auroraexpress | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Who: Everyone
When: Day 20, evening
Where: The train and surrounding terrain

[So after all the earlier excitement.... dramatic organ music starts to play through the cars. There's no obvious source. It's just... There? All around you for a while, before fading.

Of course before the music fades there's more things going on. A mist seeps up from the earth outside the train and within the train simply seems to form like it's produced by invisible fog machines. As the mist grows into a thick fog, you can hear eerie noises. Distant wolf howls, the screech of a fox that sounds like human screaming, owls hooting hauntingly, the leathery flap of bat wings, and other, less identifiable noises of the night, strange and otherworldly.

If you go out in it, breathe it in, the mist will chill you. Make you desire... Touch.

The need to hold another person is an almost growing compulsion, but it can be fought.

However things that are harder to avoid are the flowers, night blooming wisteria in white and purple seems to have grown from nowhere in the train cars, hanging down to brush the heads of passengers with sweet scented blossoms, and the floors of the train and ground around it have become endless beds of gently glowing moonflowers.

The only places the fog and flowers don't reach are team cabins.

Effects:

Mist:

Cold that cannot be dispelled without touch, a desire to touch others.

Wisteria:

Purple blossoms cause an empathetic bond with the next person you touch.

White blossoms cause arousal and a mild to powerful aphrodisiac effect.

Moonflowers:

Share memories or thoughts with the next person you touch.

By morning the mist and flowers will vanish.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, he always did charm people.

Ohhhh, no, I don't take any of his shit, I have to insist on that being understood.

You misunderstand. Not taking his shit just means you really have been charmed by him.

...Speaking from experience, Jusis?

[That was the name in the memory she's pretty sure it's his.]

He reminds me of my brother, a little.

So what if I am. Anyone who was fond of him would absolutely insult him until dawn.

[Great now he still doesn't know her name but she knows his.]

You must have a very interesting brother.

He's a brat. An incorrigible tease, a horrendous flirt, and likes to pretend he has no more moral compass than a grapefruit.

[So you can see the similarities!]

My name is Naeva. Queen Naeva Schakal dos Martos, if you want the full title.

[It's only fair. She knows he's a baron's son, she might as well share the whole thing.]

[He sighs. Royalty. He supposes he should do the full titles thing too.]

Jusis Albarea, acting Duke of House Albarea.

Now if that's out of the way, I'm not calling you Your Highness.

I wouldn't expect it. I'm hardly in my kingdom, now am I? And it's not as though you're my subject.

[...Is nobility allowed to be this laid back?]

It just seemed more...fair, to give you the full thing.

[Considering the royals he knows best are Prince Olivert and Princess Alfin, and his peers in the four Great Houses are Angelica and Patrick, he's not shocked even remotely. Sure he knows plenty of stuffy nobles too, but the amount of eccentrics in his close circle is high.]

I appreciate it I suppose.

[Jusis maybe you should just lock Machias in a closet with all of them?]

Well, it's out of the way now.

Yes, and now let us completely disregard it.

[It's not like Machias hasn't met them all.]

Sounds reasonable.

[She peers at him a little.]

...The coat isn't helping much, is it?

Not really, though I appreciate the gesture.

Then really, there should be someplace warmer somewhere...

[She is very concerned about this. Humans need to stay warm????]

...Are you concerned?

Yes?

[Why wouldn't she be?]

[Weird.]

...I'm fine. It's just cold.

Cold can be extremely dangerous for humans.

[You hear that, Jusis?

That's the sound of the grandma engine revving up.]

Certainly, but if this were a natural chill the jacket would have had some effect.

That makes me more concerned. I don't know how to treat magical hypothermia--

[Pause.]

...Well, of this kind.

...There are multiple types?

Well, yes. Elemental magecraft that creates ice is going to create a much faster-acting, localized sort of hypothermia you need to handle a bit differently than your regular, run-of-the-mill hypothermia. Whenever magic's involved in injury, you can't just assume you can treat it with the same kind of first aid.

[It's a shame she's not on thyme, isn't it?]

[Here he's just wondering why a tearal balm won't work for all of it.]

...I see.

[SOME OF US DON'T GET JRPG HEALING ITEMS, JUSIS.]

...The point is, I'd like to see if there's anyway to avoid all that.

I'm not sure location is going to matter much, though I appreciate the thought.