Chapter Text
Not all passengers of the Astral Express were Nameless, something Stelle came to know very quickly. Sometimes they would get the occasional request to transport people from one planet to the next, and more than once the train would come across another ship stranded in space, its occupants on death's door.
Of course, as these people were not Nameless, and only stayed in the express for a limited time, barely anything about the train changed. There was occasionally a med bay or storage closet with ship-repairing supplies, but nothing too grand.
On that note, Stelle still had yet to have their own room. She had taken to sleeping in March’s room (because it felt impolite to room with Himeko, Welt was old and probably snored, and no way in hell would Stelle resort to sleeping in Dan Heng’s so-called “room”).
At first, the gossip was fun, especially flipping through March’s many photo albums of the Express’ adventures featuring a collection of very unflattering pictures of Dan Heng. But March had a problem of eerily speaking in her sleep, the contents of which made Stelle wonder what questionable crimes the Express had committed in their previous travels.
It wasn't as if she could sleep anywhere else, she had tried napping on the seats of the parlor car and had woken up to Pompom and their resident Memokeeper standing above her watching her sleep. The conductor was lucky they had left her bat in March’s room (and Messenger was even luckier they could disappear and reappear at will).
Stelle wasn’t scared of Pompom, she would just feel more comfortable if another person slept in the car with her. But why would they when they had their own rooms, even if the plush seats were more comfortable than the floor Dan Heng slept on?
Thus, the joy Stelle felt when the Express encountered a stranded ship or someone with no fuel was incomprehensible. Was it maybe immoral to celebrate someone’s misfortune just because they didn’t want to sleep alone? Probably, but Stelle had yet to lose any Praise of High Morals, so it couldn’t be that bad.
It was better when one of the many companions they had made on their journey stayed on the Express. Most of them only stayed for a quick visit, but occasionally there were those who stayed longer, long enough to sleep in the parlor car with Stelle. It got better when they brought things with them.
That was how Stelle found herself in her current situation; swords scattered haphazardly to the side and sticking out of walls, chicken feathers strewn everywhere, small scorch marks and dents staining the tile floors, and a game of celestial jade in the middle of the chaos.
“And match!” Qingque slammed down a tile, yet again, causing her opponents to erupt in screams of outrage.
“Cmon!” Yanqing threw down his remaining tiles and glared at Qingque. Stelle grabbed hers and chucked them at the opposing wall while Sushang slumped on the floor, accepting her fate.
Yanqing stood up and pointed at the game, then Qingque. “There’s no way you aren’t cheating!” Qingque stood up as well, not that it mattered since she was still shorter, “I would never cheat playing such an incredible game!” She placed her hands on her hips.
Sushang raised her head from the floor and watched the two bicker, “If you aren’t cheating then you must have insane luck..” she let her head hit the floor again. Stelle patted her on the back sympathetically.
“It can’t just be luck!” A sword whirled past Stelle, barely missing them by an inch, and lodged itself in the wall among the others, courtesy of Yanqing. “You’ve won every single game we’ve played! There’s gotta be some technique to this!”
“Is this what you do when you're avoiding work? Just play celestial jade?” It was a pointless question for Stelle to ask, everyone knew how much Qingque played, but she had lost one too many games and there was entertainment in watching Yanqing and Qingque argue.
“Are you serious!?” Yanqing shrieked, pitch similar to Dan Heng when March had stuck a rubber mouse in his bed, “You- you slack off work just to play this game!?” Stelle stared at Yanqing. Sushang pushed herself up onto her elbows, mouth agape. Qingque’s face froze, stuck between a smug smile and shock.
“You uh, you didn’t know?” Stelle coughed into her fist. Yanqing looked at the shocked expressions of his companions, clearly confused. Sushang quickly sat up and let out nervous laughter.
“W-whatttt.. That’s uhm, well-” Whatever Sushang was going to say was ruined by the various hand motions from Stelle signaling for her to shut up.
“Uhm- uhm- it's not that you shouldn’t know! It’s totally not a known thing that Qingque-jie plays celestial jade at every chance-” Sushang stuttered. Stelle slapped her hand over the girl’s mouth, tackling her.
“Do you.. ever take breaks?” Qingque slowly asked.
Yanqing looked like a kicked puppy, his eyes dodging between Stelle and Sushangs wrestling match and the diviner in front of him. “W-well, I’m the General’s retainer.. I’m not- supposed to slack off.. The only reason I’m here is because the General wanted to meet with Miss Himeko and Mr. Welt one-on-one…” His voice trailed off.
Hearing this horrifying sad news that someone younger than all of them (at least Stelle was pretty sure they were older than him- it was hard with the whole being a stellaron memory-loss thing) had barely gotten days off. Though that barely compared to the pit in Qingque’s stomach that had appeared after Stelle’s question and had only grown since. She placed her hands on Yanqings shoulders, head bowed.
“Uhm.. Qingque-jie.. Are uh, are you okay?” The kicked puppy expression of Yanqing had morphed into panic, a completely reasonable response since Qingque was known for never being serious.
