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

"It doesn't share sickness? That's good, then."

She's thoughtful for a moment, then asks, "Why do you use it? What do you gain from the intoxication? I ask because Sharers don't. I know the Valans could be fond of alcohol, but I never saw the appeal."

"I mean, any substance that's going to effect your brain could potentially share sickness," he remarks. "But for the most part, for most people, this one doesn't."

While she thinks, he inhales, holding in the lungful of smoke and letting it out slow to give himself time to consider his answer. "It helps me relax," he says, and pauses as if that might be all. But a moment later, a little softer, he continues, "It keeps me from getting too much in my head. Keeps me here and now." He paps his palm on the mushroom to punctuate the words.

"Ah," Merwen says. "That feeling I understand. I suppose your people can't whitetrance?"

Because that's what she'd do, if she felt that way. The lack of whitetrance as an option doesn't make the human mind any less difficult to cope with, after all.

"Whitetrance?" Wide-eyed, he shakes his head. "Never even heard of it."

Ah, suspicion confirmed.

"It's a state we can put ourselves into," Merwen says, with a dismissive sort of air. "We are alone with ourselves, within our own mind. It has many purposes, but there's a clarity that can be found there. I think if I couldn't whitetrance, and I felt as you did, then I would likely turn to a chemical aid instead."

"Sounds like meditation," Devero murmurs. "Koumyou's been teaching me that. Meditation, I mean. But you'd probably call it that if that's all it was, so there must be something more going on?"

He frowns at the narcotic in his hand and thinks about what she's said. Finally, he offers quietly, "I don't think I'd much want to be alone with myself right now, though. This means I don't have to be."

"I'm not sure how you would define meditation," Merwen says, a little uncertainly. "In whitetrance, our breathing and heartrate slow. We aren't aware of the world, for a time, not really. It's a good way to deal with anger, or grief, or pain, or just a way to find some needed solitude or clarity."

She's quiet a moment. "But yes, sometimes it's better to share with friends. On the rafts, it can be difficult to find a place to be alone, sometimes, but we don't call ourselves Sharers for nothing."

"That sounds like a physiological thing," Devero says. "I mean, like, an autonomic thing maybe. More than meditation, anyway." And he's still not sure it sounds like something he'd have any interest in, especially not the way he's been feeling lately.

At her description of life on the rafts, though, he cracks a smile. "Kind of like living all crammed together on an interdimensional space train?" he suggests dryly. "I'm not used to so much sharing. Stresses me out. --Have you been settling in all right?"

"It does involve a degree of control over our own bodies that must earned."

She sighs a little. The discussion makes her a little homesick. "That's possibly the only thing here that is familiar to me, the closeness we must share. I have difficulties, I'll admit. I miss my family, I miss the feel of the waves under my feet. I miss familiar tasks and familiar food." Merwen waves her hand for emphasis, the webbing between her fingers translucent against the light. "People here are kind, at least."

The Endless River

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