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!

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

For a terrible moment he was frozen, staring at his attacker who stared back at him, no mercy in his eyes. But then there was a sword, pushing the blade away and then there was Jingyi, wrestling the person, pulling him away.

Taiki scrambled up to a sitting postion, basically curling into himself as he stared fearfully across. Worry flooded him, worry for Jingyi, worry for the refugee, confusion about everything that was happening.

"Stop!"

He's not sure who he's talking to. But neither of them should be fighting. Why had the man attacked him?

Almost immediately, Leia was forced to dodge again, letting go of the man's wrist and jumping back enough to avoid getting caught up in the spell sent in their direction. The source of the spell, a young girl in a black, hooded coat, then struck her would-be assailant with a giant key. The blow shattered most of the ice that had encased him and likely the man's arm too, with the shock of it effectively knocking him out, at least for the moment.

"Well I suppose that's one way to handle it...", she said as she got back to her feet. "Though don't you think that was a bit of overkill?"

Having managed to knock out her would be assailant, Leia had taken her lightsaber and moved on to trying to assist others. "Something is affecting the refugees' minds," she said to Madoka. "It may just be the distortions getting worse, but I have a feeling that it may be more than that. Either way, we need to put a stop to it."

The would be assailant stopped struggling as much when the sword was pointed at him, which Leia took as a good sign; it meant that whatever was affecting them hadn't robbed them of a sense of self-preservation completely. The man made no attempt to answer Allen's question, but thankfully Leia did. "Not exactly, but I have my suspicions," she said. "We need to put a stop to it though. But first thing's first; grab the blanket off my cot so we can use it to tie up our friend here."

Thanatos has avoided using his powers of death outside the rifts after a few disastrous attempts at stopping the wretches (because that's the best way for him to think of them as now). They didn't stay dead, and he opened up another time distortion. Running is his best option as they are after him. Fewer after those who can't defend themselves.

But there's no escape.

He doesn't think when he hears the living yelp and feel someone shoved into him. "Hold on," Thanatos says despite the fact that he's the one gripping onto Ryo and taking flight with a powerful flap of his night-sky wings. They just need to go up.

Mort, in a better position to, starts squeaking questions like is Ryo hurt? Are they after him too? Thanatos spares a glance from the sky to his unwilling passenger. "Ryo?"

Please, Wei Wuxian. Who measures time in insence sticks! Certainly not Madoka. Even if she knows what they are, and has used them before, she has absolutely no clue how much time half a stick takes to burn.

Still, she's just taking that means 'we have to hurry up and get this done', so the moment she hears the man calling out, she's already scrambling to find something that fits what he's asking for. It's a little hard to do so in a camp that's slowly devolving into chaos, but it doesn't take longer than maybe thirty seconds before she's back by the other's side, holding a rope. It's probably rope that used to hold up one of the tents that has collapsed by now, since she just picked it up off the ground.

"U-Um, is this good enough..?" Madoka says, holding it out to him.

You think you can hold that guy down and bind him at the same time, Wei Wuxian?

He catches snippets - snippets of sound, what might be voices (a voice?), but it's hard to tell. Is it friend? Foe? But even in this state Tidus would rather risk bumping into a stranger than nothing.

"Hey! Hey! I'm over here! Over here! Keep yelling!"

He's moving too, trying to search out the voice. He can't do anything for the winds pushing against him, but if he can at least keep the rain down and find this other person...!

Inigo has sure had some days so far, let him tell you about it.

But somehow fate is managing to elevate the sheer ridiculousness of the past few days to entirely new heights when he suddenly feels himself being bodily lifted out of nowhere. Not knowing what is it that's causing it at first, Inigo is already pulling out his sword..

.. only to realise there is something weirdly familiar about those hissed words.

"Jingyi?!" Please give him some indication that he's right here, bro?! It's not like he can turn his head very well when he is being lifted into the air by dragon teeth, bro!! "Couldn't you give me a warning?!"

Oh, the equalisers-! "Yeah! But are they gonna work if the problem's coming from inside the other place?"

But if Taiki's willing to give it a shot, then Tidus is. He might have an idea of how to work those thingy-majiggies by now!

