Work Text:
>Welcome to the International Radio Line
Please enter your name.
…
…
>Welcome to the line, Rusty. Patching into the network…now.
…
…
“Testing…testing…1…2…3…”
“Hello?”
…
“Hello? Is anybody on the line with me?”
…
“Oh my Starlight.
Rusty?”
“Electra?”
“Copy that, steam train. How are you reaching me? You’re like…3 states away!”
“You hooked up to the international line, right?”
“THAT’S IN SERVICE NOW?! I linked myself to it ages ago!”
“Haha, I know, right? Took them forever to get the thing workin’. They’re just testing it in America at the moment though so…no nationals sadly.”
“Ah, mourning the fact that you still can’t radio-call your engine boyfriend?”
“Easy words coming from the engine who spent two months in a repair shop with his own boyfriend.”
“Oh, I jest, Rusty. Also, I didn’t ask him out until recently so that doesn’t count.
At least we have our cars to keep us company…and now we have each other! Oh, this is so exciting!”
“Oh, hold on, Pearl wants to say hello!”
>Adding…observation car…Pearl
“...Electra? Can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear, Pearl.”
“Nice to hear your voice again. How are you feeling? Rusty said you and Greaseball just got out a month ago.”
“Oh, we’re feeling fine, Pearl. CB’s still out of commission…poor guy. They’re struggling to find parts for him. That crash was awful.”
“I can only imagine…sometimes it bugs me a little that I won and you guys got smashed up like that…didn’t feel right honestly.”
“Well, we’re okay now, Rusty. No use in dwelling. You enjoy your status anyway! You really earned it.”
…
“Thanks…Electra…”
The wind is howling horribly outside of the shed as Rusty pulls Pearl closer to him.
“What’s the weather like for you guys?”
“Absolutely awful. It’s a blizzard out there. I don’t think we’ll be going out on the railway tomorrow.”
“I know the feeling. We’re getting heavy snow too. Me and Pearl’s locked up because both of us are too scared of freezing up outside. I do not envy the poor guy who’s going to have to plow our tracks tomorrow morning.”
“What if it’s you?”
“Oh my starlight Electra, do not joke like that. I don’t want to go out there until it’s working hours.”
“Well, maybe they’ll let you sleep in a little. This winter weather is not treating me well.”
“
Me neither. You’d think having an actual fireplace in my chest would help but in this kinda of cold? It doesn’t do jack.”
“Try having a clingy freezer truck squeezing you to near death.”
>Adding component…freezer truck…Volta
“I heard that. Bitch.”
“WOW! Watch the language, Volta! I’m on the line with Rusty!”
“And? He’s a grown engine. He can handle one curse word.”
“Ah, Volta. Snappy as ever, I see.”
“Hello Rusty.”
“I suppose I might as well patch the rest of my components in, since Volta so rudely did so for herself.”
>Adding multiple components
>Added Krupp, security truck
>Added Purse, money truck
>Added Joule, dynamite truck
>Added Wrench, repair truck
“Ah, the whole gang's here.”
Electra giggled a little at Rusty’s comment.
“How’d you get so many of these guys anyways?”
“Fishing for our backstories, eh steamer?”
Rusty could recognize Joule’s voice anywhere. She was very loud. Hard to miss.
“Well, it’s cold as all get out at our yard and I’m not feeling particularly sleepy…could use a story.”
“Ah, bedtime stories it is then. I wouldn’t mind telling you how we all met.”
Just before Electra can get started, the radio fizzes out, his voice is fuzzy and hard to make out and soon gone completely.
>Error. Engine and components disconnected.
“Dang.” Rusty frowned, leaning back on his pillow. Pearl snuggled up closer to him.
“Well, first test didn’t go so terribly. We can tell the folks running it that it needs some work.” Pearl said quietly, her eyes half closed.
“Might be the weather. Or Electra still recovering a little.” Rusty nodded, talking mostly to himself.
“We should try again tomorrow.”
“We should.”
Before anything else could be said, the coach was asleep on Rusty’s chest. He closed his eyes, but found himself restless.
Tried to connect to the line again.
It was down.
Not Electra then.
Maybe it’ll be fixed by tomorrow.