Beds - A number of adjustable, moderately comfortable hospital beds with removable lap trays. Each bed/patient area is separated from the others by gauzy curtains and has a window looking out at a white void.
Nurseās Station - A stand where nurses prepare medications for their patients (or sometimes just hang out).Ā
Offices - A few small but nice offices with predictable doctor decor. The doctors can usually be found here when not making their rounds.
Cafeteria - A cafeteria with different lines for soup and salads, sandwiches, and the hot meal of the day.Ā
Denizens
Doctors (Background/Speaking) - Dr. Seth, a stethoscope; Dr. Siggy, a blood pressure cuff; and Dr. Ivy, an IV stand, make the rounds fairly regularly. Clearly no HIPPA laws apply in this place, but theyāre all reasonably professional.
Nurses (Background/Speaking) - Sets of scrubs that seem to be worn by invisible people... but upon examination thereās actually nothing inside. Youāre not sure how they can still perform their jobs, but they do.
Patients (Background?/Non-speaking?) - There are a few other patients besides the Passengers, including a small comatose snake statue and a shattered slipper.
Special Notes
Upon entering the car, any Passengers who do not have significant injuries become ill. This is a generic flu-like illness but can have a few other symptoms if theyād be particularly uncomfortable for your character.
Uncooperative, destructive, or cruel behavior causes all patientsā conditions to worsen. Considering the cast involved, assume this occurs in the smallest noticeable increments possible.
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With the dinner party in utter shambles, you feared the door may never open for you. But once you'd survived whatever length of time this was meant to last, you found the handle giving way.
And none too soon. Several Denizens' bodies littered the floor, but the rest weren't exactly happy with you. If anyone was going to tend to Abel, it wouldn't be here.Ā It likely wouldn't be on the platform over the wasteland rushing below, either. Nor the bridgeā
Which was rescinding, anyway. The handrails folded over and the bridge tucked away into the next car... What were you to do?Ā Jump?Ā Impossible.Ā But Neko-Neko seemed more curious than perturbed, so presumably this didn't wreck their killing game plans.
In a flash, another car, rolling along the top of the ones ahead, lowered into the gap. Another bridge extended, the handrails snapping back into place as if nothing had happened.
"Well, that doesn't happen every day! How exciting!"
"Yeah, it's notĀ thatĀ special. Get going."
You had little choice but to obey.
Though one look inside the next set of doors was enough to make several of you have second thoughts, there was no turning back. And if you made some attempt to go over or around the whole car, you were sure to fail, before or after suffering horrible injuryāwhich would only make going inside all the more necessary.
So you stepped inside, begrudgingly or otherwise. You only had a moment to observe the half-curtained-off hospital beds, the IV stands, the bustling sets of scrubs, before something felt... wrong. WithĀ you. Was the sheer atmosphere just making you feel unwell? Or...
A pair of spectacles with cartoonish eyes behind them swooped over, ducking and bobbing as if to scrutinize all of you. "Oh dear, oh dear," came a mutter, though no mouth suddenly appeared to give it. "All right, if you could all wait here for just a moment, we'll have your rooms ready momentarily."
ItĀ wasĀ a nice idea, to actually get a room to yourself for once... but given the place (and the thrumming in your head), it was hard to be too excited. At least Abel could be seen to?
Whether you followed instructions exactly or not, you eventually found yourself guided to one of the hospital beds (they called this a room?). With a promise that a nurse would be in to see you soon, the pair of glasses somehow pulled the separating curtains shut to leave you alone. A draft stirred, but despite the apparent window you couldn't see anything outside but light. Presumably it was enough for the little plastic-potted ivy in the sill, but it did nothing to detract from the stuffy, sterile air of the place. Did you really need to just sit here? Surely it was wiser to at least figure out where the exit door was.
First Room - The room you originally entered, with doors leading into the dressing rooms and one to the main building. The faded etiquette and dancing guide is still here, poised on the podium. You clearly arenāt supposed to come back once the festivities have started.
Dining Hall - A long, candlelit room with a good number of round tables, fully set with velvety black tablecloths and more pieces of silverware than any normal person would know what to do with.Ā
Ballroom - A wide, grand hall with plenty of room for dancing despite the little tables at the sides for resting or snacking classily. One end has two short sets of steps onto a full stage for the orchestra.
