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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"Here." He reached up to Inigo's shoulders and drew him down. "Lie down... Um... If you want."

Not to nap, if Inigo didn't want to but he knew Inigo liked physical contact and lying with his head in someone's lap, that was comforting.

"It's hard sometimes, when there are so many thoughts... Do you want to talk about them? That can help... Sometimes."

Please, as if Taiki has to really add 'if you want' to that. The moment Taiki is telling him to lie down, Inigo is going to do just that. Taiki's wish is his every command, after all.

.. even if he's not entirely used to it. For all of Inigo's constant desire for and chase after physical contact, laying his head down on people's laps is pretty new to him. It's obvious too, since he has to shift for a moment when he's there on Taiki's lap, like he's trying to figure out what the most comfortable position is for both of them.

In the end he puts the back of his head against Taiki's thighs, so he can at least look up at the other's face while he's lying there.

"Hmm.. I just.."

His voice trails off, as Inigo finds himself being blocked by his usual habits. His instinct to swallow up every worry and push it down, rather than letting it be released. But he wants to at least try, if Taiki thinks it's a good idea.

"I just miss my mother, I think. I'm well aware it's kind of dumb, since she hasn't even been on the train for all that long. And more than anything, I'm worried that she didn't go home."

He sits still, letting Inigo find a position that is comfortable. It's a little strange sitting here looking down at Inigo at this angle. But he hopes it will help his friend to relax, to talk about some of the things that are filling his head and heart with worries.

"Of course you still miss her, after all she is your mother."

And for such a short time he had been able to see her again to have her snatched cruelly away. "I know, it's worrying... To think that we don't know where people go."

He knows that last part has to come straight from Taiki's heart. After all, they're both in the same boat. Having lost the people most important to them. And it'd be one thing if they were just back at home, safe.. Inigo knows that it'd be hard for Taiki to be separated from Gyousou all the same, but perhaps he'd find some peace in knowing that his king was at home.

But this uncertainty instead, being unable to tell where the people most important to them are, whether they're safe or not.. It's hard. It's so hard.

"I wish we knew. Even if she's not with me.. As long as I knew that she was safely back home with father and the baby version of my sister, I would still be glad."

It would be better if they knew, even if they couldn't be together with those they were missing, if they knew they were safe.

His hand had started stroking at Inigo's hair as he spoke, gently and cautiously. "Baby version of your sister?"

He tilted his head down at him, a little confused as to what Ingio means.

".. oh. Um."

He pauses for a moment, closing his eyes and then opening them again when he speaks to look at Taiki.

"Mother.. The one who was here, she was from the past. She already gave birth to my sister in that past, so that's why the idea of her being here troubled me.. I don't exactly want that baby to be left without a mother."

Better him being left without a mother than a poor baby, after all.

"From the past?"

When only his sister had been born. Yet...

He and Lord Gyousou had spoken to her, "She knew who you were, before she had met you here."

But Inigo was right, it was terrible that somewhere a baby was left without a mother.

Inigo slowly releases a breath, moving only slightly on the other's lap. Not too much though, since he is enjoying the touch in his hair. It's kind of calming, so he doesn't want to escape it, not even accidentally.

"Hmm.. I met her in the past. That is why she recognized me here on the train, despite the version of her that was here only being a little older than me.." And therefore having no chance of being Inigo's biological mother just yet, because that would have required her to have given birth at a ridiculous age.

He keeps his hand moving gently, running his fingers through Inigo's hair and letting the strands drop back onto his head.

"Ah so that was why." He had thought her maybe immortal. But actually. This was stranger.

"You travelled to the past?"

"It was the only way to save the world."

Honestly, Inigo is so cagey with this information, but he's let bits and pieces of it spill to people - but so randomly and scattered that he can never quite remember who he told what at this point.

But Taiki.. he trusts him. He can tell him, even though it's not exactly a fun or reassuring story.

"I wanted to create a better future for her. One where she could live, even if it wasn't with this version of me."

The only way to save the world. To travel back in time. It seemed so... impossible and yet. So many things seemed impossible that had come to pass. But Inigo's goal, to create a better future for his mother, one where she could live.

Because she was already dead in his own time. Taiki continued stroking his hair, silent for a moment as Inigo's words sunk in. "That was a very brave thing that you did, to create that future for her."

Would another Inigo be born? What would happen to this one? He had so many questions, all which made his heart hurt.

He hums, then slowly shakes his head.

"I don't think it was all that brave.. It just felt natural to me." He didn't even have to think long about his decision in the future, unlike some of his friends who had more doubts about the whole plan. The moment he heard about the possibility, he just grabbed onto it with both of his hands, not caring about himself or his own fate. "After all, she's my mother. I couldn't just abandon her to a sad fate like that."

That was why he was so brave, because he didn't find such a decision hard, he just wanted to help his mother and so he did regardless of the cost.

