental handshake," Laura amends and Derek tilts his head back briefly, embarrassed, and closes his eyes for a moment before looking back up again. He gives Vanya the long suffering look of a little brother, one she'll probably only see just this once, whether he realizes that or not.

Derek almost — almost — turns to look to see what's got Vanya distracted, especially after she speaks, but then she's looking back at them and he can tell she's about to excuse herself. She touches his arm and Derek smiles a little. He gets it; he almost did the same thing to her, but she'd looked so much different than Laura does that he told himself he didn't need to. "I—"

"Absolutely, sweetie. Derek, go. I'm right behind you, don't worry," Laura assures them both. "Who is he?"

"Laura," Derek warns with a sigh and he gives Vanya an apologetic look. "Yeah, yeah, lead on. I'm coming."

"Oh, also, I'm glad I got to meet you, too. He literally will not shut up about you and your brother. It's really nice to put a face to the name,"

"Laura," Derek groans. "Stop."

His sister makes a face at him that silently says very clearly what? She's just making conversation, God, Derek.

"Friend of yours? Or...?" he prompts gently to Vanya as he moves with her toward the next car, curious but not pushy.

It’s not the first time he’s been on this train.

Like a moth to a flame, he’s been drawn in at least once per day now to the mysterious train by the shadow of a man he had only ever dreamed of seeing again. His first encountered had ended abruptly, being dragged off the train by his brother. But the second? He swears he had seen the very moon before waking back up in Nonah, as if this all were some pleasant dream.

It’s why he’s come back here again, to see him. The man he’s currently leaning against, his head on his shoulder, holding his hand under the table as they share a set of ear buds and listen to some music. He had come prepared this time- ready to push and keep that burning blue glow that hides in the press between their palms and dissipates into the soft light of the train car like the barest corona around the sun of his life.

Dave.

He’s exactly as he remembers him, strong and kind, vulnerable and beautiful. The softest words spoken as they hide in the back corner, as if they can shut out the rest of the world and let it all drift by, staying her as long as Klaus can manage.
It helps, Klaus thinks, when he shuts his eyes. He can hear all the spirits, their quiet conversations, speaking to themselves and others as the scenery scrolls by. He can see them- and in the corners of his eye, in the darkness, sometimes he can see how they should look- blood and guts and gore. But Dave is as he remembers- whole, and perfect, holding his hand as Klaus rests against his shoulder.

It’s why he can’t quite understand what possesses him to lazily crack open an eye when he hears the train car door open between the notes of Riders on the Storm. Why would he care about some mousy man who... does look oddly familiar. The gears in his head are still turning when the door opens again, and his heart nearly drops into his chest.

Vanya.

He squeezes Dave’s hand a little tighter, who looks visibly concerned at the sudden change.
”Babe? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s... just my sister.”

Vanya doesn't turn red, and frankly if she hadn't followed a man she murdered onto this train, she might be smiling at how Derek reacts to his sister; it's tempting even with the anxiety couching around her heart. Is this what family is like, for him? Is this why he's so confused by the way she and Diego just can't function together?

(He's trying, she reminds herself, and bites the inside of her lip.)

Leonard walks through the car, looks down at Klaus as he passes. The expression on his face is hard to read: thoughtful, in a way, but full of something darker underneath. As he passes by, blood spreads across the front of his sweater; he seems to catch sigh of it and stops, just past Klaus' seat, to turn and face the door.

Just behind him, Vanya glances first at Laura and then Derek, dropping her hand briefly to his like she might pull him with her before dropping it entirely. "Sort of," she says, though god does it feel like sawdust in her mouth. "He's....Leonard. My ex." The one who told her not to apologize so much. She didn't tell him just how badly that betrayal came.

Pushing the door open, she comes up short only a couple feet into the next cart, spotting Leonard first - the blood so clearly in his shirt, now, the holes in his sweater, in his skin - then Klaus. Just my sister is pretty indicative of everything Vanya has ever felt about her family, but she is too thrown by all of this to be annoyed by it.

