PC: Marcoh

[trifocal]

Comments

[boxcar]

[ Every single time I try to type mustari and my phone tries to go for mustard it kills me. Little mustard Eupha. ]

Mustari...? Is it like, what Basilio said?

[trifocal]

Oh, did he tell you about it? Yes, that's what my tribe is called. Just as he is a paripus, and you're... [ a pause. the sunglasses make it hard to tell where she's looking, but. ] elda?

[boxcar]

No, he mentioned a lot of others, but... it is people that look a little different?

[ It's all foreign to him but he's pretty chill about just accepting things. ]

That is what he called me also. "Human" is a bad thing where you are from.

[trifocal]

[ a nod. ]

We mustari are gifted with a third eye, which is what distinguishes us from the other tribes.

[ she removes the shades, and there is a brief glimpse of tension in her eyes at the word "human." there's another nod. ]

Yes. I cannot understand why the same word is used for people in some places.

[boxcar]

It's the opposite for me. It's strange to learn the way you describe humans. People do terrible things, but they're not mindless beasts.

...

Not that way.

[trifocal]

Oh, of course, I don't think there's any similarity between the two! The humans I'm familiar with are such bizarre, unnatural creatures... why, the first one I ever saw was nothing but a pair of ears with no body!

[boxcar]

Just ears? How does that work?

[ He's trying very hard to imagine this in his mind's eye. Is it.. a butterfly of ears... ]

[trifocal]

[ nodding. ]

Just ears, enormous in size, twice the height of a regular person. There was a big knife wedged between them... or maybe they grew around the knife?

[boxcar]

That sounds strange. But I've also seen some weird things lately. I get it being hard to explain.

[ Ngl he's gonna be trying to imagine this ears on a knife. ]

[trifocal]

You have, too? ... Anything as strange as a human? [ is that weird to ask a guy who calls himself "human"? ] Um, you know what I mean.

[boxcar]

Yes, I understand.

[ It's okay. ]

... Not always. I was in this city though, and the people in there didn't look right. Didn't act right either.

[trifocal]

Not right... in what way?

[boxcar]

I'm not sure how to describe it. In the town, the people looked twisted, like they were burned. Violent too.

I saw some strange people in the woods too. I thought they were people, but they were wearing owl masks.

[trifocal]

[ huh..... ]

Is there reason to doubt that they were people, underneath the masks?

[boxcar]

It didn't feel right, the way they moved their heads. They wouldn't speak either. They also tried to... summon? Strange ghost-like monsters.

[ Just you know, as an addendum. ]

Nothing much about that city made sense since the first dream.

[trifocal]

Could it be that they themselves were ghosts of some kind?

... What first dream?

[boxcar]

I'm not sure. I did punch one in the face. It seemed solid, the strange owl-masked person.

I saw a strange dream when I fell asleep on the train. Not this one. The one I was on before I came here.

[ He's pretty frank but he does seem hesitant to just continue on and talk about this to Eupha. ]

[trifocal]

What kind of dream?

[ trying to focus on that and not the trains. ]

[boxcar]

I walked into a strange, dark dimension, with gears. It smelled bad. There was this crazy man who tried to grab me, and I punched him down.

[ You will quickly notice this is a regular theme for him. ]

I spoke to this other man in front of the moon. He told me about things that were going to happen in that city. Then I woke up.

Everyone else in the train had the same dream.

It was weird.

[trifocal]

What a strange nightmare... but for everyone else to have the same experience, there must be a reason for it.

[boxcar]

Ay. [ He's still pretty reserved re: talking about this but. ] Everything about that city was abnormal.

The man in front of the moon also didn't look very human -- like a person. I think, maybe he looked more like one of your humans actually. Strange hat and feathers, smelled like rot.

I've never seen that sort of thing until then. Now, every other person seems to deal with this normally. I'm not so sure how to take it.

[trifocal]

[ there's a solemn nod, like yeah actually that does sound kind of human-like. ]

What brought you to such a strange city in the first place?

[boxcar]

...

[ He looks a bit grim. ]

Not choice. It was just the first train I happened to get on.

[trifocal]

[ ??? ]

You boarded it without knowing the destination?

[boxcar]

...

I was in a rush.