voidtreckerexpress | [Closed] Time to talk

Entry tags:

[Closed] Time to talk

Who: Taiki and various people (Wen Qing, Sarai and Gyousou, Tidus and Inigo)
Where: Various carriages (see threads)
When: Fiddlesticks latter half, after Wester's ICP post
What: Taiki takes Wen Qing food in the med bay. Taiki speaks to Sarai about current events. Probably the next day Tidus decides to teach Taiki and Inigo to play badminton.
Warnings: Mentions of murder and torture though nothing will be graphic or detailed. Individual threads might have more warnings than that.

For Wen Qing (and anyone else in medbay)

He had spent a good few hours wandering the corridors, helping those he could and trying to do things to make anything better.

Of course he can't actually make anything actually better. It is beyond him. But he can try and help people through it. For a creature who so despises blood and violence he has seen far more than his fair share of it. He is not innocent in any sense of the word.

So he helps and listens until his heart feels like it has been cut into a hundred pieces and still he continues because sometimes there is very little that can be done except listen to a person's pain.

He had stayed out of the way of the medical bay, knowing that there at least he would be more a hinderance than a help. But as the hours ticked by he went to the kitchen and began preparing some simple food.

Nothing too difficult or time consuming to eat. Nothing too heavy. He made green tea to go with it and carefully carried it back to the medical carriage.

He looked through the door before knocking, not wanting to disturb her if she was in the middle of something delicate. But then gently knocked.

Standard: For Gyousou and Sarai

It had been a long day and finally Taiki had found his way to Gyousou's side where his king sat in the standard coach. They were sat at one of the table seats, the book Creatures of the Void open between them as they made notes in their notebooks.

They might just be myths and legends but it was more than the nothing of information they had about anything else.

Taiki was struggling to concentrate though often just staring blankly at the page, not reading at all.

The next day: Standard again!

Even with everything else going on Taiki hadn't forgotten about Inigo and his friend's own pain. He made an effort to seek him out and spend time with him.

Quite nervously he had asked if Ingio would mind if he painted him and was surprised when Inigo had agreed. Even more surprised when it seemed Ingio was good at modeling.

Then again he was a prince, it was perhaps not that surprising. He must have had to sit for paintings before.

They were sat either side of a table, Taiki's art case open in front of him, a piece of paper he had borrowed from the printer in front of him, the start of a portrait.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"No please rest, drink some tea. I can fetch a chair." She's been working so hard already he doesn't want her doing anything else. Especially if she hasn't eaten yet. She would be the first to tell him off if he had worked himself so hard.

She had in the past after all.

She sure has, and she will do it again as she is always better at fussing about her loved ones than taking care of herself.

Yet in this instance, she feels weary enough that she nods and leans back, murmuring her assent. While Taiki fetches the chair from the room next door, she grabs the cup of tea and cradles it in her hands to warm them up.

She watches Taiki when he returns, pensive. "Did you watch the message?" she asks quietly. There doesn't seem to be any need to specify which one, it must be all the train is talking about today.

It takes him a moment but soon he has brought the chair from the next room and set it near her, glad to see that she has began drinking the tea.

He nods sadly. "Yes. I saw it." He looked at her with pained eyes. "How is he?"

Clearly not well. But he had every faith in Wen Qing's ability as a healer. If there were a way to save him she would put everything into doing so.

She watches her unconscious patient thoughtfully and finally shakes her head a little.

"I don't know," she admits quietly, "we have done the best we could for him. Four of us working together, the magic of three different worlds... But we don't know how much damage was already done before we could stop it. All I can tell is that his golden core and his meridians took no lasting damage. I don't know what state his mind will be in."

He knows what a golden core is, due to hearing her speak of them before but he can only guess at meridians. Something from another world.

Or just a medical term he doesn't know, it wasn't something he had studied at all. Even on earth such studies had made him uneasy.

"You all did your best and now we can only hope."

The mind was the difficult one, he doesn't know what was done to him, but such things could harm a person in ways much deeper than the physical.

She nods, giving a small, unhappy shrug and frowning at the motionless man on the bed.

"It is indeed all we can hope. We will have to supervise his behavior for the next couple of months to see if he has any long-term effects, even if he seems fine at first. He..." She purses her lips, brows furrowed. "I can't claim I ever knew him well. I avoided people like him when we were both with the Wen sect. But he was always a dangerous man, even before this happened. The Chief Cultivator would not have welcomed him if he weren't dangerous and ruthless. These were the only people he saw value in."

"He is from your world?" He raised an eyebrow, it seemed there were a few who shared a world with this man. Her words were worrying, though he had already heard that he had a reputation for being dangerous and ruthless. He had committed many crimes.

"The chief cultivator... Sorry, he was the head of your sect?" And she had been in the same sect as this Xue Yang. He knows so little of her life, but he remembers her dream, vaguely. Had her sect turned on her?

It all sounds so terrible, not anything he wants to think about at all. But at the same time, if this man was from her home, it would be affecting her in a much greater way than it already was, when he was a passenger in need of help and she was a doctor.

She folded and refolded her hands in her lap. Before, she had spoken with relative ease of her sect, at least as much ease as there could be when many of these topics were painful. Now, there was a new fear in her heart - what if there were others on the train who believed in Wester's kind of justice, and they shared the cultivation world's belief in punishing the entire clan for the sins of a few?

