Wrongtrain - Tumblr Posts

UNPROMPTED || ALWAYS ACCEPTING! || @wrongtrain

wrongtrain asked: "I have never been to an actual subway before!" He chirped, following Nanashi a little bit too closely as he looked around. This place was a lot different from Hilda and Hilbert's world. A lot of buildings were in poor condition, but they all seemed to be in different stages of deterioration, like some had been abandoned a long time ago while others had only been abandoned recently. He liked the ones that were more or less completely destroyed! He could see the remnants of human life inside of it that way, without having to take a full detour from their destination. He also quite liked that there wasn't a sun, honestly. It was always so bright whenever he departed from the Velvet Room with either of the wild card possessing twins, but he didn't have that problem here! He could look up at the sky as much as he wanted without worrying about blinding himself by mistake. Though it was definitely making him pay less attention to what was under his own two feet, and he kept tripping and stumbling on jagged cracks and holes in the road.

[If Nanashi hadn't thought it before, he was thinking it now: this guy was fucking weird.]

[Maintaining a chipper attitude whilst walking through the literal ruins of Tokyo was...not impossible, but uncanny. He and his sister were guilty of childlike optimism, sure, but they'd been born and raised here -- this guy looked old as Hell. There was no way he would be a stranger to their fallen Tokyo, but he acted like it was brand-new and fun. It was...weird, not seeing an old fart who was miserable and hopeless over Tokyo's current state.]

[His bright and cheery attitude might even be welcome, if it wasn't for the fact that his eagerness came from the destruction of Tokyo. It was like he was admiring it. For once, he could see where Nikkari and Manabu were coming from with their repetitive insistence that "this is no game." It was hitting Nanashi now, of all times, that their country was incredibly far-gone.]

[God, now HE felt old. Old people were the only ones who lamented Tokyo's current state.]

[Emmet hammered in the idea that he was a total outsider with his next statement, though. He'd never been to a SUBWAY? Y'know, the shelters that EVERYONE in Tokyo had taken residence in??? Where was this guy from, Mikado?]

[Actually, that might explain the weird wardrobe...]

❝ What the fuck are you talking about? ❞ [Nanashi stopped in his tracks, sparing an inquisitive glance to the stranger.] ❝ Aren't you a little old to have never seen a subway? Are you from Mikado or something? ❞

[Honestly, it was a good thing that Flynn had changed the game in regard to the public perception of Mikado, otherwise Nanashi would really have a bone to pick here.]

[Emmet "clarified" -- he'd never seen an actual subway? That was somehow even more confusing. What, had he inhabited a fake subway station all this time? Maybe he'd been stuck in a demon's Domain for the past couple of decades. At least that might explain his cluelessness...though he absolutely would have been demon chow by now.]

[Okay, he was starting to believe that this guy had genuinely been stuck under a rock for...what, 25 years now? Mikado had only recently become common public knowledge, but if Nanashi ( a child ) was up-to-date, then this old fart absolutely would have been. Adults almost obsessively watched the news. Hell, news broadcasts were the only thing that aired on TV anymore.]

[Nanashi finally got an answer, if he could even call it that, when Emmet described his..."home?" A name like "the Velvet Room" almost bolstered his Domain theory. That sounded exactly like a demon's sorry attempt to name their territory.]

[He couldn't really tell if his theory held any weight as Emmet followed up; Domains were almost like spiderwebs, a snare used to lure ignorant humans, but they existed in reality...kind of. They might also exist as the sort of "void" this weirdo was describing. Still...the pieces of that puzzle didn't fit correctly.]

❝ Real helpful. Listen, you sound like someone who's been in a coma for the past couple of decades, so forgive me if I don't understand what the hell you're talking about. ❞ [In fairness, though, Emmet seemed unable to comprehend it himself. This line of questioning felt like it was scrambling his brain.]

[Nanashi's bewilderment intensified when Emmet alluded to some kind of immortality or agelessness between him and his siblings -- this guy really didn't look undead, like Nanashi, nor did he look like a God. Actually, he sort of resembled an angel ( albeit one that wasn't biblically accurate ), which...made him a bit anxious. Angels were bad news. They'd been trying to wipe out the remnants of Tokyo for ages.]

[Regardless...]

❝ Hey, I'm just stating the facts. You look old enough to remember a time when the sun still shined. ❞ [He spoke with a decent amount of skepticism, embracing his new "angel" theory. After eyeing the supposed enemy for a moment ( watching for any sudden movement ), he turned back around and started walking. He'd have to have eyes in the back of his head here -- then again...it wasn't like a deity could actually kill him. Not anymore.]

[Emmet lectured Nanashi on his language, which really didn't do him any favors. In this day and age, who cared if a kid swore? It wasn't like there was a societal standard to uphold anymore. Only a servant of God would be offended by cursing.] ❝ Gee, Principality, have I got bad news for you: everybody swears. Sorry if you expected anything else from us "Unlcean Ones." ❞

"I said that I have never been to an actual subway." He corrected, a single finger pointed in the air. "I do not know what Mikado is." Or where, he guessed. It was probably a place, with the context it was used in. That probably just made him sound even more strange, but if that thought had even occurred to him (it didn't) he certainly didn't seem worried or concerned about it in any way.

