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

Those are all very important messages. He nods solemnly.

"He has to know that his days are coming to end. As for Koromaru..."

He withdraws a thin sheet of cardboard from his pocket.

"I'm working on his card. This is the first pass of the illustration, I have the 3D model rigged. I was going to ask you to look at the animations when we get back."

He flinches. That’s the problem, isn’t it? He’ll die no matter what Ken does. But at least the pain from the realization is dulled. He can deal with it. “Yeah...”

He leans over to look at the card, his eyes lighting up. It’s not exact - it never could be - but it’s very very close. He blinks away some tears and looks up at Seto, sniffling. “I... um. Thank you...”

He wants Koromaru with him. But if he can’t have that, at least Koromaru can fight alongside him.

Seto just smiles and leans over to subtly bump arms. He's still working on the affection thing.

"Then there's his effect to consider. You can choose one...but there's no rush on that. You'll have a reminder with you."

His hand reaches up to grasp his locket. "Sometimes, that's all we have to hold onto when the tides sweep up. That there's someone out there waiting for us."

He leans into Seto a bit before pulling away. "Yeah... he was always there when I was having a bad dream. And... and he was there to play with... He'd sit and watch TV with me, too. ... Being around him was the only time I could feel like a kid. ... I don't want other people to look down on me because of my age, after all..."

Seto can understand, even though he's never had a pet of his own. Until Snapper...but a small partner now is entirely a different thing.

"I wish I could bring him here. But you'll always have that symbol now. Unconditional love like that is rare."

Too rare. He used to think it didn't exist at all.

"And the pressure to be more mature...I've felt it too. I became CEO at 15, and so many people didn't take me seriously until I threatened them."

"... I can imagine. I'm sure some of the website's clients at home think they're having their requests filled by someone older, and the others are... I think between fifteen and seventeen." He's pretty sure Jin's the oldest, but he's not totally sure. "All of us had to grow up fast. Even poor Koromaru... protecting the shrine for so long even with his owner dead..."

It's sad, but he's glad that they found him. "... I just don't want people to think I'm not able to do things because I'm young. And I've been drinking a lot of milk to help me get stronger, but it does that thing where... I don't know why milk is in so much stuff if it makes your stomach feel weird."

Is that normal? It's probably normal. Everyone has that reaction, right?

So they have that drive to prove themselves in common too, but Ken's nutrition is more of an immediate concern.

"That's called lactose intolerance. Lactose is the main sugar in dairy products, and if your body can't produce lactase, the enzyme you need to digest it, you get sick. I'll check with medical to see if we have lactase supplements...but in the meantime, there are other ways to get calcium and protein. I'd suggest nuts, beans, and green vegetables."

He gives Ken another curious look. "What did you get for lunch?"

"... Huh?" Wait... did that mean... oh. Oh, that's not normal. "... It's not so bad... just hurts..." That's still probably bad.

"... I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I wasn't sure what to bring and I wanted something that didn't need silverware."

Kaiba gives him a sympathetic look. "It's a common condition, so there are ways to treat it. And I'll make sure there are lactose-free meals for the rest of the month."

He nods again at the sandwich. "Peanut butter's good, solid. And there's a certain nostalgic value to it. I brought...more pasta," he says with a slightly embarrassed laugh. The kitchen work this month has been tough, but doable.

"But I want to grow up faster so I need to get calcium, right?" That's how bones work. He thinks. He's not sure.

"I'm... um. Mom didn't make a lot of peanut butter sandwiches growing up... but they're easy to make, so it's... I don't have to spend a long time in the kitchen cooking something to last over a long time."

Stew is the thing he cooks the most - there's a reason there's containers with it in the fridge on the train. "I... it's just something I can eat and not have to worry about..."

"Right. And you'll get it from vegetables and nuts."

Kaiba shuffles in his own basket and pulls out some cashew butter spread. Someone had introduced him to it a while back, and he spreads some on a slice of his own.

"And when we're always on the run, that's important. I've learned my lesson about packing proper meals for missions after the last one."

He pulls a sandwich out of his bag, starting to unwrap it. "Yeah. I got used to storing food... when I was on my own. People would steal from me if they found me when I was asleep. So I had to find things I could hide. ... And... the amount of food that we were down to before we got to last platform... it... feels like I should start doing that again."

He takes a bite of his sandwich and looks off into the distance, knees pulled up to his chest.

Seto's concern ratchets up a little once more. To live on the streets like that...it might've been like that, if he hadn't taken the path of luxury and its own unique pains.

He shifts. "There's more we can do if the stores start to run low. We're working on growing more food in the greenhouse car, and...the train needs us alive. It's a high priority to keep us fed...we just might have to watch the kitchen stores more closely."

After a moment, he continues. "I can raise the issue with leaders if you're not comfortable doing that."

"... Roland knows already. He's... my roommate. And caught me storing food. I know it's... probably okay, but I can't help but worry." It's a habit, and he knows it's hard to break. There's always the fear of being hungry again.

There's a lot of fear that he tries not to show.

"If... if you think that's a good idea... I snapped at people on the network for making... cakes for the art party..." He feels a little bad about that, but he's scared. His hands shake a little as he holds his sandwich. "Being hungry is awful. I don't... people probably think I'm being weird or mean, but I just... don't want us to end up with no food."

The Endless River

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