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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Najaran!"

Mina found her dear friend on the defensive and ran to her side, throwing her feet at the attacker.

"Najaran, are you okay? Where are the others?!"

"Which others?" she asked blocking someone who turned to go after Mina. She smacked away a spear with Goligan in the hand not holding the shield.

“Your other Cards!” Mina said, swinging her sword at another soldier, dropping them. “We could use the extra numbers!”

"I won't attack people with Cards if they don't have their own Cards!" she said, grunting as someone took a swing at them, she ducked.

“Wait, what?” Mina said, surprised. She raised up her robotic arm to deflect a spear strike. “I think I understand, but it’s kind of a bad time to do that!”

"Morals aren't morals if you only have them when it is convenient," she said as she dodged another blow. The way she said it made it sound like something she'd heard many times in her life, a lesson drilled into her.

It was a point her dad and her Master both agreed on.

A sword swung right at her face and she panicked, lifting Goligan as she cringed back. The staff caught the blade in his teeth, sweating visibly.

Mina winced at that. Okay, that is a very good point.

“I’m sorry. I should have known better.” Mina said, leaping up and kicking the soldier in the stomach.

“It’s easy for me since most of my opponents were robots…”

She nodded a bit as She stuck Goligan on her belt and claimed the sword he had caught, since it was a single handed sword unlike her own longsword. "We'll have to survive on our own." Somehow.. .

"Don't worry, Najaran. I'll protect you." Mina said, looking back and smiling at her friend.

Since the sword wasn't a Card she dashed forward and slashed at an attacker. "We'll protect each other..."

"We'll protect each other and get out of this together!" Mina said defiantly, slashing at another attacker.

"Agreed!" Najaran said as she dodged back from another assault. Someone aimed a projectile weapon at them. She tossed the sword aside to dash in front of Mina, holding the shield up to block them both, staggering at the impact from the blow.

With Najaran blocking the attack, Mina turned around and glared at the attacker, holding up her regular arm and firing a burst of green energy at them.

"Whoa," Najaran said, picking herself up out of the dirt. Mina was seriously impressive.

“Are you okay?” Mina asked, turning to see if Najaran was okay. She could see the awe in her eyes, causing her to look away bashfully.

"Yeah," she said, pushing herself up, dusting herself off with the hand that had been holding her sword, but was now empty. "Just a little..." whatever she was going to say was cut off as some large projectile hit her square in the chest, sending her flying back.

“NAJARAN!” Mina shouted, racing to her friend’s side where she crashed. “Najaran, are you okay?! Speak to me!”

"Owwwwww...." she groaned, wincing as she lay there. "Landed on a rock..." and it was digging into her spine. Then again, looking at how many people were on the ground injured or worse... she hoped it was just a rock she landed on...

Mina turned and glared in the direction of the attack, both hands raised as she fired a larger blast of energy, taking out her attacker.

With them safe, Mina’s hand slipped under Najaran, looking to find what she landed on.

It was a discarded steel toed boot. Thankfully absent of foot.

Najaran pushed herself up and rubbed at her face. "Maybe we need to chat less and fight more," she moaned.

“We’d still be attacked…” Mina said. She stopped as she heard someone charging. “Naja, watch out!”

She’ll push her aside as the soldier slashed at them. Mina would cry out in pain as the sword cut her back, a few strands of purple hair flying as they were cut.

Oh hey, Mina had never seen Najaran's temper before. She'd get to see the beginning of it now. The girl shoved herself to her feet as her friend was hurt and she swung Goligan like a baseball bat, sending the soldier flying.

"Najaran!" Goligan said, warningly, seeming more concerned for her than the now somewhat battered side of his face.

Too angry to listen to him try to calm her down she dropped him and scooped up a sword and started bashing at people wildly, fury filling her. Luckily for everyone she was using the flat of the blade like a blunt force object rather than the edges for slashing or stabbing. That sadly was not a choice to her credit though. That was her being too angry to think straight. She knew how to use a sword, but she more often used a staff. Goligan, specifically, so with the rage taking her, her instincts kicked in in staff mode instead of sword mode.

The people she was fighting were taking a lot of damage, and falling back... or down... but while they were cut up or injured, none of the wounds were likely to actually be light threatening. There might be some interesting scars after this, however...

Mina groaned as she felt the sharp pain of the cut. She’ll live, she knows it, but it hurts. She looked up to see Najaran’s angry rampage and… it scared her. She never saw her this angry.

“Najaran!” She called out, hoping to get her attention.

Be glad her morals are so firm, otherwise she'd be using her Cards. She might be screaming at the people she's fighting too loudly to hear Mina.

She might have recognized a few of them by this point. "AFTER ALL WE DID TO HELP YOU AND NOW YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL MY FRIEND! TO KILL ALL OF US?! WHY?! WHAT DID WE EVER DO TO YOU BUT TRY TO HELP!?"

"We.... should get her out of here," Goligan said to Mina.

“A-agreed…” Mina said. Fighting the pain, she stood up and grabbed Goligan, sliding him between her sword’s scabbard before shouting at Najaran.

“Najaran, STOP!” She shouted again. She rushed at her, pulling her into a bridal carry and used her super speed to rush off away from battle. “Najaran, calm down!”

No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary

Re: No Sanctuary