trainmasters: (Default)
Aurora Express Mods ([personal profile] trainmasters) wrote in [community profile] auroraexpress2019-02-15 09:27 pm

Unlock! (1)

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!]]
ruinatings: (057)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 11:28 am (UTC)(link)
I'll think on it.
saddleclub: (21)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 11:29 am (UTC)(link)
You have had four days.
ruinatings: (010)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 11:36 am (UTC)(link)
I'll take as long as I like. The dog isn't missing anything.
saddleclub: (37)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 11:38 am (UTC)(link)
Don't be a coward. It's just a name.
ruinatings: (025)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 11:40 am (UTC)(link)
If it's "just" a name, then it isn't anything worth bothering me about.
saddleclub: (24)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 11:48 am (UTC)(link)
It is "just" a name and yet... You've already taken on the responsibility of owning her. Why are you balking at this step?
ruinatings: (041)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 11:52 am (UTC)(link)
I just haven't made a decision.
saddleclub: (21)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 12:02 pm (UTC)(link)
That sort of hesitation is unlike you. Why are you so unsure on this matter?
ruinatings: (010)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 12:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Why are you being so nosy about it?
saddleclub: (52)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Because you bought a dog on the one day I've ever seen you admit somewhat to being lonely. And now you won't name it like you want to keep distance between you.
ruinatings: (023)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 12:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I am not lonely, Jusis. And this isn't any of your concern.

[And neither is Randy getting chased off--]
saddleclub: (51)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 12:19 pm (UTC)(link)
.....

You're such an awkward man.
ruinatings: (010)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 12:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[he has no idea what to do when he's not in a position of untouchable power Jusis]

Don't be rude.
saddleclub: (62)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Should I not say the same? At the very least apologize to Randy.
ruinatings: (041)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 12:39 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd rather not.
ruinatings: (051)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 12:50 pm (UTC)(link)
That is my own business.
saddleclub: (55)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
No. Not when you're being like this. Stop running away from things.
ruinatings: (038)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 01:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Keep your assumptions to yourself and don't presume to order me around.
saddleclub: (44)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
My presumptions? Don't be obstinate. I shouldn't need to spell out your own behaviour to you like you're a child. Not naming your own dog aside, pushing people away because you're scared--that kind of action, it's not necessary here. You should know that.
Edited 2019-02-17 13:09 (UTC)
ruinatings: (084)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I am not "scared". Nor am I a child. I will not meekly bow to being scolded like one.
saddleclub: (53)

1/2

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Then stop acting like one! Stop lying to yourself and everyone else and actually face things with the pride I know you have! Don't act like those fools who put a false dignity before real grace. Don't act like--

[He bites that off. Takes a breath.]
saddleclub: (23)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
You have more substance to you so why are you trying so hard to act as if you don't? Being unaffected by friendship or affection, acting as if loneliness doesn't touch you, as if you don't need bonds like anyone else... It hurts to watch you push everyone at arm's length. Even those who could be your friends if you only allowed yourself to accept it.
ruinatings: (055)

[personal profile] ruinatings 2019-02-17 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[Jusis says a lot of things that maybe would help. Except Rufus doesn't hear a single word after that cut-off sentence. He knows exactly how it was going to end, so stopping short isn't any better than if Jusis had just said it.

To be honest, the very implication that he's that bad is absolutely mortifying. But it also makes him totally furious. The combination of the two is frankly overwhelming. He's white as a sheet, until he comes back to reality and instead goes red, with anger and humiliation and generally a lot of awful feelings that are making him want to start screaming and not stop until his voice breaks.

He doesn't know how to respond at all. He wants to deny the very implication as hard as possible, but suddenly he's afraid to say a single word in case it makes it true. It feels like the last time he got this lecture, except worse because of that one thing, which is just a completely different kind of emotional shock.

Ultimately, he just shuts it all down. Outwardly, anyway. He's just gone quiet. Cold.]

...We're done here.
saddleclub: (39)

[personal profile] saddleclub 2019-02-17 01:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[He knows what he did wrong but now he has to fix it, somehow. Or make it worse while trying. At the very least he can't stop and leave, no matter what Rufus says.]

No. We aren't.

We both take our worst traits from that man, whether or not you want to admit it. I--I am clumsy and awkward and prone to rash words and actions, just as a start. You, you think too much of your appearance and the perceptions others have of you.

You are without a doubt the best influence I had after my mother died, and the only tie to emotional warmth I could look to for years. In almost all ways you do not resemble him, but when it comes to shutting others out--I don't need to wonder where you first learned it.

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