deadwenwalking | overflow

[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."

"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.

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?"

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."

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?"

It was certainly more than WangJi understood properly. It seemed to be a place between places so it wasn't the same thing as a physical location as far as he understood it.

"I am unsure. There are no maps to show where they are in relation to each other and no one that I know of has heard of them before. Sometimes we are in the void for several weeks at a time."

"That long?" Here Wen Ning had thought that the missions might be more frequent than that. Lan Wangji would know better than him, though. That's the whole reason he's asking him all these questions.

With the way things look out the windows they have to be going a ridiculously fast pace. To be traveling for weeks at that speed... well, he doesn't actually know what that means. All these distances are beyond him. Every place he's ever been before now he'd traveled to on foot or on the blade of a sword.

"Does it... bother you? All of this."

He nodded his head. "It seems there are two weeks usually between platforms, but after doing a mission, we spend that time in the void."

As far as WangJi knew, the train was going superfast. When they were in the atmosphere of a planet, it still seemed to be going pretty quickly. So they had to be going even faster when they were outside the atmosphere.

"Everything about the train? It is very strange."

That's not really an answer, but Wen Ning doesn't know what else he expected to get from Lan Wangji. The man isn't exactly the type to express whether or not he's afraid of something. And he most like isn't all that afraid of being put in this scenario. Those he cares for are here, aren't they? Some of them, at least. Everything else can be taken in stride with his usual collectedness.

"Yeah, it... it's definitely that." He sighs internally, but not out loud. "Does it bother you, though?" He decides to try one more time, though he doesn't expect to get that much different of an answer. This is just how the other man is, no matter which world he comes from.

He was certainly right; it was not his way to talk about things that frightened him or concerned him. He was a very private person most of the time. Besides, he didn't want to alarm others by expressing concern about the train when there was really nothing that could be done.

"Bother? In what way?"

Other than the fact that he had been pulled from home to this train where everything is not always as it seems?

In what way? Wen Ning should really be amused by this answer. Of course someone like Lan Wangji would act unbothered by all of this. Maybe he is, though he doubts it. It may be a genuine question in that he's bothered in many ways and he wants Wen Ning to specify which area he wants to hear about most.

Sighing, the puppet decides it's not worth prying further. "...Nevermind." If the other cultivator decides he wants to share anything, he will.

He smiles instead, though it's a bit weak. "I admire your resilience, Second Master Lan."

Yeah, there were pretty much several ways that WangJi could claim to be bothered by this, but he wasn't one to immediately admit them. If someone were to ask specifically, he would likely elaborate more, but not with such a broad question in his mind.

"I try. There has been much to learn here."

A change of subject is good, and Wen Ning nods enthusiastically. "There is! Th-there's quite a lot to learn... even if I haven't even seen the whole train yet. Everyone else has been very helpful."

He's not yet aware of how much of a disappointment the library will turn out to be. Thankfully the other passengers have plenty to share, whether or not they even mean to.

"Have you been studying anything specific? Or... if that's none of my business, it's alright."

Yes, he will eventually realize how disappointing the library is. It is unfortunate.

"I have been trying to learn more about the technology that is on the train. It is far easier for some here and they are more familiar with it so it is good to learn about it. As of the moment, it is better to find people to learn from as the library doesn't have many books."

Welp, he was going to find out sooner than later.

Well that's just unfortunate. Why build a library if there weren't already books to put in it? That seems like poor planning. If they only had a few books to work with it might have been easier to keep them in boxes until there was enough to fit in a room.

Maybe the train is optimistic about its future literature acquisitions.

"Oh..." That's all he can think of to say out loud, frowning. "Who, um. ...Who might be the best to ask about technological things?"

That was WangJi's question exactly. Why bother if it was going to be a terrible library? But he hadn't been in control of that decision. He just had to live with it. He and at least one other were trying to get people to write their own stories, world histories, anything they thought people would want to read, to take up space but that took time.

"There are a few who come from significantly more advanced worlds, but I think the level of advancement is dropping a bit though I can't say for everyone. There is a young man who has assisted the Blue Team at least twice, he has given me some advice on technology before. It sounds as though his world is far more advanced than this. I can give you his name. Also asking general questions over the device will likely get replies back on certain things."

Asking general questions over the device also gives Wen Ning something akin to stage fright. He might not be able to see everyone, but he knows that everyone on the train can hear him. It makes him quite nervous, so that's something he'd rather fall back on as a last resort.

"Who is it? I-I mean, I'm not going to go bother them about things right and left, but it would be good to know." There are already people on his team who have been helpful. It's his hope that he can eventually learn from just watching so he isn't constantly bothering people in order to figure out how the most basic of items work. It would surely get annoying to others after a while unless they really enjoyed flaunting their superior knowledge on the subject.

WangJi certainly understood that. He didn't particularly care what others thought of him, but he also didn't make many posts over the network except for certain times. He still preferred to speak to people in person.

"His name is Quatre. He usually introduces himself by his full name. He is a young man with blonde hair. If you don't wish to contact him with your device, he is often in the music carriage at least once a day."

That was really how WangJi knew him aside from the two missions they'd been on together, the fact that both of them used the music carriage to practice.

It's an odd name, but many of the names he's heard in this place have been odd. Most of those not from some version of their world come from places that clearly speak different languages entirely. It's quite fantastical how the train makes it so they can all understand each other.

There are several young men with blond hair here, so he commits the name to memory. It could be that he never has a reason to talk to this individual. If he does, the option is available to him. As long as the man doesn't mind.

"I don't think I've been to the music carriage yet..." When he'd come across Lan Xichen playing his xiao he'd been in the garden.

It was true. Names here were very different than they were back home. It did take some getting used to.

"The music carriage much better equipped than the library." There were a lot of random instruments there. Even if WangJi would never try to play them, someone could probably make some good music with them with practice.

"Equipped? There are actual instruments there?" Wen Ning isn't sure what he expected. Maybe he thought there would just be music playing, or that it would simply be a quiet place to play music yourself. But hearing that there are actual items to practice with there makes more sense.

He feels silly for thinking otherwise, really. "Are there ones from all different worlds? There would have to be so many..."

"There are. Some of them seem like ones we'd have back home. There's nothing overly sophisticated like my guqin, but there are some simple ones."

WangJi thought for a moment. He'd looked but never really played any of those. "I suppose there are some from different worlds. They are not ones that I have seen villagers playing."

"I've never had the chance to pick up an instrument myself..." It isn't exactly what the Wen clan specializes in. He had been made fun of by other members of his clan enough without having to draw any more attention to himself.

And aside from that, playing music well requires a lot of soul. His is incomplete.

"Were there not any that looked particularly... interesting? Or strange?" No giant pink fruit-shaped string instruments? Probably not. It would have been mentioned already.

"It might be a chance if you are curious about it." Since no one owned the instruments in the music car, anyone was free to try them. If Wen Ning was curious, he certainly could.

"Strange? Not particularly. Unusual for us, but nothing alarming."

"Oh." Well, it's hard to be disappointed by that when they have instrument options available and he didn't even know about that before this conversation. Not having strange ones is fine.

"Have you considered trying anything new there?" It's hard to imagine Lan Wangji playing anything but the guqin. Still, it could be entertaining.

lan wangji (mdzs ou)

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