Fissures of Time: Ongoing

[voidtreckermods]

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FISSURES OF TIME: ONGOING

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... POI 10-12

FOR SOME, THE MISSION HAS BEEN MORE MENTALLY EXHAUSTING THAN PHYSICALLY. Distortions sprout around the domain without rhyme or reason, and the camps must be moved every new day to meet them, as well as stopping a distortion from deciding to form under them from their presence.

While there's bare-bones vegetation, at least they have their own resources to help one another, as well as what can be retrieved from the Ministry base during return trips to take misplaced civilians to safety. It's straight-forward so far...

...but that wouldn't be standard for the Voidtreckers, and some in their ranks don't want straight-forward. Starting during the early hours of Poi 10, there will be occasional rumblings throughout the land. They last for a few seconds and then stop, seemingly for hours; but then they return, and as the days go on, so do the tremors increase.

It seems the distortions too have become affected...

THE UNQUIET CITY. (CW: People unable to die/rising from the dead, body horror)

A city of rubble and ruin stretches far out around them, where once there were hills and vegetation. Much of the rubble is still smoking as fires smoulder. The fighting isn't over, heard before it's seen.

It must be connected to the same skirmishes seen in other distortions, and so most of you are prepared to meet warriors on foot and mount. But what awaits isn't only the horror of bloodshed. No: the reason that the fighting still continues even as the city lies in ruin is because fighters fall and rise again, as if death were nothing but a short rest.

Puncture marks litter skin and armour, holes from weaponry and blessed-magic visible in torsos, even the spaces of where portions of one's skull and brain should be.

Yet they cannot stop fighting. They cannot fall to the ground, rest. Whatever drove them to fight this war still inspires them to continue, screaming as much in pain as in some sort of twisted ecstasy. Perhaps they are too shocked to do anything else. A city locked in eternal war, distorted in time, doomed to repeat itself.

It's hard to set the equalisers here. Not much is stable and fights are likely to break out wherever there are people. The people of this city have their factions, but they will not hesitate to band together to fight intruders.

EYE OF THE STORM. They might feel this distortion before they enter it. A spine-chilling thrill, the feeling one might get at the edge of a storm.

—For a storm it is. The moment they enter it their vision will be obstructed, winds howl around them and rain lashes down furiously making a swamp of the ground below them. It's freezing cold and as they walk they will feel something in the storm. Almost as if there are icy hands, reaching out to grab at them, to pull them further into the worst of the weather.

It's hard to know where to place the equalisers, hard to see where the edges of this distortion are. Easier, not by much, to move further in, to find the epicentre and try and take it down from there.

It's a treacherous journey, but the centre truly is calm, water frozen like crystals. Yet temperatures are dangerously low, so it's in everyone's best interests to set the equalisers quick and get out.

MEAN AND GREEN. As the rumbling continues, there comes a strange and worrying distortion. Worrying, as this distortion can be seen from the outside. A hazy blur that seems to move across the countryside, along the left side of the camp you're stationed at. It gets dangerously close at times, and when it does...

Green tendrils of plant life burst out, entangling people to pull them into the distortion. Or chains of flowers spread from the distortion out across the countryside. Beautiful and colourful in the otherwise sparse environment, but those flowers work as anchors, spreading the distortion, expanding it.

To get rid of it they will need to enter, and inside is a thick jungle of vines and bright colourful flowers awaiting them. The foliage is thick and the air musky and sweet. It's easy to get separated, and getting lost is only a matter of getting turned around. The leaves are sticky and vines move seemingly on their own, curling around unsuspecting limbs, trying to trap people in this colourful paradise forever.

And up in the sky above, a woman's laughter can be heard, the heat of the sun bearing down that becomes uncomfortable quick. But don't look up - you may find a large yellow eye - yellow iris, yellow pupil, golden yellow everything - peering back at you, and find yourself being pulled in by the very ground itself by a powerful force.

NO SANCTUARY. Protecting the camps hasn't been difficult, despite it being a Purple task. Other than rowdy refugees breaking out into fights, little else has appeared to disturb them.

'Eiiiiliiifii.... Siiiiliiifiii...
Merios? Herios?
Don't hide... don't hide...

Everything will be so perfect soon...'

