Work Text:
The Astral Express is as much of an elegant train as it is powerful. The fact that he is standing on it, as a member of The Nameless no less, feels too sudden and unexpected. At least it should have felt that way, if only he hadn’t figured out this is part of a plan in the makings.
After all, you don’t just invite someone with what amounts to a world-ending time ticking bomb onto what essentially amounts to your home because you felt sorry for them. No, this is a much bigger scheme, one that he doesn’t quite understand or recall as of yet, but that’s going to be fixed further down the line, surely.
Of course, said plan clearly involves him, but the specifics are lost to memory erasure, so finding out his history is another important thing to figure out, but that will take an awful lot of time and so for now he’ll just have to let go of the past and look onwards towards the future. On the bright side, at least he knows his name is Caelus.
Anyways, beyond the plotting of what he assumes to be various factions including The Astral Express, the crew seems just as unique and important as the transport itself.
For starters, there’s a girl named March, which isn’t that unusual if you discount the fact she is “March 7th”, as in the actual date. Additionally, her ice abilities seem oddly weak for something that feels like it should be stronger, almost as if she’s barely scratching the tip of the iceberg that is her power. Might be related to her amnesia.
Dan Heng, on the other hand, is a lot colder and serious than the girl with literal ice powers, which is certainly ironic. The man is very reserved and Caelus is sure something is up in that corner of the world, but there’s nothing he can do about it.
Lady Himeko is the navigator of The Express who cut down several beings of the Anti-matter Legion using what’s basically an attack drone with saws. She happens to work alongside a small critter named Pom-pom, who may or may not be a manifestation of the train, working as the conductor. He’ll have to skim through the Archives about them later, there’s something sketchy about them.
Last but not least, the man of the hour who he’s speaking to right now.
“Oh, it's you. How do you feel?”
An innocent but loaded question, especially when you consider how this man deactivated an out of control Stellaron by merely touching his cane against Caelus’ forehead. Welt Yang looks healthy for a man his age and he certainly doesn’t need that cane to stand, Welt’s posture might be better than his now that he thinks about it.
The cane looks unusual enough for him to confidently assume it is the power source rather than the man itself, but it’s also possible for the cane to be a front for the man’s ability, after all, he did seem to appear out of nowhere and it takes a great feat to hold yourself in the air for moment before slowly descending to the floor as if levitating.
A closer assessment of the older gentleman doesn’t show anything relevant, Welt Yang presents himself in a friendly albeit serious manner, like what one might expect of a grumpy grandpa.
However, despite being old, Welt Yang is quite a handsome fellow with his exquisite scarlet and black cane, stylish monochrome-ish clothes, short brown hair containing an impressive single strand of white hair, black glasses contrasting deep and tired amber eyes staring at him…
“Very tasteful.”
“Tasteful?”
And of course he had said that aloud specifically when sizing up the other. Not that he would take those words back, he can appreciate an attractive person when he sees one.
“Oh.”
Now it’s finally dawned on Mr Yang the meaning behind those words, which is to be expected from someone who acts and looks like they’re highly intelligent. He wonders, in that moment where they just stare at one another, what Mr Yang’s reaction is going to be: will he accept the compliment easily? Give him a brief judging look? Have his face become a slight red tint? Act bashful or proudful?
A small laugh, “You mean the train.”
Ah, right, the decor. Sure, it is tasteful, but that’s definitely not what he was thinking about when saying that, not that Caelus will correct him.