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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Tidus keeps a close hold of Romeo as he shuffles with him to get where the higgledy is. They might need to stand soon, but Tidus wants them to retrieve their other company first, with Gibbs getting tiny squeaks that lets them fortunately (if with some hard hearing) where he is.

Romeo, he'll be good for you to hold. While Tidus suggests, shouting over the noise:

"We need to stop this storm! Let's try an equaliser here!"

Sure, it's not as if she can go off running after the people while she's rooted to the spot, but she's capable. Not powerless. And she'd utterly forgotten the requests not to use her powers.

With less adrenaline, her plants aren't sprouting thorns anymore, just seeking out those in her eyeline and lashing them to the ground. It's not hard to do that and hold Madoka at the same time, but it does make for some flashy pink light shows around Persephone's eyes.

"Hey, it's okay. I--didn't react well to being woken up like that either. Um--How about you try to round up scattered supplies or other voidtreckers while I keep these people from getting near us?"

Though she hasn't moved from petting her hair. Comfort first, action second.

"I would, as it could be useful in case you..." Leave, but Raven couldn't bring herself to say that. She didn't want to think about him leaving again--even if this was a different Bucky in many ways. She liked him, he was like a big brother to her.

If the situation was any less pressing at the moment, Alice might have sarcastically asked him whether this was really the appropriate moment to ask philosophical questions.

But as things are right now, the words don't leave her throat. Instead her fingers just grip the weapon she's holding a tad tighter.

"You might have to define cathartic need." Maybe Alice already knows, but just wants to hear his interpretation of it.

Or maybe she's just stalling for time before she either has to answer that question or avoid it - by which she'd kind of be giving an answer all the same.

It's at that statement on Jingyi's part that Inigo's eyes finally open again - and so that's the moment he seems to realise that the people aren't the only ones caught in a net.

The one thing that keeps him from freaking out about it like an idiot is the fact that he trusts Jingyi to not be pulling any shenanigans in a fairly serious situation like this one. It's probably part of the plan - and he's glad that it does seem like the people who seem to have gone crazy can't quite reach him.

"Can you contain them?" He instead asks, watching those people struggle as they're being trapped. He's not sure how much Jingyi's magic nets can take, after all.

"Sure, I'll have one."

After all, Inigo.. does love sweets.. And he sure was begging Kairi for fruit desserts already back on the train, so there's no way he can turn down the offer of fruit pastries here, even though Inigo is definitely still looking kind of off.

If not just for the fact that his agreeing just now was so casual, compared to the usual dramatic starry-eyed response Inigo would give in response to being offered something so desirable.

"It sounds like you guys are taking care of the people here really well." If they're even making and handing out fruit pastries.. They're sure going out of their way to help out the displaced people.

Oh.. Sheesh. Inigo isn't too surprised by the way Taiki looks like he's about to cry. Of course the other must have been through a lot. Inigo remembers what he and Tidus witnessed back there in camp, after all, and he can only imagine how much worse it must have been for Taiki of all people, who physically can't bear any form of violence.

So Inigo doesn't say anything, just letting Tidus's words do the work for the moment, especially when Taiki's answer and needs are most important than anything else right now.

All Inigo does is just squeeze the other's hand a little tighter, while Tidus is holding Taiki on the other side.

Leia has a good point, really. And it's even better that she's actually saying it out loud, because Madoka hadn't quite thought of it herself. It makes her cautiously glance back at the woman once they do arrive at the supply tent, and then she cautiously looks ahead into the tent..

.. but it's so dark in there that it's really hard to see if there is trouble in there or not.

"I can't hear anything in there.." She instead says. It's just about the only thing she can go by right now.

".. Right, maybe it'll get better with practice.."

Or at least, Madoka sure hopes so? It does make sense that maybe Romeo got hurt in the process since it was still a first accidental fluke, and maybe he just has normal healing powers that still need to fully grow..

She bites her lip a little, not content with just leaving it at that though.

Not when she's talking to her biffle.

"But.. R-Romeo, you know.. I get really sad when you're hurt." She figures she should at least say that. Because it's true! And maybe he can understand that better than it just being no good?

It's a start. And so she steps within range of those claws, risking the next step.

"And you have to stop, now," she says, softly, offering a hand. "You need to come with me, and rest for a spell."

He sweeps in to take hold of the box, grunting exaggeratedly as he hefts it up in his arms. What better way to agree without using words? Heavy, heavy! Both are blessed to not be jumped by anyone with a spoon, fork, or particularly large bowl (or anything more weaponlike), and instead a moment to get out and...

