alteracion | catchall omi

From your part? What, were you skipping rehearsals?

What? Of course not.

It was more like... I was getting a little obsessive about something else, and it was affecting my cooking. But it's not like Sakyo knew that, so he just forced me out of the kitchen. [In the tone of "how dare you."]

I would've been fine. I know there's 26 of us, but it's not a problem normally.

[Enough about that!]

Who was that guy you were with?

Huh? [ it takes her a second to place what he's talking about, forgetting her own memory, and: ] Oh, that's Simon. We met on the train. We've known each other for years.

So... for as long as you've been on the train?

Sort of? I was on my own for longer than he was, and he'd already been on the train a few months when we met.

And you don't know about any passengers on the train until you meet them?

[He gestures to the crepe.]

You should eat that while it's fresh.

Oh. [ she eats it in between speaking, but is good at swallowing and not talking with her mouth full. because she has manners, allegedly ] It's good. But yes and no-- we made a number tracker, so we can see if there are passengers in a car, but the train's huge. We don't know when any new ones arrive, but we try to find as many as we can for the Apex.

[He makes a motion to his own hand, where Grace has her numbers.]

Is that the number tracker?

What's the Apex?

No, that's just my number? That's what the tracker tracks. Numbers.

[ stop saying words. anyway; ]

The Apex is the group we made aboard the train. We help passengers so they can survive and enjoy the train to the fullest.

What are the numbers for? The number of people on the train? Or when you board?

How are you supposed to enjoy the train...?

All passengers get a number when they get on the train. If you're good at the train, it gets higher.

[ and she shrugs at the question ]

You enjoy it the same way you enjoy anything. By doing what's fun. Which is a lot easier when you're not struggling to survive, so: the group.