InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "You go, Glen Coco!"

Simon Tam (can_swear) wrote in expresslogs,
@ 2012-04-13 17:51:00

Entry tags:

!open, simon tam, {emma frost

Loss
Characters: Simon, open
When: Friday night
Location: Infirmary
Warnings/Rating: None anticipated
Summary: Simon tries to keep himself busy
Status: Open, ongoing

He'd be lying if he said he hadn't spent half the day scouring the cars to look for River. He'd gone over the entire train twice before deciding he should just submit to what should be obvious. Her name was gone, her things were gone. She was gone.

It was good though. It was. She'd go back, and they'd get to Miranda, and ... well, she'd have to endure the deaths of everyone the Alliance had taken out to get to her, but ... she'd start healing. She'd start piloting Serenity, and ... things would go on. Life would go on. It was better that she wasn't here. It was better that she was home, with her family. With him, and Kaylee, Mal, Zoe, Inara, and even Jayne.

It was better, but he couldn't help but worry.

He'd crossed paths with Lily, and all he'd had to do was look at her to know something was wrong. It had come out that her roommate and her son had both vanished. He could relate, and after they'd exchanged condolences, she'd updated him on the status of their brewing. Obviously the evening prior, nothing had happened in that regard, but she promised to work on things today. He assured her that there was no rush, but he thought it would serve as a needed distraction for her.

So it was now that Simon had retreated to the infirmary. There wasn't anything to do, really. It was organized, and they'd done what they could with the leaves already, but it was a familiar place. The one car he felt most comfortable in -- with the exception of his room with Kaylee.

Settling down on one of the couches, he thought he should have brought a book, or his tablet at least, but he wasn't interested in going to find either just then. So he remained seated, staring out the window. He wondered when the scenery was going to change, but if the past was any indication, he thought it would be sometime soon. He'd be glad to be shed of the desert.

Resting his elbow on the arm of the couch, he cupped his chin in his palm, vacant blue eyes fixed on the window.

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ice_queen
2012-04-14 01:12 am UTC (link)

Emma was exploring the train. She'd found the baggage car, which meant she was in the classiest outfit she could make from the bits and pieces stored there. Her room, on the other hand, was yet to be discovered, so she was carrying a small purse stuffed full of white silk.

She peered into the infirmary, scanning the equipment, and the doctor. She assumed he was a doctor. He wasn't wearing a coat. "Oh good, there is an infirmary." She liked to know there was somewhere to go if she got injured. Her gaze turned to settle squarely on Simon, and she was unmistakably addressing him. "Are you a doctor?"

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can_swear
2012-04-14 01:29 am UTC (link)

It took Simon a moment to pull far enough out of his thoughts to realize there was someone present who'd asked a question. "It used to be a dining car," he replied with an absent gesture toward the stacked tables and chairs at the far end. Which was completely irrelevant, he knew.

He blinked and shook his head before he rose. "Yes," he said with something resembling authority -- or at least firmness. "I'm Doctor Simon Tam," he replied as he extended a hand toward her. He thought she was new, if only because he hadn't seen her around before. He had, for a moment, the disturbing thought that the train didn't so much send people back as swap them out for other people and that River had somehow been swapped for this woman.

It was an utterly ridiculous though, and he thought it showed just how mad the train had made him if he could legitimately consider those sorts of thoughts. Still, there was part of him that wondered if it really was that ridiculous. It wasn't like they knew, did they?

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ice_queen
2012-04-14 01:36 am UTC (link)

Emma eyed the tables. That washed with what she knew about trains in general. They didn't tend to have expansive medical facilities. She stepped further into the room, to shake his hand. It was a firm and confident shake, one honed in her years as both a businesswoman and headmistress.

"I'm Emma Frost. I apologize if I'm interrupting something important." Being a doctor instantly made him useful. She'd spent more time in infirmaries than out, recently. If he was a better conversationalist than Doctor Nemesis, she was ahead of the game in that respect.

"May I look at your facilities? I've only just arrived, and I'd like to know the limits of our equipment and supplies." She wouldn't pretend to know a lot about medicine (unless it suddenly became ethical to read his mind), but she did know a lot about organization, and what a team stranded without support would need to remain alive and in good condition.

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can_swear
2012-04-14 01:48 am UTC (link)

Simon wondered if sitting and staring was considered important, but he shook his head. It was better to have a distraction. It was. The faster he could get over River being gone, the more useful he'd been when ... whatever was going to happen happened. "You're not," he assured her. "No, I was just ... thinking."

Simon made a 'be my guest' sweeping gesture with one hand. "It's not ... very much. We scrounged what we could from New York, but that was only 2009 technology. We picked up a few more things in Nebraska, but that was even worse; it was only 1990 there." As he spoke, he wondered if someone had already given her the run down on things, but he guessed if she had questions, she'd ask them. She didn't exactly strike him as shy.

They had done a decent job of covering bases for emergencies. Nothing was high tech state of the art stuff, but it was enough to get them by in a small scale emergency. "Sometimes the ... rear car will turn into ... a lab of sorts. We can't take anything out of it, but we can at least analyze things in it," he continued.

He was proud of what they'd done with the car, given the limitations the train had put on them. He wished it was better, of course he did, but given what they'd had to work with, they'd done well.

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ice_queen
2012-04-14 01:56 am UTC (link)

Emma gave his first response a 'hmmm' to acknowledge he'd said something. She was curious to know what he had been thinking about, and she almost took a look. The only thing that stopped her was the fact that he could well be a telepath himself, and the intrusion would certainly earn her no good will.