It's strange, the way sounds can blur and everything else; a haze of sound trying to mumble into ears of cottonbud - and a brain like one, too. He's trying to stagger up, hands on hard dirt, everything a bit woozy from a knock to the head that pulses in the same waves that unsteady him. Help would be great, a hand offered getting one gripped onto Esteban's arm while Tidus tries to right his vision.

"Get them out-" He's not there yet, not in his right senses, but between the struggling breath, he's got a goal, one thing he knows, wants, cares about more than himself. His sight still blurry, but he's making appear in his hand - from the nowhere of hammerspace - a bottle.

"I'll follow... get'em - I can knock them out."

There's more he means to say, convey, but he doesn't want Esteban to linger, and he needs to down his potion and hope it'll cover him to get back up and doing what he needs to.

There's a hesitation, a split second where Esteban wants to stay, wants to help Tidus, wants to make sure he's okay. He can recognize a potion anywhere, though, and even if he's worried, at least he knows he's not leaving him helpless either.

Three seconds. He'll be back in three bloody seconds-- and the only reason why he can rip himself from his friend is that he's going to be quick. A blink. Fast as can be.

GO!

It's still hard. He's still worried-- deep breath-- shove the canvas aside to get in the tent. Three. Bloody seconds.

His shift overtakes him mid-movement, the snap of leather as he rushes the tiny enclosure. The man doesn't have the time to turn, a kick to the back of his knees sends him down.

He's moving on instinct, moving without thinking. His heart is pounding, squeezing through his throat. They're civilians, they're civilians! But Esteban doesn't have a tether to hold him back. Panic's made him frantic.

He pounces. A sweep of his tail sends the child stumbling, and a wing slams them back and out of the cloth. The other wing grabs the civilian by the back of his shirt, pulled up-- out, Tidus said out-- and the half-dragon stumbles when the man flails. Limbs spinning, panicked, the man is off-centered, and a low punch and a shoulder slam is enough to get him out of the tent too.

Esteban follows. Stays at the entrance of the tent-- checks for Tidus' condition from where he is.

The man is winded-- curled on his side-- but the child is getting back up. And Esteban hesitates-- just a child. They're just a child.

He doesn't want to hurt them more than this.

Of course she's paying attention to her surroundings as much as she can, it comes with the territory of everything in her life. Years of dealing with people, being part of a gang, even more so with the prison and people after her throat. People after her throat for daring to exist. It's either stay on guard or be one second too late in protecting yourself.

The voices, though, none of it really means anything to her. She'd purposely avoided the talk of gods, finding the whole thing a bunch of nonsense, but why wouldn't she after everything that had happened in the past? You could essentially become a god if you wanted to, if you had enough power to do so, it had sounded like utter bullshit to her.

Though it seemed this time she was... wrong? Wrong. She could admit to it. But, for the time begin, she's focusing on their situation, continuing to move and pulling Emporio with her if she has to. The weather is primarily ignored as it's just stronger versions of what she's used to. Constricting humidity and then sun beating down on the back of your neck? Sounded like a typical Florida summer to her, nothing that she cares to investigate further. But they need to get out, need to find some way to get out of this mess.

How far have they gone? Have they gone anywhere at all? She doesn't know, it's all become a weird blur, but there's gotta be something.

"I wouldn't worry about what some supposed god is fucking around with right now, doubt it's anything good." She has no idea what's going on anymore. Until they're losing their footing as they fall and she's about to make sure that more string can be used until Weather's grabbing them and she somewhat relaxes for the time being. The string won't break, they won't be separated. That's... that's the important part at the moment.

Shit, this is getting to a point where nothing makes sense and she's not entirely sure what can be done about it. She won't give up, that's the last thing she would ever consider, but it's sure starting to feel like a losing battle. "Who the fuck is scared?" Her voice is probably a little sharper than it needs to be, a little higher pitched than normal. She can feel the dread of some kind of realization starting to creep into the pit of her stomach.

"If you got any ideas, might as well say 'em. Because I'm runnin' out of 'em."

Tidus downs the small bottle of green liquid, acting instinctively before anything else. He's done this plenty of times before: get hurt, take medicine, and don't think about the wounds inflicted or how severe they could've been and just move.

Move is what he's doing now, the rush of the medicine coursing through his body, kneeling with some height, ready to stand in a second, but first turning himself to see into the open gap of the tent. --To see the man knocked onto his back near him, Esteban shrouding the threshold between spaces.

