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.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Hopefully Mami doesn't get arrested by happenstance just 'cause of the resemblance.

"We'll stick to the back alleys. Nowhere you feel safe or nothin'?"

They can at least head that direction. "If not I'll get you back to the bar they made me think was mine."

There are ways to be more subtle, and Jingyi isn't entirely bad at them; he can move swift and silent as needed, but he doesn't like when he doesn't know where Sizhui is, and he hasn't run into Hanguang-jun, and this city is falling apart but still stupidly larger than it should be and he's not in the best mood.

He does not exactly expect to drop in on Takato and a rather immense version of Guilmon, except that the particular mutating creature that'd gone after a clutch of older people had taken off in a moment of wings to flap down the street, landing outside the alleyway's entrance.

Jingyi follows not long after, only... he doesn't have his sword. He has a traffic cone, which has stayed "real" for long enough that when he brings it down on the strange mix of a pigeon, octopus, and turtle's head, the creature yarbles and flails around with the sound of a deflating balloon, hooks on the inside of each sucker on its multitude of arms flailing as well.

"Will you just! Stay! Down already!"

Hello, Takato. How are you and Guilmon doing today?

"I've been able to wake a couple of people I don't know." Senku said, and while that might sound strange, he tended to know much of the train by design.

"What's the purpose, any read on that?" He couldn't help but ask.

"What benefit does he get, trapping us here, and these other people?"

Jeremy's got a whole sentence and a half on his tongue and ready to spill out of his lips, some protests and explanations, but as Jeremy processes that answer, he freezes.

"You haven't heard of the..." Jeremy studies Rich's face to figure out if he's joking. It doesn't look like it, but Jeremy's not great at knowing that kind of thing. He keeps one hand on Rich's shoulder in case Rich drops to the ground.

"Are you - Rich, tell me what's happening. Are you getting shocked?"

“Not old enough to drink, but it’s better to hide there than to find somewhere.” Usagi said.

“I really don’t have anywhere to go and I hate to get Rapunzel caught up in this if she’s still out of it.”

"Lena!"

Della literally jumps out of her chair to run at the girl, wrap her up in a hug, and told her tight.

"Lena, you're Lena!" She says as if she's confirming more for herself than Lena's. "I know who you are!"

[ Della stops, stares... and then grins. She knows who this boy is.

And she couldn't ask for a better partner. ]

Let's tango, Inigo, and give them a night they won't forget!

Della didn't know who this girl was in either set of memories - but there was no time to sort that out.

"RUN!" Della snapped, hoping this girl would get the clue. "Talk later, running now!"

[ There's flashes of memory - she knows this guy! She can trust him!

So, without hesitation, she reaches out to take his hand. ]

Whatever you're doing, do it fast!

[ She nods, then counts off bullet points from her fingers. ]

We're all from different worlds. The Voidtrekking train takes us to worlds that need help. But when we got here, something happened, I don't know what, that took away our memories and replaced them.

There's still a lot of information we're all missing, but I promise you, we just want our memories back, and to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else!

Takato had been thrown into this, one moment trapped inside the illusion of a mostly normal life and the next with all his memories back. He still had no idea what was going on.

But at least running through the streets fighting strange monsters was something familiar.

At the sound of a somewhat familiar voice at the end of the alley, Takato hastily scrambles up onto his friend's shoulder and grabs onto to the ruff of white fur on his neck to find a secure perch on his head. Then with a nod Growmon, as Guilmon was called in this form, charges towards the end of the alley releases a large blast of fire at the creature.

"Exhaust Flame!"

( OOC: Hit me up on the plotting post if you want anything set up for us! Starters are attached below this comment. )

Takato was already throwing himself at Growmon in a hug. He was big enough now that the best Takato could do was to wrap his hands around one arm, but it was close enough. In return Growmon laughs, scoops him up and sets him on his shoulder.

"Takato! Guilmon is Growmon again!" He tilts his head."But something funny happened. Guilmon didn't remember being Guilmon."

