THE SUMMARY: THE INTERMISSION

Originally written in December of 2022.

ideologies

So around now is when the intermission starts, and when most characters start to push forward their projections. There’s some redundancy and descriptions of stuff that’s only realised later but ehhhh it’s for organisation’s sake. Just keep associated names in mind.

Control room duo: Mazin and Peixin. They both wish to keep the control room closed off to keep others from messing with the train. They’re also in the midst of developing their own way of leaving Fornax — potentially by dislocating the control room from the rest of the train.

Project Affinity: Ulises Demeter and Sabri. They wish to explore and study the Octants. Eventually end up planning to close off access to them to prevent hedonistic exploitation from the outside world.

The Cassiopeia Message: Freya Olzhas and Dolichonyx. Initially their plan was to try and contact the Fornax scientists via the control room but after some introspection about internal sabotage and distrust, they shifted gears into sending out a message to the general public of earth demanding rescue.

The Tunnels of Hydra: Beatrix and Marjolaine. They want to figure out a compromise between return and stagnation — for all passengers to somehow be able to go on and off the train whenever they please, whilst keeping Fornax’s ongoing existence a secret. There’s a potential alliance to be formed with Affinity. 

Neutral: Simply refers to characters that have no inclination toward a specific ideology. Faris and Valerie simply wish to help Dalisay out indubitably, and Somsak just minds his own business.

Though mild conversations can occur between Dalisay and control room/neutral characters, they force no progression at this point. The following do — keep in mind the storylines here kick off around the same time and heavily overlap.

Cassiopeia intermission

Something I haven’t really mentioned yet is that throughout the story Dalisay experiences various ‘visions’ of past train events, which sie chalks up to Fornax instabilities. Sie mentions some of them in vague to other characters, though it’s only Demeter and Freya who seem to really know what sie’s talking about. Though Demeter seems to just think of them as random happenings, Freya is far more enthralled and engaged in theorising — thon discusses these visions with Dalisay, saying that sometimes, thon hears various distant voices that thon can commune with. This has lead thon to believe that Fornax holds some sentience, and more hesitantly, that this sentience is at least in part due to the preservation of the souls of the people who have died in the reality. Dalisay finds this too unsettling to believe it, and tries to convince hirself that it doesn’t make sense.

Following Dalisay’s first meeting with Dolichonyx, Olzhas has become cold yet again. In the interest of keeping a decent standing with everyone, sie starts to investigate e and Dolichonyx’s past to gain an understanding of the strain between them — of course hir first thought is to talk to Dolichonyx about it, and though ve’s far more direct about their former affability, ve’s vague about the specific nature of their split. All ve confirms is that it happened due to an argument on a december night, which arose after Olzhas expressed disapproval with ver mysterious ‘plan’. 

This urges Dalisay to shift gears into learning about said plan, which ve is far more enthusiastic about. Ve wants to reach out to the Fornax scientists and send a message to encourage them to retrieve the train, curiously clarifying that ve mostly intends on blackmail, for ve believes Fornax’s stasis was intentional. Ve laments that all communication tools are located in the control room, and likely sabotaged. Ve and Freya have been searching for an alternative way to send a message, though have found little luck. Dalisay assumes Ulises may have some apparati of aid, though realises per would object to this entire idea from the get-go, and hence doesnt bring the thought up. Dolichonyx hints at wanting Dalisay to program something personalised for ver, but Dalisay snips this in the bud, stating sie’d need heavy compensation and more importantly, that sie would still need to connect hir code to the control room’s anyway. Dolichonyx then apologises for ver forwardness, much to Dalisay’s surprise.

Sie seeks out Freya, to further discuss… basically everything. Thon critiques Dolichonyx’s description of the plan, saying it made thon look too helpless — thon actually does have a lead in the form of the Evoker, which thon suspects might have abilities greater than just object summoning. Thon also points to all the database screens being potentially usable, though feigns less confidence in the assumption.

When asked about Dolichonyx and Olzhas, thon seems somewhat lackadaisical, stating they indulge too much in their own grievances whilst also lacking the heart for serious hatred. Thon’s long hoped for them to get over everything, Olzhas especially, since thon thinks e could help out with the message greatly. Freya suddenly departs to talk to Olzhas thonself, seeming to have an idea. Dalisay does not offer to come with.

Around this time Dalisay avoids questioning Olzhas about Dolichonyx (and the inverse as well) and instead tries to start from square one again. Miscellaneous conversations happen, they both build kinship with Dalisay anew and it feels far more genuine. Eventually Olzhas confides in hir, wondering if Freya’s pestering over the past few days had something to do with hir. Dalisay hedges, presuming em to be upset, though e clarifies e needed the push and does wish to reconcile with Dolichonyx. In fact, e thanks hir, and asks hir to send a message — requesting Dolichonyx to traverse to a particular corridor in spring tonight, so that they can speak candidly together. Dalisay does pass it along.

