middleofsomewhere | Fissures of Time: Ongoing

Fissures of Time: Ongoing

FISSURES OF TIME: ONGOING

... 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!

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"To see an end to the suffering." His reply is short, to the point. "When and where I can."

In the very near distance, the storm rages on, and the ministry workers come closer to setting up the second equaliser.

"What about you, huh?"

( ooc: this is all good! I'm replying from email so please forgive the retained subject line )

"I'm not a bird," he says, distracted rather than particularly concerned by the question of anyone expecting feathers. He only grunts to answer the question about his holding a layer of air close, figuring it was self evident. They had other pressing realities.

Ones which, when his fellow Voidtrecker brought the unconscious refugee into the medical tents, make themselves manifest: it's controlled chaos inside, but Jingyi only hears as much when he's dealing with another refugee who is... throwing a chair at his head. Repeatedly. It glances off his horn rather than his skull, because he's not using strong winds as deterrents, not when in camp and trying to avoid injuring others.

But he does manage a sort of energy net in blue qi around the chair happy refugee, leaving them in a sort of flexible seeming energy cage with the chair they've taken to standing on while shouting at him about things ending soon.

"Please tell me someone in there had a solution," he says, casting Esteban a look, "Because that man just thought it was reasonable to attack a dragon with a chair."

"..."

Jingyi watches this situation evolve, his eye ridges almost giving the appearance of raising. He's not entirely sure what Inigo is doing, but it looks like managing to piss people off just by standing there and looking pretty.

Possibly pious, though he would look for different ear marks, and as a sort of heavenly being himself, not precisely understood in context.

It does give him an idea, and so the first thing he does is form a net around Inigo. Bait is one thing. Bait no one can quite touch is utterly maddening, and by protecting his friend from being immediately overrun, he's also letting the stream of refugees jump into their trap before springing it.

Because once he sees anyone start to turn away, once the flow of people towards them slowed, he formed a second, larger net around the compulsion suffering refugees. Contracting that one while expanding the one around Inigo creates a ring of captured, struggling people, albeit for that moment also leaves Inigo in the eye of the metaphorical storm.

... Him and the passed out refugee hogtied on the ground, at least.

"These people have way too much energy!"

He knows someone who has similar methods to her the difference is that Naruto has the chakra to pull off what was often impossible, moreso than even his brother, and over the years he's (with some exception) proven to be quite smart when in the moment. Tobirama couldn't sense any chakra in her but who knew. Perhaps she did have a fighting spirit that could withstand such a thing. He's not so much sure, yet, though.

"I have to admit, Alice, that's not a good plan." It's factual, but there's a bit of humor to it. "Is this," hm, how to put it, "a cathartic need for you?" Some of them seem to be getting up again and what was taking this equalizer so long?

He lets out a breath when he realises he can, about the time that Taiki gets up, speaks to him, lets him acknowledge the peace they've gained. A noisy sound before he drops back his head, his usual response of, "I'm alright, I'm okay" at least convincing, and honest in the moment.

But as he gives himself more time to relax, to finally consider shuffling up into a seating position, his body welcomes him to every ache he's gained, to the sharp burning pain on his lower face.

"Iii...probably need to heal up," he answers again. He hasn't got any real cuts, but there's a few scrapes where some blood might be, particularly around his arms. A sting that doesn't mean as much to Tidus as the pain on his face, which he raises a hand near, but doesn't dare touch. "Ow ow ow ow..."

Sometimes, the biggest hurts are the ones you do to yourself.

[ooc: noted~ I'll keep ooc notes like this then!]

The half-elf barely glances at the person when he comes out of the tent, startled to see them, but immediately checking on the dragon at the mention. There's no blood, nor even a bruise, so he figures Jingyi must have kept the damage to a minimum, at least. He lets a soft sigh escape him, relieved, before his head shifted lightly to the side in his curiosity.

"Can't keep more th'n one asleep at a time?" The fact that the dragon could do this at all had been a surprise to Esteban; he'd known there were dragon mages, to be fair, but he'd never met one personally. "Want me to knock him out?"

Esteban's version was... a bit more violent in its process though. He wasn't sure just how comfortable he'd be at knocking someone out with a kick to the head when they were already tangled in a net. (But then again; what choice did they have? The sun wasn't supposed to rise this early, the earth was not supposed to sing. If there were refugees after them, trying to attack them-- Esteban would have to counter as best he can. No matter what his conscience might think.)

"Someone suggested usin' the Equalizers for this. Set them up 'round camp; see 'f it helps. There'll be spares in the supply tent--" he waves an arm at the largest tent among them, just a few feet away. But Esteban was not very confident. Not in the suggestion, and not in managing to fulfill it. He hadn't taken more than a glance at the Equalizers, figuring someone else would enjoy the technology better than he did.

