middleofsomewhere | The Endless River

The Endless River

On the morning of day twenty one of the month of Kazoo there is a message on the ICP screens around the train. Their SCA's will light up the colour of the Void and show the following information.

World #398050 is a void nexus known locally as Tshering. As a void nexus this world has strong links with the void and the connection through worlds. World #398050 is home to the Endless River. Legends speak of this river being powerful enough to send thoughts from one heart to another across any distance. All that is needed is for you to know who it is you wish to reach.

On-board

The dressing carriage is open, filled with clothing best suited to a pleasant spring day. Light, airy and in a rainbow of joyful colours and florals. One closet is entirely filled with wide-brimmed hats bedecked with ribbons, feathers and ornaments. A stack of picnic baskets and containers filled with an alarming variety of passenger-suitable foodstuffs and flasked drinks sits in one corner, next to rolls of thick, weatherproof blankets in the four team colours.

The large box marked Do Not Use Yet, filled with small, empty jute bags, is hopefully still sat in the Luggage carriage, ready for passengers to grab handfuls of its contents as directed by the announcement.

Upon landing (after an appropriate countdown), the train remains on the surface, its carriages partially curved to form a gathering site for the day. Welcome to Tshering, the eighth void nexus!

A Day for Picnics

Tshering, system #398050, is a strange place, only habitable by grace of the passengers' SCAs. The sky is shot through with colours, a cascade of sunsets, and through it, the void shimmering through it in seams like a child's painting of the milky way. Still, there's a beauty to the chaotic mash of colours that soaks through its landscape, and in the shelter of the forests of towering funghi that dot its surface, the Void can go unseen by its visitors.

The temperature seems mild, suitable for the provided clothing, and if there are weather patterns around the world they've taken the day off. The funghi are sturdy enough that what air flow there is doesn't disturb their stalks, and carved grooves and holds in some of the larger examples indicate that climbing them to sit atop their glowing crowns is eminently possible, and, in fact, encouraged.

the Endless River

The Endless River is a font of pure chaos, flowing from a multitude of small rivulets across the area to a central reservoir, from which it pours directly upwards, away from Tshering's surface and out of sight, beyond the world's atmosphere.

Anything bagged and placed within the Endless River will also flow upwards and soon be out of sight, passing, presumably, into the Void. Scattered across the surface of Tshering are small, glittering pebbles, as described in the announcement.

The stones are pleasantly cool to the touch, and all passengers need to do is feel. Messages can be in any form that the Voidtreckers wish. Perhaps words, perhaps feelings, perhaps an image from their mind into the stone. Perhaps a mixture. Once they begin their message the stone will glow slightly and continue to glow as they secure it in the bag and cast it into the river. They will feel, almost instinctively, that they need to focus as they do so, thinking of the person they wish to reach all the while.

There are plenty of bags and many more stones; passengers will not be limited in their sendings.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Taiki goes looking for Inigo pretty quickly, after all anything like this was bound to upset Inigo. It wasn't very long since Olivia had walked away from the train, not even a week. And Inigo takes loss so hard, and remembering like this... It might be good for him. Or it might be bad for him.

"Inigo..."

Taiki is a little distracted by the strange place they've found themselves in but he hurries over when he spots Inigo and slips a hand into his.

Inigo, so stuck in the haze of his own thoughts, doesn't even realise that someone is trying to approach him until Taiki's hand is already in his own. It surprises him very momentarily, but the moment he realises just who is holding his hand here, he's quick to shift his expression into a small smile.

"Hi, Taiki." Of course he's going to try and smile. He's always going to do that for Taiki, no matter his current mood at any given moment. "These mushrooms are pretty big, aren't they?"

It's kind of meaningless talk, but it's the best Inigo can manage while his heart feels like a mess.

"They are... I've never seen any so big."

It was a very strange world, the strangest they've ever been to in many ways. He holds Inigo's hand tightly and began to steer him towards one.

"Are you alright? It's very odd here, isn't it."

He hums. "It is."

Granted, Inigo thinks the space station was much weirder, but that's more of a technology discrepancy more than anything else. Somehow huge multi-coloured mushrooms feel a little bit easier to understand than all that cold hard metal and steel tumbling around in the literal middle of nowhere.

Still.. it's very easy to guide Inigo around right now. Maybe it's since it's Taiki, and Inigo has a particularly soft spot for the boy. Or maybe it's just that he wants someone to guide him around right now - anything that means he doesn't really have to think for himself right now, and risk letting his thoughts drift off to things he doesn't want to think about.