Green Room - Set between the hallways and the back side of the stage. Has stacks of chairs, a water bubbler, and racks of music stands. You arenāt supposed to be here, either, but it could make a good getaway/recovery spot for a while if youāre careful.
Denizens
Slippers (Background/Speaking) - The main attendees of the masquerade ball, humanoid figures of tinted glass, which appears molten but feels little different from human flesh. Their hair seems fairly human, but thereās a very inhuman glow to their eyes.
JJ (Swag) - A figure at the masquerade draped in a beautiful deep ocean blue suit, with a pair of black gloves and dress shoes. The mask is the same beautiful deep blue as the suit and the eyes glow... but the expression looks sad.
Orchestra (Background/Non-speaking) - A number of living instruments, capable of facial expressions and floating but difficult to tell apart from their non-living counterparts when still.
Special Notes
Lying about anything unnecessary for the Denizen charade will cause an immediate crack in your mask. Enough cracks will make the mask unwearable. There are no replacements.
The consequences for removing your mask or otherwise betraying your status as a Passenger are intended to be dire, but depending upon what ends up happening and what ideas players have, we may adjust this.
The dinner is canonically before the dance, though of course you can have threads in any order OOC. The exact seating for dinner is undetermined OOC and can be canonized as we go according to player needs.
Finally you managed to fill the recess with mirror pieces, and the door opened. Despite your exhaustion, there wasn't much hesitation to move on.
There could have been another collapse, after all.
You next stepped into a sunlit room swirling with dust motes, an ornate wooden door set into each of its ten short walls, not counting the single hallway stretching into darkness. Aside from dated but lush green carpet, there was nothing else to shed light on the situation but a dusty tome resting on a podium. The cover was far more ornamental than descriptive, but flipping through the thin leaves showed you a plethora of mind-numbingly worded advice on dinner etiquette and dancing.
That certainly seemed an ill omen for most of you, and there was very little time to make sense of the instructions before the doors flew open in unison. Amorphous shapes, only visible from the way they distorted the details behind them, swept out into the room, making a number of concerned and pitying noises as they inspected the group as a whole. They were more prone to murmurs than anything, but they spoke in full agreement on one point:
"This simply won't do."
Whether you cooperated or not, you were swiftly pushed through one of the doors and locked in. The space seemed a bit cramped for a room, but it was luxurious for a simple changing stall. You felt a few odd prods and pokes as your measurements were taken with invisible tapes, then the door opened and shut before you could possibly slip through. After a few moments of not being entirely sure whether your assigned Denizen had left or not, they surged back inside with fine formalwear draped in their hands(?). While it at least wouldn't be any gendered clothing you were uncomfortable with, the formality level was much higher than most of you were used to. Did youĀ haveĀ to?
The Denizen hung the clothes as needed but didn't leave the room. Though you only had the haziest sense of where their eyes might be, you could still somehow feel them boring into you with earnest.
"You must do everything you can to hide your identity hereādress nicely, speak courteously, step lightly, blend in. The Denizens here have been hurt badly by Passengers before and will broker no mercy if they realize that's what you are. Bodily, they aren't all so different from you, but the eyes..."
They retrieved an ornate masquerade mask from the formalwear and presented it to you.
"This will disguise you perfectly as long as you wear it. Value it with your life. I'm only able to provide one, so if anything should happen to threaten it... Please, be careful."
So... On threat of your life, you had to dress up fancy, wear a mask, and survive some kind of upper crust social event without revealing you didn't belong here?Ā
The occasionalĀ clangĀ still echoed down the tunnels as you wearily searched for another vein of "ore". How were you even supposed to figure out the best locations, logically? This was not, you wereĀ pretty darn sure, how mirrors were actually made in the real world.
All you could do was investigate the walls and conserve whatever energy you could afford to. The lack of food was really wearing on you now. But with the lot of you split up among the different tunnels, surely someone would find what you needed. Whether it was someone in condition to mine it out, well. One step at a time.
Clang, drip, your own tired footsteps... Every sound seemed to wear you down further.
