middleofsomewhere | Ongoing: All Teams

Ongoing: All Teams

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.'

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"That doesn't mean I can't call you something else!" Devero sputters. "If you ever wanted!" Why do you do this to him, Koumyou.

He's smiling back, though. "Thank you," he murmurs--

Then pitches abruptly into Koumyou with a grunt as something slams into his back, right between the vice-ridden shoulderblades.

Whelp! No rest for the wicked! Koumyou catches him with his free arm and swings the sword in his other hand down behind Devero, close enough to almost skim his... armor? with the non-blade.

Several creatures get scraped right off, howling their objections and moving to leap-- and a blast of water sends them flying back into the woods.

The priest goes up on his toes to plant a kiss on Devero's cheek, and then breaks away to stalk the area for more hostile non-animals.

"I like 'Koumyou'." So. There's that! "It fits me."

It feels like Koumyou's got them off him before he can even react, which honestly is fine by Devero. He beams down at the priest as he's smooched. "My hero," he tells him without a trace of irony.

As Koumyou goes back on critter patrol, Devero returns to working on the trees. He thinks about the meaning of the name as Koumyou had relayed it to him, and nods. "I think it does too."

"As you so poetically told me, that one time," Koumyou says with a soft laugh, staying near enough to guard Devero but never staying in one spot for more than a second.

The critters are going to have to work at it to find a blind spot, here.

"You're such a romantic. No wonder you're from that region!"

Back home, he never, ever would have thought of himself as a romantic. Back home, he's-- not the person he is here on the train. Not really. He'd had no idea that this person was even lying dormant inside of him, not really.

He shakes his head and laughs, a little wonderingly. "That has nothing to do with it!" he protests.

"You can't fool me," Koumyou declares, teasing but with absolute, obvious fondness, "that's too big of a coincidence!"

Aaaaand even as they banter about what a good good heart-boy Devero is, the priest whips to one side and slams a leaping mongoose out of the air and back into the trees with his katana. Fuck off!

"It's a language thing!" he insists with mock affrontery. "There isn't a single romantic thing about the Romance Territory at all!!" (Which is absolutely untrue, of course.)

He catches Koumyou's movement out of the corner of his eye and half-turns as the priest plays a reverse card on that particular attack. He's--

Torn, a little. Because he's still in absolute awe of Koumyou's effortlessly precise technique; he could watch him move for hours. But effortless, precise technique is also almost effortlessly deadly, and his own little squeamish difficulty is not that far behind him.

But he will pull his weight, no matter what sledge he ends up harnessed to. He straightens his shoulders, and moves on to the next tree.

Death is a dance, and it's one Koumyou's mastered over the course of a long, brutal life. He knows the moves far better than that of any real dance, and his partners don't tend to survive to ask for an encore.

Which is the point, of course.

One move, one kill. He doesn't even bat an eyelash at it, or lose the beat of their conversation--

"You're super wrong," he teases in direct contrast to how he stalks the area, sword ready. "There's at least one very romantic thing about the Romance Territory, and it's you!"

And just like any dance, Devero doesn't have to know the exact moves or the history to appreciate the mastery of what he sees. Watching Koumyou stalk a perimeter around him-- around him!-- is like watching a predator in motion.

The contrast between the predator and the teasing flirt is a little dissonant for Devero. But he finds it gets a little less so, every time he sees Koumyou dispatch another furry little attacker. He's just not sure if that's a good thing or not.

But either way, he can't help but keep teasing back. "Not true," he says primly, "because I am here and not in the Romance Territory at all. And believe me, I was-- I'm a-- I was a real pill at home."

The bloodlessness of it all is the only dissonant, disconcerting element for Koumyou. A katana that doesn't cut, a body that doesn't bleed.

Probably just as well, for Devero's sake.

"You had good reason to be a pill," and that's as close to touching on that as Koumyou intends to get, right now. So he goes right back to teasing -- "You're from that territory, and you're a giant romantic here. Thus, you're living up to its name!"

Devero's gonna have to concede defeat on this one. He gasps dramatically, putting a hand to his heart and spinning to swoon back against a tree. "I-- I've been enlightened! Truly, I am a scion of the Romance Territory!"

He pushes away from the tree and it's his turn to stalk, though his quarry is not an enemy. He scoops Koumyou up around the waist and plants a stage-kiss on his lips. "And to think, if it weren't for you, I never would have realized!"

The priest gasps appropriately at the exaggerated swoon against the tree, and then when he's being stalked--

"Dev-chan!" Koumyou laughs as he's scooped, and smooched! He rests his free arm on the bigger man's shoulder, sword held out to the side as though it were actually sharp.

