--------------------------------------------------------------------------- You awaken into a dream of rolling green hills and lavender sky, flowers bobbing themselves silly in a sweet breeze that smells of maple syrup and sprinkles. It immediately strikes confusion as you rustle your hands through the grass- it's so real. This landscape doesn't hold the fragility of most dreams, where if you think about it too hard you wake up. You feel as though you've been dropped into an alternate reality. Honestly, it's a bit unsettling. A train's cheerful whistle echoes off the hills. It jolts you into motion, and, cresting the rise, you spot a small station below. Your nerves dissipate as you approach the conductor: a cat dressed in purple overalls, a bright shirt, and a railway cap. A friendly twinkle lights both of their green and blue eyes. She holds out a paw. ----------------------------------------------- [ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ] - "Hey there pal! Pleasure to meet you. The name's ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ, but just Mizu works fine. I believe you're here to hop on the rail, right?" ----------------------------------------------- Mizu gestures to the train. It's a shiny blue with purple trim and smaller than a normal train, with whimsical, almost carousel-esque touches making it reminiscent of a miniature engine you might ride at a zoo or amusement park. You spot the words ᴛʀᴀɪɴ ᴏꜰ ᴛʜᴏᴜɢʜᴛ engraved in glittering gold in the side of one of the cars. -[ʀɪᴅᴇ ᴛʀᴀɪɴ?]- [ʏᴇꜱ✿] [ɴᴏ] you fish a ticket out of your pocket and hand it to Mizu. He brings it close to inspect it. ----------------------------------------------- [ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ] - "My-oh-my, a genuine watermelon-scented scratch and sniff ticket!" He exclaims. "You must have an important day ahead of you." ----------------------------------------------- Instead of using a holepunch to mark the ticket, they place a puffy smiley face sticker over it and hand it back to you. Hopping up into the engine room, Mizu blows the whistle a few more times but nobody else appears. They shrug, saying something about a slow day, and lead you into the first-class row. You sit down on a plush seat at the front of the car. All the train cars are open-windowed and close together, making it easy to chat with the conductor. You want to know more about why you're here and where the train is taking you. As you slowly pull out of the station with a steady accelerating 'chug-whoosh-chug-whoosh', Mizu sticks their head out of their window and grins at you. -[ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛ✿]- "where are we going?" ----------------------------------------------- [ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ] - "Station 64. A pretty rare destination for a pretty rare fellow like you! That watermelon ticket is a once-in-a-lifetime type of summon." Mizu sees your confusion and squints. "You're a first rider, yeah? I'd recognize a frequent flyer. Don't worry about the destination, sweets. Just enjoy the journey!" She lets out a happy whistle at the same time as the train. ----------------------------------------------- You smile. Well, it's a weird dream, but not a bad one. As Mizu turns their attention back to the engine, you turn yours to the landscape. Everything seems bigger with trees arching in bowed curves and hills rising on either side of you. You cross a stone bridge, and the water below is perfectly crystal blue. You feel like you're riding on a toy train in a display but no curious eyes are in the sky. Only wispy pastel clouds and distant birds watch. Your nose twitches. What's that smell? It's different from the sugar-syrup wind earlier; more woody and.. Familiar? It smells like... For a second it feels as if your foot rests on playground mulch and not fuzzy carpeted floor. A quick glance proves this wrong, and you tilt your head, confused. ----------------------------------------------- [ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ] - "Refreshments!" ----------------------------------------------- The cat leans out the window to toss you a soda can- a rather impressive feat on a moving train. You laugh your thanks, noticing how thirsty you are. It's not a brand you recognize, but it looks tasty. -[ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛ✿]- you pop open the tab and take a sip. Hidden in the taste of the sweet soda is a flurry of memories. Visiting the aquarium, libraries, flower gardens. Your early birthdays. It reminds you of old details that can only make complete sense to you, like the silhouettes of trees outside your childhood house or the way light shone off your sparkly Halloween costume you wore that one year. The first sips make you feel heavy but comforted, and the last sips make you feel young and small, like you really are a tiny person in a train display. You turn over the can and check the label. it's flavored with raspberry, kiwi, lemon, and.. Nostalgia. Seems right.