From this point forward Olzhas and Dolichonyx freely commune, and in general become much more willing to tell Dalisay things… what also helps is a revelation Freya reveals, where thon suggests trying to broadcast a message to a random part of earth, which may be easier and also reel in external pressure that’s harder for the Fornax scientists to ignore. Olzhas is much more sympathetic to this operation and freely offers eir help. This revised plan is dubbed ‘the Cassiopeia Message’, or simply Cassiopeia for short. 

Freya basically tries to arrange everything for it overnight, but the other two step in to ensure that thon doesn’t hurt thonself in thons overzealousness. Beyond fixing up the speech, which will take time, there’s still the question of how exactly the message can be sent out. Freya starts spending more and more time by the Evoker — Dalisay offers to pull it apart and examine the code within, but Freya dislikes the proposal and insists on waiting around for it to ‘give indications’ instead.

There’s a brief span of time where nothing really happens with these three except for the fact that they all grow quite fond of Dalisay and are often glad to see hir visit lol. Friendship progression and whatnot.

Later on, in the midst of wandering through autumn, Freya pulls Dalisay aside and tells hir thon’s made a great discovery. Thon has confirmed the Evoker as a way to send a message back to earth, and states thon wants to do so right now. Thon asks if Dalisay’s up to help, and upon receiving agreement, thon drags hir over to the Evoker room. Olzhas is waiting there for them both, and further explains how the message will work. Briefly, there’s a code loophole that can be messed with via clairvoyance. Since Freya is too busy recounting the speech and e’s too preoccupied with the telepathy, an anchor is needed to keep this connection stable, which is what Dalisay’s here for. The three organise around the Evoker and dig their hands into its surface, initiating.

After forming abstract mirages of earth locales for a few seconds, the Evoker starts to present everyone with simple fog. Freya imparts her message, though at the very end, Olzhas cuts thon off, suddenly stricken. The Evoker shortly explodes in twain — the top half of the orb having completely vanished, leaving the bottom cleanly cut. Olzhas calls the entire session a resounding failure, though Freya seems more optimistic, saying they won’t know the message got out till help arrives or doesn’t.

The three reconvene with Dolichonyx, who seems mildly disappointed. As ve and Freya start to talk, Olzhas pulls Dalisay aside and confesses something grim — as e was reaching out eir clairvoyance, e kept getting visions of tangled limbs and organs, grotesque and hazy, and upon finding a hook to earth e felt as if ghostly hands were trying to pull em away. E expresses mild concern with the Evoker, though seems to give more gravity to the fact that e doesn’t want to dampen Freya’s triumph. Dalisay says sie’ll keep hir mouth shut, though inwardly makes the connection between all the Fornax voices Freya told hir about and this. Sie concludes that Freya would quite enjoy hearing the truth, but resigns hirself, thinking it’s none of hir business and that sie might be mistaken.

Hydra intermission

Starts off with Marjolaine expressing fear with the direction of the train, now that everyone’s ‘awoken’ and campaigning for their own bizarre wishes. He’s fond of the train being stagnant and removed from the rest of humanity, and says that the opportunity to live out one’s life in a sheltered division that effortlessly provides all neccessities is a gift that’s left unappreciated. He wishes to stay on the train forever, unbothered, though he knows it’s somewhat of a pipe dream. He specifically brings up Beatrix’s inverse motivations to leave, and though he understands where she’s coming from, he believes it’s easier to stop resisting the comfort of Fornax and simply accept it.

Dalisay starts to sort of examine Marjolaine and Beatrix’s relationship, curious on how their marriage persists in spite of such fervent disagreement about the train — still in the midst of figuring out Dolichonyx and Olzhas’ deal, sie’s severely grim and hopeless about all train romance. Sie’s somewhat concerned about Marjolaine’s inclinations of solitude, and confronts Beatrix about it with a decent amount of subtlety. She seems to pick up on Dalisay’s intervention, assuring hir Marjolaine’s always been reserved and quiet. This seems dismissive — Dalisay continues to prod, asking if this distance ever bothers her. Beatrix answers no, though she seems far too irritated.

Sie decides to test Marjolaine’s sensibility, frequently visiting his train room and engaging in extended chats and observing how his temperament changes in accordance to this beneficence. Surprisingly he does seem overly content with solitude, often asking Dalisay to leave him alone and come back later. 

During these visits sie finds out Olzhas is actually a close friend of Marjolaine’s, which is something sie uses as a neutral topic with em in conversation to become better friends. Though hesitant, e sheds some clear light on Marjolaine and Beatrix’s past — Marjolaine had entered the train on a whim without telling Beatrix and she’d only found out months later, arriving to the train only to divorce him. The two eventually got back together but the tension between them is supposedly palpable if they’re ever in the same room. Dalisay is fairly satisfied with this assessment, having picked up on negative subtleties the two have dropped whilst referring to one another already.

Sie also talks to Sabri, apparently another friend of Marjolaine’s. It divulges less, calling interpersonal drama on the train none of its business. That being said it chronicles Marjolaine’s long streak of isolation and Beatrix’s contention with it, and agrees that they have plenty of unresolved tension between them. Dalisay doesn’t confront either of the two about this certain schism yet but keeps it in mind.

