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

wei wuxian | the untamed | blue team

[weifinder]

the unquiet city: talisman flag duty

Wei Wuxian might have been working on talisman flags of the kind that were invented posthumously by himself (he will deadpan anyone who says that his inventions were not in fact run wildly with once he 'died,' because that started before he'd even 'passed'), but at present, he does not have those on him.

In fact, to anyone from home, this might be strikingly familiar, because Wei Wuxian running around in a shirt he's painted his own blood on to form the characters for the attract 'evil' talisman. Oh, he tried playing, to zero results. He tried to see if there were any 'blessings' that acted like powers, but no! So he is not a living lure, keeping angry warriors off the group setting up the equalizer.

"Coming through!" He shouts, literally running past in a polo shirt and pants and boots, with his own miniature mob trailing after. He's at least armed with... some kind of gun? Does he know how to use that. (Yes, but very recently, and this is all rather absurd anyway.)

You are, of course, welcome to help. Invited to, even. Or to get the equalizer up already. He isn't picky!

no sanctuary: no scrubs

In the course of dealing with another of the time displaced refugees acting out in rather violent ways, here, out of seemingly nowhere, is Wei Wuxian slamming into a refugee and tangling them to the ground.

"Quick! Find something to bind them with! Someone's working on setting up an equalizer, but we've half an incense stick before that's done!"

So, seven minutes or so, up to fifteen?

the other great equalizer: alcohol

In the process of getting the camp picked up for moving yet again after the refugees have been calmed, Wei Wuxian emerged with a shining, saving grace: alcohol.

And now he's offering it to you.

"I don't know about you, but I can use a drink after everything that's been happening."

If you're a Lan, or Tidus, he'll add, "But just one." Then wink.

alcohol!

[fennu]

Jiang Cheng only looks vaguely miserable, which might be an improvement on his general mood more than half the time.

There's no stopping the scowl that settles on his face when he sees Wei Wuxian gallanting around and offering people alcohol, but he's also clearly not in the position to say no to it - not when he can reach out and take it, trying to keep his huffing under control. It's not as easy as it looks.

"You could always use a drink."

And he is still cursed with an idiot for a brother.

[weifinder]

"Ah, but I have a busy mind, it won't quiet. You know, you know!" A mou of his lips, and he clasps Jiang Cheng by the shoulder, leaning in and offering the pretense of a pout that's barely there, compared to how he was in the years that spanned their mutual coming of age.

"Thank the Ministry for their kind contribution. Don't tell anyone, but I think half of it is to hopefully discourage us from roughly running off into any trouble. They, ah, they seem to be catching on to the fact we're not trained."

He smiles at that, with the wry edge of a man well aware that the lack of training they all share is because none of them came here by choice, informed. Their stumbling makes sense with no framework for being caught in the first place.

[fennu]

"As if I could forget, you never let anyone forget." It's said sourly, but more because Jiang Cheng is tired than because he's actually bothered by Wei Wuxian. It's harder to muster any level of anger or real frustration these days when a great deal of the ire and irritation has been talked out.

It helps that there's alcohol, too.

"We're trained, just not in the way they want us to be," he scowls, taking another drink before he breathes out a little. "What have you been doing, then, for them to be so worried?"

[weifinder]

"Me?" He laughs, bumping his arm against Jiang Cheng's, the level of affable he allows himself to settle into more concretely over the months they're spending here together. Not all edges will ever smooth over, but the poison beneath so much of it, the rot, has better been excised.

They cannot reclaim the past, but they've been redefining the present, and might find likewise, they can create a future that is less the permanent pain of their losses and failings, and something closer to forgiveness.

"Oh, here, nothing much. They say, move camp! I help move camp. They say, we need another body on this equaliser installation! I offer my body willingly. Perhaps my worst so far is... leaving fruit offerings at the statues back where we arrived."

He shakes his head, as if this is all terribly lamentable.

"These haven't been just or kind distortions of the past imposed over the present, have they."

[fennu]

"Yes, you," the menace that is Wei Wuxian, with Jiang Cheng giving him a sour, irritable look as he settles. They're more comfortable, at least, that the scowl is something almost gentle, almost too familiar - it's the kind of thing that comes from idle brotherly irritation rather than real hatred or want to push too far.

They're getting better. It will never be perfect, but they are repairing things. Isn't that enough for them, given how much they have lost already? There's no going back, but they can move forward.

It has to be enough.

