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

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"Trust me, a lot of us are going to be looking like idiots if you're wrong." Raven said, trying to offer some reassurance and amusement in one. "I...my team, back home. We were more like family in a lot of ways."

[blue_ice]

"I hope they get the message, then," Seto says softly. He knows what it is to be without your family. And as they were a team...they were likely a well-oiled unit who needed the whole group to function optimally.

"That's been the hardest thing to accept, yet it's the most obviously logical. That our worlds have gone on without us, that the course of the world has changed."

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"It's probably hard because we don't know for sure. Even among the answers the train gave us, it's conflicting information." Raven pointed out. "Mostly I...try to not think about it. Or worry. It's better I'm here."

[blue_ice]

"...even away from the team?" Kaiba asks. "I know heroes have that strong drive to save the world. Used to call it a complex, but I know it actually means something to you---but this mission is a mess."

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"Yes." Raven said--because it was better she was here, even away from the team. Safer for Earth and for them. "And yes, this mission is a mess."

[blue_ice]

"Catastrophes...I can't believe we weren't warned before," he mutters. Still stuck on that revelation from before. "But how many worlds were doomed, and how many can we salvage?"

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"We were 'warned', in a way. Some people have been getting prophetic dreams right before missions, right?" It didn't tell them what 'level' of mission it was, true. But that was new information for all of them still.

"I do think the train is trying to communicate and help us as best it can."

[blue_ice]

"...mm, yeah. I always hear about it, but that's never been me."

Kaiba's grateful, honestly. He knows Jonouchi's dealing with Stuff.

"As long as it gets better. I don't know how many more catastrophes we can take. I'll work on better preparation."

[azrthmtrnznthos]

"I used to occasionally get them on Earth, but I haven't here. It's a nice break." Raven said, her tone it's usual deadpan.

[blue_ice]

"I imagine it would be. It's a burden to bear...we share the messages to make preparations, but there's pressure to interpret what to prepare for, right?"

Kaiba wouldn't want that job. He exhales.

"We take it as it comes. All we can do."