Eventually Marjolaine trusts Dalisay enough to allow hir full access to the facsimiles, both in terms of studying their code and using them hirself. Sie comes to realise that the most precise and well-developed facsimiles are those of dead passengers, their conversations usually being fully coherent and far more self aware than any facsimiles of live passengers, which are dull and clunky in comparison. This leads hir to concede that Freya’s hypothesis was right, and that Fornax does bear the dead. Marjolaine gives no indication of awareness of this, always referring to the dead as ‘copies’ instead of deeming them actual spirits using his interfaces as a mouthpiece.

Dalisay primarily utilises hir access to the facsimiles to talk to these dead passengers. Two passengers stick out as frequent contactees — Míra and Lusine. Míra being Demeter’s sister, exceptionally blunt and judging of current train tensions, and Lusine being a programmer with a similar resolution to Dalisay who had been killed by Mazin years ago. Lusine offers a lot of valuable input, having been able to examine the control room prior to its death — it tells Dalisay that part of the control room is salvageable, notably some communicative tools.

Eventually Marjolaine wishes to discuss the facsimiles with other train passengers, now that tensions are high and the train might be evacuated soon. He at least wants to let everyone know what he’s been doing with these text clones — rationalising that’s if it’s wrong and unethical, he can quickly escape vitriol via everyone else distracting themselves with more serious matters. Still, concernedly, he asks Dalisay if the facsimile project is “right”. Sie refuses to make this judgement for him, but offers to pass along an explanation to anyone he needs.

The first subject of confession is Demeter, who Marjolaine feels ought to know about Míra’s facsimile. This task is proven difficult, as Demeter has had a spike in absence in favor of Fornaxgazing. Ulises calls this a momentary wave of melancholia, but advises Dalisay to stick to pleasantries and leave them alone to recover. Sie goes against these wishes, and attempts to tell Demeter about the facsimiles anyway. They interrupt Dalisay, unbelieving, saying they’ve come to terms with Míra’s death and need no whimsical invention to keep them going. Dalisay gives up, lacking the heart to insist on anything.

Marjolaine says this failure was for the best.

He then wants to inform Sabri, who he’s sure will take the facsimiles well. Truthfully Sabri wants nothing to do with this experiment, saying talking to anyone from early Fornax days would only make their material absence more felt. Marjolaine is disappointed, having hoped it’d find their existence reassuring.

There’s some more tries — Freya, who does seem and interested and visits to see the facsimiles, but finds them no more advantageous than her own Fornaxgazing; Dolichonyx, who is just as dismissive as Demeter was; and Valerie, who seems thoroughly creeped out by both talking to the dead and having fake copies of everyone generated. Interestingly Olzhas seems to have already known of the facsimiles, but keeps quiet about eir association, calling it “a matter of the past.” regardless all reactions are very subdued if not outright denialistic, something Marjolaine wasn’t expecting. He becomes ashamed and resolves to stop spreading news of the facsimiles, even wishing to cease operation of them, deciding it was all useless. Dalisay senses his upset is caused by something deeper, but feels awkward interfering, and simply departs.

Affinity intermission

So the thing about Affinity is that its basically the one ideology that’s looking to cooperate with everyone else. And its stipulations don’t negate any particular ending, meaning it kind of synthesises with the main plot as opposed to the other ideologies who necessitate different ‘branches’ in the story. To put it less abstractly, Affinity lacks a unique ending as opposed to the other ideologies, and the bulk of its story-affecting matters occur in this intermission and not afterward. I also think im going to detail the actual Affinity expeditions later on because they’re meaty, albeit tangential.

Anyway.

Ulises and Dalisay’s friendship only toughens following yet more expeditions, leading them to talk candidly about the state of the train. Dalisay freely divulges hir involvement in Cassiopeia (prior to any actual message-sending) and even informs Ulises of the facsimiles early. Ulises doesn’t seem to take any of these developments seriously, but shows concern with the information per learns about Mazin. Per has never liked him and all his scheming, and per concerns feel validated now that per knows he’s indeed vaguely up to something. Per’s interested in Dalisay’s mild hold of the control room as well, but quickly becomes disappointed learning of its limited radius. The two mainly focus on Octant work, which goes on at a breakneck pace thanks to Dalisay improving per gear and interfaces.

As the further plotlines progress, Dalisay starts to become more quiet in the interest of keeping others secrets, and Ulises matches this forlorness too, somewhat grudgingly. This starts to affect their communication during expeditions. Sie confronts Ulises about this, and per confesses anxiety regarding the future of the train. Per again states that the Octants can’t be rediscovered, and that per will do anything to ensure they remain forgotten. Dalisay meets this evenly, proposing snap-thought solutions — the use of portals, crafting a lab that can be docked at the Octants… all vague, but Ulises recognises Dalisay’s wish to cooperate, and apologises for per coldness.

