overflow - voidtreckers

[deadwenwalking]

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arrival log

[deadwenwalking]

lan sizhui (untamed ou)

[deadwenwalking]

[From here.]

Even speaking of minor burns makes Wen Ning want to check Sizhui over for injuries and treat them if necessary - but he's aware that this is a bit ludicrous and doesn't act on the thought. The boy isn't a young child anymore. He's a very capable cultivator. It's merely the situation that has him wanting to be so overprotective.

"Good. That's good." Safe is the best he can ask for. Even relative safety is acceptable. He just doesn't want this monster of a train throwing the boy into constant danger. Never mind that they would typically be doing that themselves in the night hunts back home. It's different then. They're hunting creatures of their own volition. This feels more like it's being forced upon them, even if there's no obvious malice behind it.

"You're..." he frowns for a moment, finally registering the difference in the color of the boy's clothing. "We're not on the same team?" It's disappointing to see, especially since Jiang Cheng has even been placed in blue.

[deferences]

Being real here, Sizhui wouldn't mind some fussing at times, even if he's completely unharmed right now since he has been staying behind on the train. Not a nick or burn in sight! Sizhui isn't haphazard with himself, prefers making certain something can be done either with little or no casualties before going forward in anything (which can include daily, mundane tasks, too).

He hums as reassuringly as he can, probably would've nodded if it didn't mean moving his head off Wen Ning's shoulder. One decides to go on missions and being a Lan, of course Sizhui helps more often than not, but there are times where it's too much. Despite this, he's still never evacuated from any mission, though is sincerely glad it's an option in case things go sideways on-world enough they need a quick escape. Because yes, while it is kinda-sorta different than back home, it's something besides sitting aboard the train and getting cabin fever all the time.

Wen Ning noting his purple hoodie does make him eventually sit up proper-like again, attention downcast at first, looking himself over then he directs his gaze upward. “Unfortunately, no. Isn't it odd? I'm the only one of ours that's on Team Purple.”

[deadwenwalking]

By 'ours' does he mean familiar faces or those specifically from their version of the world? Wen Ning decides that's not important enough to ask and doesn't touch the subject. What's important to note is that purple is rare among them. But little A-Yuan had always been special.

"I was told that... blue team tends to run missions that involve protecting others." Even if some members of the team needed protecting themselves and he questions the validity of this information. "Do you know what the purple specialization is?" Lan Sizhui is well behaved, intelligent, and gifted. There are any number of tasks he'd be suitable for. It could be simply a matter of numbers. They'll be seeing each other on the train enough. There's no reason for him to be selfish when it comes to which color team the boy is put on.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll do very well. The team is lucky to have you." And at some point maybe he'll make sure they know it. No one on purple had better be ungrateful.

[deferences]

‘Ours’ was supposed to mean ‘cultivators,’ but Wen Ning assuming he meant people from their homeworld isn't wrong; that's exactly how he would've worded it either way though, so technically, the answer is... maybe both? Regardless, as rare as he may be, Sizhui's proud to represent his team's color and might possibly even enjoy wearing purple at this point.

“Purple, as I've heard it, is rescuing, working with civilians, and large-scale defense or fighting in settlements.” Blue running missions that protect others sounds right, particularly because he remembers the one he accompanied them on and it involved a lot of that. He believes he's quite capable himself, can handle whatever is thrown his way, no matter what it could be, but without seeming boastful. They'd chosen the team most suitable for him by his abilities and he's alright believing they know best. (So far, there hasn't been anything he couldn't handle. So far—) But don't worry, Wen Ning, blue is the other team he's followed most. If not on missions, they'll always see each other on the train.

“Thank you,” he murmurs sheepishly, hoping his ears aren't as red as they feel. Sizhui straightens afterward, turns his gaze onto his relative properly, expression brightening into such an outright smile, it's a wonder this boy can be considered a Lan. “Did you want to keep reading? I could occupy myself with something... like perhaps making some more paper shapes.” Hearts, flowers, cute little puffed stars; he can confidently make them all! Things like animals, however, take a bit more time but he's never been discouraged.

[deadwenwalking]

"I could do that, but... I think I would just end up being more interested in what you were doing." It wouldn't be too awkward, just the two of them sitting around enjoying quiet hobbies, but that's something people do when they're more comfortable and at home in a given environment. Wen Ning doesn't yet feel that way about this train. He's too unsettled, and he still needs to get to know this older version of his young cousin more. They hadn't been able to properly spend enough time together before they'd been brought here.

How is he suppose to ignore what the boy's doing to read, even about an interesting subject like giant lizards? It won't be possible. "I can read this any time," he decides with a shake of his head, setting the book on the unoccupied part of the bed on his other side to prove his point.