"So you're filling gaps wherever they are," he nods. At least he's being useful, which might be more than Jiang Cheng has been doing. He feels a little adrift at the moment, his mind more concerned with Madoka and her knowledge, the realities of the train, than he is with taking part in this mission.

He looks back over after a breath.

"No, of course not." He drinks, quickly. "Are they ever?"

no sanctuary

[happyends]

Please, Wei Wuxian. Who measures time in insence sticks! Certainly not Madoka. Even if she knows what they are, and has used them before, she has absolutely no clue how much time half a stick takes to burn.

Still, she's just taking that means 'we have to hurry up and get this done', so the moment she hears the man calling out, she's already scrambling to find something that fits what he's asking for. It's a little hard to do so in a camp that's slowly devolving into chaos, but it doesn't take longer than maybe thirty seconds before she's back by the other's side, holding a rope. It's probably rope that used to hold up one of the tents that has collapsed by now, since she just picked it up off the ground.

"U-Um, is this good enough..?" Madoka says, holding it out to him.

You think you can hold that guy down and bind him at the same time, Wei Wuxian?

[weifinder]

Time to get his niece incense sticks so she can measure the time to know what the heck he's talking about...!

"... Great, very great! When I have their arms pinned here, can you wind it around each wrist and between them?"

No, he doesn't have another set of hands to bind the guy, but he can shift to make it so all she has to do is thread things around while they engage in nonconsensual surprise bondage with a violent offender currently spouting propaganda at their faces. In fact, spraying... spittle... as they shout.

[happyends]

This is such a child-appropriate activity.

Especially when the dreaded question comes. Madoka really was banking on Wei Wuxian having some magical third arm, or just being really good at holding down an adult with one hand and arm, because Madoka sure doesn't find herself capable of tying up an adult..

Even when she's getting instructions as she's doing so.

But she doesn't want to disappoint either. So even though Madoka looks extremely uncomfortable, basically physically wincing every single time the assailant speaks up, she still does her best. Like this is just the oddest kind of girl scout activity, and Wei Wuxian is just the resident girl scout leader.

"I really don't like this.." She softly says as she's almost done with the rope.

The true Madoka mentality. Really hating something, and doing it anyway because you're a doormat who doesn't know the word 'no'.

[weifinder]

Madoka, you've been adopted by men who've been in martial arts training since the age of five. Child safety is about keeping the children alive, and training them. At least where Wei Wuxian was concerned.

He's not insensitive to her discomfort, for better and worse.

"I know," he says, "And I'm sorry to ask you to do this." She's not a person who strikes out to live this life, but it is the one she has, while she's here. That she cannot stay back under her own choices means this is also a choice. Not an easy one, yet a choice nonetheless.

She finishes with the rope, and he shifts to take it from her, making quick work of hogtying the man's feet to his hands. It takes looking for something else to shove in his mouth, but eventually, he falls more quiet.

"Miss Madoka, can you reach out over the SCA to the other camps, see if anything like this is happening there? They might need the warning ahead, and from what I hear—more is oncoming here." He cants his head to the side, listening to the shouts and cries of surprise cutting through the morning air.

[happyends]

"Y-Yes!"

At least that's a more comfortable task for a girl like Madoka. This much she can do, even though she's tense with worry and barely contained panic.. But if these missions have taught the girl anything, it's that you have to keep going, even when you're panicked. Because it's the only way to try and make things end up alright.

She turns, starting to fiddle with her SCA. She sends out a few calls, first to people she knows are in other camps. A few don't seem to pick up, but then she finally seems to have a short conversation, obviously hurried because of the current situation..

.. and when she turns back to look at Wei Wuxian, the worry in the girl's eyes is obvious.

"It.. It seems that they're having the same problem in all the camps.. It's like all of the displaced people suddenly got really agitated and aggressive out of nowhere."

alcohol

[blitzcheer]

Duuude? Dude.

He'd be more grumbly on any other day, but when your week has so far involved erasing fragments of people from the past over and over, and watching your friends get attacked by refugees not in their control?

Tidus just sighs, a resigning sound, and takes the drink with a thin-lipped mouth.

"This sucks." It's an underestimate, lacking heart, but in its exhaustion showing honesty. Eyes on the drink, but no rush to really drink it - he might be appreciating the camaraderie in the gesture more than seeking it in the alcohol itself.

[weifinder]

He pats Tidus on the back, the sort of reassuring, I feel you sort of thing he's likely done before, and doubtlessly will do again in the future.

