voidtreckermods: (train)
VoidTrecker Express Mods ([personal profile] voidtreckermods) wrote in [community profile] middleofsomewhere2022-01-19 06:02 am

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!
  • fivemilesdeep: (But if we try this)

    [personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2022-01-25 07:26 am (UTC)(link)
    He hops onto the tail and then up to the dragon, the wind around him a welcome balance assist. He knows Jingyi isn't a wind mage in the way he thinks of it, but he's close enough for it to be a familiar comfort nonetheless. "Yes. I don't know if it'll work, but it has to be worth a try."

    It doesn't take him long to make his way up to Jingyi's shoulders and settle in, getting as good a grip as he can. "Ready." Jingyi is fast in flight, but at least Ryo knows how to hold on by now, and he manages to stay in place.

    (He doesn't lean over to look at the state of the camp, no matter how badly he wants to know. The last thing he needs to do is overbalance and fall.)
    jingyeets: (state | if we'll make it back)

    [personal profile] jingyeets 2022-01-25 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
    Once they arrive at this camp's location for supplies, on the more technical side rather than provisions of the edible or cloth-related varieties, there isn't room for Jingyi to land. The whole of camp isn't designed for large bodies to make easy way through, partly to accommodate the landscape itself, but he can stretch his head down, tucking his legs against his chest to hold his sack of possibly motion sick refugee assailant up and out of the way while his chin settles close to the ground.

    "I don't hear any scuffling here," he says, leaving Ryo with a slide of fur and scale to scramble down if he wants to step off the dragon and be able to delve into the tent's depths. "Only one person, dressing?"

    Which proves true enough, because before either of them move much more, one of the ministry workers comes striding out of the far tent for the three set up for these supplies, pulling on a thin jacket and giving them a look and a frown.

    "You two, what are you—no, I don't want to ask. Speak! What's hitting us?"
    fivemilesdeep: (But if we try this)

    [personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2022-01-26 06:35 am (UTC)(link)
    That sack of motion sick refugee is currently screaming its head off, yelling about wanting their gods back and adding to the cacophony at the camp. Not great, but not threatening at the moment - not while they're in Jingyi's grasp.

    He slides down Jingyi's neck and head, careful to keep clear of his eyes, and lands just as the ministry worker leaves the tent. "Refugees, as far as we know. They're yelling about their gods, and this one attacked me." He gestures at the wiggling and wailing canvas tent clutched in Jingyi's claws. "We think a stabilizer might help?" He can't help phrasing it as a question - he's not sure of anything that's happening right now, but as always, technology remains his biggest blind spot.
    jingyeets: (Default)

    [personal profile] jingyeets 2022-01-28 04:23 am (UTC)(link)

    The ministry worker frowns, but is already moving, gesturing for Ryo to follow as the muffled outrage of the refugee speaks in the same rhetoric they'd been using the whole time.

    "If it's linked to the distortions, then yes, it should. Here, take this, I need to get the other camps on the line to verify the situation there. If this doesn't work," they say, giving Ryo a firm, familiar sort of determination borne of experience, " We move to the next plan, and get the medical staff up and moving."

    A glance to where Jingyi continues carefully holding his sporadically struggling person bundle.

    "And a therapist," is likewise muttered, not really meant for commentary.

    fivemilesdeep: (But if we try this)

    [personal profile] fivemilesdeep 2022-01-28 05:39 am (UTC)(link)
    Ryo follows without question - the Ministry would know the supply tent better than he would. "I don't know if it is, but this is all we could think of." He accepts the equalizer and nods at the mention of the next plan.

    The therapist comment flies right by him, but he doesn't head back for Jingyi just yet. "Where's the best place to set it up?" He stops just short of asking how - he did learn how, and he should remember enough of that to get it set up himself - but he'll still take advice from someone who knows a lot more about this than he does.
    jingyeets: (state | if we'll make it back)

    [personal profile] jingyeets 2022-01-30 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
    "By medical." No hesitation with that answer, and they pivot, pointing in the direction where the main medical tents were set up for this camp move. "It's not central. It doesn't need to be with the range on these things, unlike with the distortions. Time and space is stable, it's people's... hearts, if you will, that aren't."

    Turning back, they shift a heavy fabric flap off the bundled technology supplies it sheltered, freeing an equaliser from a rack holding a handful of them. There are more visible behind the rack being accessed, but they've needed so many for what's been happening, and will need more still. It's no surprise to have even more of them on hand.

    "I'll join you there once I'm done here. Go." However steady they've been, they're all motion and purpose since being wakened and alerted as they have. A nod of their head once more in the direction of the medical tents, and they're gone, leaving Ryo to his own devices.

    Jingyi, head canted to have listened in a way he needn't have made obvious but chose to be blatant about, called out once Ryo was back in not-shouting reach. "Want a refresher on setting that up while we fly to medical? Mister Angry here could benefit from the lesson."

    In equalising himself, such as it is.