middleofsomewhere | The Will to Fight: Start

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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.

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"I think so. It ain't just about bein' scared. Some of these animals give 'em food. If they ain't that many, then where are they gonna get the food from it- Hey! Y'all. Where they keep the livestock?!" He hollers at an older couple who are rubbernecking the vague confusion from a distance, lacking anything that resembles shyness.

All his fear of sharing comes from his own emotions, not his own raspy voice yelling questions.

"Oh, there are some off by the West Tower!" The lady responds, and Yondu responds with some folksy sounding thanks before veering that way.

"I don't think they'll look past this shit without some proof, either. My eyes is fooled real good. An' I can feel it... like it's bearin' down, tryin' to question stuff is like liftin' somethin' heavy. My thinkin' legs wanna give out."

What? What is that phrase, Yondu? But that's about the best way he can describe it.

Thankfully Madoka is a master of interpretation. Clearly. Or at the very least, she understands what he's trying to say, no matter how unconventional the way he's saying it is.

"Hmm.. I don't even know how much there is to look past." Since Madoka isn't really good at this sort of thing. Is it just that there's something weird with the animals? Clearly not, judging by that guy's attitude - but then how much is there wrong here?

She shakes her head a little as she walks. "I mean, that chicken pretty obviously wasn't just a chicken, but I couldn't tell either what it really was before it was suddenly gone after you took care of it. But--"

She pauses, thinking back on her conversation over the comms..

".. Tidus said I may have a way to look past it, if you'd like to try that, sir..?"

Edited 2021-03-17 08:57 (UTC)

"Oh, yeah? Well, let's give it a shot."

He's ready to see what her plan is.

"Well, it took me noticin' that the chicken wasn't eatin' before I figured it out. So these illusions are pretty strong. But some of the topography feels wrong." He gestures around.

"My fin... It's readin' some of these buildin's are broke? But my eyes say they're all put together."

She nods along a little with what he's saying, even as she seems focused on something else at the same time. She takes out her mana drive, thankfully used to the way it works by now, but still needing a moment to set it up with the right spell.

"Okay, I think I can help with that. Making your fin and eyes register the same thing, that is.." Oh, gosh, which spell was it again? It takes some fiddling, but then Madoka remembers - Shell.

She points the device at Yondu as it automatically casts the spell on him. A spell that ups magic resistance for a while.

Which means that the moment it kicks in, he should be able to see beyond the illusion cast over the place.

But since it's a single target spell, Madoka has no idea what he's seeing. Or not seeing. She looks like a kid waiting to see what their Christmas present is. Full anticipation.

"Do you see something, mister Yondu?"

What in the ever-loving hell did she just do? She pointed a thing, and- Oh what the hell...

Yondu turns in place, face twisting up in the most potent of confusion, oh this is a hell of a lot different!

"Yeah, Angel, I think it worked. And whatever juju they got convincin' them that this is an okay place to stay is strong. There's barely any actual animals here. And whew.... some of these buildin's. That skyline ain't helpin'- how much juice you got in that thing?" He points at her mana drive.

"Use it on yourself an' let's see what we can set up."

"Um, I think there's a few charges of the spell in here, but I don't think it's enough to use on all the people here.." But at least enough to use one on herself too. And since he's telling her to do so, Madoka is quick to obediently do so, even if it's a little harder to angle it in such a way that she can cast the spell on herself.

But after a moment or two she manages to do it - obviously so too, since Madoka looks equally surprised when she can see the truth of the city around them. It's such a stark contrast with how it looked only a moment ago..

"No way, the people here have been living in such a place all along..?"

"I think they might be ignoring some of the damaged houses. The people in 'em mighta died durin' the war. Now they figure they just moved. Anyway, that's just thinkin'."

He puts his hand between Madoka's shoulders to try and usher her the way they were going.

"Here's what I'm thinkin'. We take this to a few of the livestock guys, right? Ones that have been wary of attack. Even under this illusion, they know somethin' is off, so that's a good start. We talk to 'em and use it on 'em. They'd do more convincin' than a coupla strangers from Kansas and Missouri."

