Charlie's Questionnaire

I live under the 'hub' of the world. Lots of people go in and out all the time. It's very cool.

Normally people live in houses. I don't have one. I live in my train. It's fine, since it's very nice to live in. I can close my doors and the rats don't get in. I hear that people in houses have to struggle with rats too even though their houses have better walls. I bet they're jealous of my train.

I don't get to use a lot of the things that other people do, but that's okay. It's fair, since I don't need a lot of the stuff that other people do and I don't have any of their... 'licenses' to get things with.

I do not get money, but sometimes I'm really lucky and I find a few quarters. Eventually if I'm very persistent and I save up I'll be able to buy a book and figure out if I know how to read anything other than my pamphlet. I wonder what kind of book I would get...

Probably something about trains. I really like trains! Trains are super cool. I've also heard people talking about books they've read about magic and sciences and stuff. I would love to learn about magic. I don't know what it does, really, but that makes me curious.

I want to connect every inch of the world with my train. It feels... right, for things to be connected like that. To be able to walk through gaps and come out anywhere else in the world.

I would open the world up for anyone to travel with, completely safe. My... my 'friend' who gave me my body didn't get to travel places safe but wanted to see the world. She got hurt really bad because of that. I'll make a world where she could have gone wherever she wanted without getting hurt at all!

I dunno why I'd need to kill for it. This is a goal that helps everyone, doesn't it? And... and I don't know why anyone would want to kill me for it either.

I don't like thinking about that.

I guess it would be waking up. I was so sleepy, I didn't even realize I had eyelids to open. When I figured out that I had eyes, I opened them and got to see my train! It's My train! It makes me so happy to think about my train. I had some weird cloth wrapped around my side, but it was super loose so I didn't need to work very hard to take it off. It was stained all red, for some reason.

That was when I started. Like a train going into motion. Slower, then faster and faster. I know that this is what I was made for.

Uhhh... I dunno!

I don't really 'know people.' I just wander around my subway tracks wherever I please! Though... maybe I could name a few of the people I've seen!

There was this one guy with a super cool hat, all curly on top so it looked like a big W. His funny boots made sounds whenever he walked, but kept getting stuck on the tracks, silly. I'm much better at walking around under here!

And oh! There was a super pretty woman with a big snake tail! She comes down now and again looking for stuff, but she always runs away whenever I start skipping up to her. She called me a 'Ghost.' That's silly, I'm just Charlie!

Maybe Charlie would be the closest person, I guess. Not me but... the one who left behind my body. I don't know where she went! It doesn't make much sense to me to leave behind a body this cool, after all. I wonder where she went! I'm sure I'll find her one day.

Uh...

I dunno! Like I said earlier, I just kinda showed up one day. Instead of answering your question, let me tell you how trains were made!

Wooden rails were first introduced in 1515, but metal railings were first introduced in the late 1780s. The exact inventor is disputed, but John Curr was credited as developing the flanged rails known as plateways. Eventually they moved on from cast iron to wrought iron, which was less brittle under heavy loads. This process of rail improvement continued into the late 1860s, but that's getting ahead of ourselves.

Those rails were used for wagons at first, and the first full-scale steam locomotive was developed in 1804 by Richard Trevithick. His engines were too heavy for the plateways, though, so the first successful steam locomotive went to Matthew Murray's Salamanca. Steam power would be the dominant power for railways for nearly a century, and would spread all across the world afterwards!

I love trains. I wonder if 'Charlie' loved trains too. She seemed to like them enough to take a very, very, very long nap in one.

Love? Yeah! I'm in love right now, even! It was truly magical... I had opened the subways below, expanding the subway stations to accommodate many, many, many, many more lines! From A to Z... though I think I missed a lot of letters in-between.

Anyways, the Delta Line showed up. I tried going in, but someone else was there and almost attacked me! It was a little scary, to be honest. These are supposed to be my railways, this cheater just stole some of it from me!

So I ran away as fast as I could, but then I met... it~

Platform Eleven... what a beautiful name.

Platform 11 was gorgeous and kind. A pristine subway station which warded harm away and enveloped me in it's warm embrace of light and presence.

I hope it doesn't think I'm annoying. it's so pretty...

I really, really don't like thinking about this. I want to talk about something else. 

…Fine. 