"I want to hear more about your time here. On the train, or... or with your team." Having not been on any missions himself yet, Wen Ning is very interested in hearing what they're like from Sizhui's perspective. Lan Wangji describes everything very seriously and Wei Wuxian sometimes goes too far in the other direction.

lan wangji (mdzs ou)

[deadwenwalking]

[From here.]

"I thought we were needed to help others." Those missions he's heard about... "B-but what purpose does changing us serve?"

That makes their purpose here feel more like an experiment than anything, and he doesn't care for that.

"I'm sorry... I keep ending up dumping questions on everyone."

[achickenformylove]

"It is alright. Many have questions when they first arrive here. I do not know what the point of it is. I feel it might be an issue with the void, but I do not know enough to be able to say."

He would have been more surprised if Wen Ning had not had any questions at all.

[deadwenwalking]

It's still hard to deal with those eyes, but Wen Ning finds himself meeting them more often than not just because they're so fascinating. Who could believe a human being could have irises in that color?

"The void?" Maybe it was this void that had affected Lan Wangji's eyes. "Is it alive too? Is travelling through it the only way?"

[achickenformylove]

He was unaware that his eye color was something different. If he did, he might have figured out that was Wen Ning had been confused when first seeing him, but he hadn't yet.

"As far as I know, it is not alive, but it is not anywhere in particular. It seems to be the primary way the train gets to different locations so quickly."

[deadwenwalking]

Not anywhere? But surely it has to be somewhere. A place can't exist but be traveled through. The fact that they're moving through it means there's space to move through.

Perhaps this area exists in a way that's too complicated for him to understand. Wen Ning hasn't been here long and already there are things that he can barely comprehend. Maybe it's best not to dwell on it and accept that they're going to be moving through this strange mystical zone all the time.

"How far away do you think these locations actually are?"

lightning farron (ou)

[deadwenwalking]

[From here.]

"My ticket?" There's a pause, then Wen Ning begins patting all of his pockets, so thrown off that he's momentarily forgotten where he's even put the item in question. What if he's lost it? What if it's wrong, somehow? He hasn't had to use it for anything yet.

He follows her, trying to bring to mind the recent instructions he'd gotten from that young boy Romeo. The child hadn't mentioned anything about asking the ICP to bring people on the train.

"How do I tell it to keep us both?" His voice has lowered to a half-frantic whisper. "If we switch again she'll be upset..."

[enthunder]

"It's like... making a request."

She watches him for a moment, then unhooks her own ticket from where it hangs around her neck on a lanyard. She slides it into the machine slot, exits the roster that immediately appears, and scrolls past the listed options to the one labelled feedback.

"Let's see, something like..." Bring back Wen Qing of the Qishan Wen sect, who left on day 1 of the month of Kazoo. "... and then you ask it not to send you home before that."

[deadwenwalking]

"A-a request?" Wen Ning watches everything she does very carefully. He doesn't want to have to ask her to show him how it works again the same way he'd had to ask Romeo. The situation is too serious for him to have difficulty with this silly machine.

His hands are shaking when he brings out his ticket and he hates them for betraying him this way. Using the keys with their odd lettering system is already difficult enough. His request, when he finally manages to type it, is as formal as he can manage: Master Train. This one humbly requests that you reinstate among your passengers one Wen Qing of the Qishan Wen sect, who left on day 1 of the month of Kazoo. Though this one is lower than the dirt beneath your tracks, I miss my sister greatly and would be eternally grateful if I were not to be removed in turn prior to this. Your servant, Wen Ning - courtesy name Qionglin.

He stops to look over his work, fingers finally still. "... Is it too long?" Is it not long enough?

[enthunder]

She reads it as he types, mouth twisting at the language in the middle. Is that what he thinks, or is it just wordplay for a formal request? She doesn't remember Qing ever talking like that, but then she was less concerned with formality. Given everything.

Still.

"You, uh... don't need that 'lower than dirt' part. The rest looks good." It does. Far better than anything she'd have thought up. Wordlessly, she indicates the button that submits the request.

[deadwenwalking]

Wen Qing would never use that sort of wording unless she had to. The two of them are very close, but also very different when it comes to how they approach things. When dealing with a powerful being and not wanting to anger them, Wen Ning is willing to grovel. He won't hold back where his sister is involved.

Nodding once, he looks back over his request and changes nothing.

"She did this all the time?" He'll do it every day as long as it doesn't annoy their mechanical host.

lan xichen (mdzs ou)

[deadwenwalking]

[From here.]

Considering all the states Wen Ning has dealt with people in when it comes to them not taking care of themselves 'good health' can basically mean 'not about to fall over at any moment'. Lan Xichen isn't dead and he has all of his limbs intact. That's a positive thing.

