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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"I mean, it'd be you, not some imposter. Can I even do that? Would he have a body? Because other Zetta is looking better and better."

Persephone grins, popping a grape in her mouth.

"Hey! Leave bodies out of this!" Zetta was getting flustered, probably to her immense satisfaction. "I'll kick the ass of any other Zetta! Ass, I tell you!"

"How can I leave bodies out of it if you're the one still bringing up body parts? Seems like you're doing it to yourself. Lemme see, I bet I could make this happen." Persephone reaches out to him, not actually grabbing him, just going through the motions.

"No you can't! The Sacred Tome is my body right now, so I don't have to grant any wishes written in it that I don't want to!" But feel free to grab him, he's all for that!

"What if I wish up another Zetta and you just take over his body. Easy peasy."

Persephone says it like it's that simple. Picking him up is also simple, but she doesn't open him or anything. That feels like a weird violation. And weird in general.

"I didn't realize you would have to approve any wishes. Is that something you actually know or something you're guessing?"

"Even I couldn't wish for another me. After all, my mana power is the strongest there is, so how could anything make another equal to me?"

"We just drag him in from another timeline, or something? Or are we still insisting that you're utterly unique, one timeline for you?"

Persephone crooks a smile, "Is it all about mana power with this book in the end?"

"Well, yeah. Mana power is basically a sum of your ability to enforce reality. The book is just really direct about it. Make a change, expend mana power." Which was why his strongest mana power couldn't be duplicated! It wouldn't be the strongest if it could anyway!

"Right, you said something about it being difficult to wish your body back because of that?" Persephone hums, "Weird to be honest, because your body just houses you, not really having power of its own. But alright, my plan seems thoroughly thwarted."

"Yeah, but the problem is to get everything back to normal, I also need my Netherworld back. That's the complicated part."

Zetta had literally never even thought of doing something like that piecemeal...

But now Persephone is thinking about it. Or at least wondering why he hasn't.

"Can't you do one, then the other? I assume it wouldn't take as much power to just put you back into a body. Then your netherworld when you can?"

"No, you see, that..." Zetta began confidently and immediately ran out of steam, pausing to blink a couple of times. Then he began again. "I need my netherworld to... That is, if I don't..."

This time the silence lasted several long seconds.

"Huh," he finally said.

Persephone digs in her picnic basket for one of the drinks, opening it and taking a sip. Best give him time to work through the whole thing.

"You're welcome."

"That's -- that's even something it might be possible to do for someone without absolute top-tier mana, for that matter," Zetta said, almost dazed. Why had he never thought of this?

Because half-measures were never his style, of course. Even when they should have been.

"You really never thought of this? You've always acted like the one option of getting a Netherworld was the only option. Not even the best, but the only one."

Persephone gestures to him with the bottle, "You are kind of all or nothing."

Edited 2021-05-17 22:49 (UTC)

"I won't be satisfied until I have my Netherworld back as well as my body! And it's not like I ever knew anyone that had enough mana, legitimately, to do ANY wishing in the Sacred Tome."

Ugh, but he had for a bit now! He could kick himself! If he had freaking legs!

"I wouldn't have expected you to give up on that. I just figure you'd enjoy having your body back while you search out that opportunity."

Persephone smiles. "Not having to rely on a bunch of minions and such to carry you around will make life easier, I imagine."

"Are you kidding? I could -- punch things again! I haven't punched someone straight in the face in years! No matter how much they deserved it!" The book was practically hopping in midair at the thought. "And some people have really freaking deserved it! You can't imagine!"

"Oh I can imagine. I've known a person or two who really deserved it."

Though she never got to punch them. Killed a few. Not that it's something she'd like to repeat. Persephone tilts her hat to better hide from the sunlight and hums.

"I never gave into the urge but I bet it's restricting when you're the sort who would."

"Damn straight." Though being completely unable to punch people had gone a long way towards adjusting his perspective on who needed to be punched, if he was honest. Something like patience, maybe. At the very least, with his body back, he had to be restrained on the train, because if he punched his way out of it he would probably kill everybody else. And he didn't actually want that. "And a lot of other things, too."

"I know. I know it's sucked."

For lots of reasons. Least of all punching, even if that's what he thought of first. Getting to walk around, feel of a breeze on his skin, the satisfaction of touch and taste and smell--maybe it's just what she would miss, if she were trapped for years. But it's a poignant image that has her spreading her fingers out on the firm yet slightly squishy mushroom, just to take in the texture. Now she's gotten all melancholy.

"What would be the first thing you'd want to do?"

"See if you turn into butterflies again," Zetta said without a spare second of hesitation. Everything else could wait; he had a girl to smooch, damn it.

"Maybe I won't turn into butterflies this time. Make you work for it." Persephone grins despite her blush. Priorities.

"Hey, I'm in favor of you not turning into butterflies! That's the ideal!" Make him all tingly just thinking about it, why don't you?

"I'll make every effort to stop the butterflies, just for you." As if anyone else on the train is getting a chance.

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badassfreakingoverlord - 2021-06-05 22:23 (UTC) - Expand

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