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

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the archivist 👁️ closed starter(s)

[eyesite]

( please feel free to reach out to me via pm, discord, or plurk (lycanthropic if you want to do something for this part of the event! )

vander:

[eyesite]

( when john had been lost in the deathless limbo of his six month long "coma," his heart and lungs stilled while his brain was a riot of activity on the hospital monitors, he had been visited by an avatar of the End. it had been a man who had previously left a statement regarding his ability to see root-like tendrils which snaked through the streets of London — these pulsing limbs always terminated embedded within the body of a person in suspended animation as they went about their every day life, and they had always foretold that individuals impending death. a tendril might indicate the place of a terminal cancer or a sudden brain hemorrhage; it might encircle the neck of someone who might soon find themselves suffocated or drowned. eventually he began to see these roots even when awake, and no matter what he did to try to warn their victims, he could never save them from the death that fast approached.

for the End, Terminus, the Fear of the inevitable death and cessation of all things, is slow, patient, and inexorable — a marked change in behavior from many of the other Dread Powers, but why would it be any other way when it always got what it needed in the end?

it's oliver banks that he can't help but think of when the roots of the great tree planted near yima's manor break free and begin to reach through the streets as free as rumor and fear of the impending spread of the Blight had weeks before. and he especially thinks of the first statement he'd given regarding his dreams when he stumbles into one of the time pockets in the tangled nest of backstreets in springstar. john had initially been looking into the roots in highstorm, of course, but soon he had traveled to the other city to see what he situation there was. much the same — which wasn't exactly a comfort, was it? he had been searching for someone, anyone, to discuss the situation with when he'd crossed over into a place where the air felt inert and dead in his lungs — where people stood about frozen mid-action of whatever they had been before time had distorted around them.

at least there is no pulsing tendril reaching into each of those bodies. this doesn't mean — it doesn't necessarily have to mean anything.

several of the buildings along the narrow side-street he's on now have broad gates and doors thrown open to the outside, displaying a variety of wares to whoever might travel past. john hesitates for just a moment before sidling along a vendor and potential customer where they stand frozen in discussion over what looks like hand-made pottery. glancing between the moment, he frowns and resolves to take a small glazed mug from the collection on the table, inspecting it in his hand for a moment before he purposefully drops it.

or, at least, he tries. it remains suspended in mid-air where he releases it.

this makes him particularly surprised to hear the sound of approaching footsteps; he turns with alarm wild in his wide eyes, though that is subdued significantly once he sees who the towering figure belongs to. ) —Vander? ( surprise continues to buzz in his veins, but it's a relief to see the man, especially given what had happened just a few weeks ago. he'd heard that the rescue had been successful, but he'd been in a different part of aetos' facility... ) Good Lord, man, it's been a few weeks since — are you alright? ( he probably should have reached out to ask much earlier, but with everything happening in alenroux and with the Blight and all... ) I, ah - I wish we were meeting again under better circumstances...

( he's momentarily forgotten about the mug, but the piece of pottery is perfectly visible next to him, where it hovers in thin air. )

[exhound]

[Silence is never a comforting thing to hear (or, more accurately, not hear) in a city. Growing up on jam-packed streets, there was at least one of two things to always be found: companionship or trouble. The older Vander got, the more he started relying on cultivating the former. When life was tough, you had to rely on your neighbors and find the good wherever you could seize it, and unabashedly. So maybe the people of Zaun were dealt a bad hand, but they were full of life regardless, and so it was always a comfort to hear the low buzz of a city defiantly seizing each day as they came, even on the quietest nights after hours at the Last Drop.

Springstar has been much the same in that regard. Sure, maybe it lacked the harsh edge of the undercity, but its people were always busy, always chatting, giving the streets a sense of liveliness through the majority of the hours each and every eternally sunny day. So even as alien as it still feels to be calling a place like this home, there’s still a familiar comfort to be found.

So the quiet that lies over these back streets in the markets, a smothering presence like a thick blanket on a hot day, makes his hair stand on end. He’s heard that there’s been odd occurrences throughout the city lately—hard to miss it with the low thrum of panic that seems to be keeping the locals abuzz the past few weeks. It’s been quite an effort to help out where he can as the Blight seems to slowly tighten its hold on the city, considering his other responsibilities outside of Springstar (and the trouble he stirred up himself), though he’s getting a grasp on what to expect. Or so he thought. This? This is new.

Mostly it feels like something out of a dream, the way people and objects both remain frozen in a single moment, with no amount of calling out or prodding changing that fact. But he can catch it, one thing just out of place in this stillness—the very faint echo of footsteps just a street over. He hurries along down stone-paved street to see for himself if it was real or just his mind and the quiet starting to play tricks on him.

