voidtreckermods: (train)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2021-04-10 06:25 am

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.
magicurls: (eye in shadow)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-04-13 02:49 am (UTC)(link)
"Ryo-san...?"

Mami's response is slightly delayed. She's quite distracted with her emotions, after all, and as they threaten to pull her under, her kind healing partner pulls her to safety.

She can't help it, she clings to him as a few more tears escape. "I...um...sorry..."
fivemilesdeep: (Default)

[personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2021-04-13 03:09 am (UTC)(link)
She clings to him, and he holds her tightly, gently rubbing circles on her back. "It's okay," he says, quiet and steady. "You don't need to apologize. Just let it out."

He'd collapsed a few days ago himself, overwhelmed by grief and homesickness, and the people who cared about him had held him and helped him through it. He cares about Mami; doing the same for her is the least he can do.
magicurls: (eye in shadow)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-04-13 03:22 am (UTC)(link)
Mami holds on for a good few minutes, letting herself come back down to...somewhere approaching calm. When the sniffles fade she pulls back, summoning a handkerchief with her magic to wipe her eyes.

"Thank you...I'm sorry, I just. Haven't thought much about the accident in a while. And when I remembered the void reaches across time too, I thought, maybe...but is that silly?"
fivemilesdeep: (Default)

[personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2021-04-13 03:38 am (UTC)(link)
He holds her and stays silent, letting her cry herself out and only letting her go when she moves back. Hopefully it's helped her as much as it had helped him a few days ago.

It worries him that she still feels the need to apologize, but the conversation has moved on. "It's not silly," he says, shaking his head a bit. He pauses, takes a breath, and continues. "I...sent a message to my mother," he says quietly. "She died when I was born. I've never met her." He looks at Mami and gives her a smile tinged with sadness. "So if it's silly, I guess we're being silly together."
magicurls: (dreamy)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-04-14 04:12 am (UTC)(link)
Mami takes a moment to fold her hands and try to compose herself. It's hard. But she has a job to do here.

"I'm so sorry...but no, I don't think it is. She carried you all those months, she would've wanted to meet you, right? You're giving her a chance she never had. Why not take it? That's...what I'm doing. My parents never knew what became of me. I hope they won't have to worry so much."

fivemilesdeep: (A good idea)

[personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2021-04-18 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
"There you go, then. It's not silly for either of us." The smile that follows that is a little easier, at least. "I know it's not easy to talk about, but...I hope it helped, at least a little." Her more so than her parents. It sounds like her parents are in the past, but she's alive here and now, and that's what matters.
magicurls: (Default)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-04-22 04:23 am (UTC)(link)
Then they're doing it. Mami nods shakily, her next few rocks still in her hand.

"Right, then. I'll wish them well...until we meet again. And I have a few friends, though alternate versions of most of them are already here. I wonder how that'll work."
fivemilesdeep: (Default)

[personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2021-04-23 09:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, she isn't done sending messages yet. "The ones here are from different worlds, right? I'd imagine your messages will go to the friends you're thinking of, if they're not the same as the ones here." A beat. "Should I leave you to it?" If she wants to be alone to send her messages, he'll gladly give her her space.
magicurls: (Default)

[personal profile] magicurls 2021-04-28 02:46 am (UTC)(link)
Mami shakes her head, curls bouncing slightly.

"That's right. But no...it's okay. I can take a break, we have a little time, hm? I wanted to walk among the mushrooms for a little while. Aren't they pretty?"