middleofsomewhere | The Endless River

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.

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And Soldat has been doing... pretty much the same thing. Watching Steve. Trying to be as quiet and agreeable and out of the way as possible, but watching him. Kind of a lot, actually.

They rest their elbows on their knees, looking down over the edge, and bring up their best smile when they recognize the request. "Come on up."

Steve's going to take the invitation at face value. He is. Really. In fact, he sketches a quick salute in Bucky's direction before moving back a few feet and then takes a running leap up toward the next mushroom over. You know, in case he misses or something. Through some divine providence, though, he catches a handhold against the wider brim and pulls himself up onto the top a minute later.

Now there's just the matter of leaping over onto Soldat's mushroom. But first, he takes a quick glance around and -- "Oh, wow. This is amazing."

They might hold their breath just a little as Steve leaps, not entirely sure what his range is. Sure, Steve could probably fall and be okay-- they can fall and be okay, and surely Steve's serum is better than theirs-- but it's on the level of instinct, they think, to worry about Steve Rogers hurting himself.

But he makes it, and they can relax into another smile. "Yeah, pretty great view, right? You can see almost everybody from here. And the waterclimb." Which is what you call the opposite of a waterfall, clearly. They totally came up with that themselves.

Steve has great range when it comes to distance-jumping. Or leaping around between buildings or helicarriers. Above peak human conditioning, thanks to the serum. The only problem is when he gets distracted by something.

Like, for instance, the views afforded by the giant mushrooms.

He spins in a slow circle, concentrating on memorizing everything so he can put it into a drawing or mural later, only halfway paying attention to the last part of what Soldat is telling him. He nods, not quite absently, but close enough, then glances between the two fungi to gauge the distance. Then jumps...

and sails right past, having slightly overestimated the distance. Steve slides down the side of the mushroom, twists around with an annoyed look on his face, and then vanishes into the lower brush. Soldat might hear a *thud* several seconds later.

Followed immediately by, "Ouch."

Soldat's got some of that, too, but it's not quite enough to get to the edge of the mushroom cap in time to grab Steve before he falls. "Steve!"

They swing off, themselves, as soon as they determine where Steve landed so they're not going to launch down right on top of him. Their landing is much more controlled but heavier, and they ignore the protest in their knees when they scramble over to his side.

"I'm good!" Steve replies once he catches his breath. It may or may not be a stock answer, one that Soldat might be familiar with, but it's true this time. (And all the other times, regardless of Steve's physical condition at the time.) He stares up at the sky through the brush, then rolls over onto his side and peers at the other man.

"Those things are slippier than they look."

Soldat is torn between continued concern and wanting to whap the guy on the back of the head. They drop to a crouch at his side, but don't actually touch him. "You didn't slip. You jumped too far and missed your landing. Jesus, Steve. Have you even practiced your jumping?"

"You say potato..." He quips and finishes climbing back to his feet. "Here? No. Back home I practice a lot of things."

Or he used to. There's no way of knowing what he'll find when they all return.

What do potatoes have to do with anything, Steve? They've apparently not heard that one (again) yet. "Apparently not very well," they grouse, pushing to their feet, too, and looking disgruntled. "At least I own up to it when I miss my landing."

Wait. "Are you grouchy?" Asked while he extends a hand, in case Soldat wants some help getting back up. (But Steve expects he won't.)

They're pretty much already on their feet when he offers, so they just give the back of his palm a little tap with two fingers. Flesh ones.

And then they take a breath, think of a couple origami folds, and calm the fuck down, because they're not supposed to be grouchy with Steve. They're pretty sure. "Just startled by you faceplanting. You didn't let me worry about you for a whole mission. It's gonna leak out here and there, if you pull stunts like that right in front of me."

It's fine, it's fine. Something eases in his chest with the tap. Bucky's okay, for whatever loose definition of 'okay' exists here. But Steve tilts his head at the answer, confusion darting briefly across his face.

"You've always worried about me. It's ... always. I'm just better at getting out of trouble," he adds, although the opposite is also true. He's much better at getting into trouble. In case his friend hasn't noticed. He frowns. "It's okay to yell at me, pal. You've always done that too."

Yeah, they might not remember that much, but they still don't believe that for a second. "The last thing I remember about you was you letting me punch you in the face. Repeatedly. That's not getting out of trouble." Especially since in their own universe, they promptly died, which means Steve probably did too, which... yeah, they still haven't told Steve that.

Soldat scrubs a hand over their hair, tied back so it's not in the way, and say in a smaller voice, looking off the Steve's left somewhere, "I don't know what you want." Are they supposed to be friends? If they're supposed to be friends, why is checking in on him during the mission bad? Why is Steve avoiding them? If they're not supposed to be friends, why is Steve telling them about things they used to do? Calling them "pal"? They're trying to give him what he wants, but they don't know what he wants.

Steve takes a deep breath. There are lots of things he wants when it comes to Bucky Barnes. Things he probably won't ever get to have. And he could say that, be brutally honest, but where would that get the both of them? He's had two years of living in the modern world to temper his wants versus what said world needs.

"I'd like for the two of us to be friends," he finally says, watching Soldat's face carefully for ... anything, really. "if you are interested in that. But what I want is for you to be comfortable."

And Soldat won't be able to detect falsehood in any of that, because it's all true.

They want to ask why he keeps avoiding them, then. Why they were told to stop checking in, repeatedly, over the mission. What counts as friendship, exactly, for Steve. They swallow once, and say, "I'm interested in that." They at least made it clear that they're not the thing from the helicarrier anymore, they're sure of that. They might not exactly be Bucky Barnes, no matter what they've been trying (and apparently failing) to play for Steve, but they're not the Winter Soldier either.

"Steve you're." They look further away, shoving their hands back into their pockets, guilty and sad. The expression is subtle, like most of their expressions, but it's still there. "You were my first happy memory. I had to have someone actually dig into my brain to find it. But then I realized I'd. Probably killed you. Because I didn't know who you were. I bawled my fucking eyes out over that."

Because Steve is trying very hard to not put any pressure on the other man to be anyone he doesn't want to be. Somehow he's decided it's easier for Bucky -- for Soldat, if Steve isn't around all the time. If he keeps his distance. And it's hard, but hell, Steve is willing to do just about anything to make up for sleeping while his friend went through hell.

He visibly flinches, brain helpfully dredging up crystal-clear images of the fight on Insight C. "You didn't. You saved my life," which comes out a little hoarse, because. You know, emotions are annoying.

They can't keep hiding it, not if Steve actually does want to be fiends. They can't let something that might change his mind stay a secret. "I died, Steve," Soldat says quietly. "I am dead in whatever version of the universe I came from. Right after you said those words and I. Stopped. The helicarrier fell apart and I died. I don't know what happened to you. But I'm not sure even the serum could've kept you from drowning."

There it is. This Steve is probably not their Steve, and they are definitely not his Bucky Barnes. And because of them, at least some version of Steve is most likely dead. They brace for whatever reaction is coming. Whatever it is, it's probably deserved.

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The Endless River

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