Still laughing, he decides to tease about the usual metaphors about himself -- "Something-something, light of the moon revealing the truth, etcetera, etcetera. Right?"

He laughs delightedly as he sets him down again. "Exactly," he says, booping Koumyou on the nose.

His other arm is still looped loosely around him, and he doesn't release the priest yet. More seriously, he adds, "You've revealed truths about me that I don't think I ever could have discovered on my own. This Devero here wouldn't exist if it weren't for you, Koumyou Sanzo."

He bends down for another kiss, a real one this time.

When the kiss eventually breaks, Koumyou stares up at Devero with an expression on his face that can only be labeled 'loving'. Flushed cheeks and squinting eyes, a smile free of any mischief.

"I--" it almost makes its way out of his mouth, too. So close!

"I'm very glad."

It's okay, Koumyou. Devero can say it for the both of you. "I love you." His own smile is just as tender. "And I love who I am around-- aw fuck. Incoming."

He springs away from Koumyou and braces, bringing his batons up to block the first of the incoming handful of creatures.

"Really starting to not like these damn things!" he snaps as parries the leap of the first one, redirecting its momentum to send it tumbling away over his shoulder.

What a wonderful, beautiful moment.

Until, you know, reality (non-reality?) re-asserts itself, and Devero has to spring away and defend himself from attack.

Koumyou can't help but laugh at the almost predictability of it.

"They're very rude!" he says in agreement, turning to blast water into the trees. A few mongeese fall from branches at the spray. "It's like they know when we're having a moment!"

Devero steps up beside him, shoulder to shoulder, and adds his own blast of water, sweeping blasts of water through tangled branches and clinging vines. More of the creatures fall from the trees, though most of them hop back to their feet right away and charge towards the two men.

"Didn't their caretakers teach them any manners?" Devero demands. "I want to talk to the management of their creche about social basics."

He's getting better with this water power of his, his aim definitely improved as he starts to pick off the ground runners. And if his blows aren't deadly, at least he's stunning the damn things, and making some of them seem to think twice about pressing the attack.

Honestly, playing whack-a-mongoose with water jets is kind of fun!

"This isn't even making me tired like chi would eventually!" Koumyou says cheerfully, after laughing at Devero's quip about talking to management.

"Depending how the rest of this mission goes, you might get to have a word." After all, they seem to be in some kind of... mindscape? for the planet?

That indicates, to Koumyou, that there's a source.

"Guess it's not our own energy we're using," Devero says. Which would make sense, if they are avatars in a digital representation, or minds powering hardlight constructs.

"--Could be right about that," he continues thoughtfully, picking off another mongoose or two. "Something definitely brought us here. Maybe it'll oblige us with an audience once we're done doing what it wants."

"It certainly explains the limitations," Koumyou agrees, because yes, to him, just being able to shoot water...?

Generating the water out of nowhere is novel and new, but otherwise, this is limited. He can't even do anything fun with the water! It shoots in a straight line! And forget about charging it with electricity, or shaping it into anything.

Pretty soon, any of the enemies in their immediate area have either been dealt with or spooked away. "I imagine this will get worse the further in we get."

Even if this ability is a lot more novel to Devero than it is to Koumyou, he's starting to treat it with less giddy awe and more like another tool in his arsenal by the time they clear their patch of forest.

Even though it's not draining his energy the way chi-magic might, the battle-alert high is taking its toll on a man who's grown unused to the rigors of combat. This time when he leans back against a tree, it's just to catch his damn breath.

"Yeah," he says, checking his SCA. There's definitely a point deeper into this 'forest' that they're supposed to be aiming for. "Makes sense there'd be more defenses the closer we get to whatever it is we're supposed to be looking for." Some generating source of harm that needs to be either healed or destroyed, he assumes.

"Indeed," Koumyou wanders close to him, but continues to eye their surroundings just in case. "Are you okay?"

He's pretty sure nothing had reached either of them, but. Hey. May as well use his words and ask?

Devero waves a hand while shaking his head. "Just beat. I'm way out of condition." The first day of the march had been rough on him for the same reason. "Nothing got you, right?"

"All strength and no stamina, huh?" Koumyou can't help but tease, "I guess we really will need to go on those morning jogs you suggested."

You know.

Before they'd, uh, broken up.

Let's just step around that particular, fresh wound, shall we?

"Nothing touched me! Though it's harder to tell with the lack of blood." Pain alone doesn't tell him much, most of the time!

"Remember, most of the time I'm more than just the wetware," Devero says. "I don't usually have to haul my own gear when I'm out in the field!" Babysitter does that for him! It's hard with just a soft body!

He does push away from the tree, making a little face as he does. "...I'm... kind of glad there's no blood," he admits sheepishly. "This is hard enough as it is."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject