Chrisoft::Blog(r#"The Station of Elyssima")

Chris hung up her last phone call of the day and started packing up. -She was on her final stop of an important business trip to the capital -city of Elysionia that lasted a week. She’s having a vacation once this -trip concludes, and now she’s dying for getting back her cozy little -home.

In Elysionia, people get around mostly by trains. There is an -extremely elaborate railway system that connects every single place of -importance in Elysionia. Its foundations laid out hundreds years ago, -the Elysionia Railways has been serving the country loyally and -contentedly over the years. Being inside continental Europe, it also -links to other surrounding countries.

Chris works for upper management of a private company. As part of her -job she travels around the country frequently and take the trains more -than a few dozens of times each year. Being a frequent rider of -Elysionia Railways, she’s familiar with the system enough that she can -recite the time table of various larger stations. With still well more -than an hour from her planned departure time, she is not in a hurry.

Chris is anxious for this very special train ride too, as the new -train station in the capital began to operate yesterday. She booked -specifically for a train that would depart the city from the new -station. She has heard that this new station was designed and built like -no other train stations in Elysionia, and she was ready to find out -what’s so special about this new station that supposedly will -revolutionize railway transportation in Elysionia.

A taxi is called and Chris tells the driver her destination. “Huh, -the new station?” Says the driver, “I heard a multitude was there -yesterday just to check it out. Are you going there just for a visit -too?” “A multitude of people… it must be really well designed,” thought -Chris. She’s busy being distracted by her own thoughts and didn’t pay -attention to answering the driver’s unsolicited question at all except -letting out an unclear murmur of “yes”.

Before long she is dropped off at the station. When she laid her eyes -on the station for the first time Chris was utterly stunned – the -exterior of the station looks exactly like a gigantic Gothic castle. She -is standing at least a few hundred meters away from the main entrance -yet the entire building barely fits in her field of view. A triplet of -sharp spires with beautifully engraved patterns point straight into the -sky. Towers surrounding them must still be as tall as the tallest radio -tower she has ever seen. Flamboyant traceries made up most of the -exterior openings. Born into a rural farming family, Chris could not -fathom the sheer amount of work that was put into the construction of -this station (nor could she understand why the city decided to erect a -huge Gothic castle in pretty much the dead center of Elyssima). There is -not a single railway track in sight – they are all cleverly well hidden. -The square in front of the station is still flooded with a large crowd -of people, all admiring this gorgeous building.

But Chris is here to take a train ride and she really does not have -the time to give this building a good look that it deserves, so she -proceeds into the station. However again her eyes are instantly hooked – -the pointed arches, the vault ribs which forms an endless mesmerizing -geometric pattern, oh and the intricately decorated crystal chandeliers -hanging around the center of the ticketing hall, which are even more -opulent than the ones that appeared in her childhood dreams. Chris could -not take a single step without getting amazed by something new that goes -into her sight.

A clock with hands long as a bus in the hallway brought Chris back to -real life – it’s 20 minutes before the train she is planning to take -will depart. The railway system of Elysionia works like a massive subway -– as long as one has paid the appropriate fare, they will be permitted -to travel between any places below a distance corresponding to the fare -on that day. Still, trains are run at different frequencies for each -destination. And in Chris’ case, if she missed this one she would have -to wait 3 more hours, which would mean she won’t be in her house until -midnight. Willing as she is to stick around, she still wants to be home -more, just by a little bit. She says to herself, “I shall give this -place a good visit someday,” and immediately got back into business – -looking up the gate on the information display and following the signs. -Everything is still so familiar.

Chris followed the signage to a three-way junction. It appears that -each path leads to a different set of gates. She took a sharp turn -following where the arrow points and heads to a lower floor, not even -noticing her dress almost being caught in the escalator.

She finds herself in a delightfully decorated corridor with gates on -one side and fine art exhibits on the other. She has some walking to do -though – the corridor is for gates 80 to 1, and her gate is 15 – so she -really doesn’t have time to appreciate the art, or to think about how -they managed to squeeze so many gates into a single corridor, -or why are there so many gates in this station in the first -place.

