progresscity | Intro Log

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Intro Log

Who: Everyone!
What: Your first magical day
Where: Progress City Tranport Center
When: Right now
Warnings: None planned!

[Today you found a ticket to a theme park. It seems relatively normal, except that it reads: Lifetime Parkhopper Pass to Progress City. ”The Most Magical Pocket Dimension in the Multiverse!” This is not a theme park you have ever heard of, if you live in a world where theme parks are of the norm.

For some reason you’re drawn to the ticket. There’s something… magical in this piece of paper, and you can practically hear it calling out to you, and you feel compelled to pick it up. It’s strange, but it’s a piece of paper, what’s the worst that could happen?

However, the moment you pick it up, you feel yourself being pulled. There is nothing pulling you but there is an overwhelming sensation that something is pulling you by the chest into the ground. You don’t have time to process what’s going on before you suddenly fall over, the strange feeling going away the moment you hit the ground.

It takes a few moments for you to regain your bearings, but as you look up you are suddenly hit with the fact that, wherever you were before, you certainly aren’t there anymore. It appears to be a transport station of some sort, and a very sleek and new one at that. Monorails pass by the station every couple of minutes, with small, slower moving vehicles consistently move in and out of the center.

The innermost wall, right behind where you stand, is lined with portals. It appears that you came in through this portal, but if you try to go back the way you came in, you’ll find that you are unable to enter it, no matter how hard you try.

While the realization that you are now trapped in this strange place, you will soon find that you also have a strange band strapped to your dominant wrist. No matter how hard you try to take it off, it seems like it’s stuck on there.

At least you’re not alone, along with a bunch of other people who arrived around the same time you did, there are humanoid people who seemed to be intrigued by your arrival. They’re all generally nice, but get confused if you ask them why you’re here and why you can’t leave. They will, however, happily tell you the name of the place you’re in if you ask:

Progress City.]

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[She'd been galloping away through the woods on Philippe, upset and angry and fearful, when she spied something on the ground that caused her to pull up short, circle back around. Against every fiber of her being that was screaming at Belle to keep running, not to stop until she reached home and her father. But still, she pulled Philippe up, turned him, and dismounted, crouching down in the snow to reach out for that piece of paper, just so she could read the words printed on it...it was so colorful, so unlike anything she'd ever seen...

And then she's stumbling, gasping, wheeling as she realizes her surroundings have changed completely. And if the castle was unlike anything she'd ever seen, this...this is like a completely different reality. All sleek lines and silver paint, and moving things she can't even comprehend the usage of until she sees people stepping in and out of them.

And the strap around her wrist, decorated with...rose petals? That can't...that isn't right. She tugs at it in vain, tries to work it off her tiny hand, but nothing's working.]

This can't be right, this...can't be real.

[Can it?]

[Della's been so fascinated with the whole scenario that she doesn't even notice who is and who isn't a new arrival when she goes to ask them questions, so she barely even glances at Belle, let alone notices her confusion, when she starts up again.]

Oh, it's real! Trust me, I've already gone and tried pushing half of this stuff over. None of it's cardboard, and that whole ticket thing was way too--

[...Actually this person doesn't. Look like she's handling this whole situation incredibly well, from the way she's tugging at her band like that. It admittedly takes Della a while to actually notice said alarm, but once she does she kind of trails off.]

--Uh, hey, are you okay? The band doesn't really come off... I've tried that, too.

[Belle has to blink for a second down at the...duck girl...she's speaking to, and while it's not the strangest sight Belle has seen, it still takes a moment's getting used to, so she ends up missing...most of the first part of what Della is saying.

She presses her lips together, shaking her head, and then lets out a skeptical laugh.]

It's just....I've never seen anything like this, and people just keep saying this is Progress City, but I've never heard of that in my entire life!

Well, you can't know every city in the world, right? [She'd be more surprised if someone had heard of this place before, because Della sure hasn't and she's a big fan of studying maps.] But... well, I'm sure one of the trains leads out of here!

[She doesn't actually believe that because the portals have got to be there for a reason, but. No reason to start delving into theories about why they're seemingly trapped here. She at least vaguely knows that'd probably be upsetting.]

I suppose that's true...

[Belle looks around them, the gears in her head turning as quickly as they can to process all of this, but something doesn't click in her head.]

Trains...? Those...those things people are coming in and out on?

Oh, right, yeah! It's-- [She turns and points at the Monorail, just to make it more clear.] --those things.

I guess they don't have a lot of trains where you come from?

None at all, actually. Or...anything like this, as a matter of fact. It's all rather extraordinary.

[Now that she's at least calming down a little, she can take a moment to appreciate that. But she really ought to be getting back...to make sure her papa is okay.]

We're certain there isn't a way out?

Yeah, it's sorta weird, even for me. Not the trains. Just some of the other stuff.

[Just the tickets and the portal really. It's not like she's never been in an amusement park before.]

Well... the portals don't work from this direction, and I think that's how we came through. If there's another way, I haven't found it yet. But I wouldn't say I'm certain.

This can't be right. There must be a way back. No door works only one way, after all. Though I can't speak for a door that takes one to another world entirely.

[This is some intense enchanting, even more intense than turning an entire castle full of people into household objects.]

Portals aren't exactly the most common method of transportation, so it's hard to say if it's intended to work like this or not. But-- as of right now, it's definitely one-way. Some of us were running into it earlier to find out, but it's basically just a wall now.

[All of the portals seemed to be that way, so she figures that must be either intentional or a city-wide sort of failure. Which makes her think this might be some kind of technology rather than magic.]

[She's trying hard not to despair right now, but when it seems like she's just moved from one cage to the next, it's...difficult. Belle purses her lips to steady their trembling.]

Thank you. It's good to...at least know what it is we're dealing with.

Between all of us, we'll figure out a way to get out. I mean, we got in, so it can't be that difficult to leave. Besides, they can't kidnap this many people without someone noticing.

Uh, if it is kidnapping, anyways. Not saying it is.

Kidnapping. Of course.

[Belle's voice sounds kind of...faint.]

I can't be kidnapped. I—I have to get home, I have to make sure my father is okay!

Perhaps it’s not real, maybe it’s a nightmare. Have you considered that? That you’re consrantly sprawling down the slippery slope of lucid nightmares? Of sleep paralysis? Knowing you’ll never wake up.

[count olaf is already attempting to blend in, creeping over from a nearby barrier, and wearing an overbearing pair of mickey ears.]

[Belle turns abruptly, looking at the...frankly rather creepy man in his mouse ears (???) spouting some awfully pessimistic rhetoric at her. She frowns.]

I'm not certain that's how sleep paralysis works, actually.

Is that your attempt to reason with yourself through this madness?

I don't find anything wrong with wanting to use reason. Staying rational certainly isn't hurting anything.

But panic is much more fun!

If one thrives on chaos, which surely isn't a sustainable practice.

Chaos is as viable a source of energy as coal. Clean chaos is not a myth.

That doesn't make any sense.

WRONG! It's the world that makes no sense. Like an animal. Dark. Cruel. Unforgiving.

...Are you by chance an actor?

[Belle can't imagine anyone else being this dramatic, and she's met Lumiére, so that's saying something.]

A handsome and successful one, at that!

[BIG DOUBT]

...I'm sure of it.

Intro Log

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