... "Clear out these chairs and set this up here?"

In this area that's cluttered with chairs and tables and the camping necessities set out by the ministry workers the night before.

It's okay, brother, just swear off women! Then you won't have to worry about biological children, at least...

He laughs, more of a chuckle, and looks forward, off at nothing much with a slow blink of his eyes.

"One of them tolerates more than the other. I'll see what I can do, but A-Cheng, I don't know how to convince a young fool determined to die of heartbreak that he's not dying, that alcohol doesn't solve it, and that refusing to speak with the ones who care for him leads anywhere sane."

Which is a summation of what he's run into with one of the two nephews, and has been ignored on. He doesn't think it's odd, but the things he's tried to talk on... if one doesn't want to hear from someone with more experience with dying than a dramatic seventeen year old, then he has nothing he can say. After all, he had been theoretically dead all those sixteen years.

He sends a pointed glare at Inigo, not even holding a weird pose now that both nets are in place. He has both meet at the top and come back down, until it's a domed, ringed net in truth, with one end opening up so Inigo can retreat toward Jingyi's bulk. Easier to work in circles and then scale back, as he did now, than trying to get fancy from go.

He wasn't a perfect cultivator, he was working with what he could do, and it wasn't yet to the level of his seniors. More to strive after, from his perspective.

"They're contained. I can shove any stragglers in with a gust, but you've got the deft hands right now, so it's on you to use them."

Inigo has prayed people into an arc of netting, and now if they were going to plan on finding a way to deal with the compulsion...

"Please, Inigo. I can't think about this too hard."

Because the moment he does, he will start fraying, and he's not sure anyone here can really make him stop.

Jingyi turns, the serpentine of his body doubling back in a flowing, graceful manner that has little to do with his response, as he quite suddenly brings himself into looming high and large over Tidus and his struggling partner.

The problem, of course, being:

"Let go! Or else I'm going to net the both of you!"

Or he could send them both to sleep, which would not be terribly helpful, instead of trying to net anyone at all.

"... How many are in there?" He says, arching his neck into a questioning curl at the proposed plan. "I could try pushing people in a direction with wind."

The camp itself and his own bulk make it difficult to do otherwise, when he has to rely on techniques to deal with people, not throwing in his bulk beyond what he's done before. Being a forgiving wall? As long as no one was hurt.

He huffs out and sends a gentler breeze spinning away from where they stood, continuing while Esteban worked on floating (that was what was happening, wasn't it, those were floating over) the boxes with the equalisers. Jingyi stretches out his forepaws, carefully hooking talons through handles. Three to one paw, two to the other, and he nods to Esteban, whiskers flicking back toward his neck as indication and invitation: hold on.

"I've watched more of these be set up than done them, let's get the first between medical and the rest of camp."

After which he would be off, flying the short distance to a suitably large enough place he can set one of the equaliser kits down, almost sending two sliding off talons, but then correcting at the last moment. Hah! Small victories in the midst of early morning chaos.

That... was not the reaction Idia was ready for as he had started to work through in his head what had just happened. It was like Romeo hadn't expected that to happen. "Is... has this not happened to you before?" Was it a new ability? One that triggered without Romeo wanting it to?

This could be dangerous. Very dangerous.

Idia's the one to reach out for the cloth now, taking it from Romeo and taking the boy's hands in his, holding them there as he dampened the cloth again to start washing up Romeo's hands. This wasn't right. Idia had caused the cuts to himself through his work, he was willing to put up with them until they healed. It hadn't been Romeo's choice, he shouldn't have to pay for it.

"Romeo, don't go touching anyone else who's hurt." That tiredness and soft-spoken tone Idia normally spoke in was gone, becoming something more steady and serious.

"Suffering has no end. Those you help may meet worse fates later on, or cause more suffering for others. You may offer hope only to leave them with greater disappointment."

He gazes off at the storm, not looking at anyone, particularly not the dragon he's sitting on.

"I do what I must to live, no more."

"Can you-- Can you really do that?"

Maybe later Madoka is going to feel shameful about this. About questioning someone so blatantly, so openly. It's something Madoka would never want to do, since she trusts everyone fully, but she's just so worried in this situation. Everything is so overwhelming, and she doesn't know what to do about it.

She just wants something solid to rely on.

It's why she doesn't move away from Persephone just yet - though perhaps it's since the girl doesn't want to move away from the soothing hair pets - and instead just stares up at the other wide eyes.

"They really won't get to me at all..?"

