auroraexpress | INTROS + MONTHLIES

Entry tags:

INTROS + MONTHLIES

Who: Everyone
When: Day 60, evening
Where: the Aurora

[The Candy Hearts are gone-- or at least, they're no longer all over the place. If you kept a few for your own purposes then well, feel free to enjoy yourself. Live your best life!

Though you may have just got out of a Trial recently, there is the sound of an announcement on your Chain: ]

WELCOME NEW HEROES

[And indeed, there is another round of newbies 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.

"Someone" has seen to bring refreshments to greet the newbies. It's sparkling water, refreshingly cool and surprisngly sugar-free considering the surroundings. If you choose to drink it, you will find yourself instantly refreshed, almost as if you'd gotten a full day's rest. You will also find that the very next thing you say to someone is a mildly inconvenient truth. It cannot and will not compel you to tell someone your deep, dark secrets but it MIGHT compel you to admit you forgot to brush your teeth this morning....

Have fun and enjoy meeting your new people! ]

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

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Cute. Though she doesn't point our the blush. Just natural to be admiring her, weird human body aside.]

Ah, yes. That's your Chain. [There is a flat tone at Chain. She is not fond of the name.] Don't lose it. Its your key to our car and into the train and how you can spend your sparks. This place provided it.

...its possible. I woke up here in the wrong body, this place won't always take us from convenient times.

Oh, it's very important then. [He holds it a little tighter in his hand.]

What are sparks? Like from a fire?

[At that his eyes go wide.] Really? That must have been so exciting and strange. I wonder if I'm in my right body.

[He looks down at himself. Other than the odd-feeling clothing, he thinks things are mostly the way they should be, though again he also has that odd empty feeling in his head, that something more should be there but he can't figure out what it is.]

Unfortunately. Life will be very hard without it.

No, not from a fire.

It was rather traumatic, actually, not helped by a very unhelpful teammate. [To be fair, she was being rude as hell too, but she still hasn't forgiven Naveen.] But that's why I'll explain all I can, this all is much easier when we watch each others backs.

Come on, I need to drop off the jewelry and change my clothes, but I can explain things.

First off, sparks are a currency we can generate through certain tasks. We can spend sparks on items, but earning sparks also gets back our memories.

I'm sorry to hear you had a difficult time. [His tone is light but doesn't carry much in the way of sympathy. He just can't relate.]

Lead the way then! [In the meantime, he's going to be gawking at everything that he can see while he follows along. Somehow, it feels very familiar though he doesn't know why.]

What's a currency? How do they help with memories? [It's all very foreign to him.]

[She glances back at that, looking him over thoughtfully. Even without magic, she's always been fairly good at people reading.] Thank you. [But there is always room for politeness.]

[But she's leading the way back to Senna, keeping an eye on him.]

Your society doesn't use money then? Are you familiar with bartering as a concept?

[He's starting to recognize the layout as they return to the Senna car; as much as he wants to see new things, this place is also still very new so he should get acquainted with his surroundings sooner rather than later.]

I guess not? [He shrugs, eyes still staring around in wonder as they enter their comfortable cabin.] This place feels somewhat familiar. Comforting. I like it in this place.

I do know about bartering. Trading things for other things you need, right?

You might be used to trains. Or do you mean the gothic aesthetic of Senna? [Opening the car door.] This is our place, by the way. You're on Team Senna. Only our chains can open this door.

Correct. Currency is like that, but making the trades easier. Like say someone wants a quilt, and the quilter wants food. But the person who wants the quilt doesn't make food, they're like a blacksmith.

Well, currency is basically taking something and saying it has this much value and everyone in a society agrees it has this much value. Then they determine how much value is a quilt. Then the blacksmith can give the quilter this much currency and get their quilt, and then the quilter can go to a farmer and get food for the amount of currency they've agreed food cost.

Now everyone doesn't need to make sure they have the item a provider wants and instead allow the provider to have their choice of where they get what they want with currency.

I think it's how this place is very... cave-like? [Yeah, caves felt right. Comforting.] Team Senna, huh? So we're partners in all of this?

[He nods along with her explanation. That... made sense. It will probably come together the more he experiences it himself.]

So where does the currency come from? Who decided how much is worth a trade? What if someone decides they don't like it and refuse to take it? [He's babbling, but honestly there seems to be some flaws in this system.]

Cave-like? Could be. People who are shades of blue aren't always from darker or ceiling regions, but you are more likely to find a blue night pony than an orange one. [Makes total sense to her.]

Teammates, to be specific. Anyone wearing this terracotta color is your teammate.

It varies from society to society. In Equestria, we use bits. Minted coins made of gold. Gold itself can be useful in a multitude of ways and it's pretty, so it has at least some intrinsic value. But the exact amount of value in both bits and items is determined by society. If you're in a place with a lot of apples, apples are going to be very cheap because the demands can be met. If you're in a place with few apples, they're going to cost more because only so many people can get apples and because whoever provided the apples probably had to work harder to get what amount they got.

And currency is a societal agreement. If people refuse to take it, then they're making things harder on themselves. Currency is all about making sure people can get what they need, when they need it, instead of needing someone who provides that thing to need what you provide.

If they just like bartering, there are markets for that, but as a whole life thing when everyone else is using bits, it's choosing to live life in a harder way.

[He nods along, but not all the words she just said made sense. He's sure the context will come out eventually.]

Terracotta? ... oh, the pants! [He looks down at his clothing, throwing his arms out and spinning around. He frowns when he comes back to a stop.] All these clothes feel weird.

Oh I see. So it is determined by the availability of the items you need or want. Bartering and markets are more what I'm used to, I think, but I could probably get used to something new. Everything is new to me here so far.