".. I'm fine though. I just didn't really feel like going down to the river." Understatement of the century. But not wanting to linger on himself, Inigo quickly tries to flip this attention around on the other. "Don't you want to send a message?"

To Gyousou, Inigo imagines, but he doesn't voice the name out loud. Just in case. It must still be a sore spot, since it wasn't even that long ago that the king left.

"Are you..." He trails off. He's not sure if it would be good for Inigo actually, to be able to send messages. But if Inigo didn't want to, if it was too painful for him. Taiki doesn't want him to force him to do anything, he doesn't want any more hurt to enter Inigo's heart.

It's impossible, he can't protect him from hurt like that. But if Inigo doesn't want to go to the river he doesn't have to.

"I should... I don't know if it will reach..."

Who knew where Lord Gyousou even was... But if anything would reach him...

"I should send a message to Risai and the others too. They deserve to know."

They hadn't abandoned them. Not purposfully.

Inigo isn't so sure if it'll reach at all either, which is half of his problem with this whole idea to begin with. But for Taiki's sake, he's more than willing to at least pretend to believe in it. If anything could help the other feel even slightly better about Gyousou's departure..

"Yes. I'm sure they would be glad to hear from you." Inigo can only imagine his own panic if Taiki would suddenly disappear, after all. They must be worried about him back home as well. "Do you want to do it right now..?"

Look, even if Inigo doesn't want to go to the river, he'd brave it for Taiki.

"No." He shook his head. Not now. Later. He wants to help Inigo right now and Inigo doesn't want to go to the river. So they won't.

He led him into the forest of mushrooms and looked around. "Let's sit down..."

This was far enough out of the way to be peaceful, but not so much as to mean they might get lost.

He eyes Taiki a little when the other shakes his head like that. A part of Inigo does figure that Taiki may be doing it for his sake, and he's not so sure how to feel about that. Sure, he's grateful for his friend's kindness, but on the other hand.. it does kind of feel like he's holding Taiki back like this, just because Inigo can't get over his own emotions.

But he's still not going to argue with it, especially since Taiki has already dragged them slightly out of the way before Inigo even realises just how quiet things have gotten around them. He glances at the giant mushroom overhead before slowly sitting down underneath it.

".. you're sure it isn't too boring? Being here with just me?" He says it with a slight joking tone, like he's trying to make it sound like just a joke.

"Of course not." He is quick to shake his head, sitting down and resting against the giant mushroom stalk. It was like something out of a story, these giant mushrooms in their bright colours.

"How could I ever be bored when I am with you?"

"Come on, Taiki," Inigo says, half-pouty. A little whiny. "It's not like I'm always that interesting."

He's aware! Especially when he gets all sad and sulky. It's not like Inigo doesn't try to be entertaining, but at a moment like this.. he isn't too sure how entertaining he can be, when everything about this world they've found themselves in now threatens to weigh down his heart.

"What if I'd nap, huh? That would be really boring."

"I wouldn't be bored. Do you want to nap? You can nap if you want."

He wants to see Inigo happy and so if Inigo wants to nap Taiki wouldn't mind at all. He would be glad of it. He was used to being still and quiet, he didn't get bored easily at all.

Even now, knowing fully well just what Taiki is like, Inigo still can't help but pause for a moment at just how quickly Taiki offers up to help him with it. Being okay with the idea so quickly, like he didn't even have to think about it. Like if Inigo wants to nap, then that's just fine.

"I'm.. not sure," he admits. He wants to at the very least be honest in return for Taiki's kindness, for how well he's accomodating Inigo's moody butt here. "I just want to forget about everything for a while. I hate how many thoughts gather in my head at times like these."

Because they're all worrying thoughts. Sad thoughts. The kind of thoughts that threaten to drag him down into their spiral, thinking about all of the painful things, rather than the good things he has in this moment.

"Here." He reached up to Inigo's shoulders and drew him down. "Lie down... Um... If you want."

Not to nap, if Inigo didn't want to but he knew Inigo liked physical contact and lying with his head in someone's lap, that was comforting.

"It's hard sometimes, when there are so many thoughts... Do you want to talk about them? That can help... Sometimes."

Please, as if Taiki has to really add 'if you want' to that. The moment Taiki is telling him to lie down, Inigo is going to do just that. Taiki's wish is his every command, after all.

