The Endless River

[voidtreckermods]

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.

Comments

[springforth]

"Cerberus transforms, otherwise he wouldn't fit through doorways." Persephone says absently, toying with a bag. They're cute in their own way, homemade almost. She is about to explain the bevy of dogs Hades has acquired (can she even remember all their names?) when he talks about the furies. And--okay they are quite different. She's only seen Alecto from a distance but...

Her hands curls tighter around the bag, her fingernails working through the weave of the fabric and little sprouts of jute curling up and out of the weave from where she touches. The sprouts unfurl leaves, and that's when she drops the bag. Sugar snaps.

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize...I didn't realize things were that different." She fumbles to pick up the bag and offers it to him. "Um, for your mother?"

[dyingpro]

"Oh, the doorways aren't big enough for him in your world?" Normal sized doors? That's weird. Persephone's Hell is weird. "I'm used to everything pretty much being too big for me except for the stuff in my own room and the lounge... because of course, Lord Hades would never be caught lounging, he's got this fearsome image to maintain."

He notes the sudden burst of life-affirming magic coming from Persephone, and sees the bag when it hits the floor. "Oh, I've-- I've made you upset again, haven't I. I didn't mean-- the thing is, I'm used to it. Nobody in the Underworld ever liked me much except for, well, Achilles and Nyx, and Meg and Than, and Cerberus. Most of these are recent friendships, all told."

The prince takes the verdant jute bag with a smile, nodding. "That sounds great, actually, I'm sure she'd get a kick out of it." He sets it in with his own, making thirty-one. "I suppose I should think if there's anyone else I should send a message to. Surely there's someone. But anyway, who is Cordon Bleu?"

[springforth]

"I still think it's awful that you're used to people treating you poorly. I hope you're treated better here. But it's not my business, I guess. I'll see if I can complain to the source."

Persephone smiles, tight and unsure, waving another bag. She just... She looks away, tucking a lock of hair back.

"Cordon Bleu is one of his dogs. He has seven, including Cerberus. Cordon is there one who hates me. Or at least he tried to bite my head off. Or my legs. Whatever he could reach, he was very small." She taps her chin, "I could bring the magazine--I bought something to show you and Thanatos my Underworld and of course he has pictures of his dogs in it."

[dyingpro]

"You want to... to send a message to Father?" Oh damn. This is an unexpected development. "To be honest, I'm not sure-- but yours would read to him like a message from Mother would, so maybe he'd listen?" This thought had never occurred to him until now. Part of him wants Persephone to fuck his dad up, but another part really wants to protect her from him. Even if his Hades loves his Persephone with all of his being, surely he'd react similarly to how Zagreus had when he'd first seen this Persephone on the platform. "You... you can send him a message if you want, Sephe. Of course you're allowed. But I'm sending him one too. And I'm not going to be telling him about you, or Than, or anyone else here, or even any of my adventures I've had so far. Just that I've finally escaped, and that I'm happy. I think that's all he needs to know."

The description of Cordon leaves his eyes wide with interest. "Seven? Wow. I can't imagine any pets other than Cerberus in the house. I'd need a lot of satyr sacks if Father tried to keep me from leaving the Temple of Styx. Also, that's way too many good dogs to pet at any given time. What does he do, manifest more hands to give them all pets?" He lets out a little smile then, and also lights up at the mention of the magazine. "I'd love to see them. And the rest of this normal-sized, too-many-dogged, futuristic Underworld you've told me about."

[springforth]

It's so very much like what she's been thinking of sending her mother that she pauses. This isn't exactly an escape for her. It's just some new trap, some new place, but she's here and she's safe and loved. It's what her mother would want for her in the end and perhaps it's what Hades might want, deep down, or perhaps it isn't. Persephone squeezes the bag in her hand and sighs.

"Well he'll just have to deal with an angry message from the void, I suppose. Maybe he'll get his act together."

She shoves a few more bags in after the rest, just in case, and turns to him, "Well I think he just tries to share time with them, but let's be honest, Cerberus is the favorite. You'll see, he's such a good boy, Cerb. Come and find me when we land?"

[dyingpro]

"Ha! Maybe. I'd really, really love to throw that back in his face if I ever get to see him again. Not that I'm holding my breath, mind you." Which is... probably way too honest about his feelings for his Father, but, you know. After all that he'd shared with her before the mission, now it seems like hardly anything is off limits with her, as far as sharing his feelings is concerned.

"I have no doubt that Cerberus is a very, very good boy. And sure, I'll see you when we get there."

For now, he has to think about what he's going to say to everyone. It's a lot of people, and not a lot of time to say everything he wants to say. Better make it all count!