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

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Well, care to share your insights on what you see? It's a heck of a view... at least until I look away from you." Winking, Edge dropped down to the ground next to her, folding his legs.

[marvelous_murderbot]

She'd spent plenty of time in cantinas and other places throughout the galaxy. And she had heard quite a lot of those sort of pick-up lines. Enough that she certainly recognizes them.

And they're about as effective as a rifle bullet off of tank armor.

"I doubt there is anything I could tell you about what's happening."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Look, if Edge ever found someone who flirting worked on around here, he'd probably faint dead away out of sheer shock.

"There's got to be something going on in your head that you should get out. Expressions like yours don't just show up out of nowhere."

[marvelous_murderbot]

She's quiet for a long moment, after that.

"What does it feel like? Sending messages to people you care about, I mean."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Eh." Edge waved a hand absently. "I'm not sure I believe it, you know? I tossed one it to let the people of Eblan know to keep up the good work without me, but they're gonna do that anyway. And the people I miss from the train, what're the odds they even remember me? So it doesn't matter."

A light answer, and on a conscious level Edge felt he was entirely fine with this.

[marvelous_murderbot]

She blinks at him a few times, tilting her head slightly.

"Why wouldn't you? We are transported on a space-train between universes."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"That's true. But everything's all messed up. How does this one river know exactly where and when to go for everyone?"

Edge shrugged. "But if it works, that's good. It just doesn't matter to me one way or the other, you know?"

[marvelous_murderbot]

She shrugs.

"I have no idea. I am prepared to accept that it can, however," she replied.

"Especially having recently seen that demons are real - I'm feeling an abundance of credulity."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Oh, I knew that already." Edge shrugged. "I've seen weirder things, but none of it does surprise me. But I can't imagine how this river would work."

[marvelous_murderbot]

"New to me," she says, quietly enough. And shrugs.

"We have to take the train's word that it does, I suppose."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"So I'm skeptical. But since it's okay by me if it doesn't work... I don't want to spoil anyone else's hopes." Plenty of people needed this reassurance, this promise. It showed, the way they all hurried to start tossing in their rocks.

[marvelous_murderbot]

"That is good of you, for I have witnessed many profound moments today," she said, a bit more quietly.

She looked down at the rock in her hand.

"Strange how much hope can be raised by so small a thing."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Not at all!" Edge tossed one of his rocks into the air, then snatched it to hold it between two extended fingers. "People aren't weak or helpless, but they can lose sight of what they have. This rock doesn't raise hope, it's a reminder of the strength that's there already!"

[marvelous_murderbot]

She takes her time thinking that over.

"An interesting point. But I can certainly agree that people are not weak or helpless...inner strength may be hard to define, scientifically, but it is very much a thing."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Edge nodded. "And it's easy to forget in a situation like this. But everyone who comes here seems to have it, and a reminder will make everything better for a bit!"

[marvelous_murderbot]

She tilts her head.

"You are a very excited person," she replies. "Is everyone like that, where you're from?"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Oh, hardly. But I've always been full of energy. My position practically demands it, in my opinion!" That and he was just fiery by nature, all energy and emotion. "Besides, what's not to be happy about right now? These are times that should be cherished!"

[marvelous_murderbot]

"This place in particular, or the sense of contact in general?" she replies.

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Any sort of time like this. Relaxed, no crises or disasters, just the chance to catch our breath and enjoy a good time." As good as it could get, anyway; Edge had a few ideas on how it could be better.

[marvelous_murderbot]

"Interesting. And I am appreciating the...well, downtime, I think you could call it."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"I don't suppose you'd consider doing some of that appreciating over a meal later, hmm?"

Edge's mottos often appeared to be 'don't be subtle' and 'go for it'.

[marvelous_murderbot]

"I seldom eat," she replies, "but I feel I should experience that more."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"I hope that's from a lack of need and not irresponsibility." Edge frowned slightly, then considered the view and relaxed a bit. "Though you do look to be in flawless shape, so I can't imagine you've come to any harm from it."

[marvelous_murderbot]

"I am in flawless shape," she replied, as if it were simply a bit of common knowledge. And she flexes with a stretch to emphasize that fact, as if it needed demonstrating.

But she's already off thereafter. "And I don't need to, but I have been learning the value of it, socially. And figuring out what I like and dislike. Taste buds are a very strange thing. Soldat is even trying to teach me how to cook some things!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Oh, as am I! Have to pass the time somehow, right?" What a strange set of affairs, that would lead a King to be a cook. "So perhaps I might persuade you to join me for that as well, sometime."