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

3. Now I'm Tired and I Don't Want To Walk Anymore

[yondu]

It's a god's honest miracle that somehow Yondu has magically avoided Siebren for a full week on the train and not managed to lay eyes on him. And of course when he does see him, he doesn't have it on him. He still checks the pockets of the cream-colored lightweight suit.

Well, damn that for right now, he guesses! Might as well make sure he catches up with him, though. He makes his way over to the blanket Siebren's situated himself on and crouches down beside him.

"Hey, Seibren." He calls him by his actual name for once. Fully knowing between the suit and the pink shirt he's... odd looking right now. Whatever. It fit and he wore it. "I got ya somethin' back on the train. I didn't know where to find ya."

[namethattune]

The train is somehow both very large and entirely too small, depending on one's purposes and whether fate and circumstance feel like playing keep-away. While it is not unheard of to go a week without seeing someone, it is certainly unlikely.

(The recent change in Siebren's habits notwithstanding. Hopefully, things will return to as close to normal as they will ever be soon enough.)

That Siebren is called by name for once - instead of the near ubiquitous nicknames that other passengers will insist on giving him - is noted with the quirk of an eyebrow as Yondu joins him. It's quickly replaced by surprise, and then a smile. "Oh! Thank you. That is kind of you." He isn't certain why, but sometimes a reason isn't necessary.

"Did you need me to return with you now, or would you prefer to join me?" There's a good-sized spread prepared on the blanket - certainly more than enough to share.

[yondu]

Siebren smiles at him and there's somethin' about the way his eyes crease up or just that he's looking pleasant or something Yondu can't put a finger on, but his chest does somethin' he's not real sure about. And it creeps right back up the back of his spine. Oh. Oh no. He didn't like that, whatever that was. But he just breaks into an awkward smile right back.

"Nah, no need. I gotcha some of that metal from my homeworld in case you wanted to experiment on it or somethin'." He sits down to join him, legs folded side-saddle because these clothes feel wierd. He's already eaten quite a bit today but he can muster up the room for a little more.

"Y'know, ever'body needs some reminders of who they are ever once in a while. I miss travellin' an' havin' access to this stuff where I'm from. I figure you miss the Netherregions sometimes."

Wait. Nope.

"Netherlands."

He corrects with a flat expression that's hiding the fact he's gone from zero to potently self-shamed in six seconds flat. He'll just find something and put that in his mouth so it'll stop talking and y'know that wouldn'ta happened. There, this bread thing'll do.

[namethattune]

Yondu had gotten him a gift from his home - a gift entirely unique to his home, at that - and for a few moments Siebren is completely floored. It is an incredibly kind gesture, and he cannot keep the surprised (and honestly, a bit touched) look off his face. He waits for Yondu to finish before saying anything, as is polite, and Yondu-

Does not stick the landing, as it were.

He blinks and puts a hand over his mouth - a bit too late to hide the smile entirely, as it turns out. It has been some time since he's heard that sort of verbal stumble regarding his country's name, and only the knowledge that it was not an intentional joke keeps him from laughing. Still, it takes a few moments for him to ease the smile enough to lower his hand.

"Would you believe that is not the oddest thing I have heard my country called?" It's meant to redirect the conversation away from the slip and make it more of a joke instead.

[yondu]

Yep. He sure did just do that, and he misses half of the struggle to not smile because he's found a nice mushroom to look at. It did take looking away from three different people brooding gently over their private moments.

Like trying to find something to look at next to some random ass person's wake.

Finally, he hazards an off-kilter grin when he looks back and Siebren does not, thank god, look all that offended and is actually still smiling and his whole chest can just shut the hell up with all that nonsense it tried to pull. Which is good 'cause Yondu's pretty sure his foot don't taste good and he didn't want to put the whole thing in his mouth. It's tough to bend that way, anyhow.

"Hey, I am workin' with two translators here, an' knowin' a sizable chunk o' English from my boy. So it come out my mouth an' then I heard myself say it." An' all hell broke loose in his head. That's what happened. That's a relief, though. Siebren's generally come off as mostly a big gentle soul unless he's provoked. He's glad it turned out the judgment hasn't been proven in error or nothin'.

"An' you heard worse than that? Well, hell. I got competition."

[namethattune]

"Ah, the joys of being multilingual." Siebren has managed exactly two himself, and his attempts to add Mandarin to the mix had been a complete failure; he is not about to give Yondu grief for it.

