april event, phase one: seeds of unrest 🌱

[beleos]

THE BEGINNING

Summertime in Springstar has been on its way out, heralding the arrival of fall; winter has likewise given way to spring in Highstorm - at least, according to the calendar. Yet there is an unseasonable bite on the breeze - one growing as frigid as the mood among Meris and Zenites in their cities. Between Alenroux’s occupation and talk of ‘the Blight,’ worries have been on the lips of the citizens with increasing frequency - and with good reason. The reports of plant life dying, of objects crumbling, of people whose bodies are deteriorating are dominating the rumor mills and local papers.

Everything comes to a head early in the second half of Pelu.

After an unusual pocket of commotion in the Seat of the Tribune and the courtyard of Yima’s manor, an urgent announcement is made on behalf of both cities: both Great Trees have been quarantined, and no one is permitted in either location without clearance. New rumors spread of an ‘incident’ that saw those in the immediate vicinity of the Trees rapidly demonstrating symptoms of an illness that was becoming all too easy to identify. It had stricken with frightening speed; not long afterward…

The unrest had spread into the streets, and it wasn’t just about the Blight anymore.

Cetina and Kathova wasted no time in reaching out to the Bearers via Communion to offer them guidance from their leaders and incite them to action.

SPRINGSTAR: THE ROOT OF THE ISSUE

Day by day, changes unfold that render the city increasingly dangerous...

ROOTS:

Vine-like roots have begun to thread the streets, creeping upon and over buildings, spreading outward from the Tree in Heliopolis. Over the next two weeks, they will continue to grow in size and become more troublesome, slowly blooming ice-like leaves that radiate a sickly glow.

• GROWTH: Contrary to the Blight’s normal behaviors, some people and things around clusters of vines or leaves can experience a burst of vitality, growth, and splendor as if transforming to beyond peak condition. In a normal citizen, this may result in an almost manic level of energy, reckless behaviors, and aggression. In objects, they become more durable and efficient, but dangerously so - for example, a stovetop cooks faster but burns uncontrollably hot. In plant life, this results in overgrowth that can overwhelm and choke nearby flora, objects, or even people. Then, they burn out an hour after exposure and immediately succumb to a dire state of Blighted.


• CHILL: The temperatures will continue to drop throughout the next two weeks. It will be coldest where vines have clustered and outright dangerously so near where flowers have budded or bloomed in great numbers. This will force some people from their homes.

TIME POCKETS:

In seemingly random parts of the city, areas referred to as ‘time pockets’ have populated. There is no way to identify a time pocket but to stumble into one.

• REGRESSION: NPC’s in these areas will appear to freeze in time once a Bearer has breached the pocket’s radius but appear normal from the outside. Time within has halted at the point the pocket manifested ( typically covering an area like a city street or inside a single large building that sees regular use ). Objects can be freely manipulated but will not fall if thrown, etc.
  • The pocket cannot be left until the Bearer has achieved their objective. Attempting to exit the way they entered, they’ll run into an unseen barrier that is painful to the touch, a sensation of frigidity that travels to their Shard.
  • Their goal will be to locate a past version of themselves hidden from immediate view. This past version of themselves can be from any point in their lives but must be from a moment when they felt extremely vulnerable, isolated, wounded, or fearful.
  • Once finding this past version, they will feel the compulsion to either find a way to reassure their past selves somehow or kill them. Whether it is the Bearer themselves who performs these acts or another Bearer in their company does it for them, as long as their past selves are pacified enough ( to player satisfaction ) or dead, they will gain immunity to the pocket and may leave. The immediate area will remain frozen, however, and the past version will be revealed to be made of roots that will shrivel and die.
  • Note: Bearers will be able to see other Bearer’s past selves, even after they have been freed. Whether the past reflections are capable of speech while functional is up to player discretion.

HIGHSTORM: THE ROOTS OF CHANGE

The snows continue to fall over the city, feeling brittle against your skin...

ROOTS:

Vine-like roots have begun to thread the streets, creeping upon and over buildings, spreading outward from the Great Tree in Yima’s manor. Over the next two weeks, they will continue to grow in size and become more troublesome, slowly blooming ice-like leaves that radiate a sickly glow.

