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

[bad_crowmance]

Yeah but if you try to walk around without covering up those two areas I mentioned, you're gonna get a lot of scandalized reactions. People turning bright red and stammering, the nice ones trying to cover you up once they get over the shock... Trust me, it'll go easier for you if you just keep the clothes on.

[daydreamshimmer]

They do realize they've seen a naked human body before, right?

The clothes don't even have embroidery or anything. Could at least have them be fun.

[bad_crowmance]

You can buy more clothes once you get sparks. Stuff more to your taste. My outfit's not standard gear-- I can't stand anything they gave my team.

[ He's a vain bird, okay. ]

And yeah, most of 'em have seen naked human bodies before but that's usually in intimate settings. And some of 'em have only seen one type or the other. See, me? I'd be fine if everyone wanted to walk around naked. But there's definitely other people who'd get really flustered.

[daydreamshimmer]

They also see their own naked body everyday. [Dryly.]

Honestly forcibly bonding with people seems most flustering then a lack of clothes, but apparently people are just doing that willy nilly.

[bad_crowmance]

You can choose not to do that if you want to, you're just kinda screwing over all of existence.

[ So you know. It's your call. ]

[daydreamshimmer]

[Looking away, arms wrapping around herself.]

You can't lie to magic about bonds.

[bad_crowmance]

I haven't lied to you once this entire conversation.

[daydreamshimmer]

I never said you did. I said you can't lie to magic about bonds.

Just going through the motions of a 'bonding' experience doesn't mean anything if it's not actually bonding people.

[bad_crowmance]

Right, misheard-- sorry about that.

[ He's very breezy and casual as he speaks, his hands tucked behind his head. ]

See, here's the thing-- I don't actually think you're wrong. There's only so far this setup's gonna work before it stalls out because people won't cooperate. And there's a lot of uncooperative people here. But you have to be willing to put yourself out there and try.

[ He shrugs lightly. ]

And I may be a terrorist, but that doesn't mean I want the whole universe to end. I live in it too. So you know what? You can't hurt anything by giving it a shot.

[daydreamshimmer]

Can't try if there's nothing to offer. [More a mutter.]

Why aren't people cooperating? I assume most people were left with at least something to work with.

[bad_crowmance]

There's always something to offer. It's a matter of wanting to. As for the rest....

[ Crow sighs. ]

A lot of people want to protect themselves. It's hard to trust people you don't know, moreso if you've had it rough. They're too afraid to reach out and so they don't. They'd rather be lonely in hell than risk the pain of putting themselves out there and getting rejected.

[daydreamshimmer]

Not always. Sometimes people have everything taken away so they can't offer anything anyone would want and their only hope is pity and that's hardly a basis for any strong magic. [Said in a very detached way.]

So why does the train choose them? Why not choose a bunch of happy people who make friends easily. Probably plenty with power to make the whole affair easier too.

[bad_crowmance]

That's still a matter of attitude. Just because a person thinks they have nothing to offer doesn't mean that someone else will agree. A sharp sense of humour, a keen insight. You'd be surprised.

[ He moves his hands from behind his head to folded across his chest. ]

The train doesn't choose anyone, perse. The prince, the guy who's running it-- he's blindly reaching for people. Anyone he can. His only choice is "who can I rescue and pull in?" Power and personality don't really factor in.

[daydreamshimmer]

That doesn't really last though. People can't always be funny or observant, so if there's nothing substantial, it's all just going to be some shallow thing that fades. Hardly enough power to save the universe.

[And she has nothing to offer. Her hands wrap tighter around her because she doesn't. Without her magic, she's just got a bunch of knowledge that she can't even use properly.]

Of course. Because can't making saving the world easy. Could just pull in a bunch of royalty, people of power or talent, let them bond and fix it easily. Instead mixing in a bunch who won't or can't. Great.

[bad_crowmance]

Of course it's gonna be shallow if you don't nurture it.

[ Like, obviously? ]

You know, I'm pretty sure the royal and the powerful would be on the same grounds in this kind of situation. And it's definitely won't, not can't.

[daydreamshimmer]

Which needs something to offer. That's what I'm saying. Some kind of skill or power or something to gain. Make it worth it for people to be friends.

Not really? Princesses are powerful and generally royalty have some kind of ancient magic or power of their race, usually why they're in charge. Not all of them can move the sun, but they usually do something that keeps them safe.