"It does. The drink won't help with that, exactly, but it can still be nice, gentle the edges some." A pause, and he smiles, wry. "Only the one for you, unless you want me hauling you to your friends and depositing you in their care. Which I can! Just direct me to the preferred arms for resting in."

Not insinuating anything with the arms comment, more indicating does he need to find that Inigo person or is there another person or group you would like to be deposited with while drunk. Worse, he even looks serious.

[blitzcheer]

"Who said I wanted more?" There's a defensive edge to it, a fluster, knowing it a call-back and grumbling about it as he likes. But he'll take a sit with the drink on the nearby set-up on small unfoldable chairs, nothing more than fabric and a frame.

Better than what they usually get, honestly.

It could be the end though, leaving it to Wuxian to continue to discussion, or just assuming that's that. But there's a question - not a burning one, but curiosity. Wondering, as indelicate as it might be phrased:

"Do you think this is right?"

His eyes are on Wuxian, a dip to his brow. "I mean... did the Ministry say what'd happen if we did nothing? And now things are getting worse..."

There's a pause, and he exhales, frustrated. "I don't get what's going on."

[weifinder]

He cants his head, studying the young man after his question is made with more obvious intent than before, when he's watching simply to ensure Tidus is as close to okay as any could be, given their situations, given... this. The question isn't surprising, once voiced, nor easy and trite for the answering.

Thus he considers, a finger tapping against the bottle of the wine or spirits or whatever alcohol it is he'd been granted by the Ministry.

"I don't think it's right. I don't think us doing nothing is right either, because from what it sounds like, its the gods here who've created this whole mess. Those people, the ones we've been seeing in these displaced times... it's no justice what happens to them. It's not their actions creating the situation, and they bear the brunt of it, much as the present is bleeding under the pressure of the past."

Which isn't an answer that offers explanations, only observations. He sighs, lifting his free hand and waving it before him.

"At any time, Tidus, we can all say no. The greater problem for the Trainlings might be that we don't know how to, and the consequences of acting can be as impactful as choosing not to act. If we haven't directly asked before what happens if we do nothing, we can ask now. If they know, or if it's all guessing, we can learn that from the mouths of... what's the one, Zhak? The one who keeps being thrown our way for questions, back at the Ministry base."

His eyes light up, and he pats at his pockets, pulling out... is that a drone piloting control?

"We can even ask via one of these flying sky-eyes! Or talking with the ministry representatives here in camp, though that sounds less interesting."

[blitzcheer]

It isn't right, it isn't wrong. That's about where they seem to do, but there's a tightness in his gut, the remains of the harrowing start to the day that clings him to still. No use complaining about it, but that's never stopped Tidus - not when he has the fraction of an opening.

No matter if, really, nothing is changed by doing it.

But Wei Wuxian does give his mouth more to chew than a bitterness. If they don't know, ask. And it wouldn't be Wuxian, would it, not to add an oddity to the suggestion. Tidus pulls his brow - flying sky-eyes? - until it clicks for him, and the side of his mouth twitches into something of amusement.

"You wanna send a drone flying over and ask someone that way?"

Really? his tone suggests, but also not seemingly against it.

unquiet city

[weisexual]

Lan Wangji was in the process of setting up an equalizer when Wei Ying goes streaking past. It makes his hands fumble slightly as he becomes momentarily distracted. He doesn't understand a lot of technology but he doesn't understand missions and magic. He knows that this is important for getting this world back on track.

But he also is very aware of the fact that there is a lot of dead here and his abilities would be better spent elsewhere. Especially considering that someone important to him just went running past with a far too familiar symbol on his body in a strange sort of deja vu.

He finishes what he is doing quickly so that he can trail after the other man. "Wei Ying..." Be careful...

Wangji appears in his hands and he sends a chord in the direction of some of the dead before they can gather up and become too much for his soulmate to handle.

[weifinder]

With Lan Zhan having finished setting up the equaliser in this area, more of the present time asserted itself; the temporal anomaly, such as it was, turning into flickers of less-tangible persons chasing after Wei Wuxian, to the point that Lan Zhan's strike on the chords of his instrument are like ripples across a pond.

Not that Wei Wuxian slows down, and the one thing he can admit is his physical endurance has gone up over the last year, what being fed more regularly on the train when others are in charge of meals and having no largess of resentful energies to rely on most the time. It is, in fact, inevitable, but it's still good that he feels no strain as the world continues to right itself, stabilised.

