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

[controlsthedie]

As soon as Thanatos senses Zagreus's distress, his heart starts to race. There's no danger here besides the river, and Rich demonstrated that. What if Zagreus fell in somehow?

Thinking that and already having his emotions stretched from Rich's attempted drowning, Thanatos shifts and prepares for the worse. He'll fight the damn river to save Zagreus if he needs to. (It turns out that Zagreus is beside the river and not in it.)

"Zag!" He kneels down beside Zagreus. One hand rests on his back while the other takes his large hat and plops it onto Zagreus's head. Shade. Darkness. That'll help, right? Thanatos doesn't care that he's left under this sun. He's only focused on Zagreus, concern clear on his face. "What happened?"

[dyingpro]

For a fleeting, selfish moment, Zagreus thinks about not telling Thanatos anything. That it was just a dizzy spell, nothing to worry about. But he knows that's not what Thanatos would want to hear. And it's not what Thanatos deserves, as much as he hates the idea of being the God of anything.

The prince does let out a weak smile at the hat suddenly pressed onto his head, and after a moment he takes off the hat and puts it back on silvery locks, leaning his forehead against his best friend's shoulder. "Keep your hat, Than. I know you don't like it when it's bright on the surface."

Perhaps it's the lingering devotion and awe in his recent memory, but all he wants to do in the moment is hug Thanatos tight, hold him and smother him with affection and be the other half that Than so desperately wishes for. He settles instead for lingering under the wide brim of the hat with Thanatos for a moment, head resting against him, fingers interlacing with Than's entirely by instinct.

"Did you, uh..." he starts weakly, clearing his throat a little. "Did you just send a pebble message to someone, Than?"

[controlsthedie]

Perhaps the saddest thing is that Zagreus could make up some excuse, and Thanatos wouldn't know a thing. If he could tell what Zagreus could be, then he would have. However, for whatever reason, he doesn't notice. He's drawn to Zagreus for a number of reasons. His head buzzes with them, full of confusion over new feelings he's never had before or explored. He's not even fully sure his message to Life could even reach anyone. Do they even exist?

Death Incarnate shifts his body to let Zagreus rest more comfortably and tilts his head, so that they both are shaded from the sun. He holds Zagreus's hand. At the very least he knows Zagreus isn't about to run into the river if they are like this.

"I did. A number of them. I tried to send one to you at home, before you got here." Thanatos stiffens a little. His thoughts during that message were jumbled, and he didn't think to try redoing the message. He probably messed it up. "I was trying to message the past you, the... present Zagreus from my perspective. I must not have been able to because... you're here."

[dyingpro]

Zagreus knows better than to do something so hurtful to Thanatos. Especially now that he's trying to be a better person, and not the spoiled prince he'd so often been before. And now that Thanatos is shading him with his own hat, and holding his hand, he's reminded even further of the need to tell Thanatos the truth.

"No, I think I got it, just... not the message you were expecting." He pauses, then, his whole body tensing despite trying to keep his voice casual. Blood and Darkness, why is this so difficult to ask such a simple godsdamned question?

"Did you try to send a message to a God of Life just now?"

[controlsthedie]

"I..." A shiver runs through Thanatos, and he's unsure why. It's not exactly a secret that he's looking for a possible counterpart, a Life to be the opposite but connected with Death, but he can't recall telling Zagreus of that. He's not sure why. Maybe the chance never came up. Maybe on some level he was worried about how Zagreus would react.

"I did. I don't... I don't know if one exists, but I still... tried. Because..." Their world is struggling. It's not how it should be. It's like the world's broken. Death's broken... alone. When he feels like someone should be there and only feels an empty ache.

He sighs. "... I thought that if I could send them a message, maybe I could find them. Eventually. I would at least know they were out there, and they'd at least know I wanted to meet them."

But Zagreus got the message instead? "I don't understand. Why... What did you get from my message?"

[dyingpro]

Zagreus doesn't have much to add to Thanatos' explanation, getting lost in his own thoughts on the matter. Maybe Achilles was right about his identity, about what he was the God of, and that means... well. It means that Zagreus has failed as a God, not knowing his own domain, not developing his own powers within that domain. It means he really is a worthless God, like Alecto had said, and that stung worse than the throbbing pain still present in his temples.

"I think..." He swallows hard against the lump suddenly forming in his throat. "I think it's because-- maybe I might be the closest thing to it? But I didn't think I was the God of anything..." There is another cough as he tries to wobble to his feet. "Gods, I could use a drink to figure this all out."

[controlsthedie]

"What... I don't understand." Thanatos can't hide his puzzlement. What is Zagreus talking about? He's the closest thing to it? Zagreus has always maintained that he wasn't the god of anything. Unless sending out the message had actually been a failure and it searched for a god who wouldn't contradict the matter fully. Is that what Zagreus is trying to get at?

Either way, maybe Thanatos shouldn't push. Zagreus looks like he's about to collapse. That needs to be taken care of first. "We... were going to try the ambrosia today. Did you want still try it? It is a drink...."

[dyingpro]

"Achilles... he thinks I'm the God of Blood. And he equated that to Life, so... that might also make me the God of Life? Or maybe something like Rebirth, since I can't die, and everything?" Zagreus makes it to his feet, feeling a little better as time goes on. He certainly doesn't feel like he was hit with a ton of bricks anymore. "That's why I didn't want to be the God of anything. Maybe then I wouldn't feel like a waste of space."

The prince brushes his hands through his hair, his laurels giving off a ton of sparks that flit into the air like a cloud of fireflies, disappearing after a few seconds. "It's not like I have any powers. You've got your Death circle and your ability to teleport all across the surface world, and I have... what, I can dash forward really fast, but only a few times in succession? Cousin Hermes would laugh. My Bloodstones aren't even as powerful as Father's. If I'm the God of something, why don't I have something to show it?"

Zagreus smiles weakly at the offer. "Oh, right, you said we were going to share it. I didn't think you were serious, I thought you were just being nice. But sure, if that's how you want to use my gift, I'd love some." A cool glass of Ambrosia might at least draw him out of this sudden funk he's in. "You know I've never had any of the stuff? I've received it all the time for making it through Theseus and Asterius, but I've never thought to drink it myself."

[controlsthedie]

"Zag... I wouldn't have offered if I wasn't serious." Thanatos might have been flustered beyond belief and unsteady in his request, but he meant it. He wanted to share the ambrosia with Zagreus. He couldn't imagine drinking something that lavish by himself. "Do not move from this spot. I'll be back shortly, all right?"

Thanatos shifts back to his cabin and takes a moment to gather his thoughts. Could Zagreus be who Thanatos hoped was out there? He had thought that once he met his counterpart, there would be some overwhelming feeling that also felt so right like when he saw Persephone's spring. He imagined feeling himself connect to his other half and know that he wouldn't be left alone ever again....

Then again, Zagreus doesn't seem to think that he is who Achilles thinks he is, and he doesn't want to be the god of anything. Somehow, that causes a cutting pain in Thanatos's chest. Who would want to be Death's counterpart anyways? Maybe he shouldn't get his hopes up and expect the worse outcome--that there is no Life.

Get your act together and be there to help Zag. Stop being selfish.

He grabs the ambrosia from his bunk and shifts back. "I didn't keep you waiting too long, did I?" He holds out the bottle for Zagreus to take. "Here, let's see if this will help your head."