People are woken abruptly in the early hours of Poi 11. If by some special sense, or by a grab at their throat, by a body falling on top of where they sleep, someone else stopping the refugee who was about to take a knife to them.

The refugees have become uncontrollable, raving about wanting 'their Gods back'. The ground rumbles as the woman's voice from the hazy jungle - ethereal, so divine - speaks from below. Grass rises and the sky above burns with a brightness like an approaching sun.

Setting an equaliser will calm the refugees, but only those in the camps. Starting from lunchtime, more warriors and civilians will be found appearing from the distance and from thin air, seemingly knowing where to find the Voidtreckers' camps - and after some very specific people.

Those with divinity, control over weather, nature, and death will be especially targeted, along with anyone who received blessings from the Gods.

OOC NOTES

OOC post. Ask questions here. Let us know about shenanigans here. NPC requests here, set up a thread here. Rewards go here.

TL;DR: Starting on Poi 10, there will be odd tremors around the domain, and more aggressive time distortions. From Poi 11 refugees will lose control of themselves and start attacking Voidtreckers, in and out of the camp.

It will happen abruptly to begin with, but some keen to reading energy will find that it is shifting; like something is breaking in from somewhere else (similar to the time distortions).

Extra equalisers can be picked up from the Ministry base and they will be there to help, but there are also more distortions happening around the domain, so they'll be dealing with those. The Ministry will advise that any non-combatants should stick to the base, and even use the scouting drones to help from afar, if they really need to help.

Undead warriors can be found outside of time distortions, and not all of the people outside of distortions will be 'permanent' people. Equalisers can be kept going for a few hours to keep these people away, but will also need go into recharge/cooling mode.

Don't worry if you're still busy with the Starting log! Or if you've been meaning to tag, jump in here!

Comments

[flatteries]

.. it's true, isn't it. As kind of depressing of a thought as that could be, Inigo knows they're right.

"Don't you ever get tired?"

Even as he's saying it, Inigo is - ironically enough - still trying to cut down soldiers, just to get them to stop for a moment.

"Of-- Of all this. Of fighting."

Maybe the middle of battle isn't the best place to ask that. But in Inigo's opinion, it is. It gives Soldat less time to think about why Inigo is asking that in the first place, after all, and avoiding thoughts or questions about that is his entire intention.

[happyends]

"I can't really fight."

Or rather - she's learned how to fight in some capacity by now, but she can't fight in any way that actually feels helpful here. After all, shooting an arrow at someone is a little too hurtful to only help with subdueing a threat.

"And it feels like protecting the camp is the most important thing now.."

.. by fighting.

See her problem? It's why Madoka looks so uneasy right now.

[nutkrusher]

"Yup," Cassie says. "And I was a rich girl with other options."

She smiles softly.

"Bit of a legacy to live up to, though."

[marvelous_murderbot]

It helps that anything that gets past either of their ranged attacks is going to have a bad time of it against Guri's hand to hand prowess.

Unfortunately, she is contending with a rather bulky temporal revenant - as she is taking to thinking of them - prying loose its attempts to grab her by the shoulders and headbutting it to knock it back before shooting it with both barrels.

So, for the moment, the beginnings of a transformation go unnoticed.

[crowneddragon]

He shouldn't. Eyes widen as he takes in the height, slowly calculating it. He shouldn't. But Esteban sees the challenge, sees the opportunity it represents, and with a grin, wonders just how it would feel to make it. It's a bit reckless, yes, but the worse that would happen would-- what? toss him in the waves and throw him off? It's just water-- he'd glide down, if he missed.

Settled, Esteban takes a deep breath, and gives himself the room to prepare his jump. It'll have to be the highest arc he's attempted, and his attempts have not been so numerous-- but he knows it's possible. He knows he can do it. Deep breath.

He dashes recklessly, grav-con in hand, gathering the momentum to curve above the rim of the storm. Water clings to the air, so strange in the arid landscape, and Esteban lowers himself to spring up.

And up. And up.

Joy flutters in his heart, phantom wings sweeping down his back underneath his clothes with the weightlessness of a feather. His spirit soars with the wind-- lifting, rising-- but only for a moment. He doesn't clear the halfway point of the whirlpool before it gets obvious that he'll run against it. Damn it! And he'd been trying So Hard too.

