Daily Commute

A soothing shaking spread through the trains' long benches as the train began to move. Well… I can't really call it shaking. It's more like a smooth back and forwards motion, so unnoticeable that it feels like the sit is shaking when actually it is you who is moving. The bottom of the train didn't touch the rails but hovered a short distance from the ground. As it moved the train carts bobbed up and down which caused the wavelike motion.

I've been taking this train for a few months now, ever since I started my life as a university student. It's not so bad now but during my first few rides I did suffer from bad nausea. I know there are pills against that but I didn't want to rely on them for the next four years. It took a couple of weeks but now it seems weird to me that I had ever suffered from it.

My apartment is half an hour's ride from the campus so I don't bother doing much but listen to music during the commute. I enjoy listening to electro-psychedelic fusion tracks as I watch the other people on the train. I'm studying sociology with a few classes on psychology so without even noticing I always apply what I learned to the other passengers. I would've continued to enjoy it if not for the dreaded route change.

About a week ago the usual route of the train was changed to include three more stations. The first is a small neighborhood where at most there are a few mothers who board the train to go do some shopping; it’s the other two that are bothering my usual routine.

The second stop is where a dozen or so suit wearing office workers board. Room isn't the problem; there are more than enough seats. A man who boards with them is half the cause of my misery. Here he comes, wearing the same dark blue suit as always. Even his tie is the same as yesterdays. Red colored with diagonal grey stripes. He'll spot his friend soon and then my misery will start.

"Hey." Same greeting followed with a firm hand shake.

Now the long haired guy, who I'm pretty sure is a homeless, will answer the same thing he always does.

"Gounornmg." He has a small speech disorder and I still can't understand him.

He was what attracted my attention and made me notice them at first.

A song has just finished playing and there were a few seconds of where no noise came from my headphones, in this brief moment I heard his voice. I curse my self daily for pausing the music and listening to their conversation more carefully. Since that day I can't stop my self from eavesdropping to them on a daily basis. The other man is dressed in ragged and torn clothes so he is very easy to spot so I make sure to sit down near him.

I can't understand what he says but I manage to deduct some of it from the responses. What he said earlier for example, I know for sure that it mean "Good Morning."

"Good morning to you too." The suit wearing man sits in the empty seat his friend always keeps for him and puts his large briefcase on an empty seat between them.

"Jouguouyeang?"

"You know… fine… like usual. You?"

"I soufgdkoduiondredohfarweeogay."

"Lucky."

"Yeah." He never seems to have trouble with this word. "Hwskjnytmli?"

"She thinks she's coming down with a cold, asked me to buy her some medicine on the way home."

"Ojkjidiois?"

"Nah, don't worry. I'm sure it's nothing serious."

They just keep with the small talk like that up until the third newly added station to the trains' route. There, a bunch of cackling high-school and middle-school students step onto the train. At this point I move a couple of seats closer so I can still eavesdrops through the large chatter on the cart.

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A girl in a middle-school uniform joins them; sitting on the empty seat between them after the suit man puts his briefcase away. This is always followed by a couple of stares, mostly from mothers who boarded to go shopping, but no one ever says a word or asks any questions.

From the moment the girl joins them the conversation changes to magic, monsters and treasure. The girl does most of the talking, asking the men a flood of questions with a high and happy voice.

She doesn't always understand the man with the speech disorder but that never stops her and she simply asks him to repeat himself. He always gets annoyed when his necktie friend asks him to repeat what he said, however with the girl he patiently repeats what he said. Making sure to try and say it clearer this time.

I don't play games. I'd like to, but I just don't have enough time.

Nonetheless, when it comes to "Royal Road", even those who don't play it know the basics. That's why on the second day of me watching them it hit me what it was they were talking about. Once the connection was made, it was no longer strange for the two middle aged men to be speaking to a middle-schooler.

In Royal Road it was common for older players to party with the young ones. The most common reason was parental supervision, where groups of parents would take turns playing alongside their children, but there were also occasions where kids asked complete strangers for help.

I remember seeing a large electronic sign in the station where the students wait, which warned children about this. "Don't share your personal information in Royal Road!" it said with big, bright red letters.

I get off before them, so I never see if the girl joins her school friends later or when they get off the train. It doesn't bother me whether there is anything inappropriate about their relationship. The girl is clearly the one who seeks their company and it is the parents fault for not being more careful. I also don't care how they met each other in the first place or what class they play as.

There is only one thing that has been bothering me. I doubt I'll ever ask them about it personally and I don't want to look for the answer on the Internet for some reason. Although I'm contemplating about joining them inside the game I'm satisfied with the current status quo between us.

It was my first thought when I learnt they play Royal Road and I wondered a lot about it in the past week. But… I guess I'll never find out whether inside the game, the man wearing the dirty clothes, suffers from a speech disorder or speaks normally.

His problem seems to be physical and since you play the game with your mind he should be able to voice his thoughts clearly, right?

And what about accents? Does ones thoughts have accents?

I put my headphones back on as I step off the train. The station is crowded with hundreds of people and I quickly forget about the trio from the train as I make my way to the exit. They make the time fly during my daily commute to university so I guess I can hold off finding the answer for a while longer.

"Hi."

"You look happy?" A friend from class asks. "Something good happen? Is it that brunette from the first row?"

"Nah." I'm kind of surprised that I look happy, "Just thinking…"

"Whatever… so did you ask her out yet?"