"SO basically, you have really obvious tells? Or that you are so nice that it's easy?" That was how he was reading it anyway and yes, that would mean he could get easily fleeced, but that would be something that would honestly annoy Allen. At the people who fleeced him more than the fact he got fleeced.

"I mean it does take a lot of skill to do, but it's still something teachable."

It's all deliberate, he knows, and he can be a deliberate soul, even a delicate one, for those he loves.

He loves precious few, and none romantically, and Shen Qingqiu doesn't number among those for whom he holds affection. More tolerance, and awareness of a darkness that undercuts whatever it is the man believes about himself.

"You don't even truly believe that. So why do you say it?"

"I will say right now. I don't know how they work and I wouldn't trust myself to touch one." Allen laughed awkwardly because really. He didn't trust his bad luck to not come at this worse possible moment and somehow break it or something without meaning to.

"I can help in defending though as that requires me to not touch anything and cause bad things to happen... Hopefully."

"Why."

The downside is that there doesn't seem to be too much consideration of what the other is saying on Alice's part. Her answer comes out quickly, almost instantly, right after Guri finishes saying what she's saying over here.

It's like she doesn't see the point of it. And that's because she doesn't - not in her current state. She's so occupied with just wanting to get rid of these people, these people who keep fighting her, who keep fighting Guri, who's important to her.

And within that single purpose in her mind, there's no time to go back and rest. So she just glares at the other, only speaking that single word.

See, this is the exact trouble of being in the middle of a camp that is very much prepared for.. well, camping, but not so much for combat. There's no real space to do anything important when it matters. (Though, to be fair towards the Ministry workers, it's not like they knew this sort of thing was suddenly going to happen in the morning either..)

So Madoka quickly starts shoving anything out of the way she can manage to push away by herself. It means some of the chairs that are stacked up too high for the girl are still standing there, but at least she's managed to clear an area where the man can set down the box.

It even conveniently provides a kind of protective chair-and-boxes circle around them. Not that it would truly stop anyone determined to attack them, but.. you know, they'd at least have to hop over some stuff first, so it gives them a slight delay to work with.

"I'll set it up now.." As well as she can, anyway. "So.. um, please keep an eye out for anything dangerous that might approach.."

Because Madoka sure can't do both at the same time. In fact, she'd be able to do very little about a threat if it did approach, even if she wasn't doing anything else! That's clearly his duty here now.

Inigo's jaw drops open. There's a tendency - perhaps childish, perhaps worried - to whine back at Jingyi. To ask the other why he is please-ing Inigo here, as if Inigo has the solution to this entire situation. He's at least figured out what's got the people so worked up, or rather, what's drawing them towards him. It's how he got these people into Jingyi's net in the first place.

But thinking further, figuring out how to calm them down again, that's harder. And Inigo is usually not exactly the man with the plan - although it also wouldn't be the first time that he's shoved into the position, having to be that, exactly because there's no one else to do it.

He frowns, really trying to think.

"I don't know-- It's not like praying is going to do any good. It's just making them more mad." So trying to call the gods out to the wasteland? That definitely isn't going to work. It'll just get the people more worked up. "It seems that they're mad about the gods of this place, but I have no idea how to reverse that! I'm not even sure what got them all mad at exactly the same time in the first place!" Inigo pauses, really trying to think. "It's like something happened to them overnight, switching them entirely.."

But what was it? What was it? Inigo has no idea. He woke up with someone's hands around his throat. He had no time to spy on whatever might have happened in the night, even as he desperately tries to think about it here.

Allen missing his point so obviously makes Esteban chuckle, grin wide as he shakes his head. "I don't have a poker face," he explains, raising a knee up to tuck his foot under the other leg. It hardly matters how he sits, the rocks are still uncomfortable, but it stops him from bouncing it with restless energy even on the short break he's decided to take.

"I don't gamble much, 'cause that's just invitin' trouble. Get good cards an' I'll be happy; so I smile. Get bad cards an' I'll furrow my brow an' look all sour." He tries to imitate it, but it's hard for him to frown when he's so cheerful anyways; it barely looks upset at all when his smile just won't be tucked away. Well. Case in point, he supposes.

"It's--" He pauses, words fumbling into his mouth when he attempts to shape them, not even sure what he's trying to say. "It's easier to breathe, when I don't think too hard 'bout things. Gambling w'ld be really hard for me t' learn, 'cause I'd be thinkin' too hard 'bout it all. Gotta keep my mean face on!" He tries-- tries but it only lasts for a split second before another snicker interrupts him. He's really, but really horrible at this.

Then again, maybe he's just never thought about keeping his smiling face on.

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Fissures of Time: Ongoing

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