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

"Oh right," she breathes out, relaxing just a fraction. Dairine had almost forgot that there was a legit reason to know Bucky here in the moment. In her defense, she spent much more time with him in Paradisa.

But the shock sticks with her, mainly due to when he knew her.

"How is that possible? Last time I saw you, you said you were going to die!" Wait, that was probably extremely rude to say to someone who doesn't even remember you. Or the conversation in question. Dairine's face flushes with mortification.

"Err... Sorry. That just slipped out."

"It's possible," they agree, shaking their head a little. "I've died before." Kind of a lot of times, technically. HYDRA were really good at bringing their Asset back. They drop their hands again, tucking them into their pockets. "I don't know when you knew him. Or what he was going back to. But I'm not surprised."

"...What?"

While Dairine might have run into people who had defied death in her varying otherworldly travels, but from she'd heard about his world that definitely didn't seem usual. Even with all the superheroes.

"Well, he was one of the first people I met at Cair Paradisa, not that it probably means anything time-wise. That place was kinda like the Voidtrecker, existing outside of our known spacetime. But he said he had come from World War II. And returning to... um, a train."

If this is the same person, Dairine suspects this is a very touchy subject, so she seems hesitant to bring it up.

Soldat pauses, frowning. They know the war, but they don't have any actual memories of the train and the fall, yet. Boarding the Voidtrecker and hearing it coming in and out of the station makes them uncomfortable in a way they don't understand, but they haven't tried to chase down why. They don't want to make it worse.

"Well," they finally say. "He's wrong. Whatever happened in the war, he didn't die." They puff out a little breath. "The people he was fighting caught him, turned him into. Into me, I guess. I'm from. A lot further in the future than the one you met."

Dairine knew far more about it than she liked, given the Bucky she had first met had arrived at the moment of the fall. It was no surprise that he had given others the impression that he was returning to die, since as far as he had known, that was exactly what'd happen next.

"Oh." Dair wants to say that she's glad he survived, but is that the right thing to say? From the way he phrased it, Dairine can't help but guess that whatever change happened, it wasn't exactly good. Her expression sours briefly. The people they were fighting- Hydra- if she ever gets the chance, Dairine's gonna give them a good walloping.

...She probably shouldn't say that either.

"Well... I'm glad I get to see you again. I'm, um, Dairine Callahan."

Don't worry, kiddo, Soldat also wants to give them a good walloping. Or bullets to the brain. Whatever. They're less certain about the whole "would be better off dying" bit, but frankly, being alive (well, sort of alive) now means making a difference to people, so. It could be worse.

"I go by Soldat," they say. "It's nice to meet you. Uh, again." Though they're pretty sure her Bucky Barnes was one of the various alternate universes, since they're pretty sure they'd at least remember being on some other interdimensional hub. "You're not new this platform, are you?" They think maybe they've seen her before, but never spoken before.

Probably, though the castle had a reputation for removing memories when people left. Either way, Dairine wasn't exactly surprised that she had to reintroduce herself.

"No, I have been on the train at least seven months now."

She probably doesn't know her fellow passengers as well as she should, given how long she's been stuck her. Dair tended to keep to herself... or at least to her small social circle.

"Only two, here. Guess you don't come by the kitchen car much, yeah?" they guess with half a smile. "I spend most of my time in there. You've probably at least eaten a lot of things I made. So that counts a little bit knowing this me, I'd say." They're teasing, kind of. Trying to make sure she knows they're not holding it against her.

The Endless River

Is this OK? I can change if needed

nah man, it's great

oh good!

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