As the station was put into use only a day ago, it’s still early in -the transitional period: there are not a whole lot of trains here, nor -are there too many people who are actually taking a train. It soon -becomes apparent to her that the gates are fairly far apart from each -other, and even at her fastest walking pace, she will probably not make -it on time. So she started running. Chris is not good runner. She never -has been. And the fact that she is wearing an ankle-length dress -definitely isn’t helping. She looks at the wall of arts and sees her own -reflection on the fresh glazed wall tiles – her long, unblemished white -dress flying high from all the velocity that she usually never gets to -have. Similarly set in motion is her long, black hair, which is -spreading in midair. The reflection is so clear that she can even make -out the frills and cutwork on the hemline – even threads on the needle -lace, which are not unlike the ribs of the traceries she saw moments -ago, just vastly different in scale. She got a strong sensation of déjà -vu from what she just saw, as it reminded her of a series of daydreams -she often had when she was a little girl. But this isn’t a great time to -fantasize about her prior dreams, is it?

50, 49, 48 … Chris is steadily passing by the gates. It still puzzles -her why are there so many gates in this station. She must have seen -number as large as 200 when she was at the junction. Is there ever going -to be enough rolling stock in Elysionia to warrant so many gates? Also -why are they using gates at all? Train stations usually have -just platforms don’t they? Is this why they said the new station would -revolutionize railway transportation in Elysionia?

30, 29, 28 … Chris is running out of her breath. She takes a look at -her watch and realizes that she still has 10 minutes left. “Surely I can -make it to gate 15 in ten minutes,” she says to herself. There are few -people in this section of the station, and all the benches are vacant. -She stops to take a quick breather. Mindlessly she glances at the floor -brilliantly lit up from atop and saw her own image. “Holy heck,” mutters -Chris, “it must take a lot of work to keep this station under such -condition in the future.”

When Chris passes by gate 25 she notices something is off. She halts -her steps and looks back.

-Gate
27 -

-Gate
26 -

-Porte
25 -

- -

The language of the sign changed for some reason. This baffles Chris -and makes her freeze in place for a good second. She has learned a -little bit of French in her youth and can indeed understand the word. -She just couldn’t understand why – Elysionia is an English speaking -country and as long as English remains the lingua franca of the world, -there really isn’t a good reason to change the language midway here. -Maybe this gate is reserved for trains to and from France? Who -knows…

It didn’t take long until she notes another change in language. This -time it’s German.

-Porte
22 -

-Bahnsteig
21 -

- -

Only that Chris doesn’t know any German and wouldn’t be able to tell -if the sign stands for “Slaughterhouse 21” with their scary long -compound words. But she also feels a little bit reassured as her -suspicion that these gates may be reserved for trains that connect to a -different country could be right, or so she thought.

As she assumes the bizarreness would end here, she finds out she was -wrong, VERY wrong. Because this is what she sees next:

-Imbarchi
19 -

-INTROIRE·IN·CVRRVM
19⅓ -

-INTROIRE·IN·CVRRVM
18 -

- -

“What on earth is happening,” says Chris, “is this station going to -pull a Platform 9¾ on me? Where would trains using this gate go anyway, -Vatican City?”

Just as she couldn’t stop admiring the exterior of the station when -she just arrived, these signs don’t stop surprising her, and in an -increasingly disturbing manner.

