Doing that veteran thing...

[inexecution]

Did anyone else notice the train seems to loop back on itself?

[That sudden psychic broadcast is brought to you with a great deal of excitement, because of course it is. For those new Travelers who didn't already get an introduction via Joscelin, welcome to the Psychic network! Confusion is to be expected. It's okay, Souji's got your back.]

And I saw some new faces while I was walking around, so, hello! This is probably confusing, but don't worry. You can ask pretty much anyone here for help, we're used to it by now. I'm Souji, by the way. [Well, one of them, anyway...] Don't worry. This is all perfectly normal. [...ish.]

Comments

[surveyor]

Tch... [F r o w n. He's not too thrilled about the prospect of hallucinations on top of all of the other things he's experienced since being taken.] How did you find your way out? Dumb luck?

[fridgeninja]

I don't think so. It's more likely the exit didn't exist until the Trumps were ready to let me return.

[surveyor]

That sounds like them. [And people call him a control freak.] ...There are less of us now than there were when I was taken.

[It's possible he's only noticed because the missing include at least three people he'd spoken to and a possible fourth, now that he thinks about it; he's been paying closer attention to that since Eren's disappearance. Arrivals, too- he's made a note of them, scratched into the side of his gear along with cuts marking the passage of time as he experiences it.]

[fridgeninja]

I was wondering. I remember there being more of us, too.

[surveyor]

At least one of them is dead. I don't know what happened to the others.

[fridgeninja]

Who died?

[surveyor]

He was taller than I am- [don't even...] -with dark wavy hair. Arrogant. [And because Levi has no problem speaking ill of the 'dead':] And a pig.

[The Nile Dawk of the Travelers, basically. The grudge lives on even though Robb (allegedly) does not.]

I never got his name.

[fridgeninja]

I see.

When I was here before, dead Travelers always came back.

[surveyor]

[GUESS WHO NEVER GOT THAT (VERY IMPORTANT) MEMO...?]

That's impossible.

[fridgeninja]

If that's true, you're talking to a corpse right now.

[surveyor]

What?

[No, really, you gotta help him out here. Because where he's from (where most... people are from?) death is very much a permanent situation.]

[fridgeninja]

If I'm counting correctly, I died four times in Moebius and once in the Spark.

[surveyor]

You're full of shit.

[He's having a hard time reconciling this with, well, everything he's ever known. People die, and then they're gone. They don't come back.

That's not how it works. It can't be.]

[fridgeninja]

You're welcome to check with someone else.

[surveyor]

[Levi doesn't answer- because as far as he's concerned the conversation is over, he isn't about to listen to any more of this- but... Something in his gut is telling him he could stand to do more investigating on the subject.

Not now, though, not without a clearer head. Compartmentalizing is one of his greatest strengths and always has been, but contrary to popular belief there's actually nothing inhuman (or particularly unfeeling) about him; this topic is too close for him to step back just yet, even after everything else he's seen here. It's wrong, fundamentally, it's--

He can't accept it. It doesn't fit. Sorry, stranger.]