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

".. it's okay, mister Yondu. I don't have any messages to send either."

Though her own reasons are different than his - but maybe also similar, in a weird, distant way. Either way, Madoka is being honest here too, not wanting to lie to someone she cares for.

"And.. I don't think it's wrong either to be a little mad for being brought to a place like this if it reminds you so much of home.. Since I can imagine it may feel a little bit on purpose, or like the fact you're here and not there is being rubbed in.." She speaks slowly, clearly putting great care in trying to imagine what it'd be like. Madoka is a pretty compassionate girl for someone her age, after all. "But-- m-maybe it's good to focus on the good things then. Even when there are so very little of them. Like.. it's at least nice to be able to have a picnic with a friend, right..?"

"Not even to your friend?"

He'd at least she'd hope for that. But her words ease him up a little bit. Mostly that she's trying so damn hard.

"It's cause this place reminds me of my boy's real father, an' his father was an asshole who I hated a whole lot. So I'm mad about that. I actually ain't even mad at the train for once. I might be pissed off over it but y'all needed the break. So, don't misread me there. You should go say a li'l' somethin' to your buddy."

To Sayaka, at least.

She grows quiet at his words. For multiple reasons, really. Partially because Madoka immediately starts feeling bad for misreading him to a point where he had to explain himself - of course he didn't have to, but Madoka's overly polite and overly conscious mind immediately can't help but feel that way - but also partially because of his suggestion.

Since Madoka has so many reasons as to why not to throw a message in there, but sharing any of those with him right now feels awkward. Not since she doesn't trust him, or can't be honest with him, but she doesn't want to make his mood even worse.

"No, it's.. fine," Madoka says, trying to make her voice grow more firm at that last word as she shakes her head and opens her basket, starting to look through it. "I'm sorry though that his father was so.. um, rude."

(Look, she can't say a word like asshole! Please!)

"But at least he had you instead, right..?"

"Don't feel bad, Angel." He sees her expression falter like that, makes him think he messed up a little. But her careful dodge of the word is adorable. "I'm the rude one, he was just bad. Like uh.... He was Kyubey bad. He was that kinda bad."

His own unique brand of it, but that's the best description for the type of personality. They type that just wants to use people, regardless of age or who they are.

"And he'd make big pretty stuff like this on his planet. I don't know if I told ya what a Celestial is, but he was one of them. He was a planet. Had this... people shaped form he could send out. But he liked his planet to be all bright an' perty. Used to blow my mind before I knew what kinda person he was..."

Then, grudgingly he just shakes it off. "If it was anything to do with him, though, he'da already showed up to gloat."

He won't say that he was a pretty terrible father, and it didn't take much at all to be better than Ego, but that doesn't get said.

"You didn't answer me about your friend."

It's a pretty mind-boggling concept. Even with everything she's experienced so far - the weird locations during the missions, everything back home with magical girls and witches - the idea of someone being able to be a planet and just happen to be able to make a human form too is.. wild.

Let alone still being able to have babies. Did that mean that boy - Yondu's boy - was part planet too? How does it even work?

Madoka has so many questions, but before she manages to ask even a single one, Yondu manages to hit her with that last part, making her cheeks colour. And here she thought she could avoid it.. Must be parental instinct on his part, huh..

"Sayaka-chan's dead," she finally says. It's fairly soft, hardly above a whisper, but Madoka knows there's no way to avoid saying this now. Not when Yondu has zoomed in on it. "She turned into a witch. Kyoko-chan had to kill her."

Edited 2021-04-13 17:22 (UTC)

Dad sense is the worst sense. Dad sense notices when things are said and dodged around when it comes from the mouths of babes. When it's from adults? Leave that shit alone for a minute. From a kid? You zero in on a target.

Those questions about Peter can always wait. He can answer them, as bizarre as they are (even if he didn't know Ego left his seeds everywhere as well as his kids).

"Oh hell. Has this happened for both of ya?"

At this point, as much as he hates making them sad, he's figured out even if he doesn't ask these girls are just sad on their own. And that's by goddamn design.

"Um, for one of the Kyokos on the train it has.. the one on the blue team. I don't think it's happened for the one on the purple team.."

But she isn't sure. Honestly, Madoka hasn't digged enough into either's memories to ask - but she's too worried she'll hit on too painful things by asking either of them about it.

"Actually, um-- please don't tell them about this, mister Yondu, since I'm not sure if they know. But back home.. we're all stuck in a time loop because of me. That's why there's two Kyokos on the train, since they're from different timelines where different things have happened.."

