auroraexpress | EVENT: The Very Hungry Nightblossom FINALE

Who: everybody
When: Day 10, sunrise
Where: mainly outside

[Sometime early in the morning, there's a deep rumble, as the ground shakes. The vines previously grabbing at the Aurora and its heroes multiply rapidly, completely coating the train and shutting out starlight. For a moment everything creaks, as if the metal itself is about to cave in.

But then it stops. Somewhere far away something roars, and suddenly the vines retreat, leaving only a few remaining cracks in the ground. Below, the caves have only the harmless glowing mushrooms which, should you choose to attempt eating them, prove to quickly fill one's stomach and leave them with a burst of energy. You can follow the tunnels still, though -- now that they're free of monster plant, you'll find it's one big connected network. There are various small caves in which iridescent white crystals grow, letting off a faint light reminiscent of the moon. From them drips a translucent liquid which feels soft and cool on the skin, until it seeps in. Once it's in your bloodstream you'll find yourself caught in a euphoria that encourages acting on your every impulse. If you want to steal something, you will. If you want to kiss someone, you will. If you want to kill someone...

...Well. It's possible to overcome the compulsions, at least. You need only picture someone you care more about than yourself, and concentrate. Unfortunately the high that comes with it can be addictive, so one must take care when exploring the caves.

It's unlikely anyone will get much exploring done before sunrise, but if you're not in the deep dark where signal is poor, you'll be woken at dawn by a loud and cheerful jingle on your Chain. Even if you were previously dead, you're sure up now! Accompanying it is the slight shift in the train that usually comes with a trial, and a message that just says:

come outside

If you follow the summons, you'll see that rather than a scary tower or spooky house, there's what appears to be a really flashy convertible, painted a shimmering deep rose. Leaning against the hood is a man who appears just over twenty, with long hair and bright eyes, both quite literally twinkling with stars.

His voice might be familiar, if you were one of the first arrivals. But the tone, rather than sad and soft, is... frankly annoyingly full of energy. As is his smile as he waves at everyone coming out.]

"Good morning, my lovely heroes!"

[[OOC NOTES: Anyone who died will be revived at the time of the prince's arrival, even if it's earlier than the 1 day revival timeline. Injuries can still be there depending on your character's timeline, but there are a couple of hours between the plants leaving and the prince appearing, so everyone should have had time to catch their breath and take a shower at least.]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That's right. Mostly, the souls of higher lifeforms won't become monsters. They just get lost, like all of you. But it's possible some of the most powerful monsters were people.

....How?

That's just what happens when you're overtaken. It's...

[hm Cardamom is looking especially sad right now]

It's the people with the most pain who are most likely to become monsters.

... Then you've certainly picked a bad batch of heroes.

I don't think so. You're all people whose souls shone in the dark. That means there's something about you that resists complete despair. It doesn't mean you make friends easily, or anything. Just that there's something about you that keeps moving. Whether that's love, or hope, or just pride or anger. When you were consumed, something inside of you didn't give up. So I have faith in you.

Are you always so disgustingly optimistic?

Ahaha, well... That's my job! So yes!

Your job is to be optimistic.

Exactly! Because I'm--

--incredibly charming and my love will surely empower everyone to survive!

...You're irritatingly familiar.

--Eh?

Am I the man of your dreams? Is that it?

[Flatly;]

No. Please come back to reality.

...Okay.

... What do you do, anyway? When you're not hitting on people here.

Prince things, of course! Overseeing my staff, eating cake, trying to make plans to save everyone...

[Well at least it's not trying to get naked in front of people.]

Perhaps you could share those plans?

Considering right now they're mostly "hope and pray our heroes can either save us or give us the time to find another weakness in the Malice", I already have. We're doing all we can to analyze it and find a source, but in the meantime, it's all on you.

That's not a plan. That's barely an idea.

But it's what we've got~♪

It took a lot of time and energy to save just you guys. But ideally, you'll purify a few key Prisms, and we can educate the restored population. Then if all goes well, we can eat away at Malice from the edges until we find a source to dismantle. In the meantime, we do a lot of lab work.

What lab work?

Analyzing stuff, like I just said! We've taken a few samples of plants and things, and we're trying to determined how much we can see in the dark, and how far we can travel. There's also other details, but I'm not exactly head researcher...

...I see. You have time for all this and cake but not to send us useful instructions.

We were going to wake you up and send you instructions when the train was settled. But something hit it on the way down, so emergency mode was on and all...

But you're right we should've sent something since then. We focused too much on maintenance, when you heroes are the really important part of it. That's why I decided I should come explain in person, so it's more organic and you can yell at my face instead of the screen!

...How noble of you. Or perhaps you're a masochist.

A little of both~♪

Re: THE PRINCE

saddleclub - 2019-02-06 08:53 (UTC) - Expand

joybound - 2019-02-06 08:57 (UTC) - Expand

saddleclub - 2019-02-06 08:58 (UTC) - Expand

joybound - 2019-02-06 09:01 (UTC) - Expand

saddleclub - 2019-02-06 10:03 (UTC) - Expand

joybound - 2019-02-06 11:38 (UTC) - Expand

saddleclub - 2019-02-07 05:31 (UTC) - Expand

joybound - 2019-02-08 04:24 (UTC) - Expand