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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Ryo has been on high alert ever since the animals started attacking people, partially to keep himself safe and partially to make sure nobody gets killed. A lot of the Voidtreckers can defend themselves, but not everyone here is a Voidtrecker, and the strangers still deserve to make it out in one piece.

He's been checking outside, keeping an eye on things, and while he can Sense a number of strangers, there's someone nearby at the moment that he definitely recognizes. He throws open the door to his apartment to find two teenagers probably only a few years younger than him and Jingyi dripping blood - great - and gestures at them. "Get in here, all of you! Now!"

The two younger teens, probably thirteen at most, held onto each other's arms and stumbled toward Ryo, looking sick. Jingyi caught sight of him and blinked, tucking his injured arm against his side without thinking about it as he picked up to a jog, heading over.

"Hey, Ryo!"

He reaches the teens and shoos them on forward, until they're through the door and he's the last one inside, looking like an excellent advertisement for what not to wear to an animal attack crisis.

"I don't know that they're injured, but they were stuck crossing over on foot. What's with these creatures crawling around? So disgusting," he says, wrinkling his nose and trying to not look like a guy who wishes he had a sword to properly run things through, instead of relying on hand to hand combat. He's a sword cultivator. Also, those teenagers are definitely staring at his horns like they're pretty sure his tail should be forked, instead of scaled, furred, and bloodflecked as it lashes behind him in an expression of general irritation. "They look like they're real, but what are they?"

One teenager leans in toward Ryo and whispers, "He's not going to eat us for energy, is he?"

Jingyi, hearing that, gives both teens a deadpan look, again wrinkling his nose. "I'm not a cannibal." That he'd say the same to a dragon is neither here nor there.

Ryo checks to see if the coast is clear - it doesn't look like anyone saw them come inside; good - and shuts and locks the door. It's a small apartment, shared with Thanatos, but it's functional. "Both of you, over there." He gestures to the teens, then to the sofa in the living area. "Take a seat. I'll bring you some water in a minute. And you-" He points to Jingyi, then one of the kitchen chairs, pulled away from the table. "Sit. Either lose the top or roll up your sleeve - either way, I want a look at that injury."

And then the questions start, and he sighs. Why does nobody outside his world know to listen to a healer? "No, he won't," he tells the teens, matter-of-fact but gentle. "He's been protecting you from the things that have been trying to eat you, hasn't he? Now go sit down."

That imparted, he looks back at Jingyi. "And I have no idea what those are - real animals, or illusions, or both, or what. Only Fate knows, and she isn't telling."

"... Well that's just rude of fate," he said, moving toward the chair he'd been told to sit in without contesting it. Jingyi watched the young teens make their huddlepile on the sofa, tip of his tail flicking as he looked down at his robes and scowled.

"Oh come on, I only had one set of these!" Loosening his waistband enough to allow him to tug at the material (with his uninjured arm mostly, then in part his injured arm), he managed to work it off his shoulders with a soft hiss when the material pulled at lacerations trying to scab over. The most recent damage is most obvious, but a number of small puncture wounds and lacerations end up revealing themselves on his shoulders and less injured arm, once he's let all three layers of his robes draped down from his waist. He perches on the chair at an awkward angle to allow room for the base of his tail, draping it over with the practised ease of someone used to accounting for an extra appendage all their life.

"Now they're practically ruined... who asked all these whatevers to have so many stupid sharp claws?" His skin sure didn't, though his bleeding already is slowing, and it's apparent now that he's partly stripped down that most lacerations are shallow, minus the few punctures to his arm and another across the line of his shoulder. "Better not be venomous, whatever they are."

"They'll wash," Ryo says calmly. He can't be sure of it - it depends entirely on what fabric the robes are made of, and anything too delicate is probably going to be bloodstained forever - but that's entirely beside the point right now. "And they can probably be mended." He grabs two glasses of water and takes them to the teens, setting them on the table, pulling the blanket off the back of the couch, and tucking it around them. He checks them both over with a touch - no injuries; good - offers them a smile, and heads back to the kitchen to look over Jingyi.

It's...not a great sight. It looks doable, but there's no telling whether Jingyi has internal injuries until he checks, and...can he even heal a dragon? Normally he'd use his mana drive or give Jingyi a potion, but none of his supplies came with him here, and leaving Jingyi injured is not an option.

So he steadies himself and holds a hand out. "Give me your hand." He can at least see if he can check Jingyi over - see if his magic can even connect at all. First things first.

Jingyi had already taken to resignedly using an intact part of his inner robe's sleeve to daub at the blood, cleaning it off in a smearing way that at least highlighted he wasn't bleeding in an alarmingly quick manner.

"Are you checking my pulse?" he says, extending his hand, brow furrowed. "If we have any hot water and bandages we can take care of this pretty fast, I can work on healing faster later." One benefit to circulating his own qi, and a technique from the Lans. As long as poison and venom wasn't involved, he could handle this.

His tailtip thumps against the ground, keeping time to his thoughts and twinges of pain as he shifts, waiting for Ryo to do whatever he was going to do. He's gotta admit, he's curious. "Ugh, we're going to need so much salt to get the blood out... hey, do we have tubs back on the train? Or know anyone with a mending kit, I don't have one."

