He closed his eyes again. The Solaris was approaching the Great Blue Vortex. His crew—characters he’d built with intricate lore over years of commutes—waited for his command. There was Lyra, the navigator with bioluminescent tattoos, and Kael, the engineer who could fix a warp drive with a paperclip. They were more real to him than his coworkers.
Elias smiled to himself, a small, private expression that often made strangers on the train glance away. He wasn't just killing time; he was stimulating his creativity . Recently, he’d started writing these visions down in a notes app, turning his "idle" thoughts into a sprawling fantasy epic. Day Dreams
"Next stop, Blackfriars," the intercom crackled, momentarily thinning the veil of his fantasy. He closed his eyes again
The rhythmic clack-clack of the train was a metronome for Elias’s thoughts. Outside, the gray suburbs of London blurred into a watercolor wash, but Elias wasn't seeing the rain-streaked glass. He was somewhere else entirely. There was Lyra, the navigator with bioluminescent tattoos,