middleofsomewhere | So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

JUST Ā̸̛͇̹̈́͌͐͛̐̋͝Ǹ̵̠͍̲̘͈̮͈̺͔̤͙̳̓̔͑͌̒̓̃́̄̚͘Ớ̶̻̱̄̓͆͂̈́̄̔͋͌̽̀̕͘T̵͙͍͓̻̩͙̻͙̹͎̫̘͇̱̈́̌̓͝ͅH̶̭̻͇̰͈̯̦̹̦̗͐̒́Ẽ̵̡̡̘̳͉͇͚̼̗̣̩͎̞̏͒̈́̏͂̈͝Ř̴̠͋̐͘ NORMAL DAY

"Jinnjar citizens. Unfortunately, all train travel will be closed due to issues on the lines. Members of the Voidtrecker Express have been located around the city, and are deploying trickery to agitate and confuse us. We ask any volunteers at this time to help us locate any suspicious objects and people, and to restrain them.

For the f̴̘̯̰̦̺͖̔͌̋̃ũ̴̢̖̦͙̩̼̺̪͚͍̥͈̜̝͋̌̒̊̚ẗ̶̪̺͕̤̯̞̤͓̝́̑̄̎̊̕future of our city!"

A TL;DR notes version of days/prompts: (click to show)

EVENT BASICS:

DAYS 5 & 6:

By now, some people have broken out of their fake lives while some haven't. Tension is rising in the city as people are led to believe this is by the Voidtreckers, which some will believe due to illusions and messing with one's heads is believed to be one of their many tactics.
Some oddities are occurring with travel, and glimpses of how the city is made beginning to show. The streams of colour - the void - are getting brighter. Electronics are not working well. Some monster sightings are seen, but not to a large degree.
The prompts here are light to give characters and players time to ICly coordinate, as Voidtreckers are being more actively hunted. Some faces are known. You know who you are, troublemakers.

DAYS 7 & 8:

The world is really starting to go a bit wild now, with more things disappearing, animals on the loose and more monster sightings.
By the end of day eight most people have realised the truth though those who are very susceptible to mind control or very stubbornly wanting to believe in this world will still be trapped, believing this is the Voidtreckers doing.
There are monsters to fight, people to keep calm and a plan to make.

[ HOME SWEET...HOME? ] By day 5, the people of Jinnjar are in a state of anxiety more than before. There's those who realise they're not a part of this world, never were, while there's those who still cling onto this life. Health services say that the source of confusion comes from the colour trails that are brighter than ever in the sky, while the D-Force/Heroes have it confirmed - internally and publicly - that there are Voidtreckers amongst them.

The media shows pictures of potential suspects, some Voidtreckers, some not; a man with the same face as two others, one who made a show by creating ice in the middle of the street. Your face may be shown, but don't worry - they're asking people not to play vigilante.

That'll surely keep people behaved.

[ TRAVEL REVIEW. ] As if it couldn't get more frustrating, most of the trains are down. Air taxis are still available for short journeys, yet some people have the bizarre occurrence where they end up in the wrong spot, and even remember going in this wrong direction...but never say anything about it. Those using the tele-pads will also find themselves not always arriving where they should, or worse, suffering intense headaches, swirling colours behind their eyes, their thoughts jumbled for as long as ten minutes before it passes.

You might want to walk.

[ MAKING DO. ] Still, with all the chaos, many are trying to live. You have a life here, no matter what some other force is trying to make you believe,

For our HEROES: The cinema has rethought its showings due to the worrying happenings of the last few days. Clearly a boost in morale is needed and so they have pulled out some of the great films of the past. Action films that show heroes beating the bad guys, disaster films where the good guys beat the aliens, stop the natural disaster or thwart the secret agency looking to take down civilisation from the inside, at the last minute. Even the childrens films have taken on a pro-hero and triumphant air.