Only in this section, true, but the bleedover from the others where equalisers are still being put in place amidst the fighting factions of the deathless minimises once it's in place. For a moment, the both of them are standing on barren, arid land, surrounded on three sides by the flickering glimpses of the city at siege with death.

"This is all kinds of the wrong exciting, isn't it?" Asked with a half grin when he trots toward Lan Zhan, settling into a walk not long after.

[weisexual]

He sighs as the dead flicker away, placing the instrument away in the bag for safe keeping. He is glad he has it for this mission, even if for the most part it becomes unnecessary as soon as the equalizers are placed. He finally feels more at ease having it back.

His expression becomes one of slightly annoyance as Wei Ying makes his way back over. Why does he insist on being the target when they have these kinds of encounters? There is a familiarity to it that doesn't always make him feel very comfortable. Although he doesn't worry about the other man as much on the train or on these missions, he can't help it at times. He feels unsettled when Wei Ying puts himself in danger.

"You seem happy." By being in danger. It is frustrating sometimes. But there is also a familiarity to fighting the dead that they haven't necessarily had on other missions. This is more like home...even with strange technology at their disposal.

[weifinder]

"At being chased around? No, no, abandon the thought, I've only been happy to be faster than most of whatever pursues!"

He smiles, letting it fade again, glancing down at his shirt and sighing internally. He turns away, presenting his back to Lan Zhan, when he starts to tug the shirt off over his head, the temperature of the day unremarkable when he's cultivator enough still to manage temperature regulation, without his qi being terribly drained already.

He trots toward where his sweatshirt lies now on the ground, picking it up and brushing dust off before he pulls it overhead.

"How many more equalisers do you think we'll need to place before these poor lost souls are trapped or undone this time?"

[weisexual]

"Mm..." There might be the smallest of softening of expressions as he accepts what Wei Ying says about being faster. That at least did seem to be true. He then turns away slightly when he sees the shirt be removed. Even if Wei Ying does not need privacy to change his clothes, he should at least offer him a little bit of it.

"A few more." He only has one more tucked away in his pouch so it would have to come down to what others are out there doing the same work. But he doesn't know if this extra one is even going to be necessary if others get there before they do. "I have one left."

He moves over to Wei Ying's side again, studying him closely. "Should we continue?" DO you feel up to it? Because the last thing that Lan Zhan wants is for the other man to become tired. Even if he has been becoming stronger while on the train...he still feels the need to watch over him.

alcohol

[calmness]

To say that Lan Xichen is tired, well that's an understatement. The effort of setting up the camps as well as Equalizers is not an easy one. The younger Lan Sect leader looks more work to those who know what to look for.

Rest is needed and a moment of reprieve means a moment to meditate, when-- "Ah." He looks at the alcohol offered to him, offering Wei Wuxian a somewhat amused and skeptical smile though there's amusement in his eyes. "Even just one may not be ideal, Master Wei," and yet he's taking the offered drink. He can burn off most of it, after all.

[weifinder]

"Mm, but you surprised me with your trick once before, ah?"

The trick of burning off the alcohol, and he shakes his head, tsking his tongue after.

"Truly pearls before swine, isn't it?" He laughs, winking at the younger man who should by most accounts and in most situations be older, and nods to the drink now in Zewu-jun's hand. "We can find tea, too, Zewu-jun. We don't force Lans to drink here."

He would never. Has not, since understanding, and images of Lan Zhan being a menace while tipsy on one small cup of wine makes for colourful thoughts when he shakes his head and sighs.

[calmness]

"I did," Xichen says that with a soft nod, an upward tilt to the corner of his mouth that is not quite a smile but nearing it. He is tired and it shows.

He looks at the drink, which he had fully intended to drink while burning off the alcohol, "Tea would be a welcome addition, if you'd prefer that alcohol in this not go to waste." He offers the drink back, knowing that Wei Wuxian has a better tolerance than most here. Then, because even if he is younger than Wei Wuxian, he is still used to being the one checking in on others. "Are you faring alright here?"

[weifinder]

"Your faith in me is touching," he says, which is and isn't a joke. He takes the cup back, lifting it to Zewu-jun before downing it, a convenient reason not to reply to the question: how are you.

Thus he waves his hand, "No better or worse than you'd think," and smiles, in the wan way of a man tired and familiar with the unkindness of the world. "It'll be a few minutes, but I'll set water aside from what's being boiled for tea. You're welcome to join me, Zewu-jun."