Event: Power Returns

[trainmasters]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 2, evening
Where: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Well, uh, that red dolphin seems to have been successfully fended off! Good job everyone, you are truly terrifying.

A five minute warning is issued by the pleasant robotic voice from last time: the six hour wait is over. Right as the countdown is finishing up, the power flickers on in the remaining powerless cars, with the startling sound of every single mechanical door in the train closing at once. So those are working now.

Similarly, your previously nonfunctional Chains are coming to life, displaying a helpful little welcome message:

Welcome aboard the Aurora!

You have been selected by the Star Prince as a potential hero, tasked with saving the universe from Malice. As a passenger I, your Construct and Conductor, will attempt to provide you with quality lodgings and safety. In return, we ask that you join your fellows in making bonds and doing your utmost to bring joy back to the Stars.

Due to the process of restoring your body, you may find some things are missing. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to return them to you as soon as possible. Thank you for your cooperation.

You are also now able to access and fill out your profiles.

With that, the train shudders into motion. Except rather than moving strictly horizontally, it's slanting up after it's moved only a few feet, picking itself up off the hazardous beach car by car and snaking through thin air. Here's hoping you got the message to hold onto something during takeoff when the cars started tilting.

The trip only lasts a few short minutes before the train shudders again, worryingly, and descends abruptly into the jungle below. It's less of a crash-landing than the one that presumably woke you up in the first place, but it's not the smoothest, either, what with all the plant life the train is crashing into. Do try not to hit your heads, everyone.]

[[OOC NOTE: The train has moved into the jungle. The power is on in every carriage! This means food is now in the fridges, the doors all actually work, and characters now have access to the sparks shop.

This is an event post, so you can take 300 points for participating!]]

Comments

[vitellina]

Shouldn't you like, get it checked?

[nihilmancy]

I'll just rest for a moment.

[vitellina]

We can like, go back to our carriage...

[nihilmancy]

Ah, that's right. Are you hungry?

[vitellina]

I hunger only for wayward souls.

[nihilmancy]

What about chicken? I can do chicken.

[vitellina]

Chicken sounds good.

[nihilmancy]

Should get started now, then. It's good that they're providing us with food, at least. It probably won't be poisoned or anything.

[Floating a bit off the ground to avoid using her leg, and heading back toward the team carriage.]

[vitellina]

[ following her ]

How come everyone on this team but me can float?

[nihilmancy]

I don't think that Calico can.

[vitellina]

Can't wait for that to get proven wrong.

[nihilmancy]

We'll all eat chicken together in the clouds, while you languish in the dust and dirt, thou foolish mortal.

[vitellina]

Even the fucking train flies...

Actually, am I mortal? Those people from the afterlife who say they know me are dead, so I think I might be a death god or something? Which is weird, because I suck.

[nihilmancy]

Hm? People from the afterlife?

[vitellina]

There's two people here, Elaine and 80H, who are from some dead person forest for dead people. They know me from there. I guess my name is supposed to be Aurelia or something stupid like that.

...I don't really want to talk about it, though?

[ tapping the side of her skull with a fist ]

You know, bzz bzz.

[nihilmancy]

Ah. Strange.

[Somehow she gets the picture, and drops it.]

[vitellina]

But, yeah. That plus the constant urge to drag Panther straight to hell and my inability to not talk to myself about weird things my brain said to me about death and dying and then your...thing.

[ just gestures at her ]

I guess I could just be a soul stealer or something.

[nihilmancy]

[She has a feeling that there's something... wrong, but Tabby isn't really certain what it is. It's mostly on the back of her mind, something that doesn't sit right. Some ill feeling that creeps in from time to time. Sharp and hungry.]

...I don't know what you mean. Could you tell me more? About myself.

1/2

[vitellina]

[ monotone: ]

You are decaying. Like a tree beset by fungus , the degradation you undergo is both invisible and unknown to the body and mind. Until the very moment the tree dies, it continues to live as if it is not being devoured alive.

Though, I would hardly call that living.

[vitellina]

[ and back to normal ]

Metaphorically though. I think you're not actually dying, I don't know. I don't think about any of this, I just open my mouth and words come out.

[nihilmancy]

[Oh. Somehow, despite the denial, she does realize that something- something is after her. No, it's already here. It will swallow her up. That is what she realizes in this moment.

Tabby doesn't feel much in that moment, except that the sharp feeling pokes at her again, and the things around her seem somewhat less real. For a moment, anyhow.]

Oh. Okay. I wonder if- I wonder if I'll remember that too.

[vitellina]

Memories sound like a scam though! You probably shouldn't worry about it, unless it has something to do with you being weird sometimes. You should definitely do something about that.

[nihilmancy]

[Weird, is it? Like something living at the bottom of a river, snatching travelers out of their boats, and building nests from the bones. That image comes to mind. She's not sure why.]

I'll see what I can do. Everything is weird right now.

[vitellina]

...Yeah, that's true.

[nihilmancy]

[Tabby stops floating, and walks the rest of the way to the car. At this rate she'll tire herself out, and she still needs to make dinner. It isn't very far anyway. She is favoring one leg slightly.]

...I already could tell that something was wrong.