Intro Log

[progressmods]

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.]

Comments

[not_over_yet]

Mm. [ Small hum of confirmation as he squints up at Joshua. Basil vaguely recognizes this fellow while simultaneously having no idea who he is. Did he see this fellow milling around at some point in the underworld with the others...? ] Which round were you in?

[ As for Ratigan, though... Basil's been wondering about that himself. He looks over their surroundings again. ]

...I don't know. Haven't seen him yet--that awful child is here, but they're hardly inseparable.

[lusito]

The one before yours, with Ratigan.

[At the mention of Marnie though, Joshua laughs a little.]

Hey now, that's not a nice thing to say about Marnie.

[not_over_yet]

[ Mildly aggrieved huff. ] Accurate enough, you knew who I meant.

... [ ALTHOUGH ]

Assuming we are speaking of the same person of course--the overly aggressive witch-child? I don't quite think I ever did learn her name.

[ Not like the name of your boyfriend's sorta-kid is an important piece of information that even Ratigan remembered to bother with or anything,, this is fine,, ]

[lusito]

Yes, that would be Marnie. Good to have around at parties, that one.

[And murdergame style situations too, obviously.]

[not_over_yet]

[ He considers Joshua's response before admitting she would be more tolerable at otherwise-dull social events... not saying anything to that effect, of course, which means a minor subject change is in order. ]

Why are you looking for Ratigan anyway? Did you... speak often...?

[ Does Ratigan have more than the one friend. Is that a thing now. Why are miracles accumulating, aren't they meant to be rare. ]

[lusito]

Indeed! We even took pictures together, during the time we spent in our own game.

[In fact we should still have... yes, good. Joshua pulls it up on his cellphone here: a selfie of himself and Ratigan grinning at the camera... while Ursula and Kylo Ren are trying to kill each other during a trial. Yep. That sure happened.]

[not_over_yet]

[ ...Wow there's a lot to address here.

Minor points first. Basil indicates the cellphone as a whole. ] I found a blue one of these during my game.

[ And now moving on to bigger issues... He points out... whatever it is going on in the background of the picture. ]

This. Merely a fight, or did you feel the need to have a keepsake from an execution?

[ One of those choices will be met with Judging. ]

[lusito]

A fight: the sea witch Ursula was the one that killed Kylo's girlfriend, and they ended up killing each other rather than allowing an execution to take place.

[not_over_yet]

[ and then joshua rolled a nat 20 on the charisma check,, ]

...A step up from another execution, I suppose...

[lusito]

It was certainly worth remembering, at least.

[Hence the selfie with Ratigan.]

Otherwise, Ratigan and I usually partaked in drinks at the bar they had in the trial room when the arguments started going nowhere.

[not_over_yet]

Your trial room had a bar. [ ??? ]

The games don't appear to have phased you much.

[ Not that Basil has any experience with how this fellow would have been prior to the rounds. The ordeal had strongly affected Ratigan, albeit not in the most... adverse of ways... Hm. Nevermind, moving on. ]

And you are...? You know me to some extent, but can't say our mutual acquaintance mentioned you.

[lusito]

I'm not surprised: he always seemed shocked anytime I referred to him as a friend, even after he sold his soul to Hades for a while there.

[Regardless, he bows his head in greeting.]

My name is Joshua. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance more properly now, Basil.

[not_over_yet]

[ Basil understands the reaction, honestly--buuuut no need to dwell on that particular issue, moving onwards. ]

He has that again, by the by. The soul. Freddie found it in a jar somewhere. [ Pause. ] ...You might not know who that is.

[ A somewhat-distracted bow in return. ] Any notion of what this place is? So far none of us recognize anything about it. I'm not even certain whether those things are trains... [ Somewhat aggrieved gesture towards one of the monorails. ]

[lusito]

Freddie... oh, yes, she was in your group, wasn't she?

[He sort of remembers her from spectating the game you were all in.]

It looks like we are in a theme park of some sort, though frankly a much more hospitable one than Dismaland by comparison.

[not_over_yet]

[ Confirmatory nod. ] Freddie Facilier--my daughter, now. She's here as well... somewhere or other.

[ Basil checks the crowd again, this time looking for Freddie and Ariel. ]

Hopefully they haven't wandered very far...

[ Hm. Well, they'll be fine without him, wherever they went. No need for alarm. Probably.

Turning his attention back to Joshua: ] "Dismaland"?

[lusito]

The place our group had gone to investigate back then: one of Hades' associates had turned our previous hideout into an even poorer man's version of a theme park with dangerous rides and staff that were rather lacking in the mental department.

[not_over_yet]

Your group's excursion sounds rather dull, put like that.

[ Aaaand now he's thinking about the group he was in, and how that turned out. Still not... ok with his performance there... If he'd tried, at all, maybe...

...Maybe he doesn't have to think about that, and they can just. talk about something else. ]

Do you know what those are? Surely they've a better designation than simply "rides". [ What are monorails. Why are monorails. ]

[lusito]

I believe those are monorails. They're like trains, though the type of rail they ride on is different.

... I wonder if they expect us to get in and see where it takes us.