"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.

"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?

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."

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.

"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."

Oh that's just different. It'd be one thing, following just the meridians, but whatever Ryo does is his own energy (his own magic) and it follows a different logic to what Jingyi knows. He finds that more strange than the pain of sped up healing; he finds that more itchy as his skin reknits, his ribs a fast ache, and bruises fading to normal skin tone. Even his tail goes absolutely still as he blinks down to stare at his arm with the held hand, then turns his head to look at his other shoulder.

"Huh." Educational assessment aside, he blinks and looks back to Ryo when he lets go of his hand, flexing his fingers for no reason other than it vaguely feels like what he should do. "Good, I was wondering if there might have been poison or venom, even if nothing felt like it was burning. Geez, that was so fast?" He lifts his arm, checking it over and running his hand over his skin. "We can do some pretty helpful things with qi, but I don't know of anything quite this thorough, this fast."

Letting his arm come to rest by his side, he finally gets out of his general awe over seeing himself whole just like that, and smiles. "Thanks, Ryo! Now I should get back out there—"

Even now attempting to pull up his dangling layers of robes one by one, shrugging into them with a clear look of distaste on his face. He might be healed, but the robes recollect his blood and everything else on them, even if he's not sure exactly what fluids come out of those shifting, strange creatures, almost like morphing nightmares.

"Remind me to ask about your world sometime. I've never heard of healing like that, does it cost a lot of energy?" He pauses, looking back to Ryo with his eyes partly narrowing. "Do you need to eat or something?"

Ryo takes a breath and lets it out slowly, listening to Jingyi's commentary. It helps to have a few moments to re-center himself after a healing, regardless of how difficult it was. He takes the next few moments to look over his shoulder at the teens on the couch - are they doing okay?-

At which point Jingyi mentions that he's going back outside, and Ryo's attention snaps back to him. "I don't, but you're not going anywhere - not for a little bit, at least." His tone is firm, brooking no argument. "You're going to stay there, and you're going to rest, and then all of us are going to head to the center of the city. From what I hear, it's more stable there than it is anywhere else."

"Or," Jingyi says, cocking his head to the side and eyeing Ryo in something closer to bemusement than anything else, as the one who has definitely argued against the inarguable repeatedly in his life, "We take a ride there now and rest once we're in, because we don't know how stable anything out here is, right?"

He stops trying to get back into his robes, holding up his hands, palms out to Ryo.

"I've been pulling people out of the barriers between sections, just like these two," he says, nodding toward the teens on the sofa. They pipe up echoing that it felt like they'd been walking forever, but they just couldn't get through to anywhere. He waits for that comment to finish before turning his gaze back to Ryo. "The centre's the literal centre as far as I can tell. It's also a total headache, but you're right, it's the strongest and most stable area in the city by now."

He's honestly used to people arguing with him when it comes to their treatment; this is nothing new. "Or you can take five minutes to rest and let the magic settle," he says flatly, in a way that very clearly implies that Jingyi will indeed be taking those five minutes if Ryo has anything to say about it. He'll be fine if he goes off now; he'll be better if he takes those few minutes (or longer, but Ryo can compromise).

That said, he does listen to what Jingyi and the teenagers have to say. The city center being stable doesn't help if the barriers themselves are trapping people. "You said you've been pulling people out - are you able to make it through yourself?"

He stares back at Ryo, then looks away and scoffs, but less harshly. "Could have started out saying five whatevers, that's less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, right?" His worry stretched into delaying for shichen, and hours seemed way too much. Or maybe that was his impatience, or a blend of both.

He does continue redressing himself, picking at the lacerations in his clothes and their drying stains with a wrinkled nose after adjusting his waistband to tighten again. He'd prefer not to hang around half dressed even if he'll be changing that situation when he needs to shift; that's unnecessary.

"I can fly through, yeah. Probably could on sword, too, but I don't have mine here."

"Depends on how long it takes you to drink tea," he says archly, "but yes, it's not a long time." Probably not too much longer than it would take for him to get dressed again, given how many layers he seems to be wearing.

Flying may not be the best option if they're trying to keep a low profile. "Do you think you could lead us through on foot, or is flying the only thing that'll work?"

Layer by layer, he assembles himself, and sighs out loud as he considers what washing later will do. "I wonder if anyone has a mending kit," he says, poking a finger through a larger tear in one sleeve, wiggling it on the other side.

"Hah? No, walking gets you stuck again, if you can't do it fast. Even running I've seen people end up just... there. Some get through, obviously, but it's not consistent, and at some point I don't think anyone will make it through on foot."

He gestures toward the door, like that explains anything he's seen. "Flying gets us through fast enough to not get caught. Yeah, some of the illusion-bound fly, but I can stay low, or summon fog if we need it, that's no weirder than the other stuff going on." An impatient flap of his hand at the door again, then he shifts to stand, straightening out his robes. His tail slides around the chair and his legs, curling around for a moment as he arranges himself.

"Ready to go?"

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So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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