"She must be so proud to have a son such as you. To save her, to save the whole world. It's really amazing."

"I hope so."

The words are soft though. Because Inigo isn't too sure who ought to be proud of him. His own mother in the future, already dead for years and years, already gone? His mother in the past, or rather, a woman who isn't his mother to begin with, who will have her own Inigo to care for?

As always, he feels trapped between both ideas, belonging with neither.

Inigo closes his eyes.

"Not that it really matters. I mean.. I'm stuck here, while everyone back home is busy hopefully saving the world." He isn't doing all that much to help anymore.

Taiki hoped so too. There was so much to be proud of, Inigo was a very brave, very kind person.

"I know, it's hard to be here, knowing that people might be suffering back home. I hope your friends manage to save the world."

If they were anything like Inigo he has faith they will.

He hopes that too. That everything is okay back home. For all he knows, Grima could have won somehow. After all, that dragon is so strong, so all-destroying. It's not like it's totally impossible for that to have happened.

Inigo tries to banish the thought from his mind, away from behind his closed eyes. He doesn't want to think of it, doesn't want to imagine it.

He slowly releases a breath.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to make this all about me."

Especially when he knows things aren't easy for Taiki either.

"No it's alright. I feel..." He keeps stroking his hair gently, moving strands between his fingers.

"I feel like you don't talk enough about you, there's so much I still don't know."

And Inigo was one of the first people he met on the train.

Talk about a call out, no matter how gentle it is. Because Taiki is honestly spot on - Inigo really doesn't talk about himself all that much. Sure, he'll mention little details about his world, but unless prompted, there are just a lot of things he chooses to keep to himself. If not just to make sure the people around him don't get too sad at hearing about all the stuff he's been through. It's already bad enough if he's sad about it himself.

"I don't know. It doesn't feel all that important."

It's him avoiding mentioning that other reason, not wanting to make people sad, but this one isn't a lie either. Why should people have to know stuff about him? He's just some random guy at this point, having lost his own place in the world.

"It is important." He is still stroking his hair, looking down at him sadly as he runs the blue strands through his fingers.

"I'd like to know more about you... I mean... if you don't mind... I don't... If it's too nosy..."

He doesn't want to pry, but he doesn't want his friend to hold back.

"No, you-- you're never too nosy."

Of course Inigo can't allow even a single negative descriptor to be applied to Taiki - not even by himself. He shakes his head a little, or as much as he's able to with his head still resting on Taiki's legs.

"I just.. um, I don't know what you want to know, or what I should tell.. Especially since I'm not used to talking about myself like that."

"You can just... Whatever you want. I like hearing your thoughts." He still feared being too nosy, as he doubted Inigo would truly tell him if he was. But at the same time, he truly did want to know.

"How did you go to the past? Was your god... Naga? Were they involved?"

Because outside of technology which Inigo's world certainly didn't have, he imagined it would be the act of a god.

Inigo opens his eyes for a moment, looking up at Taiki.

Then he closes them again as he breathes out.

"Yes, it was Naga's doing." It's why the concept of time travel doesn't feel that weird to Inigo. If Naga did it - the Divine Dragon, a real god - then of course anything would be possible. "We made sure that my sister could get in touch with Naga, and she asked Naga on our behalf to help us find a way to save our world. Naga told her that our world as it was at that moment was already lost, but that we did have a chance to go back in time to try and prevent our future from ever existing in the first place."

Even if it had meant giving up that future. Giving up their place.

"Grima, the Fell Dragon, was just too strong for us to try and defeat. Our only option was to make sure Grima was never awoken in the past to begin with."

"Ah."

To make a whole different future. A gift but also a burden, a huge task, to know the price of failure and try and prevent such a tragedy from ever happening.

To give up their own world to save... an alternate future. Inigo is so brave. Taiki shifted slightly so he could hug him, from this awkward angle.

"It's hard to even imagine, changing the present, by changing the past, creating a different future."

But wasn't that what the train said they sometimes did. It was different though, they had never lived in that future, not like Inigo had in his own. "I hope your sister and your friends succeed."

Such bravery as that, he hoped they could make a world that would not be lost.

"Me too."

Inigo makes sure to move up a little, just to try and lean into the hug and at the same time make their positions a little easier on Taiki. He doesn't want his friend to go breaking his back just to try and give Inigo a hug.

"But.. I know they will." Even if he's not there. He's really not an important piece of that puzzle and he knows it. "Especially as long as my sister is there. Lucina.. She's really amazing."

A fond smile appears on his face as he speaks of her, even though his eyes are still closed. It's like he's imagining her right now.

"She's a lot like lord Gyousou. The type you look at and realise is just destined to rule. Someone who's so capable."

Taiki smiles as well, "I bet she is really amazing, if she is related to you."

Inigo was so brave and strong, his mother was that way too so he can easily imagine his sister being just as amazing.

"Sometimes people are just made to lead others.

The Endless River

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