voidtreckerexpress | Not the Memorable Day he Expected

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Not the Memorable Day he Expected

Who: Xue Yang and OTA
Where: Dining
When: Day Twenty
What: Today would have been his wedding day so he is a little frustrated, a little sad, and is binge eating all the food that would have been served. Feel free to come and help him eat up all the food and stop him from destroying the entire car or all the dishes.
Warnings: Xue Yang in a bad mood can be a jerk. Other warnings will get added if necessary.

Xue Yang hadn't really thought a wedding was necessary. Never saw the point in following a tradition like this before. Didn't even really expect he would ever have one...and it seems he wasn't wrong in that respect. But this had been the day that Xingchen had chosen. The day where they would have been officially married and celebrating with everyone on the train that would want to do so. And so the fact that the man's name is in gold and he is missing, is weighing heavily on him. Even more then it has the days leading up to this or when he first discovered the man gone.

But there was food and a party had been planned. So instead of waiting around, Xue Yang has decided that he would help himself to what he should have been having anyway. He plops himself down in a car decorated in red. And he even decided to wear the red wedding attire that Xingchen had picked and had made for him. Might as well, right? This was its destined day to be worn so it should be done. He always liked the color red anyway. Perhaps a part of him thought if he actually came and everything was ready that the man might suddenly appear...

So even though he has the expression of someone who doesn't care...everything is meticulous. Perfectly set up and ready to go should the groom decide to walk through the door of the car. But Xue Yang knows that isn't likely. That isn't what he is fated for and no amount of hope is going to change that.

And so he eats. It's his party and he will gorge himself on all the food if he wants to. He sees no reason to let it go to waste. It is for him isn't it? But unfortunately the longer he sits there and eats, and waits...the angrier he becomes. Angry at himself for letting himself think that this was even possible. Angry at the train for taking people away just as easily as they are brought. Angry at Xingchen for broken promises. Just....angry.

Angry enough that an empty plate goes hurtling across the room to smash into the wall beside the door. If someone happens to walk through the door at that moment there won't be any apologies for any broken pieces that might land in their way.

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Curufin happens to wander through the door, but he has fast reflexes and ducks, and so doesn't get hit by any dish fragments.

Anger is a thing he understands well, though he doesn't know the specific reason for Xue Yang's upset. He was gone for so long before the last mission, and the mission took up so much of his energy that he hasn't been paying attention to announcements and didn't know about the wedding day.

"What's wrong, Xue Yang?"

Edited 2021-06-10 23:51 (UTC)

When the plate comes flying across the room in Wen Ning's direction, he reflexively catches it, twists around on his heels and throws it back. Only after he's done so does he realize who'd thrown it in the first place.

He wishes he could dredge up some more sympathy, but it's hard where this man is involved. Others seem fine with him here but the puppet has been avoiding interaction. If he doesn't talk with him he won't fight with him and that's better for everyone involved.

Well, so much for avoiding conflict.

Xue Yang watches as Curufin ducks from the dish attack. He hadn't really planned to throw it at anyone but the last person he would have done so to would have been Curufin. At least this guy has been pleasant to him since he arrived. Even if he did notice him missing for awhile. But that gives a little spark of hope that he really shouldn't have...because Curufin's name had been gold hadn't it? So that means it is possible for someone to come out gold and back to the train...

"This was supposed to be an important day but the person who set it up is missing."

There is a growl and gruff tone to his voice. Even if there is hope he is still angry.

Xue Yang's eyes narrow as Wen Ning walks in, observing as the plate is caught. He growls at not getting the satisfaction of watching it shatter. Instead it comes back towards him but instead of trying to catch it he shifts so that it flies past him. he might not be able to see it break but it does make a satisfying noise as it lands somewhere behind him.

He moves onto the next plate of food. he can't throw this one until he finishes eating the stuff on it. Well...he could but it would be a waste of good food. He'll just have to eat quickly so he can try to aim for Wen Ning's head this time. His former experiment has been so successful in avoiding him somehow which is probably for the best. Lucky for the other man, Xue Yang's desire to fight is slightly tempered by his promises to a man that is currently missing. But that doesn't mean his hand isn't twitching and desiring to reach for the sword that is concealed beneath those wedding robes.

