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

[subcircuits]

Devero catches that out of the corner of his eye and turns back. "Did you do that?" he asks, peering sidelong at the priest.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I mean... not intentionally?" Koumyou watches that first vine recede, and then reaches out to touch another vine, getting the same blue glow and watching it retreat away from his hand and off the tree as well. "Try touching them? Maah, I wonder what these actually are, under the illusion."

He could check, but that might ruin the fun.

[subcircuits]

Devero turns to the tree nearest him, eyeing the sickly red vines suspiciously. He squints just as suspiciously at his hand, then glances over at Koumyou before reaching out to the parasitic growth.

He doesn't expect a damn thing to happen, of course. Koumyou's the one who's got magic, not him. He's nothing but a--

Gentle blue light kindles under his fingers. He gasps and snatches his hand back, startled. His contact was too brief to have soothed anything, though; the red vine still clings to the tree, maybe a little washed out where Devero had touched it but nothing more.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"Gotta do it for longer!"

Koumyou actually plants his staff in the ground so he can start touching multiple vines with both hands. How interesting! Look at that shit go!

"It's not chi, I have no idea what's going on."

[subcircuits]

"...Right," Devero says, a touch faintly. But Koumyou's bluff encouragement has him reaching out again, and this time he doesn't yank his hand away as soon as the blue light manifests under it. He watches in awe as that blue glows travels away up the vine, the whole thing fading away under his hand a moment later.

He has to take a step back and swallow hard. "N-neither do I. Maybe it's all a... manifestation of some kind of anti-viral effect...?"

He does not sound terribly certain about that.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"You think? Something to do with the 'bodies' we're in, I'm sure."

Whether it's science or magic, or somehow both.

"It must be why we didn't just... walk here, assuming this is even a physical plane we're in now! How interesting!"

But of course, they can't get away with working in peace for too long. After a few more vines are dissipated, several somethings both small and sharp launch down at them from the 'branches' overhead. Heads up!

[subcircuits]

"It might not be," Devero agrees. "This could all be some kind of elaborate... virtual projection." Or maybe it's all magic! It's definitely a puzzle either way, and Devero's mulling it over as he soothes away vines at Koumyou's side.

He's distracted enough not to be aware of the dropping threats until one of them lands on his shoulder, sinking in its claws and biting at his cheek. "What the hell?" he bellows, grabbing it and trying to yank it off--

Even as another one lands on his upraised arm, a third on his head, and a fourth one smacks into Koumyou's staff, clinging on to the rings at the top as it tries to secure a perch.

"Fuck!"

[its_dad_sanzo]

And this is when Koumyou learns a few interesting facts all within seconds of one another.

First, this body doesn't have the sheer reflexes he's accustomed to.

Second, if he flings a hand out in what would normally be a carefully-targeted spear of pure chi--

Water happens.

A lot of it.

Still targeted, at least, the burst aimed to knock a few of the creatures off of Devero and thankfully not aimed to knock Devero off his feet, instead.

Sharp pain down his back and across his scalp tells him he's been landed on as well, but-- priorities!

[subcircuits]

Enough water shoots from Koumyou's hand that even though the clinging creatures take the brunt of the blast, it does stagger Devero as well. There's one weasel-thing still hanging on him, teeth buried in the durable (simulated) fabric of his borrowed armor, but at least it seems stunned?

He reserves one of the batons in his hand and clocks the thing in the face with the hilt. The creature drops and retreats from him with a screech.

"I thought you said you didn't have your-- Koumyou!"

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou snatches his staff from where it was planted into the ground, shakes the creature from it, and whirls it. Over and behind himself it goes, sweeping the two things from him with satisfying whacks of the jingly end.

And then he sort of stumbles, disoriented. The sharp pain is one thing, but the lack of hot blood wetting his hair or sliced clothing is... disconcerting.

Who the hell gets thrown off by not bleeding everywhere?

How stupid.

"I don't think I like this! At all!"

[subcircuits]

Devero closes the space between them and catches at Koumyou as the priest staggers a little. "You all right?" he asks gruffly, trying to look him over. "They get you bad?" He doesn't see anything, at least without any sanguine flag to mark it-- and possibly hasn't yet noticed that he's not bleeding either, despite the sharp throb of the myraid wounds opened on his own face and scalp.

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou can see the gashes on Devero's face, and immediately reaches for them, to pinch them shut and apply pressure--

"We're not bleeding!"

Sorry, you had a question for him?

He's very distracted. Not helped by the way those wounds are immediately closing beneath his fingers. The priest's eyes go wide.

[subcircuits]

"I'm not?" he asks. He raises his own hand to his face, runs it through his hair, and then stares at the clean fingers. He knows he's got scalp wounds; he should be bleeding like crazy. And there's not a spot of blood on Koumyou's robes, is there? "We're not!"

Then he notices the expression on Koumyou's face. "What? What now?"

[its_dad_sanzo]

"They're closing!" Just the couple he's touching, though. The ones that had looked the worst. He shifts a finger over to another wound and it starts to seal, too.

"...What the fuck?"

He rarely curses quite so plainly, but the priest is beside himself with confusion here.

"Try touching a wound--" Maybe it's because they're made of fake not-real stuff? The priest has a few pretty sizeable gashes in his scalp, where Devero might see them with his ridiculous height.

