voidtreckermods: (voidtrain)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2021-03-11 06:00 am

The Will to Fight: Start

"Good Morning Passengers, today is day six of the month of Kazoo." The voice echoes through the train as passengers wake up in their beds. Not long afterwards their SCA’s glow with the colour of the void and a holographic image will appear.

Preparation

They have an hour or two to prepare. Enough time to read their briefs, make decisions, meet in their teams and gather anything they may need. The dressing carriage is open with tents and other basic camping equipment.

"Shortly arriving in system #86525656412355. Drop order is Orange and Blue followed by Red and Purple. Orange and Blue to doors, arriving in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

The train lurches as it exits through the void, before descending smoothly to the world below.

Blue and Orange

Arrival

If anyone peeks through the windows as the train lands they will see a glimpse of cracked and crumbling walls, a city on its last legs. As they exit the train, however, any passengers who aren't immune to magics influencing the mind will find themselves looking at grand, sturdy walls, flags with a blue field and golden tower fluttering from the ramparts.

They aren't too far from a gate, depending on where on the train they exited, and the gates are opened and unmanned. Inside, people are going about their business, selling their wares, while children run around playing among dogs and chickens.

The newcomers don't get too much attention, even though their hoodies and combat trousers seem very out of place in this city.

The Towers

The towers stand in each corner of the city. They are solid stone, no windows all the way up. The ground floor is the largest, grand doors leading into a functional yet beautiful foyer, and from there into smaller chambers. Wide, curving stairs lead up into the tower proper.

As they climb the towers they will come to the different levels which are all trapped, to dissuade intruders and train their disciples. They will be able to descend the towers and exit and enter again as many times as they like as they work their way up to the top.

The City

It will soon become apparent that persuading these people to fight isn't going to happen. The war has already been won, the demons were defeated. The world is safe once more. Welcome, travellers, to the Shining City.

Their SCA's show them the locations of the entrances to the catacombs. There are a handful, scattered around the city, clearly designed for quick evacuation should the city defences ever be breached.

Persuading people that the city needs to be evacuated might take a good while.

The Catacombs

The catacombs are cold and dark, lamps having gone unlit for months. Those that are sensitive or can sense magic in any way will be able to tell that at least here the wards hold: no demons will be able to enter.

The tunnels are narrow, able to fit two people side by side at their widest points, but more often than not they must move single file to avoid collapsed walls or leaning pillars. Or, sometimes, piles of bones spilled from the tombs set into the walls. Side tunnels extend out into the darkness, signposts or symbols marking old, unused storerooms, bunkers for temporary shelter, or private tombs and crypts.

At points the tunnels widen out into large chambers, rooms or galleries that have been used as cemeteries for centuries. At other points the tunnels have collapsed or become almost impassable. People will need to wriggle through the gaps or find ways to stabilise the tunnels in order to pass through.

Purple and Red

Arrival

"Red and Purple to doors." The train flies back into the air after dropping Orange and Blue at the city gates. It doesn't go very far; it's less than a minute later that they're landing again. The doors open and they can step out into the destroyed countryside.

They don't get much time to get their bearings as the train flies off again, because coming over a nearby hill is a band of demons, a gate crackling behind them. The band is mostly footsoldiers, with several of the larger breed interspersed.

It's hard to say which side is more taken by surprise, but the Voidtreckers will only have moments to ready themselves before the demons rush in.

Defending the City

It's a wide area to cover, surrounding the city, and there is plenty of work to be done. Bands of demons roam around, most headed towards the city. They run, claws digging into the ground, leaving a trail of destruction behind them. Sometimes they will have a larger demon or even two with them, armed with toxic whips that they use with dangerous accuracy.

Other times there will be smaller demons, carrying ornate daggers, whispering foul spells to drain and bind their enemies. These demons become more regular as the days progress as it becomes obvious that taking the city will not be as easy as they first thought.

Closing the Demon Gates

The gates nearer the city are smaller, and easy enough to find, but the SCA's of the red team pinpoint more and more gates as they open in the areas further out. Triangular markings on their SCA maps indicate distance and direction.

The gates must be closed from the other side, so the first thing is to enter them. Entering the gates feels strange, uncomfortable, as if something were tugging and clawing at their very being, trying to pull them out of their own skin.

That feeling lasts for a moment, albeit one that feels stretched, and then they are in the demon realm: a monochrome world devoid of life, where every step taken tires the body, where even existing is exhausting.

The gates are guarded, so adjusting will need to be done in combat. Smaller gates have fewer guards than the larger, but all will fight savagely to protect the keystone.

The keystones are smooth black obelisks about a foot high, usually stood on a plinth or set above the gate location as a centrepiece. Each can be destroyed by blunt force or any other ability able to shatter stone, and once it is they will have a short amount of time to leave before the gate closes. Their SCA will helpfully start a timer indicating this.
theimpatientone: (Default)

Preparation

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-11 10:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Food and water is definitely more important. Merwen lingers a moment over picking up a loaf of bread.