"I hope I didn't interrupt anything important..." His eyes stray to the xiao the man had been playing. Is that the same one he'd had back home? He doesn't quite remember. It seems every time the man is playing it around him Wen Ning isn't all there mentally. He's glad that isn't the case this time.

"I-I'm just learning the lay of things."

romeo (ou)

[deadwenwalking]

[From here.]

Memorizing the lists of names is definitely on top of Wen Ning's to-do list right now. He'll have to go around and check all the signs in person, as he doesn't want to make things awkward with Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling by asking them outright. The information might be easy to find, but that doesn't mean they'll want him having it. He imagines this will work best at night or in the early morning before anyone leaves their room to go elsewhere, as many of the rooms remain empty during the day. The rest will take some guesswork.

"Thank you." He really means it, too. Even these instructions from a small child will help him navigate this panel easier. He should be grateful for that, even. Instructions from someone older might have ended up being far more complicated. "I'm still quite a bit lost in this place."

Re: romeo (ou)

[myblueskies]

"It's okay sir!" He smiled at him. "It is a bit scary to go to a whole new place! But everyone is really nice here so if you got any questions you just got to ask them!"

He was sure everyone would be happy to help!

[deadwenwalking]

That's so cute and optimistic. And it's been true so far. No one here even really balks at his appearance, which isn't surprising given how there are many other travelers with them who are quite clearly not human. It could be argued that he'd barely strange looking compared to him, though he won't be judging them for it.

Hesitating only a moment, Wen Ning reaches over and gives the boy a gentle pat on the head. "Thank you. I appreciate your confidence."

[myblueskies]

Romeo smiled at him as his head was patted. "You're welcome sir! And I live in the second sleeping carriage in room D!"

Just so he could find him, if he had any more questions!

wei wuxian (untamed ou)

[deadwenwalking]

[From here.]

Letting Wen Ning choose when to end the hug might be asking for said gesture to last eternally. He would be happy to accept this attention for the rest of his life. But he does soon pull away. He doesn't want to seem too needy, nor does he want to make things too awkward for his friend.

His eyes burn, but whatever has sealed his tears ducts refuses to relent. "I-I know. I know I'm not."

He'd been successfully moving on, in fact. He'd been willing to pull himself out of Wei Wuxian's shadow and still is. It's knowing how close he'd been to seeing his sister again that's hit him so hard. To dangle something like that in front of him only to yank it away is the cruelest thing this train could have done. But he'll move on. Because he has to. Because nothing has really changed.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to upset your tour."

[weifinder]

Very nearly caught in a hug that could have gone so awkward it wouldn't have ended until someone else came across them and then asked about the whole hug, which who knew how long that'd have been, when Wen Ning shows the only common sense between them by eventually pulling away. Thus freed from having to make a decision, Wei Wuxian lets his arms fall away too, and then carries on like he was entirely comfortable with this whole interaction.

(He was, for the most part. He just wishes there was anything he could do, and there isn't. He cant' fix this. He can't make it better.)

"What tour? I was showing off the void, but if you'd like us to go over the carriages, I can show you them all. There's a garden, a greenhouse, a quiet area with locked rooms for quiet and less quiet reasons, some kind of workspace, a medical area, oh there's this kind of hot spring that you're supposed to go in strangely clothed--then the kitchens, the eating area, even a poorly stocked library!"

[deadwenwalking]

Wei Wuxian's description of the cars already has a light smile back on Wen Ning's face. It's true that his friend hadn't actually volunteered to show him around the train originally. He'd been fumbling for a word to describe what he'd been doing and that's what he came up with. But now that the offer really is on the table...

"I would be interested to see what kind of library you would consider poorly stocked." He wouldn't call the Yiling Patriarch not well read by any means, it's just that when he thinks of libraries and people associated with them the man that comes to mind will always be Lan Wangji. Even his sister's collection of texts were all medical related. (And very boring reads. He would know.)

And he might ask about the 'hot springs' too. How would they have hot springs in one of these wheeled boxes? Where would the water come from?

[weifinder]

Wei Wuxian would also use the Lan library as best comparison, even if the texts there had at moments been utterly boring, and at others interesting enough if it weren't forced reading of precepts that conditioned to a monkhood that was never his own. As for the library here, however, he snorts, and gestures, setting them off in a direction that is inevitably alone a line. One moves from the train front to back, never with inspiration side to side.

It's the nature of their current beast.

"Don't say I didn't warn you," he says as they walk, "It might be something you can 'order' books from the train for, my understanding is that's where most the ones there come from at the moment. There's some mysterious point system that acts like silver, or credit with a merchant. You can find yours on the passenger roster—it updates when we hit these platforms."