EVENT: ~*~Heat Wave~*~

[trainmasters]

Who: Heroes! Old ones, new ones...!
When: Day 42, afternoon
Where: Around the train

[ Good news, everyone! Those pesky cicadas are gone at last! You might have even had a chance to relax, except....

Except for the heat wave.

It's like the worst parts of the last dregs of summer come to torture you with excrutiating heat. It's heat so bad you could swear that you've started melting yourself the second you step outside. It's terrible. At least with the cold you can add more layers on, how are you supposed to deal with heat?? You can't just walk around naked??

(That's not a suggestion.)

Here's the thing about the heat, though: It's bad enough that it's causing mirages-- mirages of people you may even recognize, people who are lost in the dark. People who will try to lead you into danger, people who don't want what's best for you after all....

That aside, you may or may not have noticed that there's some new teammates on the train! The notification appears cheerfully on everyone's Chains:

WELCOME NEW HEROES

And you may find yourself wearing a label you can't seem to remove until you've spoken to at least one other person: "Hi, I'm ______! Talk to me about ______!"

There's a mischievous giggle in the wind that you may recognize as the same one that ran the plants and secrets game. ]

[[ NOTES: You're welcome to make team posts if you like, or intro directly into this mingle if you haven't already. Until next month's placements, the heat wave will persist. Characters stand the risk of seeing castmates not in the game until that point, mirages from the heat. Enjoy! ]]

Comments

[malignstar]

You look new. And like you could use a hand.

[daydreamshimmer]

[And someone]

[Was very hyperfocus.]

[So there's a yelp at the sudden new voice and then she drops the books she was carrying.]

[She looks down with a deep sigh.]

I really don- [And looks up and. Pauses. Because those sure are wings and that's new on humans.]

[malignstar]

Whoa! Sorry about that.

[ Bends down to help recover the books ]

Didn't realize you were at max concentration.

[daydreamshimmer]

I need to do research.

[Stares a moment longer before kneeling down to pick up the books.] You're the first one I've seen with wings.

[malignstar]

What are you researching?

And yeah, I haven't seen anyone else with them yet.

[daydreamshimmer]

A lot of things. [Books on magic, books on anatomy, books on psychology, some random other tangentially related subjects.]

Is that a subspecies of humans as a whole? Or just the creature you turn into?

[malignstar]

Cagey, huh? All right.

I don't know what I am. I can turn into a wolf but I had these before I gained that ability so they're not related. I also don't know any wolves that have wings. Though that would be fucking awesome to see.

[daydreamshimmer]

It's a lot of research.

....you obtained the ability to turn into a wolf? Do you remember how?

[malignstar]

Sure do. I helped my shapeshifting daughter during one of the trials.

[daydreamshimmer]

The trials?

[malignstar]

They're these competitions we participate in to help heal the worlds.

[daydreamshimmer]

Yeah, kind of vague on what that means.

[malignstar]

That's because they have range. Sometimes they can be cute mingles where you get to know people better or get lots of kisses and sometimes they can be horrifying fights to stay alive while bad shit happens to you. They produce sparks and sparks fight the darkness that is attacking the worlds. You can also do the spark thing with any kind of affection or things specific to your team. Like my team Thyme, we teach.

[daydreamshimmer]

Wait.

What.

What do you MEAN horrifying fights to stay alive, I thought this train was trying to use harmony magic?

[malignstar]

It is. But some of the guys who host the trials are a little fucked up in how they go about things. Maybe they're Darkness-zoned or something.

[daydreamshimmer]

That's not a little! At what point does trying to kill us at all help harmony?!

[malignstar]

Your guess is as good as mine. You can try asking them though. Or maybe Cardy has some answers. That's the prince who brought us here when the worlds were overtaken. Cardamon.

[daydreamshimmer]

Ugh. This place just gets worse and worse. [Rubbing her face with a closed fist.]

...back to the shapeshifting. Did you like...choose the animal?

[malignstar]

[ Watching her rub her face and raising a brow. That's sure a way of doing things... ]

Kind of. We wanted to be the same as our daughter so we could support her better.

[daydreamshimmer]

So it is possible to have a variation on it.

And did you do anything else? Was it just the effect of a trial, or did you have to do some special ritual?

[malignstar]

Just an effect, I guess. No special ritual involved other than agreeing to help her. Power of familial love and all that.

[daydreamshimmer]

[There is a pause at that because she]

[She just kind of realizes she never really accounted for familiar love in her opinions of bonds and that's]

[Why IS that?]

So you agreed and the trial runner just...did it?

[malignstar]

Pretty much. We had no idea it would stick after the trial though. Kind of a cool surprise.

[ Pops a pair of red wolf ears and a tail to demonstrate. Which look even more out of place with his wings. ]

[daydreamshimmer]

And do you name of the one who ran that trial?

[Tensing because. Wolf. But dealing.]

[malignstar]

[ Notices that tensing and makes the ears and tail disappear again ]

Ah, sorry. And I wish I could. But I don't keep track of those things as well as people like Eliza. She'd know for sure.