middleofsomewhere | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Amazing how sunny your disposition gets after enough run ins with certain doom," he said.

"You're not a Voidtrecker then?" Wash hummed, tilting his head. "Breaking through mental things in other people isn't my strong suit. If I know at least an alternate of a person, I might be able to dig in to something to logic them out. Otherwise all I got is seeing if Mana Drain can work on an effect on people, but I haven't used that power a lot."

"No. I'm a void scout but I'm not from the same craft as the Voidtreckers." She sighed. "I applied to a void program, this is my job. No kidnapping involved. Well. Until this particular world."

And the world where she had initially met the voidtreckers... Some kidnapping involved. But not as extreme as it was for the voidtreckers. "Mana drain? It drains... Magic?"

"The void program. Is that related to the train or is that just a whole other thing?" Just so he has the story straight.

"More or less. Magic, close enough approximations to it. Its from a peacekeeping tool. Drains energy, causes various forms of knock outs or paralysis, protection, healing. But the drain would be the closest thing I could try without seeing the guy." Kyriakos was a lot of bullshit, but the pendant he got for his role was extremely useful for times like these when he lacked power armor and there was weird metaphysical stuff.

"Unrelated. Or rather it is my systems version of what their train seems to have once been."

So many people from non void active worlds in the void, it made things complicated. "We scout the void, send help to where it is needed, there are traders, scouts, fighters. From what I understand their train once was a mission craft for another world, but now it is in the kidnapping business."

She nodded at the magic explanation. "It's worth a try if you can do it without hurting the people you are trying to free."

"Gotta love infinity."

"Huh. Guess I shouldn't be surprised. Just seems normal compared to how Roxy explained what happened in the part of the void she deals with." Roxy trying to explain Homestuck. "So went for another world, discovered there were serious problems to deal with?"

"It won't. Whole point of how they work. Any pain caused by them takes creativity. Worst comes to worse, the victim needs to take a nap," he said. "Which might just lead to 'kidnap and break through their illusion in private.'"

"Sounds like a good start then." She nodded with a thoughtful nod. "If you need any help just let me know. I don't particularly want to add more kidnapping to everything that is happening here but if it's the only mean to the end... If you need someone to help explain things I can help."

"If you happen to have pictures of who would be in the know, I can start with that. Far as I know, I haven't outed myself amongst the DForce, and I'm very good at maintaining a cover. My sister is in the High School with the same device, shouldn't be hard to get through to her after how many times we've been mindfucked," he said.

Its been A Lot.

"We're pretty good at the recovery part now, but then we can find any of those way too grown up teenagers and I can see what counts for records here."

"Your sister has been brought as well?"

She nodded. "My crew are out there too, I think... At least I hope so."

Or does she? Was it better for them to be here or still stuck on the craft? Getting into the records is a good idea, I don't have pictures of my crew but their names are Jin-Roh, Malin, Sendez and... Pepper."

Let's hope she was still going by that name here.

He nodded. "She's been to the places I have. And one from before that," he said.

He hummed, pondering it. "I haven't heard those names yet, but if they're in records, it shouldn't be hard to see. Hopefully those aren't common names. Any of them got problems with authority, or would they roll with it if someone were to arrest them?"

She laughed slightly. "None of them would completely roll with being arrested. Malin maybe. But... They probably won't give you too much trouble... Depending on who and what they believe they are here."

"Well, if they know the truth, that's easy. Mostly in case I need to kidnap them. Though there is always sleep," he said with an amused look. "Want me to bring them here?"

"If you could." She smiled, "Sleep's probably a good idea. Me and Chiff can take it from there."

She sighed, planning to kidnap her own teammates. Life had truly gotten bizarre these last few months.

Wash nodded at that. "Got basic descriptions I could use?"

At least he is Very Good at finding people.

"Two are human, Jin-Roh is... In his fifties I think. Red beard, pretty large. Gentle giant though. Malin is young, tech nerd so she might have a job to do with that. Sendez is a Senurin. Uh... Humanoid. pretty big, fire resistant tough skin. Pepper is a mimnun, they are small, have wings. She's a fighter, I can't imagine she wouldn't be one here. But who knows."

There didn't seem to be much logic as to what they ended up doing here...

So Familiar a Gleam: Ongoing

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