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

[subcircuits]

"'Course we do!" Aww, his pride is stung. He sits up, slinging his arms around his knees, joint dangling from the fingers of one hand. "There's shuttles up to Artemis and back every other day!"

[morganizedchaos]

"You ever been up?"

Yeah, we're just going to talk about space now. Space is good easy-conversation fuel.

[subcircuits]

Devero is super down with this. "Not since I was in creche," he says. "They took us up to Artemis once a year when I was a kid, soon as we were old enough for the trip."

[morganizedchaos]

A snort. "Letting kids go up is definitely ahead of us." Which, real good thing since children in space would be a nightmare. "Just another tourist destination by that point, I guess."

[subcircuits]

"Well, yeah, wouldn't you go on holiday up at a lunar colony if you had the opportunity?" he asks. "Not that there aren't plenty of residents living up there. Lot of research labs up at Artemis. And the trips they took us on as kids were more 'bout experiencing the community and seeing the work they did than having a vacation."

[morganizedchaos]

"I mean, personally? Not really, since I've kind of already seen it and there's a lot of climates on Earth I haven't seen yet." There's only so much you can do with space, and as someone who craves variety and new experiences incessantly, Earth has a lot more to offer for Ghost. "But admittedly, all we have up there is a research and mining station ourselves, and Pytheas is definitely not a vacation spot."

[subcircuits]

Devero gasps. "Were you born off-planet?"

[morganizedchaos]

"Nope, I'm from Hawaii." There's a laugh and a joke to it, as though that's the opposite of what someone would expect. "But it's complicated and probably not going to be easier to understand when you're stoned."

[subcircuits]

"Aww." Devero maybe is playing his disappointment up because he's stoned. He follows up with a good-natured laugh. "You'll have to explain it some other time, then. When I'm not stoned."

[morganizedchaos]

"I'll fill you in sometime." Beat. "Okay, so, is it rude if I ask why your name on the network is an awful alphanumeric?"

If you're going to ask maybe offensive questions, the best time is when they're too stoned to get mad at you, and Ghost has. Concerns.

[subcircuits]

Devero falls backwards with a groan, flinging one arm dramatically over his eyes. "B'cause the damn train doesn't understand what's private!" he complains. "'S my emID but it's not my name. If it was going to print an identifier all over all of my things it should've used my name!"

[morganizedchaos]

"I don't think it understands the concept of preferred names much at all," Ghost agrees. His tone is calmer but there's a slight undertone of annoyance. "Wouldn't be that hard to let people choose what to put on the name panel."

[subcircuits]

"What would yours be?" Devero asks, peeking up at him. "Is there something I should be callin' you other than Ghost?"

[morganizedchaos]

"I did choose mine, and I get to be grateful that 'Subject 14' isn't what's on the nameplate." Because that would have been pretty unfun, let's be real!

[subcircuits]

He whistles, low and long. "Yeah, 'Ghost' is a damn sight better than 'Subject 14', that's for sure." And with a total absence of his usual tact and gentleness, he adds, "You must have some bullshit in your past, huh?"

[morganizedchaos]

A snort. "That's the mild way of putting it, yeah." It's not even his bullshit! He didn't ask for this.

...Not that anyone does, when it comes to family bullshit in particular, but point stands like a cell phone tower, sticking up above the plains covered in aforementioned bullshit.

[subcircuits]

"Add it to the things you can tell me when I'm not stoned?" he asks, peering over at Ghost. "If you want, of course. 'S your business, I've got no expectations."

[morganizedchaos]

"Don't worry, it's on the list," he says. "I don't really mind who knows, it's just a pain to talk about." As most personal bullshit tends to be.