At least, until the cacophony of falling rocks. When you took from nature, you should not have been surprised when it decided to take something back.
Jolted more awake, it still took you a panicked second to determine it wasn't happening aroundĀ you. But was it coming this way? Had you heard a yell, or was it just someone's startled reaction? No matter your rationale, you found yourself hurrying back to the mine's center chamber. Between you and the others that had gathered, it didn't take long for someone to point out the clattering of rocks down another tunnel. You followed, though you weren't sure you wanted to go too far in here...
āOh, f-ckā!ā
Though one soul had ventured too far. Maybe by chance. Maybe by fate. Maybe by some other design, Viper had made her way in too deep. The rocks rushed to meet her, but some other force, moving faster than you could think, had made its move first, pushing her harshly. She was sent flying, away from danger. Away from the rocks that wished to get up close and personal. She let out a yelp as she skidded across rock, hitting the floor hard. Whether you thought the sight of her on the ground was karmic, or amusing, or just relieving, the rocks tumbled down, down, downā¦ away from her.
Wide-eyed and certainly terrified, she could only watch as the rocks fell. As the place where she had stood just moments earlier was crushed by the falling boulders. If it had just been a moment later...
Splinters of a supporting frame lay scattered among the dislodged rock. A large silvery gleam made you think someone had at least struck it rich here before the collapseāuntil you realized what it actually was.
OrĀ whoĀ it actually was.
Pinned handily beneath the slowly crushing weight of stone was R.N.A. Surely as the largest among you they hadĀ someĀ hope of strong-arming their way outābut it wasn't looking hopeful.Ā
āIā¦ I appear to be stuckā¦ā The robot said, tone still calm and soft, even in a situation seeming so dire. āIāmā¦ sorry. I didnāt meanā¦ To worry you all.ā
There were those of you already surging forward to help before they'd finished speaking. The other supports seemed perfectly stable, so if you could just move one rock out of the way at a time... If R.N.A. could just hang in there until enough of the weight was off of them...
But you were all weary enough to begin with, and so few of you had the strength to contribute without even accounting for injuries. Even with the rockfall stopped, your progress was nonexistent.Ā
āStopā¦ You have toā¦ get back. It mightā¦ there might be a second fallingā¦ you might get buried.ā There was the sound of the robot shuffling. āI thinkā¦ I think I can getā¦ out if I justā¦ā There was the futile struggling of a robot who had been bested. Metal scissors that could not beat rock. You could hear some of the rocks shufflingā¦ shifting.
You heard a creak of metal.
āIn truthā¦ Iāmā¦ scaredā¦ I feelā¦ humanā¦ right nowā¦ But I donāt know whyā¦ Isā¦ Is Viper okayā¦ I canāt see. I canāt see herā¦ But I got herā¦ out of the way. Because I wantā¦ my friendsā¦ to get off the train. All of youā¦ I know there has toā¦ be a better way off the train. A wayā¦ away from killingā¦ Evenā¦ Jack could have. The train doesnātā¦ make him happyā¦ it just lets himā¦ forget how sad he is.ā
Maybe that was rude. But R.N.A believed everyone could escape. That there was salvation and a way back to life for them all.
āIām safeāā Thereās a weak, wavering reply from behind those who had rushed forward to try and help, as Viper tried to wobble to her feet, her gaze fixed on the robot being crushed beneath the stone prison.
ā...I donātā¦ I donāt know if I can escapeā¦ I haveā¦ one more ideaā¦ā
Just enough chips of rock sprinkled down from above that even the most desperately striving among you finally backed away. R.N.A.'s metal joints groaned under the pressure. A few more rocks hit. A crack split their digital face, and the light sputtered out.
They didn't speak again.
The ensuing shocked silence was only broken by a faint echoing drip from some other tunnel. Then some of you finally heard a mechanical whirābut R.N.A. hadn't moved. Your hope evaporated all over again as Neko-Neko strode up to the rock pile.
"Are... Are they all right?"
The cat rapped a not-so-soft paw on the side of R.N.A.'s head. The resulting clang made a few of you flinch.
"Nothin' but an empty shell here."
They turned on the rest of you.
"We'd be happy to congratulate the murderer on a job well done,Ā if we had one!"
