Taro blinked back at the girl, his eyes shifting away from her as the smirk on his face began to waver as the air between the two of them began to grow uncomfortable. Maybe she had refrozen? For all he knew, that could be a thing. He thought about perhaps giving her a poke or a push, but she reanimated suddenly and began to rattle words off like a machine gun. Taro quietly chuckled when she apologized, deciding instantly that the girl was all right—even as she crushed his hand in a surprisingly strong handshake.
He thought about what she had said about things feeling different, making a “hmm” noise with his mouth as he tapped a finger against his chin. Truth be told, the only thing that seemed different to him was that there was another person experiencing the stasis. Otherwise, it was just its usual kinda very creepy self, although now that she mentioned it he couldn’t shake a feeling of heaviness. Nah, you’re just imagining it, thought Taro.
He believed it would be best to try and dismiss the girl’s fears; there was no reason to try and panic her. He opened his mouth to speak, but only managed a startled yelp like a tiny dog who had just nearly been trampled as somebody yelled a greeting at them. As he crawled back into his skin, Taro turned and noticed the redheaded girl that had snuck into the compartment behind him and Nira. He sighed with relief, offering her a friendly smile as she took a seat near them.
“Don’t sweat it,” said Taro, his voice pitching down to its normal level. Perhaps striking out earlier wasn’t such a bad thing anymore if I get to spend an hour trapped on a frozen train with two cute ba—okay, dude, come on, now’s not the time, he thought, trying to focus on the task at hand.
“I think we’re all kind of excited not to be stuck spending our time with a bunch of creepy living statues. I’m Taro, and this is Nira Seri...” He glanced back towards Nira. “Seritoka, right? We were just trying to figure out what to do. I’m going to go ahead and suggest exploring the rest of the train. Who knows, maybe we’ll find more—”Slam!
Taro jumped again. However, this time he managed to hold his yelp in to spare himself from any further emasculation; the last thing he wanted to do in front of two girls was appear as anything but brave and daring. He snapped his head towards the other door as some silver haired punk pulled it open again with a guilt-free look of boredom on his face despite having just startled the hell out of a bunch of people. At least Yuumei had been quick to apologize about it, this guy just tucked out of the way short, professionally dressed woman.
"Hello?"
“Hey,” said Taro. He remained tense as his eyes suspiciously glanced towards the windows, for they were the only place left somebody could come crashing into the compartment from, before he lowered his shoulders and raised his hand in a friendly, but lazy, wave.
“It’s good to see other people. Maybe this means that whatever this,” he gestured wildly to a frozen person, “is might be wearing off. That’s Nira, and this is Yuumei,” he said, his hand directing the two newcomers attention towards Nira and Yuumei, respectively. “Yes, yes, we’re real, and of course we aren’t frozen. I believe you can tell that, but I’m going to say it anyway just in case. We’re all more or less fine. I think that covers most of it.”
“Anyway,” he said. “We were going to make our way to the engine room, you know, to see if things are all okay and if we run into anybody else.” The idea had not actually been decided upon nor agreed upon, but to his fault Taro rarely, if ever, asked somebody if they wanted to do something. “You guys come with us; safety in numbers and all that jazz. You both look able bodied enough, right? Unless you don’t want to help people who might be hurt badly,” he added with a shrug. “Then I guess you could just hang out here and just, I dunno, do nothing until everything goes back to normal. To each their own.”
He began making his way towards the two to continue on to the engine. Really, he just wanted to check out the front of the train for the hell of it, but he doubted he could get the others to come along if he told them he just wanted to bang on some buttons. He made it about halfway to the short lady before coming to a sudden halt.
“Oh!” He snapped his fingers and laughed, shaking his head back and forth at his own forgetfulness. “I almost forgot. I’m Taro. What’re your names?”
Neziul
Antlers
CassidyTheButch
ML
Simply Not Real
NoriWasHere
Blizz
Passable Writer
Evil Ghost Note