INTROS + MONTHLIES

[trainmasters]

Who: Everyone
When: Day 59, morning
Where: the Aurora

[It's morning, though you might not know it from the darkness that remains outside. But there is an annoouncement on your Chain to brighten up the day regardless:]

WELCOME NEW HEROES

[This round's newbies are waking up in their rooms, in the usual nondescript undies or team pyjamas. They'll get their basic welcome message and a prompt to view the IC Guide.

As you go out to greet them, you might find that the entire train has been decorated! By whom is not readily apparent, but there's streamers and heart-shaped balloons adorning all the hallways and many of the additional cars besides which. It's festive!

You know what else is festive? The candy hearts sitting in bowls around the place. They all have generic, cute messages on them like "I ♥ You," "Be Mine," "Text Me," "Forever," etc. Try one out! Though you might find they carry some effects when you try one out....

♥ Pink Hearts These hearts will cause an empathetic bond! For the next few minutes/hours/rest of the thread, you'll find yourself connected with the nearest person in arguably the most intimate of ways....

♡ White Hearts You just can't help it after you chomp down on one of these hearts-- you've got a song on your lips bursting to come out! You may even feel up for dancing. Go forth and be your best, most musical sellf!

♥ Green Hearts You know what that person you're talking to RIGHT NOW needs? A hug!!! At least, that's the urge you'll get the moment you pop a green heart into your mouth. Although handholding also seems to get rid of the compulsion, so hey, there's options!

♡ Blue Hearts The very next thing you say after you eat one of these bad boys comes out in poem form! It doesn't have to be good poetry, mind you. Limericks, haikus, anything goes! At least it's mercifully brief?

And so it goes. Enjoy your icebreaker and make that fresh meat feel welcome!]

[[OOC NOTES: As the monthly prompt, the candy hearts will continue until next month's placements. If you have any questions, please ping the mods via the q&a. Thank you!]]

Comments

[terribletwos]

[ Roxas pulls back his hand, distraught. ]

Why won't it... ?

[ Is this because he's on the side of Light now? Does that mean he has no way of leaving this place? He doesn't have a ship like Sora.

He turns back to Dusk. ]

What do you mean a plan of action?

[schrodingerscockroach]

I'd assume cosmic interference. Most people seem cut off from any energy sources they has previously, I'd assume that would also hit punching holes through space time.

Try a smaller jump. Like in the room still.

You're not the only one with friends, you know.

[terribletwos]

[ Roxas looks guilty at that, which probably looks extra depressing in his unicorn getup. ]

... sorry. We were separated for a long time. It's hard to believe it could happen again so soon.

Your friends got caught in it too?

[schrodingerscockroach]

Most likely. Though my situation is a complicated mess from what I've pieced together. Memory loss is a bitch. I may or may not have been on the same plane of existence as them at the time.

But if I'm going to get back to them, going with the action plan is my best bet. Running off on my own would accomplish jack squat and mean not helping efforts that may be necessary to save them. As it stands, at minimum I'm helping other people and getting my memories back, but good chance I'm saving them too.

[terribletwos]

How can we help here?

[ Will not comment on the super thorny topic of memory loss just yet. More important things. ]

[schrodingerscockroach]

A few ways.

The way to help with all the Malice is to purify a few key stars from my understanding. If we can get these stars cleared, then it should help us clear away the rest.

Or, you know, find what's behind the Malice, but that's a whole thing in the works.

To do that, one, is to do special missions to parts of the planet. The other is to gather energy to make a path to those places. Which is where teams come in.

[terribletwos]

What sort of missions?

[schrodingerscockroach]

Well, the one I was on meant running through an old tower, dealing with dangerous creatures and our emotions getting fu-messed with.

[terribletwos]

That's nothing new to me. How do we start these missions?

[schrodingerscockroach]

That will take time.

We just got to a new world. So first we need to build up energy.

Which we do with trials and bonding.

[terribletwos]

Trials and bonding?

[ He's not entirely sure how these two things are related. ]

[schrodingerscockroach]

Malice affects emotions and then it makes them stuff beyond physical problems. The tower had a lot of fear and loneliness affects.

So we fight that with positive emotions.

We're supposed to regenerate positive emotions by bonding with each other. Becoming friends and all that. There's a list of things.

Trials are more....condensed efforts of emotions. We compete in contests as teams and usually after a trial, more of the world is purified.

