middleofsomewhere | 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

He remembered. He grinned. It had been fun playing football with Joss and though it's sad Joss isn't here... It's still going to be a lot of fun to play with a new friend!

"We could use those two mushrooms over there! That's a good gap."

"That sounds good to me." He starts walking in that direction. "... Hey, how old are you, anyway?"

He really does want to know... it's really hard to tell here sometimes.

He grins, following Ken. This was going to be so much fun!

"It says I'm eleven on my ticket! I think I was eleven when I first remember though as well and it's been more than a year now I think so I might be twelve but I don't think shinki go up in numbers."

They certainly never grew any bigger. "How old are you?"

"Shinki?" Hm. He's not sure what hose are. "I'm... um. Eleven. I turned eleven about six months ago now, I think?"

I he's counting months right... they seem to be a little different in the Void.

"So soon you will be twelve!" He grinned at him. "Oh a shinki is what I am, it just means that I died and got named by a god to be their weapon to fight bad monsters. But because I'm dead I don't get older and I don't got any memories of when I was alive so that's why I don't know exactly how old I am!"

He definitely can't count it in months like Ken can!

"... Oh." Never mind the age talk, the talk of being dead makes him feel weird. "... I... sorry. That... that you died? I don't know, I've never talked to someone who died before." Vexen doesn't count, apparently.

"Oh." That strikes him as strange, though he guesses to someone alive it's not. Romeo knows lots of people who are dead. Though most of them are not on this train.

"It's okay, I don't really remember being alive, I only got a few memories so I don't know what being alive is like and being dead hasn't been bad, I've made lots of friends and had lots of adventures."

"That's... weird. But okay." If that's how he sees it... "So does that mean you're kind of like a ghost? Can you go through walls and stuff?"

"Sort of!" He nodded, "I can't walk through walls though. But back before I came to the train people on earth couldn't really see me and if they did see me then they forgot me really quick but people don't do that here!"

That would be a bit sad, if all his friends kept forgetting him. "I can jump really high though and do borderlines that are shields made of energy and when mister Zetta calls my name I turn into a motorbike."

He's not sure if that's similar to ghosts, he hasn't read many ghost stories.

"... Oh. My Persona can't do stuff like that, just shoot out magic and attack things..." How come everyone else gets superpowers that are good outside of battle?

"Well that's okay! Shooting magic is really useful especially in battle." He sighed, "I don't think I'm a very strong shinki. It was okay when I was Elfnein's because she didn't fight lots but mister Zetta is on red team and goes into battle and I need to be stronger to help him."

He's determined to try though. "But I know a spell to make people go invisible so if you ever need to sneak you can just come and ask me!"

Invisible, huh... could be very useful. "How long does it last?"

"As long as I can concentrate on it!" He grinned, "I'm getting better all the time though!"

"That could be really helpful if we have to sneak into somewhere..." He's small and fast, he's good a sneaking. It's the not being seen aspect that's an issue.

"It would be!" He nodded with a grin, "All I need to know is your whole name and then I can do the spell just like that!"

"... How does that even work? What does my name have to do with anything?"

"Um well it's a bit complicated. For a shinki it uses our names." He waved his right hand, with the kanji on the back. "If you know another shinki's name you can do spells on them but you gotta know that you could beat them. You got to believe in yourself! With humans it's a bit different, 'cause you don't got shinki names so we can use your whole name. To make someone invisible it isn't much like beating them like bind is... it's more..."

How to explain it... "Oh it's that I know that I'm good enough to stop people being able to see you!"

"... So it's a confidence thing?" That's... really weird. Why? ... He suspects Romeo doesn't have the answer to that, so he doesn't ask.

"Yes." He nodded, "You gotta believe in yourself really hard."

He doesn't really know why, it was just how it worked. "But you also got to practice lots, so that's just like anything!"

The Endless River

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so this notif got eaten...