Per does however ask for full disclosure on what the other groups wish to do with the train — Dalisay admits to aiding with the Evoker message, discussing train matters with Beatrix who seems to be campaigning for train return, Faris’ similar resolution… basically everything. Ulises again seems passive but solemn, simply resolving to keep these ideals in mind. 

Alternatively, Dalisay is capable of a more biting approach — sie can use Ulises’ own restlessness against per and insinuate that per studies will only contribute to the kind of recognition per is trying to avoid, alongside positing that no matter what someday someone will find the Octants and invigorate dimensional study again. Either this, or this entire situation will repeat with another group of dimensions. Ulises succumbs to this pressure easily, and resolves to ‘finish up’ Affinity to be able to leave for good. This actually leads to a seperate ending I’ll discuss later but point is, there’s a lot of possible tension with Affinity! It’s important!

Other intermission

So during the time of the intermission there’s actually a bit more intermingling between individuals than before, or at least this is so between the different ideologies. This mostly amounts to small conversations with an unlikely pair of people talking, Dalisay more freely asking others thoughts on others, etc point is the entire train’s gotten far more chatty and open as a result of Dalisay’s interventions. This sociability even reaches Mazin, who starts to spend more time outside of the control room. He’s still mostly hanging around the perimeter and being curt, but it’s a definite change in elusiveness. Others have started observing the control room, and have promptly been chased off by Mazin — Ulises and Freya being perhaps the most notable offenders.

Dalisay continues to talk with him and also Peixin — the latter of whom alludes to some kind of grand conclusion they and Mazin have reached, but they lament that they can’t tell Dalisay about it yet. This nettles hir, who’s started to grow impatient with Mazin’s vagueness.

Soon after this, Fornax itself starts to arbitrarily change in display, every once in a while going pitch black. This occurs in momentary flashes and eventually these spikes of darkness extend themselves in duration, lasting for minutes at a time. This is the first stage of a yearly phenomenon known as the eclipse, where the train tends to ‘dip’ in and out of Fornax, meaning it becomes more material and hence, closer to earth. Ulises has a little input towards this — saying per’s tried to study these instabilities in the past, only to find them vexing and predominantly useless. Per allows Dalisay to run an investigation using per apparati however, and though sie doesn’t find out much sie still thinks rerouting the train during eclipse times is hir best bet.

Dalisay wanders through winter in particular, considering it’s the district with most open-air areas, trying to make further sense of Fornax. In the silence and hir own focus, sie starts to hear mumbling. Eventually this voice becomes clearer and sie manages to talk to a nondescript part of Fornax, mostly asking for any identifying information. Before much can be found out Fornax goes silent again.

Suddenly Freya and Olzhas approach hir, seeming very on edge. The two quickly explain an urgent matter — whilst walking by the recesses of the control room, Olzhas had picked up a stray array of Mazin’s thoughts. 

He plans to bludgeon certain districts off the rest of the train under the assumption that train is carrying “too many people”, thus resulting in its stasis. He wishes to do this during the height of the eclipse, which is extremely near. Truly, assumedly, splitting up the train would… kill people or dissociate them within Fornax forever. Dalisay believes the duo at once, though earnestly confesses sie doesn’t know what could be done to stop Mazin. Freya suggests a brainstorming session in a “quieter” place.

The three meet up at Dolichonyx’s room, and between them, decide how to proceed. Dalisay suggests venturing out and trying to reason with Mazin, but Dolichonyx claims he’s too dangerous and must be restrained. Freya agrees, liking the idea of Cassiopeia dealing with this independently, though admits it may be difficult and may only enrage Mazin more. Olzhas instead claims that something this serious is the business of all train residents, and the sentiment evolves into an idea of a trainwide conference. With this, however, Freya laments that thon’ll likely have to abandon thons plans for communication since there’s no way the rest of the train will have trust in the Cassiopeia Message. Dalisay reassures thon, saying sie’ll try to raise concerns back on earth after sie’s become renowned. 

Deciding there’s no time to waste, everyone quickly decides on a niche area in spring as the gathering place, being the district least probable for Mazin to wander in.

Olzhas and Freya go out to gather everyone. Dolichonyx and Dalisay travel at a slower pace, Dolichonyx wishing to talk with hir in private. Ve starts off with general praise, stating ve respects Dalisay a lot and admires hir skill and resilience. Rattling a little about how Cassiopeia as a whole is thankful for hir aid, ve delves into ver relationship with Olzhas — ve thanks Dalisay for managing to reunite them, and suggests sie ought to be more reverent of hir own interpersonal pragmatism. Dalisay doubts this, saying everything sie’s done on the train has been in the service of fulfilling hir own wants, going as far as calling hirself selfish. Ve says the purpose doesn’t matter — sie did the impossible and will continue to do so, and everything sie does will continue to benefit the train community. That sentiment both pressures and comforts Dalisay.

In due time almost everyone’s arrived and lightly chatting, though people are notably arranged in their own clusters and only diverge momentarily. Olzhas emself is the last person to arrive, having spent extra time looking for Somsak to no avail. E decides to give up and simply start the meeting without him. Evidently Mazin and Peixin were not invited, so overall 3/14 train passengers are uninvolved.