"Please at least play the game, nya... Even if we lose Passengers, I can't guide anyone back home if you aren't following the rules."
With a shake of their head(s), they left R.N.A.'s lifeless face display behind.
First Jack, now this? You were hoping this horrible game would end... but not from everyone just dying off of their own accords first. And how safe wereĀ you? If you had just been in this tunnel instead of a different one...
Maybe killing to go home wasn't that terrible an idea after all.
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Entrance - Gloomy tunnels lit by dingy lamps along the sides. A single railway runs through the main passage, which has long since been picked bare. The large mining cart that led you inside rests here, with enough decidedly not-new mining equipment for everyone.
Mineworks - Several equally gloomy passages branching out from the end of the tracks. The occasional glint can be seen in the walls, but it usually takes a good couple of pick strokes before any mirror chunks show themselves.
Reflecting Pool - A broad but shallow recess between the end of the tracks and the exit door. The raw mirror ore seems to be the perfect thickness to set inside, though it may take some wrangling for all the edges to fit together perfectly.
Denizens
Reflections (Background/Speaking) - Each Passenger has a Reflection residing in the Mirror World. Though they have spent their lives faithfully reflecting their Primesā movements, they seem to have a little more free rein on the Train. The Reflection does not typically have the same exact temperament as their Prime.
Special Notes
There's a limited amount of dry food in the mining cart. Youāll have to ration carefully if you want it to last more than a day.
Once enough of the reflecting pool is assembled to show a full-body reflection, the Reflections can properly interact with the Passengers. Before then, there may still be a few traces of rogue movement that donāt match what the Passenger is doing.
Each player can design their own Reflection, but mods can be called in if help is needed. This is a character who has been bound to witness and act out everything the Passenger has done in view of a reflective surface, so think about how that might affect someone!
As usual, threads are free to feature your Passenger and Reflection together or separately. You are not required to play a Reflection, but it will still exist canonically.
Reflection lore should work roughly the same way here as in the Infinity Train seriesāif you need more details and/or would like to try anything interesting, ask around in your planning chat!
You stepped into darkness. Something dripped in the distance, and your footfalls echoed far away. Your eyes couldn't adjust before one of you stumbled into something solid with a woodenĀ thunk. Between that and the tracks that threatened to trip you up, you finally started to piece together your newest location.
Neko-Neko climbed inside the large minecart and gestured for you to join them in some mockery of a lucky cat. Whether you cooperated right away or only after a slow attempt to cross the rocky ground on foot, you all managed to fit in the vehicle just as it started to pick up speed.
Lanterns passed along the tunnel walls, getting a little less dingy as you went in further. This area felt abandoned, though, with only dull, stripped rock passing you by. But eventually the cart slowed and stopped in a slightly more open cavern. The ceilings were low enough to feel uncomfortable, but even the tallest of you could exit the cart without ducking. A few tunnels split off from here, most aglow with lantern light, but the cart tracks went no further. Up ahead you could just barely see light glinting off the occasional chip of something silvery in the walls.
The exit door was in plain sight in this chamber, but of course it wasn't opening yet. A shallow recess stretched some ways in front of it, but there were no labels. No guides other than Neko-Neko, whose eye glowed all the more ominously in this place. But considering the environment and the mining equipment available, maybe you wouldn't have to ask them for advice. At least the way toĀ startĀ the "puzzle" in this car was clear enough, if exhausting to even think about.
And from there... you supposed you'd just have to see.
Whether it was harder to find a book that called to you or run from it, you all eventually managed to complete your task. Where the shelves had spun off into infinity before, a familiar red door appeared in one of the aisles. Word spread quickly, and soon you'd all assembled before it. Time to move on, as always.
The handle turned without resistance, and the churning wasteland stretched out before you. Another bridge, another car ahead. MaybeĀ thatĀ one would give you some way to end Neko-Neko's game. Was that what you were hoping for? Were you hoping for much of anything, at this point?
Either way, you found yourself passing through without hindrance, the air outside the Train a little warmer on your face.Ā
At least, most of you.