I’m afraid of the Conductor. It’s this… tall floating being with a pair of revolvers, bound in chains. It prowled the Delta Line, but it revealed itself and killed someone who defaced a lock in Underway Central. It even- it even saw me, but it just… left on its own train. The conductor had a train like me. It was so much like me but it’s so… so deeply violent.

I'm afraid of finding out that the Underway is some terrible thing. I thought it was going to be my life's work, but then it turned out that the Delta Line was... a part of my map. I know that the Underway is good, I know that it's good, but I get this... this weird feeling. In my middle area, above my legs but below my shoulders. It feels heavy and bad and I don't like it. What happens if... if the Underway is bad? What- what would that even mean for me? 

Would I get to stay a good person? 

I’m afraid of the conductor. I wish I wasn’t afraid of the conductor.

The Dead Line is, without a doubt, my most prized possession. Although, to call it a possession isn’t exactly correct. It’s a part of me. Always has been. I’ve never been apart from it before, not even since I woke up. So, it’s just as much a prized possession as my body is, and I love my body! It has fingers and toes and two eyes and ears and everything!

So, The Dead Line, the pamphlet I have that lets me call it, and my body are my prized possessions! I don’t want to lose any of them, and I’ll do whatever I can to make sure they’ll never break.

I do have a few items which are a bit lesser, but still important to me. Vignelli is mean sometimes, but he’s my friend and he deserves to have free words after what he went through. The very special gift that Maze and his friends gave to me is another one, definitely. And my conductor's clothing! I found it on the tracks one day, and I’ve been wearing it ever since!

The Underway, my pride and joy, is a danger to everyone inside of it. I can’t have anyone waiting at my stations or talking cheerfully at Underway Central while they go on with their days or- or taking day trips to visit friends without the threat of them getting killed for it. I expanded those lines, I got to taste it, the paths that people walk made manifest, made open for anyone to travel, and then the Conductor emerged and has decided to cut down everyone who tries to enter. I spend half of my days ferrying people out of the Underway, out of the mess that I made.

This is my biggest problem. The happiest moment of my life has turned into something deeply dangerous and it’s up to me to fix it.

On the bright side, at least I’m not alone. I have Maze and the people from his world, and I have the Ashy One (if they show up again), and I have that cowboy, and I have so many more people I haven’t met yet.

I’m going to fix this. I can make it good again.

I used to wake up on Platform 11, basking in the glow of its light. I’d get up and call the Dead Line and move along with my day without a worry since Platform 11 was a safe sanctuary that stayed away from the danger of the Delta Line. Now the conductor isn’t staying in the Delta Line and I don’t know if it’s safe to be in the Underway anymore at all, so I haven’t been there for… a long while. 

I’ve been waking up at Maze’s cabin instead. He let me stay over with him to lay low. Sometimes I take the bed, sometimes I manage to get to sleep on a chair before then, and sometimes I sleep in The Dead Line somewhere outside when I’m feeling really scared of everything. It’s still comforting, after everything that happened with the Underway and the Conductor and that metal man who was killed, to fully exist within myself.

This one is difficult. I have my conductor's hat and my coat, but underneath... I've always had this on. It would feel weird to wear anything else. Maybe I should try different clothes? Hmm...

I'm going to be going somewhere very special soon to try and perform an Intersection on the Conductor. I will ask my friends about wearing something nice. Mister Sergeres has a very nice-looking coat, but there's a bunch of holes still in it from when they interacted with the Conductor before and got shot a whole bunch. I still don't understand how he came back or what "Respawning" means, but I haven't said anything because I'm worried he might disappear if I did.

Maze has just the one outfit. He has a shirt, shorts, and a very nice cloak of some sort. It fits him very well, and the color reminds me of the shape of his soul.

Huh. I think I've come up with an idea! If one coat is cool, perhaps the answer to my struggles with looking nice is finding a second coat!

Oh! Oh! I know this one now!

My next birthday is going to be a suuuuuuper long time away, since it's apparently a thing you do every year. I looked it up, that's about three hundred and sixty five days. But when I do I... I guess I'll go and see Rebecca again? She's super nice and gave me a cake for my birthday.

I don't actually know what my real-real birthday is. I woke up in the tunnels a long while ago, and everything was really fuzzy for a while. But the date being imperfect doesn't make the birthday my friends gave me any less real!