It was Isaac's opinion, after enough of this, that trains were boring.

Let's break it down from his perspective, just for a moment.  He was a farmer, an animal handler.  He'd spent his life in wide-open spaces, free to roam anywhere he liked.  He made and memorized trails, discovered secret places, got to find all kinds of things.  Sometimes, he did this with towns, because they had all kinds of nooks and crannies.  When he was taken for recruitment and shoved into a cell, he was miserable and had nothing to do.  When he was on a boat to cross the channel, he had a bit more freedom to roam, but not that much.  When he was in basic training, he made the MPs earn their keep by trying to duck out of sight for a while, all because he was bored.

So, here he was now.  He was in a room, a series of rooms stretched along a moving corridor, and he had nothing to do.  He didn't have a book, and he didn't have Jean's penchant for writing or Lucia's...let's assume she'd been sketching pictures, when he saw her with a pad.  They hadn't accorded him the basic freedoms to entertain himself when he was recruited, because the word you're [i]really[/i] looking for is [i]conscripted[/i], forced, drafted...  That left him with few amenities because he hadn't really had many allowed.  So, the point of it was that during this train ride, Isaac had spent his time eating, sleeping, talking and such with the others, and looking for different ways to amuse himself.

He had, in fact, gone a bit too far, a couple of times.

You see, he would train the wolves and play a game at the same time, back on the farm.  He'd go off and find a place to hide, and he'd wait and see if any of them could find him.  The truth is, they always won.  Always.  Wolf noses are undefeatable.  However, it was fun to see [i]how long[/i] it would take for them to notice him.  This is one thing Isaac attempted to do on this train to keep amused, and those who found him were not very pleased with his presence.  His only real excuse for it, when questioned by someone of authority was 'Training exercise'.  Technically, it [i]would[/i] help.  He just wasn't really suppose to do it.  And the [i]second[/i] thing he wasn't suppose to do was try and get on the roof of the train.  He hadn't done it yet, but every now and then, he'd given it some effort.

Right now, though, right this minute...he was at rest.  Not necessarily sleepy.  He was just at that stage of boredom where he'd decided to just let time go by.  He figured it was probably for best before meeting the new additions to the team.  When the train came to a halt at a station, he knew - even without opening his eyes - that now was the time of their arrival.  Sitting where he was, he began to listen carefully.  As the wolves had learned from him the ways of the human world, he had learned to trust his other senses, like they did.  Not to say that his nose was any better now than it was in the beginning.  He just paid it and his ears a bit more heed, trying to understand more of what they were telling him.  Ears worked better, for sure.

Ears made him aware of something [i]funny[/i] going on.

[center][youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDxhHeL8IYI[/youtube][/center]

There was someone with an unusual accent - at least, it wasn't one that [i]he[/i] was use to, not like anybody back in Edinburgh - talking with Jean now.  It sounded like she'd swiped his notepad and was reading it.  Isaac knew that Jean had been writing something because he thought Isaac had been asleep when he was doing it, yesterday.  But he was aware, and this made what he was hearing all the more hilarious.  What was it with the outlandish girls that seemed to put a smile on his face?  Was it because they didn't act like normal girls?  Maybe.  Who knows?  It was funny, though, especially when the girl started interrogating Jean and shouting out.  Isaac continued to listen in.  you'd think he wouldn't [i]be able[/i] to hear through a closed cabin door, but the fact is...he'd asked Britta to leave it open a crack if she saw it open.  She thought it'd be funny to listen in on others a little too, see what they thought about things and handle them appropriately.  Nothing underhanded, mind you.  Just to see what troubles people and hope to address it.  You don't get to be the backbone of a group by osmosis.  You have to listen...  Right now, Isaac was hearing [i]alot[/i].

[color=f7941d][i]My god, she goes on like a mile a minute.[/i][/color]

The girl that Jean was talking to seemed to be...well, she was one of the new shocktroopers, Oceanic, and...and...she wasn't to do [i]what[/i] to Middleton?!  Can anyone even be allowed to [i]think[/i] that?  Middleton wasn't a [i]man[/i].  He was a slab of granite, hoping to become a very famous statue.  You can't like that...can you?  I mean, there are [i]laws[/i] about that sort of thing.  Any relationship that should be considered holy and decent must involve two human beings, not a walking pile of shit.  And who the fuck was Marathon?  Might've heard that name in town a few times, but you can understand why Isaac, of all people, didn't know anything about him.  And with that, there was offically too much going on here.  Time to get up.  Isaac got to his feet and stretched with a minor grunt, because once again Middleton was putting everything on Jean, like he was trying to break him through sheer pressure.

He stepped out as Jean was still talking to...oh, a very cheerful-looking blonde who looked like she had maybe a couple years on both of 'em.  Not exactly as working tough as Britta, per se.  Maybe even a bit like Diana in the looks department.  Somewhere in the middle, perhaps?  Maybe.  She seemed nice, but Isaac had been listening, and she was very [i]very[/i] independent, like stepping-on-a-few-toes independent.  Could be handy, later on, but for now it might be best to make sure she wasn't driving Jean over there crazy.  She ran off before he got onto the scene in proper.  Jean looked properly confused.  Isaac didn't blame him.

[color=f7941d]"I'm not sure I understood half of what was coming out of her mouth, but I take it that's one of our recruits?  Should I see about keeping her from messing with everybody's...what?"[/color]

He looked past Jean down the hall, spotting Michael there talking with...holy crap.

[color=f7941d]"Hey, we're getting another short sapper.  If they're all like Michael, we could have no trouble with this war at all!"[/color]

After all, Michael was a decent guy, so if anyone of his stature in his line of work was any good, they would be having a better time dealing with these battles.

[color=f7941d]"Oh, and we should probably get someone - NOT Middleton - to see about getting people something to pass the time on these things.  Trains are just no fun at all."[/color]

Not after all the thrill and majesty of it has worn off, and certainly not during wartime, where it has no glamour at all.