entrancelogs | + THIS is the Bad Place!

Entry tags:

+ THIS is the Bad Place! - MINGLE LOG +

Who: EVERYONE
Where: The Neighborhood!
When: 4/26 - 4/30
Rating: PG-13, warn if going higher - no swearing by event law!
Summary: Catch-all log for The Good Place event!
The Story:

Welcome to the Good Place! Your character, tragically, has died in their world. They might not remember how (or maybe they do!) but it’s okay either way because conveniently they have earned enough points to go to the Good Place when they die! They’ve earned a house that they have been told is perfectly suited to them (it is probably not, but who are they to question the universe?!) in an absolutely delightful and quaint little Neighborhood with a frozen yogurt shop on every block. It’s almost irritatingly perfect!

Most importantly though, someone will be living with your character. Someone very, very special - their soulmate, hand-picked from the billions on Earth! Sure, it may not be who (or even what) they expected, but this is what they’ve earned from the good life they’ve lived in your world. They deserve this! They really, truly do.

Everyone is welcome to add details to what exactly is in the Neighborhood - everyone has different standards for what constitutes an "objectively good but still mediocre" neighborhood experience, after all!

Need more information, or maybe a soulmate? Head on over to the plot post! Prose or [Action Brackets] are both welcome!

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It honestly didn't take Sunburst long to realise something was deeply wrong with this entire scenario. For a start, he didn't remember dying at all- and for another, if this was the afterlife- then why was he the only pony? Why was this place dominated by the leggy monkey-people from the mirror dimension? Nope. Something was drastically wrong here- and once he pulled that thread, the rest came apart fairly quickly- and the Wonderland memories filtered their way in accordingly.

And so, he'd trotted around, trying to find his friends, realising they wouldn't recognise him as such. He comes across Jean, galloping over with a look of hopeful desperation. Jean was smart, Jean was sensible- surely he'd notice how messed up all this was.

"Jean! Jean, listen! Do you remember me? Do you remember anything?!!"

Jean didn't get the same, immediate something is seriously wrong vibe that Sunburst got, because even though he could only vaguely remember a somewhat... embarrassing death (he thought he might have clothslined himself on a tree branch while using his 3DMG, but even that he'd rather forget anyways) he always assumed he'd die young, in duty somehow, so he didn't question why he was here.

That and, yeah, he wasn't the only human here. If he were a pony, he'd have gotten suspicious right away too.

Yet when he was approached by a bright orange miniature unicorn wear glasses and a cape frantically yelling his name, he didn't feel particularly surprised by that either. And that piqued his interest.

"Woah there, fella," Jean spoke to him the low voice that he reserved for calming horses. "I can't say that I remember you... But I don't think I'm going crazy because I'm talking to a tiny orange unicorn either. Which means we've met before, doesn't it."

Sunburst has heard that tone used before- the few times he ventured anywhere close to the stables. It's enough to make him pull short with an annoyed, insulted (but still very horsey) snort. Well, at least that answered the question if everybody here had their memories played with. Celestia-damnit. He paws the ground, frustrated.

"We have met before. This- this isn't The Good Place or- of whatever insanity</iL they're trying to push on us. This is Wonderland, and it's playing with your memories again." Because it's what Wonderland did best- toying with them. "You're not dead."

"Wonderland? Run that by me again?"

Jean's eyebrow pulled up towards his hairline when Sunburst mentioned that he wasn't dead. If he wasn't dead, then why was he in the Good Place? He definitely had to have died. It was completely likely, he did dangerous shit for a living, and Paradise had plenty of enemies nowadays. But... He couldn't remember the moment itself. Was it possible that he was just assuming?

"Wonderland. It's a famous story...apparently. Though not in my world...likely not yours, either, I don't think."

These were his least favourite events. The ones that took away something vital from them- made them forget one another, when all the really had was each other. It was a whole new way to divide and conquer and he hates it. It's too much like cheating on Wonderland's part.

"It's another world- we were all taken from our home worlds and kept captive there. It- it does things like this. Mess with us. Makes us believe things are true when they're not."

Jean narrowed his eyes at Sunburst. Again, as it originally did, it occurred to him that he wasn't freaked out or surprised by the unicorn's appearance, and that had to mean something. He sat down cross-legged in the grass and rested his chin in his hand and heaved a thoughtful sigh.

"And how did you come to this conclusion, while I have no idea what's going on, if we're both experiencing the same thing?" He thought aloud, after he gave himself a minute or two to just think.

Well. If there was one thing Sunburst was usually good at, it was showing his findings- explaining it step by step. But how do you explain not remembering something then suddenly remembering everything? It doesn't really fit well on a flowchart, something like that.

He shifts awkwardly, trying to find the best way to put it- someway of doing it that doesn't make him sound completely insane.

"I just- everything came back to me, all of a sudden. I was thinking about how awful this place was and how weird it was I was the only pony here and something just... clicked. And- and then I remembered Wonderland and all of you guys. So I came to find you. Because you're my friend and I don#t want you stuck like this. "

Because you're my friend? He had to be from another world, because Jean didn't think he'd ever heard anyone say something like that to him in his normal life.

