video | orchestra one, immediately post platform

[jingyeets]

( Lan Jingyi, appearing briefly on ICP, soaked from head to toe, actively dripping water with his hair and ribbon plastered down either side of his face, his, er, nightgown likewise... plastered... against him... and it's white, this is a wet shirt contest and no one told anyone who showed up on platform, they all just suffered together. )

Look, if anyone's trying to find me and is confused why I'm not in my tiny short bed cabin, I'm staying in the "inn" carriage the next week.

( that's it, that's him wanting to inform the ones who'd probably want to know but being in a less than happy mood to track everyone down so doing it in the most broadreaching, effective way the train's got going for it. )

Comments

[jingyeets]

Mm, not so much, that was more down in the lower reached of Yunmeng. We had rain, sure, but we have snow every winter, and it stretches for months—we're in the mountains, we're usually crowned with clouds until the sun sees fit to herd them away. Our robes are usually warded some against the elements, and I'm wet, not cold, but this?

( He plucks at the nightgown, which still clings to his skin and pulls away as a narrow line of wet fabric that flops over as soon as he lets go. )

Not warded against anything. Still easier to get in and out of for platform, but ugh. I'll write to the train too, it knows I will.

[so_dark_a_road]

Your country sounds beautiful.

[ Curufin sees the evidence of Jingyi's being drenched and miserable and sympathizes. ]

Your clothes aren't warded now, I see. And I'm sure it would make a difference if more than one person told the train we need those weather updates. It shouldn't be a hard thing for the train to do, since it already communicates with us every platform day.

[jingyeets]

Mm, region. Gusu is beautiful. As a whole, the country is probably beautiful too, but I've only seen realms adjacent to ours.

( Stated simply, with no real sense of ownership; they don't run countries, they oversee regions, realms where each clan takes lead in helping keep the people of that realm safe from what they cannot defend against themselves. )

Not this stuff, this one, this is a gift from the sali. Anyway, sure, maybe tell it "it helps us find your crew if we're not sick from being unprepared for the weather on a platform."

[so_dark_a_road]

I think you are fortunate to have come from a region of such beauty. I wonder if your whole world is like that, or if it's only certain parts that are?

[ A very sensible way to oversee a realm! To refrain from trying to rule, but instead to act as protectors and defenders. Curufin's people had both approaches included in their history, but Curufin himself had opted to be a protector after his death and subsequent existence in his world in spirit form. He likes the idea of this young man following such a protocol. ]

Oh, the clothes you are currently wearing were given to you by the Sali. They were kind. And I like the idea of telling the train that being prepared for the weather on the platform is a health matter. Maybe it doesn't really understand that we organic beings can get sick from exposure to cold, wet weather.

[jingyeets]

Mm, I can't say, but different regions, shouldn't they have their own beauties? Even cities can... sorta. They're more exciting than beautiful to me, but they also smell, so.

( sensitive noses take issue, time to time. )

Dunno if it understands much of what we say anyway, or if it's all train or was anything before or if it's different now than before it lost its crew or whatever, but maybe that'll make it understand. Some of us are resistant to that. Most aren't, I think.

[so_dark_a_road]

Well, maybe they should. Different regions may have very different geology, and that would result in different kinds of plants and animals and landscape. Though I agree that even cities can have their own beauty. On the continent I was born on, which was the home of our gods, there were three clans of Elves who each built a city. My clan, the Noldor, built the city of Tirion. I loved that place, and it was very beautiful. [ He chuckles. ] Our cities didn't smell bad, we'd never have allowed that.

Hmm. I do wonder about that, how much of what we say is understood by the train. Though I do think that it has intelligence and sometimes behaves like an organic being, with sensitivity to its passengers. But I agree with you, some of us are resistant to illness caused by the weather, and some of us are not. Then maybe I'll tell that to the train, that it could be a health issue.

[jingyeets]

Lucky. Caiyi Town is fine, but some of the towns and cities are just... eugh. People.

( What he means: the waste of people is less than pleasant. )

Hah, who's to say, we don't know enough about how it thinks to say it does or doesn't. Anyway, doesn't hurt to ask.

[so_dark_a_road]

You mean some of the towns and cities just have too many people? Or is it the nature of these people that disgusts you? Or is it just the places themselves?

And yes, I'm going to ask the train to provide us with those weather updates, and I'll bring up the health issue as well. Are you also going to talk to the train about these matters?

[jingyeets]

People make a lot of... smells. Eventually. Living close together it ends up happening, there's not enough to keep on top of hauling away scraps and other waste, so even when it's clean, if your nose is sensitive it still... smells.

For whatever good it does. I talk at the train all the time. It rarely talks back in anything not standard, and if it does, more of that hints at negative than otherwise.

[so_dark_a_road]

People do. And if there is no real provision for keeping the place sparkling clean, they'll mess it up for sure. I never experienced that in an Elvish community, but I noticed it in some of the mortal communities I visited after I came with my father and brothers to the continent of Middle-earth. If you have a sensitive nose, I can see how it would be a bother for you to be in those not-too-clean communities.

Oh, good. I think that if more than one of us asks for the weather updates, then it's more likely we'll get them. The train doesn't reply to you, either? I would think it would be tempted, as you are such a good-natured young man. And you say that even if it does reply, there's a suggestion of negativity more often than not?

[jingyeets]

Exactly. Noses go numb eventually, but then they wake up again, and ugh.

( He simply shrugs, not really in the mood to point out the train is shitty in how it handles things. That frankly, he doesn't think it cares about them, personally. They just exist in its digestive tract. )

See what happens when you try to give it an easy way to give a yes or a no. It chose the no.

[so_dark_a_road]

Poor noses!

[ Curufin gives Jingyi a smile in response to the shrug. He has mixed feelings about the Voidtrecker and its decisions, and he doesn't understand the train any more than Jingyi does. But he admires the young man's persistence in trying to communicate with it. ]

I suppose this is a simple yes or no question that we're going to ask. Will it give us the weather updates or not? If it doesn't want to, I wonder if it will actually say no, or just let us wait until the next platform and notice the lack of any such update?

[jingyeets]

Platform. We'll know when it does or does not announce things then.

[so_dark_a_road]

Hmm. Yep, that sounds like what the train would do.

[jingyeets]

Right, so don't hold your breath, unless you don't need to breathe.

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Curufin chuckles at the joke. Jingyi is good at these humorous verbal twists. ]

I won't hold my breath. I'll just wait till the next platform and see what's in the train's platform post.

[jingyeets]

( a sharp huff of air out, and his eyes point ceilingward. )

Yeah, that'll make two of us.

Good place to wrap this thread?

[so_dark_a_road]

[ Sometimes it's hard not to be exasperated with the train's habits of interaction. Curufin rolls his eyes to show he understands. ]

late note but yes good wrap point!

[jingyeets]