The bottle disappears from his hand, a golden outline of where it was left to dissipate as Tidus clenches that fist and to bring it inward. He knows this spell well enough, doesn't need more than a few more seconds for the luminous spheres to gather where he summons them, need them to hold. He scrambles onto his feet with an uneasy stagger, and brings his hand down over the section of the guy's face he can touch.

They startle, readying to thrash, but the orbs disappear into him and make him still. Tidus raises to his feet proper, eyes on Esteban and his shifted form, but for the crease of his brow, he says nothing but a breathy, "Just grab them! It's sleep magic!"

He has a few more words in him, better to explain as he makes a fist with his hand attack, but he's looking to get the job done than to take a breather.

“Drones? Drones I don’t have.” Nozomi admitted. She let out a sigh. “We might have to go back for it…”

Duuude? Dude.

He'd be more grumbly on any other day, but when your week has so far involved erasing fragments of people from the past over and over, and watching your friends get attacked by refugees not in their control?

Tidus just sighs, a resigning sound, and takes the drink with a thin-lipped mouth.

"This sucks." It's an underestimate, lacking heart, but in its exhaustion showing honesty. Eyes on the drink, but no rush to really drink it - he might be appreciating the camaraderie in the gesture more than seeking it in the alcohol itself.

Duuuuuude?! Dude!!!

The spell slips from Tidus's hand, good-bye his secret technique, lost to the morning with his new ascent. His legs wiggle as any pair of legs might when abruptly losing the ground under them, though through the huffing and puffing of confusion, Tidus does realise, "Jingyi?!"

A realisation that might be offended. Like dudee!! I totally had this! But also one followed with a beat, a more important point. "We've gotta do something!"

They can't just run! ... or fly!

He was fortunate she came in when she did. He was already seeing darkness at the edge of his vision from the lack of oxygen and Little One's attempt to knock the man off of him, while not entirely successful, startled and jostled him enough that the grip loosened.

Senku managed to take a proper breath, sharp, quick and it sounded every bit as painful as it probably looked.

She was wrong about one thing. He wouldn't kill anyone, not if he could help it, but that didn't mean he wouldn't fight back. He flicked his wrist and his bone blade found purchase in his hand.

He slashed it, awkwardly at the man's arms, hopefully alarming enough to get him to let go. After all, he could fix the damage once he was subdued.

Yes, please. Esteban is not the one to come up with solutions, but he will absolutely follow the instructions if someone has them.

Wait-- no, wait!

"C'n we ask 'round on the SCA?" Tidus just showed him how to do it! General call at large, begging anyone to know the direction they're going into?

Someone passes by the small tent, and Esteban tugs his tiny companion closer, keeping his breath still until they pass by, and he is suddenly a flurry of motion. The canvas gets pushed aside-- quietly-- as he tugs Romeo along, out into the brightness that is not the sun and into the chaos of the camp.

Screams are starting to resound through the area, and a small sing-song voice that Esteban wishes they didn't have to hear. Like a lullaby, like a song, soothing upset children, where the lyrics send chills down their spines. They have to get everyone up and running. They have to.

For now, he guides Romeo along until they reach another set of tents, letting go of his hand only when he does not spot an immediate threat. If they're quick about it, he should be safe. If they're quick.

Grabbing is okay. Grabbing he can do. He grapples the child, even if they squiggle like an eel, trying to hit him, but somewhere between Esteban's hands and wings, it gets very hard very fast for them to squirm out. He tries his best not to harm them as he shoves the tiny form at Tidus, trusting the swordman to manage the same spell again, and hoping it's the only thing that needs to be done right now, immediately.

His heart is still thundering in his throat, but he manages to glance over his companion-- standing, though that doesn't mean much, and managing a spell. He hopes there isn't a sign of concussion, and that whatever potion Tidus downed at least helped with that. He hopes it helped with that.

"You okay?" he asks again, throat rasping lightly against the not-yet-there bruises. He's visibly worried, even if he doesn't really have the time to check his companion over as he might like, keeping his eyes moving around to find any other threat coming for them.

Thrawn was currently engaged with disarming someone which was made easier by his longer reach. He is less concerned with making sure to leave any he found alive after he had disarmed them, but since he has no reason to kill anyone yet, he hadn't. Their behavior alone was very strange because it certainly seemed like these people, who were certainly civilian non-combatants before, had unilaterally done a total about-face to become a serious danger to all of those in the camps.