Nope-- not high enough.

He braces himself to smack into the water, readying himself to be spat back out with a deep breath and his arms curving in front of his face to protect himself from the shock.

[yondu]

"One of the gods started sendin' people after us. Went apeshit or somethin', accordin' to Zagreus. But not all of us. Ones with certain kinds of powers or gifts. Mine was the nature shit I picked up."

Shows him for leaning into the power that wouldn't just kill people outright, huh? Almost everything else about him was meant to be lethal. Found something that wasn't? People trying to kill him for it.

He doesn't get up from where he's been sitting. Just points to his shoulder. "Got speared through. The rest I used potions on." As in all those other bloody points on his clothes? Already accounted for. Though for a man that doesn't really go 'pale' or anything, he does look like extra levels of shit at the moment.

[crowneddragon]

Well, if he were to chose only for his sake, he'd just repeat himself. But Allen's mention of how serious his stories could go does make Esteban reconsider, and he waves a discreet head nod towards the few stragglers around him, a dozen disgruntled people with haunted eyes.

"Let's hear somethin' fun then~" He cheers, more for the wary watchers than for himself. But the day has been long, and he has to admit that bouncing back is getting harder and harder, the longer this mission goes on. Something upbeat would help him hold on as well.

"Then I'll tell y' 'bout the first time I fire danced," he snickers, offering a trade. A story for a story; and though his was a bit accident-prone, he still found it humorous enough to count among the more lighthearted stories in his arsenal.

[weifinder]

"Your faith in me is touching," he says, which is and isn't a joke. He takes the cup back, lifting it to Zewu-jun before downing it, a convenient reason not to reply to the question: how are you.

Thus he waves his hand, "No better or worse than you'd think," and smiles, in the wan way of a man tired and familiar with the unkindness of the world. "It'll be a few minutes, but I'll set water aside from what's being boiled for tea. You're welcome to join me, Zewu-jun."

[soldier_blade]

She scowled, following him with her weapon at the ready. "So either they squirming and causes panic at the camp, or the equalizers cause some reaction in them."

The whole point in them was to stabalize the planet afterall. "What sort of 'good' were you considering anyway? The train doesn't exactly have a morgue for storing bodies."

So if they didn't completely cause havoc or vanish, he'd have hell of a time keeping them from rotting further.

[nutkrusher]

Cassie turns her head and nods at her - a subdued but welcoming signal to come closer.

She's not looking very animated at the moment. But she'll always have time to talk to Sonya.

[calmness]

"I've been told that you are not the worst of people to put one's faith in, Master Wei." Light still, coupled with a quirk of his brow. Xichen knows enough now of what lays ahead to realizes he's the one that chose poorly, even if he still doesn't quite understand how it came to be.

To the statement on tea, he nods - a slight dip of the head as he stands to join. "I brought tea leaves with me, so I can handle the rest."

[soldier_blade]

Subtle from Cassie was usually never a good sign, but Sonya chalked (or rather hoped) it was simply from being focused on their mission.

She continued walking over. There were signs of struggle (mostly in the form of stains and dirt patches) on her gear, but she's otherwise unharmed. "How're things on your side of the team?"

Better than asking how she was doing.

[nutkrusher]

"About as well as we could hope so far," Cassie says. "Orange is at least getting the equalizers set up."

Her frown deepens.

"But I don't like the energy I'm sensing. I mean I really don't like it. And I know I'm not just imagining it."

[subcircuits]

Someone has apparently been brushing up on his old-fashioned field aid, because Devero actually deposits a needle already threaded into Ryo's hand, and sets about preparing a couple more while Ryo goes to work with the first.

[controlsthedie]

Thanatos nearly tells Ryo to not bother with softening the landing. The wretched soldier is supposed to be dead, and mortals aren't go to be survive from this height. The landing would end this ill-forced life in an instant. Then he thinks better of it for various reasons, most concerning Ryo. All Thanatos can hope is that the soldier's next death is quick and painless.

"Damn it. This is never going to end unless something changes." A strong flap of his wings along with his innate ability to float propels them both further upward and forward.

[10billionpercent]

"Our Gods...we want them back!" The man rambled, whether or not he was entirely lucid was a bit of a question, but while he strugged, Senku at least knew how to tie a knot.

