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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"Yes it do no be being a murderous place."

It didn't seem so anyways. She grinned at him. "I did be hearing that you will be getting married."

"A big change from the last world."

He did not expect Xingchen to be making that such public knowledge but there is not much he can do about it since he broadcasted it all over the train before Xue Yang could stop him.

"That does appear to be in my future." Not something he ever expected.

A very big change. The last place had been very murderous and very dead. She wrinkled her nose and tilted her head at him.

"Do you be wanting to?"

Because the way Xiao Xingchen had explained it, it seemed he wanted to change a lot about Xue Yang.

"I want to stay by Xingchen's side." And so that apparently means marriage in Xingchen's mind so he is willing to go through all the formalities.

"I want him to be happy. This is what will make him happy."

"You do be liking him that much?"

She tilted her head, "Even if he do be telling you what to be doing and do be wanting you to no even be..."

She paused for a moment as she tried to find words to explain what she was trying to say.

"He do no be wanting you do be being you. He do be wanting you to be behaving and to be being a good husband and to be doing what he do be thinking do be being right. Do you be wanting him to be being happy so much that you will be accepting that?"

"He doesn't tell me what to do." Xue Yang bristles a bit at the thought. It's not like he is simply bending to the other man's will. He still has his own desires that don't completely line up with everyone else. He just knows when to make those known and when it is time to quell them.

"He just doesn't want me to hurt anyone. I'm not going to suddenly become a good person just to be by his side. He's agreed to accept who I am as long as I agree not to kill anyone."

And he has done well enough to do that since being on the train. There was only one mishap. Xingchen isn't so disillusioned to think he will suddenly be kind and caring to everyone. The only person who gets to see his kinder side is the daozhang.

Ah so it was more of a deal, he won't kill anyone and instead he got to be married? Got to be at Xiao Xingchen's side.

Xiao Xingchen had sounded like he could change him, so perhaps he was doing it subtly, trying to manipulate him into turning to the side of good.

"You should be remembering that." She told him with a nose wrinkle. "Do no be letting go of who you do be being."

He snorts and smirks at her, "That would be impossible. I know clearly who I am and what I want." And he got what he wanted.

Just because he has agreed to behave himself on the train, doesn't mean he is going to become good. He simply won't be stirring up any needless trouble. He still gets to let loose on the battlefields.

"Well I do be hoping you can be holding onto that."

Who he was, what he wanted. Because Xiao Xingchen had sounded very confident.

She would see who won in time.

"You don't think I can? You really believe I can be changed so easily?"

He quirks his eyebrow up. He has never doubted himself or his ability to be able to stay true to Xingchen's wishes while still holding onto his own agenda. And most people seem to believe that he is unlikely to change. The fact that she believes the opposite is interesting to him.

"Maybe no." She wrinkled her nose, "But Xiao Xingchen did be sounding very convinced. He do be thinking you can be."

So maybe he could. He seemed stronger than that but he was very whiny sometimes...

"I'm not going to suddenly become a good person no matter what the daozhang says. He just thinks I will be able to behave myself. There is a difference."

A big difference. He can pretend to be well behaved on the train and still have the same tendencies he always has. He just has to wait until he is off the train to let them out. He can be a pretty good actor.

"So you will be tricking him?"

She smirked. She believed that better. That he could act, he could pretend to be good and trick even someone who cared for him enough to marry him.

"What do you be getting out of it?"

What he is getting out of it is a lot of things. But some of it isn't going to be spoken to young ears.

"I get to have him all to myself." Is it selfish? Yes. But having Xingchen as his own is what he has wanted for a long time.

"Do you be?"

Was that what marriage meant? "You will still be being on this train, there do be being lots of people here."

"I get him in a way that no one else can." And even if certain other people from their world show up, he would still have claim on him. "He might do things for other people, but it is me he will always come back to. I get to be spoiled all the time."

"And you do be being liking being spoiled. You do be being a big baby like that."

She wrinkled her nose, thinking. Having him all to himself. Even if other people came, he would always go back to Xue Yang. Was that was marriage meant?

She can see why Xue Yang would want that, but she was still a little unsure what Xiao Xingchen got in return, except a whiny baby to spoil. Who wanted that?

She reached out to nab another snack from the picnic basket.

He likes getting what he wants and doesn't appreciate when his toys get taken away from him. He is definitely spoiled and not afraid to admit it. He doesn't necessarily know what Xingchen gets out of this but perhaps just the companionship is enough. Xue Yang's company isn't bad if he actually likes a person. Even though that is a very short list.

"I like getting what I want. Is that wrong?"

"No." She shook her head, biting into her pilfered snack, "It do no be being wrong. You should be trying to be getting what you do be wanting. I do just be trying to be understanding."

Lots of people are getting married on this train, she's interested to know why people would do that.

"It's more for him then it is for me. He desires to be married. I never used to see it as necessary."

Get or take what one wants and don't worry about silly ceremonies. But if making their relationship official in such a way is what Xingchen desires than Xue Yang will do it. He might have a small curiosity about how the other would look in the color red...

"You do be seeing it as necessary now though? Just so you can be being spoiled."

It seemed a strange thing, she could accept it though. She sighed. People were complicated.

"Seems that way. He wants to have a ceremony and official wedding outfits. Are you going to come and watch?"

People are complicated and he prefers the dead in a lot of ways. But maybe he can start to be a little more human himself when he fully thinks about what this wedding and marriage are going to be like.

A ceremony and official outfits. She tilted her head, thinking for a moment before smirking.

"It do be depending. Will you be having snacks?"

"he promised me that there would be food." Because of course Xue Yang had to have something sweet to eat. He had to be able to enjoy the wedding meal.

"Then I will be being there." She grinned at him.

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