Ongoing: All Teams

[voidtreckermods]

The first few days are taken up with solving the problems in the various sectors, all the while getting closer to their goal. The Great-Winter, Great-Summer, Great-Spring and Great Autumn.

On Day 9 of the month of Jelly they will see on their map a clear indicator of where to go. As they draw near it will be obvious what they are looking for.

The Overseers

In the centre of each of the sectors there is a large metal tube, hundreds of pipes lead from it, spanning up to the ceiling above and down below, creating a field of pipes and tubes to clamber over and crawl under to reach the central tube. On the tube itself there is a panel, wrapping around it in a circle. The SCA's of the Voidtrecker show an exclamation mark, if they click on them they will see the message.

Reach the panel, enter the inner systems and give your aid.

As Voidtreckers step towards the tubes it will seem as if the world shifts around them. Instead of metal and wire they will see trees. The Great-Spring is a tree in blossom, pink leaves spreading up across the canopy. Great-Summer has strong green leaves, Great_Autumns leaves are brown and falling and Great-Winter has no leaves at all.

The panel is still there, the only part of the scene that doesn't look organic. As the Voidtreckers move towards their goal the tree begins to move, branches fighting against those trying to get through the roots. The aim seems to be to push intruders away, going as far as flinging them back with higher branches.

The branches aren't the only security measures in place. As they push forwards they will find creatures coming at them from the trees.

Strangely the creatures look like creatures from their own worlds, any creature they would expect to see in a tree. Regardless of species they attack with claws and with lazers from their eyes. They don't move far from the branches, but try and stop invaders from getting close to the trunk.

For those that get through they will find that as they draw close to the 'trunk' the attacks stop, as if they have reached an eye of a storm.

Going Further

The panel is a simple glowing screen, there are no instructions but their SCA's will beep softly and if they press their SCA to the panel they will find everything vanishes, the trees, branches and weird animals.

Or perhaps it is they themselves that vanish as they find themselves in a large white room, everyone is together here. No matter what sector they had travelled through and which overseer they entered through.

There are four tubes filled with liquid, pink, green, orange and white towering over them.

"Our systems have been compromised." The four voices ring out. "Heal what has been harmed, destroy what should not be here. Find the source and purge it from our world."

The overseers and the room vanish and the voidtreckers find themselves in a forest, a forest that is slowly being choaked by red sickly vines.

The Voidtreckers themselves will find themselves looking different, almost like the hard-light holograms of the Helpmates though they certainly feel like themselves. They are carrying a sturdy stick but nothing else and depending how imaginative they are will quickly find they can alter their appearance to fit their wishes.

Heal and Destroy

The voidtreckers will find themselves drawn towards the vines, if they touch them they will be able to soothe, a glowing blue light from their hands that runs down the vine before it fades away, freeing the trees that it held in its chokehold.

There are many pathways, many vines and it will be a long task to clear it all. It is not long also before the first threats find them. Threats that look like mongeese, small creatures that will lunge at them, teeth bared and claws out.

Luckily the Voidtreckers will quickly learn the ability to soothe is not the only power gifted to them.

On the Outside

For anyone who does not enter through the panel it will seem like their fellow Voidtreckers have entered a deep trance. The area they are sat around the tree is calm, no threats enter there. But outside that area there are still threats, the branches attack, the animals attack and sometimes Helpmates try to evict those they see from the area, claiming it 'restricted.'

Comments

[blue_ice]

Kaiba rubs his arm as he usually does when irritated. He watches Tidus with vague interest...this is definitely odder than his last experience. That had been nearly indistinguishable from the real world.

He shakes his head. "Not on a mission here. At home. I've had my mind uploaded into a digital mainframe before---and when it's not of my own will, it's usually because someone wants to take control of my body."

Yeah, so. Not a great track record.

"Over at the winter tree, a few stayed behind to guard our bodies. Did someone stay on your side? I hope they can pull us out if things go south."

[blitzcheer]

...is this where he admits he wasn't paying attention to anything anyone else was doing until he saw someone trying slamming their SCA to the panel band? M-maybe not.

"All they have to do is pull us away, don't they? Then we're out!" If they're really just standing there by the panelling still. Not that he can really tell; all the patting of his limbs isn't telling him anything, and so Tidus gives up, looking once at the stick in his hand as he turns it before back at Seto.

