voidtreckerexpress | It's A Beautiful Night...[Open]

Who: Every single passenger is invited.
Where: Garden Carriage
When: Kazoo 24
What: Senku and Gen are getting married! There's free cake!
Warnings: There's a potential for some real sap in here.

The Garden Carriage has been decked out with the repurposed origami stars that had been folded for previous parties Gen has thrown, strung up among the statues. But otherwise, the garden is otherwise undecorated - apparently, they just believed the beauty of the scenery worked on its own.

Carefully on a side path in the carriage was a table dragged in from elsewhere so they could put food and cake out to enjoy. The usual benches were untouched for people to sit and eat or rest as needed.

They were using Senku's laptop to play something softly in the background here - something upbeat people could dance to to if they really liked. Earth denizens may or may not recognize the songs playing from the memory stick, but many of them are from one songstress Lillian Weinberg.

It's a pretty casual atmosphere, compared to previous weddings on the train - much more low-key, where people could more easily chat and mingle.

Down the train, the dressing carriage has been opened in case people want to dress up, they will find any manner of blue clothing, in honour of the colours of the people who live in Ishigami Village.

(( ooc: please feel free to engage in the TLs below, or start your own! ~~a great time to get more points for new CR ...~~ ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Gen hesitated for just a moment - maybe Romeo noticed it, or maybe he covered it well enough. But he had to consider. Romeo seemed pretty impressionable, and Gen didn’t like setting a bad example. And the truth could certainly set one - most children shouldn’t be told school didn’t seem to teach them anything interesting and to drop out for a life in show business.

He smiled and laughed sheepishly, like he’s about to tell Romeo something slightly embarrassing. He decided on a half-truth.

“I was at school then - during a free period,” Gen lied, “some of our classes were just empty times where we could complete our reading and work on assignments. And I was a pretty lazy kid! So I made paper airplanes instead. Don’t do what I did, Romeo, I learned the value of hard work later.”

Partly true. He winked. “Now, I admit I love school currently - because I helped teach a lot of the kids back home.”

That was entirely true. “So I wouldn’t recommend you spend your classes making airplanes, my friend. Pay attention to your teachers - someone like me will notice if you’re not paying attention.”

He noticed the pause but didn't think anything of it. Perhaps it was a bit sad for Gen thinking back to before, when he wasn't on the train and at school when he was a kid. He probably missed his friends.

"Oh!" He'd never heard of that but he doesn't know much about schools at all. "I always pay attention! And work really hard 'cause it's important. I don't think I went to school when I was alive because I couldn't read very good when I got to the heavens and even Nanako could read better than me even though she was much littler than me." He looked a bit sheepish.

"But then I worked really hard and now I can read really good!"

And he would keep paying attention, so he could learn many more things.

"Hard work is important," Gen agreed, nodding a little and continuing to be his cheerful self, "especially when you're learning something tricky, like learning to read better. Tons of people struggle with that too - I'm glad to hear you're really good at it now."

And then, he mentally played back what Romeo just said.

Wait.

His head tilted a little, not betraying much of his confusion. Or, honestly, sadness - because while tons of people lived and died in the billions of alternate realities out there ... Romeo was a kid. And it was a lot sadder thinking of little kids dying, for whatever reason.

"I hadn't realized you were taken from the heavens instead of the living world," Gen asked after that moment of puzzlement, picking his phrasing carefully, using what Romeo sad.

"Oh." He nodded.

"Yes. I was in the heavens before I came to the train. I was there for um... half a year I think but I don't got any memories of back when I was alive because I'm a shinki, that means I'm a weapon for a god and we don't remember our lives."

For what it's worth Romeo doesn't sound sad about any of this. "The heavens was really nice and I had lots of friends there, but I got lots of friends here too so that's good."

Gen had a lot of opinions about a kid Romeo’s age - alive or dead - being used as a weapon by something that called themselves a god. It didn’t really matter to him that this might actually be a god, either. Romeo was still a child. He didn’t deserve that. And he didn’t deserve to his memories - his personhood, in a way? Taken from him.

None of that showed in his face, though - he smiled warmly, and if there was a little sadness on his face, “I’m sorry you were taken away from your friends, my dear. Fortunately it seems you’ve made quite a few on the train! Some day, everyone who wants to go back home should be able to - and then you can see your friends again.”

That part, at least, was true. Gen was determined to help find a way for people to be able to choose whether or not they stayed here.

Romeo nodded, "I hope that too. I like all my friends here and I would be sad to say goodbye, but I miss all my friends in the heavens too and I never even got to say goodbye to them."

He sighed, that was a little sad. "Do you want to go back home to your world? To see your friends there?"

Gen sobered just a little, and his smile was a little sadder now - acknowledging the truth in what Romeo said. “I do. Not just because I miss my friends - and I do, quite a lot …”

He sighed and tucked his hands into his sleeves for a moment. “My friends and I were doing something dangerous, and important. I didn’t leave at a good time - they needed me to do something, and now that I’ve been gone for months … I’m worried about how risky things have been for them without me there.”

His head tilted a little toward Romeo. “I’ll miss you, and I’ll miss a lot of people when I can go home. But I need to go back - because I’m worried what’s happening without me there.”

"Oh." He frowned at that. That was worrying that his friends were off doing something dangerous and Gen was here, also doing something dangerous but without his freinds!

"I bet your friends are really strong though! And brave. So even though it's bad you can't be with them I know they will be doing their best. So we got to do ours too, to help you get back to them!"

“Thank you, Romeo,” Gen said, soft but honest. “You’re right - my friends are very clever, and stubborn, and determined. They each have their own strengths and I admire them a lot. Senku-chan keeps reminding me I shouldn’t be pessimistic when I’m worrying about them - and you’re reminding me of that too, now, hm? So I’ll be hopeful.”

Gen reached out to ruffle Romeo’s hair gently. “And we’ll do the same for you, so you can get back to see your friends safe and sound. Some day, the only people on this train will be the people who want to stay.”

"Yes! That would be the best way, if everyone could be where they wanted to be! My friends are really helpful so I bet if we told them about the worlds that needed help they would want to come and help here too!"

After all this was just like answering prayers, but for a whole world rather than one person.

He was glad that Gen felt more hopeful now!

It's A Beautiful Night...[Open]

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