@wandmakerr
“It’s not even nine in the morning, can’t you just be quiet for a few minutes? Please.” The exasperation in his voice would have amused eavesdroppers, but there weren’t any. Alastor could count with one hand all of the other passengers, and had - there was a perhaps sleeping, perhaps dead old lady tightly hugging her purse; some kid that couldn’t be older than fifteen carrying only a backpack and a vacant stare (they could listen to whatever song was playing on his headphones when it got quiet, and it was slightly terrifying); a men in a suit that looked distinctively out of place in a train to the countryside, too busy with his iPad to realise that; and a woman that kept on trying to make small talk but ended up making phone calls instead, as a way to avoid the silence. An odd pack. “We can play cards,” he suggested, checking the time on his phone, “it won’t be long now, so that could be distracting enough.” Alastor had not properly planned the actual trip, just that bringing Gillian along for stargazing in the clear sky of the countryside would be a nice way to spend a Saturday. A three hour train ride was too much interaction between the two, in his opinion.
[ It was in fact not even nine in the morning, and Gillian could not be quiet for a few minutes. It must have been the train ride, taking her somewhere far, a new adventure waiting to be explored and getting her all jittery — or it was that she was, unfortunately, always like this. She is not leaning back comfortably, she is sitting on the edge of her seat, eyes on the view that the recently cleaned window offers her. It is all lush greens and hills, wildlife and quiet and yet so very much alive. The trees pass in a blur, the houses she can see from afar are grande, homey, actual farms. Her life so far has been nothing but brick and the smell of the city. She dictates everything she sees. "There are horses grazing --- horses! Oh, that one fell over. The trees are so big here, can you imagine the fun the children around here have? So much nature to get lost in." Finally satisfied with her findings, Gillian leans back into the chair. She has not given the other passengers much thought, but she saw a young woman rolling her eyes at her before, and Gillian had smiled sweetly in return. "We can also just jump in front of this train, that's bound to be about as much fun as playing cards offers." Gillian had never played cards. ] [Time passes, as it always does. After not playing cards and very few quiet moments, Gillian has quieted down just a tad, and as the afternoon arrives, so do they. Gillian explodes out of the traindoors with an excited "Yay!". The sun is high, the skies are blue, and she wants none of it. ] "Now, is it naptime?"
