Event: Worldhop #1 | Part III

[trainmasters]

Who: everybody
When: Day 55, daytime
Where: The Aurora, and...?

Right on schedule, in the morning a message blares over the intercom in The Construct's robotic voice, loud enough to be heard in the nearby jungle, and coming from anyone's Chain who happens to be out of range:

The Aurora will be departing Origin Star in one hour. All heroes please proceed to your team carriage. All residents of Origin Star please stay at least 100 feet from the train during takeoff.

The Prince of Stars would like to remind you that non-heroes are at extreme risk of corruption should they leave the purified sector. Likewise, heroes who remain on Origin Star will no longer have the protection of the Aurora's Prism and may face unknown adverse effects. We sincerely apologize for any concern and ask that everyone give their full cooperation as we proceed to our next mission.

Thank you, and stay positive!

PCs have exactly one hour from this notice to say any final goodbyes to the townspeople, and gather any last materials from the jungle. The Construct gives a warning at 15 minutes, at 5, and at 1, and then the outer doors and doors between cars close and lock and the train begins to lift off.

Outside the windows you can see Origin Star slowly drift away into the sea of stars for 10 minutes or so, before the train begins to warp -- a fantastic show of blurred light and square sparkles lasts about another hour, before the Aurora comes out into a starless, sunless sea above a Star coloured in shades of pink and white and brown and speckled in rainbow.

As you approach, you notice things are looking rather... delicious? The scenery below appears like some fairy tale witch's cottage, made of cake and candy and other such sweets, with lakes of chocolate and peppermint trees. You can't see what all is out there yet, especially given the darkness, but you can catch a glimpse of colorful somethings moving below.

Ultimately, the train lands on top of some kind of small plateau, next to a river -- and this Star's Prism, which glows balefully black, with a strong sense of unpleasantness wafting from it. The river is thankfully between you and it, but you're still parked awfully close. When the train is fully stopped, the Construct announces:

Congratulations on your safe journey. We have arrived at the Confectionery Kingdom. Please note this sector is currently completely corrupted. Likelihood of imminent danger is: extreme. Scanning and protection of immediate area will take six hours. Proceed with utmost caution until systems have completed setup.

From here, you can go outside, if you so choose. The plateau the train sits on, it turns out, is made entirely of brownie. Unfortunately, if you try to eat it, it's disgustingly salty. The river full of honey tastes good, however, as long as you're willing to brave the lemon-peel eels which give painful electric shocks. The grass is also sweet -- spun-sugar like, it shatters easily but seems to grow right back as soon as it does.

You don't have much time to enjoy it yet, though. As warned, there's imminent danger -- after mere minutes, the air is full of crackling growls, as you're beset by something resembling a very weird zombie nightmare. Faceless moving gingerbread men as big as a person approach in droves, smeared in rancid frosting that smells horrible and makes you feel light-headed. They'll try to grab hold of anyone they catch, and should they catch them, they'll tremble and beat them bloody, possibly even to death.

Despite their nimbleness, the gingerbread ghouls are hard as rock and not easily broken. They can be temporarily defeated by turning them to mush with water, but once dry their crumbs will roll together and they'll resume their old form. The only way to really beat them is to accept their resentment -- give them a hug and they'll crumble, their dust blowing away in the breeze.

Somehow, you must survive the next few hours... Good luck, Heroes of Distant Stars!

[[NOTE: We're still taking train upgrade suggestions here through the 12! The upgrade poll, along with the close of this event, will be posted on the 13th! Also, apps are open and will close on the 14th, so if you have an app in the works or a friend to invite, have at!]]

Comments

[daydreamshimmer]

It could have been. [She shrugs her shoulders.] He's in the memory loss boat with you.

Some kind of summon attempt could have been messed up. Maybe an attempt to cross worlds. Or maybe it was something on purpose. Penric and Desdemona is apparently a thing that happens in their world regularly enough. If you were an orphan, you could have been selected for some kind of magical initiation. If it's not something you've heard of, it might be secret and using people with no family ties could easily be a common practice.

[malignstar]

Absolutely none of that is reassuring, just so you know.

[daydreamshimmer]

Like I said, no delicate way to put it.

But I can say this.

He doesn't mean you any harm. And I don't think he really wants to hurt innocent people, despite some serious self loathing issues.

[malignstar]

You... talked to him? How?

[daydreamshimmer]

Like I said, a really powerful telepath.

