fifthofthecovenant | The Last Voyages: IC Contact

"I wasn't a Wen exactly, but I think it was still the same basic story. It was in Europe instead of ancient China-- or wherever you're from." He still thinks it's China. He goes to hang the towel up, then comes back to investigate the breakfast. "But still had cultivation and clan stuff and all that. Some weird fantasy setting, I guess. Who all did you get? That's three-- Wu Xin, the really hurt version, and the vampire which I'm guessing came from Godric."

"I didn't get Wu Xin, he got me. He was... very annoying." Wen Ning is being honest, and also, doesn't really think it'll help matters if he clarifies. He doubts Chase wants to hear about his swap with Angel. Might as well deflect a little. "The vampire was Godric, you're right. That one was fun." He is not at all aware how annoying Chase found that iteration. It was so nice to be him. "The skittish one was from Aerith, the last was... you."

He's right, he has no desire to hear about anything Angel-related.

Having someone else be you was annoying, he'll agree there. He makes a face at the last, though. "Ugh. Of course it was me. Ashton got me, too. At least you already know everything."

And now he can't put off being serious any longer. At least Chase has his bribe. Food might smooth things over. "I've read everything. That's not the same as living it."

"And you want to talk about it," Chase assumes grumpily, popping something small from the basket into his mouth and chewing aggressively. "Which part this time?"

He's not enjoying it any more than his inmate, if that helps. He just knows he has to. "It was like the one with Aerith. It didn't change where or who I was, just how things happened." He aims his gaze carefully, resisting the urge to stare at the ground. "I was older when my parents died, ten instead of six, and it was... my fault."

That's... actually horrifying. Being eighteen was one thing, but ten? "What could a ten year old possibly do to kill his parents?" Chase asks, staring at him in consternation.

"It was the same thing that killed them. It was just... smarter." He's a little flatter and more affectless than usual, but holding it together for now. "When it started preying on villagers, it ate them a little at a time instead of all at once. It stayed hidden longer, and got a lot more powerful." Those fragmentary memories are a strangely fascinating sort of horrible. Poisoned by what happened, but also a glimpse of a life he might have led if the main branch of the family hadn't whisked him and Wen Qing away.

"I heard the uncles talking about it. I'd been upset, because my sister and cousins had all formed their cores by the time they were as old as I was." His sickliness might have come of surviving a monster attack, but his lack of talent, unsurprisingly, is all natural. That seemed natural in his real life the Nightless City where he was beneath everybody. It rankled in a place where he was both heir presumptive and the youngest and weakest in their cohort of cousins.

"You went out looking for it?" Chase guesses, the most obvious path to an outcome where both his parents are dead and it's his fault. "Wanted to stop it yourself?"

It's a clarifying question. Yes, it's a very simple story, isn't it? Not exactly a struggle to work out. "You're right, yes." Another self's guilt settles on him, not heavy but definitely present.

"Wen Ning... you were ten," Chase says. He's awkward at comforting, but he also knows what that guilt feels like. Maybe not the same way as a ten year old... he hadn't even had his own magic at ten. He'd just been a normal boy who liked rocks more than most kids his age. "Ten year olds do stupid things. You couldn't possibly have known what was going to happen."

"Every child in a cultivation clan is trained for night hunting, at least a little." He fixes Chase deliberately. "I had a much better idea of what might happen than a child almost as young with no idea he had magic at all."

Chase knows what you're doing, Wen Ning. His look back is dry and unimpressed. "I was eighteen. That's a long way off from ten. And I knew perfectly well I had magic." Not that it was going to explode on him at that particular moment, but he knew.

"I saw it, remember?" He's not going to back down when he's right. "Tell me which part of that you chose to do."

"Save myself," Chase answers flatly. "And not them. I miraculously survived a car getting flattened by a much bigger car because I had magic. And you know the next thing I did? Torture my birth father to death. I chose to do that, too."

"I met him, too," Wen Ning says dryly, because he doesn't actually see much of a problem with killing Chase's terrible father. "Don't change the subject."

"Then don't try to tell me I shouldn't save my parents," Chase snaps back.

He feels like he might have fallen into someone else's argument. "I never said that. I said it wasn't your fault what happened."

He kind of has. Ashton already called him a coward for being willing to die to resurrect his parents. Ashton thinking that of him didn't bother him; Wen Ning thinking he's a coward kind of does.

"It's my fault I'm here and they're not," he says, not subsiding exactly, but not snapping again. He still looks defensive and ready to do so, though. "I just want to fix it."

"It isn't," he says, just as firmly. "That's not a reason not to fix it, but it's still true." He shrugs. "Lucky thing, you're on a boat that hands out magical wishes, anyway."

Yeah, there's that idea again. Chase sidles away from the idea of fault, instead saying, "Yelena thinks I should stay here after I graduate. Have the Admiral, you know, fix it instead." Technically Yelena's plan is for the Admiral to fix his magic so he won't die when he tries the spell, but he knows how hard Wen Ning wants to fix it instead, so he's being non-specific as to what exactly the Admiral will do.

"Yes, that would work," Wen Ning says, matter-of-factly and not at all like it's momentous, because it's not. They all live on the magic boat of miracles. "I'm asking for about fifteen people, and lots of people ask for a lot more."

"Ugh. I'll think about it." The idea of giving that particular punishment for their deaths, for all the deaths, is hard. He's not sure that's a thing he's willing to do. But if it'll make Wen Ning stop harping on it, he'll at least say he'll consider it.

He picks at the breakfast basket again, thinking about his conversation with Yelena again. It's not what he wants to ask-- what he really wants to know something he's pretty sure Wen Ning doesn't want to talk about-- but it's something, so he asks, "If I did graduate, what would you do? Would you leave? Or do you have other deals you want?"

Wen Ning looks a little startled, suddenly guarded, which is pretty rich considering the way he's been prodding at Chase. Being asked directly, he finds there is a clear answer, but it's just a bunch more questions in a trench coat. "I'm... really not looking forward to leaving," he says, faint, reluctant. "Time doesn't pass when we're here, and I know some people stay for a lot of inmates..." He could certainly find a use for a second deal. But he's motivated much more by the thought of losing his kitchen, his clinic, the people he sees every day who don't care who or what he is, the people who matter to him. It's a horrible, disloyal thought, but leaving this place for the cold loneliness waiting at home feels less like sensible duty and more like a punishment.

Chase eyes him for that reaction. "Are you unhappy at home? I mean... are people crappy to you even still?" Because he kind of thought Wen Ning had gotten at least some of that sorted out, what with his best friend putting his mind back in and all that.

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