With a faint sound only vaguely reminiscent of slamming into a wall, Jack marched straight intoĀ somethingĀ that bounced him and only him back into the library. He stumbled but stayed on his feet and tried again, a little fasterābut the result was the same.
Perhaps itās Viperās guilt at burning the checkout register, perhaps itās something else entirely, but hearing Jacāno, Jagal, trying his hardest to take the books, she knew she had to try and do something. Maybe she didn't know why keeping these books was so important to himābut she could hazard a guess, after theyād snooped so much into his life. His mother, his father, his sister especiallyā¦ it had to be hard for him. To be forced to think about them again. And once again, sheād messed up someoneās chance at healing.Ā
āHeyāā He bounced back from the door, and she reached forward, just lightly gripping onto his bag. āJagalāā Maybe heād listen if she talked to him. The true him, notā¦ Jack. Worm her way in there, she knew it could go very badly. Very, very badly. But equally, she wanted him to understand that she wasnāt out to hurt him. Not at this stage.
Jack warily tugged his bag out of Viper's grip. How did she know his name? Had sheā
"...."
No. Absolutely not. It must've just come up somewhere else, at some point. Not like it was his most tightly-guarded secret.
āI donāt think theyāll let ya take āem witā yaāI-I can ask. But ya prob aināt gonna be able tā.ā
Jimithy stepped up, as unamused as ever.
"Already told both of you, you can't check out a book that doesn't have a register. AĀ realĀ one."
"And you can't leave with a book you haven't checked out. Put it back."Ā He grimaced. "Or on a return cart, fine. But you're not leaving with that. Don't waste any more of our time."
Viper picked at a thread on the end of her glove. āItāsā¦ prob best ya leave āem here anyway. I dunno if yaād want āem ta get hurtā¦ damagedā¦ān all.ā Viper raised her gaze to himāhaving tilted it to the floor. āLook, Iāunno if Iāll get anywhere. Anā I know ya gonna tryān act like ya rejectinā every bitāa niceness. But I wanna know ya. Anā I donāt care how much ya tryān stop me.ā
Tag-teamed, huh? It was true, Jack didn't have any registers, and the train out there couldn't be safe for a book unless he never tried to open it. Would being damaged hurt them? Surely not, if they were already dead, but...
"....."
"Fine."
He withdrew a slim volume from under his hoodie and set it gently on the floor. Not even the return cart, huh.
"Not like I'm much 'f a reader, anyway."
He stepped through the door, this time without any kickbackāapparently that was the only one he'd had. Those of you who hadn't made it past before all the ruckus followed him out.
Even after all that, it was just back to the usual march. Everyone onto the bridge, onto another door...
Everyone. Right?
The fastest walker had already laid hands on the next door by the time you realized your head count was down one. It didn't take long after, though, to find Jack back at the library doors, propping them open with one hand. He swept a look across you all, hesitating briefly at Viper. But only briefly. With a swift step, he was back on the carpet.
"I'm not leaving her again."
The doors slammed shut before anyone could even think about getting in the way. The handle spun with a ratcheting noise and locked back into place again. Anyone trying to turn it wouldn't succeed.
...Ah. Well.
Considering the party involved, it was hard to feel bad about leaving him behind. A relief, if anything. Though you couldn't be sure exactly how this place worked, if he could still come after you later... Maybe it would have been more of a relief if you were sure he'd die in there.Ā
Not... not that you wanted a person to die! But, well, if it had to be anyone...
"Jack? The game isn't over yet...! I-I can't guide you home if you're not here, nya..."
"Eh, it'd be too obvious if he did the next murder, anyway."
"We're sure the rest of ya can do better by yourselves!"
"B-but there isn't any food or water in that car! As his Stationmaster..."
"That's his own problem. We don't gotta call every single death a murder if it ain't one."
"We've wasted enough time here, don'tcha think? Onward!"
"........"
Despite the particularly split personality at play, Neko-Neko still gestured expectantly at the next car. No more dilly-dallying on your part.
No reason to, anyway. Whether it had locked automatically or Jack was manually blocking it, the library door wasn't about to open. Was it even your business to keep trying? If none of you would be blamed for him choosing this fate, why try to save him? He certainly would've done no such thing for you.
Something still felt rotten in your stomach as you moved forward.
