Smoking Car

[Laraqua]

"Well, dreams often reflect reality. They tell us things that our wakings minds may not wish us to expect. If you'll forgive me for the analogy but ... after the Arch-Duke was shot in that terrible event that began the Great War there may have been a number of dreamers who saw the world set alight and dipped in blood. Prophetic, perhaps, but also due to the credibility of the collective unconsciousness in its ability to derive truth from the fictional constructs that surround us through a dream odyssey. Do you often have such dreams yourself?"

[Mr. Handy]

"I haven't," says Elena, "but I've noticed that there may be something to this collective unconscious. People in general seem to know instinctively when something terrible is about to happen. Even before the pact was signed, I could feel that war was coming. That just confirmed how close it was."

[Laraqua]

"You seem an insightful sort of person," says Mr. Roby. "Perhaps we could try a little game? Have you heard of a gypsy technique involving the use of tarot cards to draw special insight from the subconscious mind?"

[DrPeterson]

Wolfgang awaits the demonstration, albeit with some noticeable scepticism.

[Mr. Handy]

"I've never had a Tarot reading before," says Elena, "but I have heard of it. Several cultures use a random technique for similar purposes. The Chinese I Ching is another example. I'd be very interested in having a reading."

[Laraqua]

Piano Bar Car, France, 21:14

The New York Twelve - You're Driving Me Crazy, 1930

This sophisticate carriage contains a long bar staffed by a bartender at one end and it opens its doors at 10AM to allow entrance to the Dining Car if need be although it doesn't serve alcohol until midday at which point the bar remains open and staffed until midnight wherein guests can mingle, listen to music, dance, and drink either on stools at the bar or on long couches upholstered in brown that face each other over the central aisle with a polished mahogany coffee table between them and a set of lamps on tables between each couch to provide additional lighting on top of the dim overhead lighting if need be. The couches are quite comfortable and the room is always nicely warm. Oftentimes this carriage is filled with the heady scent of cigarette smoke and ashtrays are plentiful on each table. While the bar stands on one side of the car (closest to the door to the Lounge Car), a piano sits at the other end alongside a gap about as wide as it is long which is used as an impromptu dance floor on occasion by those enjoying the bar.

"Oh dear, I don't have the deck on me at present," says Mrs. Roby. "Perhaps you could fetch it, dear, and when you return we could adjourn to a quieter area to perform it? Perhaps in the Lounge Car?"

"A jolly good idea," says Mr. Roby. "I will collect the two books as I go. I shall be back shortly." He rises from his seat without another word and heads into the Lounge Car.

The train conductor enters the Smoking Car and says in a clear yet polite voice, "Attention, we are pulling into Epernay train station. Attention, we are pulling into Epernay station." He continues on to the sleeping car. Moments later there's a light squeal of brakes as the train begins to slow its speeds on approach to the train station.

[Mr. Handy]

Elena looks out the windows to get a look at Epernay as the train approaches the station.

[DrPeterson]

Wolfgang looks out at the bustle of the station with a melancholy smile and then turns to the two ladies.

"May I making suggestion for some champagne? Ve are in Epernay after all."

[Mr. Handy]

"An excellent idea!" says Elena, who has already finished her cognac in spite of having sipped it slowly.

[DrPeterson]

Wolfgang goes to the bar to order the champagne with four glasses and then escorts the ladies to the Lounge car.

[Mr. Handy]

Elena puts out her cigarette and puts her holder away, then follows Wolfgang to the Lounge Car.

