william herondale. (![]() ![]() @ 2012-09-11 10:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | william herondale, {james carstairs |
Characters: Will Herondale and Jem Carstairs
When: Tuesday, just after midnight when the train stops, into the early morning.
Location: Their room [ R 502 ] then Shanghai!
Warnings/Rating: It’s Will, so general uncouth behavior but nothing too bad.
Summary: Will adventures in Shanghai, steals a cane and comes back to bring Jem out with him.
Status: Complete.
When the train came to an abrupt halt at somewhere around midnight, it was clear that they were no longer underground. A bright artificial light blared through the thin curtains, even drawn. Luckily, for Will he wasn’t asleep. Hadn't been for some time actually. Nighttime anxiety left him with his rough bouts of insomnia again, and while it was obviously under less dire circumstances, it still proved frustrating for someone who needed constant entertainment to drive away vicious thoughts. However, with this time of night, Will couldn’t very well wake Jem from his deep sleep. It was almost a welcome reprieve to see the lights of Shanghai blaring into their cabin. Dressed, because William rarely went without being ready at a moments notice, decided that he would venture into the city prior to Jem waking. He wanted to make sure it was safe, he wanted to make sure that nothing would instantly be aggressive to Jem’s state of mind. Will’s concerns hardly had anything to do with relieving his cabin fever; he was scouting out their area, in hopes that Shanghai was vastly different from their previous stop. Will was not exactly thrilled about the possibilities of zombies, again. Although, he wondered idly, if they would actually be a welcome distraction for his parabatai. He shook that off immediately, remembered the Lightwood boy being mauled and pessimistically assuming the same thing could happen to Jem, should he be distracted. Will wasn’t alone in venturing off the train. Others had seemed to want to stretch their legs. Will had to keep himself from laughing out loud as many were still wobbly from not being accustomed to solid ground after weeks on a moving vehicle. But his smug smile was wiped clean off his face when he realized he was probably the one alone, caught up in the awe of bright lights of the city of Shanghai. Will stood flabbergasted at the sensory overload around him. He almost wanted to run back and grab Jem just so his parabatai could experience such an awe inspiring sight. Will had become jaded by the tablet devices, thinking nothing more of them as a nuisance, but now here they were, monstrous against buildings. The noises, even at such a late hour -- or was it early morning? -- surprised him. The people surprised him. The clothing, their look, the storefronts, the skyscrapers. Will, who normally blended in so well back in the crowded claustrophobic London, stood out like a sore thumb -- and that was without taking into consideration that his clothing was severely dated. Curiosity pulled him closer to the crowds. It felt like London and then didn’t all at the same time. Aesthetically, Will was drawn in. Wanting to know more, but afraid of what that knowledge would mean. However, the more he wandered down the sidewalks, the more ne noticed familiar human natures at play. Stands with food, that smelled sweet and salted, greasy and delicious, peddled to him by the small men behind them trying to make a living. Shifty strangers -- a usual crowd for Will -- exchanging money and bags, weapons and small capsules. Even thieves, who attempted to rob a woman of her handbag, before William tripped him on the way down. The woman had thanked him, but seemed just as apprehensive of the periods dressed stranger than the man who nicked her purse. It wasn’t until Will happened upon a few tables of men hocking material possessions, that Will eyed the a cane. A dark wood, with jade top, it reminded him of Jem’s. Though it was obviously not the same, the clear reminder came into his forefront -- Jem would not be well enough to handle the thick, chemically tinged air, the plethora of people, the fast pace of the entire futuristic city of Shanghai, on just his own two feet. Pained by the thought that it even had to be an issue, Will knew that there was nothing on the train that could act as a replacement for such comforts that Jem required, though he would not ever mention it. Will had looked, numerous times. He needed that cane. Will slipped into his usual suave manner, even at three in the morning. While he did know a few phrases in Chinese, there was no mistaking that he was foreign, no matter how much he practiced. “Duōshǎo qián?” Will asked, garnering a skeptical look from the street salesman. As the man came around to quote him a price, muttering a few slang insults that even Will didn’t know, Will reached for the jade cane, and purposefully, yet not so obviously, knocked over the rest of them, letting them tumble onto the sidewalk, and nonchalantly kicking a few to the street. That had sent the man reeling! He screamed angrily at him before hobbling as quickly as his short legs would take him toward the street where his merchandise was about to be met by the wheels of a taxi, Will gave the man the most falsely apologetic smile he could muster -- as if to say, ‘Oops!’, and playing up his foreigner card as best he could. Then, in traditional Will fashion, he returned from the way he came, toward the train, with a newly acquired cane in his possession. It took him awhile to get back to the train, not because he was lost, but because he was eyeing a few places of future interest, and places to direct Jem away from once they ventured off the train -- most importantly, where the man he stole, ahem borrowed the cane from. It was nearing six in the morning, the sun was beginning to rise, and Will was already looking bright and shiny eyed -- for someone who was not usually a morning person. He entered the room, to find Jem still asleep. However, Will found that it was important to ease Jem into waking, now that the lights of the city weren’t as blinding against the dark of the night, and the streets weren’t as crowded as they were in the dead of night. Spinning the cane in his hands, he seemed contemplative watching his parabatai sleep. The cane fell against the footboard of Jem’s bed, rapping twice. “Time to face the morning, Jem. We have stopped,” Will said, as optimistically as he could muster. Though, Will’s track record with optimism was covered in sarcasm. He waved the cane back and forth, tauntingly. “And I have a surprise for you.” |