Drag watched the city fly by the windows outside the train. After his friend had nagged him for a while, he finally agreed to come out for a trip to visit. The trip itself was going to take about six hours though. Drag tried to stifle his yawn and failed miserably because being cheap meant that he had to get up before sunrise to catch the train. The teller had tried to say something to him when he got on the train, but he’d still been too tired to notice and just flapped his hand at him. He tried to keep his eyes open but watching all the trees fly by was having a very lulling effect on him. He caught the eye of one of the attendants and waved them down. “Can you wake me when we get to Sampson, please,” Drag asked. The attendant gave him a strange look and nodded. Drag groaned and rubbed his eyes. Naps were the equivalent of Russian roulette for him, and he wasn’t entirely sure if he had dodged the bullet. He looked out the window to see that they were still moving but it was late at night. He could see the stars gleaming over what he could make out as trees. It took him a second to realize something was very wrong. He should have been dropped off already since he should have been there a little after noon. Looking around the carriage, it looked like he was completely alone. He stumbled up and towards the door, trying to find an attendant to tell him what’s going on. “Helllloooooo? Is anyone here,” Drag called, walking into the next carriage, only to find it just as deserted. Steeling himself, he started trying to head for the next door. SCREECH!!! Before he could reach the door, the train grinded to an ear-splitting halt, throwing him forward. “Thank you for riding with the Midnight Express. We hope you find this journey fulfilling lest our mission be a mistake. Please take care and seek out the adventure.” Drag groaned from the floor. He must still be in the process of waking up cause the message barely made any sense to him. Thankfully, he could see the door to exit off this weird train and maybe find some answers to where exactly he was. Walking off the train, he could see one of the attendants standing by the door, with the moon reflecting off their weird glasses. “Where am I,” Drag asked, trying to keep the impatience out of his voice. “Exactly where you need to be,” the attendant dreamily replied, before bowing his head and getting back on the train. Drag showed off his two favorite fingers to the train as it made its departure. That nap had definitely not helped and he could feel a slight headache starting to grow. Turning around, he could see some light off in the distance and what looked like a path. With no other real choice, he gave a sigh and started walking. On the bright side, if he did still end up making it to his friend, this would be a great story to share. Walking down the path, he had to pause for a second when he got to the end. “What. The. Fuck?” It was some sort of small town set a little way off from the train stop. There was a nice glow with the hanging lamps shining over the silver brick road. The light sparkled down the town, casting light on the pretty small paper houses spread out down the road. Taking a deep breath in, he caught a heavy whiff of cinnamon and vanilla in the air. Even with it being so late, people were still walking around and chatting with each other. It almost looked normal to some extent. Almost. The part that had him stunned was the people though. He watched a beautiful woman chatting with some guy about something while the tentacles she had sprouting from her skirt kept swaying. Another guy was walking away from a shop with his head tilted due to having a huge green horn growing out of one side. A tiny porcupine was having a shouting match with a child before bristling and storming off. Nothing about the people he saw was making sense, so he did the first thing he thought of. He looked for the first thing that looked like a bar and headed there. Walking in the door, thankfully it still looked like a pretty normal bar. He walked up to the bar to order a drink. A guy came over, with one of his arms being a live snake. It didn’t seem like it really knew what it wanted to do, since it helped pass one drink to one customer and threw the second one at another person’s head. The guy paid no mind towards it and just stared at Drag, waiting for him to order. “Can I get a-uh um…rum and coke,” Drag said, trying to refocus. The bartender just stared at him confused before putting a menu down in front of him. Drag sighed and picked up the drinking menu. “Ok um, I’ll have the Blue Raspberry Busted Brain.” The bartender gave him a toothy grin and wandered off to start making it. This was so not how he had expected his trip to go. It was just supposed to be an easy train ride and then relaxing with his friend for a few days. Have a few drinks, do some sightseeing, maybe even do some shopping. Instead, he didn’t even know if he was still on Earth as he watched a frog in a top hat conversing with some big blue translucent blob. The bartender set his drink in front of him. Taking a small sip, he did a full body shudder. It was sweet and sour at the same time and sent a rush through his whole body that it felt like even his brain was tingling a little. The bartender gave a knowing wink and wandered off to apologize to the