middleofsomewhere | The Endless River

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.

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Picnic
After the last mission, she can certainly understand why the humans on the train would need this. She's seen horrors before and it's her entire purpose to stop them, but them...she's supposed to exist so they don't have to.

There's not much she's good for now, but she can at least wander the picnic, bell on her collar ringing softly and just accepting any attention someone wants to give her.

That's supposed to help, right?

River
She stands at the river, looking out across it and staring at nothing in particular. There's no one she can think of to send a message to, which feels like it's supposed to be sad, but she...isn't sure if she cares. Karas is her entire world, and defending the City is her entire and only purpose. She doesn't make or need friends. She doesn't have a family. How is this supposed to be a comfort?

Is comfort even something she needs?

It's been forever since Murphy's seen a cat. Not a zombie cat. Those happened by the way. As did zombie dogs. Zombie cows. Zombie goats. It was terrible.

His old friend Warren used to call zombies "puppies and kittens" whenever a herd was coming. She never told him why. He assumed it was a weird Roberta Warren thing. Sometimes, when they started lovingly following him, they did feel like puppies and kittens.

All this doesn't matter right now as he's high and there's a real cat near his foot. He reaches down and picks her up. "Oh, hi there kitty kitty." Oh, she's so soft. He holds her like a baby and scritches under her ear. Soft is even better when he's still high and surrounded by giant glowing mushrooms. This is the best feeling.

Yurine is about to be assaulted by noisy kisses between the ears by a contentedly pot-imbued man.

She lets out a small mew in surprise and protest, but settles quickly--she is wandering around like this on purpose. The bell on her collar jingles softly as she's raised into the air by a very red man who is apparently thrilled to find her. Which was her point, really. She's supposed to be helping people to feel better after the disaster they'd been through.

She leans into the pets and the kisses, nuzzling into his hand and face, purring and trilling softly, since it seems to be working. At least somebody's enjoying himself.

The very high zombie man makes a silent internal promise to himself that he will not eat the kitty ever, because she is too good.

"Where's your person?" he asks, turning in place and looking around as he scratches under her ear. "Don't worry, I'll take care of you until they get back."

And she gets another couple of mwah mwah mwahs in between her ears.

Why that is the question he goes with is a mystery, but she can't exactly protest that she doesn't need a person when he's holding onto her and she is, apparently, soft. Instead, she meows once again, louder this time, and gives him the best glare she can without being more human-shaped.

Maybe he'll let go of her eventually and she can explain herself, but she has done this to herself and now she has to live with the consequences.

Finally, Murphy puts her down on her little dainty kitty feet, giving her one more pet down the length of her back.

"Thanks for the cuddle, mystery cat." Really helped his buzz, not gonna lie.

Once she's on the ground, she turns and sits in front of him gracefully and gives another meow before dropping the cat shape entirely and standing in front of him in her oversized orange hoodie and goggles, absently swaying her tail back and forth slowly.

"Did it help?"

What the fuck.

What was even in that weed that man gave him? Was it strong enough to make cats turn into girls. Catgirls? Apparently for him it was strong enough to make people that look like the devil manifest in real life. Now it's making equally perplexing things happen to Murphy.

"...Yes."

He finally decides to answer. But he can't really tell if this is some sort of riddle that's meant to proceed him to the next dimension of mushroom land consciousness or if she's talking about the pot and that she's soft or what. Is that what he's supposed to say?!

That reaction is far more amusing than she'd expected it to be, and even though her expression doesn't so much as flicker to anything other than neutral as she stares up at the strange man, she can at least admit that his reaction is inadvertently hysterical.

"You don't seem certain about it."

"Well, I was pretty certain you were a cat about ten seconds ago. Now I'm not sure what to be certain of. But uh... we'll go with a soft yes. Yeah. That's my final answer."

He thinks. He's pretty sure. Magical cat lady in neon mushroom land.

"I was." That much should be obvious, she hadn't exactly done anything all that strange about it. At least not to her, but then her definition of strange had always been vastly different than everyone else's.

"Would you prefer I changed back?"

He doesn't even know if that one is a trick question. His brows raise and he pulls a confused kind of face and, my goodness, she is cute but she is so small.

Still not sure if she's real but he's just gonna go with 'yes' on that, too.

"Uh... I mean... which way felt more comfortable? Live for yourself, I guess. Whatever's more fun?"

He can think of a few choice shoes he'd spitefully vomit in if he could become a cat. #420thoughts

"Either." She's not a human, she's a spirit, and they don't have to be tied to a single form. And she's been granted both and it's been that way as far back as she can remember, so why should one be easier than the other? As far as she's concerned, the only real difference is that it's easier to communicate in this shape than as a cat.

"You don't seem all that certain of yourself."

"Being inebriated in some form is one of our most uncertain states. That's why you probably shouldn't operate heavy machinery or make business decisions."

But apparently it's totally fine to pick up strange animals and cuddle them. (It's actually very much not, don't try that at home.)

Oh. That's what she was smelling on him, them. She's not really sure what he's gotten himself inebriated with, but whatever it is smells awful. Though if the worst he did was pick up a strange cat for a few cuddles, it can't be all that bad.

"Then why bother?"

"Oh, that one's easy. If I'm high then I don't think about the undead monsters in my head." And while there are no zombies here, their echoes still live in there. His own shadier self is in there.

"It's my time to relax."

"This is relaxing?" He'd certainly seemed to be more so when she was a cat, but humans did all sorts of strange things to make themselves feel better.

"Mostly. Sparing the cat that can manage to give a zombie a heart attack.

"I'm joking, by the way." He says, because she might not understand that he is. Seems like the type.

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The Endless River

Yurine/Shinjuku | Karas | OTA

Picnic

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