So You're Buying Things From A Train, On A Train.

[unfavorableinstigation]

Who: Nita Callahan and YOU! (aka Open Post!)
Where: The Standard Car as is becoming standard for her...
When: Day two of Egret, late in the morning.
What: Nita buys many things from the shop.
Warnings: Not applicable this time! Except silliness, maybe.



Nita can be found at the shop-slash-vending-machine in the Standard Carriage, either waiting for someone or just tapping on the menu to see all her options.

"Let's see, what to get first? Well, I can always try getting something from home, see what information this train can work off of..."

(There will be toplevels for each section linked above! She's also ordering from 'most expensive per item' to 'lease expensive per item', so the food happens last. There is no tag order, so feel free to respond to what she's doing or ask her to move over and let YOUR character buy something!)

Comments

[radishlobbyist]

"I hope so," she says, still frowning at the terminal. Maybe even more so now after that explanation. Her tone of voice becomes sharper, addressing the train more than Nita in pointing out, "the consequences of any trolling in medical information could be disastrous!"

Any of that, and there will be words to be had between the train and her, that much is for sure.

She turns fully to Nita again. "Maybe the silly book you received will beof use to the children, at least?"

[unfavorableinstigation]

"We wouldn't even have a medical car if it didn't take the matter somewhat seriously," Nita states, though she'll also second Wen's point.

"Depends on their reading level, I guess; from what I skimmed, this book's pretty simple," she answers, flipping it back open for an example.

"... 'Best carrots in the multiverse'?"

That part, at least, probably wasn't relevant.

[radishlobbyist]

"That would have been useful to me a couple of years ago," Wen Qing says aloud before she can pause and realize that it is a rather odd comment to make out of context. Her eyes flicker away for a moment before returning to Nita. "I spent the last several years making my living as a radish farmer... it's a long story. But it's taught me the value of good vegetables."

She focuses her attention on the book again. "I wish the train had given us something more like guidelines or advice for void traveling. That would be more useful."

I love you for that tangent. xD So much.

[unfavorableinstigation]

That remark... genuinely catches Nita off guard. Good going, Wen.

"That is important, yeah. This doesn't seem to be about growing them, though..."

She goes back for the overly-hyped book on Voidtrecking, holding it gingerly in her other hand. "Definitely agreeing with you there. And if we're supposed to have them and it still doesn't want us to have it - does that mean there's something wrong with the train, or the information?"

A scary thought.

[radishlobbyist]

"That's a very good question," Qing admits, and frowns at the thought. "Neither option is comforting, is it?"

Which leads to her giving the terminal another very suspicious and stern look. It is, after all, the closest they come to communicating with the train itself or whoever is operating it.

"Not giving us the best and most useful information looks a little bit like setting us up to fail," she muses aloud - absolutely not saying such in the direction of the terminal.

She's not criticizing how this train is being run... she's just criticizing how this train is being run.

Not sure where to take this thread next, but I continue to love it.

[unfavorableinstigation]

"Or maybe it's assuming we're used to it, and that we get the right answers anyway." Nita says.

It's not an excuse - but, at least in her case, it's a statement of fact.

"Which makes me wonder: would we be able to solve the problems we're here to solve, even if we weren't Voidtreckers?"

[radishlobbyist]

"Do you mean, if we were simply locals who happen to have the powers and skills we have?" She thinks about that for a moment, lips pressed together, before shaking her head. "I don't think we could. The people we help, they don't seem to be helpless or inept. Sometimes it just needs an outside force to tip the balance, or someone who looks at a problem from a different perspective. We wouldn't be able to provide any of that if we weren't Voidtreckers."

Her brows furrow as she mulls over that. "Which is strange enough, I have known our task is to do good works but I never thought of our contribution as truly valuable or meaningful. I mostly thought of it as a second chance for me, not so much as an obligation towards others."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"More like if we were sent to these worlds completely under mechanisms familiar to our worlds," Nita counters. "But, yeah. It's a question of, would we have had this opportunity, on our own."

Still, Wen's making a very god point here.

"Even if we, personally, haven't changed anything in these worlds yet, it doesn't mean we won't, or that it won't matter."

[radishlobbyist]

"It makes me uncomfortable to think that our success or failure could be instrumental for the survival of entire planets," she admits. After all, she has never been able to protect anyone successfully at home. It doesn't inspire trust in herself.

"But to think that our contribution will at least improve things for the people we help, that we can make it a little easier, ensure there will be less suffering and death... That can be enough to make all of this here worthwhile."

[unfavorableinstigation]

"It's not something that gets easier," Nita says, after a moment.

"But you've got it exactly right."

She holds a hand out to Wen.

"Shake on it?"

[radishlobbyist]

She grasps her hand, giving it a firm shake.

"It is a promise."

Releasing Nita's hand again, she turns to the terminal. Time to order her books and then return to her studies. "I guess I should get to work here..."