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]

Sure, that could be useful to know.

[bowtiedbones]

We get a lot of Sparks from Bonds, and bonding helps the Prisms, so...

[opening the shop app on her phone, browsing around]

Here, name a snack.

[bad_crowmance]

Okay, how about... custard pudding!

[bowtiedbones]

[tap tap tap and ordered]

Okay! Now we just check my locker at Thyme, and it'll be there.

[bad_crowmance]

It's that simple?

[bowtiedbones]

Yep. It's eas easy as that.

[bad_crowmance]

Alright! ....So let's go check out that custard pudding.

[bowtiedbones]

[backons him to follow, heading off towards Thyme]

It'll be there. I don't know how the things appear in there, but I've bought all kinds of things before.

[bad_crowmance]

[ He follows easily, loose-limbed and casual. ]

Are there any limits to what you can buy?

[bowtiedbones]

I haven't pushed the limits, but it can do animals and expensive objects like custom weapons.

[bad_crowmance]

So whatever's doing it's gotta be a pretty elaborate setup.

[bowtiedbones]

The healing system is really elaborate, too.

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah, I remember you mentioned being able to buy those too. How elaborate are we talking here?

[bowtiedbones]

There's pods upstairs in the clinic car. They look like tanning beds, but they can heal just about anything. No surgery or stitches, just magic.

[bad_crowmance]

That's.... pretty elaborate alright.

[bowtiedbones]

It might be able to treat death, too.

[bad_crowmance]

--Okay! I'll admit that I've got a pretty severe case of amnesia here, but I'm pretty sure death's not usually treatable?

[bowtiedbones]

It's not supposed to be. There's a few necromancers here, but that's different.

I could tell you my theories for how it could work here, but I haven't had them confirmed. But we have two guys that remember being eaten, and they both came back like nothing.

[bad_crowmance]

Who got eaten? [ He has questions for them! ]

Actually while I'm still asking questions, what's your theory?

[bowtiedbones]

I shouldn't say. They might want that kept private.

for the healing death, though... The three issues you're going to hit with reviving a dead human are going to be resolving the initial cause of death, post-death physical damage such as to the brain, and the dispersal of the soul. If the pods can regenerate a body or heal any level of injury, then that's your first two. For the soul, it may be that we're tied to the Aurora or each other— based off of our being recovered in the first place, the direct link between it and our power or memories, and the process of powering the Prisms with our experiences. If our soul lingers whole and intact after death, it may be possible to recover it without issue.

In my world's magic system there would also be a fourth issue of who operates the summoning and how the soul is able to self-sustain its attachment afterwards, but the Aurora's Prism could cover that problem, too.

[bad_crowmance]

Not telling, huh? That's fair enough.

[ He gets it! It's annoying because he'd like to find out more, but he gets it. ]

....So as far as the death thing goes, what I'm hearing is that there's a lot of moving parts to bringing people back to life and some of it may be working on the same ideas as everything else? With the whole "positive energy" thing and those Prisms?

[bowtiedbones]

Sort of. Besides the medical part of it, another way I could put it is that we're not independent, self-contained entities anymore. We're basically in a familiar-type bond with the Aurora. I have familiars that I can dehabit from their hosts at will, but their bond to me means that when I animate them again it's the same individual with the same ongoing memories and personality that's woken up. Similarly, my familiars and I also share our magics with each other.

[bad_crowmance]

Oh! So it's like our life forces are bound to the train?

[bowtiedbones]

Yes! Exactly!

[bad_crowmance]

Guess that means we really won't wanna find out what'll happen if this train gets fucked. ....If you're right!