auroraexpress | EVENT: ~*~Heat Wave~*~

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EVENT: ~~Heat Wave~~

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! ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He chuckles. Okay, he can roll with that.]

[He considers a moment and sighs. Gestures for him to follow to the kitchen in the lounge car. He's gonna get some leftover cold drinks from the movie night.]

Well, I guess it's a question if this is my current level of jaded or if it's talking about my concerns for the future. [He shrugged.] Bad things happen, people develop coping mechanisms. Mine is pretty extreme. [He makes a chopping motion in the air.] I'm disturbingly good at compartmentalization. If need be, I can basically shut off all my emotions when things get fucked and just deal with the situation. Overwhelming enemy forces, impromptu dive off a skyscraper, got my heart ripped out after a trial and made a lich a little while. That sucked.

[Pulling two cans of soda from the fridge and holding one out to Five.] And when things aren't being actively bullshit, it's back to jokes, playing with cats, and being generally friendly.

[ He's going to make a point to stare at the can and not take it because even if the conversation is going better now, he's still a grumpy and stubborn old man. ]

Sounds like pragmatism to me.

[Will set down the can in easy Five reach then and just lean against the counter, opening the can.]

Never said it wasn't. It's why I'm good at what I do. May have even been why Project Freelancer recruited me. Gonna shove an AI in someone's head, why not use the guy who can keep up skill wise whose used to mental walls. [Shrugs.] Does mean I can treat most terrible things seemingly unaffected, or you know, being jaded.

But it does make me worry when most of my later memories show me not turning off that switch. Times where I would still feel comfortable joking or giving people shit is me being very aggressive and....tired. More of an asshole than usual.

And why does that bother you?

Because being an asshole isn't productive on this train. There's already a lot who are, and me joining that number won't help anyone. Either the Powers That Be are telling the truth and it's needed to save everything, or things will break bad, in which case having each others' back will be our best bet to deal with that.

I'm concerned because even knowing that might not stop me from becoming a jaded asshole once I remember what things actually managed to break that switch. It's....really frustrating, overall.

Which is why I don't like talking about it.

Which is probably why it's on the nametag.

You're already assuming you're going to be the same person you were in the past just upon getting your memories back. That's stupid and unrealistic.

If you don't want to be an asshole, don't be. It's a lot simpler than you're making it out to be.

I know that. I was fairly friendly, but not quite to the extreme I've been here. But had to change because we need people making the effort, even if aggressive socializing is exhausting.

The problem comes in, I have a solid idea of what came before earlier memories. Five catastrophic missions. A near Glassing. And from how my CO was talking to me, I'm pretty sure I've been near ones before that. Killed a lot of aliens, killed a lot of humans.

Still maintained that switch.

Maybe I'll have enough reason to not be a jaded asshole with the proper motivation, but I also can't pretend I'm not very nervous about remembering what broke that switch.

Pretty sure obsessing over it isn't going to make it better. But I'll concede I can't relate — you know, seeing as I have all my memories.

Probably not, but also hard not to.

It's a fun rollercoaster ride. Where you're certain on one thing and have to guess for five others.

For the record, your aggressive socializing isn't effective. It's annoying at best.

Eh, mileage varies. [Waves his hand in a so-so gesture.] Some react well, others don't. At least I can try to get a read on a person and make adjustments.

And considering I got my heart ripped out on my second day here because we couldn't guess what items were associated with what team, at least getting the read is pretty valuable.

How does that one work out, exactly? Did we become immortal?

I think it's a little more like schrodinger's cat.

If the Powers That Be are to be believed, our world got consumed and we also got partially consumed. Which is why we're missing stuff like memories and powers and why more energy is needed to get that back. Technically we should be dead, but we're still existing, which means we're easier to fix, but it also means we can destabilize suddenly.

As for that specific instance, hearts got ripped out, got turned undead craving warmth and human flesh. We needed to physically put our hearts back and heal from there.

For reference, 80H on Jasmine is a medical professional.

There's also the Healing pods, which can heal and revive people, for a cost.

[ There's a shift in his expression at that first part, and he looks genuinely hurt for a second - but it's gone as soon as it comes ]

That's gross, but it makes things easier.

[That....was certainly a look.]

[Five is going to get a studying look for a moment.]

[Then shrugs.] It does. It's why I'm going to keep a few thousand sparks in my account, takes a thousand to revive a person. 80H is good for injuries and surgeries, but I don't think she can fix death.

I'll keep that in mind.

[ And maybe try to save up as well, just in case. ]

Does the label come off now?

[He figures at the very least if there's a mass deadening, Five will at least know someone who has Sparks to spare since he wants to save people.]

[It's good to have plans.]

Hope so, about all else I can do is go on about definitely getting overly paranoid thinking.

[Will tug at his tag and off it comes.]

.....forced therapy it was.

[ there's a little bitter laugh at that because he doesn't actually like that outcome but, well. It's better than having everyone see it ]

Obviously it's forced therapy. Do you remember having any family, Dusk? Not necessarily blood related.

They're thoughtful like that. [Sigh.]

Don't remember anthing of my life before I was a soldier, but...

[He remembers the trust he had in crazy plans, how deep it was. The fear and worry Maine keeps invoking. He remembers being ready to fight an army, a whole planet to protect his men.]

But yeah. I think I remember family.

Good. That's a starting point.

[ Dusk not remembering everything is part of why he made sure to specify it didn't have to be blood related. The other part is that he's well aware blood means nothing. ]

Mine's shitty, but it's mine. [ another bitter laugh at that ] Though I suppose I should say "was", considering our current circumstances.

I learned not to give a shit about our father early on, as did my siblings, eventually. But I can say with a certain degree of certainty that I cared about the rest. I just didn't realize how much until I lost them.

I spent the last 45 years doing unimaginable things just to get back to them and prevent the apocalypse. And now we're back to square one.

[Blood really didn't mean a lot if someone was a piece of shit. And good to know dad is still good on the punch in the dick list because a dad who names their kids numbers is a piece of shit.]

[But Dusk listens and....yeah, he gets it, he really does. He may have only had the prospect of fighting a planet, but he also did that without hesitation. Maybe he wouldn't go forty-five years, can't know one way or the other, but he could see someone doing it easily enough.]

Being yours is what counts, no matter how maddening or weird the people are.

[Certainly explains his issues though.]

Did you do it? Prevent what I assume was a non-malice apocalypse.

No. Didn't manage to figure out what caused until it was too late.

But I did go back in time again - with my siblings, this time. You know, for another attempt.

[Nods.] Certainly improves your odds. Intelligence and people who can act on that intelligence.

What happened?

Your guess is as good as mine. Trying to get us back in time is the last thing I remember. Either I believe the story our kind benefactors gave us, or I accept that I lost my siblings through space and time. It's either of, really.

[ A pause, and then he continues ]

I found them dead in the apocalypse. Few hours after I got stuck in the future, I found their bodies.

For what it's worth, there are enough distinctively universes that'd it be odd if we weren't here due to the same event. Our benefactors may not be telling the whole truth, but at least some of it is. And people are here from different points. The guy whose five hundred has non-immortals here from when he was twenty. More likely all of time got consumed instead of a single point where it happened.

[Jesus Christ. Yep, that'd fuck with someone. Especially if he was an actual kid then.]

I'm sorry. [What can someone say to that? Even that's nothing really, more an acknowledgenent because there really isn't anything.]

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