• SACRIFICIAL: [ CW: self-harm ] Where the roots snake and gather throughout the city, NPC’s in several locations are falling victim to the quiet, slow pulse of the flowers and their buds. They will sit and stare at the flowers for hours, unblinkingly, as their body begins to succumb to the Blight. If they are disturbed in any way - a loud noise, an attempt to move their person, etc - they will calmly look up from their worship and crack off a piece of their brittle body before returning to their reverie.
• In order to save them, a pair (or more) of Bearers must sneak up on the NPC - one using a pacifying spell given by one of the faction leaders while the other crushes the flower. If the NPC is not pacified before the flower is crushed, they will become hysterical and the Blight will rapidly consume them, causing them to perish. If they are pacified and the flower is not crushed, the spell will wear off within ten seconds with the same result.

• CHILL: The temperatures will continue to drop throughout the next two weeks. It will be coldest where vines have clustered and outright dangerously so near where flowers have budded or bloomed in great numbers. This will force some people from their homes.

TIME POCKETS:

In seemingly random parts of the city, areas referred to as ‘time pockets’ have populated. There is no way to identify a time pocket but to stumble into one.

• REFLECTIONS: NPC’s in these pockets are moving in surreal blurs, pieces of them moving forward as others move backward, some changing as if time were rapidly passing as others remain frozen still. The Bearers’ surroundings are distorted as if reflecting multiple realities simultaneously.
  • Their goal will be to locate a tall standing mirror situated alone in the center of the time pocket’s radius. The Bearer who first touches their reflection ( henceforth called “mirror-Bearer” ) will cause the world inside the pocket to suddenly stop, reflecting a comforting environment they have fond or pleasant associations with. The mirror will be gone.
• Something or someone the mirror-Bearer highly values, deeply misses, or sees as imperative to their character, goals, or desires will be present. If they make contact with this object or person, the Time Pocket loops and sends them back to searching for the mirror - but they will have no memory of this occurring. Their partner, however, will recall everything.
• Both Bearers will be released if five loops occur without the mirror-Bearer being stopped from causing the loop or if the mirror-Bearer is stopped from reaching their goal for five minutes ( willingly or otherwise ). The longer they refuse to make contact with this object or person, the more tempting and dire the need becomes inside of them.
• Once the Bearers are released, the Time Pocket disappears. If they manage to avoid contact with the temptation inside the Pocket, the roots and flowers in this area will be withered and dying, buying the NPC’s and buildings in this location some time. Otherwise, they will be thriving and dangerously blooming.
• Note: the mirror will not respond to the non-mirror-Bearer once it has been touched the first time.

ENTREE-TING HELP

The Tree of Life is in danger, and you know it. Both Yima and Cyrus have directed all Bearers who might listen to increase visitation to the Tree and monitor it for signs of the Blight - of its leaves changing color, of any frostbitten bark, of its roots withering.

And then, during a moment in which you find your mind at ease, at rest... you dream, even if dreaming is unnatural for you. You dream of yourself sitting beneath the massive bows of the Tree's breadth, at peace. The perpetual dawn's glow warms your skin in a way that seeps into your bones, leaving you certain you are safe from harm. The Tree reaches out, and though it cannot speak to you in words, you feel it is trying to convey a message: one of urgency. One of plea.

But you cannot understand...

Soon, the branches of the Tree are reaching out to others. You cannot see them, but you know they're there; a spiritual tether connects your Shards together, bringing you all into a place of wordless unity. And once your fellows have been summoned, you know what you are here for.

You feel it rather than see it: some meager, barely-there brush of something cold in the warmth of the island's comfort. The Tree is already infected, and the clock is running down for all of you.

When you wake to yourself, a feeling of dread not entirely your own will chase you, and you will find a single violet leaf in your hand.

MISC NOTES

• Bearers start with immunity to the Blight. They will not succumb to the effects of the Blight even if they handle the vines and flowers directly without precautions or care.
• The above effects will occur in small clusters and are not yet spread city-wide during phase one. The escalation of frequency characters will come across problematic clusters or Time Pockets will be slow building.
• For context, it takes about a month from infection to death or dissolution for the average person or object to succumb to the Blight. By the 21st, it will be three days to a week.
• Bearers will be directed by Cetina or Kathova to make efforts to protect the civilians and investigate the manifesting changes around both cities. Both factions are working on their own methods to attempt to counteract the Blight, but neither has produced a failsafe solution.
• The roots will remain mostly outdoors, for the most part, these first two weeks.
• Tensions will slowly ramp up in Alenroux, and there are checkpoints for any non-PC visitors to screen for signs of infection.
• Player characters who die inside the Time Pockets are dead and need their Shards brought to the Tree of Life for revival.
• HAVE FUN!! ♥

CODING

Comments

highstorm

[lockedon]

[ He doesn't visit Highstorm much anymore, but if there's anything powerful enough to overcome the growing divide between the two sides, it's the needs of the people in both cities. None of them had asked for any of this - this war, this destruction, this interruption into their livelihoods - and the fact that the atmosphere in Highstorm reminds him too keenly of a plague that had swept through another city, months and months ago, only serves to ignite his desire to do what he can to help.