Freya and Olzhas are given the floor to describe their encounter. They’re quickly met with doubt and cynicism by most other passengers with regards to the premise and convenience of their story — Dolichonyx corroborates their explanation wholeheartedly, but since ve’s a known associate ver support is mostly brushed aside. Ulises confirms Olzhas’ telepathic ability as historically very accurate, and further states per’s convinced the two wouldn’t lie about something this grand. Demeter seems more apprehensive but is eager to organise against Mazin, and so elects to believe them.

Indeed most of the contention comes from Mazin’s obscurity — though he’s locked the control room it’s not like anyone else has had a need for it, and though Demeter’s story about Míra is well-known there’s technically nothing that proves it beyond word of mouth and so it’s often thought of as a grief-fuelled exaggeration. This is brought up by Beatrix, who believes its good to be cautious of Mazin, but still thinks of this entire accusation as overly caustic and unreliable. Valerie and Faris hold similar beliefs. To quell this moral dispersion, Sabri comes forth and presents a confession of years past — it admits to having witnessed Míra’s death six years ago, having watched from the shadows as Mazin pushed her into the Fornax Reality. This immediately provokes Demeter, who blames it for not having intervened or at least having told them about this. Sabri defends itself, saying it was in no position to help, and that it was also soon threatened by Mazin to keep quiet about the incident lest it was also killed.

To pin the final nail in the coffin, Dalisay admits to hir alliance with Mazin in front of everyone, and frames it as a matter of curiosity and compliance to gain information. Demeter becomes even more restless with this information. However, after Dalisay recounts Mazin’s sentiments of wanted destruction, it basically cements the idea that he’s untrustworthy for everyone. The conversation then shifts into its intended purpose, finally — a discussion on how to prevent Mazin from destroying the train, and what to do with it afterward.

It’s a long conversation so to bring up the important parts…

Marjolaine suggests using Dalisay’s sycophancy to try and pause Mazin’s destruction of the train, but nearly everyone agrees that it’d only be delaying the inevitable — moreover Dalisay is unsure if Mazin even trusts hir sufficiently for that to work. Sie promises to keep going with hir supposed alliance, though inwardly knows more has to be done.

Faris suggests that he, Valerie and Olzhas make their way through the control room and try to restrain Mazin, since they all have enhanced abilities that grant them protection — Olzhas emself shuts this idea down, knowing Faris aims to kill Mazin which e’s morally against. Valerie also reminds him that his powers are at a deficit, and that his inclusion would be no different from an average defenseless human entering the control room.

Beatrix finds Valerie’s hypothetical interesting. She brings up a question of numbers, suggesting a large expedition group into the control room to prevent said defenselessness. She also states she’s willing to injure Mazin if it comes to it, stating it’s only fair considering all he’s done in the past.

Marjolaine is somewhat troubled by nobody considering any diplomatic means — Dalisay assures him that Mazin is near impossible to reason with, and that in the interest of time, his danger should not be underestimated. Demeter agrees, tautly saying he’d well deserve death.

Then comes discussion about what to do when the control room is relinquished. Ulises upholds per viewpoint that the continuous existence of the Octants should be obscured and outright negated — per is truthfully against any kind of train return, but is willing to compromise with everyone else if per really has to. 

Faris is a notable campaigner of earth return, as are Valerie and Beatrix. Freya Olzhas and Dolichonyx also relent to returning in the wake of Cassiopeia’s termination. Everyone else… is kind of adamant about staying on the train. This division of course springs conflict.

Marjolaine proposes a vow to keep the control room locked just as it was before, to maintain status quo, but everyone else has become sick of stagnancy and wishes for an actual solution. His suggestion is met with high dissatisfaction.

Dolichonyx suggests the matter should be left to Dalisay entirely, since sie’s the one doing the programming and thus the one with the power to save everyone. This proposition is strangely almost immediately agreed upon, everyone sourcing Dalisay’s evenness as a reason to leave it to hir. Sie’s embarrassed but glad to have garnered such revere.

Dalisay suggests a return journey where only a few people are dropped off back to earth and the train is sent back into orbit — sie suggests framing the retrieval of the passengers as a gruelling battle against the train’s code, with the additional caveat of pretending the train did reach the Octants and that the majority of train residents died whilst exploring them. Ulises seems skeptical of how effective this word of mouth will be, to which Dalisay proposes elimination of physical evidence. Sie’s confident in being able to code a ‘mask’ signal that obscures the presence of the train and the Octants, rendering them undetectable and closed to any magic detectors. 

Though there’s a few seeds of doubt regarding the execution, everyone agrees to this conclusion and believes it to be the most even way forward.

To conclude the meeting, everyone goes over possible volunteering for the control room expedition. Olzhas is the first to announce e’s sticking back — upon being called cowardly by Freya in jest, e defends emself by saying if something goes wrong, e’ll be part of a ‘backup team’ that can deal with Mazin. With this justification, Freya actually elects to retreat too, as do Dolichonyx, Marjolaine and Ulises. Sabri is adamant about joining in for the sake of revenge, as is Demeter, and Beatrix just wants to be there to “play a hand in history”. Valerie is fully willing to go, knowing her vampirism would be a huge aid, but attempts to convince Faris to stay back. He relents, albeit very reluctantly..

