Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lifting a partial sandwich to his mouth, Scheel stood up from his seat. He usually sat in the number 3 car, but today decided on the 5th because it usually had a few characters. Today the stench of unwashed clothing and obnoxious was ruining the flavor of his meal. Swaying from bar to bar, the sandwich stuffed in his mouth was hanging carefully as he made his way to car 4.

There were two seats available and his choices were a crying baby and another next to a young couple exploring each other's mouths. With a tilt of the head Scheel rolled his eyes and walked through the connection between cars 3 and 4.

Opening the door to car 3 he scanned the open seating and settled across from an older man. HIs sandwich thoroughly demolished Scheel sat back and crossed his left leg over his knee and put his hands behind his neck. Thinking about taking a power nap before his stop Scheel tilted his head up and his eyes breezed over the old man holding something familiar in his hands. Squinting to look closer he leaned in, "Excuse me sir, where did you get that?"

Thinking it strange the man was acting possessive, Scheel leaned back to give him more room, "I'm not trying to pry, sorry. It's just not every day someone carries around a dream catcher. I mean, aren't those supposed to be above a bed?" Scheel offered a friendly smile, so the man wouldn't think him too much of a smart a**.

Considering his words an image of his own room came to mind and he pictured the feathered catcher hanging on the wall next to his bed. Many a night he spent feeling the feathers until he fell asleep. If he could avoid the looks like the ones he's probably giving the old man right now, he'd probably carry it around as well. Being away from it was almost painful.

Scheel couldn't tell if the man was genuine or being sarcastic with the reference to the bed. Determined not to judge the personality of a person on the subway, he gave into the question about being a student, "Actually I am a student, but opted not to take the course on basket weaving and dream catchers." Laughing under his breath, "Seriously, though, I actually own one myself. I'm a card carrying member of the insomniacs club and this is the only route I hadn't tried. Why am I telling you this?"

Shaking his head Scheel stood up to change seats because he was clearly about to spill more than he'd intended, but decided to lean against the pole right next to him.

Seeing now that the man had warmed up a bit and had decided to share personal circumstances with him, Scheel reached his hand out and gave Anderson two equally firm shakes. "Scheel. Nice to meet you as well."

With a brief chuckle and a sigh one might give before a long story, Scheel improvised telling this man the truth rather than the story he'd intended to tell anyone else that might have asked about the catcher. "I like to support local businesses, so when I started looking for different ways to treat my sleepless nights I stopped by a shop in town that specializes in homeopathic remedies. Although now that you mention it, since I bought my dreamcatcher my sleep issues have done a 180. "

Taking a deeper look at the man across from him, Scheel began to note the similarities between them. The creases in his eyes, old fashioned clothing, large hands with a gentle demeanor, all seemed to cloak a process that was manifesting through the dreamcatcher cradled in his arms. Anderson verbalized the way Scheel felt. Realizing this man as a kind of mirror, Scheel leaned back against the pole and rubbed his upper arm with his opposite hand deep in thought.

"It's funny you should mention Justin and Michael. My parents were at an impasse over my name and thankfully decided on an old family name. I was almost a Tommy." Looking at the ground and shaking his head, Scheel smiled crooked showing off a few of his staggered pearl white teeth.

Holding his messenger bag close to his body Scheel shook his head, "No. I'm more afraid of breaking that thing than any normal person should be. It's kind of grown on me and I feel way over protective to carry it around. Besides they're supposed to be hung over the bed in case you haven't heard." Feeling more like his sarcastic self it was hard to hold back around this man and Scheel added in the last bit with his index pointed to the sky.

Hearing the name 'Granny' made Scheel stop his musings and snap to reality. It couldn't be. The man across from him had gone to the same shop. But he'd said he was given the catcher by his 'old lady'. Furrowing his brow, Scheel thought as Anderson offered a parting wish as the train slowed, but it wasn't his own stop. Not wanting to let the man go, he put up a hand, "Whoa. Did you say Granny?"

Of course the man could be married and together they may have grandchildren so the name could be just a reference. What were the odds that two men on a subway car share the same affinity for an object and have similar reactions to it? Before letting his mind sound too much like a research paper he changed his surprised tone to one of decided coincidence, "The woman at the store who sold me my dream catcher called herself Granny." Laughing to himself, "Funny."

Holding the pole tighter as the train came to a halt he thought hard back to the most recent conversation he'd had with Granny. There was talk about this process from catching the spirit to release taking a bit of time and consequetly the catcher would remain with him for the duration. "I don't recall her words mentioning the dream catcher having feelings one way or another, but I know I'm physically drawn to it. It's hard to leave the house knowing I won't see it for a while." Throughout the day at school and work the catcher always seemed to make it to the forefront of his mind, but he didn't have experiences like Anderson where it was following him. This was hard to swallow.

"I don't doubt it's powerful, but an object having the ability to move on it's own is something else." Scheel tried hard to keep an open mind, but it seemed the conversation had taken a different path than he'd originally pictured. A path that was beginning to worry Scheel. With a concerned brow, "Look, I'm not going to judge you, being a total stranger after all, you might be obsessing a bit though. Have you seen a doctor for amnesia?"