[Laraqua]

Piano Bar Car, France, 21:30

The New York Twelve - You're Driving Me Crazy, 1930

This sophisticate carriage contains a long bar staffed by a bartender at one end and it opens its doors at 10AM to allow entrance to the Dining Car if need be although it doesn't serve alcohol until midday at which point the bar remains open and staffed until midnight wherein guests can mingle, listen to music, dance, and drink either on stools at the bar or on long couches upholstered in brown that face each other over the central aisle with a polished mahogany coffee table between them and a set of lamps on tables between each couch to provide additional lighting on top of the dim overhead lighting if need be. The couches are quite comfortable and the room is always nicely warm. Oftentimes this carriage is filled with the heady scent of cigarette smoke and ashtrays are plentiful on each table. While the bar stands on one side of the car (closest to the door to the Lounge Car), a piano sits at the other end alongside a gap about as wide as it is long which is used as an impromptu dance floor on occasion by those enjoying the bar. There are a number of people in deep discussion with each other, mingling and getting to know one another. Those who had been dining in the Dining Car move into the Bar Car, freshly fed.

Farooqi Al-Rassam sits at the bar counter, nursing a coke and watching the bartender with slightly narrowed eyes. He looks to be on the verge of asking a question but thus far he does nothing. The bartender catches his eye and looks confused, before a look of realisation crosses his face and he reaches up to his collar to pluck something up and tuck it beneath his shirt.

Successful Spot Hidden check reveals,a little upside down ankh on a fine silver chain can be seen dangling over the bartender's collar as he sets about making cocktails moments before the bartender tucks it away. It seems rather feminine and dainty for a man.

[fox01313]

Kieran walks into the smoking car gets a seat at the bar, orders a whiskey & pulls out his pipe to smoke from it after a good meal. Making polite introductions & general small talk to the late night people sitting at the bar & the staff.

It's going to be a long trip so might as well get to know everyone.

[Laraqua]

There's a pair of Americans who sit on one of the sofas who seem particulary personable and willing to chat. They are Americans, after all. Their country is renowned for its openness for conversation.

"How do you do?" said the man with an American accent, providing Kieran with a friendly smile. The light off the overhead lights glints off his wedding ring. "My name is George Rimwald and this is my wife, Nora."

"Pleased to meet you," says Nora with a polite smile.

"British, are you?" asked George. "I can tell from your accent."

[fox01313]

Kieran greets George & Nora.

"Pleased to meet both of you on this trip." With a slightly irritated look pops up with the word British.

they are foreign to Europe & don't know any better

"As for my accent, it & I are from the great land of Ireland next to that other island of England."

Pulling out to light & smoke from my pipe unless they object while safely changing the subject. "Have you enjoyed your time in Europe so far being this far from the other side of the Atlantic?"

[Laraqua]

"Oh, we haven't been in Europe long," says Nora with a polite smile. "We arrived in France with a mind to take the Orient Express on to Germany."

"I can't say I've enjoyed France thus far," said George. "There are so many warmongers and damn fools thinking our friends in Germany feel any need to be up in arms against us. I try telling them that my friends in Germany have assured me that they have no interest in assaulting Great Britain, in particular, but also France as well, so long as their sovereign rights are respected. The whole damnable issue in the Great war was the fault of Eastern Europe anyhow. I don't suppose you are wise enough to be a fascist or a sympathiser to the fascists?"

[fox01313]

Kieran takes a drink from his glass of whiskey.

"It's a shame you didn't like Paris more, quite a variety of things to see there & I barely saw Paris as the ferry was late coming from across the channel."

"I have no love for fascists or any country that tries to rule another so if I were you, I'd try to get my friends out of Germany as soon as possible. It's rather hard to enjoy life with all that tension with their neighbors going on around there & can't say I trust Germany all that much after all the stuff they did in the Great War."

[Laraqua]

Piano Bar Car, Chalons-sur-Marne, 21:41

The New York Twelve - You're Driving Me Crazy, 1930

This sophisticate carriage contains a long bar staffed by a bartender at one end and it opens its doors at 10AM to allow entrance to the Dining Car if need be although it doesn't serve alcohol until midday at which point the bar remains open and staffed until midnight wherein guests can mingle, listen to music, dance, and drink either on stools at the bar or on long couches upholstered in brown that face each other over the central aisle with a polished mahogany coffee table between them and a set of lamps on tables between each couch to provide additional lighting on top of the dim overhead lighting if need be. The couches are quite comfortable and the room is always nicely warm. Oftentimes this carriage is filled with the heady scent of cigarette smoke and ashtrays are plentiful on each table. While the bar stands on one side of the car (closest to the door to the Lounge Car), a piano sits at the other end alongside a gap about as wide as it is long which is used as an impromptu dance floor on occasion by those enjoying the bar. There are a number of people in deep discussion with each other, mingling and getting to know one another.

