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

[dyingpro]

Zagreus wasn't expecting Thanatos to answer, really, but it is clear that Thanatos' energy has somehow changed. He frowns, then, forgetting about the magazine for now. "Oh, Than, I've upset you. I--" He thinks hard about what he might have said that could cause such a sudden dour mood like that. And then it clicks. Could Thanatos be... jealous? Oh shit. He hadn't expected that. The bumbling prince tries his best to explain himself, by rambling on and trying to smooth over the bumps he'd just made in his relationship with Thanatos with what was supposed to be a mildly embarrassing but cute story for Persephone's benefit.

"I mean, now I feel kind of silly about the whole thing, getting all worked up about it only to have Dusa tell me she's not ready for that kind of relationship, and she might not ever be. But we are still really good friends! We love each other a lot, we do, just... not in that way. There's supposed to be several kinds of love, right Sephe? Like love for your family, love for yourself, and so forth?" Please help him out here, Persephone.

And then she changes the subject by returning to gossip about the small book and the pictures it contains. Thank the Gods for Persephone! "Oh! Of course, I can draw Father for you, and Lord Uncle Zeus, Lord Uncle Poseidon... Lady Demeter..." He pauses mid-way drawing Hades when she asks that particular question. "Oh, you... you want to see Mother? I... sure, I can try, just don't laugh."

He'll finish up drawing Hades, followed shortly by Zeus.

"Than, how's Father look? Too much? Not enough?" Zagreus nudges his best friend with an elbow to get Thanatos to look at the portrait he's done of Hades, for an honest assessment.

[springforth]

"All of Aphrodite's children, yes. Eros is the most popular but he definitely has like seven siblings now, so love is very complicated. As if we all needed it to be more complicated."

Persephone side eyes Thanatos, squeezing his arm tighter. She hadn't gone into all the types of love with him, but he knew they varied, they'd discussed Aphrodite's never ending family. Let alone whatever demigods were running around the mortal realm.

Leaning in, she blinks wildly at the picture he paints of both Hades and Zeus. And, she can't help it, she blurts out the first thought in her head.

"Why do they have beards?"

[controlsthedie]

Mort squeaks to get Thanatos's attention, and then he doesn't stop squeaking. It's hard to tell his mood by the tone of his squeaks, but they seem to be having their own side conversation (or one-sided conversation as Mort is doing the talking). That along with Persephone squeezing his arm keeps Thanatos from shifting away like he was nearly going to do.

"Not enough. He's too small," Thanatos says with hardly a glance. He's lost a lot of interest in the magazine because the whirlwind of thoughts in his head is just too distracting. Does he feel relieved? Disappointed? How is he to understand how he feels if there are so many things to consider and analyze? Thanatos doesn't even know what he should focus on if anything anymore.

And he knows some of what bothers him isn't Zagreus's fault. He didn't ask to come from a different point in time with all the difficulties related to that. They have all this time, and yet Thanatos feels like he's just waiting for something to become clearer.

[dyingpro]

"Aphrodite always makes it seem so effortless," Zagreus agrees, shaking his head.

He looks a little irritated when Thanatos mentions their size relative to the other portraits. Not because of Than's criticism, exactly, but because he's clearly not the God of Crayon Art. He's doing his best! "I only have so much paper, but fine, I'll draw a little me for scale."

He draws a misshapen body and legs for Hades, along with burning fiery feet, and then a small figure beside that in approximate ratio to the real life thing. But he also includes the fiery feet on his own drawing of himself, so at least it mostly looks like him!

He blinks hard at Persephone's startled question. "Yours don't?" Then he gets to see Persephone's Gods, and his eyes widen in surprise. "But they're so... so small! And that's... wow. That's Hades?"

He stares at the blue-skinned man with the prominent nose, floored by just how normal he looks. He's not as dour as Zagreus might expect, nor is he as imposing. He's even handsome, as weird as that is to think about his alternate-universe dad. Zagreus brushes his fingers over the picture for a moment, before pointing to the man in purple.

"That's your Zeus? He's completely off what I would have expected. Though Uncle Poseidon's at least got the same color scheme, sort of. Oh, here, let me draw him too!"

The prince draws Poseidon next to his brothers. "Hey Than, you've met Uncle Poseidon, right? Did I draw him well enough?"

In the meantime, he's going to get started on Demeter.

[springforth]

"Oh and Poseidon only has a little bit of a beard, clearly the most stylish of the kings."

Persephone pauses in her examination, then realizes what Zagreus said. She clutches at the magazine, squinting her eyes up at Zag, then back at the photographs. Does he really have a leg to stand on with how tall he is? He can't be taller than her Hades.

"I only stand mid chest on Hades, he's not small. I'm small." She gestures up with her free arm, then frowns, "Our worlds are very disparate."

Anything else she might have wanted to say falls flat as he labels the next drawing, her mother. She's just left to stare at this goddess who is nothing like she pictured.

[controlsthedie]

"... I have more experience with his domain than Lord Poseidon himself, but... I think he's just as tall as Lord Hades." Thanatos wonders if Zagreus is going to ask him about each drawing. He's not going to be the best reference. And this isn't even his soured mood speaking. It's the truth.

"The Olympians and I don't have much to do with each other, save Ares and Hermes," Thanatos explains, though he's sure he's mentioned it to Persephone before. That the other gods don't want to be around him. "Most of the time it will only be if we're in the same area. And never for very long. They don't seek me out, generally."

That's fine by him. Thanatos knows how things are, and he'd rather do his job in peace. It has the added benefit of not incurring Hades's anger for speaking with his relatives.

[dyingpro]

"Well I only stand mid-chest to my Father, so we at least have that in common, I guess."

He's enjoying hearing Persephone sass his Olympians and their fashion choices, particularly his father and uncles. It even draws a laugh or two out of him as he continues to draw. "Oh, thanks for reminding me, Than, I should draw Ares and Hermes next! But this is Lady Demeter from my world. I wish I knew what she looked like in the Spring, but... eternal Winter and all that. I mean I suppose it was more green and, y'know, like Spring back then? Erm..."

Gods, this has gotten awkward fast. He quickly shifts to drawing Lord Ares and Lord Hermes, the latter showing more detail, indicating more of a familiarity with the other. "I'll let you guess which is which, I know it's not super obvious," he jokes, nudging Persephone with his elbow. "Are they anywhere close to yours, Sephe?"