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

[ourtomorrow]

"It is." Lea is demonstrating one of the oddest parts, to Ken, but it's not a bad odd, just a new odd. Ken begins laying out the picnic food but he will let his guest choose from the spread first. There's a vegetable salad, some sandwiches.....rice balls that clearly were not created by a human from the claw-shaped indentations.....

While Ken works, he continues his thought. "But it's good. I never imagined people could welcome someone unconditionally."

"Ken-chan's made FRIENDS." Wormmon is really really really really really really really really really really really proud of his partner for this. CLEARLY LEA MUST KNOW.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea shrugged a bit. "We're all pretty much in the same boat here," he said. "Or the same train, I guess. Most people don't see a whole lot of point in giving other people a hard time, especially if they just arrived. And with all the different worlds people can come from, a lot of things that might be seen as weird or put people off under other circumstances are just kinda accepted as part of the whole 'Voidtrecker experience'."

He chuckled slightly at Wormmon's enthusiasm as he picked up one of the rice balls. "It's a good place for that too. The tight quarters make it so you kinda have to get to know people a bit, even if you don't really put yourself out there too much."

[ourtomorrow]

This all makes sense. Ken listens carefully, noting every point Lea raises. Wormmon also watches carefully, as, you know, it may be hard to tell, but HE made those rice balls. He hopes they are tasty.

"Breaking down distance between oneself and others," Ken summarizes. Wormmon and Daisuke have shown him the value of that, many times. The train encourages this emotionally by doing so physically.

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea nodded. "Pretty much, yeah," he said. "I don't know whether that was intentional on the train's part or not, but it certainly seems to have worked out that way. Heck, even my my friend Xion has managed to make another friend or two- whether she realizes it or not-, and just getting her to willingly talk to other people is a challenge."

He took a bite of the rice ball, and judging by his expression, its not bad. So good job there Wormmon!

[ourtomorrow]

...Ken has felt like that, sometimes. So it's with sincerity that he can say "I'm glad."

Wormmon, however, is watching Lea's expression. Does that face? Does that face mean what Wormmon thinks it means?

Maybe he is not looking closely enough. Maybe if he gets closer he will know. Wormmon inches nearer in what he thinks is a stealthy fashion, but he's staring up with big, praise-expectant eyes.

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Yeah," Lea said. "Me too. For more than one reason." Some obvious and some less so.

And he saw you there, Wormmon. He looked down at the big-eyed caterpillar. "Guess you made these, huh?", he said with a smile. He swapped the riceball to his left hand so he could use his right one to gently rub the top of Wormmon's head in the manner of a hair ruffle. "Nice job, little guy. You do much cooking when its not for picnics?"

[ourtomorrow]

Oh! He's getting his head rubbed! Wormmon wiggles, pleased, and nuzzles into Lea's hand. "This was our first time!"

"It's Orange team's month for cooking." Ken takes his chores seriously. "We haven't been able to help much yet, so...."

[hotheadwarmheart]

"Don't worry about it," Lea said. "You'll get plenty of chances to help out, trust me. And it's always rougher for folks who come in right before a mission to get settled in. Getting dragged across time and space and thrown right into the middle of things tends to be distracting."

[ourtomorrow]

"That's true." And it is, huh? But the Digital World does it to people all the time. Why? Is there a benefit to that method for the Chosen Children?

....He can't get distracted. And he doesn't want Lea to worry about them. So! "We've done it before, though."

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea took another bite of his rice ball and nodded. "Yeah, same here," he said. "Well, guess I didn't get thrown right into the action last time. But I did get thrown back to school with no choice in the matter. I was really ticked off at the beginning too; almost got into a fight with somebody on the first day."

[ourtomorrow]

Ken's interest is piqued by this sudden potential similarity. "You've been to other worlds, too?"

[hotheadwarmheart]

Lea nodded. "Before we were brought here, Xion and I were both pulled to a place called the Tenscore Kingdoms," he said. "We spent most of our time there in a school called Diatu Magicadamy and the city that surrounded it. There wasn't any grand purpose for being brought there, though; it was just due to a bunch of idiots deciding to mess around with an illegal branch of magic. Xion and I were there for about a year before being brought here, and some of our other friends from back home were there too."

"We can world hop back home too, but that's kinda different. There's lots of smaller worlds that make up one larger World. Usually they're separated and none of them are aware of the others, but some people can travel between them."