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

[bad_crowmance]

Okay, I'm with you on "that's important" but why is it a concern?

[bowtiedbones]

It's... Well, we get injured a lot. Attacked and tortured, really. Has anyone else told you about the trials?

[bad_crowmance]

I haven't heard that word.

[bowtiedbones]

Trials are... On their positive side, the trials are going to be a way to earn Sparks. On the negative side...

[tucks her hair behind her ears, fidgeting for a second]

They're these weird things set up by our enemies. A lot of the time they've been couched as tests or a moral lesson, but they can be very extreme. In the first one, we were poisoned and had to find an antidote. In another one, we solved a pretend murder mystery with very, very realistic corpses and construct-actors. I had to buy a healing to get a brand removed from another one... That one had some of us suspended above lava. A couple people dislocated their shoulders getting down and a kid on my team went temporarily blind, too.

[bad_crowmance]

I did hear something about a dragon and lava. That was one of those trials? Sounds.... "dangerous" feels like an understatement.

[bowtiedbones]

That's the one. It was a bunch of garbage about balance and sacrifice, and he was an asshole.

...Mortally dangerous? The trials aren't the only thing here that can hurt us, either. They're an aspect of the Malice that's infecting this place, and anything else corrupted in the environment may try to kill us, too.

[bad_crowmance]

So what's this "infection" do?

[bowtiedbones]

On a small scale, it's like an evil curse from a story. Up until yesterday, the sky was black. The ocean would reach up the beach to try and drown us. Plants pulled us underground and monsters turned into copies of our fears before trying to kill us.

On a large scale, it destroys worlds. What we've been told is that the Malice is attacking the universe at large, including our home worlds. The memory- and power-loss are side effects of pulling us out of the darkness.

[bad_crowmance]

So that's the root cause, huh.... What changed yesterday?

[bowtiedbones]

Each of the Stars we'll go to has a Prism. If we purify the Prism, that area will become protected. So... we made progress!

[bad_crowmance]

That's vague. So how do these Prisms get purified?

[bowtiedbones]

Sorry. I know we've made progess, but I don't know what or how much exactly tipped it over into purified. It didn't show gradual change. what they're purified with is also kind of vague— bonds, positive energy, good feelings. Happy thoughts power the train, too.

[bad_crowmance]

......That's the corniest thing I've ever heard.

[ Please ignore the amnesia as he says this. ]

[bowtiedbones]

As near as we can tell, it's true though!

[bad_crowmance]

Well, who am I to argue with results?

[bowtiedbones]

I mean, you can argue if you want. If you yell at the screen in the Lounge, you might get lucky enough to get patched through to the Prince. He's cute, very peppy.

[bad_crowmance]

And the Prince is...? The guy who brought us here?

[bowtiedbones]

Prince Cardamom. His team is the one that brought us here, and his family are the ones that set up the Prism system.

[bad_crowmance]

So he's the guy who told you how all this works. You trust him?

[bowtiedbones]

More or less.

[bad_crowmance]

Mind if I ask why?

[bowtiedbones]

He's been helpful, there's been some evidence, and nothing he's said has been caught in a lie yet. Plus it's hard to distrust the one guy telling you to keep your chin up when everything else wants you dead.

[bad_crowmance]

Those are some.... pretty solid reasons, actually. So how do I meet this guy?

[bowtiedbones]

They're good enough reasons for me.

And he was here the day before yesterday, actually. But he had to sneak away from his staff to visit us, so you might be stuck with the Construct. It's normally an AI that answers, but sometimes he'll pick up messages.

[bad_crowmance]

So it's just luck of the draw, huh?