THE COLD AND SILENT [FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS]

[disregartist]

THE COLD AND SILENT

[The Conductor doesn't speak to anyone as they are escorted back. She simply goes to her quarters, leaving everyone to their own devices for the evening and night. There were things to do, reports to file, and of course negotiating the release of certain animals from the prison and the removal of that incompetently-named warden. A million and one things before they departed for the next port, which they did before the sun began to rise the next day.

Still, the Strangers will find a note slipped under their door when they wake up.]

Some answers were promised. Meet me in the lounge car at eleven am.

[She had the rats prepare food, and booze is of course readily available. She herself is sitting in a chair, pangolin sleeping in her lap, waiting for whoever arrives. Once eleven hits, she speaks.]

Well.

What are you waiting for? Let's get on with it.

[[OOC: CAUTION! This post will contain spoilers for the Fallen London metaverse, including for Sunless Skies! Abandon ignorance, all ye who enter!]]

Comments

[katzenpfote]

[Caleb heads to the car, watching the rest of the group file in. He's silent, glancing at the Conductor, until it seems most people are here.]

... I have some answers to disclose as well, I think.

[disregartist]

Well. I won't feel so alone, then.

[It's not mocking.]

[katzenpfote]

You might find this enlightening, actually. There's a mystery that's been plaguing this train, after all.

Why are Minato's bones made of glass?

... Because of what happened on the HML Vespertine. I had no idea why until Beatrice's execution. ... It's because he took the fall for me on that train, and was executed for it.

[disregartist]

...I see. I had suspected that was the case, when I saw his injury. That, and the fact he knew of the Vespertine and what happened, when most people who would be aware don't even know.

It does also explain how he ended up back in the Little Courtesy, without anyone even stopping to realize he had already gone through it. Given the Vespertine's fate...

[katzenpfote]

It is why I have no intention of taking advantage of it. I already did, and never got what I was promised.

[biddentodance]

[He'll....add a little.]

Don't actually remember being executed. Whatever happened - think it started right as it was about to happen.

What....did happen?

[zackthekiller]

Huh?

[Eliza told him about that earlier, and it's painful to remember, but somehow something doesn't line up.]

So he died and somehow got revived. What's that got to do with the glass?

[katzenpfote]

Think about it. What do those who are executed turn into?

[zackthekiller]

[Zack must have been dragged to the meeting somehow. He can't read notes, remember?

He does have quite a few Pokemon at his side now. Crown the deerling is on the couch with Zack, sitting on his lap as he sneaks some treats from the rats. Slinky the tepig is sitting next to an inexplicable mound of dirt on the ground that happens to be Dragon the diglett. Blaze the pidgey is perched on Zack's head.

Zack himself is watching the conductor with a steely glare.]

This had better be fucking important.

[disregartist]

As I said, I did promise answers to questions yesterday, did I not?

Namely, the question of why you have powers.

[zackthekiller]

[That gets his attention.

Blaze flaps his wings a bit as Zack looks up- The Pokemon does look ready to fight, but at least he has more sense than Zack did at the trial.]

What do you mean?

[disregartist]

As I have repeatedly said, we had nothing to do with the powers you now have. But...I do know what-and who is responsible.

[zackthekiller]

Then spit it out already, damnit!

[technicolourdifficulties]

[RGB is already there well before the time. This is where he sleeps, after all. He's still uncharacteristically quiet, though he does seem to be keeping a watchful screen out as he waits for the whole thing to begin.]

[disregartist]

Hm. A drink? Or do you not drink?

[technicolourdifficulties]

It would be a bit difficult to do so without anything resembling a digestive system.

[disregartist]

Oh. A pity you have to miss out. The spicy sauce on faux-quail is quite delicious.

[technicolourdifficulties]

I'll have to take your word for it. After all, how can a television truly comprehend what it is to taste something, whether good or ill?

[charmingheroine]

That's a truly poor choice of words, given you're outnumbered. Or do you really want to die that much? Does it not count as a mortal sin if you make somebody else do it, here?

[disregartist]

No, I do not have a death wish.

[Have an Unimpressed Look.]

Nor will your power affect me, no matter how much you try to throw it around.

CW: more genocide talk + world war two propaganda sort of hell-sorting

[charmingheroine]

As I sure do hope you noticed, I'm not the only one here, and anyway, if you're dead, you're not here anymore! Much as I want you and all the rest of your kind shoved into hell right next door to Hitler and Hirohito, I don't think you deserve that freedom just yet.

[She smiles, exactly like a normal sixteen-year-old girl of her era might when discussing a school dance to come and the pretty hairstyle she has planned.]

But really... space rebels with a prison seemingly named by slurring some Hindi words together? You saved us? Lady, and I really do use the term very, very loosely, just how gullible do you think we all are?

FALLEN LONDON SPOILERS

[disregartist]

Well, I'm not the one who named the place, for starters.

[shrug]

Secondly, putting my in Hell wouldn't work. Hell doesn't exist.

...

well.

Not anymore, at least.

[Is...is that a note of wistfulness in her tone?]

i'm very late but here we are

[higanbana]

I do have a question, although I wonder how much you can disclose.

What is the point of this Little Courtesy? Are we simply to suffer for your Mistress' amusement?

[She won't call her Queen, nor Empress. No, this choice of word is deliberate, a callback to the man she hates the most.]

Or is there some deeper purpose?

[disregartist]

[A pause.]

I'm not at liberty to say, save that there is a deeper purpose. As I said, if this were some game, as some of you seem to think it is, I would have just given you all knives and and let you have at it without consequence.

The Empress doesn't have a sense of humor, after all. Not much of one, anyways.

[higanbana]

It's foolish to assume one needs a sense of humor to be amused. I do not believe I ever saw that man laugh even once in all the time I spent with him. I am certain he was capable of amusement.

[Just in case the comparison hadn't been hammered in hard enough, Lilac!]

It is equally foolish to assume that forcing us to draw out our suffering like this is exactly the same as giving us all knives and letting us slit each other's throats. If I know anything about people like your Mistress, it's that they enjoy playing the long game.

But regardless, I see I'm getting nowhere with that. So. One further question.

Can you at least explain the name? There's very little courteous about murder.