One more question! What's an apple?

Yeah. It's a color name. This color. [She knows her colors, okay.] Do they? That's surprising, everyone is always up in arms on how important clothes are. [And here's her room. It is a lot bigger then it should reasonably be and looks like a cross between Rapunzel's tower from Tangled and a mage's tower. Though the walls are mostly blank now. She has Plans.]

[She's going over to her dresser, pulling off the various bits of jewelry she has on her.]

Correct. And don't worry, here it's fairly simple. There's not a whole lot of vendors to get things from, so prices are consistent. [And suspect as hell, but another time for her conspiracy theories.]

It's a kind of food that can be grown on a tree.

They just feel strange to me. [Kind of like they're not enough coverage, but there's not much of him that's revealed. It's just kind of strange.]

[Once they reach her room he takes a step in, then steps right back into the door frame and stays there. Something tells him he really shouldn't go into a girl's room, even if she invited him in. He turns his eyes away to give her some privacy.]

Well, that's good.

Um... what's a... tree?

Maybe you're wearing too much. Or not enough. Clothes are confusing, I just wear them because people get all worked up about it. Usually ponies only dressed up for events or protective gear.

....so first step of the tour is the garden car. Do you know what plants are?

[He blushes at that, but keeps his voice relatively neutral. He still isn't going to look directly at her, instead taking time to look around her very spacious room. Lots of books here...] Interesting. I feel like I need more clothes but I'm not sure why. I'm pretty well covered, yes?

Ah, yeah. Plants. Like carrots and potatoes?

You seem overdressed, but I'm a terrible judge. Maybe Loki or Pen willk now better.

Yes. Though bigger than that. You'll see in the garden car. I have some ferns and succulents in here though, other kinds of plants.

May want to turn around a second. [Pulling off her dress now.]

[But it is only a few seconds before a flash of magic and now have a pony.]

[Now he's imagining bigger root vegetables.] Like a turnip?

[Before he can look properly for the ferns, he turns around and covers his eyes as well, just for good measure.]

Tell me when I can look again.

Some kinda can look like that.

Its safe to look. I'm just not entirely sure what happens to my clothes when I change and I actually like this dress. [Holding it up with telekinesis and setting it aside, heading down to the main floor.]

Anyway, these are ferns. [And floating down a fern pot.] More of a decorative plant. Only a few creatures can really eat them.

[He turns and gasps, a smile filling his face once again.] Look at you! I've never seen anything like you before! And are you using magic?

[It feels like magic, but not something he's used to. But how would he know?]

How very pretty. Can it be used in spells?

I know. I look amazing. [She absolutely preens under attention.] I'm a pony, unicorn specifically, from Equestria.

And I am. I'm a very talented sorceress.

The fern? Hmmm, there's some where it's possible. Though it's mostly Zebra's who do more nature based potions and rituals. I can use a fern as a subject as a spell, but nothing comes to mind as a component.

[A pony. That was a new one. So was "unicorn" and "Equestria" and "Zebra" but he was starting to get the idea of all this.]

Wow. Teach me how to use magic! Can I change into a pony too?

I think I'm more used to that kind of magic, I think? Rituals sound right to me.

That's easier said than done. Unicorn magic uses the horn as a focus, a way to take magic inside the body and make it be outside. Humans don't have a focus.

They are capable of using magic, but HOW they make the magic WORK is still something I'm figuring out. I have magic as a human, but as of right now, I have very little idea of how it works or control of when it goes off. It's rather annoying.

Though if we can figure out, one, if you have magic, and two, how to get it out of you, then I can try teaching you spells. Though I do know some rituals, but most of those are for pretty big spells that would need some kind of purpose.

As for changing into a pony? I do have spells, but that requires using myself as a sort of 'copy base' and it might not work because I have to use a magical item to change. [Which is also annoying.] I don't have a proper shapeshift spell and without the item, I default to human.

That's too bad. [But he doesn't seem too disappointed, just curious.]

I can't wait to find out! I want to do magic things. I don't remember if I had it before, but even if not I'd want it anyway. [To be fair, he wants everything.]

Hmm, well, let's try is out at a later time. When we have everything we need. Until then, I guess we can see this garden?

Well, if you're familiar with the concept, that is a good sign. I mean, if magic is in the world, it's always possible to have something of it. Just a question of how much and how well it can be controlled.

[Magic is a legit thing to want, okay okay.]

Yes. [And putting her fern back.] Follow me.

When you need to sleep and eat and such, you come back to Senna. The room you woke up in is yours, though I guess if you want to move to another empty one, you can. Though the empty ones are all the same.

[But leading the way out of Senna.]

I want all of it I can get. It wouldn't be so fun living in a world of magic and being magic-less.

[He'll happily follow along again, this time watching her move as if he's never seen anything like it. Which he hasn't but he doesn't know that yet.]

So this is our house, then? I'll remember it.

I like my room. I think I could stay there just fine. But it's not nearly as nice as yours. How did you get it so big?

True. Being magic-less is the worst. [This is part of why she tries to be pony so much here. MAGIC is easier and versatile.]

[Trotting along as a sedate pace.]

Basically. And I bought it. I figured if I was stuck here, I'd at least have somewhere nice to stay.

But that's a good reason to continue our currency lesson. Sparks is the currency on the train. Now instead of getting physical items, you get a tally on your Chain. As you earn sparks, the number goes up, and you can buy things from the spark store.

Such as room upgrades, or clothes, or magic items. All sorts of things. I even got a tattoo kit, that's how I got this. [Gesturing to the rather large one along her back and around her neck.]

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