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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

With Najaran blocking the attack, Mina turned around and glared at the attacker, holding up her regular arm and firing a burst of green energy at them.

"Whoa," Najaran said, picking herself up out of the dirt. Mina was seriously impressive.

“Are you okay?” Mina asked, turning to see if Najaran was okay. She could see the awe in her eyes, causing her to look away bashfully.

"Yeah," she said, pushing herself up, dusting herself off with the hand that had been holding her sword, but was now empty. "Just a little..." whatever she was going to say was cut off as some large projectile hit her square in the chest, sending her flying back.

“NAJARAN!” Mina shouted, racing to her friend’s side where she crashed. “Najaran, are you okay?! Speak to me!”

"Owwwwww...." she groaned, wincing as she lay there. "Landed on a rock..." and it was digging into her spine. Then again, looking at how many people were on the ground injured or worse... she hoped it was just a rock she landed on...

Mina turned and glared in the direction of the attack, both hands raised as she fired a larger blast of energy, taking out her attacker.

With them safe, Mina’s hand slipped under Najaran, looking to find what she landed on.

It was a discarded steel toed boot. Thankfully absent of foot.

Najaran pushed herself up and rubbed at her face. "Maybe we need to chat less and fight more," she moaned.

“We’d still be attacked…” Mina said. She stopped as she heard someone charging. “Naja, watch out!”

She’ll push her aside as the soldier slashed at them. Mina would cry out in pain as the sword cut her back, a few strands of purple hair flying as they were cut.

Oh hey, Mina had never seen Najaran's temper before. She'd get to see the beginning of it now. The girl shoved herself to her feet as her friend was hurt and she swung Goligan like a baseball bat, sending the soldier flying.

"Najaran!" Goligan said, warningly, seeming more concerned for her than the now somewhat battered side of his face.

Too angry to listen to him try to calm her down she dropped him and scooped up a sword and started bashing at people wildly, fury filling her. Luckily for everyone she was using the flat of the blade like a blunt force object rather than the edges for slashing or stabbing. That sadly was not a choice to her credit though. That was her being too angry to think straight. She knew how to use a sword, but she more often used a staff. Goligan, specifically, so with the rage taking her, her instincts kicked in in staff mode instead of sword mode.

The people she was fighting were taking a lot of damage, and falling back... or down... but while they were cut up or injured, none of the wounds were likely to actually be light threatening. There might be some interesting scars after this, however...

Mina groaned as she felt the sharp pain of the cut. She’ll live, she knows it, but it hurts. She looked up to see Najaran’s angry rampage and… it scared her. She never saw her this angry.

“Najaran!” She called out, hoping to get her attention.

Be glad her morals are so firm, otherwise she'd be using her Cards. She might be screaming at the people she's fighting too loudly to hear Mina.

She might have recognized a few of them by this point. "AFTER ALL WE DID TO HELP YOU AND NOW YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL MY FRIEND! TO KILL ALL OF US?! WHY?! WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU BUT TRY TO HELP!?"

"We.... should get her out of here," Goligan said to Mina.

“A-agreed…” Mina said. Fighting the pain, she stood up and grabbed Goligan, sliding him between her sword’s scabbard before shouting at Najaran.

“Najaran, STOP!” She shouted again. She rushed at her, pulling her into a bridal carry and used her super speed to rush off away from battle. “Najaran, calm down!”

"Hey! Let me go! I need to..." She had enough sense of self to call back her sword and shield cards as they past them, even as she struggled.

“Naja, it’s me!” Mina said, trying to keep hold of her friend, only for her cut back to cause her to skid to a stop, dropping to a knee.

“I’m… I’m okay…”

When Mina dropped, Najaran pulled free and drew a Card.

"LADY NAJARAN! They're not Cepters! You know better!"

She seemed to be ignoring Goligan, fury and pain on her face as she threw the card into the air. It exploded into light and then resolved into Thunderbeak, standing between them and the attackers.

"Najaran! You cannot attack them!"

Najaran turned on him glaring, and since he was with Mina, she saw the full force of that pain filled glare. She scooped Mina up as best she could and climbed onto Thunderbeak's back. The large creature pushed off the ground and flew towards the train.

"Oh..." was the small sound that escaped Goligan.

Mina blinked as she was scooped up and carried off on Thunderbeak’s back. The weight of everything finally came crashing down on her as her robotic hand cupped Najaran’s cheek, tears rolling down her face.

“Najaran, I’m so sorry…!”

Najaran shook her head. "Nothing for you to be sorry about," she said, looking down at the people below them. She wasn't upset with Mina. She was upset with Goligan. And hurt. Also hurt and confused by their attackers.

And now it was safe to express that. "Why did they attack us?" she asked so softly that the wind almost devoured her words. "We were helping them..."

Just like that town in the woods.

Was it because she was a Cepter? Because they were from the train...?

“The Ministry said something about distortions. Maybe these people just didn’t realize we were being helpful…” Mina said, equally softly.

She could see the pain in Najaran’s face. Slowly, her arms moved to wrap around her neck.

“It’s not your fault. You’re not to blame.”

"It isn't the first time I tried to help... and was attacked for it. If it is because I'm a Cepter again... then you got hurt... because of me." She swallowed hard.

“Naja, don’t blame yourself! Please!” Mina said, eyes wide in pain. “I’m a Freedom Fighter. I would get hurt to protect anyone, especially my friends. I love every one of them, you especially! I would do so again to protect you, so don’t blame yourself…”

"Well if I blame anyone else I might get angry and I get stupid when I'm angry sometimes."

Goligan might feel guilty judging by the lack of snark in response to that.

She brought them in for a landing on top of the train. "We're away without hurting anyone with Cards... but... what now?"

“You should probably make sure I’m okay. That cut still hurts.” Mina replied.

She smiled softly before she leaned over and kissed her cheek. “My hero…”

If anything she wanted to reassure her.

"We... we need to find a healer. I can only heal my cards," she said, panicked now. "Um.... who heals again?"

“Oh, um, ahhh…” Mina stammered. “I think Tidus? I might be wrong, though?”

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