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thewolffairytaler · 7 months ago

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When The Omnivores Scream - Chapter three: The fog of the fallen

As Eva-Maja ran out of her father's villa, she had only nine minutes left to arrive in the main area of Falu, and since it takes five minutes to get to Falugatan. It means she has exactly four minutes in order to find him, she wasn't sprinting because she was worried over the fact that she could trip over anything, no, she just didn't want Alfons to get hurt by her own carelessness, but she was still running as fast as she could in order to make it there in time. And as she did arrive at the area of Falu centrum, she noticed that there were still a lot of people around in the evening. Which she wasn't concerned or suprised by, since Sweden's sun summer days tended to last up until ten pm at night. Or possibly further depending on how high up on the northside of Sweden you were, in other words, how close you were to the polar circle.

He had just arrived at the streets of Falugatan, waiting patiently for his passenger to come to the parking spot he had picked. Of course, her having to find him wasn't going to be easy. Especially since they haven't ever met face to face prior, luckily for him though, he could tell immediately who she was since Eva-Maja had a briefcase with her, and was looking around as if she was searching for something. And since the Taxi driver had no intention of shouting, he simply pressed the vehicle horn button to bring your attention. When Eva-Maja heard the sound of a beeping car, she could feel Alfons on her shoulder flinch a bit from being startled as she looked around to see where it came from. The moment she seemed to have noticed him, the old man slightly leaned his head out the window and slightly raised his hand to give her a slight wave to make it clear that he was her transportation, while patiently waiting for the moment where she entered the vehicle with Alfons. As she went towards the front passenger seat door, she put down the cat cage to properly open it up. Since she was already struggling with carrying her briefcase, when she had it open, she leaned a bit in to ask a question.

"Hi, um, is it alright if I have my cat sit in my lap instead of the cage? He's not exactly fond of being in it." He looked at her cat for a brief second before looking at Lillemor, then shrugged a bit since he didn't particularly have a problem with the request.

"Sure, you can let him sit in your lap, just make sure to keep a tight grip on him, alright? We wouldn't want him running around in the car now, would we?"

"Of course, thank you." She told him with a tone of much appreciation, as she put the cage on the backseat floor, whilst putting her briefcase in front of her feet on the seat floor she was going to sit in. She also made sure to take the British shorthair in her arms as she carefully planted herself in there. He nodded a bit before starting the engine, his eyes gazing at the road for a brief second before his blue eyes landed back on her, he gave her a calm and professional smile.

"Right. Before we get started, mind telling me where you're heading to?" She thought about how to word it at first, because she didn't want him to know too much about her or her journey.

"I'm heading to Kristinehamn, since I need to take the Inlandsbanan. Do you need to know the location coordinates too?" She questioned him about her destination with a sound of slight concern, as Alfons just turned his head around to look at his new environment.

"Kristinehamn, eh?" He repeated while giving her a calm nod before starting to drive out of the parking spot and into the road.

"Sure I do, I've driven there plenty of times before. It won't be a problem, trust me." She felt a little bit better knowing that he could possibly get there faster without having to take a longer road or possibly turning the wrong way a couple of times by accident.

"Oh, that’s good to hear." He could definitely understand her perspective if she decided to tell her worries out loud to him. He may be an old fart, but in spite of his age, he still remains to be a very experienced taxi driver. He has pretty much memorized every single road in this damn country.

"Don't worry, you're in good hands. I know quite a few shortcuts that will get us to your destination much faster." She nodded to that, as she felt Alfons snuggle a bit closer to her as he was much quieter than what he normally was. Which made sense, considering he was a cautious scaredy cat around new people, and that might not ever change. Considering he has been like this ever since she had found him under the rusty broken Volvo at the Junkyard.

While driving, the old man glanced over at Lillemor, more specifically at her cat to be more exact. He took notice of the fact that he was quietly sitting on her lap with a cautious and timid expression.

"Your little friend over there seems awfully cautious around me." He said with a calm tone of voice before looking back at the road.

"He's like that with everyone. It usually takes weeks for him until he's finally comfortable with somebody." She explained to him in a casual way, as she began to rub Alfons back in a soothing manner.