"Klaus?" All right, what the fuck is going on.

001.

It's not the first time he's done a double-take when he thinks he sees a familiar cloak in the corner of his vision. It's been decades, but part of him still expects Andal to come ambling around just like the old days. But this time when he looks up, he actually sees a retreating figure wearing his outfit—minus all the symbols he's added to it since Andal died. Cayde drops what he's doing, and dashes across the street.

"Andal?! Buddy! Wait up!"

The (little g) ghost of Andal Brask rounds a corner, just out of reach.

002.

His eyes are on Andal and not the shrinking horizon below as the train pitches its way up and up and up and up and up and up and up and out of the stratosphere. Cayde pulls out a deck of cards and starts shuffling. He vibrating in his chassis with so much to say and no idea where or how to start. So he doesn't, he just shuffles harder and faster and flashier.

"Wanna play a hand? Get the feelin' we're gonna be here a while."

Andal closes his eyes and upon opening them again, gives him a slow, lopsided grin.

"Alright. Let's make it interesting. If I win, you gotta promise me you'll find yourself a way off this train. You don't belong here. Not yet."

"Like hell I'm leavin' Andal, I—"

"—You're not chickening out on me are ya, Spades?"

"It's a bet," he capitulates, and begins dealing the cards. A dare's a dare.

003. WILDCARD, BABEY

"Can we get word back down to Earth?" Bean isn't sure what that will do, but there has to be some way to get them back down safely. He's not about to die up here.

"Do you have any way of getting into the engine car? Turning us around?"

"I--" Bart froze, suddenly caught by the fact that if the atmosphere was too thin, there would be nothing that would transmit the sounds for someone like Kon to hear, no matter how loudly he called. "We need to get a signal. There are plenty of folks with powers that can help. One of 'em's my best friend, but I don't know if we're too far for him to hear."

It was stupid, how could he have been so freaking desperate?

The other problem had him moving along the aisle towards the front of the train. He didn't know what they'd find, but, and he repeated the thought aloud, "Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there? Come on."

Her movement is lost on exactly neither Hale and their reactions are very, very different to it. His is concerned, because that's not like Vanya and it makes him think she must need extra support and doesn't quite know how to ask for it. Hers is amused with a side of endeared. What Laura misses and Derek doesn't is the way the man Vanya's following seems to change a little and there's blood. One of Derek's hands shoots out to hold Laura back. If he sees blood on Vanya's guy, the maybe he's seeing a hint of his death. Nobody needs to see Laura's, least of all, Derek. Not again.

Laura's expression sours at the word ex like she gets the awkward response to Derek's question. Derek's expression slips into something carefully neutral and his eyes shift toward the other man, only pausing momentarily when he notices a familiar face. One of Vanya's brothers. Ben? No. Klaus. Klaus. Allison had pointed them all out to him. Diego he knows, Luther's the big one, Ben is the Asian one, this one is Klaus.

Both Hales sort of balk a little at "just my sister" and Derek's brow creases while Laura verbally repeats the sentiment with incredulity like she cannot believe she heard that correctly, because it doesn't sound excited or happy or, hell, anything other than matter-of-fact. Derek notices the tension a second before Laura does but, again, their reactions are very different. Derek's is curious. Laura's eyes shift to Vanya warily. She hasn't noticed that her body has split, ugly, jagged, and torn into two pieces at her waist, her torso floating a few inches above the rest of her, like the tension between the squirrely-looking guy and her brother's friend triggered her to manifest the murder she suffered at the hands of an uncle who'd once treated them like his own children rather than his sister's.

Derek's back is to his sister as he surveys the whole situation, trying to figure out what the actual fuck is happening right now and feeling incredibly out of the loop and, admittedly, a little like he and Laura should back their way back out of the car and mind their own business.