Thrawn had stated that he would be able to make himself useful on the red team despite it not being what his skills were meant for, so was doing just that. As Yondu was tying up the subdued woman. A man with a blade tied to the end of a stick was quick to take her place, likewise, Thrawn grabbed the man's forearm that was holding the weapon and almost negligently folded it until the man was pulled off his feet by the arm holding the weapon. Equally as negligent Thrawn tossed the weapon away, but before the man's arm broke Thrawn let go. Fast as a striking snake, Thrawn had an arm around the man's neck and once again was nearly pulling him off his feet. The man scrabbled at Thrawn's arm but soon that struggling grew lax and the man was unconscious.

"Would you please restrain him too?"

Thrawn hadn't seen anyone that wasn't Chiss with blue skin and red eyes. At 5'7" Thrawn also towered over Yondu at 7'5".

This was some kind of mess, and Amaya had been right: they were not prepared. Capable people here, plenty of them, but it could barely be considered organized chaos at this point. Luckily, with the people they did have there was some semblance of success against the original disruption but when shit really started hitting the fan?

Tobirama quickly became less concerned about fighting the battle within the time distortions. There were enough people for that. His concern returned him to the camp, to the people that -- for the majority of them -- could not fight. Quick on his feet and currently settled on the rooftop, enter one sniper for lack of better words. Mind you, they weren't bullets and he didn't have a gun but who needs that when you can shoot water needles from your fucking mouth.

Its at this point, though, that Tobirama recognizes someone below. A description he'd been given not too long ago by Yondu. And down he jumps to the side of Rich, taking down a few oncoming enemies on the way.

"Fighting is useless," he says, noticing really quickly the lack of saying dead that's going on. "We need to get people out." Questions on what the hell kind of weapon Rich had would be reserved for later.

He frowns as he feels how hot Taiki is, immediately going to pick him up if the boy will let him. "Come on. You feel like you're feverish. You shouldn't be that hot - unless that's normal for you in your world? Either way, you look like you need to see a medic."

The shaking, the hesitation... he's not sure what else it could be. "You need help."

It was also a perk of sharing a tent. Trunks had dozed, but came alert instantly when Cassie started moving. He's right behind her, and picks up what she's doing in an instant. "Knocking 'em out." Trunks calls, moving behind Cassie and around the edges of the fray to target the refugees. Indeed he is going for knock-out blows, which is why he's not bringing ki into things just yet. The pair were together, including having trained, enough that this should be over swiftly.

Indeed - she'd kept close enough to him during the ominous and tumultuous night that it'd be damn near impossible for either one of them to stir without the other one getting stirred.

She shoots him a glance, nodding without nodding. They both know what to do. She's the collie and he's the shepherd - setting them up to knock them down. Not that she won't get a good hard tap to the head in when the opportunity presents itself, of course.

But whatever's going on, these are still the people they mean to protect - whether they're aware of it or not.

Thrawn had stated that he would be able to make himself useful on the red team despite it not being what his skills were meant for, he was doing just that. Thrawn had initially not gone to the camp, instead opting to set up an Equalizer or two. But when he was coming back he saw the camps had turned into total bedlam as some of the people caught inside the time distortions were now attacking the people from the train that were formerly helping them.

He could also now see there was a distinct lack of medics moving among them, but it didn't take long to work out that Mordin was one of those few medics. Someone, Thrawn wasn't sure who but they were from one of the time distortions judging by his clothes had a blade of some sort. Fast as a striking snake, Thrawn had an arm around the man's neck while his other was controlling the man's hand holding that weapon and was nearly pulling him off his feet while he did it. The man scrabbled at Thrawn's arm but soon that struggling grew lax and the man was unconscious.

"It is like something external is controlling their minds, making them violent, and taking away recognition of us they may have had."

Thrawn looked steadily at Mordin.

"Would that be possible in this instance?"

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 8 of 43

Fissures of Time: Ongoing

Re: again for the lack of sanctuary

Re: Leia Organa | Star Wars | Blue Team - OTA

no subject

no subject

no subject

no sanctuary

no subject

no sanctuary

no subject

no subject

Esteban the guard dog. XD

no subject

no subject

no subject

alcohol

no sanctuary

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Poi 11

no subject

III. No Sanctuary

no subject

no subject