He was in control of your body for a little bit. It didn't take long to figure out something was wr-was amiss. He doesn't move or talk like you.

Unfortunately he's also incredibly moody and wouldn't give me a straight answer, so I got the answer myself. Ended up in your head trying to find out what had happened to you.

[malignstar]

This whole time, I thought I was just crazy... He has to be the reason I tried to kill someone months ago, before you arrived. I couldn't even remember doing it, just woke up covered in someone else's blood.

[daydreamshimmer]

He what? [Jesus Christ.] See, this is why he needs to just learn to talk to people. You hear me in there? Use your words!

[Huffs.] I don't think he wants to hurt innocent people, but he's real gung ho about hurting people who hurt YOU.

[malignstar]

[ It feels really weird to have someone trying to talk to someone else in your head, just saying. ]

... there was something like that in one of my memories. I was in trouble for hurting people then too. But I thought it was just me. I never imagined...

[ He rubs hard at his face with the heel of his hand. ]

Is he... this other soul... is he human? Could you tell that sort of thing?

[daydreamshimmer]

He thinks he's a demon. Whether or not that's true, I can't tell. Demons are kind of a blank space for my knowledge of creatures. My only other exposure was Desdemona.

[Because going demon herself was a Big Deal, now it's just a ~void~]

But like we fought because I was worried about you, so I can get why he gets violently defensive of you. He's just also super bad at societal awareness.

[malignstar]

Fought? Did he hurt you?

[daydreamshimmer]

[Flat look.] I am more than capable of defending myself, thank you. I handled that, I handled the explorations. Heck, I fought my teammate who is a god from a warrior culture, and I was perfectly fine to go on the explorations without visiting the med car.

I just needed a nap because of the mental strain, but hey, now I know how that all works and that's important information.

[malignstar]

That's not what I meant! I don't care if you can or can't handle it, that's not the point! I want to know what I did to you.

[daydreamshimmer]

You didn't do anything.

He's not you. And you're not him.

[malignstar]

... it's still my body. My responsibility.

Who is he and why does he care so much about me?

[daydreamshimmer]

No, it's not your responsibility. His actions are his own. His mistakes are his own.

You don't have to agree with his actions, you can be mad at him for what he's done because you don't like those actions, but they are NOT your fault.

[malignstar]

But it has to be! There has to be a reason he's so protective.

[daydreamshimmer]

Because you're a stupidly endearing person, maybe?

I mean, part of it is he doesn't like being hurt and he doesn't trust you to protect yourself, but there is an undeniable sense of care in how he talks about you. Whatever reason, he is legitimately fond of you as well.

But just as me getting in a fight with him because I worried about you doesn't make it your fault, him caring about you doesn't make his actions your fault.

[malignstar]

[ You actually made him blush ]

Did you just call me stupidly endearing? And I don't know how I feel about you getting in a fight with my dark half because of me.

[daydreamshimmer]

Yes, I did. Because you are. You're like a kitten. Ditching you in the rain would leave me wrack with guilt for all time, so I have to take you inside.

Or in this case, fight your moody roommate. Because he's not your half, he's another person.

[malignstar]

... I don't know whether I should feel touched or kind of insulted.

Anyway, how am I supposed to stop him from hurting people in my body?

[daydreamshimmer]

Talk to him. Which...is a thing we need to figure out, but it might be he can lower the mental block between you two.

He was just hesitant to try to do that because he's pretty convinced you're gonna hate him entirely and that you'll think he's a monster or hate yourself because you have him and not believe he's another person.

His self esteem is actually pretty terrible.

[malignstar]

I mean, I'm not happy about the whole involuntary possession thing or the tendency toward attempted murder...

But I would like to figure this shit out.

[ Not going to comment on the self esteem thing since his own self esteem isn't that great. ]

[daydreamshimmer]

To be fair, the attempted murder bit is to protect you because you'll apparently let yourself get hurt even for people who don't deserve that kind of kindness.

Which tracks, kitten boy.

But it's not like he's got a lot of choice in this situation either.

[malignstar]

I'm not trying to get hurt. I just don't run away from it when someone else is on the line. And everyone deserves a chance.

I didn't mean to hurt him though.

[daydreamshimmer]

He seems to think you're too willing to jump on the sword.

Yeah, I told him you wouldn't want to hurt him if you realized you were different people. He was just convinced you'd see him as your own dark side.