middleofsomewhere | Fissures of Time: Ongoing

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!

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Camp

Initially, Mordin had stuck to his very important role of being the token medic on Red team. That was before most of their healing contingent happened to also have the sort of abilities that apparently really anger the walking dead.

He's returning to the camps because someone has to. Even if he can only be at one at a time, he can treat people with good old fashioned medicine. Which he's doing, at all hours except for the one he does need to sleep in a given day.

He's also keeping a gun handy. It might not stop the undead, but it will hopefully at least slow them down enough for him to do his job.

Sorry, Mordin, but it seems that instead of as a medic specifically, you are currently needed as a Responsible Adult.

Because at one point in camp, on day 11, Mordin may find a familiar pink-haired girl running right for him - and with worry in her big eyes.

"M-- Mister--!"

Apparently she doesn't even have the time or the breath to actually mention his name. Instead Madoka looks totally out of breath, as if she ran all the way over here out of panic.

"W.. What do we do..? Some of the displaced people here in the camp are starting to fight us.."

It's not new information. But it's confirmation that the problem isn't getting any better. "POssible effect of displacement." They'd been warned that getting pulled out of time didn't leave them with a long life expectancy, but this was still new.

"May be out of non-combat options." He doesn't like it, but he likes letting them continue like this less.

"Then.. that means.."

Madoka knows what it means. The word 'non-combat' is very obvious, after all.

But it's as if the girl doesn't want to say it out loud. Like the very idea of it sits badly with her, and she casts her gaze downward, staring at her shoes. Her eyebrows are knitting together into a worried frown.

She doesn't like anything about this situation.

"Fighting inevitable." They'd been trying to find another way, but they were no longer dealing with enemies that were reasoning. The target was so driven, especially against specific members of their team.

"May be able to fall back to Ministry facility. Problem will persist." BUt that will get young civilians out the crosshairs, at least. "Train based evacuation also possible as last resort."

"That's true." Madoka can't disagree with that. Mordin is just presenting the facts, after all, and so all the girl can do is just.. nod in the face of it.

Even though she sure doesn't like the thought of any of this.

"I-I don't want to escape to the train though." She's hardly ever done so before, even though she's been in a lot of really dangerous situations by now. It's just never sat right with Madoka. The idea of fleeing, and leaving everyone else behind to deal with a difficult situation. "I.. I want to help too, I just.. don't know how.."

Mordin considers. He usually works on his own. SHepard's the one who figures out how to run the crew. And while he can certainly use an assistant in a medical capacity, it's not a place for a non-combatant. "Learned to operate survey drones?"

There might be something to be done with that without just sending her to the train.

There's a nod.

Though it's a slightly.. hesitant one? Thankfully Mordin isn't left to have to figure out what the hesitant edge to it means, since Madoka does clarify as she speaks up.

"I.. haven't done it yet myself." She was too worried about accidentally ruining one of the drones by doing something wrong.. "But I watched the other people do it at the edges of camp before."

So she does know how to do it. She paid attention. But she doesn't have any actual hands on experience yet.

"Would allow for remote surveillance. Find information with minimal risk. Allow combatants to focus on fighting." IT's not just busy work. Someone has to do it and other people might be of more use out in the field.

"But there'd be even more trouble if I'd break one, right..?"

It's been the main reason she's been more busy trying to take care of the people in camp than doing that - especially since that was a task that would keep anyone busy enough during the last few days.

But with the people who are supposed to be taken care of now rebelling against them, there's not as much work to do there that hasn't also become rapidly more dangerous. So the idea of turning towards the drones is a good one, but there's just that one problem.

"I'm sure they must have been really expensive for the Ministry." They don't have these things yet where Madoka comes from, but she imagines they'd be super expensive if they were sold back home.

"Brought with expectation of potential concept. Have to be sturdy." If the MInistry did bring something that delicate here, they're foolish and that's not Madoka's fault.

"Avoid flying into cliffs, but should be able to explore option."

There's a moment where Madoka definitely has to think about what the other could possibly mean by 'potential concept', but thankfully Mordin explains it a moment later by just saying they have to be sturdy. See, that's something Madoka can actually wrap her head around.

Though she's pretty sure there's probably ways to break it all the same. It is a piece of equipment, after all.

But..

"Um, if.. there aren't people hurt yet.." Because Mordin was just standing around. She didn't catch him in the middle of helping someone. "Could you maybe some with me for a moment to see if I can figure out how to use one..?"

Madoka just feels more comfortable with a responsible adult around - and doubly so when things are only getting more dangerous. It doesn't feel as safe to be by herself right now.

Thrawn had stated that he would be able to make himself useful on the red team despite it not being what his skills were meant for, he was doing just that. Thrawn had initially not gone to the camp, instead opting to set up an Equalizer or two. But when he was coming back he saw the camps had turned into total bedlam as some of the people caught inside the time distortions were now attacking the people from the train that were formerly helping them.

He could also now see there was a distinct lack of medics moving among them, but it didn't take long to work out that Mordin was one of those few medics. Someone, Thrawn wasn't sure who but they were from one of the time distortions judging by his clothes had a blade of some sort. Fast as a striking snake, Thrawn had an arm around the man's neck while his other was controlling the man's hand holding that weapon and was nearly pulling him off his feet while he did it. The man scrabbled at Thrawn's arm but soon that struggling grew lax and the man was unconscious.

"It is like something external is controlling their minds, making them violent, and taking away recognition of us they may have had."

Thrawn looked steadily at Mordin.

"Would that be possible in this instance?"

"QUite possible." They're not quite husks, but he's seen beings taken under direct contorl before. He doesn't like it here any more than he did in his own universe. "History of opponents altering perceptions. Local information indicates forces capable of large scale influence."

Another one comes at them screaming about lost gods and Mordin has to take the shot. "Often invoked prior to violence."

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Fissures of Time: Ongoing

Mordin SOlus | Red... heading toward Blue now though

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