The Girls of the Last Carriage

She’d accidentally starched her gi quarter-pleat in the wash. She held it self-consciously against her side as she watched the clouds navigate the sharp mountains that formed Montre’s deepest valleys. Even out here, where human presence was gentle and subservient to the land, Vekllei National Railways had tracks that serviced the smallest villages. Today it was high summer, and the slopes were green and free of ice. They waited in the shade of the regional limited express carriage for train 802, which would take them home to Montre-Lola and complete a two hour ritual all Montre-Lolan university students made for their studies.

802 was the second of an 800-series trainset that had been manufactured since 2003. These trains came from old society, long before Tzipora or her father had ever been born, back when VK Rail had been the Montre Regional Transport Company. It was crazy to think that the 802 had been around since before the bombs had fallen, and had survived the chaos of the atomic aftermath. It was funny how human creations became guides through history, linking young women like Tzipora to the solemn echoes of the past.

There was something sobering about that idea, she thought. She was thinking about this as she waited in the carriage, as a younger girl fidgeted in boredom and another whistled away in sleep. The sun was hot on the platform outside and the rising air distorted the bright yellow glint that signalled 802’s approach.

Despite a week between posts, I’ve been a busy little bee. I made a Tintin-style Tzipora today, please click here to see her. I also drew Tzipora causing a ruckus in a Ryokan here.

I also encourage you all to come join the Vekllei Discord, where I do a lot of sketching and a lot of nice worldbuilding discussion goes on. In the coming days I have a few projects I’d like to share, including a new animated studio title for this project!

These last few posts have been heavy on the melancholy and light on the worldbuilding. That’s all about to change.

See you soon.