Not that he didn't doubt he had friends, but the ones he had back home weren't the type to say things out loud like that.

And that reminded him of something.

"...I was wondering why I was the only one here from my world. If this really were the Good Place, those who died before me should be here too," which lined up with the experience Sunburst was having, being the only Pony for no good reason. "Alright. I can give your theory a whack. I'm not wild about the accommodations here anyways."

Sunburst waits, pawing the ground with a forehoof unhappily. Back home, some weird friendship magic would happen and fix all of this. But this isn't home, and he has to lie on less obvious fixes.

"That's what I thought! I- mean, less about ponies who've died that I know, per-say, but just...ponies in general," he smiles up at Jean, hopeful. "Great! Because um...I think generally it helps to remember? I can talk about Wonderland? If you think that'll help?"

Also, everything about this place is awful and he wants someone to understand just how awful it is.

Something would happen with their cuties marks, rainbows would be involved, blinding flashes of light... It must be frustrating to be somewhere where that kind of dues ex machina doesn't exist.

"I guess you could, if you want. 'Though if we're trapped here somehow, I'd want to start looking for an exit."

Hopefully it wasn't that smell hole in the ground he saw earlier. It looked like an infernal pit of death, not an escape route.

It's the absolute worst. He might not wield any friendship magic himself, but gosh darn it would be useful in dealing with 90% of the crap Wonderland throws at them. He has to deal with regular talking and not-magic friendship, which while still important, really does lack a certain sparkle.

"I don't think there is an exit," he shrugs. "It'll end eventually anyway, all events do. But not remembering is probably not going to help if something awful happens while we're all stuck here. Which...this is Wonderland so that's likely."

"I guess finding a way out is just my first instinct," Jean shrugged. His life was just one long string of moments where he had to get the fuck out of dodge. "It doesn't sound like this Wonderland place is any better than it is here though, if it's putting us places here and there however it likes. Or if it's where awful stuff happens so regularly you can say it like that."

He had a point. From the perspective of an amnesiac, the Good Place and Wonderland didn't sound all that different.

"It's a good instinct to have- of course, we never get our of Wonderland properly anyway, so you could say there never really is one. None that we've found yet, anyway."

The events are usually too insane to find any exit- but he realises that's probably when Wonderland is more open to escape. More magic being used. Hmmm. A theory to ruminate on when he's not as worried something worse than a fake death is going to happen to them.

"Usually once a month- sometimes twice," he lets out a soft snort, flicking his tail. "Anyway. It's probably not any better- but it is, at least, real whereas this...isn't, or rather, we're not really where it's real. This is just somebody else's memories."

"You've lost me again," Jean replied, while he tried to suppress any amusement that might show in his expression as he watched Sunburst emote rather like a regular horse would, a language he was familiar with. "What's real and what's not real, somebody else's memories... What's that supposed to mean?"

He hates this spiel. This is why he never really welcomes anyone to Wonderland. How can you explain the unexplainable? He shifts from hoof to hoof, trying to find a way to get the point across without sounding like a crazy pony.

"Okay. So Wonderland lives off people's memories, right? And it does this by creating what we call events around something someone remembers," he waves a hoof around. "So someone has lived through this. It's real to them. But the rest of us are just...living through their memory."

He rubs the back of his neck with a forehoof.

"Sorry. It's really difficult to explain."

Edited 2019-05-11 15:02 (UTC)

"So I'm stuck inside some kind of dream? A dream... in another dream? But the dream is someone else's dream."

It was no fault of Sunburst's, but that sounded incredibly stupid to Jean. Such flights of fancy were rarely indulged in in his world. The subconscious wasn't studied at all, if even acknowledged.

"So... When do I wake up?"

"Pretty much, yes. Except you're probably wake. There's a lot of magic involved."

While for Sunburst, Wonderland's normal grade insanity was a Regular Tuesday in Equestria. Usually caused by some magical mishap, though sometimes weaponised if a particularly nasty creature decided that was the week they were going to try to overthrow the diarchy.

"Usually within a couple of days. They never last more than four."

"Then there's not a whole lot of urgency," Jean concluded. "It's weird, and for some reason you're the only kind of... whatever thing you are, here, but it's not like anyone's going to be dying, right?"

That was his main concern, if they were being manipulated somehow.

"If you just need some company in the meantime, you can stick with me."

"I...possibly not. That said, events can sometimes turn nasty- it's always hard to tell which ones will, especially when memories are being toyed with."

He doesn't trust Wonderland not to just go insane and actually kill them all. Still, he'd feel far safer hanging around Jean. Jean, at least, knows how to defend himself. Besides that, he'd rather be with a friend... even if the friend in question doesn't actually remember him.

"I wouldn't say no to that. Perhaps spending time with me might jog your memory?"

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+ THIS is the Bad Place! - MINGLE LOG +

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wow that was some borked html there

it happens to the best of us! XD

so true so true

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