It's not quite distraction though, how could it be when every film has a warning before and after. REMEMBER TO REPORT ALL SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY TO DFORCE and WE HOPE YOU ENJOYED THE SHOW. REMEMBER TO WATCH YOUR SURROUNDINGS AS CAREFULLY AS YOU DID THE SCREEN.
Fun Park: It's for the kids, but one of the largest arcade parks has a special discount on everything to anyone who come visit. It's even advertised across the news: For half the price, get amazing fun and even better food! Kids younger than eight or from the orphanages get free access everywhere!

It's time not to think too hard, and to ignore the trouble! Play laser tag, racing cars or get a high score on the dance mat!
Encroaching Dangers: Something new is beginning to happen, as the city continues to shift. It starts at night, those that stay out past when the streets go quiet might see a shadow, might hear a growl.

Rumours and reports start to spread about monsters on the street.

DAY SIX: HELP FROM INSIDE

[ AID. ] DIAGNET is full of videos but one that has started doing the rounds is of a small droid and a cat. It's not hard to see why it has gone viral, the cat and cleaning droid are chasing each other around an apartment, caught on a home security footage. The cat tries to catch the droid but every time it gets close the droid turns to chase it and the cat runs away. It has been uploaded with stirring orchestral music, which adds to the madness.

But... For those Voidtreckers who have already regained their memories that little droid seems familiar indeed. As do the sounds that punctuate the music.

beep beep beep boop | boop

boop boop beep | boop boop boop

boop boop | boop boop boop | boop boop boop | boop beep | boop beep beep | beep beep boop | beep beep beep | boop

boop beep boop beep | beep boop | beep beep boop beep | beep

boop boop boop | beep boop beep | boop beep beepp | beep | beep boop beep

boop beep | beep beep boop | boop | beep boop beep | beep beep | boop | beep | beep boop

Of course it might not be anything, just weird droid sounds that haven't been fully edited out of the video.

[ MOONDUST CAFÉ. ] It might be that they figured out the message or, it might be that a friend is dragging them to the cafe. But for those that make their way there, they will find the Moondust Cafe is a bustling cafe on the edge of a park, near local transport links.

For those that say the right words, a slightly bored looking teenager manning the counter waves them to a side door. "Best sit downstairs, service will be quicker."

Downstairs has a fair number of tables and booths and is lit by coloured lighting making everything look a little obscure. There's soft music playing, not loud enough to make it impossible to hear each other but enough to make it a little harder for evesdroppers.

Mingle, discuss. This is probably the closest to a safe space there is.

[ LOST & LOST. ] You may have spotted it already - that is, spotted what's missing. There's been the pets, the birds in the sky, a pen or apple or wrench from the garage. But now, with every single bad thing going on, more is starting to disappear. Machines stop working, from air conditioning, freezers, your Jinnjar MP3 player, to TVs and more.

And in some business buildings, even entire rooms are gone, their floors empty of more than the door you opened to find this out. Even the heroes seem worried and they quickly clear any affected areas, chasing away bystanders and sealing off whole wings of office blocks.

None of them have answers though, except that this must be the Voidtreckers doing. After all who else but that group could have power enough to do such damage?

DAY SEVEN & EIGHT: UNRAVELLING

[ OVEREXPOSURE. ] Everything is starting to escalate. The headaches are getting regular the more you're outside, buildings are starting to go missing around the outskirts. People see parts of the city flickering, and when they reach certain sections of the city, they find they can't go beyond it.

Life tries to go on, but as more areas of the city begin to be sealed off and considered dangerous, even those who are most stubborn about pretending everything is normal can see that is is not.

[ LET LOOSE. ] The breaking down of the city has caused a lot of chaos, but one of the biggest problems are that parts of the zoo have vanished. Walls, fences, enclosure roofs. Meaning that the animals inside are no longer confined and are now prowling the city streets. Real birds now fill the sky that the fakes left empty.

And they aren't all that's there. Twisted creatures are becoming more common on the streets of Diagad. Creatures that look almost like animals but warp and twist between them, one moment a bear the next it has horns and then it is a wolf. But no matter how they look those claws and teeth are bad news for everyone.

