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

[icedamericano]

It's fine, it's fine. Something eases in his chest with the tap. Bucky's okay, for whatever loose definition of 'okay' exists here. But Steve tilts his head at the answer, confusion darting briefly across his face.

"You've always worried about me. It's ... always. I'm just better at getting out of trouble," he adds, although the opposite is also true. He's much better at getting into trouble. In case his friend hasn't noticed. He frowns. "It's okay to yell at me, pal. You've always done that too."

[worthallthis]

Yeah, they might not remember that much, but they still don't believe that for a second. "The last thing I remember about you was you letting me punch you in the face. Repeatedly. That's not getting out of trouble." Especially since in their own universe, they promptly died, which means Steve probably did too, which... yeah, they still haven't told Steve that.

Soldat scrubs a hand over their hair, tied back so it's not in the way, and say in a smaller voice, looking off the Steve's left somewhere, "I don't know what you want." Are they supposed to be friends? If they're supposed to be friends, why is checking in on him during the mission bad? Why is Steve avoiding them? If they're not supposed to be friends, why is Steve telling them about things they used to do? Calling them "pal"? They're trying to give him what he wants, but they don't know what he wants.

[icedamericano]

Steve takes a deep breath. There are lots of things he wants when it comes to Bucky Barnes. Things he probably won't ever get to have. And he could say that, be brutally honest, but where would that get the both of them? He's had two years of living in the modern world to temper his wants versus what said world needs.

"I'd like for the two of us to be friends," he finally says, watching Soldat's face carefully for ... anything, really. "if you are interested in that. But what I want is for you to be comfortable."

And Soldat won't be able to detect falsehood in any of that, because it's all true.

[worthallthis]

They want to ask why he keeps avoiding them, then. Why they were told to stop checking in, repeatedly, over the mission. What counts as friendship, exactly, for Steve. They swallow once, and say, "I'm interested in that." They at least made it clear that they're not the thing from the helicarrier anymore, they're sure of that. They might not exactly be Bucky Barnes, no matter what they've been trying (and apparently failing) to play for Steve, but they're not the Winter Soldier either.

"Steve you're." They look further away, shoving their hands back into their pockets, guilty and sad. The expression is subtle, like most of their expressions, but it's still there. "You were my first happy memory. I had to have someone actually dig into my brain to find it. But then I realized I'd. Probably killed you. Because I didn't know who you were. I bawled my fucking eyes out over that."

[prototypal]

Because Steve is trying very hard to not put any pressure on the other man to be anyone he doesn't want to be. Somehow he's decided it's easier for Bucky -- for Soldat, if Steve isn't around all the time. If he keeps his distance. And it's hard, but hell, Steve is willing to do just about anything to make up for sleeping while his friend went through hell.

He visibly flinches, brain helpfully dredging up crystal-clear images of the fight on Insight C. "You didn't. You saved my life," which comes out a little hoarse, because. You know, emotions are annoying.

[worthallthis]

They can't keep hiding it, not if Steve actually does want to be fiends. They can't let something that might change his mind stay a secret. "I died, Steve," Soldat says quietly. "I am dead in whatever version of the universe I came from. Right after you said those words and I. Stopped. The helicarrier fell apart and I died. I don't know what happened to you. But I'm not sure even the serum could've kept you from drowning."

There it is. This Steve is probably not their Steve, and they are definitely not his Bucky Barnes. And because of them, at least some version of Steve is most likely dead. They brace for whatever reaction is coming. Whatever it is, it's probably deserved.