Event: A Prelude

[trainmasters]

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 8, evening
Where: around

[It's a beautiful evening in the jungle tonight. It's warmer than usual, and some new plants have appeared, black vines that climb up the trees near the Aurora, opening hundreds of tiny white flowers that glow in the darkness. They let of a sweet smell that's soothing like a chamomile tea, and are filled with a dew that, if consumed, leaves characters feeling relaxed and just a little more likely to act on positive impulses.

However, the vines of this plant aren't so harmless. When broken they drip a milky white substance which irritates the skin, leaving red welts that burn and last anywhere from an hour to a full day, depending on how long the substance is in contact. Eating this won't kill you but it'll give you really intense heartburn and nausea for a few hours.

Additionally, if you're walking around in the nearby jungle, you might trip over one of the small cracks that have appeared in the forest floor. Mostly they're not visible underneath the grass and underbrush, but the bigger ones have caused a slight unevenness in the ground that can catch careless toes. There doesn't seem to be any particular pattern or origin to the cracks, nor do they have any other affect on their surroundings. They're just there, suddenly, in a roughly 100-foot radius from the train.

But there's plenty of reason to ignore these natural phenomenon, because there are some new teammates waking up in your carriages! In response to this new wave of arrivals, existing players will hear a cute jingling ringtone come from their Chain. Upon checking, the screen displays... a silly animation of balloons and confetti and the words "WELCOME NEW HEROES", which goes away on its own after a few seconds or when characters tap it. The same display is shown on the big screen in the lounge, in which trays full of colourful drinks have mysteriously appeared. The drinks taste like Kool-Aid and change some part of you the corresponding colour -- pink hair, blue skin, purple eyes, or maybe just a literal green thumb!]

[[OOC NOTE: Newbies can review the arrival scenario on the navigation page if necessary. The drinks in the lounge come in any colour you want, and cause colour shift in whatever and however large an area you want. It could just be a strand of hair or it could be your entire body, whatever you feel like playing with.]]

Comments

[ewestmarch]

That sounds like- mm. Our dragons aren't animals. They're smarter than most humanoid races and have been around a lot longer, too. Very much against reanimation. I don't blame them.

[Emilia adjusts her gloves again. The rot can't itch, her sense of touch is dead, but sometimes, psychosomatically ...]

[bowtiedbones]

We don't generally say reanimation either. Our worlds seem very different.

[ewestmarch]

What do you call it?

[bowtiedbones]

It's just animation. We're not "bringing back" the dead. The soul that inhabits the host is a new construct, not the old memories.

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia flinches.]

A new soul in the old body?

[bowtiedbones]

We can't restore the old soul. There's multiple reasons, but for my work, the souls have been dead too long. They're shredded, tattered, and there's undoubtably pieces missing. My Isildur died over 8000 years ago— even if some of his pieces came back to his body, I'm not going to try and make them remember themself.

[ewestmarch]

I - mm - I.

[She shakes her head, disturbed.]

We don't do that. Where do you get the new soul?

[bowtiedbones]

The new soul is a construct. I cast a summoning, and any pieces of that species' dead that are willing or able to answer will fit themselves together to make one new whole.

[ewestmarch]

Is it the same for the ones that raise intelligent races?

[because Oh God]

[bowtiedbones]

No, because there's nobody does that.

[ewestmarch]

Where I'm from, the - practice is, to pull the human soul back out of the afterlife, and bind it back to the body it came from.

[Illustrating with gestures but not making eye contact. She's never had to actually explain this before, most people just ... know.]

After that, it can never return to the Light. You bind it and then suppress the will so that the body is animated but has to obey.

[Adjusts gloves.]

It's illegal because it's... cruel. But if you're already undead, it's the only kind of medicine we respond to, and the six million or so of us that are free need doctors. So that's... what I do.

[This is awkward to explain, and most of it is explained to the air over Eliza's shoulder instead of her face.]

But if you tell people you know necromancy - [sigh] they don't get the right idea.

[bowtiedbones]

There is um, emergency resuscitation for calling a soul back to the body, but that’s only in hospitals. It’s not classed as necromancy either, since you need the body to be capable of living. Like spiritual CPR.

[fidgeting some herself, wringing her hands and tucking her hair behind her ears— picking up on Emilia’s discomfort, and some of her own. but not looking away, deliberately. her unease is with the technicalities of the process at home, not with Emilia herself.]

“Cruel” sounds right... Any raising of a conscious human soul, or even an animal soul with its own memories, would be too traumatic. But we still get people too who don’t know about necromancy, or— If they’re from another world, they think I can do that.

But I don’t. My summoning are callings. What answers is willful and willing, and safe in its host.

[ewestmarch]

That sounds nice.

[almost wistful.]

What do you use them for? Combat?

[bowtiedbones]

Research, mostly. My familiars also support my magic— I can do bigger and more complicated summonings more safely with their help.

[ewestmarch]

I'd like to see them sometime.

[bowtiedbones]

Do you want to meet one right now? I said in that trial, right? I can get one of their ghosts here.

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia cracks a smile.]

Sure. There room for a whole dragon in here?

[bowtiedbones]

He's a ghost, so technically sure, but also he's a small one.

[ewestmarch]

[smol . . . .]

I definitely want to see him.

[bowtiedbones]

He's not going to be too impressive, since my spell for glamors doesn't work, but...

Isildur!

[claps her hands and calls, and without any fanfare a bear-sized shadow suddenly darkens the air behind Eliza]

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia knows it's coming but still twitches - a startle that has her hand going towards the kitchen knife on her hip. There's no conscious thought involved in the motion, and she doesn't actually draw it.]

Oh.

[bowtiedbones]

[Eliza doesn't register the gesture, turning to hug the shadow's heavy spiky head. looking directly at him it's hard to register any detail, just a patch of shadow on the air, but out of the corner of her eye or between blinks— the outlines are sharper, and the shadows are darker. impressions of looming muscle and bony armor, of sharp teeth and powerful claws. this is a dragon built for hunting and chasing prey down on the ground]

Here's my good boy! This is Isildur, he's a dragonwolf.

[ewestmarch]

Can I get closer? [Is that safe?] ... What is a dragonwolf?

[bowtiedbones]

Sure, he won't hurt you.

[really, he seems more preoccupied with headbutting Eliza for attention like a giant needy cat]

Dragonwolf is the common name for this kind of dragon. They were terrestrial pack-hunters, thus "wolves". Oh! He does still have wings though. They're too small for flying, so we think they were probably used for signaling, like how lizards use their dewlaps or how birds show off.

[ewestmarch]

[Emilia immediately steps in and raises a hand to try to pat the shadow, though not quite sure where the shoulder is.]

How many kinds of dragons are there?