"Can I share help?" she asks. Honestly, she's far more comfortable in a kitchen than anywhere else. And she has no idea what to expect from her first mission.
10billionpercent: (I Sense A Plot)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-13 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
"Sure." Senku agreed with a bit of a hum. "There's more coming out in about 136 seconds, but these cool ones if you can help me wrap them up for people." He was pretty sure they'd take them anyway, if not he'd have lots of bread to store for later. There wasn't really a loss to making it.
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-14 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
After taking a moment to wash her hands, she moves up to the counter, and starts wrapping.

"I don't know what to expect," she admits, without looking up. "I don't know what I'm expected to do, much less how I am meant to accomplish it. Have you been on many missions before?"
10billionpercent: (Avoiding Emotions)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-15 04:46 pm (UTC)(link)
"I've been on a few." Senku confirmed. "They've all been different...as to how the expectations for our team have been different."

He considered as he wrapped up a loaf of bread for easy travel.

"The last mission was terribly boring. We were in an area with little at all, and it was small patch job repairs. Not much thought was involved and then at the end it was dealing with a digital foe, with strange powers granted by the digital world. I think it was a digital world. Very surreal."
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-18 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
"A... digital world?"

Merwen pauses, trying to go through definitions she knows, and comes up with nothing helpful. "Please, I'm trying to learnshare. What does that mean, a 'digital' world?"

She wants to know what to expect, and all she's coming up with is that she doesn't know what to expect. Yay.
10billionpercent: (Sentimental)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-19 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Ah, sorry, let me slow down."

Senku at least, was used to people not knowing what he was going on about.

"Digital is more a reference to something like a video game, or data on the computer. You know the screens in every car? They're like a type of computer. But that's not going to help you understand."

He crossed his arms, thinking for a moment. "Ah! Okay, think of it as a place you can see, but the only thing that's real there is your mind. So you can see yourself, you can see me, for example, but the only thing real is my mind and your mind. So for example, if you fell and scraped your knee in this landscape, nothing would happen to your body when you came out of it."

That was just the last mission, they'd been so varied.
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-22 02:44 am (UTC)(link)
She listens to this carefully, head tilted to one side.

"What happened seemed to share truth, but it did not," she translates -- more for her own benefit than his. "I've never heard of anything like that, but... well, that's true for most things here." Merwen shrugs. "As far as I know, these computers all seem to be made of coldstone, and we have neither stone nor coldstone on Shora. I didn't know anything like that was possible."
10billionpercent: (This Is So Exciting)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-22 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
"Coldstone?" Senku asked, wondering what she meant.

"If you're likening it to a rock of some kind, that's not actually how it works. There are pieces in behind the display to make it work." He considered a moment.

Well, he didn't have to use metaphors.

"After the mission." He smiled. "I'll take one apart to show you. The benefit is, I can put it back together when I'm done."
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-26 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
Ah. That's not translating well. Merwen's mouth thins for a moment as she looks around for an example. "No, coldstone. This." She indicates a nearby knife, and the metal blade. She does does without touching it, leaving a squeamish sort of distance between it and her finger tip. "That is coldstone. If you have another name for it, I don't know it. We have none of it on Shora, except what the Valans brought."

Does she want to see it taken apart? Well. No. Not really. But want sometimes doesn't mean should. "I will learnshare the workings with you, though, if you can take it apart."
10billionpercent: (Default)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-26 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Metal." Senku answered for her, nodding his understanding. "Steel, probably, specifically." He hummed.

"That's not what it's made of." He smiled. "That's what I mean, it's made up of a lot of parts, some of it is metal, but the screen is glass, like the cups you drink out of."

Senku was getting the feeling that some of it was a language barrier of a sort. "I can. I've taken it apart and put it back together before."
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-26 04:05 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, details. Merwen waves her hand. "It is a thing of coldstone, metal, glass, whatever your words are. It is not alive and is not made of anything that was alive. I have no doubt that it is complex, but it isn't anything like what we use on Shora."

Edited 2021-03-26 04:05 (UTC)
10billionpercent: (Ha Ha)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-26 04:59 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, not alive no, but made from rocks." Senku said. "At its most basic, if that helps you." Although there may not be many people who could explain how rocks became those things. "I am getting that impression, yes. I don't know what your world is like, but it sounds interesting."
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-27 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
"Shora is all sea. Any stone you care to find is far beneath the water, where only the dead may go."

Merwen shakes her head. "We make what we need from other things, things that live. I don't think I will ever feel comfortable in this train."
10billionpercent: (I Sense A Plot)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-27 02:18 am (UTC)(link)
"That could be." Senku agreed. "I find the train unnerving too, because I'm used to being out in the wilderness now. There are good things about it but mostly it's strange." So he could understand her discomfort.
theimpatientone: (Default)

[personal profile] theimpatientone 2021-03-28 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
"I have shared meeting with some very fascinating people," Merwen says, diplomatically. "And I have learnshared of some fascinating worlds, very different from my own. There is value in that."

It's the train she's not a fan of.
10billionpercent: (Default)

[personal profile] 10billionpercent 2021-03-28 07:09 pm (UTC)(link)
"I think when you learn anything it's valuable." Senku was a proponent of lifelong learning.

"But it's very different if your world isn't like this." He could agree with that.

"Frankly, I'm a fan of the soft bed and the hot showers, and don't tell Gen I said so. I can only deliver one of those when we get back, maybe."