“That’s it! Today, we are going to have the best possible break time ever!” Qingque swung the boy around, tossing him towards Stelle and Sushang. Sushang screeched as he crashed into them, raising the amount of times Sushang had been tackled that night to two.
Completely oblivious to the distress of her friends, Qingque faced them, hands on her hips. “We have a relative six hours until Miss Himeko and Mr. Welt come back, which means we have about five hours to give Yanqing-di the best day off!” Stelle raised her hand from the tangle of limbs.
“I’m pretty sure Himeko locked the door so we can’t leave the Express.” A tile hit their hand in response.
“Ahem, as we can’t leave the Astral Express,” Qingque glared at Stelle as if it was her fault Himeko was overprotective. “We will have to resort to other means of entertainment. Does anyone have any ideas?”
Once everyone had gotten untangled, they proceeded to conduct a list of activities to complete during the rest of their time.
“More games of celestial jade!”
“We all know that you're going to win again, Qingque-jie. Oh! What if we all spar?” Sushang picked up her great sword and mimicked battle poses.
“I’m always down to kick ass.” Stelle glanced around the Parlor. “Though I think we destroyed this place enough. How do you even get these swords out?”
“Ah wait don’t!-” Yanqing moved to stop them but Stelle had already grasped the handle of one of the many swords.
“Jeez! Why is it so cold!?” She sprung back, holding her hand. Yingque rushed over to check if she was hurt.
“Fine fine no celestial jade and no sparring.” Qingque groaned. “Hey Yanqing-di, what do you want to do?” Yanqing paused his actions. What did he want to do? It wasn’t as if he could go buy swords since the Loufu was inaccessible, and he didn’t want to do anything that would cause trouble for the general or the express.
Noticing his hesitation, Stelle spoke up. “Hey Yanqing, do you remember Dan Heng? The dragon guy you fought back then.” Yanqing nodded, his mood a bit decreased as he remembered that day when he failed the General. Stelle clapped her hands, ignoring the look Messenger was giving her (despite no possible way to see their face, Stelle could tell they were exasperated).
“You see, his room is just in the next car, and our dear friend,” Messenger turned their head away at this, “Is a very deep sleeper.” Qingque hummed in thought.
“Do you wanna break into his room and scare him or leave something there? Ooh maybe we can even convince him his room is haunted!~” She wiggled her fingers, smiling creepily.
“Please don’t even joke about that!” Sushang wailed and cradled her head in her arms.
“That seems kinda mean, it wouldn’t be proper Cloud Knight etiquette if we scared him just because he beat me in a fair fight.” Yanqing crossed his arms.
“No no, we don’t have to do anything like that! He sleeps in the data bank, where all the things the Astral Express encounters are logged. We could look through missions and quests and stuff that previous Nameless went on!” Stelle wasn’t that mean, and it was true that Dan Heng was a deep sleeper. As long as they were careful, no harm would come to anyone. Stelle still paused for a moment to check if any Praise of High Morals was being requested from her, yet whatever deity of good and evil that judged their decisions didn’t do anything.
The other three pondered this idea for a moment, before Sushang broke the silence. “I think I’d be okay, right? I mean, we’re just looking at recorded stories, it doesn't seem that wrong.” Qingque snapped her fingers.
“I agree! Plus, I bet there’s tons of records about games all over the universe. Maybe even something that will revolutionize celestial jade!” Yanqing watched the other two agree, and sighed. How was it that despite being younger than all of them, he sometimes felt like he was the most responsible?
“Okay I’ll do it. Maybe there’s even battle tactics that I can study… Maybe even mentions of ancient swords!” Mind made up, Yanqing joined the theorizing about what the Data Bank held.
“It’s just in the next car right?”
“Yep! Follow me, I know how to get there.” Stelle headed to the door, and glanced back. Her friends followed behind her, and Messenger stood at the back of the car, Bubbles (the warp trotter Stelle and March had picked up) rested at their feet. “Ready?”
“Never ready-er.” Sushang pumped her fist, her other hand clutching onto Yanqing’s arm, knuckles white.
“Here we go.” Stelle pushed open the door, and darkness enveloped them. The second car wasn’t that long, but with Sushang clutching onto Yanqing and Stelle fearfully, it was harder to move.
“Woah.. Stelle-jie, you’re glowing!” It was true, a warm yellow glow emitted from Stelle’s chest, illuminating their ribcage through the white fabric of their shirt. The light was bright enough to reflect off the wide-eyed faces of her friends, but it barely did anything for the darkness of the car. Sushangs grip slowly relaxed, the glow though contributing nothing against the darkness, and her breathing calmed. The glow of the stellaron had halted the group, the thoughts of grand adventure and stories the furthest thing from their minds.
“Stelle-jie, Qingque-jie, Sushang-jie, I don’t think I need the best day off. I just want to hang out with you guys.” With their arms linked together, Sushang’s sword dragging on the ground, tiles clicking together in Qingque’s pocket, Yanqing’s happy voice, and the glow from Stelle revealing their faces, Stelle couldn’t feel less alone.
“Why are you all outside my room.”
“Eeekkkk!”