"So the train travels through time?" She canted her head, not hiding the surprise in her voice. "I assumed we were just traveling through the desert, potentially in a different universe. I didn't account for time travel." She was annoyed with herself for that. She should know to expect time travel by now. "That would make medical supplies somewhat scarce." She made a mental note to keep better track of her surroundings if she did get into a fight. The last thing she wanted was to actually become an amputee.

The mention of the car at the end of the train made her frown a bit. "I looked into it last night. It was nothing much, just an empty car with far too many spiderwebs." This train was only getting stranger the more she knew about it.

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can_swear
2012-04-14 02:13 am UTC (link)

Simon did smile, and he wondered if she just hadn't seen the alerts on the device. "It tells you, on your phone and tablet. Which ... were in your room," he reported. "Where we are, and ... where we're going. Just not when we'll get there. Right now, we're in ancient Egypt. 1750 BC, I think. We're headed toward Tortuga, but ... all the train's database says about that is that it's an island."

He nodded. "But ... yes. We travel through time. Across realities. Even to ... other universes." He was fairly certain the Pandora they'd been on had been in another universe entirely. "We do what we can when we stop, but we have no control over the train. Obviously ... we have no control or we wouldn't be here."

Simon nodded. "You have to open and close the door. It ... changes every time you do that. When we were using it for a morgue a ... a couple of months ago, we figured out if you leave the door propped open, it won't change. So it's something about the closing that changes it." He paused. "We assume, anyway."

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ice_queen
2012-04-19 04:53 am UTC (link)

Emma blinked a bit. She hadn't paid attention to the sleeping cars, yet. Her diamond form didn't need sleep, and she'd spent most of the night looking for clothing that was remotely tolerable. She filed away the information Simon gave her, grateful that he seemed to be more talkative than her previous encounter.

She nodded as her spoke, listening with all her attention. She could be a little intense, but every detail might count, every clue needed to be digested.

"How strange. I wonder what purpose this all serves?" She sighed a little, frustrated. It wasn't Simon's fault, and she didn't want to alienate the helpful doctor, but this was all becoming quite irritating. "I'm used to this kind of nonsense, but usually it serves some purpose."

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can_swear
2012-04-19 05:05 am UTC (link)

"If there is a purpose, we haven't figured it out yet," he admitted, vaguely apologetic. It wasn't his fault, but that didn't mean he couldn't feel bad about the whole situation. He did feel bad -- worse, lately -- but there wasn't anything he could do about it.

"As far as we can tell ... the arrivals and ... departures are completely arbitrary." Speaking as one who'd suffered a recent departure ... well, he was a little more bitter than he otherwise would have been about the train.

"The best we can do is ... hang on and fill in what blanks we can. Lend hands where we can. We ... were lucky to even get what we have now, all things considered, and I don't see the train exactly coughing up a more elaborate infirmary." If he didn't think it would sound completely insane, he'd point out that he thought the train liked making things as difficult as it possibly could.

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ice_queen
2012-04-19 05:22 am UTC (link)

Emma didn't like the idea of being so out of control of things. At least if she was captured by a sensible enemy she could figure out how to free herself and others. It would at least give her something to do.

She huffed a little, crossing her arms. There was nothing she could do. There was no way to get into the lead cars, so that was likely the point of control. "What can we change?" She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders. There had to be something, anything, that could be done to improve their situation. "Beyond medical supplies. I'm afraid my skills don't lie in that direction."

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can_swear
2012-04-19 05:37 am UTC (link)

"Change?" He replied as he tried to process what she meant. Change, in what context? On what scale? "I don't ... think change is the way to go," he began. "Everyone who comes on eventually finds their niche, or they ... get off when the train stops and just don't get back on."

He exhaled softly. "You'd ... Some people have already kind of picked up organizational roles. If you wanted to ... change anything about the train, I'd suggest talking to them, first." He wouldn't go so far as to say some people were 'in charge' of the train, because he knew that wasn't how it worked. They were simply beacons for those who were inclined to follow them.

Not that anyone could stop her, he guessed. "If ... you have a particular unique skill, you could offer your talents to those who might be interested. If you were inclined," he amended. Some people weren't, after all.

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ice_queen
2012-04-19 05:42 am UTC (link)

Emma blinked a bit when he mentioned getting off the train. "We can leave when the train stops?" What purpose did that serve? The most irritating part of it all was the arbitrariness that seemed to permeate every aspect of things.

The other information was important, and she made a note to ask more questions about the organizational structure later. Right now, it was important to understand the rules of the thing.

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can_swear
2012-04-19 05:48 am UTC (link)

"Yes," he replied. "It doesn't stock itself, or provide ... anything, honestly, aside from furniture and flatware. Bed linens and decorations. We have to bring on ..." he gestured. "Medication. Equipment. Entertainment." Though he guessed the train had stepped up there a little after New York with the tablets.

"People have left, voluntarily. It wasn't their reality, but the train didn't pull them back on, so as far as we know ... the ones who left it are making lives for themselves in the realities we've stopped in."

He hesitated briefly, then plunged on. "People who have ... certain magical powers or ... talents can get off the train while it's moving as well." For all he knew, she was one of those sorts and might want to do just that. "But ... most of us are stuck on board until it comes to a stop in some reality."

With any luck, future realities would be better, not worse, but he wasn't holding his breath there.

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ice_queen
2012-04-19 05:52 am UTC (link)

Well, that solved Emma's problem, in a way. Staying in one spot was bound to make things easier for those who were tracking her in an attempt to bring her back.

For a moment, she wondered if Scott would bring her back. After all, they had been estranged recently, thanks to her injury and his obsessive need to establish his new team. He might be too busy to try to find her.

This wasn't the time for that kind of thought. She shoved it forcibly from her head. If Scott didn't rescue her, she'd rescue herself, then make his life hell until he died.

"Do we know anything about Tortuga?" The name didn't ring a bell.

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