"Is that right?" He asks with a raised eyebrow, a bit amused at the fact that her cat seems like a serious scaredy cat.

"Weeks? Damn, I didn't know some felines were that goddamn picky when it comes to who they interact with."

"He isn't picky. He's just scared. He has issues regarding his anxiety, and sometimes, I have to be there for him for a long period until I can just be near him." She didn't mean to let that information about Alfons slip like that, but it just happens, same thing when it comes to herself. This is why she also tells little lies about herself, because it balances out what the truth is and what's the lie. Making it harder for people to know her and get closer to her. He raised his eyebrow again, a bit more surprised this time after hearing that her cat suffered something, he honestly wasn't expecting that.

"Anxiety? Sounds like the little feller has been through something real bad to cause such an effect on him. Must be difficult for him to get used to strangers." She shakes her head to her sides a little bit, as if she was uncertain about that conclusion.

"Not that much, but it really just depends on how you treat him, or if he finds you to be dangerous l. Cats can tell like that."

"Really? Cats can tell if you're a dangerous person just by giving you a good look?" He questioned her statement while raising his left eyebrow up once more after hearing that, he wasn't quite sure if he fully believed her on that statement.

"Sure, cats are always on watch and extremely reactive. They will study our body language and take up signs that indicate whether we are safe or harmful to be around. They can also smell things that humans can not." He went quiet after hearing that, a bit impressed at hearing that information about felines. A part of him was honestly surprised that the little buggers could tell how a person really is just by taking a good look at them.

"Huh, I'll be damned. So felines have the ability to tell a good person from a bad person just by taking a look at them, huh..? I thought cats were just your average annoying pet, but they definitely seem to be more than that." She slightly smiled at that statement, as Alfons had his gaze on him now, not understanding fully what he meant. But understood that the old geezer had talked smack about him. The Taxi driver glanced over at the cat for a second, noticing that it was now giving him its grumpy little cat glare. He held back an amused chuckle at the sight of that before shifting his eyes back to the road.

"Looks like your little friend is giving me the stink eye."

"Mreeoow!" Alfons let out a displeased meow when the driver called him Eva-Maja's friend. His ears even slightly lowered down and his tail swayed from the left to the right and back again, as if he was annoyed with the driver for calling him "just a friend". The taxi driver just gave Alfons a quick glance, as he just hummed in acknowledgement of the cat's noises. He had to admit, he had no idea cats could be this expressive and sassy. This one here definitely seems to hate being called a friend.

"What, did I offend the little fella by calling him your friend?"

"I don't know much about that, I don't know myself what those words mean to him." She explains as she begins patting Alfons on the head to calm him down a bit.

"I see... Maybe the little cat just doesn't want to be called a friend." He guessed before giving the road a glance.

"He prefers being called something more special, perhaps." The cat's eyes narrowed and he made a low and slightly annoyed meow, as if he was confirming the driver's statement. The cat slightly raised his head and continued to glare at the driver with his eyes, which were now clearly expressing the fact that he was offended. He chuckled once more at the cat's sassy behavior, the annoyed meow he made was pretty funny to him, and annoying Alfons seems to be making him in a better mood. He shifted his eyes for a brief second to give the cat a slight smirk, trying to rile him up a bit.

"Oh? Sounds like I hit the jackpot. The little fella sure is a sassy one, ain't he?" The cat let out another annoyed meow and made a sound that could be considered a snort or a scoff. Alfons tilted his head to the right and looked at the driver with his ears slightly lowered down. Then he looked forward with a slight glare, as if he was silently saying "don't call me sassy, old geezer". The taxi driver thought that it was honestly quite adorable yet hilarious at the same time seeing the cat react in such a way from a simple and little taunt. This one here was definitely a sassy little fellow.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to call you sassy, your highness." He spoke in a mocking tone, which was mostly meant for the cat to hear. Alfons huffed and slightly turned his head to the side, now purposely not looking at the driver. He was silent for a few moments before letting out yet another annoyed meow, as if to show his annoyance at the driver's mocking tone of voice. After that he rested his head back on his paws and continued to sulk.