Madoka is moving right along - though maybe a little on the slow side, so in that sense it's a good thing that Yondu's got that hand on her back, pushing her along. It's really just that Madoka's head is partially elsewhere, making her walk a bit absentmindedly.

But not absentminded enough to totally miss what he's saying. Her head dips into a nod.

"I think that's a good idea.." That's not the problem, really. Nor the reason why she's so in thought. No, that reason rears its head when she continues talking - though while still walking.

"But.. don't you think it's sad, mister Yondu?" She glances up at him, sympathy in her eyes. "If they're ignoring the damaged houses, and aren't thinking there's any danger.. It means they may have totally forgotten about people who have died during recent attacks. They don't seem that concerned about the animals attacking, after all."

So there may not have been any fatal endings to those attacks - or people simply forgot about them, just how they seem to ignore anything that's out of the ordinary for them.

Such a good kid ain't got no place bein' on this train. He'd slap the shit out of whatever algorithm forced her on here if he had half a chance. Rather than pushing, he puts his hand on her other shoulder so it's like he briefly hugs her to his side. Just the smallest gesture.

"These people been fightin' so long that they latched onto the first moment they had to not think of things so bad. Big countries an' empires do that, too, y'know? Like there were Kree that wouldn't like the kinda stuff that happened to me when I was a littlun, but they just kinda shut off to it. Brains too tired from fightin' an' didn't want to think fo what else might be happenin'."

You'd think he'd be madder about it, but he isn't. For being as angry and hateful and tired as he can be, there's not a lot of vengeance in Yondu. He's even hired Kree defectors to his crew. Gotta do what you gotta do even if it's to hide for the sake of your own mental health. Doesn't help getting the wool pulled over your eyes, though, and having that desperate desire manipulated.

"The way I figure it's sad, yeah, but these folks are desperate. This might be the longest they've had to go without worryin' in a good long time."

There's a lot of new facts suddenly being thrown her way. Things Madoka instantly gets curious about. Like who these Kree are, for example - are they some sort of aliens? It seems like it, even though Madoka has a hard time imagining what they might look like. A little like Yondu?

And then there's the mention of his past - what happened to me when I was a littlun, the implication that it was really bad.

She knows it's not the time to ask about it. Maybe it'll never be, since Madoka is much too polite to pry into anyone's past, especially when it may be sensitive. But the information does linger at the back of her mind, even as she speaks up, fully letting Yondu pull her closer into a slight sidehug.

(Her head may even tilt sideways a little to rest against his side.)

"I really hope we can help everyone here." Even if it feels like their team isn't doing the main thing. Sure, helping the people here see the truth and helping evacuate them is important, but they're not fighting. Not defeating the threat. "I don't want them to have to live like this."

"Hey, we're gonna. These people need you. You're gonna do fine." He assures her because he feels like she needs it more than him. He feels pretty damn useless, but he's at least in here where he can keep Blue Team safe in the very off chance they can't handle that mess outside the wall, there being gods and such duking it out.

We'll go find us some people that'll be able to say there's somethin' real wrong with the animals, we'll help 'em see what's goin' on. People gonna be sad but I figure some of 'em might be real mad they got tricked... an' there's always gonna be a few that say 'well the truth is the trick' but there's nothin' we can do for those folks."

It sucks, but short of clubbing them over the head and making them leave they're not going to budge.

"I think.... probably they were livin' pretty bad for a real long time. It ain't gonna be pretty to go back to, but they need a real idea of what resources they got and not just some trick of the light. Alright, come on. Look me in the eyes-" he looks down at her, pointing to those red eyes of his and throws on a more supportive look onto that persistently dour expression "-and you listen to me. You're gonna do fine. If anyone's gonna be able to help these people, it's gonna be you."

Madoka is so caught up in thought about everything he's saying that it's almost as if she snaps out of it a little when he tells her to look him in the eyes. Her eyes are a little wide, the look in them still obviously worried - he should be able to see it just fine, exactly because they're looking each other in the eyes from up close like this.

"Me?"

It doesn't feel right. What can she do in this situation? Sure, she is the one who took the mana drive along, but anyone could use that! She could've passed it on to Yondu himself and he would have been able to use the spells, she's sure.

