Unlock! (2)

[trainmasters]

Who: Everyone
When: Day 36, early morning
Where: around :)

[In the wee hours of the night, you may be woken by an increasingly loud clear, bell-like tone, 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 rushing of water.

Abruptly, the sound stops, and the bright light fades to reveal... no particular changes in the immediate area. No visible ones, anyway, besides a break in the rain. Audibly, on the other hand... suddenly, the air is full of birdsong. While a few tropical birds already existed in the nearby jungle, there are far more of them now, especially in the direction of the abandoned town.

Should you head that way, you'll find that the area has been purified -- while the buildings are still a bit damaged and overgrown, the monsters have been replaced by normal lizards and a few chattering monkeys, and the plantlife is now mostly harmless. As the sun rises, millions of new flowers will bloom in its warm rays. Unfortunately, there are still no residents. But their belongings are now yours to shuffle through, or to preserve for their potential return -- it's up to you!

Past the town you'll see that the wetlands on the opposite coast of the island have also been revived. A mangrove swamp grows lush and mossy, with remarkably clear waters full of tasty fish. Wetland birds nest in the trees, and frogs (now without any poisonous ones mixed in) chirp away in the night. This area, however, is not completely harmless -- while free of corruption, there are still perfectly normal alligators!

Head back towards the Prism on the beach, and you'll see that it's now glowing green, and the sea is clear and beautiful much further out than before. In fact, it seems the entire island you're on is now purified -- you can swim all the way around with no trouble. The island itself turns out to be about 8km in diameter -- the rest of the surface is taken up by ocean, now full of healthy fish and even some dolphins!

However, you haven't cleared this Star yet... about 2km from the Prism shore there's another, smaller island, mostly taken up by a some kind of ancient ruin, the sea immediately near the island is black and oddly still -- should you enter it, you'll find the water is still alive, reaching up to try to drag you down into the waiting mouths of unseen horrors. Get past this and you'll find the ruin a trap-filled nest of corrupted snakes, tiger monsters, giant man-eating geckos, and an overgrowth of plants that are almost entirely deeply poisonous. The halls and passages are full of caustic slimes that take on the form of your fears -- basically every enemy you've faced so far is now concentrated on this tiny island. The last baston of Malice on this Star is a deadly one.

But you've made some amazing progress! Almost as if in celebration, a flock of little blue birds settles in the Aurora's clearing, chirping away in the trees. Their song makes you feel celebratory, too -- hearing it greatly increases one of your positive emotions. Joy, love, trust -- some part of you is feeling great!

What a good time to respond to that ChainChat Message asking for upgrade suggestions...]

[[OOC NOTES: CONGRATULATIONS on your TWO levels of Prism purification, guys! There is a toplevel for ICly suggesting train upgrades here, so check it out! You can submit more than one suggestion if you wish, as there will be two upgrades added. 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

[wellhanged]

[haha well... he might have the advantage here. and this guy's just a kid, so...]

Try feeding them. Wild animals love that.

[survivaltricks]

[look just cuz he has amnesia doesn't mean he lost his common sense!! or his pop culture knowledge]

[but birds aren't bears so eh]

I don't have any birdseed.

Unless summoning it right out of hammerspace is also in your repertoire.

[wellhanged]

Unfortunately not, but you can probably get them to eat fish bits.

One moment.

[gonna go grab a fish from where he left it on the beach.]

[survivaltricks]

[watching out of the corners of his vision with a surprisingly keen gaze, considering the unicorn kigurumi and general nonchalant attitude]

[but he says nothing!]

[wellhanged]

[just does what he says and gets a fishy!

which he tosses over at the weirdly dressed kid even before he gets back to where he had been standing before.]

Here ya go.

[survivaltricks]

[his hand snatched up to catch the fish effortlessly. quick reflexes!! tho he seems a bit surprised by them]

I don't think these are fish eating birds, but—

[well]

[he crouched down to offer the fish to them anyway. OM NOM TWEETS]

[wellhanged]

[OMNOMTWEETS

he's actually going to maintain some distance this time because like... birds probably don't like predators and lololol well, he doens't want to get into that. but he does crouch down to watch the attempted feedings]

You never know.

[survivaltricks]

[OMNOM TWEETS. . . guess we got some carnivore birds, here]

I guess you don't.

[new guy is going to let the birds feed as he flexes his hand in and out of a first, staring at it in mild wonderland confusion, like it did something he totally wasn't expecting it to do]

[wellhanged]

So what do you think about all of this?

[gestures to the... whole... island. and train. and. everything, really.]

1/2

[survivaltricks]

[there is a long. . . contemplative. . . pause where it looks like the new guy is searching for the words to express exactly what he feels about waking up in a strange train with a strange outfit with absolutely no memory of who he is or how he got here]

[. . .]

[survivaltricks]

I think it's interesting that we discovered a new breed of songbird that eats fish.

[oh]

[looks like he ain't getting that deep]

[wellhanged]

[it earns a huff of amusement]

Do you even know what to think about all of this?

[c'mon now, he's softballing here]

[survivaltricks]

Well, I am pretty sure I'm no scientist, but I don't think I have to be to appreciate nature.

[NOPE]

[STRANGERS DO NOT GET DISPLAYS OF WEAKNESS]

1/2

[wellhanged]

So it's a "no".

[IT'S OK, HE'LL JUST ASSUME VULNERABILITY ANYWAY. HE'S GOOD AT THIS.]

Ha, I guess that makes some sense. In that nothing about any of this makes any sense.

[wellhanged]

[goes quiet for a long moment, thinking things over before shrugging, a half-hearted smile on his face.]

I'm Leviticus, by the way. You can just call me Levi.

[survivaltricks]

[something about that assumption makes the new guy's hackles raise internally, but he is great at keeping it off his expression. and he is absolutely refraining from responding verbally, opting to watch the birds feed instead]

[until Levi introduces himself. then he just blinks in mild surprise]

Ah— [hm]

Nice to meet you, Levi. . . ssssssan?

[???? it feels natural to tack on the suffix but he sounds unsure]

[wellhanged]

[uh...

maybe it's a cultural thing? Levi has no idea how other languages work... well, outside of very specific circumstances, so. um.]

... just Levi's fine.

Anything else is too proper.

[survivaltricks]

[QUIET THUMBS UP]

[no introduction in return tho]

I guess that much was obvious when you told me to shorten Leviticus to Levi.

[wellhanged]

People only use my full name when I'm in trouble.

[seems more amused by this than annoyed, though.]

... should I just call you Birdman?

[survivaltricks]

Noted.

[nts use the name Leviticus in a stern and authoritative voice to try and spook him later]

Do I look like a Birdman? I'm not confident I could pull it off.

[wellhanged]

[it will do nothing and only make him laugh]

Birdboy, then.

[survivaltricks]

[HE HAS GOTTA TRY THO]

Eeeeeh. . .

I don't promise to answer to it.

[wellhanged]

It's better than something like Horn.

[points to his unicorn horn]

[survivaltricks]

But not as good as Sparkleshy or Twilight Pink.

[TRUE UNICORN NAMES]

[wellhanged]

Twilight Pink, it is.