middleofsomewhere | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Okay!" Guilmon agreeably takes a step back from the river and goes to sniff at Takato's pile of stones.

"Takato! Can Guilmon send a message too! I want to talk to Terriermon and Culumon and Renamon!"

Takato's attention had been drawn away from the stones during this.

"Of course, boy. Here, I brought some extra stones." He turns to Sonya. "Thanks for that. I guess its supposed to be dangerous to touch the river."

The second time she found a kid with a talking...pet?...perhaps sidekick would be easier; certainly there was a camaraderie between them.

"Reports all say that it's poisonous and could sting if you touch it." She sure as hell wasn't going to let a kid test that theory out. "It's safe to throw the stones in, but that's it.

She had a small handful for herself, but she'd wait till he'd finished his.

"I'll be careful," Takato immediately promises. "And Guilmon will be careful too! We just want to send messages to all our friends at home." He pauses. "And my parents. And my teacher. And some other adults I know."

"That's perfectly fine." After all, that was part of why they were here in the first place. "You just have to throw them in, that's all. Not the same as directly touching the water."

She sat down, not on the river's edge, but near enough. Water aside, she did mean to try and relax here. "I've my own messages to send, but I'll wait till yours are done."

"Okay! We'll try to be fast."

Takato start sorting through his stack of stones, and divides it into the stones for his friends, his parents, and the other adults he knew who would probably want to know where he was."

She watches him divide up the stones; part curiosity, part just keeping an eye out. By all accounts, this place was actually safe and didn't look like there were any threats, but she'd keep an eye on the kid just to be sure.

"What are the stacks for?"

"So I don't forget anyone! I'm sure there are a lot of people worrying at home." His smile falters a little. "The last time I went to another world,I mad sure to tell my parents and my teacher first. But when I came here, I think I must have just disappeared. So I want to send as many messages as I can."

Sonya recalled how she arrived, how she and Cassie were from different timelines. World hoping was apparently not so different for this boy either, but she could give him some reassurance-if only so his optimism would last.

"I'm sure deep down they know you're safe," She finally said. "Parents sort of have a knack about these sorts of things."

And when they're in danger-of which Sonya had way too much experience.

"Well, if I disappeared there, I hope they were able to figure out that Guilmon was with me." He forces some cheer back into his expression. "We're always strongest when we're together, and Mom and Dad know we look after each other."

But still... he remembered how upset his mother had been when he'd told them he was going to the Digital World. He'd seen her cry.

He would have liked to at least have been able to tell them that he was leaving again.

The side of her mouth twitched, though in the ghost of a smile rather than a scowl.

"I'll let you in on something," She really hoped this wouldn't upset the kid; he seemed optimistic, and she hoped it would stay that way. "My daughter arrived here for a month or two before I did. We didn't even come from the same point in time, and yet back home it was like nothing changed. So it's likely you're still with your parents..or whereever you were pulled from, while being here at the same time."

The words sounded trippy, even as she tried to make sense-and she'd seen a lot that could be considered trippy.

"So they might not be worrying about me at all?" Takato considers that thought. "I think.... that maybe I hope it was like that for my world."

As much as he would like to see his friends and family again, he wouldn't want them to be worrying if there was nothing they could do about it. And he was mostly okay here.

The Endless River

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