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

[worthallthis]

[Probably for the best. A more comprehensive understanding of the word would probably be upsetting to small children with unpleasant backgrounds. Soldat gets to work, hemming the pants, but they can talk while they do so.]

I didn't have a name before that. People just called me the Asset.

[(And you picked "Soldier" in fucking Russian to go with. I've never claimed to be good at naming things, Sarge.) To Mono, they add,]

It's not very creative, I'll admit. But it's still mine.

[cycledsingularity]

[Mono nods in firm acknowledgement, it's a sentiment he understands all too well. Identity was important, sometimes it was all you had. When you only had yourself for company, who that person was to you meant everything.]

"Soldat." [He repeats solidly, sounding it out with care to make sure to get it right. He'll commit it to memory.]

"S'nice." [Like you Mono mentally decided. It didn't have to be creative or perfect, it could even have been just a nonsensical sound with no meaning at all. It was a good name simply because of who it belonged to. And that was enough.]

[worthallthis]

Thank you.

[Mono you are a treasure. That is, in fact, the first time anyone actually complimented them on their name choice. Usually it's funny looks, or just shrugging it off.

Soldat finishes up the hems on the pants, shortens the overall straps to the shortest they'll go, and offers them to Mono.]

Let's see if this fits, yeah? Then you'll be all set to grab some lunch and go outside.

[cycledsingularity]

[Mono accepts the garment eagerly, not even waiting to be helped down. He hops from the shelf to the lower work surface and then judges the easiest way to slide to the floor. Many years of practice inform him on how to fall just right and not entirely on his face-- most of the time. Then it's off to scramble to the changing corner...

Aaaaand success! It's certainly still a little big, the straps are much thicker than the designer obviously meant in proportion to such a small body, but it looks comfortable! It's not going to come off or trip him when he runs and that is what matters.

Mono walks back up to show Soldat their handiwork, grinning proudly beneath the wildly large sunhat. You done good, friend.]

[worthallthis]

You look great.

[Also, really fucking adorable. Soldat crouches, holding out both hands to Mono's wrists, and if he doesn't pull back, will roll up the sleeves to Mono's elbows.]

Now they won't get in the way if you want to play.

[Look completed, they push the sewing drawer shut and straighten up. They've already chosen most of their own outfit, and they can finish their own alterations later, there's still time.]

Wanna get you a picnic put together?