"Please don't annoy Alfons further, he's a very emotional cat." She begged the driver a little bit to just let her cat be, he didn't need to be so mean to him.The driver looked over at the woman, raising his eyebrow at her statement. But he shrugged his shoulders and decided to oblige her plea.

"Fine, fine, I'll stop teasing the little guy."

The driver mumbled quietly and looked back at the road.

After around twenty-four minutes the silence was just too much for them, since it brought a sense of awkwardness, even though Alfons was making his usual noises every now and then. So the driver just started to turn on the radio to search for a channel that had the music that he enjoyed, it didn't matter if his passenger liked it or not, because in his mind. This particular car is his, which means his rules, and his decisions. Eventually he came across a channel that played Fly Me To The Moon by Bart Howard, and he let that one fill the quiet space of the small taxi car. The music kept them busy for a couple of minutes, until both of them realised that the fog around them in the woods had gotten thicker, making the old man turn on the headlights. It didn't do much, even with low-beams, but it did at least improve on it for a bit. Everything seemed to be going fine for them, until the front car bonnet suddenly created a spark, the engine sounded as if started to break down, smoke puffed out from the back, and the car suddenly slowed down.

"But what in the-!? No! It's shutting itself down! Damn it! Junk! Aah!" The old man shouted in frustration as he tried to park the car on the side of the empty road. He instantly got off the driver's seat as he walked towards the bonnet area of the car and opened it up to see the problem with it, making sure to put up the stand so that the metal bonnet wouldn't just fall on him when he wasn't holding it anymore. As he was checking on the engine parts, Eva-Maja stepped out of the car to ask him what was going on, since he didn't exactly go into detail why it suddenly happened.

"The tin can is old, so is this one." He tapped on the cast aluminum shock towers, not knowing what it was called. But knowing that the car he was using was old as hell, even though it looked modern. It was basically just given a new shell. Eva-Maja put Alfons down on the ground to explore a bit, yet still stayed closely towards her shoes, as she asked him if they were going to be stuck on the road for long.

"Well I ain't no mechanic, so the best you're going to get from me is a lot of trial and error. But even with a mechanic, I doubt they even could fix one of these…preservative cans!" He kicked the bumper in anger, which made Eva-Maja stumbled a bit backwards in shock, as he went back to actually try to fix it. Even though he had zero hopes for it. Before Eva-Maja could even speak to him again, she heard the sound of electricity sparking. Making both of them turn their gazes instantly towards each other in shock.

"What? Was that me?" He asked her as he walked a bit closer to her.

"No, something happened over there." She pointed from the way they came from, as a blue glimmering light could be seen from afar. There were also whimpering like voices that sounded very familiar to her, so familiar and enchanting that she just…just wanted to walk towards it.

"Hej, hej, hej, hej! Where are you going!? Come back!" His voice was loud enough that she broke out of the trance, as she walked back towards him in confusion.

"I just…I just wanted to see what it was-"

"Well, don't! Don't go anywhere! I think it's safer for us to stay in the car."

"Why?" She wanted to know why that was, why it was safer in his opinion to do that.

"B-Because, because…I'm the adult here!" Eva-Maja wanted to protest immediately, but he cut her off.

"I don't care if you're a legal adult, you're still young. And I decide, get in the car!" As she watched him close the bonnet and immediately look to the distance of the light hiding in the fog, the sounds of the whispers were unhurriedly getting louder. Eva-Maja looked down to Alfons who gave her the same look of fear on his face. As she then instantly went down to scoop the cat into her arms, as she swiftly went back to the front passenger seat, turning her head around to look at the back window.

"Now I don't believe in this kind of crap, but I don’t think this is anything paranormal, so for our safety, we will be staying here."

"Paranormal!? You think this is a paranormal situation?" She moved her gaze back to him as she suddenly shouted in shock at his words.

"What in the words of, "I don’t think this is anything Paranormal", didn't you get?" She bit her lip at that, as she looked around for anything unusual, but couldn’t stand the sound of the whispering as it suddenly turned into loud chatter. Putting her point fingers to her antitragus in order to press against her ear holes in order to block them out.

"It's getting louder by the second!" She shouted to the driver, as Alfons had his paws covering his head from the pain it started to bring him.