[ CRUMBLING, CRUMBLING. ] By day eight whole streets are disappearing. homes, houses. people need to be moved in closer around the congress sector. Colours crackle through the sky like lightning and the world shakes often.

It's not just the infrastructure but the memories of those in the city. Dreams have come realities and all but the most stubborn have begun to realise that this world is not their own. They are from another place. What is going on? Why are they in this city? Who are these people who are their 'family'?

Confusion and anger are growing in the streets and it is perhaps time for the Voidtreckers to come out of the shadows.

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Jeremy pulls back in surprise.

He doesn't know... exactly... what Rich is reacting to. Not spinal stimulation, maybe no SQUIP at all, but there's something wrong with Rich's head either way.

"Shit, you're getting the same headaches? I think one of them legitimately knocked me unconscious. There's something toxic in the air or something." Jeremy glances around to see if anyone is wandering around acting vicious or supernatural but, so far, it's just the two of them. "We should go inside somewhere. Get you some water." He searches Rich's eyes before, in a rare burst of confidence, he grabs Rich's hand and squeezes it. "Deep breaths. Okay?"

"No, I'm checking you over." He takes Jingyi's hand and reaches out with his magic, easing his life energy into a connection with Jingyi's. There's a jolt - a moment of static shock, magical instead of physical - but the connection holds. Evidently he can heal a dragon. That's good to know.

He reaches out further, reading that connection and picking up on injuries. Surface lacerations, deep bruising, and a pair of cracked ribs, but no poison to speak of. That makes things that much easier. He places his other hand on top of Jingyi's, holding Jingyi's in both of his. "I'm going to heal you. It'll hurt, but not for long. Whatever you do, do not break the connection." He pauses and waits for assent - the last thing they need is to wake up tomorrow in the luggage car, and a broken connection can definitely do that.

To be fair, it is a charming smile, and she is very cute-

And he really needs to be focusing on other things right now. "Sounds good," he says, offering a smile of his own. "One of those, please." He pauses, then gestures to her SCA. "I like your bracelet. Do you remember where you got it?" It's not a lot to go on, but it's something.

...okay.

[He just...pauses for a moment. Yep. It's an actual train. This may as well be happening.]

[But a moment is all he needs. He calls Athena back to him with a thought and nods to Della.]

My place. It's less likely to be watched.

[The walk isn't long, but it's tense - there are a lot of people on the streets, and Della is recognizable, to say the least. At several points, Wash stops them and takes the time to look through Athena's eyes to scout a viable route. It takes a bit, but they manage to get there unnoticed, and he ushers them inside and locks the door behind them.]

So what's the long version?

"Checking me over how?" The question gets asked, and then Jingyi feels the connection, something unexpected and not quite like someone else's qi brushing up against his meridians. "Oh."

Just 'oh.' He gets it now.

"Is there some kind of backlash if we do?" Wanting clarification, to understand what would happen, even as he goes on to say, "I won't break connection, but I'm checking. Are you sending your energy in? Is that what is going to hurt, or just the healing?"

What sort of bracing does he need to be prepared for?

[ Della sighs, moving to take a seat. Where to start? ]

... Every month, people from different worlds find themselves on a platform, and the train picks them up. I've been here about half a year myself. The train provides us with all we need - entertainment, food, weapons - and if we need more, we earn them with simple chores.

But our worlds are left in a kind of... pause button. They don't realize we're gone, and it's like we'll have never left. Until we do get back, we're sent to other worlds that need help. Stuff like... fighting off monsters they can't handle, fixing technology when there's a deadly time limit... Usually, we're told what needs to be done before we get there. But here... something went really, really wrong.

Congratulations on being the literal first person to question his healing methods, Jingyi, and also could this not have waited for two minutes?

But he's asked, and Ryo isn't going to leave him in the dark if he wants to know. "My magic connects my life to yours, and that's what I use to heal you; it doesn't hurt me; your wounds healing faster than they normally would is what hurts; and if you break the connection before I sever it, it could kill us both." He gives that last one a moment to settle, not breaking eye contact with Jingyi. There's a reason he warns people up front. "So. When you're ready."