Still. "Worth a shot, yeah?" He suggests, grinning brightly. But they should probably clear the immediate area around the med tent first though; just to give them some peace of mind.

"Yes, and the help is appreciated," Leia said. "But if you go full throttle at everything when you don't have to, all you'll do is wear yourself out. Though sadly there isn't really time right now for a lesson on moderation." She made mental note of the young girl in hopes of talking to her about that later however.

"For now though, we need to try and set up some more equalizers. Fighting people one at a time won't solve the problem; we need to cut what's affecting their minds off at the source. Think you can cover me while I do that?" With the previous performance, she doubted the girl had the subtlety needed to handle the equipment.

He can smell it, the sharp tang of blood but he doesn't move away. Being near Tidus and helping him is more important right now. He stays close whilst letting Tidus shift into whatever position is most comfortable for him.

"Are your healing potions in your arms band?"

Taiki probably has a couple in his as well, he carries them to give out if he sees anybody without and he can move to get one, it will just mean untangling himself from Tidus.

"You are working harder. So how could I sit and do nothing?"

He couldn't, not at all. "I am glad you like it. Me and Kitty made some fruit pastries as well, so you can have one of those after soup if you want. They are sweet."

Like Inigo would need more coaxing. But there's not much time to rest and he wants to make sure Inigo has as much food and rest as he can.

Leia nodded and followed behind Madoka. She indeed had no trouble keeping up, even if she was fairly short herself, and she similarly had no trouble knocking aside another crazed refugee as they went. "Careful when you're heading inside," she called out as they approached the tent. "Under current circumstances there might be trouble waiting." Depending on how clever whatever was doing this was, it might well try to prevent them from undoing its influence, after all.

Fights are complicated and confusing. He doesn't blame them at all for not following exactly what happened. His own attack is a blur of fear and sadness and so he just nodded and looked down when Inigo said it didn't matter.

At least it was taken care of. "I'm glad... I hope not too many people were hurt and everyone realised... That they weren't..."

He trails off because his eyes have filled with tears. The memory of Naoya stabbing the refugee who was attacking Taiki blazing in his mind.

Which works well, at least until the problem is eventually solved. Thank goodness, it doesn't feel everlasting for that either, as he imagines their energy could've depleted rather quickly if they'd kept it up too much longer. Surely they would have run out of refugees before then, right? (...right? Sizhui's unsure—) Fortunately, he needn't consider once those equalizers are restored, the individuals who had been affected coming to, groggy and in a muddle.

He's mid-handling someone when it happens, carefully steadying them on their feet while they gather their bearings instead of incapacitating them. Following Jingyi's sigh, Sizhui cranes his neck in that direction, somewhat weary-sounding, “I . . . think so?” A brief, hesitant glance back toward the person he's helping who's starting to regain composure, then he withdraws. Immediately, he wants to ask each and every refugee just what in the world had happened, but it seems more proper to let them finish recovering first.

So, this seems the perfect moment to slide closer to Jingyi, slump against his dragon friend's leg and exhale a huff of his own. “Let's hope it is or else this will prove to be a long, exhausting day.”

He blinked at her, her words breaking out of his happiness for a moment but he nodded. "I will be careful. But I'll be fine! It doesn't matter so much as long as my friends are okay and not hurt. I'll be careful though! I don't even know how to do it really so I got to practice to make it right!"

Since he had done it mostly by accident.

"Most likely there is," Leia said. "But we need to get things back to some semblance of calm around here before we can look for it."

"And next is we cut all this off at the source, hopefully by setting up some more equalizers. It might not be a permanent fix, but it should remove whatever's influencing the refugees long enough for us to come up with something. One of us should likely focus on getting them set up while the other one covers them." If Allen didn't voice a preference as to one task or another, she'd assign one, but she trusted him to be capable of either.

Everyone got there safely and nothing bad happened which was the best possible outcome of all this. Romeo grinned at Esteban as he crouched down to talk to him and beamed at the praise and shoulder pat.

"I can help!" Quiet as a fox! "I can go invisible and sneak in if you want?"

Because then no one would see him for sure!

"He will be crying." She warned him. It was a danger of yelling at Emporio, he cried a lot. Stupid baby.

She ducked and stabbed another one, wrinkling her nose at the order. But fine, she wouldn't kill, she aimed for non vital locations.

"Oh. No. Should I do that?" They hadn't even really considered writing it down anywhere. They have paper and a little pencil nub stashed behind a knife sheathe, and they pat at it vaguely, but it seems like now is probably not the best time and place for that.

For a moment Alice's gaze still seems kind of hazy, like her mind is far away from her body. She looks like she's still about to move, but then something does shift when Guri says her name.

Just a little bit though. Her appearance is still the same, and she's still not quite looking like herself in other, more subtle ways as well. She's still frowning, looking much too angry. The look in her eyes is still.. off.

