ignore this

[disassemblies]

CW: grief, depression, bullying, parental neglect, isolation, hopelessness

A blue-black-gold crack in the world greets you, hovering ominously in Caleb's front yard. Several of the mochi cat creations lay in tower-pile nearby, crying out mournfully while a concerned Delcatty tries to calm them. Every so often, a strange almost-spark crackles from the entrance and sets them off again. Caleb's Dewott seems to be trying to guard it, or at least keep the creations out of it. He'll stand down when you approach, though. You, at least, aren't likely to end up so much squished mochi cat if you go in.

So. You go in. And maybe you want to go back out almost as soon as you step in, because the place before you is unsettling in the worst way. You now stand on a dilapidated and unsafe train station platform, looking out over what might be a black sun and the ruins of a space station. There are holes in the platform and it looks like it might give way at the slightest provocation. It is dead silent. There is not a soul around.

At the end of the platform stands a train that once upon a time might have been gorgeous. Now it's rusted and dingy, the lights broken and the doors sealed shut.

And then you approach. What lights aren't broken flicker to life and the doors start to slowly, painfully creak open. A recorded voice rings out: "The Astral Express is now boarding. All passengers, please make sure you have all of your belongings and step aboard." The recording crackles, and then repeats. And repeats. And repeats and repeats and repeats, each repetition more and more degraded. By the time you all step on board, it's barely words. It's barely a voice.

You step aboard. The doors creak shut. The train jerks, and then off the Astral Express goes.

The interior of the train is...somewhat better than the exterior. The interior is covered in trash with a narrow path going from one end of the car to the other, but the benches all seem perfectly safe to sit on. The lights in the parlor car all work, as well.

Unhinged laughter comes from the stairs leading up to the platform at the other end. There stands Caleb, tired and clearly not doing so hot, and...another Caleb? It looks a little like him, but instead of a shock of black hair and bright blue eyes like the real Caleb, this one has half-silver, half-black hair and glowing gold eyes. His clothes look like they were run through a shredder before he got them.

The Not-Caleb laughs again. "Oh, great," he says with a sigh. "Guests. And here I thought we'd have all the time in the world to break you down, Caleb! Eh, whatever." He opens the door, tugging Caleb (who you can now see is tied to this Not-Caleb) along after him. We'll just continue our conversation somewhere else while they rot. Toodles~"

"No, wait, lemme--" Caleb's pleas are silenced by the door slamming shut behind him.

He looked terrified.

Comments

There Goes The Data

[disassemblies]

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.

Fight?

Fight Trash Fight

[disassemblies]

The Lordly Trash Can eventually crumples under your combined efforts. It falls to its knees as it melts away in a cloud of dust. As it fades, you hear voices and the dust collects into vague human shapes. One of the voices is a young Caleb, maybe ten or eleven. The others might be other kids about his age.

"Hey guys! Sorry, they were really stubborn this time. Don't worry, I didn't say anything."

"Okay...and why are you talking to us?" This boy sounds mildly offended.

Caleb sounds confused. "I...thought you'd want to know? It's not like any of you meant to start that fire in the dumpster this time. So, yeah, I just thought I'd tell you guys?"

A girl speaks this time, laughing. It's cruel. "About what, how we got away with it? Again? God, you are so stupid Caleb." There's more laughter from other kids. "Come on, I think I'm tired of talking to him. See ya...not."

There's more laughter..

The memory fades out and over the intercom (you didn't forget about that, did you?), you can hear the real and current Caleb laugh a little weakly. "I remember those kids. I think I had a crush on Marissa..."

"And she thought you were stupid. And disgusting. You have real good taste in people, Caleb. No wonder they keep ditching you."

The intercom shuts off. Before you is the door to the next car as well as a strange mask. Half of it is laughing, half of it is crying, and it has "Caleb Sheridan" carved along the edge.

Continue?