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

[worthallthis]

Soldat steps to one side, ducks a blow, then delivers a solid kick to the undead warrior taking swipes at Inigo with its sword. Soldat's kicks tend to send assailants flying, and in this case sends them flying into several fellow assailants, making an angry pile of limbs and blooms.

That gives them both a couple seconds breathing room to swing swords and knives and guns into place for another volley. Soldat takes the moment for a reload in their Arms band. "Oh good. I'm getting a little bored of shooting the same poor bastards over and over again, you know."

[flatteries]

"It would be easier if they'd just stay down," Inigo adds.

It's an attempt to try and joke along, but it's hard. There's a certain strain to Inigo's words that's audible, even in the middle of all this chaos. This entire situation is just a little bit too much like home, and it's seriously starting to wear on Inigo.

But he knows he can't give in to this feeling right now. If he gets too distracted, or too emotional, then he'll just be easy pickings.

"I really hope that not--" Inigo pauses, grunting as he stabs the first returning warrior through the stomach, even though he knows the blow will only down it for a moment as he pulls out his sword. "-- not a lot of these particular distortions opened up."

He isn't sure how many he's got the emotional bandwidth to deal with.

[worthallthis]

Soldat gives the falling soldier a kick to send it into another oncoming one, then shoots the one coming up behind them in the head. "I'm not going to hold my breath. That they don't. Seem like this." A pause, an aim, another fire. "Is probably why we're here to begin with. Things like this. More than the nice places."

[flatteries]

.. it's true, isn't it. As kind of depressing of a thought as that could be, Inigo knows they're right.

"Don't you ever get tired?"

Even as he's saying it, Inigo is - ironically enough - still trying to cut down soldiers, just to get them to stop for a moment.

"Of-- Of all this. Of fighting."

Maybe the middle of battle isn't the best place to ask that. But in Inigo's opinion, it is. It gives Soldat less time to think about why Inigo is asking that in the first place, after all, and avoiding thoughts or questions about that is his entire intention.

[worthallthis]

There are only so many reasons people ask that sort of thing, Inigo. They're going to guess it's probably the right one.

"Yes." They hamstring one, chop the hand off another, kick a third aside. "But this is what I'm needed for. If I didn't do this. Someone else would have to. Someone not as well suited for it."

[flatteries]

Dammit.

It just has to be the same reason, doesn't it? The same thing Inigo has thought every single time he was knocked down to the ground, when he was bleeding out and it felt like it'd be the end for him. Every single time he thought about how much easier it'd be to not get up again.

But then he'd think about that. About how if he doesn't do it, someone else has to - and that thought has always been unacceptable to him. It's much better for him to take the weight of the world on his own shoulders instead.

Inigo doesn't answer right away, instead for a moment busy trying to fend off one of the warriors that's way bigger and bulkier than him, but then he finally continues.

".. I get it," he admits, only barely audible over the sound of the fighting here. "But I don't like it."

The fact that it's even necessary in the first place, that is. That there's always someone who has to fight. That there's just conflict after conflict, without end. It's what things feel like sometimes.

[worthallthis]

"I know. You don't have to like it." They hurl the handless one into another couple, bowling them all over. "If you need to take a break. I can cover for you." A glance over their shoulder, and they add, "We're almost done here, anyway. They're powering up the equalizer now."

[flatteries]

"I can do it if we're almost done," Inigo instantly replies, cutting down another warrior, even though he knows that one is going to be back up on its feet in just a moment.

And honestly - even if they weren't almost done? He still would have said the same thing. There's just no way he could leave Soldat to deal with all of this all alone with a clean conscience.

Even though Inigo is starting to look pretty exhausted.

But even with that exhaustion, he refuses to give up, raising his sword once more.

".. just a few more, right?"

[worthallthis]

Soldat can read the exhaustion. After this, they're taking him right back to camp, feeding him up, and making him nap. "Just a few more," they promise, and make an effort to handle as many of the last wave for the team as possible, until the equalizer takes effect and things calm down.

By then they're a little tired, themselves, and very hungry. "Good job," they tell him, wiping their blades off and holdering their gun.

[flatteries]

Inigo wonders if it'll keep being weird. Because it feels weird, every time a distortion disappears. It's like being in one world one moment, and then the next moment it all fades at the edges, more and more quickly, until they're just standing in that wasteland again.

At least it took care of all the remaining undead warriors. There's none of them left now. It's just Inigo, Soldat, and the other Voidtreckers who set off the devices, standing there.

".. you too," Inigo manages to force out. He wipes his own blade off too, so he can put it back in its sheath, and then moves an arm to wipe at his forehead.

"It's way too hot out here."

Why did this wasteland have to be so hot? It's the worst way to come out of one of these distortions, especially when you've already worked hard to the point of sweat in there.

[worthallthis]

"Then it's time to have a sit down and some lunch, and cool off," Soldat says firmly. And, looking around at the others since it's not just Inigo they're responsible for here, they add, "All of us. C'mon. Back to camp. We have to pick up more supplies, anyhow." That was the last of their equalizers, and they need to consult the maps back at camp for where to head to next, so they might as well take the chance to rest for a little bit.

[flatteries]

There's not much protesting he can do here. After all, Soldat is right. They do need more supplies, if not just because they simply can't get rid of a distortion unless they have enough equalizers with them.

Which means there's absolutely zero sense in jumping into one right now.

Hence why Inigo just nods before starting to move right along with the rest of the group.

"Don't know how much cooling off there is in this place."

But the lunch? Well.. he guesses he won't really say no to food, at least.