But Madoka thinks maybe he's just trying to cheer her up. And in that case it'd be rather rude of him to just refuse his encouragement, right?

"I-I'm not so sure of that.. I mean, I'm going to do my best!" Because she doesn't want him to get the idea she's giving up. She's not, not at all, because she really does want to help everyone. "But there's not so much I can do.. It's up to everyone out there to keep the city safe, right..?"

It's hard to convince someone of somethin' when you're not feeling it yourself. But it's not the first time he's set his mind to such a thing. He had a whole big crew of people a lot more dangerous and stubborn and damnably self-lovin' than Madoka.

"They're gonna do their best but we gotta get these people outside because sometimes 'their best' ain't good enough. They got a lotta good people but we're gonna be a solid back-up plan."

It makes the circumstances seem dire, but they are if things go tits up with the towers or the outside group.

He gives her a little squeeze. "Besides I need someone to help keep me from killin' some o' these idiots. Who else is gonna be able to do that?"

She gasps.

"M-Mister Yondu, you aren't really going to kill some of these people, are you?!" Maybe Madoka is taking it a little too seriously. And for a moment it seems like everything he's telling her is going right over her head - except maybe it's hitting its target after all, since Madoka momentarily doesn't seem so worried anymore about what she can or can't do.

Although she now instead may be worried about what he can do. Her hands are thoughtfully pressed to her mouth after the shock.

And because she took it seriously for a moment, he just barks a laugh.

"Alright, you don't want me to? Well, dang, now what am I gonna do?" His sense of humor is, sometimes, quite a thing. He looks the part, right? He might as well have fun with people's assumptions. Peter Quill was still convinced he might have eaten him far into adulthood.

"C'mon, we're almost there."

He steps away from her then. Doesn't much think about it when he whistles for a stable-hand's attention. Especially since Galactic translators don't usually translate Centaurian for other people. But when he does, thanks to the SCA a feeling of 'Hey you!' hits with the sound and as unusual as anything else is, understanding a whistle of all things did give the guy some real pause. Magic illusion calmness or no.

"Mister Yondu!"

Guess who still hasn't caught on to the fact that it's a joke. Or, well, at least the fact that he's laughing - coupled with the fact that she definitely believes he's a good person - gives her the idea it might be a joke.

But she isn't 100% sure yet. Which means in a way that's almost circus-levels of comical, there's a tiny girl running after Yondu, flailing her arms and sputtering something like: "Y-you have to promise to not kill anyone--!"

(Usually she would be a little more careful about saying stuff like that so loudly, but this may be the one way in which the illusion hanging over the city may be convenient.)

Madoka only stops when she's right next to the other again, right in front of the stablehand. She's a little out of breath from having ran those few steps after Yondu after having spent a moment in a daze, but she's quick to ask: "Um.. sir, have you seen anything odd from the animals here lately..?"

"I'll promise if you promise you'll be a little less hard on yourself. Then I won't kill nobody." He says it quietly and resists the urge to add in a playful little 'probably' bit of meanness because now the guy's walked over to talk to them and he'll hold back the murder talk for a moment.

"Oh, yeah... We've had a few of them get aggressive. We don't know why. They didn't look sick-"

The man is saying.

"So whichn's have been the worst for it so far."

Now that Yondu can really get a look at those stables, though, a bunch of the animals are just gone. There are still a few genuine ones, but his hackles are raisin'. He's even missing the person's answer 'cause he's distracted.

He's gone from playful to serious. "Hey, Angel? I'm gonna take a look in that barn. I got a bad feelin'."

It's that last sentence that gets Madoka's worried look to shift between the native and Yondu. A bad feeling, even beyond what they've already seen so far? Madoka isn't too sure what it is, and therefore she also isn't entirely sure what to do.

Hence her slightly hesitant tone when she speaks up.

".. Should I come with you?" She'd rather ask what he's thinking about, but unsure of whether or not he wants to mention it, if he's being so vague in the first place. But if Yondu would rather have her stay here and wait by the stablemate, she'll do just that.

"Nah, you talk to that nice man an' show him what's goin' on..." he insists, mostly out of concern for what he might find in there.

