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

[flatteries]

Look at the awkward sidestepping going on here. Inigo, purposefully trying to stay just a little bit away from Taiki, trying to find the right distance where it doesn't look enough like he's purposefully avoiding the other and hurting him by doing that, but also trying to not stay too close where his warrior presence might bother Taiki.. And then there's Taiki, who's trying to stay close to Inigo.

It definitely makes for an awkward walk in the direction of the soup, though most of the awkward emotion stays off Inigo's face, compared to the usual.

He just shoves all the awkward feelings down, even if that means they'll fester in the pit of his stomach. He'll just bear them, until he can't anymore.

"Thank you," he just says once they're there, moving to sit down. Again trying to take a seat that's not too close to where Taiki is working on heating up the soup, just so the other won't be in the middle of the scent.

[longforgottenpromise]

It is awkward and Taiki doesn't really know how to navigate it. He knows Inigo feels bad and he doesn't want him to feel bad but all his usual strategies for cheering Inigo up involve touching him, which will probably make things worse.

So he focuses on building the fire up and putting the soup on, stirring it with intensity.

"Would you like tea as well? I think we have some. Or um..."

If he can't hug him then he will feed him.

[flatteries]

"Sure."

It's a simple answer, but then again, it could be worse. Inigo could have turned down even these attempts to help him.

But he doesn't see the point in doing so. After all, he's already sitting here, already much closer than he'd like to be to Taiki in a situation like this, where he can't just quickly get back to the train to take a thorough bath and then go back to the camp again without wasting a lot of time running back here from where the train is. So if he has to sit here, if he has to make Taiki endure being around him in his current state..

.. then he might as well both eat and drink, he supposes, even if Inigo is not being his usual sociable self.

"As long as there is some, anyway."

[longforgottenpromise]

It really was hard seeing him like this. Too hard. To see him so withdrawn even from him. He's seen Inigo like this before of course but not for a very long time.

It's been a long time before they have been emotionally distant in any way towards each other.

He found some tea to brew and then made up his mind, going to sit closer and wrap an arm around Inigo.

"You've been working hard, I hope the food can help."

[flatteries]

There's that contact again. The arm around him. Inigo doesn't lean into the hold, but doesn't shrug it off either. It's already taking a lot out of him to allow Taiki to get this close under the current circumstances to begin with, when Inigo knows he must be stinking of battle and blood to hell and high heaven.

But he's trying. Even though he feels so incredibly guilty, he's really trying. He could pull away from the other, he could run away.. but even if that might keep Taiki from being sick, it would hurt him emotionally instead.

So maybe the only thing he can do is minimize the contact in this way. Allow that arm over him, but trying to not let more of himself touch Taiki than that, his hands balled into fits on his lap.

"It will help," he says, making sure to acknowlege the other's hard work, even with that odd, un-Inigo-like tone. "I was kind of hungry anyway, so I should eat."

[longforgottenpromise]

He does. Being close is not good but being separate is not good either. It's a problem Taiki has had before and will have again, such was being a kirin.

A choice he has to make again and again, to keep himself away from those he cared about or to risk being sick. If it was up to him he would chose his friends, their closeness every time. He would risk sickness to help Inigo, to comfort him.

But he has to take their feelings into consideration as well. That was what was difficult. He gave Inigo a squeeze, trying to convey his feelings before he let go and moved to start dishing out soup.

[flatteries]

"Thanks," Inigo says once he's handed a bowl of the soup from Taiki. Rather than holding the bowl in his hands, he puts it down on his lap. It's not too hot, but it's still warm enough that he really doesn't need to have that heat added onto the warmth that's already radiating down on him all the time in this wasteland.

He lets it rest for just a moment, just so it can cool down, and instead looks over at his friend.

.. at least they can talk. That much should be safe. Maybe it'll make Taiki feel a bit better.

"Did you make this yourself?"

[longforgottenpromise]

"Yes... I wanted something easy, for people to just heat up. Everyone is working so hard and I know preparing food can be difficult at the end of a long day."

And it's not like he can really help in any other way. Not even with the distortions, the random nature of them meant leaving the camp was a risk.

"I hope you like it..."

[flatteries]

Soup is simple, but it's not like that makes it any less good. Maybe it's a little hot, considering the circumstances out there, but it's not like Inigo dislikes it. Especially when he really could use some food by the time he's sitting down now - he feels like he's starving.

So he doesn't hesitate much longer before he's already having some of the soup. He swallows - perhaps a tad too quickly, given the fact that he really wanted some food - and then nods.

"It's good."

Though he would have said the same thing even if it hadn't been. Sssh, he can't ever do anything but praise Taiki, that's the rules. Even with the current mood Inigo has found himself in, making him a little less cutely expressive of this fact as he usually would have been.

"Thank you for working hard."

[longforgottenpromise]

"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.

[flatteries]

"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.

[longforgottenpromise]

He wished he knew a better way to help him, but it probably would not happen on this mission. There was no way he would find a way for Inigo to smile again, to be his usual overdramatic self, when his heart was hurting so much.

"We are trying. It feels so little, compared to all the problems but all the little things add up."

And if a fruit pastry is the difference between a terrible day and just a very bad day, well that is something.

[flatteries]

He shakes his head.

"Even if it feels like you might only be doing a little, it could end up meaning a lot to someone."

It sounds different when Inigo says it in this current mood, in this current tone.. But he does mean it all the same, even if it's not said as warmly. Even with some of the displaced people not quite being the most appreciate people around, he's sure at least some of them will appreciate Taiki's fruit pastries.

Or Inigo will MAKE THEM.

"Don't doubt all your work here."

[longforgottenpromise]

"I hope so." He looked sadly at him. He wished he could do more, specifically to help Inigo but he knows this isn't something he can help with.

How can he know what it is like out there? When he was in camp and not out fighting and dealing with these distortions. How could could he know what Inigo was going through?

He stared into the fire sadly, worried, pensive.