middleofsomewhere | 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

"Growing them, yes. It's my whole thing really."

Soothing vines takes some time, so she lets him watch out while she moves around the area. This is going to take forever, the whole thing, but it's easier with help.

"Don't tell me that you need musical accompaniment like a movie or something? Can't do something without a riff to back up cool movements?"

Demyx snickered at that. "Oh man, I wish I had powers that worked like that! Theme music would be the best."

He shook his head. "Nah, but usually I have my sitar. Really sets the mood you know?"

He couldn't help it, his weapon of choice was a musical instrument.

"I would ask what your theme song would be but I doubt I'd have heard of it, with worlds being what they are. So--what's a sitar? Like a guitar?"

Luckily it's easy to talk and work.

"Not really. It's a stringed instrument too." Demyx said, as he pressed his hand to a vine. Whatever this was, it was working.

"But it works completely different from a guitar and sounds very different. For one thing you play a sitar mainly through sympathetic strings."

"I'm not really a musician so I'm not sure what you mean...Do they--" She pauses, hand poised on the space that a vine was as it fades away, "No, I have no idea what sympathetic strings are. I'm going to assume they cannot feel emotions because you would have lead with that."

"No, no, nothing like that. If we weren't in here I could show you. I mean, my sitar has eighteen strings, but you only play three. It makes the other fifteen vibrate to make the notes happen." He explained with a bright smile.

"O--Oh! Oh I get, sympathetic! Sympathetic to the movements of the other strings, that makes so much sense." She turns back, bright eyed, "So how does that work? Through the wood of the instrument or some special way of setting up the strings?" She's played a kithara before, but it's a much different beast than what's she's imagining.

"That's right." Demyx grinned. It was a good thing they weren't being attacked at the moment, and he could explain.

"It's the way that the strings are set up. There are frets on the neck of the sitar and the strings you play run overtop of them, while the sympathetic strings run underneath them. The notes you get depend on sliding the frets along the neck and tuning the sympathetic strings to get the sound you want." Demyx continued, kind of enthusiastic because honestly, this was his favourite subject.

"Aside from that, unlike a guitar, a sitar has two bridges. One for the playable strings and one for the sympathetic ones. Usually you'd have drone strings, making the number of playable strings six instead of three, but mine doesn't have that. I don't know why." He smiled and shrugged helplessly. "So, if your bridges aren't in the right place it can affect your ability to play the notes you want too, but what's really interesting, is that you can't play chords on a sitar."

Letting someone ramble about their favored subject is always fun. She can't quite picture the sitar, imagining something like a guitar, then something bizarre and abstract.

"You've got to show me this because I just cannot picture it. But why can't you play chords? Does the way you play the main strings just make it impossible to get several going at once?...That is a chord, right?" She knows so little about music. So little. So what she does know, she's trying desperately to apply.

"When we get outta here and I can summon it, no problem." Demyx promised with a grin.

"And yeah, kinda, but because you're not really playing the strings you're touching, they can't blend like that. It's just an interesting fact. Chords require at least three notes to count and the sitar can only play two at once. It's all about the frets and holding the vibration longer."

"I don't know a ton about music, not my pasttime, but it sounds fascinating. How do you even come up with an instrument that works on that--sympathetic strings and all? Same way they do anything else, I suppose. Trial and error."

Vines vanquished! She steps back, shaking her hands out and grinning, "So, I've seen people summon weapons but not instruments. Are you sure you don't need a theme song?"

"Uh, I guess so, if I knew, I don't remember that."

Demyx let out a delighted snicker. "Well I mean...I'm just that lucky, my weapon is a musical instrument."

He flashed a victory sign. "I totally need a theme song!"

Ongoing: All Teams

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