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

[dreamtamer]

Takato flips through the deck and holds out one card as explanation. These were not Duel Monsters cards, but if Ken had seen some of those, they might look familiar, in the way that similar trading card franchises did.

This one shows a picture of a pair of white wings.

"I can give these to Guilmon for a short time." Takato grins. "Cool, right?"

Meanwhile Guilmon was already enthusiastic about the idea.

"Yeah! Its been a long time since Guilmon flew!"

[miseris_socios]

... Huh. "Yeah, that's really cool. the... well he's not my dog, he doesn't belong to anyone, but the dog on my team has powers like me. He can't fly, though. And Persona don't really do stuff like that anyway."

Not that he knows of, at least. "I'm just good at climbing..."

[dreamtamer]

"Persona?" Takato asks this curiously as he puts the other cards back in his pocket. "What's that?"

[miseris_socios]

"It's like a part of yourself that you can summon to fight. The potential for the ability to do it is pretty rare, and not everyone who has the potential has a Persona that they summon. I didn't know what they were until like... six months ago? But I... um. I'd seen one before that."

And he's not talking about that right now nope. "Most people don't know about them since they really only get summoned for fighting Shadows, which appear in the hour that happens between midnight and 12:01 in my world... only people with the potential are able to be awake then when the world changes to being... really creepy."

[dreamtamer]

Takato didn't really get it, but it sounded interesting?

"Is that how you fight here?"

[miseris_socios]

"Yeah. ... I mean, I also use a spear, but I didn't bring that with me. I didn't think we were going to need it."

He can always just summon Nemesis if he really has to.

[dreamtamer]

"I guess I kind of get that. I didn't think there would be so much fighting here, until it happened on that last mission. I don't think I've ever had to fight for that long before."

[miseris_socios]

"It was pretty long for me, but I'm used to fighting for hours at a time. Sometimes we find a really Shadow-infested area and it takes time to clear the path. It's good training, though."They have to get strong enough to stop SEES. They can't be allowed to continue as they have.

[dreamtamer]

"We fought a lot at home,but even during the fights with the D-Reaper it was like... It was a bunch of smaller battles and there was time to rest in between. We've never fought for that long at one time before."

[miseris_socios]

'Yeah... one of us was always on healer duty, so it wasn't as bad as it could be. We always packed a bunch of supplies just in case." And it helped that Koromaru covered Chidori's element, so it freed her up to keep the rest of them going.

[dreamtamer]

"Were the fights in your world really dangerous?"

[miseris_socios]

"I mean... yeah. Shadows can kill you easily, or eat parts of your mind. And if you're one of the people awake when they are, they get really aggressive."

[dreamtamer]

"That sounds awful!" And far too much like the D-Reaper for Takato's peace of mind. "But you're defeating them in your world, right?"

[miseris_socios]

... He lets out a long breath. No, because they need the Dark Hour to survive. He knows it hurts a lot of people, but Strega can't really work outside of it. "It's... complicated."