But this was Taiki, she reminded herself. He could be trusted more than most here.

"Yes. Wen Ruohan. He was a very powerful cultivator and he always hungered for more power. In the end, he started a war he lost and our sect was destroyed." Her eyes return to the man on the bed. "But before, when he was at the height of his power, he had many fearsome followers. Xue Yang was one of them. I had my little brother to protect, I had no use for men like him. But I know of him, more than I knew him. I know enough to be wary of him."

He listened quietly. He knows much about those who hunger for power and he can't imagine it is all that different on other worlds. Not the broad strokes, even if the details were.

He reached out towards her hands, wanting to give comfort, sad that such things had happened to her. Whatever her sect was like, whoever had led it and what kind of people it had drawn it had still been hers and losing your home, seeing your family destroyed. That was a terrible, terrible thing.

"I'm sorry Wen Qing. That that all happened and that he is here now." He didn't deserve what had happened to him today, no one did. But Taiki also wondered at why he had been brought to this place at all. If this train wished them to be saviours, why bring someone known to be ruthless and cruel?

She flashed Taiki a little smile, accompanied by an even smaller shake of her head, to reassure him, even as she gratefully accepted the offered hand. She cradled Taiki's hand between her own on her lap.

"You don't need to offer your sympathies for anything, Taiki," she said quietly, "it doesn't matter how difficult or dangerous things might be here, or which unpleasant people might be brought here. It's still a gift to be here, and I'm grateful for it. All the more so now, that I'm reunited with my brother. I didn't think I would ever see him again. We must be grateful for the things we are given. The rest... We will make do, somehow. There is always a way."

They would just have to deal with the consequences of the cards they had been dealt now, and hopefully not too many more people would be hurt.

Her strength was admirable, especially on a day such as today and he found a smile for her, quietly overwhelmed by her strength of character. To be able to be grateful despite all that has happened.

He bowed his head and then remembered something. "Your brother. Ah. His name would be Wen as well?"

It would seem to work the same way, if they organised in sects in her world.

She nodded, a little surprised by the question but pleased enough to be talking about A-Ning.

"Yes, his name too is Wen. Wen Ning." Even just speaking his name had her softening, there was even a hint of a smile curling the corners of her lips as she regarded Taiki curiously. "Have you met him? He is wonderful, isn't he?"

"Yes." He nodded, "He did seem a very impressive person."

He looked down a moment later, a little embarrassed. "I'm afraid I may have offended him though."

He hoped not, in the long run but he felt even worse about it now that he knew he had been Wen Qing's brother.

"Wen Ning is incredibly hard to offend," she protested, face clearly showing the surprise and confusion she felt at this prospect. "He lets people walk all over him even when he should be offended. And you..." Taiki was Taiki, she could hardly imagine him doing worse than the sharp tongues of the cultivation world.

He looked down, feeling even guiltier now with her words. That he had even managed to test the patience of such a person, offend someone so hard to offend.

He really does feel bad about it. "I'm sorry..."

He would not blame her for asking him to leave and mentally prepared himself for that. But it would have been worse to not confess, to allow her to still think well of him.

"I'm not angry with you," she clarified, though she did sound a little curt maybe at there even being a need to clarify such. The entire situation was rather ludicrous in her book. Someone as gentle as Taiki offending one as long-suffering as Wen Ning?

"I just can't fathom what you could have done to offend him!"

She should be. He had managed to insult her brother and he deserved her anger, even as he feared it. He continued looking at his hands.

"We disagreed on the subject on Xue Yang. I... I didn't understand that he was from the same world or that Wen Ning had had dealings with him in the past. But even then... I couldn't agree with him that he deserved execution."

No one deserved death. No matter what they did. How punishment should be given instead was still something he struggled with understanding. He knows that one who murders should be prevented from harming others. But killing was always wrong. No matter the motive.

"I can't so easily agree with it either," Wen Qing admitted, though she looked conflicted as she said so, her face going pinched in displeasure. "For the most part, it is simply not my place to wish for it. I'm a healer. I heal people. It is for others to decide what justice is. But I can never bring myself to hope for someone's death."

Her frown deepened, fingers worrying at the cuff of her sleeve. "My brother used to be kind and forgiving. He was the sweetest boy you could imagine." She smiled, wistfully. "You remind me of him. But he has suffered terrible things both while we were together and after. I suppose he can't afford to think so anymore."

He is relieved at that. He wouldn't have blamed her if she had said she wished Xue Yang killed in punishment. She was human and her reactions were that of a human, in many ways so much more complicated than the instincts and compassion of a kirin.

But even humans can live their lives not wishing for another's death and he feels only relief that Wen Qing is one of them. Even if her brother isn't.

He listens sadly as she explains, truly sorry that he had argued with him. He still can't agree, but he can understand why he would be too hurt to consider mercy.

"I'm sorry... It is terrible that he was hurt." He looked at her sadly, "He is still very sweet, in talking to him I could tell." It is why he feels guilt, more so than just knowing he is Wen Qing's brother. If he had been someone who clearly held hatred in his heart he would not feel bad for arguing with him.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Closed] Time to talk

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject