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"I don't know," he admits. "But the bus will wait for at least ten minutes once it gets here, and..." He stops to think for a moment.
"The city is big," he finishes, slowly. "I'm not sure how long it might take us to get to the hotel."
Right, the hotel. His hand twitches a little from his impulse to check the verification receipt again, to make sure they really will have a place to stay once they get to the city. They'll switch settings the day after, of course, but that makes it all the more important that the hotel room will really be there for them upon their arrival. Bothered by the lack of options they would have otherwise, he frowns slightly to himself.
"I'll look for a schedule and map around here if you don't need to use the facilities," he tells her.
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"Sure. Want me to look after our stuff? I don't think there's much else to do right now."
Sollux looked at the ceiling. Every passing moment meant the arrival of the bus and then to the hotel would be closer. And then the day for touring around the city.
To her, it seemed like the moments were lasting a bit too long, though.
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Thanks for pointing out the narrator's tendency to drag out moments, Lux,,,
"Yeah. Thanks." Standing up, he looks around again before heading out one of the twin doors to the side.
He stays out there for a good few minutes. From his shadow, it seems that he's generally walking back and forth, but at one point, the shadow disappears. He presumably walked a little further out.
But soon the shadow returns. Opening the door, Sunny walks briskly back to his sibling. "Another operator said that the bus might be running a little late," he informs her as soon as he's within speaking distance, smoothing his coat and sitting back down again. "Five minutes was her estimate. Apparently it had to take a slight detour." He found it curious that a bus would be held up so late at night as well, but he doesn't quite let it show.
He pulls out a pair of brochures and offers it to her. The top one reads, in rather bold letters, Bus Route 4. And nearby, in a smaller square and less bold font is the label Terminal B-16.
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Sollux began counting the luggage as soon as her brother left. She did so three more times, perhaps as a way to pass time while there wasn't much else to do.
In the end, she contented herself with shifting in her seat to tap a monotone tune on the floor again, and then she spotted Sunny's shadow. Lux perked up awaiting any news.
Lux took both brochures without giving them more than a glance just yet.
"Five minutes? I know it's not long, but it still feels like it!" She said in a quiet exclamation. "Is there that much traffic in the roads at this time? Or perhaps the driver wanted a snack..."
Sollux let her words trail off, not expecting an answer as she turned to check the brochures at last.
Last edited by SpecterTheGreat (May 17, 2022 20:39:49)
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"You'll have to check his mouth for crumbs or the like," Sunny says. It's intended to be a joke, but he says it with a straight face, taking away from the humor. He then thumbs open the brochure he's held in front, revealing a series of different maps, headings, and text.
The brochure he's holding happens to be the second one for Sollux--the one hidden behind its plainer counterpart. The latter gives a color-coded map of routes within the city and a nice little key to the side on the front. Meanwhile, the former sports a cover of a picture of city buildings, colorful in a way to let you know that the people who worked on it didn't mind wasting a little ink to make it look better. Rather cool, if the narrator does say so themselves.
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Not much else to describe, Sollux looked at the brochure with curiosity but without an intention of committing any of the info on the pages to her memory. Perhaps she meant to check it again later.
The colors caught her eye but aside from a couple sounds of interest, she said nothing.
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For Sunny, it's too late in the day to be looking at so many colors. In fact, he grimaces when he catches a glimpse of the second brochure. Or maybe it's because he remembers why he's even come here. Or maybe he's just never been able to study at night. Regardless, he puts the brochures back onto his lap and squints at the outside for a while. And then he actually goes about checking for that hotel receipt.
It's at that moment that the side door opens again, and a man rushes in. Coming to a halt just as fast, he looks around at the otherwise empty terminal seats before zeroing in on the two siblings. And he grins.
"Hey, hey! Sorry, I'm late. Are you two my passengers for tonight?"
It's kinda hard to see if he has crumbs on his face. His beard is too bushy for that.
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"Yeah, seems like it," Sollux replied almost thoughtfully before processing this meant that this man who posed the question was actually the bus driver.
Hooray!
Thankfully, Lux didn't thoroughly check the driver's face. She instead glanced over at her brother for a sort of confirmation on if she should stand up and go already. She hoped they wouldn't have to do anything else before boarding the bus.
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He's already in the process of standing up, holding the slip of paper he'd taken out awkwardly in his hands. And as soon as he finishes standing up, he switches his hand holding the slip and strides forward to the bus driver. Apparently he intends to give the other a handshake.
"Thanks for the ride," he says, sticking out his hand. "We'll be in your care for a bit."
The other looks a bit surprised but masks it quickly. He takes Sunny's hand, shakes it vigorously, and grins. "Sounds good to me. Thank you for being my passengers." He lets go of Sunny's hand. Prolonged handshakes are the worst.
"Now, let's help get your bags on board," he says with a grin, turning around and briefly surveying the bags. Sunny grabs at the luggage he set down earlier almost absentmindedly.
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Sollux stood from her seat as well, though with less energy than when she did in the train. She gathered her stuff up. After making sure everything was in order, she brushed some hair off her shoulder and gave a grin to the other two people there.
"I can carry my own stuff just fine, by the way."
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"'Course, ma'am." The bus driver grins right back at her, having taken half of the other luggage. "Can't let your brother become a camel, right? He's too young for that."
Sunny's glad that at least this person can see that they're siblings. And also that he's a guy. The latter's probably why he spoke, actually.
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"Yeah, and thanks for helping!"
Sollux scurried to Sunny's side to keep pace with him when they went to the bus.
"Where should we go from here?"
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"The bus," he mutters.
The driver makes a sound of agreement. Taking the bags and walking faster than both of them, he laughs a little as he slides the luggage into a containment area. "Well, to answer the question a little better, which stop will you be stopping at? I'll wait a little more for any other passengers, but the last train already stopped by, so it shouldn't be a long wait."
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Lux's eyes followed the path of the luggage
"You should know what stop is ours," she nearly-whispered to her brother.
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"So should you," he whispers back, before saying, "The penultimate one." He pauses. "I think."
"A good choice," the driver says, smiling as he steps into the bus. He's finished closing the luggage area back up again. "The next stop is busier other times of year, but not now." He sits in his seat, giving a little sigh as he does so. He sounds a bit tired. "Well, then, do take a seat, if you'd like. We'll get going in just a little bit."
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"Mm, yeah, let's go in," she said, one foot already on the steps to the vehicle. Then she climbed in. "It's all empty, so I guess we can be in any seat without problem? I want to be by the window."
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"There are a lot of windows," he points out. Obviously.
"Stay by the front," he adds, a reminder of what they went over before their initial departure. He then effectively lets her choose what seat she wants again, as he stops by the driver's seat and briefly rummages in his pocket.
"Our tickets," he states, unfolding them and showing them to the driver. The other almost looks surprised before he laughs again.
"Oh, my bad. Guess I shouldn't've assumed that you were students at the schools near the center. Not very professional of me." He looks like he's resisting the urge to pat Sunny's shoulder.
The bus is neat. It's clearly clean. No residual smells. The seats are comfortable, and the dangling lines to pull to signal one's stop do drive an urge to pull on them. Or maybe the narrator's immature and just likes tugging on lines.
In terms of how the bus is structured, it's pretty normal stuff. There's the slightly elevated back, though Sunny did say to stick to the front. In the front, there's a section of chairs with labels for the handicapped, and the rest are about the same. Pretty neat, overall.
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Sollux nodded, giving the back of the bus no more than a few seconds' look.
She went for one of the general seats and sat. One glance through the window and Lux decied she'd rather have the seat in the row behind, judging it had a better view of the roads the bus would drive by. She settled on the newly chosen seat.
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After asking the driver a little about the schools and the surrounding areas, Sunny walks down the aisle to sit in the row behind Sollux, clearly looking drained. He usually doesn't talk this much.
Sunny looks outside for a while silently. No matter how one puts it, it's rather dark. He wonders if it's an oversight or if Nazoja is just a safe enough place for them to not have to prioritize security-related considerations.
Well, in any case, no one else seems to be anywhere outside of the buses. In fact, there isn't even anyone smoking outside, which is really neat in the narrator's standards.
After a while, the driver revs up the engine, and the overhead lights come on. Sunny closes his eyes from the sudden brightness.
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"Noto enough light to take pictures," Sollux remarked to herself with a sigh. "Not like there's much to see right now, anyways. But maybe tomorrow?"
The last part was partially directed towards Sunny, as Sollux turned to glance at him just as the lights turned on.
He must be tired, she thought.
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He moves a hand to shield his eyes. "Do you have something you want to take a picture of?"
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"Oh, you know, just the road and stuff, to record it as a 'We're on our way to the hotel!' set of pictures." Sollux settled down comfortably on her seat. "I'm going to make a photo album. Or maybe a collage? But the camara isn't at hand right now anyways, so I guess I'll have to wait t o take pictures."
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Sunny's excited about the photo album. He actually bought a huge set of stickers in anticipation that his sister would probably make one. He doesn't indicate either of these things, though.
"I have the instant-print one with me," he says, a way of offering it if she wants to try seeing if it works.
The bus is still waiting for the other ones in front of it to take off.
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Sunny's words are met with Sollux's hand instantly sticking towards him from the seat in front.
"Sure can try that! Gimme."
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He does give it to her, though not without muttering, "Really do wish you would add 'please' to the end more often."
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The hand withdraws with the camera firmly in hold.
Sollux turned it over for a couple seconds before aiming it outside the window and squinting. Just as quickly as she lifted the camera, she lowered it down to her lap again.
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Her brother's emitting some question marks but doesn't say anything.
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round~
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Sollux pressed her forehead to the window at her side, looking for light from lampposts or nearby buildings.
She had the camera at the ready to snap a picture quickly, even if it came out blurry.
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Sunny rests his head a little against the back of his seat and holds back a little sigh. At times, it feels as if he has somehow already passed the prime of his youth without even feeling it. Does that even happen? He really hopes not.
Bit by bit, the station passes by. The bus is still traveling at meandering speed, though, as it leaves behind the empty outside. And the inside, really. There doesn't even seem anyone on the cleaning crew wandering about.
That's to say, there's really just the station and the long road ahead. And also a child at the back of a bus theirs is pulling up against, seemingly playing some sort of game involving his eyes. His eyes even brighter than the overhead lights in his bus, his face lights up upon him noticing either one of the siblings. (Hopefully the less lethargic one.) He gives an eager wave, somehow while chattering to someone behind him.
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Sollux took notice of the child, perking up in her seat to return the wave with the camera still in hand.
"Hey Sunny, someone's waving at us!"
She held her sight on the kid until she got distracted trying to see the other bus's driver.