"Are we ready to start yet?" Percy said.

Edward shushed him and said, "Not yet, Percy, Henry's not due back for another--"

"Hello again!" Henry said.

"Ah," Edward said, "glad to see you're back in the shed so soon."

"Pah, this is all silly nonsense," said Gordon.

"Don't worry Gordon, you can play with us if you want to," James winked.

"This... this... Duncans and Dragons thing well it's, it's barely better than playing pretend!" Gordon said.

"DUNGEONS an Dragons, Gordon," Douglas said, "watsa matter with a wee bit a harmless fun?"

Henry's crew finished inspecting him, and finally he was ready.

"Driver collected all of your character sheets," Edward said, "and I have reviewed them. Very interesting choices. Douglas, I don't think you quite understood the premise, but I think I found a way to work it into the story."

"Och, I understood the premise fine," Douglas said, "I just can't put meself in the shoes of a human."

"The therapist suggested we do this as a way to better understand our passengers," Edward said, "to really feel what it's like to have agency over the world beyond our tracks."

"Whyever would I want to know about THAT?" Gordon said.

"What an incurious thing to say," Edward said.

"Pah!"

"Alright, why don't you introduce your characters, friends?" Edward said.

"I'm Perseverence the wizard!" Percy said. "I have magic hands of fire and a tall hat because I was so good at reading at school."

"Percy, learning to read--can you imagine?" Gordon muttered.

"I'm playing a Moon Druid!" Henry said, "Her name is Henloris, and she's an elf from Kirk Machan."

"What's a Moon dude?" Percy asked.

"A druid," Edward explained, "is a magic user who reveres nature and worships the goddess of the Moon."

Percy didn't understand why anyone would want to reverse nature, but he stayed quiet.

"Thomas, what about you?" Edward said.

"Oh? Hmm. I uh, oh yes," Thomas stuttered. "I'm a halfling engineer--"

"Engineer isn't one of the classes in the book," Edward said.

"Yes but I wanted to be an engineer, so I made up the rules for it." Thomas said.

Edward squinted at the pages laid in front of him, and scrunched his nose so that the enormous reading glasses wouldn't fall.

"I'm going to allow this," Edward said. "You've thought your backstory through very well."

"Yes! Well, as I was saying, I'm a halfling engineer named Farkar."

"That's our branch line's name," Percy said.

"Yes well, err, I pronounce it Fuh far kwar, not farkar," Thomas said. "Farkar worked as an apprentice in a dead end small town before he moved away to be an engineer at his own business in the big city."

"Alright, now--" Edward started.

"And he has a jetpack," Thomas interrupted.

"Sure," Edward said.

James spoke. "I'm Jack Marshall, singer-songwriter-poet-bard, and I'm so good at insulting people that my words stab through them like a careless shunter pole in the eye."

Douglas was next, "I'm Douglas. Just, ye ken, meself, transported through magic buffers onto the plateway, taught in the ways of mage-hands, and competin in jousting competitions."

Edward started. "Very good. All of you, except for Douglas who we will meet later, are sitting at a table in a tavern in Kirk Ronan. It's a sort of a dark wooden shed filled with tables, and people drinking intoxicating beverages and smelly food."

"I'm playing a tune on my lute," James said.