.. even if he's not entirely used to it. For all of Inigo's constant desire for and chase after physical contact, laying his head down on people's laps is pretty new to him. It's obvious too, since he has to shift for a moment when he's there on Taiki's lap, like he's trying to figure out what the most comfortable position is for both of them.

In the end he puts the back of his head against Taiki's thighs, so he can at least look up at the other's face while he's lying there.

"Hmm.. I just.."

His voice trails off, as Inigo finds himself being blocked by his usual habits. His instinct to swallow up every worry and push it down, rather than letting it be released. But he wants to at least try, if Taiki thinks it's a good idea.

"I just miss my mother, I think. I'm well aware it's kind of dumb, since she hasn't even been on the train for all that long. And more than anything, I'm worried that she didn't go home."

He sits still, letting Inigo find a position that is comfortable. It's a little strange sitting here looking down at Inigo at this angle. But he hopes it will help his friend to relax, to talk about some of the things that are filling his head and heart with worries.

"Of course you still miss her, after all she is your mother."

And for such a short time he had been able to see her again to have her snatched cruelly away. "I know, it's worrying... To think that we don't know where people go."

He knows that last part has to come straight from Taiki's heart. After all, they're both in the same boat. Having lost the people most important to them. And it'd be one thing if they were just back at home, safe.. Inigo knows that it'd be hard for Taiki to be separated from Gyousou all the same, but perhaps he'd find some peace in knowing that his king was at home.

But this uncertainty instead, being unable to tell where the people most important to them are, whether they're safe or not.. It's hard. It's so hard.

"I wish we knew. Even if she's not with me.. As long as I knew that she was safely back home with father and the baby version of my sister, I would still be glad."

It would be better if they knew, even if they couldn't be together with those they were missing, if they knew they were safe.

His hand had started stroking at Inigo's hair as he spoke, gently and cautiously. "Baby version of your sister?"

He tilted his head down at him, a little confused as to what Ingio means.

".. oh. Um."

He pauses for a moment, closing his eyes and then opening them again when he speaks to look at Taiki.

"Mother.. The one who was here, she was from the past. She already gave birth to my sister in that past, so that's why the idea of her being here troubled me.. I don't exactly want that baby to be left without a mother."

Better him being left without a mother than a poor baby, after all.

"From the past?"

When only his sister had been born. Yet...

He and Lord Gyousou had spoken to her, "She knew who you were, before she had met you here."

But Inigo was right, it was terrible that somewhere a baby was left without a mother.

Inigo slowly releases a breath, moving only slightly on the other's lap. Not too much though, since he is enjoying the touch in his hair. It's kind of calming, so he doesn't want to escape it, not even accidentally.

"Hmm.. I met her in the past. That is why she recognized me here on the train, despite the version of her that was here only being a little older than me.." And therefore having no chance of being Inigo's biological mother just yet, because that would have required her to have given birth at a ridiculous age.

He keeps his hand moving gently, running his fingers through Inigo's hair and letting the strands drop back onto his head.

"Ah so that was why." He had thought her maybe immortal. But actually. This was stranger.

"You travelled to the past?"

"It was the only way to save the world."

Honestly, Inigo is so cagey with this information, but he's let bits and pieces of it spill to people - but so randomly and scattered that he can never quite remember who he told what at this point.

But Taiki.. he trusts him. He can tell him, even though it's not exactly a fun or reassuring story.

"I wanted to create a better future for her. One where she could live, even if it wasn't with this version of me."

The only way to save the world. To travel back in time. It seemed so... impossible and yet. So many things seemed impossible that had come to pass. But Inigo's goal, to create a better future for his mother, one where she could live.

Because she was already dead in his own time. Taiki continued stroking his hair, silent for a moment as Inigo's words sunk in. "That was a very brave thing that you did, to create that future for her."

Would another Inigo be born? What would happen to this one? He had so many questions, all which made his heart hurt.

He hums, then slowly shakes his head.

"I don't think it was all that brave.. It just felt natural to me." He didn't even have to think long about his decision in the future, unlike some of his friends who had more doubts about the whole plan. The moment he heard about the possibility, he just grabbed onto it with both of his hands, not caring about himself or his own fate. "After all, she's my mother. I couldn't just abandon her to a sad fate like that."

That was why he was so brave, because he didn't find such a decision hard, he just wanted to help his mother and so he did regardless of the cost.

"She must be so proud to have a son such as you. To save her, to save the whole world. It's really amazing."

Re: for taiki

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