"The capital city of the Netherlands is called Amsterdam," he starts, settling in for a bit of a story, "and among other things it is known for trade in substances that are perfectly legal in the Netherlands and illicit elsewhere, which leads to a good amount of tourism from people who wish to partake." He pauses. "I have heard so many jokes and puns on the subject in a multitude of different languages. I cannot remember what the best one was - only that it translated perfectly in both Spanish and French, neither of which I speak, and that it was a masterful bit of inanity."

He picks up his cup of coffee - there had been a thermos in the basket, and he had taken advantage of it - and takes a sip. "So yes, you have competition from the people who do it on purpose."

[yondu]

Yondu snorts softly. "I know a few places like that. Needless to say they were the places my men always wanted to take port at. Lucky for me, I only got a couple of bad habits an' drinkin' ain't so bad. I don't often overdo it."

He always had to worry about someone killing him so being fully drunk was ill-advised. Also, it did occur to him as soon as the words left his cursed mouth that he said a couple of bad habits, and he doesn't really wanna mention that other one. Something extra pathetic about hiring some company when you're lonely and he's just decided he's gonna make an ass of himself in as many ways as possible in a five-minute span.

Moving on! Best plan.

"Pretty sure I'm workin' on coffee becomin' one of those bad habits. I oughta go see if I had somethin' in mine. I went straight for the food. Carnivore in me was showin'. Or at least able to eat ever'thin' but I got a preference built in. How long has it been since you was back home? In the Netherlands?" He points. See? He got it right this time.

[namethattune]

Siebren does not comment - this conversation involves the both of them, after all, and he'd much rather it not be awkward. Instead, he fishes a second, empty mug out of the basket, finds the thermos, and pours Yondu his own cup of coffee. "As far as bad habits and substances go, coffee is certainly one of the more socially acceptable ones," he says, offering the cup to Yondu.

"I was in the Netherlands before the train recruited me, so it has only been a few months. How long has it been for you? Since you were back home at..." He pauses. He is certain he has been given this information, but that conversation and the mission that preceded it were both a few days and an entire lifetime ago. "Forgive me," he says sheepishly. "It has slipped my mind."

[yondu]

"Centauri IV, or at least that's what it gets translated as. Fourth big body from Proxima Centauri, I don't know if y'all have found 'em all yet." Earth scientists, he means. "Not been since I was a baby. I remember it a li'l' though. Mostly learned about it from other Centaurians. We don't get off-world all that much." He takes the offered cup with a quiet 'Thank ya'.

"Sorta took to consider just travellin' as my home. Places like this kinda make me homesick in the way that you'd get that new feelin' from a place. All the plants and whatnot around ya was unfamiliar an' the animal sounds would sink in different, all the food would smell a li'l' strange."

It's weird to get homesick for newness, or for the Eclector. He sniffs his mug before taking a sip.

"I used to collect cute li'l' things from new spots sometimes? Little statues or whatever? Toys an' such? An' just stick 'em to my console." He considers maybe he could get a mushroom from the store or something to remember this place, if he wants to bother with it. "You missin' anything in particular?"

[namethattune]

That's right: he had mentioned being a slave, being away from home. Things Siebren needs to remember for conversations like this. Evidently it is his turn to make the conversation awkward - though it does not seem to bother Yondu, so he tries to keep it out of his expression. "Homesickness is simply the desire for the familiar, is it not? If traveling is what is familiar to you, then it makes perfect sense."

He listens, and he thinks. If Yondu collects tchotchkes, then surely Siebren can find him one - he had passed plenty of tourist shops in the Netherlands, if only he can remember the specifics of what they contained. "Yes, actually." He removes a stroopwafel from his arms band - one of the few he has left from the winter fair - and places it atop his mug of coffee. It should still be warm enough to soften the caramel, at least. "This is a stroopwafel - a treat from home of which I am rather fond. One of the previous worlds we visited had them available, and I suppose I have been hoarding the few I purchased."

[yondu]

It's hard to describe why it doesn't bother him, but he's careful to dodge around it this time. Just saying that he hadn't been home in a good long time. Well, as home as a planet you only spent a short time could be.

A good 90% of the time Yondu is very human-ish, like your average Earthling that just happens to be blue. But sometimes he acts a little different. Like when he tilts his head and sniffs the air like he's working something out. Centaurians have a couple of slightly better senses than humans- not enough to amount to much. He couldn't make like a bloodhound and search out a missing person. But enough about them that they can pick out a very unique scent for people.

"Smells like you." Which is... a weird fucking thing to say. But it does. A little sweet and rich. "Stroopwafel." He repeats, this time very careful about how he's committing it to memory.