Whatever you were expecting on the other side, it was probably not this. A giant, massive library of sorts awaits you, as trashed as the parlor car. The windows here are broken, too, though it doesn't seem to be affecting the gravity or oxygen in the room. The only sort of clean areas are small platforms scattered around the room, all of them lit faintly blue with a makeshift pallet of blankets and pillows scattered around. There are also, oddly enough, trashcans around the area. They all appear to be empty, however, as if they've given up on their job of holding trash. Some of them are even on their side, abandoned and forlorn.
Unlike the parlor car, there is no clean path from the door to...anywhere, be it the pallets, the shelves, or the door on the far end of this bizarre car. It's just trash, so much trash, piled knee high and almost impossible to walk through. You can do it, though, if you press on.
Eventually you might reach one of the shelves lining the wall here. It's all digitized, so there are no books. Any "spines" you touch will just bring up a projection of whatever text is in there, though you can "flip" the "pages" to read. Of course, you'll have to find a file that isn't corrupted. You won't be able to read "W37T Y@N6" or "A5TR1D 5H3R1D@N" or even "R3G15 C@M3R0N", but if you can find "Noctis Cameron", "Dan Heng", or any files with the names of people Caleb knows are on the app, you'll be able to read those.
Any file you read starts off normally. The first few pages talk about how Caleb knows the subject ("My cousin and best friend." "I think the other me knew him. He seems nice!" "Noct's old babysitter and the guy who sells me cool shit, even if it breaks. Might have known the other me." As you read, though, they get stranger and stranger. Sometimes the words will change right before your eyes ("I still have a scar from that stupid prank at the lake" glitches out and becomes "I can still sometimes smell the knock out grenade he used to take us to the Underworld" before correcting itself) or the pages themselves will suddenly go blank save for line after line of question marks. All of the files end with "At least, that's what I thought. I don't know anymore."
[Maybe offer an option to access the corrupted files and get information. It won't be much, most of it corrupted, but some snippets about how he feels about some of the people in there, namely his mom dad and uncle.]
Curious.
Maybe you want to focus on the door. It's going to take a long time to get there, but you can do it if you don't decide to just give up. It might be tempting, with the "beds" scattered around mostly in your direct path. If you press on, though, make sure you pick up the trash cans. You can probably put what you clear away inside them. They won't get full.
As you get closer to the door, a strange rumbling starts behind you. Nothing's there if you look, but the second you reach the door it turns into a trash can with legs and arms and promptly roundhouse kicks you in the face. "I cannot allow you to pass," it says. If you attempt to approach it, it'll just kick you again. On the third approach, something strange happens. The trash can sends you flying again and this time it seems to take a deep breath. Suddenly every single other trash can starts to hover and is pulled over to this main trash can, whirling around it in a bizarre trash can tornado It picks up the trash in the room as it grows and grows.
Eventually, it falls away. And you now stand before a ten foot tall trash can.
There Goes The Data
Unlike the parlor car, there is no clean path from the door to...anywhere, be it the pallets, the shelves, or the door on the far end of this bizarre car. It's just trash, so much trash, piled knee high and almost impossible to walk through. You can do it, though, if you press on.
Eventually you might reach one of the shelves lining the wall here. It's all digitized, so there are no books. Any "spines" you touch will just bring up a projection of whatever text is in there, though you can "flip" the "pages" to read. Of course, you'll have to find a file that isn't corrupted. You won't be able to read "W37T Y@N6" or "A5TR1D 5H3R1D@N" or even "R3G15 C@M3R0N", but if you can find "Noctis Cameron", "Dan Heng", or any files with the names of people Caleb knows are on the app, you'll be able to read those.
Any file you read starts off normally. The first few pages talk about how Caleb knows the subject ("My cousin and best friend." "I think the other me knew him. He seems nice!" "Noct's old babysitter and the guy who sells me cool shit, even if it breaks. Might have known the other me." As you read, though, they get stranger and stranger. Sometimes the words will change right before your eyes ("I still have a scar from that stupid prank at the lake" glitches out and becomes "I can still sometimes smell the knock out grenade he used to take us to the Underworld" before correcting itself) or the pages themselves will suddenly go blank save for line after line of question marks. All of the files end with "At least, that's what I thought. I don't know anymore."
[Maybe offer an option to access the corrupted files and get information. It won't be much, most of it corrupted, but some snippets about how he feels about some of the people in there, namely his mom dad and uncle.]
Curious.
Maybe you want to focus on the door. It's going to take a long time to get there, but you can do it if you don't decide to just give up. It might be tempting, with the "beds" scattered around mostly in your direct path. If you press on, though, make sure you pick up the trash cans. You can probably put what you clear away inside them. They won't get full.
As you get closer to the door, a strange rumbling starts behind you. Nothing's there if you look, but the second you reach the door it turns into a trash can with legs and arms and promptly roundhouse kicks you in the face. "I cannot allow you to pass," it says. If you attempt to approach it, it'll just kick you again. On the third approach, something strange happens. The trash can sends you flying again and this time it seems to take a deep breath. Suddenly every single other trash can starts to hover and is pulled over to this main trash can, whirling around it in a bizarre trash can tornado It picks up the trash in the room as it grows and grows.
Eventually, it falls away. And you now stand before a ten foot tall trash can.
Fight?