The stablehand then looks to Madoka. "What does he mean 'what's going on'?"

Yondu slips into the barn, taking count of how many goat stalls here are actually nigh on empty. They have way too much food. Currently the goats aren't eating it, the few that exist are pressed up to one side of their stalls. Towards him and away from the divider wall behind them.

He goes over into that next divider wall area, and there's a goat that's struggling its way over the fence to get in with its neighbor, who is also trying to push its panicked way out of its stall.

In the stall next to it, he can't quite make it out, but the tears in the wood of the barn let in enough sun that he can see the jewel-tone skin of something crouching in the hay. Yondu whistles sharply, which Madoka can probably hear, bringing his arrow up to hover beside him. The shape with light barely glinting off of it 'wakes up', stirring and raising its head. He doesn't know if it was sleeping or stalking, but he's guessing it knows he can see it now.

Even as she's looking at the stablehand rather than in Yondu's direction, Madoka immediately knows that his bad feeling was spot on the moment she hears that whistle. After all, Yondu showed her his arrow on his very first day on the train, back when they first met. She knows he controls it through whistling.

And there's no way he'd take it out like that over nothing.

So even though the stablemate just seems confused, Madoka knows there's no time to lose.

"Um, sir.. I-I'm sorry, but.. I think you need to see this.." Standing next to the stablehand, she activates the mana drive once more. Casting the same spell on him as she used on Yondu and herself.

And Madoka knows it works, because the man's eyes grow wide, even though he's staring at the same display as he was a few moments ago.

But it no longer looks the same to him.

Whatever was keeping the demons out of the city isn't foolproof, he'd venture to guess. This is the second one. They're not exactly crawling with them, but there's some way for them to get in.

The thing stands up to full height slowly, on its hind legs rather than all fours as it turns towards the blue man. Yondu doesn't know if it's confusion at a new type of person that makes it pause, or if it's that it didn't expect anyone to be looking directly at it, but it takes a few seconds longer than expected to vault out of the stall to come after him.

There's more whistling from inside the barn, accompanied by some snarling, and that confused stablehand is ready to run in and see what's going on. He makes it just in time to see the dying demon drag itself around the corner and pass, and Yondu can only hope these corpses last long enough for someone to realize what's there.

But he also gets a 'what the fuck' look in the process. Finally! Someone's noticed, and Yondu points to the demon. "I killed that. I'm on your team." Just so he knows. "I know y'all got pitchforks readily available here, don't be aimin' 'em at me."

Madoka runs after the man when he heads to where Yondu is, and the moment she realises what Yondu is saying - and, more importantly, why he's saying it, - she runs a little bit further, positioning herself between the stablehand and Yondu.

Just in case. Just in case.

"Y-Yes! He's not lying. We're all on the same side." Hopefully that'll be a bit more believable coming from a girl whose only weird feature is the fact that she has cotton candy coloured hair, right.. "There's a problem going on here in the city.. And we're here to help fix it."

"Angel, you-"

While they weren't making a hostile motion just yet, just a surprised and frightened one, Madoka putting herself between them alarms him at first. The protest is lost, though, because the man's starting to talk.

"Who are you people? Who did this to us?"

This isn't a great time to say 'we come from a magic space train' 'cause this boy is gonna think he lost his mind. "Y'all don't have time for that. If you don't warn ever'body here to look harder we're gonna be in deep shit." He gestures and shoos 'cause the first answer won't help and the second one he doesn't know.

Too bad, Yondu. This is the blue team, being stupidly selfsacrificing is how we live here!

Thankfully nothing has to be sacrificed here though. Madoka can see plain as day on the man's face that he's mostly just terrified by what he's seen here. By the implications of it. And while Madoka does think Yondu has a point, she figures she may as well add a few more diplomatic words to it, just to ensure all this goes well.

"Please, sir! You have to convince the other people too that this is going on. There's a lot of dangerous monsters coming this way, and we want to make sure to help you leave the city in time to be safe..!" Look, clearly not even one of the natives of this city could resist this level of puppy eyes from a cute girl, right.

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The Will to Fight: Start

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