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

[jingyeets]

An ear flicks back, canted to take in Jiu's voice and curse, both apparently heard since a snort can likewise be heard over the wind. Jingyi ensured it was just that level of emphatic.

"Keep an eye on the rest, alert me if anyone falls I can't feel."

His warning, and he takes to the skies, the air around them thin as protection, but warmed to a normal sort of chill instead of the biting, marrow-freezing cold it was before. The impact of the winds lessens to a strong breeze, though the storm lessens not at all, Jingyi moving with its winds to decrease resistance, manipulating the elements as easily as he breathes.

Cutting directly through isn't working. He rides the larger spiral of the storm front they arrived in, curving around in a wide arc, then circling back as the wind circles, inevitable. The roar of it all dulls some with his protection, but still cries, and it is dark and white at the same time, blinding where he relies on a sense with no eyes or ears to guide him, and the storm worsens, worsens, bleeds, and then...

He breaks them free, soaring into the eye of the storm and all its foreign, creeping quiet. Coming swift to the ground, allowing passengers to disembark, where they meet the cold in full force once away from the bulk of his body.

[foxyou]

Jiu doesn't respond to the warning - not aloud, at least; it should be a given that he'll ensure the civilians remain safe and unharmed.

But the dulled storm is still a storm nonetheless, the roars and blinding flashes of light enough to make him squint, frowning in grim determination as he tries to focus his attention on the other passengers over the elements.

By the time they finally break into safety, Jiu's ears and tail have popped out again, a fact he chooses to ignore. Does he get off the dragon though?....No. No, he's still sitting there watching the others go, legs casually hanging over one side like he might disembark at any moment. "...It all seems somewhat pointless, this."

The comment is a quiet one, casual - he honestly doesn't care if Jingyi hears or not.

[jingyeets]

Jingyi's ear swivels around, canting toward Shen Jiu, and his head follows, until his nose comes close to touching without truly breaking into Shen Qingqiu's personal space.

"Stabilising the time nonsense? Saving and killing people who are real but doomed? Attempting to save a world whose gods have fallen way off their paths?"

Which part was the most pointless? He's not being snide, not yet at least, but asking bluntly.

"One of those, or something else?"

Shen Jiu does benefit from the continued insulation from the cold, before Jingyi notably settles down, Ave expands his bubble of slightly warmer air to encompass the ministry workers too. He wouldn't waste the energy if they had to fly the storm again, but once that tech was up, they wouldn't. It would pass like a living dream.

[foxyou]

Look at that big fat head, threatening his personal space--he doesn't react though, instead crossing his legs like he's planning to stay here long-term and letting out a disdainful puff of air through his nose.

"Don't they all sound rather pointless? Though if you'd like a specific one I suppose the greatest offender is rescuing the dead."

Because that's what it is, when all is said and done: Saving people's lives, only for them to die anyway once this little pocket of space has closed.

[jingyeets]

"Mm. 'Cept they're alive, aren't they, if they survive outside the time distortion. And people being here from times they shouldn't, past when they were alive... Shen Qingqiu, how different is that from people who're on the Voidtrecker Express?"

Eyeballing the man acting so nonchalant on his side, benefitting from his greater (and this close, it's more than what the people setting up the equaliser benefit from) heat.

[foxyou]

Honestly, with his cultivation he doesn't even need the dragon heat--and yet Jingyi's eyeballing might catch a faint dusting of red for the millisecond it manages to show before getting swept away again.

"And how much of a mercy is it to give those who should be dead a moment of hope before closing the distortion over their heads? How many of these people survive outside of it? What similarity is there between this and being trapped in the equivalent of a particularly lenient slave cart?"

Maybe the red was irritation?

[jingyeets]

In other words, Jiu's taking advantage of a dragon's better nature. Devious.

"You realise we're dealing with echoes of people who have lived and died once already, right? If anything, I'm more concerned for their spirits and however they were fractured in the process of all this. Were they all delayed in reincarnation, but didn't know why, because this hadn't happened yet, and now it has, so they're finally freed? Or did it already happen and unhappen, and they're freed, or... is because of how this area's messed up by the gods, everyone is caught up in it, and once this is stopped they can all finally be whole enough to reincarnate?"

Welcome, Jiu, to where he's off track to what Jiu's saying and worried over his world's concept of reincarnation and the wholeness of a spirit to achieve that rebirth instead of end up stranded or destroyed.

[foxyou]

What Jingyi's saying sounds more confusing the longer he rambles, and Shen Jiu - whose concept of reincarnation has never extended to fractured souls trapped in weird time pockets - is struck with an increasing urge to tell the kid to shut up.

He scowls instead. "And what do you propose to do about all of that? Do you plan to rescue them from this distortion now that they've been rescued from the storm? Would you like to try performing an exorcism for them while they're still presumably alive?"

Shen Qingqiu may be a professional master cultivator, but science fiction isn't part of his job description, okay?

[jingyeets]

"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?"

[foxyou]

"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."

[jingyeets]

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?"

[foxyou]

That gets Jiu turning back to look at him again, though not with a particularly friendly gaze.

"And how do you know what I believe? Do you think yourself some sort of empath?"

As far as Shen Qingqiu knows, he does believe it - if he doesn't take the time to question his own feelings, then his long-held opinions will never change. What he's actually thinking at the moment, however, is—

"You really should learn when to keep your mouth shut."

[jingyeets]

"Ugh. Your mouth spouts one thing, your actions show another. You're not exactly subtle, Shen Qingqiu."

He is, in fact, really not subtle to someone raised in a clan where microexpressions in your seniors were a known and studied phenomena. Particularly when one was the father to your best friend, and someone you looked up to. Shen Jiu has some weird mix of Lan Wangji's small emoting, and Jin Rulan's conflicted and heated way of denying what he cares for when he's caught off guard and not allowed to claim his interest first.

(Or like either Jin Ling on train, who are far more defensive in ways Jingyi can't entirely predict, because it's not from the same source as the young man he knows back home.)

[foxyou]

"And you think you're any better? What kind of tactless fool insists on verbal attacks in every conversation? If you were in my sect I've had gotten you kicked off the mountain years ago!"

Honestly though! Every conversation!! Somehow Lan Jingyi is the most irritating person on the entire train!!!

And yet he's still technically sitting on Jingyi. And wearing his ribbon. But his tail is definitely bristling! (was his tail even out before)

[jingyeets]

"What, do you lead in your sect?"

Not what Shen Qingiqu was driving after, clearly, but the point is Jingyi's watching him and wondering what authority the guy has to be doing any kicking off of mountains. Besides, who starts half these verbal arguments? Shen Qingqiu, that's who!

[foxyou]

"Do you think I'd say such a thing if I didn't have at least a certain amount of authority there?"

The answer is Maybe, but a maybe is still not a yes--also he'd absolutely argue that Lan Jingyi is the one who keeps starting these arguments! All he does is make a negative comment and Jingyi's the one who starts poking and prodding and making it worse!!

[jingyeets]

"If it'd win you an argument," he says, whiskers wafting around his face. "But I didn't think you were lying, if that's what you're worried about. As far as I can tell, the only things you lie about have to do with how you are, not what you are."

[foxyou]

"One must lie to survive in this world - not that you'd agree with that either, I'm sure."

Is he pouting? It kinda seems like he's pouting.