Everyone agrees to meet up back here in three days time, when the eclipse is indeed at its height and Mazin is meant to strike. This is also advantageous in terms of safety — it’s revealed Somsak had fallen into Fornax last eclipse, and had managed to survive due to, assumedly, Fornax’s temporary weakness. Thus, it’s assumed the risk of death is lowered. Until the second meeting, Dalisay urges everyone to think deeply about what they want their involvement to be. People start to disperse.

Immediately after the meeting ends, Dalisay seeks out Mazin. Sie tries to needle out some further information about his wish to destroy the train. He’s as vague as always, but that’s an assurance, since he seemingly doesn’t suspect Dalisay of mutiny.

Afterward, sie decides to check up on everyone else post-meeting. 

Sie finds Olzhas and Dolichonyx within the former’s restaurant. E’s just finished downing a bottle of wine, both to celebrate the meeting’s resolution and to wash eir embarrassment down — practically knocking em out of the entire conversation. Soberly, it’s Dolichonyx who confers with Dalisay about Cassiopeia and its early end. Although ve’s grieving the loss of theatricism, ve assures Dalisay ve’s equally glad to help hir out toward hir noble goal, as are Olzhas and Freya. After making sure Olzhas will be fine, Dalisay leaves the two alone.

Sie seeks out Freya, who is indeed pacing around the Evoker in circles. Thon seems to be trying to commune with the voices of Fornax, though the attempt meets no end and thon soon resigns thonself. Thon notices Dalisay, and engages in an unusually unenergetic, forlorn conversation with hir about Mazin. Unable to really stand thon morose, Dalisay prompts thon to unleash thon’s true thoughts about Cassiopeia. Thon confesses thon’s extremely mad and tense, though mostly blames Mazin for his sudden interference and not Dalisay hirself as sie was suspecting. Freya simply says thon’ll need some time to cool down and then thon’ll be okay. Dalisay obliges, wishing thon the best.

Ulises and Sabri hang out right outside a spring balcony door. Sabri isn’t… necessarily uneasy, but seems more terse than usual. Upon approach it asks Dalisay what sie would’ve done in such a situation, referring to Míra’s death — Dalisay truthfully says sie can’t imagine hirself doing much more than Sabri did. Forlorn, Sabri confesses that it probably could’ve done something back then to prevent many passengers’ deaths, but it was too cowardly to actually bring itself to interfere after Mazin’s threat. Dalisay suggests it should visit Marjolaine and ask to confer with his facsimiles. It says it might, but very begrudingly, since it doubts it’d hear anything positive. It also backs out of the expedition following some convincing from Ulises, who wants it to stay safe.

Dalisay’s about to progress to the balcony, but Ulises interrupts, warning hir that Demeter’s ahead and still on edge. Sie insists on talking to them, and unable to really refute hir, Ulises lets hir past with a wish of good luck.

Demeter’s standing at the parapet fiddling with a cigarette, mumbling to themself imperceptibly. Dalisay calls their name, and they’re willing to talk, but… during their pleasantries Demeter feels almost calculatingly organised and cold. Dalisay tries to break this rigidity apart by mentioning Sabri. They immediately turn ornery, yelling out half-sentences and wailing as they try to organise their thoughts — they’re upset at everyone else acknowledging Míra so flippantly, upset at Sabri’s lie, upset that they had to give Mazin extended thought… following this, Dalisay leaves them alone.

Sie talks with Ulises after this, who says Demeter will be fine. Outside of that blemish, per seems content with the meeting and its conclusion. Per’s especially thankful for Dalisay hearing per out and claims to be indebted to hir, something sie shyly refutes.

Marjolaine and Beatrix are discussing something in a quiet corner of summer — they immediately cease when Dalisay joins in the conversation, Beatrix instead taking over to complain about how senseless the rest of the passengers are. Dalisay guesses that they’re both up to something, but at this point is too exhausted to be nosy.

Along hir travels Dalisay actually manages to locate Somsak — sie prepares to recap the entire conference but Somsak cuts hir off, saying he was right outside listening to everyone talk the whole time. He wishes to stay on the train for the foreseeable future, and so offers to help Dalisay out by distracting Mazin in the coming days. Sie thanks him, kind of amazed that he’s doing something helpful.

Valerie and Faris stick together, having few thoughts on the meeting beyond a general contentedness that it’s over. Faris’ disappointment over sticking behind seems to have vanished, something that surprises Dalisay.

After this there’s some time to tie up lose ends with certain characters but there’s nothing really new. Onwards to…

The control room journey

Three days after, the eclipse is indeed in its full swing, the blackouts outside lasting for minutes at a time. Everyone meets up in the same area in spring, and nobody seems to have backed out of their designation.