"How nice of you to come and celebrate."

The sarcasm is practically dripping from those words.

Curufin gives him a sympathetic look. It is true, he has always made a point of being kind to Xue Yang. Curufin has so much dark history of his own that he understands other who also do. And he knows how much such a history can affect one's present emotions and emotional expression.

"What was the important day, and who is the one who set it up? This person is missing? Obviously, it is someone who matters a great deal to you. Is their name in gold on the passenger roster? Because if the name is still in gold, there is hope that they may come back again." Curufin did, after all.

"I was supposed to be getting married." He folds his arms in front of his chest. He never understood why people were so set on being married but now that his own wedding day is ruined, he thinks he will just have to be even more apathetic towards such events.

"Daozhang Xingchen...he shouldn't bother to come back. I don't want to see him anymore anyway."

That is a lie. He wants him to come back but his pride and his anger won't let him admit it. But this is now the third time that he has lost Xingchen and he knows if he watches him walk off the next platform, he is not going to handle it very well. He already isn't.

"Ah, I know who you mean. I had a converstation with him once. I can see why you'd have been willing to marry him. He was a really sensitive, intelligent guy." And now Xue Yang is deprived of him.

"I don't believe that everybody who leaves the train does it of their own accord. He may have had no say in the matter at all. If he comes back, you might want to talk with him and find out. Maybe even now he is somewhere missing you."

Pride and anger can throw a monkey wrench into a relationship, or even a relationship that is past tense but has some possibility of resurrection. Pride and anger are states Curufin very well understands, having suffered from them in his world, and having lost his son to them.

He turns his face away, "He was the first person to actually be nice to me." Everyone else only saw him as a tool or a threat. And even though Xingchen didn't know who he was being nice to at the time, in Xue Yang's mind it still counted. He might have been deceiving the man at the time but that is just how things happened.

"This is just how it has to be. Clearly he is meant to leave. Doesn't matter where we are." His hand clenches into a fist, tightly gripping the red fabric beneath his fingers. He had never once told the man he loved him. Been saving it for the correct moment. And now he doesn't intend to ever say it. He will destroy all those feelings inside of him.

"...There doesn't seem to be much of a celebration happening." Wen Ning takes the opportunity to give the decorations a better look-over. What had been planned here? A wedding? Where were the bride and groom? Where's anyone, really? Surely Xue Yang hadn't been marrying anyone.

Or had he?

Who would marry Xue Yang?

He makes his way slowly down the table toward the angry man. The food is tempting but he keeps his hands away. Whatever had been planned, it doesn't seem like much is happening now. If Xue Yang is ruining anything with his overindulgence here, there's no one showing up to complain about it.

"Do you plan on making yourself sick?"

"Someone somewhere is probably celebrating. They were successful is making sure the daozhang didn't make a mistake." Xue Yang keeps his eyes on Wen Ning as he moves around, perhaps not completely trusting that there might be some lingering anger towards him that might prompt some sort of retaliation. Xue Yang wouldn't hesitate to do so, so he finds it interesting when others don't also take that chance.

He finally peels his eyes away to look down at the plate in front of him and along the table at the rest of them, "Might as well. Don't see any reason to not still enjoy the food that was prepared for today."

And it's not like anyone will care if he stuffs himself so full he ends up in the sick car.

"So it seems," says Curufin. "He was a good person, and he thought you were worth it."

He sits down near Xue Yang and gives him an empathetic look. "He may in fact have been meant to leave, and that must be hard for you, to lose someone you loved. Is there anything I can do? If you want to talk about him, I can listen. Or if you don't want to talk, remember that time we sat and meditated together? We could do that now, if it would help you achieve some calmness and help you even begin deal with your feelings."

The pain of loss is never easy to deal with, and Curufin knows this well, from experience. But sometimes it helps to have a sympathetic friend.

Edited 2021-06-13 17:14 (UTC)

"The last thing I want to do is talk about him." There is an angry kick to the leg of the table, needing to let out some of that frustration that just keeps building with each moment.

"I put on this stupid wedding clothing and made sure the room was ready for him to come back to. And he didn't! That's all the time I'm wasting on waiting."