"It was getting too close, had to make a call!" Sunset called. She would apologize...

But she just let a world of fae and you never say sorry or thank you without being very mindful of it.

"Get over here, I can get us away."

"Of course," she said. "I'm an expert at acting like I belong. That includes covering oddities," she said.

She paused at the question. "I hadn't left yet. I was going to attempt to wake them up. I'm not exactly sure how a mother reacts to a seeming teenager being a strange man home...."

That's understandable. But dangerous circumstances, better safe then-

[She pauses.]

Oh, right. No more fae.

I'm sorry.

[LISTEN]

[The last few months, it was DANGEROUS to say thank you or sorry.]

You're linking energies, some cultures consider that intrusive! Or intimate! Mostly good to know about up front because reacting poorly to that would mean lashing back with his own energy, and that was bound to be no good for anyone, regardless.

Not that his eyes don't round at the connects my life to yours: isn't that a bit extreme!? Even his jaw drops at the could kill us both, leaving his mouth open soundlessly for a moment, staring at Ryo. Finally:

"I won't move?"

Should he even let him heal him?! What in the world?!

And this is why it should have waited for two minutes. He takes a breath, lets it out slowly, and offers Jingyi a gentle smile. "It's okay - this isn't the first time I've done this, and it won't be the last. We'll both be fine." A pause, and then, "You're allowed to breathe, I promise."

Unaware he'd actually been holding his breath, he exhaled with a startled blink. "That's both reassuring and unsettling at once."

Still, he doesn't move, and his breathing goes steady, partly because he falls into trained breathing habits from home. Ryo looks young, in the sense of looking like a junior around Sizhui's age, and it's not like they're people who avoid danger. Hearing this is an inherent danger is more puzzling than anything else.

But also, healing is not generally when one should keep talking after hearing it is ridiculously dangerous.

... Thus Ryo gets temporarily silent Jingyi, whose largest response becomes the regular twitch of the tip of his tail behind him on the floor. The teenagers on the sofa are staring wide eyed, watching and forgetting to drink from their glasses.

Sunset's grip on Loki tightened as she listened. "You also said you didn't know there was an entity until recently," she pointed out. She looked at Tidus, then Anan, and Leia. "Speaking as someone who tried to take over the world and caused permanent damage between two worlds that resulted in bleeding chaos that I still have to help deal with? You'd be surprised. Who can be reasoned with," she said with a kind of self deprecating look.

"A home doesn't seem like such a huge thing until you don't have it. Things like that, simple, obvious things, not having them is....maddening. And when its combined with power, often dangerous. Its easy. To lose sight of what you're doing. What harm you're causing. Not everyone does, not everyone can, but I've also seen it happen a lot, where that lack and power led to harm. And after I was given kindness I didn't deserve, after a beat down I did, its not something I like writing off entirely," she said, voice soft, but also firm.

"But....there were times people didn't want to accept that kindness. Then you destroy what needs to be destroyed to stop the harm," she said, voice still firm, thought Loki may feel the slight tremble in her hand.

"I don't remember how we got here. Last I remember, we were kidnapped by some faeries of the nightmare variety. Before that, we met on another interdimensional train with a greater good mission. And before that, Loki is a god, an expert at illusions and other magics, and pretty good at combat. I'm a magical unicorn turned human when I went to a parallel world who was eventually granted extremely potent empathetic abilities after the life lessons. Also the Magic of Friendship, and that is a lot more serious business then it sounds," she explained. "Equestria just...has everything named like that."

"As for those who was still under control....I can't break the control, but I can see through false memories if I get a good look, which usually means touch. Loki and I are also both very good at lying. Pretending to want power. Or a better life. And....you were thinking of other ways to earn trust, right?" Sunset said, looking at Loki.

Edited 2021-07-17 02:37 (UTC)

"The void and infinity are just two sides of the same coin," Wash said. "And with infinity are all the possibilities, including the fucked up ones."