Somsak is here this time, and wishes to join the expedition group. He’s met with heavy distaste from nearly everyone, but he insists on it, and Dalisay agrees that “the more hands helping out, the better”. 

Discussion first starts with deliberation on the group that stays behind. It’s agreed that Olzhas should scout out for Mazin with eir clairvoyance to ensure some stealth. Freya also suggests summoning some analogue communication tools to allow the two groups to keep in touch without being overheard. Outside of these monitorings, this group’s main ploy is to stick to the outside of the control room and keep guard until the expedition group is either in trouble or returns.

The harder thing to plan out is the expedition group’s trajectory, since the layout of the control room is mostly a mystery. Beatrix has the most knowledge on it and offers her map, but states it’s a rough drawing based on shoddy memory that was already half-assumed considering Mazin limited her range of wandering from the get-go. Dalisay uses some of the knowledge sie’s gained from talking to the facsimiles to refine this as best as sie can. In the end, a solid enough assumption of the layout is made.

For the sake of conciseness, I’m going to just detail the control room as-is, some of this information is only found out later but whatever.

The control room starts off with a series of mostly useless labyrinthine corridors, which deeper in, coalesce into three main segments:

The Sect

Head of all communicative tools. Contains a wall of screens, various keyboards, microphones, all kinds of shit meant to facilitate messagesending. Though formerly mounted and organised, now all the peripherals are knocked around, many of them broken, and various screens are cracked to the point of uselessness. About 50% of this area’s devices are salvageable, and about 20% immediately useable still. It’s the area that’s faced most of Mazin’s wrath.

The Tower

Contains arrays of code that keep vital train functions running, such as proper interdimensional speed, preliminary object-pulling code, etc. The exterior of some of these mainframe-looking shells is scuffed but this is probably the part of the control room that’s best-preserved.

It is separated from the rest of the control room by a brief spiralling staircase, meaning it is somewhat more raised. Exteriorwise it makes it reminiscent of a train chimney. This unique layout is what lended it the name ‘The Tower’.

The Veil

A balcony area with an obscure purpose. The parapet is noticeably lower than on most other parts of the train, and is even bent open at a corner. Prime place to do away with someone, or more innocently, Fornaxgaze. It earned its name from Fornax’s attitude — around the veil it hardly wobbles and shifts, as opposed to practically every other balcony which usually lends a good display of Fornax’s chaos. It’s unknown why Fornax seems so uniquely stable here. It only gets chaotic during eclipse season, and even then, only mildly so.

The end of it

A small group goes over to the Evoker to summon any potentially helpful gear, and in the wait, everything is strangely silent and solemn. Dalisay starts to become nervous, but that frays once said group returns with things like flashlights and radios. Sie gets absorbed in preparation and suspends hir worries.

Over a few short trips, with careful consideration for not alerting Mazin, everyone’s arrived outside the control room. Some brief goodbyes are exchanged and equipment is tested out, and then the trek begins — in the end it’s Dalisay, Demeter, Valerie, Beatrix and Somsak.

Dalisay sets out as lead, maintaining a mindlink with Olzhas until sie surpasses eir range. The coast seems clear the entire way through. Right before eir voice crackles out, Olzhas tells Dalisay to take care. From here on out, Valerie takes over, using her mild person-sensing abilities to scout for Mazin or Peixin.

It’s a little hard to depict this section without delving into game mechanics talk because earnestly a lot of the control room’s basis lies in being a weird abstract time-loss place. So keep in mind the idea of communication with anyone being a bit unclear and strange and also lots of repetition and meandering due to maze weirdness.

Important progression though, Peixin stops the group right before they get to the principal three staves of the control room. They address Dalisay in particular, feeling betrayed, and attempt to try and knock hir over. Somsak intervenes, shoving them away, and encourages the rest of the group to run off while he distracts them.

The first place reached is the sect, which is honestly not too helpful. Dalisay manages to simply confirm what sie already took for granted as information — that the communicative tools put in place by the scientists were destroyed by Mazin. Sie has no use for them now, and so is tempted to destroy the remainder of the working ones, but decides to preserve them for now, since they may come in useful later on.

Still with no intervention, everyone climbs up to the tower. Mazin is strangely absent here as well — this only makes Dalisay more worried about meandering, and so sie walks on with haste until sie recognises a board of code, matching a description from Lusine. Sie tinkers with the interface for a while before realising sie’d have to obtain administrative access from deeper within the control room to actually change anything. Sie gets ready to trek onward. Valerie decides to stick back near the entrance in an attempt to sense out Mazin and give Dalisay more time, Demeter traverses back to check on Somsak and Beatrix comes with.

The eclipse starts to become more fervent, well visible through windowed breaks in the control room — Fornax is flickering rapidly and seems wildly unstable. Dalisay manages to locate the panel sie was looking for, and manages to reprogram it to loosen its security. Fornax blacks out for about an entire minute, during which Dalisay rests, but hir triumph is short-lived. Once Fornax relights Mazin emerges from the opposing end of the room, apparently having been here the whole time. Beatrix addresses him, asking him to back down. This only infuriates him, as he starts to criticise the act of everyone going behind his back. He says he would’ve been open to compromise beforehand, though denies the possibility now. Beatrix brings up his tendency toward resentment as the prime reason nobody wanted to reach out to him in the first place.