customer that was just coming to. The bar itself was pretty packed, with almost every single seat taken. There was one left at a table with only one other guy sitting there. Even after being on a train for so many hours, he still felt the urge to want to sit down again. “Is this seat taken?” The guy looked up at him with the most startling indigo eyes. The expression on his face made it seem like he could look deep into his soul, making Drag feel self-conscious and naked all of a sudden. “The chair is empty, isn’t it?” That snarky comment dragged Drag back to his senses. He rolled his eyes and sat down, taking another sip of the drink. He stared at the guy over the rim of his drink. Indigo was busy reading some book and occasionally taking a sip from some mug that was smoking. There was a slight twitch he would do, but other than that he seemed determined to read his book. “Didn’t anyone ever tell you that it’s impolite to stare?” Drag shrugged. “Does it really matter if you’re just gonna ignore it and keep reading your book anyways.” Indigo put his book down for a second and glared at him. “It matters because it is highly irritating, and I can’t focus on this riveting chapter I just started.” “It can’t be that riveting if I can still manage to distract you,” Drag replied, wagging his eyebrows. “First human to wander here in decades, and of course it has to be an obnoxious one that sits down across from me.” That got Drag’s attention and made him sit straighter. “Wander where? What is this place?” “So-Be-Re. Just a place that exists on the edge of everything. A waystation to wind down at.” “I’ll politely pretend that made perfect sense to me,” Drag replied, causing Indigo to snort. A person walked by their table and Indigo winced. “Did they smell that bad,” Drag joked lightly. Indigo rolled his eyes and raised his hand for the bartender. “No, it had nothing to do with that. I had the unfortunate gift…curse…something to be born with the ability of an empath.” Indigo nodded at the bartender as he set down four purple bubbly shots in front of him. Indigo nodded at Drag and knocked back the first shot. “Sounds pretty cool, even if you don’t seem that happy,” Drag said. “What gives you that idea,” Indigo said, knocking back another shot. Drag didn’t know if he should be impressed or concerned with the ease he had in swallowing them down. “I would think it would be a little more exciting, getting to have an insight into people.” “Sure, it can be fun sometimes. Feeling the rush that came from someone who just shared their first kiss with their crush, or the relief of acing a test that they had studied for days for, or even just the simple enjoyment of catching up with a friend that you haven’t talked to in quite a while. It can be nice to share in the pleasures that other’s feel. It also has it downsides though. Feeling the pain of someone watching their love slowly die from a disease with no cure or treatment, the explosive anger and hurt from being betrayed by someone you thought you could trust, or having overwhelming despair that puts you close to an edge that you can’t come back from while fighting with depression. Some days just end up being rougher than others,” Indigo said, looking exhausted just from recalling some of those memories. Drag nodded at the thought. “I can’t even imagine having to deal with something like that every day. It sounds like it gets exhausting.” “Very. I do what I can for the one’s I can help and for those that I can’t…I come here.” Indigo grabs another shot and Drag snatches the last one and holds it up. “To having the impressive strength to live with this power and saving those that you can along the way,” Drag toasted, knocking back the shot. It went down smoothly, leaving a pleasant aftertaste. It kind of reminded him of blueberry lemonade. Indigo set his shot down and stared at Drag. “So, what’s the plan for you? Next train doesn’t come for a while.” “Considering I’m not from around, stands to reason that I wouldn’t really know what to do or have a plan,” Drag snarked, making Indigo burst out laughing. “Most people end up wandering here for a reason, which you’ll find somewhere out there,” Indigo said, gesturing more towards the door. Drag took another sip of his drink and glanced at the door. There was a certain pull that he couldn’t deny feeling that had him partly excited and partly scared. It was weird and didn’t make sense, but the longer he was here, the more he felt like he was actually supposed to be here. But looking back at Indigo, he couldn’t help feel like he wasn’t finished in the bar yet. “Come with me.” Indigo looked at him and raised an eyebrow. “Why would I do that?” “Cause as nice as this bar is, it stills feel a little stale and I’m guessing you could use some fresh air. If I’m going to be running into some weird destiny or fate thing that could potentially change things, it would be nice to have someone around me I feel comfortable with.” “We literally just met.” Drag waved his hand, brushing off the remark. “Yup, and now we’re friends. Time is irrelevant.” Indigo sighed before pushing his book into a portal. “Sure, why not? Could be fun. Might even get to change the universe along the way.” It was going to be a while for the next train anyways. Might as well do some exploring with a new friend in the meantime.