"But, bright side, you got people with experience and not just a bunch of random people screaming in horror at cosmic doom." Listen, he has a warped definitions of bright side.

"GOT IT!" And she began pedaling tapping into her guts to get up to speed. This is the girl who once rode her bike up a long stair, through doors and into a store so hard that she cracked the wall. This is the girl who once caught up to a fleeing taxi on her bike. Who protected Ren Tsuruga's reputation as the never late king when the car wasn't going fast enough. She would pay for this for sure, later but...

It took less than a half minute to leave the mob in the dust. She leaned in tight over the handlebars as she pushed herself. "Where are we going?!" she called back as she raced them down a flight of stairs in an open area. People dove out of the way o the fast moving pink blur. She hardly noticed them.

[Adrien looks up at her at the question and.]

[He doesn't know her. At all. And he's not an idiot. There's a reason its a Morse Code.]

[But he does have a little work around and he taps his chest.] I mean, I could...

But it'll cost you some cheese. [And welcome to this little gremlin, just a bit bigger then a hand, hovering right by Masumi's shoulder.]

"I'm a healer. This is what I do." It's a simple statement of fact - this is his life, and he's perfectly at peace with it.

But Jingyi looks at least a bit calmer, and it's best to get this done sooner rather than later. He takes another breath and focuses, easing back into the connection and weaving his magic throughout Jingyi's body. There's nothing flashy - no light, no glow, nothing eye-catching - but the magic works nonetheless. Bruising eases, ribs mend, torn skin stitches itself back together, and while it hurts - it's all the pain Jingyi would have felt had the wounds healed naturally compressed into the span of seconds - it shouldn't be anything overwhelming. Less than a minute after it's started, it finishes, and Ryo takes a few moments to check his work. Finding no other injuries, he withdraws his magic, eases the connection, and lets go of Jingyi's hand. "Done. There was no poison - just surface injuries and a few cracked ribs. You'll be a bit sore, but you're alright."

Chat blinked a that. And then he sighed. "Nino, you're really making this harder then it needs to be," he said and he lifted his hand, black bubbles forming around it. "Hold out the shield. I promise I'll do nothing else beside extend my hand. Feet won't move. Just need you to see a little something," he said.

That is the beauty of shadows. He's ready to disappear if things go awry, but only if its truly noticed.

He pushes the familiar dark magic. Fight. If you want to return home, you have to fight. A slight alteration of orders he gave before, instead pushing to seek the truth.

Nino's eyes widen at that, but doesn't move. He'll keep the shields up as told at least. Even if he isn't sure he can trust him.

"If it's more tricks and trying to mess with me, I won't hesitate to fight you."

Even though Chat would more likely than not beat him.

"So. Music to control water?" Wash asked after a bit of that beat. Because he noticed the water filling and the fact the other didn't react to it and kept tapping something out?

Well, it wasn't the weirdest conclusion to make.

"I know. You'd fight a supervillain with a pipe," Chat said with a shrug.

Then he extends his hand and taps the shield with Catacalysm.

"But I don't want a fight. And those shields aren't going to last with me."

Discovering bending was still active was Extremely Helpful.

For some reason, that sounds familiar to Nino, but he can't place where. He is not expecting the shields to get destroyed and takes another step back.

"Why wouldn't you? They said you Voidtreckers are dangerous and mess with peoples' heads. Give one good reason I shouldn't turn you in."

Sadly Nino never learned to use emotion magic enough to be able to use it. At most, he can accidentally break glass/lights or make the light blub dim or brighten without meaning to.

She's scared.

Shadow might get the sense that she's scared of the thought of fighting, the voidtreckers, the whole mess.

I'm not a fighter. I can't do anything. She's thiking, that's how she feels about herself.

Rui is wrong though, under the surface, there's a spark. A memory perhaps of her transforming. Her acting in combat. It's not long, but it's there, hiding beneath the surface.

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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Re: Monsters

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Sorry she is like this, but she would be like this ewajiejaoiejw

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Re: Aid

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Re: Fire Fight

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Re: Moondust Cafe

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