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

[yondu]

He looks at Sam with an expression so deadpan there's practically ringing force behind it.

"Then send some hate mail or somethin'. Anyone worth sendin' spite back in my world is dead." Or he just flat out doesn't recall their names. He doesn't really sound like that's a tragedy. He's just not bitter enough to carry grudges that mean nothing in the end.

He just made the mistake of hiring people who did.

[halfnewb]

"...uh, then just send it to them anyway? Does it matter if they're dead? This thing obviously gives as many shits about time as I do about life." He scoffs and plops down on his butt next to the water, skipping a rock across the river.

[yondu]

He just ends up plucking at threads at the bag and grunts under his breath.

"Don't care enough to, I don't reckon." Because they're dead. He did his business. "Wish I had a better idea of how this shit worked. This is bullshit."

Finally he just puts the bag down on the riverbank and a stone on top of it in case someone comes by and wants to use it. Other people have plenty to fall back on. He really doesn't need it, and hates the place it puts his brain in.

[halfnewb]

"It'd also be a really good opportunity to play a prank on someone on the train though." Sam grins at him wickedly.

[yondu]

"What were you thinkin' about doin'?" Yondu just sits down, elbows on his knees. He's, sadly, not much of a prankster himself but he has seen his crew go completely insane chasing each other down because one asshat pulled something on another dipshit and before he knew it people would be throwing down money on whether the situation would end up in broken bones or hugging and crying (which wasn't that uncommon with his better boys).

[halfnewb]

"I'm thinking of sending the most annoying song ever into Jack's head." He grins, tossing a bag to himself. "I figure...if these are some magic...thought rocks or whatever, it's probably super strong right? So I'm gonna get the song he hates the most stuck in his head. And I'm gonna send a bunch of them at different intervals so it'll keep happening."

[yondu]

Without even missing a microsecond of time, Yondu says "What's New Pussycat. That one. I still got it on my SCA from the last time I used it."

[halfnewb]

Sam's face lights up. "Yes!" He snaps both fingers and points to the man, laughing in unrestrained delight as he grabs one of the bags and rocks. "Oh man that's perfect! Oh man when should I send the first one to? Right now? Five minutes ago? In an hour?"

[yondu]

"Okay, so I know Jack's real good at pissin' people off, what did he do in particular here?"

He looks to the stones.

"...Will these even work on us."

Now he's just confused. But he also doesn't know Jack's full story. "Need my earbuds to remind ya?"

[halfnewb]

"What did he do? Oh, no. I just love pissing him off. It's hilarious!" He tosses one of the stones to himself, grinning at Yondu. "Why don't you just sing it for me Blue Sky?"

[yondu]

"Not a chance."

Hey, his throat is bad enough for just talking let alone singing. If he wants to make music he always whistles it.

"I still got a li'l' dignity left."

[halfnewb]

"Booo...how're you ever gonna have fun if you keep trying to be dignified? C'mon. Best ego shield to have is to have none at all! In my experience, anyways. Admittedly...that's not a lot of experience. But hey! Who wouldn't take advice from a dumbass 20 year old that's about to throw brain thought rocks into a weird river for a prank right? Don't tell me you're smart on top of having dignity..."

[yondu]

"I ain't gonna sing for a twenty-year-old I just met, that's for damn sure. But I ain't gonna try an' stop ya from antagonizin' some fella prone to pissin' ya off. Win some, lose some I reckon."

Look, he hates himself way too much to ever be concerned with any ego.

[halfnewb]

"'Pissing me off'? Oh no. You misunderstand. He delights me." Sam gives a wide smile, humming the song to himself as he puts the rock in the bag and chucks it into the river, grinning and thinking of his victim as he watches the bag float away. "Nothing more fun than a guy who's easy to antagonize and deserves it. That's the full package baby!"

[yondu]

Yondu has what might be almost, almost a sympathetic thought towards Jack. Because Jack brings a lot of shit on himself. But the man has the ability to invoke some nigh on sociopathic behavior out of people. Not that it's particularly violent, but there's a lot of people that just sorta wait for the opportunity to make him suffer.

Ken just waiting to shock the shit out of him. Siebren, one of the gentlest big souls he'd seen, driven to the point that he hung the man from the cieling which was a big deal even the once. Now this guy just utterly delighting in making him suffer. Now, Yondu getting a hanker to be mean to someone isn't that odd, but he still got it riled out of him and even then people wanted him to straight-up murder him over his damn flute tootin'.

Holy hell does he bring out the batshit in people.

Yondu shakes his head like he just saw a dog do a backflip because the thought was so jarring. It's not too much of a thought, but it's there. "At least ya got plenty of rocks."

[halfnewb]

Ah yes, the sociopathic level of torture that was... What's New Pussycat... Truly Sam was driven to cruelty beyond all human reasoning. Who knew what other acts of violence he was committing? Hot sauce in milk, perhaps? Signing Jack up for spam emails, even.

Behavior on par with war crimes, all of it. How cruel of Yondu to sit by over there on the bench and let it happen!

"Hell yeah I do!" Sam chirped cheerfully, picking through some other rocks. "Buuut I'll probably send like... At least two more before I get distracted. Don't have a really great attention span-oh neat this one's got like a skag shape on it!" He puts that one in a bag, but for collecting not throwing. "So you don't have any messages to send at all huh? That's pretty crazy. I was convinced everyone else did, considering no one's shut the hell up about this river since that announcement. You'd think it was the only thing worth talking about."

[yondu]

It has nothing to do with severity, but somehow Jack brings out people's desire to constantly retaliate. Over and over and over. Maybe it's just a talent to cause people to revel in their next chance to cause him pain.

But as Jack is a dick and hell knows what the next or last thing he did was, Yondu says nothing. Probably wouldn't anyway.

"Nope." Even if he technically does have people, just ones he doesn't want to remember him, he keeps that tucked close. "Figure whatever's left got business covered."

[halfnewb]

"Nice. Means you've got more time to do something actually fun around here while everyone's getting misty eyed over...I dunno. Their cats or something? Did you check out the giant sparkly 'shrooms yet? They're pretty cool. Not as cool as like..." Sam pauses to think, something that takes visible effort for him. "... Uh. I dunno. Guns. But I guess they look neat. I cut off a chunk of one of em, to try later. Maybe it'll taste good. Even better maybe it'll get me high off my ass."

[yondu]

"They look like a stuck-up fancy-ass asshole made 'em."

He's had these thoughts since showing up, his hatred of Ego stickin' it to him the whole time, but he's been a bit more polite about voicing them. But right now, he's just irritated enough to let it spill out.

"You have fun with your mushroom." He decides, at that point, to head back to his blanket. If he weren't trying to be sparing with his booze he would have brought some, but right now he's really wishing that he did.

[halfnewb]

"...oh. Yeah. Okay." Sam watches him go, and then looks back at the river. "...yeah. Gonna have tons of fun." He looks down at the handful of rocks he's picked up, and sighs, discarding them on the ground and wandering down the shoreline.

'Fun'. Hard to have fun when it was something everyone on this train seemed to be deathly allergic to.