"No problem. We'll get rid of whatever's causing the mess before it can shoot up a firewall!" See, Tidus knows computers too! "It's that easy!"

[blue_ice]

"...hopefully you're right, and the SCA is maintaining that tether as usual."

Kaiba's seen too much nonsense to be entirely confident. He tugs at his ripped orange sleeve, watching as it ripples. He looks ridiculous. His avatar doesn't even look like himself...

...until it does. Blip. He blinks and he's back in his favorite outfit.

"Firewalls are what blocks attacks. It looks like the whole defense system for this planet is under attack...if anything, we're either repairing the firewall, or we're the antivirus that fixes things after an infection."

Just trying to visualize what they're going to be doing here.

[blitzcheer]

Eh? Eh?? How come Seto's just getting to randomly change his design like that-?!

It's distracting, and Tidus is back to looking at his arms; trying to figure out how to do the change too, and maybe not listening as closely as he should be... But he eventually lowers them again, huffing some.

"Well whoever's the firewall, those things don't look good. So I'm gonna guess they're the problem."

He points with his stick at the red vines clinging around one of the nearby trees, though they cover every one of them.

Then, more importantly:

"Hey, how do I look different? What do you do?"

He lifts his arms back up, as if waiting for Seto to point something out...!

[blue_ice]

"I...pictured the clothes in my head. As if selecting an avatar for one of the VR games back on the train. That's essentially a lower-tech version of what this is."

He shrugs and approaches one of the vines, poking it with a stick. It twitches alarmingly, and he throws up a hand out of defense---

---only for it to glow blue, and for the vine to shrink back from it.

"What."

[blitzcheer]

That wasn't what Tidus did when playing those games - he'll have to keep that in mind for another time he played! For now, this was the perfect time to try it out, right? And so Tidus closes his eyes, thinking about a few different outfits. Did he wanna go for that outfit, just for old times sake? He might not get a chance again... but he did spend an entire trip in them.

And while his actual appearance is shifting between that and something more casual, Tidus misses the lightshow -- only opening his eyes and paying attention when he thinks he hears Seto speak.

"Eh? What's up?"

Is something important happening??

[blue_ice]

Seto's still looking between his hand and the vine. He cautiously extends it again, and he's drawn as if his hand is one end of a magnet. The blue light starts again, sinking into the vine and washing it back.

"...I don't know. It's almost as if I'm a repellent. Or a firewall?"

[blitzcheer]

Tidus walks over to join him, paying better attention now as the vine recedes with the blue wash blossomed inside it. Brow drawn together, he has to admit-

"...Yooou know, I don't actually know a lot about--eh!?"

Computers, that would've been - if not for the noise that whizzes by their ears, a beam slamming into the trunk of the tree near Seto's hand but just missing it. Tidus turns, sword brandished from its once sticky state, where he spots clinging onto a nearby tree a small creature, coming in for a jump that Tidus swings the blade out to meet, tossing it aside.

But there's another pair making their way around, one jumping from the same tree to a closer one on Seto's side and another rushing the floor for them.

[blue_ice]

Of course they can't be lucky for long. Seto swings his head to watch one of the creatures get smacked away. He jolts upright, alert---

---just in time to hear another sound. Something else slashes at him, getting a solid strike before he forces it back with the stick.

"Back off!"

He swings the stick again, slamming as hard as he can at the next critter. Hopefully that disrupts the laser.

[blitzcheer]

The creature is knocked from tree to ground, where Tidus is rushing to meet the one already scurrying floor level. Hoping to meet it for a kick, it shows its speed as it lunges at him instead, grabbing at his arm with sharpened claws. A curse trapped between teeth, he throws it off, but it finds it footing, uprighting itself.

--in time for Tidus to deliver that kick this time.

"Great, they're in here too!"

[blue_ice]

Kaiba grimaces as another surfaces, claws poised to strike.

"Don't try it---"

And as it inevitably Tries It and aims for them, Kaiba forgets the stick and swings his---hand? That could be a costly mistake.

But his palm seems to spit ice shards, oddly, and that slows it enough for him to course-correct and swing the stick.

"...well that happened."

[blitzcheer]

"Huh? What, now you can just give yourself magic?"

Where's his random cool magic? Wait, what's a really really cool spell he could never use... Tidus throws out his empty hand away from the pair of them, and- "Holy!"

...

...

Nothing, of course, happens.

"Eh. Guess it doesn't know what that is..."