Takato nods. "I don't know what is going on either. Maybe we were dreaming these last few days."

He had absolutely no idea what was going on, but he remembered who he was and who Growmon was. And that was a good start.

He looks up at the sounds of a familiar voice.

"I... Aunt Hera?" Wait, no, that was from the world that wasn't real.

Getting people back to themselves has proven to be a more difficult task than initially expected - the people who had figured themselves out were fine, but those who were stuck tended to be really stuck. Getting them to remember themselves without getting suspicion on him himself is a fine line to walk, and it doesn't help that the death powers this world had given him had already left Ryo with something of a poor reputation.

But if he's going to be damned either way, he might as well help. He'd found Rui - it's hard to forget someone when your first impression of them is internal trauma - and she seems to be well and truly stuck. Time to do what he can.

"I can't decide - I was hoping you could recommend something for me?" Greet her with a smile, start the conversation, and hopefully steer it from there.

People don't go out of their way to imagine up that kinda look unless they're rearin' for a fight. But it was casual enough to be convincin'. "Asch said his buddies memories were pretty particular."

The whosit, whatever it is, had said that it wanted a new home. So that much was accurate.

"So if this was the industry standard, like if this was about what Diagad was like an' an idealized version of it too? We got these li'l bitty powers. Controllin' plants. Turnin' invisible. Flyin'. Whoever this is is strong as shit, prodigy level. An' Diagad was an interstellar world, tight? Had connections to other planets what knew things about it. You'd think somebody that strong, even if they was just a kid or whatever," who knows, they could just be childish and dramatic, "They'd have a reputation that made it offworld. Nothin' like 'em in the news besides them breezin' by other worlds?"

[...huh.]

[If what she says is true, then the Voidtreckers might be their ticket out of here - wherever here actually is. That said, that is not enough information.]

Okay. I believe you, but I'm going to need the long version, starting with: is it actually a train? Like, a train-train.

[HE NEEDS TO KNOW, OKAY]

Rapunzel! Right. The girl with the frying pan.

"You tell me where she is, an' I'll go check up on her. The bar I was stayin' at was a hide-out for vigilantes so it's got a room in the back. That's what I'm thinkin'."

He hands her his phone, in the meantime.

"Here, you can use this to get a message to her if'n' you want to an' if she's got some recollection of who she is."

[Sunset will see a vision of herself, kind of freaking out as she tells a centaur Kyoko about Tirek. This vision will be cut short by Kyoko shoving her aside, hands twitching towards Sunset's neck.]

So, you use mind magic on just anyone you meet?

Yondu's just waiting around patiently, tapping his fingers on the table, being kind of bored with two empty cups in front of him. The waitress comes by and picks them up and he nods as she leaves.

Mostly he's been sticking around 'cause he wants to see who comes in. If they're Voidtreckers it means they probably got the message and it means they likely figured out who and what they are, even if 'where' is still a mystery because this sure as hell isn't real.

He sees her become visible again and sits up straighter. Clears his throat loudly, not sure that he should be saying her name.

I haven't really had a chance to really talk to anyone I don't know yet, I've been more focused on finding people from the train ever since I got myself out.

[She should probably work on that. But in the meantime...]

My guess is that they're trying to recreate Diagad. It's supposed to be gone, right? So our Diagad native wants their world back, and uses their powers to create an imitation and get people to fill it out. The problem is that no one asked to be here, their previous actions on other worlds were incredibly dangerous for those involved, and this world seems to be falling apart now.

The other thing is that after Kamakan, I bought some books about Diagad to learn more about it. Apparently it was just discovering the void, and there was talk about when the Void Ministry should bring Diagad into the network. Oddly, neither book mentioned the world being destroyed, so I have to assume they were published before it happened.

[Unfortunately, the books are back on the train, so Masumi's going off memory here.]

[Her horn glows, grabbing her hands in a telekinetic hold when they get close to her neck.]

[Kyoko may notice that what's under the tattoo isn't all skin or fur, but scales.]

Everyone normally? No.

Everyone when minds are being messed with, mine included, especially someone claiming to know me? Yes.

