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

"Alright! Do you see him?" She looked around desperately.

(I can guest star in Xion if you want, since she'll avoid talking anyway so we can have just Mina interact with her? Or we can ask someone else to jump in?)

(OoC: That works! Easy to do!)

“Um…!” Mina looked around, trying to spot Tidus before noticing a hooded figure. “H-hey! Can you help me?”

(swapping to Xion then, Najaran will just watch and worry till she leaves to avoid playercest issues)

Xion looked around trying to figure out if the voice was trying to speak to her, but saw no one. But unlike most people, she did eventually look up. Her chin was visible as she looked at Mina, but the hood stayed in place, hiding the rest of her face. She was pretty sure that was who had spoken. But..

then she spotted Thunder beak. A monster?! She summoned her Keyblade and took an attack pose. Even with the hood, Mina could probably trace her eye line to see what she was looking at.

Mina indeed put two and two together and began waving her hands in panic.

"Woah, woah, woah, woah! Friend! Honest! All friends here!" she said. "No, I need help here!"

She didn't put away the weapon but she frowned in confusion. "Help... fighting...?" Her voice was so quiet it almost didn't carry. Najaran, just a little further back, couldn't hear her at all, for example.

Mina strained to hear Xion but couldn't really hear her. "I... I need a healer. I got hurt protecting my friend, but we can't heal..."

Oh. She could do that. She stood straight and looked around. She found a stack of boxes of supplies. Okay. She took a running start, jumped on a single box, from there to the stack, then up onto the top of the train. Well, she caught the top with her free hand and pulled herself up. But it still worked.

She stood up and looked at them, eyeing Thunderbeak warily. But she lifted her Keyblade in both hands. "CURAGA!" she called, and green light flowed over Mina, Thunderbak, Najaran, and honestly anyone near them on either side of the train. And after her jumping routine there probably were a few. The light would heal all their wounds, though it would not replace any energy spent. The Keyblade vanished when the spell ended, and she tilted her head at Mina, as if curious.

What she really was wondering, sadly, was if she was done and could leave now?

Mina sighed in relief as she felt the damage done to her disappear. She stretched a bit, trying to make sure everything was right and once she did, she smiled and nodded at her.

"Thank you. I owe you one." she said. Noting that curious tilt, she giggled and said "It's okay, I won't bite - I'm friendly!"

Of course, Xion could mistake Mina's earlier thanks as a sign she can leave.

She asked, to be sure. "I can leave now?" she asked quietly.

She never could be sure with Somebodies. They thought weird.

Mina blinked at that before smiling. "You can if you want. My name's Mina, by the way."

She nodded. And since she was told she could leave she did. She... didn't offer her name. She just turned and dropped off the side of the train, landing in a crouch before going off to see who else needed healing. Or... if she could find Axel, maybe?

"What an odd girl..." Mina said to herself before shaking her head. She turned her attention back to Najaran. "Feeling better?"

Najaran nodded. "I wish I could do spells like that... I bet even I couldn't hurt anyone with a heal spell gone wrong..."

"Yes, yes you could," Goligan said weakly.

(Heading to bed. Catch ya on the flip.)

(OoC: Sleep well!)

"...one day, Najaran..." Mina said, softly, before hugging her friend.

She returned the hug, shaking her head. "I've never even heard of a spell that heals. I'm not sure one exists..."

“Maybe it’s time to make one.” She said

Najaran stared at her, shocked and horrified for a long moment. "I... how... what....?" She didn't even have words for that. "I'm not... I mean...."

She didn't really have much of a concept of blasphemy. Until now, apparently.

“Woah, woah…!” Mina yelped, noticing Najaran’s panic. “Easy! Just thinking out loud! I don’t know how your world works, so…!”

“F-forget I said anything!”

"I can't... I couldn't... that... that...." she was still sputtering and overwhelmed.

“Naja, snap out of it!” Mina said, making sure she’s giving her a slap with her normal hand.

She blinked, startled and confused and still a bit horrified. "Wh...what?" she asked, voice strangled.

“Snap out of it, please!” Mina pleaded. “You’re scaring me! I said something wrong and you froze up!”

"I just...." she sat down and rested against Thunderbeak's chest. "Do you really think I'm that horrible a person?" she asked in a small heartbroken sounding voice.

“What?” Mina gasped, equally heartbroken. “No. I think you’re amazing! I don’t care how you are! I said something careless, didn’t I? If I did, I am so sorry!”

"Lady Naja," Goligan said, and he sounded shaken as well. "Perhaps your friend does not realize... how the war started. Or what the Black Cepters are after..."

"I... I guess," she mumbled, wrapping her arms around herself.

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