"Whoa," Derek breathes out before he can stop himself when he finally notices the full impact of what's going on with Leonard. "What the hell is going on right now...?"

He sees it at the edge of his vision. That shirt soaking through with blood as his careful concentration starts to slip and he squeezes Dave's hand tighter, scared of letting go. He sees the man- who he starts to remember. One eye missing, a couple dozen knives in his chest. Like shadows, they start to manifest, slipping between the hazy dreamland of the rest of the cars to the cold nightmares that his power can bring out.

He doesn't have to look at Dave to know that chest wound, bleeding and sucking and fatal, is there.

The stranger, he thinks, has the more important question, and he gives Dave a hesitant look. Dave nods, puts his hand on his cheek, a quiet affirmation that he supports him, before Klaus lets go. The blue around his hand fades, and just like all the other spirits, Dave himself becomes slightly less corporeal.

"Yeah, sorry, that's, uh... That's all me." He winces slightly as he looks at the strange woman. Bisected, huh? Can't say he's seen that one, but then again he's seen worse.
"... Vanya, don't tell me you followed this creep onto here." He jerks his thumb back at Leonard, and he swears if the ghost opens his mouth, he might just punch him.

[Noah isn't lured to the platform by any familiar spirit — it's his own death which separates him from those he loves most, after all. He just happens to be passing by. He sees the ghosts gathering, boarding, and they see him. Though he's wearing his human body, they beckon him to join them as if they know he belongs. There's a pull there... Something in him that wants to follow...

No. He remembers his last (first?) words to Gansey: Don't throw it away. The impulse fades, replaced by a creeping wrongness.

He shudders. Turns to hurry away, far, far away and- that's when he spots Martin. Clearly alive. Clearly headed toward the train.

Noah pivots into his path instead and waves his arms.]

—Hey! Stop!

Lips press tight together as he boards the train himself and doesn't--seem too unnerved by it, at least. Confused, because this truly isn't how he anticipated spending his time. But most the passengers glow, they're see-through, which is--what makes people who don't quite glow stand out just that much more. And what leads Jon to reach a hand out for the other kid's shoulder, whispering quietly.

"Hey, uh--have you seen an orange tabby cat?"

[so fixated on his father's back as it vanishes into the train that the suddenness of a stranger in his way causes Martin to startle and jump back, eyes big and alarmed.]

Sorry--ec-excuse me-- [he has to get around him or lose sight of Peter!]

Vanya shoulders rise a little, and it almost looks like she shrinks into herself, just a little. After the last - well, the last few times she spoke with Klaus, the last thing she wants is to be in a train car with him and Leonard and - she glances briefly at the blond man, realizing with a small flash of guilt that he must be Dave.

"I didn't," she starts, like a liar, about the same time as Leonard says "uh oh" with a nonchalance that really doesn't match the fact that he's looking down at his chest as if just realizing the knives that have reappeared there. Knives, forks, pens - there's a lot of household implements just sticking out of him, and when he meets Vanya's eyes again, the smirk is back in place.

"Good thing we didn't start with him, huh?" He points at Klaus, smiling at Vanya and acting as charming as he had when he met Allison. It makes Vanya's stomach turn, and she lets her eyes dart to his pointing hand, to Klaus, to Dave, back to Leonard's chest. She doesn't want to look anyone in the eye.

But Leonard - so quiet until now, doesn't seem to have the same problem. He looks up, finding the Hales, and waves one hand in greeting. "Hey, word of advice? Probably a good idea not to get messed up with the Hargreeves. They'll kill ya." He gestures to his chest, like for all the world he's made the greatest joke of the night.

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[SPOOKY TRAIN HONK]

closed to Noah

Bean - OTA

Bart - OTA

2

no one left to blame; Klaus and Derek

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Jonathan Walsh | OTA

Anders | OTA

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Cayde-6 | OTA

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oo1;

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