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

[irrationally]

It's surprising, isn't it. A little while back she was surprised over him wanting to do as much as give her a pat on the shoulder, the most mundane of actions - and yet here he's summoning some sort of water jet out of the blue, and Alice doesn't even do as much as blink.

It's pretty odd - what a person can or can't be used to.

Though perhaps it's for the better that she doesn't focus on the water. It means she can instead focus on what he's saying, though the words make her frown in thought.

"My plan is usually just smashing things until they give up." .. look, she's well aware that it sounds like a little simple, but it has usually worked out for her so far. And she has fought a lot of things at this point. "But these things do not seem to reach that point."

Hence the problem. And Alice is struggling more and more now, as she thinks about it. Because the logical thing does seem to be to leave, just as he's saying, and yet she can't bring herself to. Alice hates abandoning things. Hence why the young woman's facial expression seems to grow more complex by the moment as she's staring at him.

[stonefvced]

He knows someone who has similar methods to her the difference is that Naruto has the chakra to pull off what was often impossible, moreso than even his brother, and over the years he's (with some exception) proven to be quite smart when in the moment. Tobirama couldn't sense any chakra in her but who knew. Perhaps she did have a fighting spirit that could withstand such a thing. He's not so much sure, yet, though.

"I have to admit, Alice, that's not a good plan." It's factual, but there's a bit of humor to it. "Is this," hm, how to put it, "a cathartic need for you?" Some of them seem to be getting up again and what was taking this equalizer so long?

[irrationally]

If the situation was any less pressing at the moment, Alice might have sarcastically asked him whether this was really the appropriate moment to ask philosophical questions.

But as things are right now, the words don't leave her throat. Instead her fingers just grip the weapon she's holding a tad tighter.

"You might have to define cathartic need." Maybe Alice already knows, but just wants to hear his interpretation of it.

Or maybe she's just stalling for time before she either has to answer that question or avoid it - by which she'd kind of be giving an answer all the same.

[stonefvced]

Definitely stalling, but he sees all the signs and it speaks loudly enough. Now its just... a moral debate. He's never believed that emotions had a place on the battlefield. For precisely this reason, really. Too easy to lose your way; too easy to manipulate, as well. Myriad of reasons, actually. No time to think otherwise. Still, the look on his face as his head tips toward Alice shares enough. She knows, and he knows she knows what he meant.

"We stay," a moment, "for now. See if we can find a weakness." He grips the dagger tight, ready for the hoard as they start gathering again. "I can thin out the crowd and hopefully something presents itself."

[irrationally]

It should feel like a victory, Tobirama being the one to budge and let them stay a little longer, rather than forcing Alice away, or trying to get her to answer his actual question verbally - even if they may both know that he's already understood the answer without her having to say even a single word.

And yet there's a part of her that feels guilty all the same, ruining it. Maybe she wants to do better in Tobirama's eyes, for a reason Alice can't quite understand, or perhaps just a reason she refuses to admit to herself in this moment.

.. maybe she shouldn't think about it so much, Alice thinks, as she raises her hobby horse to smash another one of these undead into the ground, attempting to crush its skull to try and get to stay down.

"There has to be some way to make this stop," Alice replies.

A way that doesn't involve them just leaving. She can't do that, no matter what. She can't just abandon this.