"Time loop? So you got one where things start out the same but changes? Do you remember it?"

He sounds like he knows how that works for some reason, but doesn't really hang around that for details. "Yeah, I won't say nothin'."

Because there are a lot of different histories on the train. Two different people can have two different stories. So that much he knows. But it means definitely that one Kyoko is different from the other, possibly completely different, in the events they went through.

"What about for you?"

She shakes her head.

"I only know since Homura-chan told me. Maybe you met her, she's been on the train too.. She has long, black hair, and she's about the same age as the rest of us." She's mostly giving him that description since Madoka isn't sure how good Homura is about actually giving out her name.. but she knows it's not the important part, so she quickly continues to talk. "She's the one who keeps resetting time. You see, when she became a magical girl.. apparently she wished to be able to save me. But I, um.."

Madoka glances away, looking at anything but Yondu for a moment.

"I.. kept dying. Or I must have, since Homura-chan kept having to do things over, and over.."

One could almost hear the cogs get put together in his brain. Magical girls need soul gems for magic. They need a witch to cleanse it. Madoka's friend turned to a witch, and Kyoko had to kill her. But it sounded like Sayaka had been a magical girl too. So....

All of this worked out as he looked from one big mushroom to another. What a goddamn scam that critter had been runnin', hadn't he? Little piece of shit.

"Alright, well, I'd send one o' those things an' hope it falls in one of them time loops. But right now come over here."

Yondu gestures at her to scoot closer to him, arm held out for a hug. She needs that more than questions.

It's those last words that make Madoka - though shyly and slowly - look back over at Yondu again, like she's wondering for just a moment why he's asking her to come closer.

.. but it's clear. Just by the way he's holding out that arm, Madoka knows entirely what he means. And she knows that.. honestly, she could use it. Being in this place may make Yondu think of less pleasant things, but it's doing something similar to Madoka. Not because of how things look here, but because it's reminding her of the fact that she doesn't have anyone to contact, that it's better for everyone to just forget her entirely.

So after a slight moment, she's scooting over to get closer to Yondu. And before he can even wrap that arm around her, Madoka is already moving to cling to him, clearly in need of that hug.

Yondu gives her a hug against his side.

A few months ago, no one would have suspected Yondu was capable of being cuddly. His barriers too tall. His heart too hard. He'd tried to reach out and was rebuffed time and time again. He'd become calloused both in body and in soul.

Being able to just hug someone he worried about to make them feel better is a novel experience. Something he only got to appreciate with his old group before. It's an easy habit to fall into and he's still pretty terrified of it.

But he pulls the small pink-haired teen into the side-hug. Because sometimes you can't fix shit. Often you can't fix shit. All you can do is remind someone they ain't alone for it. "Tell you what, we'll make somethin' worth it today, even if it ain't the river."

It may be 'just' a side hug, but Madoka is still looking like she's some sort of small animal trying to burrow herself against his side. She may have been putting on a bit of a brave face earlier, and with others, but there are definitely some things about this place that are making her think about things she'd rather not think too much about.

And this feels better. Just a moment of this, at least. Being with someone she trusts, someone older she feels like she can rely on. A feeling she used to have with her dads on the train, though they're long gone now.

"Thanks, mister Yondu.." She says, quiet but audible. "What would be worth it, though..?"

He rubs her shoulder and looks around. Yeah, there's food. There's mushrooms. That's about it.

"Well, there's a lotta decent food. An' if you wanna see from the top of one o' the mushrooms I can take ya up there."

He points up with his free hand, but doesn't rush her to look or to move. He doesn't always like to admit it (it's getting considerably easier) but he kind of likes that they trust him enough to let him be decent to 'em. It's comfortable and they both probably need it right now.

"Take all the time you need. No one's gonna find ya 'cause your head's gonna camouflage with this shirt," he warns in the daddest way he possibly can.

".. you're right," she says, with a small smile on her face. There's something in it, like an edge of something more painful, but it's not like the smile is fake or forced.

Even though there are no tears in her eyes, Madoka moves up a hand to rub a little at her eyes all the same before she speaks up.

"I.. kind of want to see what it looks like from up there." She glances up. Up on top of the mushroom, she means, just like he offered to show her a moment ago. "You really wouldn't mind helping me get up there..?"

"Yup. I wouldn't mind it all."

Though it means she might suddenly understand why he'd asked about Mary Poppins.

"My arrow's strong enough. I've used it to haul myself up plenty of times before." Maybe not plenty of times. People kind of look at him funny for it. But he knows he can do it and these folks are less likely to judge.

