A snippet of time from my first few weeks aboard the Express. I've been taking notes in my journal from the beginning, of which this is only the start. I don't share this with just anybody. So please, treat it with respect. - 🍯
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Despite hearing sharp, precise footsteps approaching her seat in what the group had deemed a - relatively - safe lounge car, Samantha didn't pause in updating the Conductor's entry in her small green journal. She may not have known the Researcher for very long, just yet, but the woman was memorable enough that it wasn't difficult for her to stick in one's memory.
She continued to write and mused that she was probably headed over to speak with Itzy, nearby. The Researcher hadn't really been interested in Samantha's opinion on - anything, really - since their first meeting a week or so ago when she learned Sam hadn't yet encountered any residents as up close and personally as Itzy had.
So, surely she was safe. Right?
The shadow that was suddenly cast by a certain someone looming over her shoulder implied otherwise.
"What is it that you're always scribbling in that journal of yours? Pray tell it's something actually useful to the rest of us."
Samantha looked up from her entry with a scowl. She moved to cover the page with her hand and took a moment to close her eyes and just... breathe. When she opened them again, it was to meet the Researcher's gaze through the other woman's round, green-tinted glasses. Sam reminded herself to be civil.
"Hello to you too, Researcher. It's certainly useful to me. I'm not sure it would meet your standards." She threw a pointed glance to the corner of the thick, ancient looking tome strapped to the Researcher's back. "Yours seems... a lot more impressive."
The Researcher's posture straightened up with pride. And maybe a hint of imperiousness - if you were asking Sam, at least.
"The Journal is a masterful feat of academia only achieved through the persistence and craftsmanship of many a great man who has come before me. Your measly paper journal would never compare. Nevertheless, if you are transcribing pertinent information, then I must insist upon reading it."
Samantha couldn't help but roll her eyes. Even so, a small smirk quirked up the corner of her lips. Despite the demanding way the Researcher spoke most (all) of the time, it made her mad about as often as it made her laugh. Not that she would ever admit that.
"You insist? Well what if I insist that it's private?"
The Researcher's lip curled disapprovingly. "That's simply nonsensical. If the contents of your journal would aid us in our survival aboard this train, then why hide it? What would you have to hide anyway, Samantha? There's nothing you can write that could possibly make a scholarly mind such as my own flinch."
Samantha thought about a few of the secrets she kept - not her own, but for someone else. Flinch? No, probably not. Froth? Almost definitely.
She looked back down to her journal and shifted her hand slightly off the page.
Well. Fuck it. Maybe the Researcher would notice something that she hadn't. Besides - she had designed things with the intention for it to be at least a little useful to anyone that found it.
Sam flipped back to the first entry, and then offered her journal up to the Researcher.
"Far be it from me to do something nonsensical, Researcher. I'm honestly not sure if it would be useful for you - but then again, maybe you'll notice something I haven't, yet."
The Researcher smiled. Samantha stared at her mouth a little longer than might have been appropriate, and only realized that fact when the woman spoke again and she was able to snap her eyes away.
"I knew there was a reasonable woman somewhere beneath that bull-headed nature of yours, Samantha. Let's have a look, then."
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Close-ups (without a color filter) under the cut. Click the link at the end of the narrative portion above to read the transcript of these pages contents.