middleofsomewhere | 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

“No, they just showed up out of nowhere!” Nozomi said. “Like… like someone summoned them!”

This doesn’t make any sense!

Madoka stares at the horizon, and she can see it too. They're still at a distance, but.. the people approaching definitely look like more of the displaced people. The same people they've got in their camp.

Except even from a distance, they look weirdly angry..

".. I don't get it.."

There's obvious worry in her tone, and Madoka clutches her hands together in front of her chest.

"The people we've been helping have been a little angry before, but.. why would they suddenly start attacking us like this today..?"

Nozomi laid a hand on Madoka’s shoulder, smiling reassuring at her.

“It’s okay. We’ll figure out what’s going on. Hopefully we can also help them, too!” She said.

"You think so..?"

Madoka sounds a little uncertain - yet at the same time, she doesn't sound like she's disbelieving what Nozomi is saying here. If the other genuinely feels this way, then Madoka is willing to put some stock in it, especially when the other seems confident about it.

And yet.. the uncertainty lingers, especially when she glances out at the people who are still headed in their direction.

"Then.. what can we do to help them..?"

Nozomi looked out towards the group again. She bit her lip before sighing.

“I’ll stop them. Don’t worry, I won’t kill them - Pretty Cure don’t kill, we protect.”

With that, she pulled out her CureMo and transformed into Cure Dream.

“You know? Maybe one day I can make you a Cure, too…”

Thankfully Madoka is definitely the type who will believe Nozomi on her word. If she says that she'll be able to stop them without killing them - then Madoka believes the other can do that, no matter how worried she still looks over the situation as a whole, clasping her hands together as if she's praying for Nozomi.

(It's really just fretting, though.)

The last part of what the other says gets a small and confused "huh?" noise from Madoka, but she shakes her head. There's no time to linger on that right now.

"I-It's okay, um.. please see what you can do about this situation first." Since it's kind of pressing. The people in the distance are getting closer and closer.. "I-I'll wait for you here. If it goes wrong, I'll see if I can help.."

Because she doesn't want Nozomi to feel like she's alone in this, even as a powerful magical girl.

Nozomi chuckled a bit at that. "Alright, then, wish me luck!" she said, dashing off into the gathering storm of attackers.

It would be a few minutes and a lot of fretting, but Nozomi would return to Madoka, beat up and her costume torn in places, but victorious.

"They're relentless. I was able to push them away for some time, but they're coming back..."

That's.. not the best news to hear at the other girl's return.

Though Madoka is at least glad that Nozomi made it back without getting even more hurt than this. Then again, who knows how long that's going to last if the threat is headed in their direction.

"What.. should we do..? Should we tell the other people around camp..?"

Surely they have someone around who could handle a threat like this.. right? Right? If not just because Madoka is really nervous about what the alternative might mean.

“We probably should, yeah…” Nozomi said. She could see the fear and uncertainty in Madoka’s eyes. Poor thing.

She’ll move towards her and try to pull her into a hug.

“Don’t worry, we won’t let them hurt anyone…”

Madoka does allow herself to be pulled into the hug. She's very uncertain and worried about this entire scenario, after all, so she will take absolutely any comfort being offered to her, no matter how awkward it is with how bad she feels at the moment.

She lingers in the hug for a moment, seeming to think about Nozomi's words.

Then she finally softly speaks up again.

".. I want to help too, though.."

Even if she doesn't know what she can do. But just standing by the sidelines and doing nothing but witnessing everything.. That doesn't feel right, given the circumstances.

Nozomi listened to what Madoka had to say. She could understand the need to help and she needs to figure out what she can do.

"What do you think you can do?"

"I can't really fight."

Or rather - she's learned how to fight in some capacity by now, but she can't fight in any way that actually feels helpful here. After all, shooting an arrow at someone is a little too hurtful to only help with subdueing a threat.

"And it feels like protecting the camp is the most important thing now.."

.. by fighting.

See her problem? It's why Madoka looks so uneasy right now.

Fissures of Time: Ongoing

Re: no sanctuary

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