He spent years of his life trying to find a way to bring Xingchen back. Then he died and ended up on a train that felt it was fun to bring the man and take him away twice more. Xue Yang is done spending time, energy and emotion on a man that can't seem to stick around. He clearly isn't the daozhang's soulmate and although he already knew that, there was still a piece of him that hoped soulmates could change and he would find that place in the man's life. But he clearly isn't and never will be that person.

"All right, don't talk about him, then." Curufin smiles a little and kicks the table leg as well. BAM!

"I understand your anger," he says, to explain the gesture. "You've done everything you could to make your relationship with Xingchen work, and it will not work because he is gone. You are left with anger and frustration, and no real outlet for them." Not to mention the leftover love that will now never be recieved by the Taoist priest.

Edited 2021-06-14 22:28 (UTC)

The doazhang? He'd been the one getting married? Had he been getting married... to Xue Yang? The mental gymnastics Wen Ning has to go through to even try computing this are ridiculous and leave him standing there with a confused frown on his face for a good long moment.

Why would Xiao Xingchen marry the man who caused him so much grief? Why would anyone marry Xue yang, for that matter? The man is completely unmarryable, as far as Wen Ning is concerned. Not fit for any being of any sort. Surely that is why the train would have sent the other man home, and he can't argue with its logic.

How did you convince him? he wants to ask, but holds his tongue. Instead he says "Less would go to waste if you let others know it was here."

"Doesn't matter anyway. No one thought he should have been with me. They all get their wish."

Even though Xingchen tried his best to show people he had changed and that he deserved to be loved, no one else seems to think so. He might as well prove them right.

"I'll let my frustrations out on the next mission." It's probably better if most people stayed out of his way until then.

Xue Yang also doesn't particularly see himself as the marrying kind. But Xingchen had wanted it and so he had agreed. But now that he is being left at the alter in a way, he feels frustrated. Why did he even agree to this in the first place if the man was just going to leave before it happened? Perhaps this had all been one cruel joke just to see if Xue Yang would actually go through with it. He has already run though a hundred different scenarios about how this came to happen but none of them can be really confirmed.

He waves his hand dismissively towards it. "People will wander in eventually anyway. You did."

It's not like this is a private car. If people so happen to stubble upon this sad little party they then are welcome to take whatever they want. Xue Yang certainly isn't going to clean up after it so the food is likely to sit out until someone discovers it. At least the food that he doesn't shove into his mouth in an attempt to eat it all out of spite.

"And any that were actually told about the event will probably come and see if the food is here." It was a small list but still...people might come looking for the food they were promised.

Curufin wasn't one of those who thought Xue Yang did not deserve to be loved. "If you and he were in agreement that you should have been together, then I think you two should have been. But if it doesn't matter now, you still get to feel the way you do."

Xue Yang deserves a second chance, the same as anybody does, no matter what they have done. At least, that is what Curufin believes. He has to believe it of himself, and so he believes it of Xue Yang.

"A mission may be the best place to let out frustrations. Especially if we get to fight." He doesn't intend to stay out of Xue Yang's way unless Xue Yang specifically tells him to. And maybe not even then.

"Well someone disagrees because obviously we aren't together." It's fine. He will be fine. He isn't exactly someone who moves on and lets things go...everyone knows he has a bit of a vengeful streak that wants to hurt anyone who hurts him. But he doesn't know who to blame for this...Xingchen for leaving or the train for sending him away.

"I hope there is a lot of fighting on the next one." Because if there isn't then it is going to be difficult to feel better. He prefers having something to do and he needs it to serve as a distraction.

"Someone disagrees, but we don't know if it was Xingchen or the train. Or some larger power such as the multiverse itself. I don't mean to sound mystical, as mysticism doesn't seem to be your thing, but. . . we really never know." Curufin has lost his own lover, Glorfindel, and he doesn't know and has no way to know why that happened. So, he can understand.

"I hope we get to fight, too. I like to fight, and besides that, fighting is a good way to forget about present sorrows, especially if the causes of our sorrows are recent. I wish we could face danger together, swords in hand. But I can't leave my team. And your team seems to get more fighting assignments than mine does."