Shhh, Yondu's Mary Poppins secret is still safe.

For now, anyway. Because she may make the connection the moment she sees him actually hold the arrow, but for now she can't quite make enough of a mental image of it just yet, not to the point that she could see the similarities.

"Can we, then..?" If Yondu says that it's a good thing to try and make something good out of a not-too-great situation like this, then Madoka wants to at least try. She doesn't want to be the party pooper here.

She's already standing up. "I promise to stay really still, so I won't be too much of a burden to carry up.."

"Nope. I can handle about two people of pretty sturdy weight. I couldn't bring up Piccolo or Siebren, but I can haul up Soldat. You'd be easy."

He gets up, too, brushing himself up and walking over to the nearby taller mushroom. He stoops first. "Put your arms around my neck an' then I'm gonna put mine around your waist."

He pulls out his arrow to holds it up, point facing upward and hand around the red power thread.

Thank god for the stooping, or this whole mission to put her arms around his neck would be absolutely impossible with how tiny Madoka is. But with Yondu coming down to her level, it's a lot easier to just reach out and wrap her arms around his neck.

"Like this, sir..?"

It's a tiny bit nervewrecking, since Madoka has absolutely no idea how quickly they're going to lift off here.. Yondu's arrow did seem pretty powerful when he showed it off before. She's hoping it'll be a bit more gentle than that though!

At least Yondu is average height and not one of those people that has to kneel completely. He wraps his arm around her midsection and whistles, and the arrow just slowly pulls them upward. Not at breakneck speed, just a nice float to the top of the mushroom.

Once he's up there he puts her down and hooks it into his beltloop.

"How's it look from up here?"

It takes Madoka a moment to respond. First because she needs to get used to the feeling of solid ground (solid mushroom?) underneath her feet again after floating in the air for a few moments, and then because she first actually has to look at the scenery around them before she can give an answer.

And she stares at said scenery with her jaw hanging down a little. It's pretty - or at least, very unusual. Madoka doesn't think she'll ever look across what almost looks like a sea of mushrooms like this ever again..

"... I've never seen anything like it before.." She admits to, honestly. "Mushrooms don't grow this big at all where I'm from."

"I ain't seen one exactly like this. But I've seen mushrooms about this big. These are the first glowin' ones."

Yondu squints out over the neon and dark landscape.

"Centauri is real green. Real lush. I only kinda remember it firsthand, though. Hala had a lotta real sleek architecture. Them big huge cities... An' there's this place called 'Knowhere', that's built into a giant skull. Some Celestial died an' his head was left floatin'."

He says it all nostalgically. "I really wish I could show y'all some things. I mean, I could probably order holovids or somethin' but... that ain't steppin' foot on a place an' smellin' it. Or feelin' your feet sink in."

He looks down and toes the mushroom cap below him, digging at the thick protective cover.

"Hmm, you're probably right.."

After all, even if she had seen a photo of this odd place, with the river and the big mushrooms, Madoka couldn't have imagined what it'd be like to actually be there if the train hadn't stopped here like this.

It would have been like looking at a movie - or reading a comic. A place that doesn't even feel real.

"But still.." Her voice trails off, and she tears her gaze away from the scenery ahead of them to look over at Yondu. "If you'd like to show me, then I'd like to see it, mister Yondu. I'm really curious about the place you come from." About any place, really, as long as it's an important place to him.

"I reckon I could get somethin' eventually."

Then he sort of chuckles. "Get me a good ol' Kree propoganda vid. It'd show ya all the good parts, at least." He seems to find it genuinely funny, though, and he's pretty sure even a good chunk of the Kree Empire doesn't believe those things.

"Get you girls a Flerken. That way if ya have somethin' that looks like a cat that's kinda mortifyin', at least that one would be on your side." And he's been very tempted to do that, just to be sure they'd be safe. But, also, he wonders if anyone would get accidentally eaten by the Flerken. It's not impossible, considering how some people on the train behave.

Then more earnestly he ponders. "Wonder if anybody ever got any recordin's of Ego. I bet not."

Thankfully Madoka does know the meaning of the word 'propoganda'. So that's helping.

But some of the other stuff he's saying? It's completely going over her head. The girl looks a little surprised as she blinks and looks over at him, slowly speaking up.

"What's a Flerken specifically..?" Something that looks like a cat, except really scary? At least Kyubey had looked cute, even compared to what he ended up being.. "Are they animals from the place you come from?"

The Endless River

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