"I am from the Velvet Room." He stated simply, as if that would instantly make the child understand. He let out a little "hmm" noise as he scratched the side of his face a bit. Ingo was a lot better at explaining this than he was. "It is stationed somewhere between dreams and reality so it is prrretty hard to pinpoint its exact destination. I don't really understand it myself. And I am not old." He stopped walking for a moment before hurriedly catching up as he wondered about the statement. Was he old? He and Ingo were older than most of their siblings, but still younger than Margaret.

"My brother and I do not age. At least not like humans do. I don't think any of our siblings really age... Except maybe Caroline and Justine, but their situation is rrreally complicated." He shook his head back and forth as an uncomfortable shiver ran down his spine as he thought about it. He wished they'd just stay fused as Lavenza all the time. It squicked him out whenever she decided to split herself into two again. And it was sort of stealing Ingo and Emmet's entire thing. Lavenza wasn't even a real twin!

"Also. Language." He didn't actually care whether Nanashi swore or not, but it was fun getting to say what his brother said to him any time he swore.

❝ ...'Kay, got it. The Velvet Room is a coma. ❞ [Emmet probably wouldn't recognize that Nanashi's tone indicated disbelief, but Nanashi wouldn't take the time to spell it out for him. He had a feeling that if he continued to pester Emmet about whatever the hell this Velvet Room was, he wouldn't get any answers. Just more questions.]

[Once again, Emmet was losing him with his cryptic-yet-blunt way of speech. His "train's" schedule? Hadn't he just been talking about how he'd never seen an actual subway? Not only that, but he was talking like there was a massive time discrepancy between worlds...]

[...Shit, maybe he really was an angel. Time in Mikado moved several times faster than time in Tokyo. He did say that he didn't know what Mikado was, but Nanashi could attribute that to the inherently devious workings of angels; this entire thing was probably a trick. If Nanashi let him into the underground, would he just wreak havoc and terrorize the denizens there? He didn't want to be responsible for another tragedy.]

❝ That just makes it sound like you're really old. ❞ [He'd still play along for now. It was too soon to say anything for sure, even though he was pretty convinced.]

[Emmet continued, confirming what Nanashi already knew while simultaneously baffling him. It was almost impressive how confusing this guy was. Maybe his whole "train" shtick was like...figurative? In that case, who were the "passengers" he was talking about, and what world did they live in? He wanted to leap to the conclusion that Emmet was referring to those in Mikado, but...that didn't sound right. Alright, maybe he didn't know what the fuck was happening.]

[Emmet didn't like the sun...? Granted, Nanashi had never seen it before, but he'd heard from the adults around him that it was bright and warm. They reminisced about it to no end, always referring to it positively...Nanashi had yet to meet a single soul who legitimately hated the sun and its brightness.]

❝ Okay, you've lost me again. What world does your passenger come from? Who are they? ❞ [His theory was losing traction; he didn't know this guy or his intentions ( aside from wanting to see an "actual" subway ), and that made him wary. He wanted to solve this before it was too late, but was that even possible?]

[If he was able to board the Velvet Room, he could fuse Principality...? So was the Velvet Room an alternate version of the Cathedral of Shadows? It was a wild guess, but he suddenly felt like he was on the right track. The Cathedral of Shadows was technically just a fancy demon fusion app, but maybe this was...a weird real-life version of it? That'd explain some of these inconsistencies. He'd talked about another world, too...he hadn't stopped to think about it earlier, but parallel worlds and alternate realities existed, didn't they? The Velvet Room might be some sort of demon-fusing pocket dimension between realities...]

❝ So...the Velvet Room is for demon fusion? ❞

[Officially tossing Nanashi's angel theory into the trash ( where it belonged ), Emmet assured that he was only joking about Nanashi's language. He threw another unknown into the loop ( who the hell was Ingo? Another sibling? A passenger? ), but Nanashi would cross that bridge when he got to it.] ❝ Well, at least you can handle it. Who's Ingo? Has he also been living under a rock? ❞

[Okay, if Nanashi had any doubts now, they had officially been erased. Angels were the ones who'd dubbed those in Tokyo "unclean" for not complying with their ideals...Emmet was obviously clueless about that. Myth busted.] ❝ ...Nevermind. You haven't met anybody else yet, I think, but we're all kind of grungy. Baths are hard to come by. ❞

"If it helps for you to imagine the Velvet Room as a coma, you are free to do so." From what he understood, comas fell into a similar space between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, so it was actually a pretty good comparison. He vaguely wondered what form the room would take under the influence of Nanashi's consciousness, but he would have to wait until later to analyze the thought any further.

"Though if you were to compare the flow of time in your would against our train's schedule, I thiiiink we have technically been there for much longer than 'decades'." Damn it, maybe this kid was right about him being 'old', then- at least by human standards. It was a lot more complicated than that, but even if he knew how to explain it, he had a feeling Nanashi either wouldn't understand it, or wouldn't care. But if he thought Emmet was old, he should see Igor.