The train begins to slow with the slight squeel of brakes, its rattle becoming more distinct as the locomotive strains to slow the tonnages that follow so that it can finally creep into the station at Chalons-sur-Marne. The Train Manager passes along the aisle, identifying the platform as he goes, doubtless in case there were someone wishing to depart on that platform or perhaps simply to ensure that everyone was quite aware of some of the marvels they were passing. The station platform seems dark and cold outside as though France itself were trapped in a cool and foreboding Autumn.

Farooqi Al-Rassam must be eavesdropping, else he just happened to clear his throat over a chuckle for some unknown internal thought.

"Well, I..." Nora pauses, seeming quite disturbed by Kieran's bluntness.

"This is the problem I have with the uneducated," said George amiably, much as a teacher wishing to condescend additional patience to an unruly schoolboy. "You have no understanding of the scope of the task set before Germany nor the vital nature of their work. We are a militaristic species, mankind. It is only right that we do what we can to ensure order and good governance manage the countryside. The totalitarian state, when organised by a single unifying theme of racial dominance and naturalistic urges, including national pride and martial fervor, cannot help but ensure a simple raising of a nation to a point of glory. To attempt to do anything else when we have scientific rationales that recommend efficiency, both in birth and manner, and which describe in no uncertain terms the cruelties inflicted upon children of racial mingling or genetic defect, is negligent in the extreme. Inequality is both unavoidable or even desirable but I don't suppose that is something that you, being of the lesser Irish race, and doubtless a Catholic to boot, could quite possibly comprehend." In the pause that follows, he smugly fills his pipe as though expecting to have dealt a terrible blow to Kieran's self-esteem.

PRESENT: Kieran McLaughtery, George Rimwald, Nora Rimwald, Farooqi Al-Rassam, Durante Pontarelli, Erminia Pontarelli, Harriet Roby, Henry Roby, Magdelena Bartenstein, Kliment Rukov, Sulamen Hijazi, Waleed Hijazi, Johannes Sprech, Minoo Hijazi and Nafy Hijazi

[fox01313]

Kieran looks to George Rimwald, "you're right as someone who's a practical man who doesn't care to dirty his hands with the grand shallow political deals going on to run any country, I really don't know what's been going on in the minds of those leading Germany before they ran off or got caught. I do know however to go around with an itchy trigger finger & an iron boot stomping all around Europe like they did in the Great War isn't going to get you many allies in the long run as you want to find that balance between order & freedom. Anyone can boss people around but I found out the hard way that there's ALWAYS going to be someone out there that will either think that some totalitarian rule is something they disagree with or just feel that they can do a better job at running things than you are. We've got our own God given right as men to think as men & we're not little honeybee drones mindlessly following someone in charge just because they say so. Thinking like those little drones could be said to be what cost Germany from winning or avoiding the whole Great War in the first place letting those small little countries east of Germany to just settle things for themselves."

[Laraqua]

A man enters the Smoking Car and continues on to the Dining Car, even though both First and Second Service are finished. No one should be going through there and he doesn't wear an Orient Express uniform. The man had a rather determined look on his face as well.

"Some people simply don't know what's good for them," said George. "Even a casual glance at the underclasses will tell you that. It is human nature to wish to invest authority into the hands of those who are better skilled and better able to ensure the betterment of humankind. Could you imagine what the niggers would do if they were given the opportunity to run the nation? Or those absurd suffragettes? Herr Hitler is an admirable and forward thinking person. He will undoubtedly see to the rise of the German nation and it will only be a matter of time before the other forward thinking nations desire to follow suit."