INTROIRE·IN·CVRRVM
\(\begin{vmatrix} 3 -& 5 & 7 & 4 \\ 1 & \pi & 6 & 3 \\ 0 & 7 -& 5 & 9 \\ 5 & 4 & 6 &1 \end{vmatrix}\)

INTROIRE·IN·CVRRVM
\(|\mathrm{e}^{(\ln(61)+\mathrm{e}i)(-4-\frac{7274}{1024}i)}|\)

ᚷᛠᛏ
\(\displaystyle\int_{3}^{\frac{45}{7}} \sinh^{-1}(x) -\cosh^{-1}(x)\,\mathrm{d}x\)

- -

Chris wasn’t good at math when she was in high school. She doesn’t -even know what half of these symbols could ever mean. She doesn’t think -she has seen the symbols on the last sign in any of the languages alive -in the world nowadays either. What is this now, a time machine? As her -confusion reaches the peak, Chris hears from the PA system:

“Dear passenger Chris Xephyr, the train you are taking is departing -in 3 minutes. Please board the train from Gate 15. Thank you.

Cara Chris Xephyr viatrix, currus qui veheris abibit in tribus -minutae. Amabo te, introi vehiculum ab porta XV. Gratias tibi.”

“Who designed this godforsaken place…” exclaims Chris, “how does it -know my name? This isn’t an airport is it?” She checks the gate closest -to her, and there is no jet bridge to be seen, only rail tracks. Chris -has never heard a single word from the PA system ever at any station she -has been to in Elysionia. She scrambles to find her booking information, -only to find out that it does say “New Elyssima” there. There is no time -of departure or name of the passenger, as the booking system never asked -for them. The station should never have known her name or which -train she is taking. Her confusion grown into fear, Chris starts running -again, even faster than before, almost like she’s being chased by a -deadly monster that would instantly consume her if she gets caught.

As Chris runs on, she feels the passing of time is slowing down, her -limbs increasingly heavier, and gates seemingly becoming farther -separated from each other. She could not hear a thing, not even the -sough of wind passing by her ears. Her vision becoming darker, Chris -starts to wonder how long she could keep running. She hasn’t seen a -single person since the signs started speaking nonsense. She starts to -contemplate her life choices, as one would inevitably start doing under -such situation: why she couldn’t end the last call a bit earlier; why -she had to book a ticket from the new station; is it really worth the -agony she is experiencing right now; what if she went down the wrong way -at the junction; why she wouldn’t choose to inherit her family land and -be a farm girl staying at her hometown – after all if that were the case -she wouldn’t have to endure any of what she has gone through in the last -20 minutes. She no longer has the desire to revisit this place -afterwards – if this is the future of railway transportation in -Elysionia she might also avoid travelling by train altogether in the -future – still she’s kind of curious what could be inside those tall -towers she saw when she was outside the station. But obviously this is -not the time to find out. The only thought in her head right now is to -get out of this cursed place somehow.

Chris runs into a person when she’s deep in her thoughts. She -apologizes for her carelessness and is about to move on, only to realize -that she would likely be able to find nobody that could help her if she -missed this chance. Desperately she asks the person whether they know -where gate 15 is. The person, not to Chris’ surprise at this point, -started to speak complete gibberish in response.

Chris doesn’t want to give up this easily. She continued, with the -heavy breathing she got from all this running and almost in a pleading -voice:

“Did you hear the PA? I am that Chris Xephyr. Does hearing -the PA calling out your name in a train station seem perfectly normal to -you?!”

Again, the person started to speak gibberish. Their demeanor seems -confident, so they probably understood Chris just fine. But she isn’t to -able to make out anything whatsoever from their speech, not even their -body language. Frustrated, she thanks the person and resumes her -seemingly impossible quest for gate 15.

Before she is able to run more than a couple of steps, Chris -collapses to the floor. The hem of her dress, still moving under -inertia, flies ahead and covers her torso. A gentle breeze from the deep -side of the corridor, presumably for the purpose of ventilation, blows -it back to where it belongs, with the cutwork flapping around in the -breeze. The person from whom she just sought help is now nowhere to be -found, almost like they have never been there.

Chris wakes up finding herself in the warm afternoon sun lying -against her broom. She was again daydreaming during her housemaid duty. -Fortunately there isn’t anyone home to catch her in the act. She rushes -to the living room to find today’s newspaper, its headline reading “New -Elyssima Train Station Project Dismissed”. She lets out a sigh of relief -and continued her work.