Wei Wuxian wouldn't expect apologies from Xue Yang even on a good day, let alone one he has not yet learned is as particularly bad as this one. The shattering of a plate as he steps in merits a blink; he'd come by to ask when they wanted to do the tea ceremony, only he's left with shattered pottery and his eyebrows hiking higher when he looks across to the man dressed in red.

Singular. Not two, and he has to wonder: really, is marriage a curse here? Sheesh.

He tempers his first response as he heads inside and comes to sit down near Xue Yang, reflecting that this could be some weird momentary setback. Xiao Xingchen could walk in, right? Or walk out, he supposed, but it wasn't to his martial uncle's character to leave things unaddressed, and he'd been talking about wanting so many things with a wedding that Wei Wuxian won't pretend he fully understands. He wouldn't want the publicity of it for himself; his sister's wedding, the one he never saw himself, is the only grand affair he'd be stirred to. Perhaps for Jiang Cheng, too, but he thinks Jiang Cheng is as private in this as he is, where it'd matter between the two people, and no need for more than the quite ceremonies requiring no public outcry.

Ignoring the fact Jiang Cheng was a sect leader, and back home, the only quiet unions were the ones that invited whispers for a man in his position. Damned either way, he supposed.

Anyway, here was Xue Yang, and here wasn't Xiao Xingchen, and Wei Wuxian tapped a finger on the table.

"... This train sucks, huh?"

Very comforting words.

Xue Yang had always been content with leaving things the way they were. The wedding more Xingchen's desires and so he had gone along with it. If it was what the man wanted that he would do it. He would do anything that Xingchen wanted. But what was the point of any of it?

When he notices Wei Wuxian walk in, he turns his face away slightly. The one person whom he had always held in high respect, thinking that he could somehow bring Xingchen back on their own world. Following him in the path of demonic cultivation. He knows that the man might not like him, but he has always held him in high regard for many reasons. For him...this is at least a tolerable presence considering who could have walked through that door.

There is a visible drooping of the shoulders at what the other man says though and a small scoffing sound.

"Yes it does. It's a shame that I can't hate it completely given this is my only chance to live. But at the moment I still would like to tear it apart."

And he has..or did...when he was trying to find the daozhang upon noticing his name was gold.

"I don't think we will be that lucky any time soon. All the fun missions seem to be a month apart. The next one might be another of the train's versions of a vacation."

Xue Yang isn't terribly fond of the calmer worlds. Picnics and shopping might be fun for some but for him it is terribly dull. And he knows that the immediate future probably won't have much excitement for him. But he will deal with it. Because once he gets past that...then it means the net world he can really tear things apart.

He isn't going to comment on who might have chosen to send Xingchen away. He knows there is no real answer that will satisfy his anger.

"We may not be that lucky anytime soon. We do seem to alternate, a mission and then an event that might be a vacation or an event on the train itself. So, the next one might be a recreational planet or we might just stay on the train and experience something weird."

Curufin gets the feeling that Xue Yang doesn't much care for vacations. He seems to like danger and trouble.

And Curufin is all right with it if Xue Yang doesn't want to talk any more about Xingchen and why he might be gone.

He smiles. "So, is there anything interesting to drink?" He means alcohol, of course.

He hadn't busted into the supply yet but somewhere in that room was a variety of drinks. Alcoholic and non-alcoholic most likely. And definitely tea...since there was supposed to be a tea ceremony with the ones that Xingchen considered family in this place. He looks around and then waves towards where the rest of the food and drinks were waiting.

"Somewhere over there is probably something."

He had dragged it all into this room without really paying attention. His focus had definitely been elsewhere at the time. He pushes himself up out of his seat to move towards it.

"There better be..." Because that is one way to forget his frustrations.

Curufin looks in the direction Xue Yang indicates, stands up, and walks over to that table. He rummages around and finds two glasses and a bottle of whiskey. He brings them over to Xue Yang's table and sets them down, and seats himself again.

"There better be, and there is!" He pours a glass for each of them, picks his up and lifts it in a toasting gesture. "Cheers!"

Edited 2021-06-20 04:17 (UTC)

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Not the Memorable Day he Expected

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