Senku sighed heavily which came out in something of a whistling wheeze and he rolled onto his knees and got up, going to rinse his hands and he dragged over one of the medkits.

He took out some fabric and pressed it to a slash he'd put in the man's arm with a very bland stare. His throat hurt quite a bit, so he didn't say anything.

[weifinder]

There's a moment where everything polite and well bred in him wants to say, no. No, I've got this, because in all the social politics they know, there's a dance to interacting.

Yet he's also the one who can't bring himself to worry, let alone stress, about which details they're following. Zewu-jun wants to help. They need a lighter focus than the work they've been doing here, willingly, alongside the ministry workers.

"Right, let meet introduce you to the iron pot they said works for steeping!" He gestures, cup in hand, leading the way through the camp toward one of the ministry worker fires.

"It's very, what do they say here... 'low tech', which from what I can tell means it makes sense to us and takes too long according to some of our fellow Trainlings." A smile, to invite him into that amused observation.

[calmness]

The fact he does not get any expected protest is refreshing. Xichen offers a gentle smile, a minuscule change in expression that's also washed in relief. He needs to do something, to focus on something other than the mission and the facts Wangji had recently shared with him.

Xichen falls in step, walking beside Wei Wuxian as they weave through the camp. The assessment ears a soft chuckle. "An interesting change of affairs, I think." Though there is merit to the technology on the train, of course, and benefit, Xichen misses some of the simplicities of not being surrounded by technology that is so far ahead.

Showers though, he's glad for hot showers. "I haven't seen anyone struggling too much without the aid of the trains technology at least. Have you?" Gossip with him, Master Wei, he's in need of distraction.

[mynameisallen]

He looked over for a moment before slowly doing as she said. He trusted her word after all. What is your suspicions anyway?" he asked as he grabbed the blanket and made his way to use it to tie up the guy.

[weisexual]

Lan Zhan nods his head in the direction the next piece is supposed to be laid. He pulls out the device and hands it over to him. Since Wei ying put himself out as the bait last time, Lan Zhan will take the weight of that task on his own shoulders this time. He never took one of the ministry weapons, feeling he has more then enough ability with those he already has.

He starts to move in the direction of the next spot, mulling over their options as far as protecting themselves and others. "Not illusions but also not real." Disturbances in space that require maintenance to regain balance. What he understands while still not fully comprehending. So much more then any of the books he has ever read, even since reading the ones in the library on the train.

He weighs the differences between this world and the previous ones they have been on. It's better then the enemies that were simply creations of a person's mind, but still not a part of this world's actual populace. It's amazing how many different things they have encountered since becoming passengers. And Wei Ying has experienced even more then he has. The weight of all of this is heavy but he has to remember that what matters is that they are helping people, not necessarily the details of the how or why.

"I will distract them."

[xue_yang]

"They can be ground into a pretty effective poison." To be used not just on this world but on others that they encounter. But he can't simply do it on the battle field. There does need to be some processing to the whole thing. He didn't exactly come prepared for grinding up corpses.

"A good that can help us later. You never know when you need a little something different in a battle."

[light_of_willpower]

"Agreed." Trunks moved to adjust his gloves. "Split up, or stay together?" It's not like they couldn't find each other easily enough via sensing ki.

Poi 10

[light_of_willpower]

Trunks has mostly been in the field or around camp as protector and bodyguard. But it's been wearing on him, and while he's more used to refugees than he'd like... This was too much like home in some ways, while still being different enough to be disturbing.

Which meant he gravitated towards Rich as he was playing guitar. Lurking near the back, stance casual and at rest. Just letting himself relax for a time.

[nutkrusher]

"We'll cover more ground if we split up," Cassie says.

She shoots him a quick glance.

"We can always find each other again if there's trouble."

[springforth]

Persephone realizes this wasn't just anyone, it was Madoka. And--oof. A whole new set of vines appear and pull him flat to the ground. A knife on his person is soon yanked away and swallowed in thorns. Dipping down close to the ground, she stands on his back and glares down at him.

"Don't get up."

She steps over to Madoka, holding out her hands. There's only one thing more powerful than fear for herself and that's fear for someone else.

"Are you okay?"