"Ah! För I helvete!" The man shouted at the agony the voices were bringing him, as it sounded like they were about to scream. And the glimmering light was turning brighter as well, almost engulfing the whole car.

"I can't even see the road anymore, AIIIIIJ!!!"

The blue light swallowed them whole, as the sound of ringing was the only thing left before all of their minds were forced into unconsciousness.

Learn Swedish with Anders:

För i helvete = What the hell/For fuck's sake.

#slashers fanfiction #halloween movies #hannibal lecter series #friday the 13th #nightmare on elm street #psycho #candyman #the texas chainsaw massacre #house of wax #scream #oc characters

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typeslugs · 8 months ago

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Förlusten av tidtabeller

Kolla här:

Är man någorlunda intresserad av SJs linjer ser man kanske det dumma i denna resa som SJs reseplanerare föreslog. Men bara för att vara säker slog jag också upp tåg 642 i trafikinfo för den dagen.

Mycket riktigt så avgår SJ intercity mellan Kristinehamn och Hallsberg just i Karlstad. Detta är dock inte den resan som föreslås, utan istället vill reseplaneraren att man tar en avgång som går 20 minuter tidigare och innebär ett onödigt byte.

Reseplanerare är ju behändiga när det kommer till att få en överblick över komplexa resor med flera byten. T.ex. bara några minuter innan denna incident så föreslog SJ en resa med Värmlandstrafiks tåg 70 och Länstrafiken Örebros regionalbuss 593 som fick mig att tjoa, för den hade ju varit väldigt svår att hitta för mig på egen hand. (Men vill man verkligen ha transcendentala reseförslag så rekommenderar jag alltid Samtrafikens Resrobot).

Men just den här typen av konstigheter, onödiga byten, långa väntetider, omvägar, får mig att sakna viss tillit till reseplanerare. Då det det ju skönt att regionaltrafiken i regel har tidtabeller man kan konsultera, för att få en uppskattning av hur ofta och när en viss linje faktiskt ska gå. Men för SJ...

Yeah... Detta ger ju bilden av att SJ har bespoke reseplanering utan repetitioner dag till dag. Vilket ju till viss del stämmer för det kan verkligen vara stor variation när det kommer till SJs avgångar. Jag förstår också att man inte kan lita på tidtabeller som sin enda källa för det är så mycket som händer konstant inom tågtrafiken att man i princip behöver ha ett informationsflöde för att kolla spårarbeten och förseningar. Och på sommaren kan man lika gärna strunta i det för då är allt kaos ändå.

Samtidigt så är det ju faktiskt så att avgångarna går efter en tidtabell i grunden. Jag har pendlat såpass mycket mellan Göteborg och Karlstad att jag vet att tågen går varannan timme, udda från Göteborg, jämna från Karlstad. Och att vissa avgångar saknas under helgen. Att ha denna typ av tidtabells-kunskap gör det möjligt att grovt planera sina resor i huvudet innan man gör sökningar i reseplaneraren. För mig handlar det om att jag kan ha en överblick över trender, som underlättar navigationsprocessen. Dessutom tycker jag det är enklare att ha all info på ett ark än att använda reseplaneraren som är ett rörligt gränssnitt vars huvudsakliga funktion är att sälja biljetter (man behöver ju klicka upp resedetaljer för att se vilken väg som föreslås).

Att SJ inte har tillgängliga tidtabeller kan möjligtvis bero på att de vill gardera sig mot kritik när avgångarna oundvikligen frångår tabellen. När alla resenärer tvingas söka i reseplaneraren så ser de ju alltid aktuell information (i teorin i alla fall), och kan då inte sedan komma och klaga på att tidtabellerna är fel. Men att kräva att resenärerna gör sökningar har även fördelen att de kan samla in data över söktryck på specifika start--slut-kombinationer. Ju fler interaktions-val man gör som användare av en digital tjänst, desto mer data som kan användas för att utvärdera och utveckla tjänsten.

Meta-processer som förlusten av tidtabeller kan kopplas till är atomisering/individualisering och digital sublimitet.

#kollektivtrafik #SJ #reseplanering

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