[terribletwos]

You fight with positive emotions?

[ Is this what Sora talks about? Unfortunately, positive feelings aren't really his expertise. Especially right now when he's worried about his friends. Maybe he can try redirecting his thoughts.

Becoming friends... That can't be that hard. Aside from the fact that most of his friendships just sort of happened without a lot of effort on his part...]

I can do contests.

[ Now competition, that's something he actually is good at. ]

I used to a lot of those.

[ Does it count if that place wasn't entirely real? ]

[schrodingerscockroach]

Well, that is the idea. Positive emotions have an affect.

I prefer just fighting with a gun, but when in Rome.... [Waves a hand in the air.]

But having friends is never a bad thing.

Good. For the most part. Here's where the direct terrible comes in. Trials are very loose in their definition. Sometimes, it's doing dumb things like truth or dare and playing candyland. Sometimes it's making things.

Sometimes it means running around a person's soul for some godawful reason.

Sometimes it involves people getting maimed and killed.

[terribletwos]

What's a gun?

Wait, the person who brought us here has the power to traverse hearts?

[ Yes, that is far more alarming than the maiming and killing. ]

[schrodingerscockroach]

[He pulls out the Orbal Gun.] This. For a pistol, anyway.

Yeah.

It's been a fucking riot. Haven't slept since I woke up from that, trying to sort out the maelstrom of emotional fuckery.

Which is basically murder my feelings until I can deal. I try to be more pleasant, but this is about as much as I got to offer.

[terribletwos]

[ That looks vaguely like one of Xigbar's arrowguns but not quite... Also more important thing! ]

Why would you want to murder your feelings? Did they change something about your heart?

[ Adding "fucking" to word bank. Negative adverb apparently. ]

[schrodingerscockroach]

Because if I didn't, I'm probably start screaming and not stop for a while.

And there's things to be done. Might be trials. There's killer candy outside. Got a newbie. [Gestures to Roxas.] This is a thing I do and it wasn't messed with. Put everything aside until I can process it and no way I'm processing it right now.

[terribletwos]

I thought the point of having feelings was to feel them.

[ Says someone who only had said emotions for like half a year... He does know from like Axel that people hide parts of themselves sometimes. But then why would this guy admit that? It's too weird. ]

And I don't need any special treatment. I just want to do what I have to to help my friends. If you're in a bad place right now, I can see if someone else has answers. You can take it easy.

[ Having someone mess with your heart can probably do a lot of damage, even if you manage to retain it. ]

[schrodingerscockroach]

They are. But I'm not exactly the poster child of emotional health, but I am remarkably functional in most any situation no matter how messed up and terrible it is. [He raises an eyebrow.] Are you already sassing me, or was that a genuine question?

You're my teammate. I can't not help, it's a whole thing. That's still pretty intact. It's actually.....kind of amplified? [Rubbing at his temple.] Which is saying something because I went hard on that before.

Mostly I'm saying this if you DO decide to run off into the woods as a warning. No running off to your death because Dusk can't be nice about making sure you don't die.

[terribletwos]

I meant it. I spent a while not having emotions or being told I didn't have them. It's just weird to hear someone say they don't want them.

I'm not going to run off. You said we need connections if there's no trials to complete. I need to find people for that. And what's Dusk?

[schrodingerscockroach]

....and that's another on the list. [SIGH] Parents, or someone else?

And I never said I don't want them. Just that I need to choose functionality because I can't deal with the rush all at once. Big difference between want and necessity. Sometimes we want things that make doing what's necessary impossible, so we put off the want until those can coexist.

Teammates good step one. And I'm Dusk. Your other teammate is Meridian. She's a dragon, and very cool. There are also other people on the train, other teams.

1/2

[terribletwos]

Parents?

[ What are parents? ]

So people can just... turn them off?

[ Roxas tends to want and do in the same breath so this whole discussion is difficult for him to wrap his brain around. What is restraint?]

... Roxas.

[terribletwos]

—Huh, our team has a dragon?

[schrodingerscockroach]

....who...raised you? [Why does the concept of PARENTS, confuse you?]

No. Most people can't. It's something I learned how to do because it was either find a way to function, or die. And it's come in handy over and over, to keep myself and others alive, so now I'm really good at it. But it can also kind of make me an asshole.

Trying to work on that, but... [Shrugs.]

Nice to meet you, Roxas.

Yes. She's very feathery.