I'm not here to play guessing games. I've seen through false memories before, makes it a lot easier.

( ooc: feel free to switch to action brackets, i'm just starting off in prose! )

He could feel the general setup of the city by now, the circular structure where the outside edges were collapsing faster, while the centre itself was holding firm. More importantly, the people here were people, and by their nature in sheer numbers largely strangers. Strangers who did and didn't see through the illusion, but who certainly were trapped; and the weird monstrous creatures of changing form who may or may not be real, but seemed to source from the things which were real. After all, the illusion animals had disappeared, and it was the real ones who ran about once their illusionary cages started breaking down.

Extracting people out while fighting monsters was more like an ongoing night hunt that didn't have the courtesy to knock it off for a day or so; then again, maybe 'missions' were missing that logic, too. It'd be his life.

He has his SCA with him, and he's in his robes—splattered with blood, most not his own, but it's rather conspicuous on white. Notably absent is his qiankun pouch, or his sword. While illusion-reality has been steadily falling apart, it's left him using himself as his best weapon.

One might have thought that meant he'd be fighting more as the larger, better naturally equipped dragon, but it was the opposite. For one, people responded poorly to seeing one more large creature fighting, and for another, he wasn't a beast. Which was why, as he had to haul two young teenagers out of the inbetween and into the city centre section, he was also fending off an attack from what might well be a squid's worst meeting with a bear. Also some kind of bird, if the tufts of feathers are anything to go by.

Shoving the kids in the direction of one of the standing buildings, he twists around just as a tentacle lashes out and wraps around his arm.

"Seriously?! Can we cut out with the tentacles already!?" Close to shouting as the creature tries dragging him in, Jingyi moves with its momentum, slamming into the squid-bear-bird and bringing a knee up to... incapacitate it. Permanently.

Then stand there, tired and with a look of disgust on his face as he pried the tentacle still wrapped around his arm off, stepping out of the mess he'd made wearing even more on his robes, and ignoring the blood dripping down his arm from the tears the hooks within the tentacle's sucker left on his arm, through the layered fabric of his robes. They were not bearing up all that well under the ongoing onslaught, and as he continues to grimace and also wave on the two teens who'd stopped to look back at him with mixed expressions on their faces, he wanted a bath so badly. How did that even work here? Now that he could see the shapes beyond the illusion, everything was... weird. Was he missing the train for once?

Now that was a horrifying concept.

"Get inside, huh? I'm not here to chase down every monster, you know? Tsk."

[Meanwhile, Masumi doesn't know morse code, but she does recognize the robot. So when Adrien comments on it, she turns to look, surprise in her eyes.]

Any chance you know how to interpret that? [If there's a message, then Masumi wants to know what it is. She'll even take the chance of being recognized as a suspected Voidtrecker if it means finding out what the message is.]

Yondu's just seen the viral 'video' of the cat and the robot, and that it's Chiff is enough for him to realize those noises mean something. But Yondu is not an expert at Morse code, so he's out looking for 'James'. (Poor goddamn bastard has to walk around wearing a name he's not comfortable with.)

It's his search for Soldat that leads him to Kitty, and he might seem a touch more on edge when he runs into her.

"Hey uh... you seen your dad?"

[ooc: You can stick them wherever location-wise.]

You're lucky I didn't just stab first and ask questions later. You could have, you know, asked? People that try to use mind magic on me without permission tend to wind up maimed, at the very least.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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Late Morning

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oh okay hold on rich, i got this. deep breath IT'S FROM JAPAN-

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Moondust Cafe

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lan jingyi | closed starters

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for ryo | cw: for blood, blood, injury style

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Making Do

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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Late Morning

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oh okay hold on rich, i got this. *deep breath* IT'S FROM JAPAN-

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Moondust Cafe

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lan jingyi | closed starters

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Moondust Cafe

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for ryo | cw: for blood, blood, injury style

Aid

Making Do

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oh okay hold on rich, i got this. deep breath IT'S FROM JAPAN-