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- You stash the empty soda can in your pocket as a reminder to look for more of it to buy later. As the hills slip by and the train chugs on, you catch something out of the corner of your eye. Is that a bouncy rocking horse? A hot pink plastic animal seated on a spring waggles back and forth. But when you look directly at it, it's just another seat. You rub your eyes but once again, you're just in a train, nothing more. ----------------------------------------------- [ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ] - "We're almost there! But we oughta speed up a bit to get there in time. Hang on, sweets. This is the best part!" ----------------------------------------------- From the window, you watch Mizu heave a lever in the control room. The whistle cheers loudly, and so does the conductor, clapping excitedly. You hang on to your seat as the train lurches up to speed. With every second it grows faster until the hills are blurred, blending with the lilac sky in a dizzying whirl. You stick your head out of the window and look back to watch the endless train cars stretch into the distance. The wind whips your hair playfully and you laugh into the breeze. You settle back into your seat. A bag of fruit snacks has appeared on the empty cushion beside you. You glance around, but Mizu's still in the engine. How did they get here and back so fast and so quiet? You shrug and start eating. After a while the train slows back to a normal speed, and a few minutes later it slows even more. You roll into another station, shadowed by the vague shapes of a town in the distance. Mizu blows the train's whistle twice, then hops out to help you out of the car. She leads you on to the grass and nods at the silhouette of buildings. ----------------------------------------------- [ᴄᴏɴᴅᴜᴄᴛᴏʀ ᴍɪᴢᴜ] - "Well, it's the end of the line for your ride. But don't look so glum- I'm sure we'll meet again some day! Now, go see what that ticket's summoned you for, hm? Next time you're on the train, I want all the gossip!" ----------------------------------------------- He climbs back up into the engine room and waves as the train speeds up and away. You remember the cars being infinite, but now there's only a few. Something glittery makes you look down. On your shirt is another puffy sticker, this time a sparkly butterfly. They must've stuck it on you while you were distracted. You let out a surprised giggle. Walking down the path in the direction of the town, you pause and pull the ticket out of your pocket, knowing you're about to dive into a whole new adventure. You look back... Where there used to be rails and a station, a small playground rests on the hillside. A colorful fort with climbing walls and slides, surrounded by a jungle gym, a merry-go-round, and a pink, bouncy rocking horse. A wooden pretend train rests in the mulch. The cars are just big enough for little kids to duck into, and the bright paint is slightly chipped. -[ɪɴᴛᴇʀᴀᴄᴛ✿]- you peel the sticker off your shirt and place it on the train. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- did i just write and entire short story of a new character with no warning? i think i just did. uhh, yeah, meet Mizu! wait, that's silly. you've already met Mizu. believe it or not i got this entire idea just from listening to webcore music, mainly Hourglass Meadow (the first song in this project!) and other various songs from ENA. this comment from my ramble studio sums it up pretty well: "okay binging all the ENA videos and then listening to a bunch of webcore music playlists while drinking mango juice at 4am really changes up your creative process but in, like, a good way. it's like my brain reset while doing that so like how baby birds imprint on the first moving thing they see, i, with newly reset brain, imprinted on the webcore vibes and now can't get them out of my head which is why i'm currently writing a short story on a character i based off of one of the songs" then i spent an entire day writing this while listening to the same webcore playlists over and over because motivation go brrrrrrrr fun details - Who does Mizu work for? why do you get summoned here? what happens next? that's up to imagination - The cars aren't always empty! - The train is real, it just disappears after you look away - Mizu calls everyone "sweets" :D anyway yea hope you enjoyed!! Mizu has quickly become one of my favorite characters so you might be seeing more of him soon ^^ art/writing by me songs: hourglass meadow icosa browser history ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