But her gaze shifts. Just a little bit. But just that little bit is enough to actually look Guri in the eyes, rather than straight up ignoring her presence. It's an acknowledgement of the fact that Alice did hear her name being called, and that she actually recognizes it.

"What," she simply says, the same anger still present in her voice.

"What, it hasn't been already? We even rise early and this still feels like it's past bedtime already."

More mentally exhausting than anything else, he's happy to no longer have to worry about netting definitely not possessed people.

Definitely never possessed. Only driven by compulsions! Important distinction in exactly his mind.

Jingyi swings his head to look towards the supply tents, huffing out a slightly more than gentle breeze in the process. He's worried, he's staying dragon to not run around naked or become a squishier target for anyone, and that suggestion...

... Sounds reasonable, he guesses. It must stabilise or equalise the compulsion inflicted by the fractured god. Insane god? Whatever, the Problem God... s.

"If you want to drag the boxes out, we can fly around to set them up. Or I can fly you around, I don't have the deft hands for putting them in place without retaking human form."

Which he could, though he would be rather nude, and flight gets slightly more complicated if he's moving anyone else around too. Not that he dives into those explanations, but his heart grumbles over them even as he worries for the compulsion driven refugees harming the people he cares for, and harming themselves.

"You know how to?"

Tidus catches the look and holds his mouth, even though he was already. As he has more reason to, the emotion welling on Taiki's face, in his voice. He puts an arm around the guy, pulling him to him.

"Hey, it's alright now, everything's calmed down. Everyone's protecting the camps -- the refugees too. You don't need to worry."

Reassurance, and he looks over at Inigo briefly; just a share in their mutual worry for their friend before he speaks to Taiki again.

"What about you? I can get some of that incense -- the stuff I used during that big sleepover. You think it'd make you feel better?"

He'd offer food, but that might be too soon right now for Taiki, so what else but what might help his ailment?

"Yeah, I've got something." He just needs to get it, sounding tired of the effort. But he'll put his mind to it, and make appear a small vial to open.

It's got a strange taste as he downs it that his tongue doesn't like, and it'll take a few seconds for the liquid to start working. He shakes his head and shivers, like a kid who just took icky medicine.

"Blergh." Exactly like a kid. "Glad Webs is around, but that medicine is..."

Gross!! But after a beat, and his gaze coming onto Taiki. "Hey, are you okay?"

Could he? Should he? Esteban has to quell the gut reaction that still chafes at letting the child go anywhere near danger, brushing it aside. Romeo is resourceful. And he can turn invisible. He's a smart choice-- and being a child can mean being overlooked, or even underestimated. It's a card in his favour if he knows how to play it right.

The half-elf isn't sure Romeo would, but hopefully it won't even come to that.

It takes him a second to wrap his head around this, but he nods as soon as his thoughts are settled in some sort of order, agreeing to the suggestion. But.

"I'm goin' with you." Esteban is not that stealthy, too tall and he has too much presence to quell into being discreet, but he is good at causing a ruckus, giving Romeo the time to get out of there. "Two by two. That way, if someone's in trouble, it's never alone."

(That his "plan" entirely revolves around Romeo abandoning him to save himself if there is trouble-- well, that's fine, right? It's the... uh. Exception to the rule.)

"Give it a glance first?" He suggests, checking on their companions again. "Invisible 'f you can. Just at the entrance." Is it better for him to remain constantly invisible, or to shift between visible to invisible when there is a need? Esteban isn't sure. Seems like he'd be finding out as they go.

If there are enemies right within the flaps of the tent, Esteban will be right there to instill the fear of gods and monsters within them. And if there aren't, well, he'll follow right along the child, as quiet and discreet as he can manage himself to be.

Hmm. Well, somehow, he had expected that.

"Nope!" Another brilliant grin accompanies his words. "But how hard c'n it be?" It's... technology. Esteban's skills with technology is directly linked to how interested he personally is in it; the grav-con is in his pocket, never far from him anymore, but he still doesn't know how to use the ICPs back on the train.

He has to hope they aren't... going to be complicated to work through. There's too many people in the camp, they need to help, and this is their best bet.

"Can y' lead most of them away from the tents? The healers have 'nough on their plates without rantin' refugees interruptin' them. I'll get the Equalizers-- no draggin' needed~-- an' we can go on from there?"

They have an actual plan there, and Esteban is quick to start on it, darting across the short path to the largest tent in the field. The grav-con unit is useful again, not aimed at himself this time, but at the boxes, and he gently floats them out of the canvas and tarp coverings, making far less noise this way, and setting them up to be easily grabbed by talons. He doesn't know how they work, but he guesses that five will do, spread around the entire camp. Setting them all off at once will be harder though; just between the two of them.

Trunks raises an eyebrow. "Rich, I'm sure you do a lot on missions. Even if you don't think you do. I'm glad you feel you can do more this mission, and music is a good way to do so."

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Fissures of Time: Ongoing

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