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

River

[worthallthis]

"Even if it doesn't," Soldat answers amiably but without looking up, "at least we tried. If there's even a chance, I think it's probably worth it to take that chance." They've already sent their two stone-messages along, and are currently simply folding little origami boats out of paper.

Pepper may recognize the face of a former WW2 hero in there somewhere, but the hair, the modern clothes, and the several years of age might throw it off, too.

[efficacy]

"Yeah. I guess that's true. Hope and all that," Pepper allows, glancing over to the man calmly folding origami boats, of all things.

Honestly, it's been a while since history classes et al. He might bear some resemblance that rings a lone, distant bell in the back of her mind, but how could she possibly even begin to entertain the idea that Bucky Barnes could somehow be alive? She doesn't even know Captain America is, and travelling on the very same train, even.

"Those are nice." The origami, she means.

[worthallthis]

Better for both of them, probably. Soldat is used to being mistaken for their... other self, but it's not necessarily easy. They do smile a bit. "Thanks. We used to make these to sail out on the lake. To remember people by, you know?"

[efficacy]

"Sure," she smiles easily, familiar with the tradition. Curiously, she adds, "Who's 'we'?"

[worthallthis]

"Everybody in my last place." They sit back a little and offer Pepper a piece of paper, in case she'd like to send one, too. "I got scooped up to somewhere else before the train caught me. It was kind of like this. Lots of people from lots of universes, with a common goal. We did the little boats for remembrance my first month there."

[efficacy]

"Another place like this?" Visibly astonished by the information, Pepper's hands still, having been gingerly folding up the piece of paper handed to her-- not so much a boat (since she doesn't actually know how to fold those) as it is a paper airplane. Close enough. "Wow. That's... kind of hard to swallow."

She's barely gotten used to the thought of there being this one place. She's quiet for a moment, slowly folding up one wing of her paper plane. "Were you there for long?"

[worthallthis]

"A year and a half." The paper airplane gets a small smile-- not amused, exactly, but fond. They remember the first time they saw one of those. "And it was only like the train in that there were people from all over there, cuz some scientist made a portal to steal people with. It was a town in a world with no light. Except these." They tap the battered-looking lantern at their side lightly with one metal finger, making a soft pinging noise. "Probably more like one of the worlds the train might stop to help, to be honest."

[efficacy]

"Oh. That's--" Pepper chokes just a little picturing it, focusing intently on her plane. "A really long time to be away from home."

She can't even imagine being stuck here for a year and a half, even with Tony here with her. Glancing at the lantern, she frowns gently. "A world with no light sounds. Harsh."

[worthallthis]

"It wasn't too bad. Sure, there were dangerous things about it. But there were good people there, and we had good work to do, taking care of each other. It was probably more home than anywhere else I can remember." Wanting to know about Beacon is one of the easiest things to get them talking, frankly. They get back to their own little paper boat. "Where are you from, ma'am? If you don't mind me asking."

[efficacy]

'It was probably more home than anywhere else I can remember.' Well, that's just sad, Pepper thinks-- but she also thinks it would probably be a bit gauche to make a comment about it. But she's spared from answering anything at all when the man makes a question in return.

"Not at all. Uh, well I was born in New Haven, Connecticut. But I've been living in California for over ten years already. For work, you know? And please-- call me Pepper."

[worthallthis]

"Pepper. I'm Soldat," they say, and she can... possibly guess what that means. She might have a solid enough grasp of languages from dealing with Tony's business contacts, even if Russian isn't really one she speaks. "Not sure if I've been to California. Started off in Brooklyn, then was in Russia for a while, and most recently Washington DC." They've got a handful of mission locations they're sure of, but California isn't one of them.