The message from Cyrus is acknowledged and his pack stuffed full of necessities, and the expression on his face is even more dour than usual as he walks through the streets—and rounds a corner to a cluster of people, only one of whom is actively moving.

The woman's entreaty goes ignored for a few seconds as he stares first at her, and then at the two townspeople, circling around them once. Then, he fishes through his pack, pulling out a bundle before tossing it at her without warning. Catch! (It's a jacket, ill-fitting but warm.) ]

Put this on first. [ His voice is brisk, lacking in any particular inflection. The fewer people that freeze around here, the better. ] How much magic do you know?

[ That'll decide what role he hands over to her, if she's amenable. (Even if she isn't she'll have to take it, if she wants any chance at saving these people.) ]

[vallt]

[truth be told, jyn isn't sure, exactly, what she'd had in mind when she'd snapped aimlessly at the first passerby, if she could even be heard at all. if she had to guess, maybe she'd at least get another hand in the effort to shake these people awake, somehow, because it's hard to do that for two people at once. or maybe she'd get... okay, she can admit to herself, someone who'd actually paid attention to the stupid voice in their head and thus might have some idea about what's happening here. (loath as she is to admit that to herself.)

that's not what she gets from this stranger.

no, what she gets is a jacket thrown at her, which she doesn't bother to catch as it flops onto her shoulder. she gets the stupidest question she could possibly ever get, and, in the end, zero help at all.

so, in return, her hands stilling, she first gives a stare. then:]

Magic? [she lifts her brows to the point that they nearly disappear into her bangs.] This is happening, and you're asking me about magic?

[the fuck, dude.]

[lockedon]

[ Instead of any sort of reasonable answer to his question, he gets—disbelief. Annoyance. All attempts to help thrown right back in his face. His expression sours even more as he meets her glare with one of his own. He doesn't have time for this. None of them do. (And yet there's something almost comically familiar about the way she scoffs at something so commonplace here, in a way that's reminiscent of a conversation he'd had with someone else weeks ago.)

The edge to his voice is sharper now, Eustace no longer bothering to hide his annoyance. ]

Were you not paying attention? [ Obviously not, else she wouldn't have answered the way she did. ] There's a spell that needs to be used on these people in order to save them.

[ However: ]

But I can't do it all by myself.

[ Is she going to believe him? Will she be willing to push past her biases for the sake of these people in front of them? Or is he going to have to tell her to back to wherever it she she came from so he can find someone else to help? ]

[vallt]

[no, is what's on the tip of jyn's tongue, ready be thrown right back at him, of course i wasn't. because he's annoying; because spite is her default weapon and she's honed her use of it well. because whatever is happening to these people is terrifying, and she has nowhere else to store that feeling.

but the words die before they ever leave her mouth, crumbling into silence as she glances back at the two frozen townspeople.

her spite, she knows, won't help anyone. and she —

huffs out a frustrated, irritated breath, but flicks her eyes back toward eustace. asks:]

What do I need to do?

[it's not exactly a concession — and her voice isn't any softer than it has been — but it's an acknowledgment. she's willing to hear him out, at least for a lack of an immediately better option.]

[lockedon]

[ She doesn't stay a yapping chihuahua for long (sorry, Jyn) and that in itself is enough to curb any further impulse to snap at her. Instead, he nods towards one of the nearby branches, weighed down by too many rapidly growing blossoms to count. Given the season, late summer winding towards autumn, the growth of the roots and vines are truly unprecendented. ]

Grab one of those flowers. Crush it between your hands when I tell you to.

[ Easy enough sounding, though he's also fully aware of how stupid it sounds. Like some old folk remedy suggested by a withered crone living in the mountains. But it's all he's got right now - all they've got. He can only hope the woman is willing to play along for a few minutes more. ]

Try not to make any loud noises if you can.