During this argument Dalisay’s been slinking away, awaiting another blackout. Once one strikes, sie tries to rush back to the code sie was messing with before, but is interrupted by Mazin, who tries to grab hir. Beatrix intervenes, basically throwing Mazin over her shoulder and launching into a run. Dalisay follows her footsteps, and the two soon reach the interface sie was messing with before. Dalisay reprograms it, finishing the first part of hir desired alteration — sie’s established the masking code, and now needs to delve deeper once more to rebuild the train’s return instructions.

Before sie can set off, Mazin reaches the two again. It seems to be a feint, though, for he runs off. Beatrix pelts after him, urging Dalisay to take the chance to finish hir job. Sie does just that.

The second bit of code is located quite close to the veil, which immediately unnerves Dalisay. Mazin still hasn’t arrived here, though, so sie sets to work. Right before sie’s done with hir programming, sie’s pushed to the ground by Mazin, who managed to arrive here alone. Fornax relights from blackout in this precise moment. He prepares to kick hir off into Fornax, but is interrupted by a strange silhouette that emerges.

Fornax briefly flits into brightness again, and Faris, in his wolf form, is illuminated. Dalisay realises what’s going on — both the eclipse and hir own rewiring have stabilised the train enough for him to be able to activate his lycanthropy. He manages to bowl Mazin over with ease and asks him to cease his interventions. Mazin relents, apologising, though the second he’s free he attempts to trip Faris over. On instinct Faris shoves him aside, far too forcefully, for he’s swung past the parapet. Fornax lightens a final time as Mazin falls in, and then fades into blackness. 

The two spend some time in silence, reeling from the experience. Dalisay rises, and shakily writes the rest of the necessary code, albeit does not have it run just yet. Soon after Valerie and Beatrix emerge, asking what happened. Dalisay simply states Mazin is dead. Faris approaches, first of all apologising for acting against the plan. He explains Mazin’s attempt to kill Dalisay, and the attempt made on his own life. He and Valerie walk ahead, wanting some silence. Beatrix leads Dalisay out of the control room, offering support.

Once sie emerges, celebration is subdued, but there’s an indubitable air of triumph. Sie spends some time alone, Fornaxgazing, but eventually becomes steady enough to converse with everyone.

Ulises Demeter and Sabri are the first people sie seeks out — sie says sie’ll swing by later to help them establish some communicative code. Sie encourages them to talk to Marjolaine and Somsak who also wish to remain. For the time being, the four engage in simple chat, invigorating Dalisay.

Freya, Olzhas and Dolichonyx are all muttering amongst themselves with palpable excitement. Upon approach, Freya delves into a deeply excited spiel about meeting her family again and being back in England. Olzhas and Dolichonyx are a bit more reserved, having agreed to leave together and rest in Italy for a few days. The three plan to meet up in England and move in together, citing excited prospects such as starting a band. Dalisay is lightly amused by their in-depth ambitions, though muses that their scheming is befitting.

Dalisay talks to Beatrix alone. She’s decided to leave the train in spite of Marjolaine’s stay, and proclaims that this distance will be nothing new. She’s talked things out with Marjolaine — the two will communicate through long-distance calls (which Dalisay freely volunteers to help with) and will attempt to preserve their relationship that way. In the meanwhile Beatrix claims she’s figured out the premise of her Fornax-inspired prose, choosing to chronicle it as a disjointed series of novellas, which she finds most befitting considering Fornax’s own abstractions.

Faris and Valerie are leaving together as well, for Boston, though they’re a bit more aimless. Faris is unsure about returning to his former wrestling career, reflecting that it exacerbated many unfavorable habits of his — he’s deliberating on finding something new to do with his life. Val is restless as well, saying she wants to broaden her creative horizons and that her initial problem was closemindedness with format — though nervous about stepping out of her comfort zone, she’s also quite excited about it. Sie wishes them both good luck.

Everyone agrees on a final week or so until the disembarking process begins, both to settle interpersonal matters and arrange luggage.

The following morning a strange conversation occurs with Peixin, who’s remarkably more relaxed than usual. They say they experienced no vision over the night, and had realised their vision of falling into Fornax was not a premonition of their own death — it was of Mazin’s. They awkwardly apologise to Dalisay for all the trouble. They’re a little stumped on what to do with their life, considering how the past few years had revolved around them constantly assuming they were going to die. They decide they want to return to their home in Brazil, though outright state they have no idea how things will shake out. In spite of this they’re still the most jovial Dalisay’s ever seen them.

Afterward there’s some strange chronology between conversations of departure — various days are skipped to when a particular person is leaving until everyone except Dalisay has left. Sie performs one final check with Ulises regarding the connection between the train and hir own personal devices, and once satisfied, is ready to go home hirself. Sie bids Ulises farewell and leaves the train.

And that’s it.