Unlock! (1)

[trainmasters]

Who: Everyone
When: Day 12, evening into night
Where: the Aurora

[As evening approaches, you hear the jingle associated with an official message from your Chain. It's the same balloons and confetti animation as the last time newbies arrived, and the same message as well:]

WELCOME NEW HEROES

[As anticipated, some newbies are waking up in their rooms, in the usual nondescript undies or team pyjamas.

Just after this, however, something much more startling happens...

Outisde, the bell tone gets all the louder, a beautiful resonating sound that fills the air. Then, suddenly, a flood of strange square-shaped sparkles appear, floating around like magical fireflies, bringing with them a pleasant warmth. They increase in size and volume until the air itself whites out with a bright but pleasant light. While you can't see, you can hear the bell, and the distant rumbling of stone.

Abruptly, the sound stops, and the bright light fades to reveal a sky painted in sunset hues. Where there was once a dark and hostile jungle with cracks in the ground, there's now a colourful rainforest environment and a floor thick with bright moss. The sounds of birds and insects and regular wildlife rise over the previous silence, and the aggressive plantlife is replaced by large flowers and succulent fruits. In one direction, a dirt path winds through the trees, and in the opposite, the brush gives way to a stone formation with a flat top and an opening flanked in carvings of water and plants.

If one were to enter the new cave entrance, they'd find the previous moon crystals replaced by rainbow ones that reflect sparkling light onto the floor, and feel soothingly warm to the touch. Further into the caves, there's a carved stone path that leads to the beach you initially arrived on. There stands the Prism: a large floating cube in the center of gyproscope-like concentric rings. Where it had been glowing black, it's now a royal purple, and the light and energy from it are significantly less malicious than before -- though still far from pure. The beach itself is now covered in fine white sand, and the sea no longer tries to pull you in -- provided you don't go out too far.

Because not all is well on this Star just yet. While the nearby water contains a reef of colourful fish, 100 meters or so out to sea the water turns black again. While under water in the safe area, you can occasionally see the shadows of great and terrible monsters deep in the dark.

Likewise, should you choose to follow the first path, after ~1km you'll find the forest fades back into the previous dense, dark jungle. At the edge of the darkness, there's something new -- the remains of what looks like a modern town. It's all overgrown, cottages twisted into ruins and streets covered in vines and prowled by tiger monsters and a new threat: towering reptilian creatures that climb the crumbling shells of apartment buildings and the empty City Hall, like geckos increased to dinosaur size. They're fast, and if they catch you they'll swallow you whole. On the one side, that makes it easier for someone to save you -- they could cut you out. On the other, those unable to be rescued will find their skin and muscles becoming slowly more transparent and stiff, the colour and feeling leaving them until their minds are trapped in a useless shell. Those found in that condition later must be saved via the healing pods -- but they'll remember their stay in their glass bodies, with their blood running and heart pumping like a living anatomical model of their organs.

On the Aurora, however, you're welcome to enjoy the first sight of the sun in 12 days. As the brilliant sunset moves into a night reigned over by a gentle moon, the Heartbeat Festival remains in full swing. So celebrate your victory with a glass of shimmery alcohol and a kiss, because you've done it -- your love has purified a part of this Star!]

[[OOC NOTES: CONGRATULATIONS on your first Prism purification, guys! There is a toplevel for ICly suggesting train upgrades here, so check it out! Next week we'll post a poll, and the week after the upgrade will be implemented.

The updates to the Setting page to reflect this post will be made soon, so keep an eye out!]]

Comments

[spectacularluck]

[ He just looks right back at her when he hears that, then at himself, and then back at her again.

And then just sighs ]

Wonderful. Now I'm mostly naked in front of children.

[acts_her_age]

I'll send the welcome speech over your Chain, so go make yourself decent, please.

[holds up her own Chain demonstratively]

[spectacularluck]

Yeah, that's the problem. I tried, and now my hands are stuck to these.

[ he just sort of waves the pajamas around, though he thinks better of it and then just sort of hold it so it can at least cover as much as possible ]

Is that thing like a cellphone or something?

[acts_her_age]

I can see that, but the living room is hardly the place to figure your hand situation out. Yes, it's like a cellphone.

[spectacularluck]

Hey. I didn't actually know there were other people here.

Give me a moment. Stay there, please?

[acts_her_age]

[nods and flaps a hand back toward his room, go go]

[spectacularluck]

[ He's going to take way more time than any normal person should need to get dressed

and when he comes back, he's got clothes on, but the pajamas are still partially stuck in his hands. small victories ]

I'll check that welcome speech you mentioned when I can actually trust myself to touch - anything. Just a quick question? Why the hell are they kidnapping children?

[acts_her_age]

[he will in fact find a summary of the current Stuff We Know on his Chain when he can look, in proper grammar and spelling and probably more sophisticated vocabulary than is reasonable to expect-- the details are to the tune of "Malice ate the universe, we were rescued from the Malice to try and fight it back but some of us were put together improperly and lost our memories/abilities in the process, the Malice attacks us with usually-violent games and other threats, and our positive feelings are what allow us to resist."]

"Rescuing." From their perspective. I'm not any more pleased about it than you are.

[spectacularluck]

I feel like kidnapping people is the opposite of rescuing, but hey. At least they're giving us really fancy rooms.

Do you remember anything at all? Because — this is creepy. I know what a cellphone is, or what a kidnapping is. And I don't know my own name or what I was doing before waking up here.

Is that normal?

[acts_her_age]

Does your head hurt? You must have bumped it on the way in.

[a long enough beat that she's probably interrupting him to continue--]

Just kidding. Yes, most of us are missing something.

[spectacularluck]

You know. My head actually does hurt. But that's a little comforting.

[ and look, the pajamas are no longer stuck to his hand and just kinda end up falling ]

—Oh.

[acts_her_age]

...Well.

[spectacularluck]

That takes care of one problem.

[ He's going to poke at the clothes like he's still trying to figure out if those were sticky, or if it really was just him ]

Uhm. So what is it that you're missing? And I think I really should ask for your name, unless you want me to call you kid.

[acts_her_age]

I don't remember my name. But I'm sure you can come up with something better than that, Sticky.

[spectacularluck]

If you call me Sticky I am definitely gonna go with Kid for the rest of our stay here.

[acts_her_age]

What about Aphos? For you.

[spectacularluck]

I dunno. I don't feel like much of an Aphos guy. That sounds way too fancy for me.

[acts_her_age]

[shrugs]

We're meant to be heroes, after all. What would you prefer?

[spectacularluck]

Right now my only preference goes with "Anything but Sticky". And Aphos, I guess.

But I'll think it over. Why don't we focus on yours for now?

[acts_her_age]

[gestures toward him, like, go ahead]

[spectacularluck]

[ He's going to look around the room and then just ]

... Barbara? You look like you could be a Barbara.

Oh! Jellyfish.

[acts_her_age]

...Keep trying. Are we going with an aquatic theme? What about Finn, for you?

[spectacularluck]

Yeah, I mean, that's basically all we've got going in here.

Finn's not too bad, actually. I like how that sounds. Fits the aquatic theme too.

[acts_her_age]

Perhaps we'll go with that, then, unless you find something else you prefer.

[spectacularluck]

Finn's the winner for now.

What about Coral for you?