voidtreckermods: (train)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2021-04-10 06:25 am

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.
irrationally: (i was travelling through the past)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-04-26 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Argh.

That slight disappointed hint in Guri's facial expression. It seriously threatens to kill Alice over here. Usually people just act like it's natural that she doesn't trust them, without having that look on their face. Or they just really don't care. Either way, she's not used to causing this sort of reaction in someone.

It makes her feel quite awkward.

"No, I just.. don't see why you would offer that to begin with. It's not as if there is anything in it for you."

People selflessly doing things for others? Please, that's clearly a myth, right.
marvelous_murderbot: (neutral)

[personal profile] marvelous_murderbot 2021-04-27 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Not directly," she replies, "but your continued existence is of paramount importance. Not only are you a living being worthy of aid just because of that, but...well. I like to think of you as my friend."

She smiles, a little bit nervously.

"Do people...not offer to assist you when you need it?"
irrationally: (now i can't sing; i can't feel)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-04-27 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
"Back in London?"

That idea actually makes her let out a laugh, even though it's quite obviously not happy, but instead wry, even with an edge of bitterness.

"There's absolutely no way anyone would help another there. Everyone is just trying to get ahead there, not caring who they trample on in the process. There wouldn't be a single person in the entire city with your sort of attitude, just valuing life itself."
marvelous_murderbot: (Default)

[personal profile] marvelous_murderbot 2021-04-28 04:19 am (UTC)(link)
She leaves unspoken her curiosity about what a London is. A place, and that's really all she needs to know for now.

"That is...unfortunate," she offered, shifting position. "I have seen places like that. It reminds me of the galactic capital, Coruscant. Where everybody is either desperately surviving, or clawing for power and influence."
irrationally: (i don't even have a song)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-04-29 06:13 am (UTC)(link)
A capital. A big city, then. Alice isn't surprised. She's fairly convinced at this point that life in any big city is just like that, with so many people gathering in one place.

So she doesn't question that part. Instead there's something else that grabs her attention.

"What's that place like?"

Galactic, Guri said. So out in space? It's got to be even bigger than London, judging by the description, and Alice's natural curiosity is just strong enough for her to can't help but ask.
marvelous_murderbot: (Default)

[personal profile] marvelous_murderbot 2021-04-30 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh." She nods.

"It's an Ecumenopolis - a city-planet. Once, thousands of years ago, the city grew to cover the entire planet. Now it is built upon layers of itself, with only the peak of the highest mountain still visible. As an artificial park, in a concrete valley between buildings."

She pauses, remembering a pertinent fact. "Perhaps a trillion inhabitants, but nobody has accurately counted the undercity. Or, really, cities - nobody even knows what's at the base of all of it."
irrationally: (a little more now i'm awake)

[personal profile] irrationally 2021-04-30 08:42 pm (UTC)(link)
"A trillion people.."

It's almost impossible to imagine. A city that covers an entire planet, with that many people living in it. It's bigger than London, and even London itself was already mind-boggingly huge to Alice. It has to be bigger than any city on Earth back home..

But rather than sounding confused about it, there's something more dream-like about her tone as she speaks up.

"I wish I could see it one day." It'd be fun, walking through those streets, seeing all the new sights. Like exploring Wonderland all over again.
marvelous_murderbot: (Default)

[personal profile] marvelous_murderbot 2021-04-30 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Bigger than any city in her universe, really.

"If there are compatible computer or holographic systems that we encounter, I could likely access memory files and show you," she replied, with a slight smile.

"It apparently does make quite a first impression, what with the kilometers-high cityscape and all."