[subcircuits]

As close as they are, yeah, Devero can't miss those lacerations in Koumyou's scalp. "Me?" he says, frowning. "I'm not the magic one, remember?"

...But hasn't he been purging viral vines with that blue finger-glow just as surely as Koumyou has? What's that if not magic? Other than an incredibly complex technological simulation, anyway.

So he lifts a hand and sets his fingers near one of the wounds in Koumyou's scalp. The thin flesh starts to knit together immediately. Devero gasps, but at least has composure enough to keep his hand there until the wound has healed all the way.

"I-- I did it!"

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou... is still very thrown off by the strangeness of this whole situation, but he can't help but beam up at Devero at the man's enthusiasm.

"Seems we can fix each other," Koumyou says with some of his usual cheerfulness, and actively cups Devero's wounded face in both his hands, letting his staff thump against a tree.

Oh no, they have to touch each other.

How horrible.

[subcircuits]

Truly, a nightmare. Devero's eyes close and he stands still and patient (and smiling a little) until Koumyou's got him all fixed up. Then it's his turn, fingers parting the priest's much shorter hair as he hunts down and heals all the scratches.

Hand cupping the back of Koumyou's head once he's done, Devero leans down and touches their foreheads together--

Which is a great time for another creature to slam into his back, digging in with all four of its feet.

[its_dad_sanzo]

What a sweet, lovely moment--

And Koumyou's hand darts around behind Devero, grabbing the creature digging into him by the neck and snapping it in one motion. It's that ridiculous strength of his, hidden except for when it's not.

He throws the body aside, and reaches for his staff.

Fuck, he doesn't like this place.

"You okay?" They definitely can't let their guard down in here.

[subcircuits]

Just like that, it's dead. Not stunned or flung away or retreated. Dead.

"I-- uh--" He's never been an animal guy. He never signed up for rotations taking care of any of the creche pets, never kept any personally when he graduated.

He's never seen an animal die, and the effortless finality of it has shaken him.

But that's not what Koumyou's asking about. He makes himself look away from the body. "--Fine. Didn't get through the suit."

[its_dad_sanzo]

Koumyou notices the staring, of course. "...It's probably not even real."

Not that that would have stopped the priest from permanently nullifying a hostile, whatever the shape it took.

"...You okay?" he's not asking about his back, now, tone gentle.

[subcircuits]

He takes a deep breath, and then another, struggling to control the gorge rising in his throat. Get a grip, Devero, it's-- it's just an animal. Maybe! Koumyou's reminder is timely-- the 'animals' outside had just been drones, and dispatching them had been easy when he could see their actual forms picked out in his Interface.

But his simulated Interface offers him no such succor here.

He has to drag his gaze back again, not even having noticed it return to the limp body. "It's not even real," he repeats. "It's not." Another deep breath, and Koumyou can see him making an effort to steel himself. "--I'm good. Let's get back to work."

They have a job to do, and he's not going to let his squeamishness get in the way of that.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"...I don't think these things are just trying to inconvenience us," the priest points out as they start toward the next batch of gross vines. "What is prepared to kill, must be prepared to be killed."

That includes Koumyou himself, of course. As he's definitely proven back on his original world, ripped to pieces before his son's eyes.

It's just a simple true-ism to Koumyou, of course. He may as well be stating that water is wet.

And it's an attempt, if a very, very clumsy and perhaps ill-advised one, at... soothing? Devero's big soft heart.

[subcircuits]

And Devero doesn't respond immediately as they trek to the next contaminated section of forest. His silence is thoughtful, at least, not shocked or avoidant; he's thinking about what Koumyou's said.

And what he says as he lifts a hand to a vine is, "I don't think I'm prepared to kill."

Blue light coalesces under his hand as he says it, cooling and soothing the red virulence. He tilts his head back to watch it race away up the bole of the tree, the vine luminescing to blue and then fading out of existence.

[its_dad_sanzo]

"I consider that a good thing," Koumyou has no qualms saying as much, either. "For one, I very much prefer you alive. For another, there has to be people who aren't... like me. Otherwise, what's the point?"

He'd had a very similar conversation with Rich at some point in the not distant past.

"You handle the vines, I'll handle the critters," Koumyou offers, giving the staff in his hand a spin and -- changing it again. This time, into a katana. It can't actually cut since it's just an illusion, but at least the reach matches its appearance, now.

[subcircuits]

There's a big ol' knot of complicated feelings about death and killing and what he's had to do for his government and what Koumyou's had to do to survive spinning up inside his mind, and Devero feels it settle like a weight at the back of his brain. Now is absolutely not the time, so he'll be revisiting this later. Whether he wants to or not.

"That's how I prefer things myself," he says, with a touch of that normal sly humor of his. "I'll do what I can to maintain the condition." He turns and catches Koumyou's sleeve as the priest would pass him, and pulls him in for a moment. "--Long as you promise to do the same for yourself, all right?"

Because he knows some of what's wrapped up in that little pause and those two words, that 'like me'. As if Koumyou's culpable of becoming what he's had no choice but to be. As if Koumyou wanted to be made as hard as he is.

He leans in and steals a quick, chase kiss. "I very much prefer you alive as well."

He lets the priest go and steps back, looking suitably impressed by the katana once he's reshaped his weapon. He glances from the blade to the wielder and smiles gratefully. "Deal."