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.

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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?"

"Look pretty much exactly like cats. In fact I didn't know Terra had a thing that looked like 'em. But Flerkens got pocket dimensions in their mouths an' they can swallow somethin' a good thirty times their size. Scary as hell out in the wild. But people keep 'em as pets sometimes. Make for good protection, apparently."

So long as they take a liking to you.

"I ain't ever had the time or room for a pet. Never got in the right head for it. I had my crew an' they were ornery enough. But I've seen all kinds."

There's not a lot of things he's satisfied with, but the choice to see as much as he could and go as far as he could of his own volition is one he wouldn't regret.

"I think you would have been good at raising a pet, sir."

Is she purposefully not commenting on the Flerkens? Yes. Definitely on purpose. Because Madoka thinks it's sweet of him to think of her and the other kids on the train, but at the same time, she definitely does not want to think about these Flerkens.. Or be anywhere near them. What kind of creature can swallow stuff that big! That's terrifying, like something out of a horror movie!

But she's worried saying that sort of thing may offend him on some cultural level, so she instead focuses on the latter half of what he says.

Especially since it provides her with an opportunity to compliment him, and Madoka always latches onto those.

"You're really sweet when you need to be, after all."

He'd panicked when he first saw Saasch because of them. But also he'd seen how Kree would keep them just fine.

"I ain't really all that sweet," he insists. That 'when you need to be' part is so strong with him, 'cause he knows he has that mean streak in him, and it's very genuine. It doesn't rear its head so often with kids, but with adults he finds himself holding his tongue.

Ironically, sometimes he desperately needs an adult to talk to, but he's prone to sometimes just walking out of conversations. He can't summon up the same patience when he's used to being threatened by his peers.

"Roommate has rabbits, though. So I get to see animals sometimes."

It's too late, Yondu. In Madoka's perception, he has long been settled as someone sweet. It's not even like it's the first time that someone has been nice to her while also having a rough streak - in fact, a lot of the adults she grows closer to on the train tend to have that streak to them, one way or another.

But it's hard for her to not consider him sweet, with everything she's seen from him already.

That's not the part she addresses out loud though. Something sounds familiar about the rabbits, so she can't help but wonder..

".. Is your roommate mister WangJi?"

That would sure be a coincidence. Talk about shoving responsible blue team adults into one room.

Sure, it could be someone else on the train who also has rabbits, but Madoka heavily associates them with the blue team leader, considering she's seen him with them so often.

He makes a funny sort of snorting laugh, just a quick one. "One of 'em!" Because boy, did that get confusing sometimes. Especially since a ton of 'em ended up blue team.

"Raddish an' Carrot? I think that's their names." He squints, trying to be sure, but he does recall they are named after a couple of Terran vegetables and that one is pretty gentle and docile and one is dumb and bouncy and kinda reminds him of Quill.

"Yeah, the blue leader one. But I ain't bugged 'im too much on lead stuff for a li'l' while 'cause he lost his man. An' honestly I ain't ever been in a relationship that-" lasted more than a night? Good lord do not say that to that child. "-Well, I ain't been with nobody that'd claim me. So I don't know how bad it is for 'im. But I figure it's real hard."

He's felt heartbreak one-sidedly, but he knew the person was still alive.

Madoka quickly nods. Yes, that's the one she was describing! It's the one she knows best, really, just since he's been here for so long already and is one of the blue team leaders.. Compared to that, she hasn't really interacted with the other ones for long enough yet to know if they're just like him, or different people entirely.

"It is really hard.. He seemed pretty sad the other day." Back when she talked with him about it. But why wouldn't it be hard on him? It's not even like they were casually dating or anything, they were actually married. Claimed, as Yondu puts it. There's no way you wouldn't be sad then to lose your other half.

".. I really don't like how people are seperated like that on the train.. Especially since no one ever gets to properly say goodbye." Madoka has experienced it enough times herself.

Married is so much more than being claimed, at that. No 'boyfriend', no 'partner'. Yondu's only ever been Cap'n and that's as deep a word as he heard held towards him. But 'husband'?

He does his best to encourage folks to go for what they want if they can and don't put it off, or else they end up like him. But he doesn't get it fully. He might not ever. He just knows it hurt the hell out of WangJi.

"He said he left once before. Which is worse, I'm thinkin'. To have the train mess with ya like that. Bring 'em an' take 'em an' bring 'em and take 'em."

"Yes, I remember that.."

She didn't really talk about it with WangJi the last time it happened, figuring he just needed his space. But it happening again now.. she couldn't help but approach him and talk with him about it, at the very least wanting to make sure the man wasn't alone through the second heartbreak he had to suffer.

"He even married the other person again on the train, that's how committed he was to them. Even though they disappeared and then reappeared, he still wanted to do it again. Mister WangJi seems like such a sweet person.."

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The Endless River

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