[ He probably should explain why, but he's always been a man of few words, doling out information only when neccessary. If she asks he'll answer, but in the meantime he works on his own preparations, both hands slowly lifting as he reviews the spell he's been given in his head. ]

[vallt]

[it does sound stupid; it sounds insanely stupid. she doesn't exactly plan on letting it slide, but to her credit, jyn doesn't comment on it. instead, she shoots him a look akin to are you fucking kidding me before doing as she's told. crouching around the motionless body at her side, she reaches for three of the flowers nearby, pulling them up by their roots. though the motion isn't delicate, because it's been a long time since a word like that has been in her vocabulary, it is a quiet one.

falling back on her heels, she nods, flicking her gaze back up at eustace.]

Got it.

[of course, her patience with something so insanely stupid can only last so long. moments later, she can't help but add a derisive:]

Should I spit on it for good luck, too?

[that's how magic works

right]

jyn is perfect, thank you jyn

[lockedon]

[ help him, god

He may have perfected his poker face over the years but a little bit of disbelief creeps through at the suggestion as he pauses in his self-recitation to stare at her. Obviously she's being sarcastic (right? that has to be sarcasm) but her timing really could use a little (a lot) of work. But she's still cooperating, which is really more than he expected, so he swallows the urge to say something stupid right back and settles for something only slightly less stupid. ]

Only if you want spit on your hands.

[ So like, go for it?? Be free, Jyn, follow your dreams.

Slowly, he lays one hand on a motionless shoulder, careful not to disturb the man. ]

Once I start the spell, start crushing the flower.

[ Ready, set....go! I don't actually know how any of this goes so we are truly gonna be making shit up as we go, pretend he's saying something vaguely spell-like. ]

thank you, thank you, she'll be the opening act of the comedy club here until....

[vallt]

Not especially, [is what she immediately tosses back, but even with brows that now seem almost permanently raised, there's a hint of something else on her face at his stare of disbelief, at the way he responds to her. it's an upward curve around the general area of her mouth, and is it — a smile? or something that could become one, maybe, if given the time?

if it was, jyn certainly isn't acknowledging it.

and it's not actually given the time, in any case. whatever had appeared on her face vanishes, replaced by a focused set of her jaw. as (what she assumes is) the spell starts, she does as instructed, crushing the flowers in her hands as much as she can — and because she has a grip on her, they're fairly well crushed into a near pulp.

then:]

Now what?

[lockedon]

[ Now what is an awfully good question and one he doesn't have an answer for. If all goes well, if he's actually said his spell right and not gone and fucked it up (a possibility, because magic has never been his strong suit), then this person ought to return back to normal and they can move on. Help the next person in need. ]

We wait and—

[ Whatever else he's about to say is lost, drowned out by the rumble of cracks running up the wall of a nearby building, the concrete threatening to crumble at a moment's notice.

The good news is that their little ritual seems to have worked, the stupor blanketing Townsperson Number 1 beginning to wear off as she blinks and slowly begins to look around her, puzzled by the two strangers around her. The bad news is that there's a second person left still in a trance, jolted just enough out of their reverie to look down and casually snap off one finger.

Looks like waiting isn't really an option anymore. ]

[vallt]

[there have been people talking a lot of bullshit here, jabbering on and on about magic. but when it comes down to it, the whole concept of powers isn't completely foreign to jyn; she has vague childhood memories of seeing jedi on coruscant, in the days before they'd been massacred and her family had fled the empire, going as far from the capital as they possibly could. even so, though, it's been a long time, and skepticism is easy.

it fades, the skepticism, as she watches the first townsperson begin to come out of her trance. ridiculous as the crushed flowers had sounded — they'd actually worked.

but maybe that draws her eyes for a little too long. maybe, if she'd pulled her gaze away just two seconds earlier, she could've saved the finger.

as it stands, she doesn't see many options in front of them, so jyn does this: she curls one hand into a fist and hits townsperson number two in the head with enough force to knock even someone twice her size unconscious.

of course, she doesn't know if that's a guarantee, so she scrambles up quickly, guiding townsperson number one to do the same, while maintaining a firm grip on townsperson two; maybe she can drag him away before everything falls apart.

maybe.]

I don't have a backup plan, [she calls over her shoulder toward eustace.] Do you?