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

He smiled and held the bag in his hands as Wen Sizhui found another to use. "I hope they are able to find their way."

He is used to strange and almost wondrous things but a river that could deliver messages through worlds... That was not something he had witnessed before.

As he folded up his message to Xian-ge and placed it into the bag, he chuckles to himself.

"I've heard of relaying messages to the dead, but relaying messages like this to the living is something I haven't heard of. But then again, we haven't really had separate worlds like what you speak of. Ah, or like this."

"I haven't heard of it either but there are so many wondrous and strange ideas..." He's seen so many things, here, back in his own world. Things impossible on earth, thinks impossible in Tai.

"I just hope that they really can be delivered..."

He sets off the message and watches as it drifts off, smiling softly.

"I like to believe that it will be. Ah, are you hungry? I've still got some food in the picnic basket I've brought."

He wanted to believe as well, he smiled softly at Wen Sizhui and then nodded, "Yes. I have some too, we can share if you wish."

Eating together would be nice.

"That would be nice."

He walked over to where he had set his basket down and picked it back up again.

"I didn't get to picnic too much when I was younger. Usually, it's a special occasion during the spring when we're watching flowers bloom that we do picnics."

"I didn't go on picnics very much either." When he was very young, before he was first taken back to his own world. Going to watch blossom or celebrate in the summer.

"It's a special occasion where I grew up as well, to watch the flowers bloom and eat outside."

He's not sure if there were ever such occasions in Tai. Not nowadays certainly but in better days, did people gather for picnics?

It's the sort of question he would ask Lord Gyousou about, but his king isn't here anymore.

"So perhaps our worlds aren't all as different as we may first think," Sizhui chuckles softly.

"Perhaps not."

He smiled softly as they found a place to sit and he began unpacking what he had brought. "Um... It's all vegetarian, I hope you don't mind."

He laid things out neatly, so Wen Sizhui could choose what to eat.

"I'm used to vegetarian. Hanguang Jun is mostly a vegetarian. There are times when I've seen him have things like chicken."

Another soft laugh as he selects a dish to try.

"I don't mind at all."

"Ah that is good." He smiled and selected a dish of his own.

"Where I grew up not many people at all were vegetarian, it was very rare." At least, with all the people he knew, he couldn't be sure of the whole of the world.

"Why is it so rare?" he asks, curious about this world.

"I'm not really sure." He had never really thought about it. "I guess traditionally our diet had a lot of meat and fish and often even our vegetables were cooked in the fat of animals and so it would be a lot to avoid."

He shook his head, "It might have just been my family, they were... strict about food."

"We were strict when I was younger. Well," he settles back and picks at his food with a sad smile, "food was...much more rare when I was very little. We lived in a place where you couldn't even grow potatoes."

Sizhui laughs a little, recalling that time.

"Ah." He nodded sadly, "Tai is like that, it is so hard to grow anything. Sometimes I am overwhelmed at how the people even survive, but they are so strong."

Every one of them who he had met, even those who had less than nothing had shown such resilience in a land ravaged by demons, a land where farming was nigh impossible and trade disrupted.

"Was it very cold, the land where you lived?"

He shakes his head.

"The winters get cold but we've developed clothes and shelter to keep the chill away from our bones."

"Ah. That's good."

He smiled sadly. "Tai gets very cold, especially in the winter. Sometimes it is hard to imagine how people can survive there at all."

He sounds a mix of sad and very proud, he will never not be amazed at the hardiness and resilience of the people he serves.

The Endless River

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