deadwenwalking | overflow

[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..."

"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."

"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?

Edited 2021-03-30 05:37 (UTC)

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.

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.

It's his choice, so she just watches him finish up with vague resignation.

"Every day. We... took turns." And there's still only one Farron and one Wen on the train. What a joke. "I'll keep asking, too. She deserves as much time as we can get her."

"Thank you." Wen Ning gives Lightning a serious, grateful look. He doesn't know this woman at all, but she must have meant something to his sister. If that's the case then he feels like he owes her for being there when he couldn't be.

"I'm... really glad she had someone here with her, if I couldn't be." There are others here from his world, sure. Wen Qing hadn't been particularly close with many of them, with the exception of perhaps Wei Wuxian. She hadn't been able to interact with many women around her age, stuck as she'd been doing the bidding of Wen Rohan and then later having to look after their family in the burial mounds - most of whom where those too old to fight. This had to have been at least one positive aspect of her time on the train.

Her own nod in response is just as grave, her shoulders loosening from where she'd started to hunch almost defensively. If nothing else, this conversation has convinced her that he's a brother worth waiting for.

Part of her wants to flee, duty done, but it's outnumbered by the part that has her shifting, offering, "She was happy, sometimes." It was a strange situation, a strange place, and her departure from her own world wasn't exactly a good one. Add to that Wen Ning's absence, and Light understands how feelings could be mixed at best. Still. There had been good times.

"Most days she's-- she'd be in medical, nose in a textbook. She tried to teach me a bit, but..." Her gesture indicates how well that went. Medical scholarship is hardly a strength of hers as it is Qing's.

Hearing that she'd had any moments of happiness here, at least having that much confirmed, causes Wen Ning to smile fondly. She deserved any good moments she got. He's only sad that she hadn't been allowed to be here longer.

"That... sounds like her." His gaze falls to the floor, though the smile remains. "I tried to read some of her medical books when I'd be stuck at home... and she would try to teach me. I'm afraid the words would all blur together after a while and I never really learned more than the basics. The best I can do is lend a helping hand."

Hold someone down, pass the correct supplies, that sort of thing. He knew a few recipes, but more often than not ended up being scolded for not mixing the medicine properly. There were so many ingredients and it was all so hard to keep track of.

overflow - voidtreckers

lightning farron (ou)

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