"But yes, I know about suns! Our passengers' world has one!!! I don't really care for it." He admitted with a little shrug, kicking a stray piece of rubble out of the way just to see how far it would go. "It is verrry bright." He was much more comfortable with the dim blue fluorescents that lit his usual cab. The sun hurt his eyes, even when he wasn't staring directly at it. (Which he had tried to do on multiple occasions before being warned that it might be able to blind him. Why would they put something that big and noticeable in the middle of the sky if you weren't even supposed to look at it???)

"I am Emmet. Not Principality. Though if you were able to board the Velvet Room, I believe you would be able to fuse him under my Arcana if you combined the proper parts!" He waved a hand around in dismissal at the child's final statements in regards to his language. "I was joking about the language. It is weird hearing it so often. But I don't mind! Ingo might. But he is not here right now!" A slight pause as he internally debated whether the final comment he wanted to make was appropriate or not. After a moment, he decided that it was.

"I was not going to say anything, but since you brought it up- you really look like you could use a bath."

[Emmet's brother, huh? Getting a clear-as-day answer was surprisingly nice. Emmet was like a walking enigma; Nanashi briefly wondered if Ingo was the same way. They were twins, after all. On a positive note, his eagerness when referring to his brother was kind of sweet. It reminded Nanashi of himself and Asahi...funnily enough, they also referred to themselves as "twins." They weren't ( Nanashi was adopted ), but they were the same age and part of the same family. Therefore, twins.]

❝ So, yeah, he's also been living under a rock. Noted. Hey, I should introduce you to my own twin sometime. ❞ [Nanashi smiled for the first time throughout this conversation; it had been a long time since he'd gotten to brag about having a twin. Apparently, it never got old.]

[Emmet followed up with another comprehensive answer -- two in a row! What were the odds? -- but almost immediately threw another curveball. Yes, the Velvet Room was for demon fusion ( among other things ), but...what was that about "Persona"s?? A manifestation of one's inner self? Emmet had coupled the concept with that of personal demons, which was the only way Nanashi would have any chance of grasping this. He'd just pretend that these were a different subset of demons -- he wasn't about to give himself another headache over this.]

[Thankfully, Emmet's explanation of his guests and the world they inhabited was comprehensible. Nanashi had already theorized that Emmet might be from another dimension or world entirely, and this flat-out confirmed it. Emmet's ( or rather, his "passengers'" ) world wasn't "grungy;" it had a sun and a version of Tokyo ( or the Earth as a whole? ) that was completely intact. That should probably make Nanashi uneasy or jealous, but he was happy just to understand. For now, anyway.]

❝ Okay. I think I'm finally starting to get it. ❞ [Knock on wood.] ❝ So the Velvet Room is like a pocket dimension made for fusing demons...or Personas, I guess. You're from a totally different world, which is why you don't know anything about this one. Am I on the right track? ❞ [Ha.]

❝ By the way...grungy means "dirty." ❞

"Oh!!! Ingo is my brother!" He burst out, excitedly clapping his hands together as the smile on his face widened, glowing yellow eyes sparkling with joy. How had he not mentioned that yet? He loved talking about his twin brother. A slight pause before he continued in a more usual volume. "One of my brothers. My older brother." He corrected himself. Sorry, Theodore. "He works alongside me. He's my co-conductor. We're twins! So if by 'living under a rock' you mean 'stationed in the Velvet Room,' then yes. Ingo has also been living under a rock." To his knowledge, anyway. Maybe Ingo went on his own little adventures when Emmet and their passengers were away? The thought had never really occurred to him- he'd have to ask him about it sometime.

Wait, where was he, Nanashi was asking about something else before he'd asked about Ingo, right? He did his best to backtrack to the appropriate topic.

"The Velvet Room is for a lot of things! But fusion is one of its primary functions, yes. We assist our passengers with managing their personas- which I guess are sort of similar to to the concept of a personal demon! They're a manifestation of their users' inner self, buuut not in a malevolent way. At least not typically." He didn't bother to explain it any further than that, at least not for the time being. From what he understood, it was really rare for personas to rebel against their users and only happened under certain exact circumstances.

"Our current passengers are actually twins, too- Hilda and Hilbert. They're rrreally special! Their world is pretty different from this one, but not entirely." Even Emmet realised how confusing that must sound, and he took a while to think about how to explain it more properly, a long "mmmm" sort of noise leaving pursed lips as he stared back up at the dark sky (nearly tripping again in the process). "This is still Earth, rrright? Their world is Earth, too- just on a different track." A perfect, simple explanation- to Emmet, anyway. "And less ''grungy''." He enunciated the word in a way that made it clear he wasn't familiar with it, using his fingers to make air quotes as he spoke.

Maybe Nanashi's manifestation of the Velvet Room would resemble some kind of Japanese bathhouse or hot spring. That might be kind of fun. He definitely preferred the subway car overall, though.