[bad_crowmance]

...."Worth it to be friends?"

[ Aidios, just how fucked-up was this not-human girl? ]

People aren't friends because they can get something out of you, dumbass. They're friends because they like you!

[daydreamshimmer]

[Despite the relatively peaceful nature of ponies, she turned to dark magic, megalomania, and stealing a powerful artifact that turned her into a demon. Girl is a messed up cookie of insecurities.]

[But the insult gets her eyes to snap up and there's a glare.] Pony, not donkey. And I'm. Not. An. Idiot. [Words definitely grounded out.]

And I will not tolerate being mocked. [Pushing herself from the wall.] I don't care if that's the only way I can bond right now, being some form of entertainment, I know how to be better and I'm smart enough to figure it out.

[bad_crowmance]

Just because you're smart doesn't mean you can't be an idiot. No one's immune from that.

[daydreamshimmer]

Of course. Some smart people might actually believe that people really do just hang around because of personality and not because of what they get out of people.

Just because I have a rainbow pigmentation doesn't mean I'm going to believe in fairy tales and filly stories.

If you're afraid of me not trying to help save the multiverse, you don't need to worry. I'm already going to be working on having something worthwhile to throw into a bond, it'll just take time. I don't need you to lie for my delicate sensibilities. It'll just make things harder to manage later.

[bad_crowmance]

You know, the funny thing is I don't even think you're entirely wrong-- there's plenty of people who only want you for what they can get from you. Once in a while, though...

[ He shrugs. ]

I'm just saying, it's not always fairy tales. But in the end, the only person you're going to be making unhappy is yourself. So do whatever makes you happy-- or don't, if that's what you want to do. It's not my life.

[daydreamshimmer]

Don't gaslight me.

According to you, Naeva is good with people. And what did she do? She meets a girl who can't remember anything whose in the wrong body all sorts of freaked out because from my point of view, I have never even heard of a human until this morning. I don't know how or why this happened. No memories, no body, barely able to walk. Now maybe the whole scary aggression can ve chalked up to cultural differences, maybe that could even explain her being terrible at explaining what's going on.

But then she tells me this place can't 'accommodate' me a way to change back. After showing she can change shape so there's obviously shapeshifting magic around, but because it'd take a little clever thinking, it was just far too hard to give a second thought and I should focus solely on what I could do for everyone else. It wasn't she wouldn't offer help, its not even the fact she said its hard, its the fact she told me to forget it.

If THAT is one of the better people person on board, then I'd rather not put my faith that maybe there's a fairy tale around. Not when the gold standard tells people to give up on their own needs.

[bad_crowmance]

It's not gaslighting just because you don't agree with me.

[ He's guessing the meaning of the word based on context, he's never actually heard it before. ]

I will say this though-- pretty sure she's wrong about needing to forget it. Her shapeshifting is her own magic so it's not like she can help you transform yourself. But if you're in this form and it's not your natural one, it's entirely possible you'll end up having your own magic-- and once you remember it, maybe you can even transform back.

[ He shrugs. ]

I gotta say, sounds like she fucked up pretty badly with you. I'm surprised, I thought better of her than that.

[daydreamshimmer]

I DO have my own magic! All unicorns do! I even KNOW spells to transform bodies. Form transference and restoration, temporary wings, size change, coloration, even mane growth spells. I know the formulas, the numbers, the requirements! [And that's quite the outburst because that's been a major point of frustration.]

But this stupid body has no conduit for me to channel magic through. If the raw potential hasn't been stripped away entirely. I don't know if I have the power for those spells, but I can't even do basic levitation without a horn.

But I can figure it out, I can definitely figure it out because even if my raw power is in question, no pony memorizes that many spells without being brilliant. And I'm going to because that's necessary for me to not lie in the bonds because all my knowledge is useless in this body, and she can just eat her words when I do it. Accommodate my hoof, who expects to save the multiverse if they say something a little hard needs to be forgotten!

[bad_crowmance]

It's possible you already have one with you.

[ He pulls out his ARCUS and flips it open. ]

This was with me when I woke up. It's called an ARCUS, and I can't perform Arts without it. Arts might not be quite the same thing as magic, but...

[ He shrugs. ]

And if you don't have a conduit, you can probably buy one in the sparks store. Anything you're emotionally attached to is gonna cost more, but if I can buy a Divine Knight, you can probably buy a magical conduit. But for that you're gonna need sparks.