It is both a relief and a surprise to see this particular face here now, and it shows as much on his face as he closes the distance between them. He eyes the floating mug for just a moment, but his attention is squarely placed on his fellow Shard-bearer.]

Been better. [A tired, self-aware smile.] But doing better, just the same.

[A question he’s fielded often of late (though one he appreciates nonetheless). But John is right in that this situation is… less than ideal for a casual chat after so long.]

This, [he pokes at the mid-air mug, nudging it from its position just slightly,] is certainly an interesting mess to find ourselves in, that’s for sure.

[eyesite]

( the silence is loud enough to ring in one's ears, either triggering tinnitus that had already etched itself on their inner mechanisms or simulating it in those that had been spared the damage and annoyance. john is likely far more accustomed to it than vander, all things considered — ensconced in its lower levels and situated between the Magnus Institute and the warren of labyrinthine subterranean tunnels which stretched beneath the city, the Archives were a place of quiet (typically, at least). sometimes it had felt like an island in the middle of one of the biggest and busiest cities in the world, though as time passed, it had become more like one that he and his had been purposefully stranded on. he likes silence less and less. there is something about it which makes him think of unseen machinations, of strings being pulled in secret; he would trade it any day for the low, everyday thrum of activity, of purposeful footsteps and muffled, distant conversation. something which gave him the impression of standing with a united front, even after it had crumbled under pressure and opportunity.

he needs to stop thinking of them. he thought he would do so less, the longer he spent here in kenos, but... it feels as though it's the opposite that is happening. he tries to wipe the slate of his mind clean, tries to focus on the matter at hand —

john breathes out a sigh, and the thin shoulders beneath the oversized coat fall along with the escaping breath. he seems to understand, and he gives a firm nod. ) That's... good to hear.

( there's tension around his eyes, threaten to spiderweb into creases that would form lines over time, allowing age to inscribe him physically with the weight of his concerns and worries (would it? is he even going to age the way that he is now?). he might not have been one of the ones that had rescued vander personally, but he had been within the facility. he had seen the creatures kept there, but worse, he had heard manon's statement — he had felt the real and present horror of what he had been subjected to. it had pained him to think the compassionate man that had helped pull him free from the earth and get him acclimated to this world could suffer a similar fate. he's certain he did not emerge from aetos' clutches unscathed (and he's ashamed to realize there's a part of him that wants to reach out at that hungrily, greedily, wanting to crack this bone for the marrow it knew it could draw from it—), but at least he's here, standing. certainly "could be worse."

john turns to regard the mug, sharply remembering what he had just discovered. he nods, hand lifting to scratch at his chin. )

"Time" has been a rather popular theme of late, hasn't it?

( because that must be what's happened here, yes? a moment, frozen in time? )

It must have something to do with the roots... the Blight, perhaps — though I've never heard it behaving in such a way... ( he's mostly just speaking through his thoughts aloud, though he does address vander a little more directly, ) They're spreading through the streets of Highstorm as well. I came to Springstar to see if the same was true... It can't mean anything good that it is.

[exhound]

[It’s a mixed bag, having all of this coming down right on the heels of what had happened to him. Vander is glad for the distraction, glad to have something unequivocally good to work toward in helping the city folk here try to navigate around this new spate of problems. On the other hand, it would have been better if that distraction could have been something a little less ruinous of peoples lives. Danger is seeming harder and harder to avoid in Kenos these days, though.]

I had wondered if Highstorm was seeing the same sort of thing…

[Wondered, but had been too busy for a trip himself. At least, that’s the excuse. In reality, Vander still prefers to avoid stepping into Highstorm ever since the incident in the markets. Going there had a similar feeling that going topside had for him, later in his life. A place with a tense “peace” brokered, where he’d once dirtied his hands and no longer felt quite right to step foot into afterwards. Not that he’d ever had much of a problem with steering clear, neither here nor back home; he’d stayed in Zaun where he belonged, and in Kenos, Springstar and Kowloon had similarly filled that niche for him.]

I agree, though. Can’t be anything good coming of this. The cities were supposed to be a safe haven. There’s trouble enough waiting for us on the other islands as it is.

[He’s thinking primarily of what had occurred on the Scorching Isles when he says this, but the reality of the Alenroux occupation hits him belatedly and he realizes that perhaps it’s an awkward topic to have inadvertently alluded to, considering allegiances. At least the topic at hand is easy enough to smoothly return to.]

I’d assumed it was somehow tied to the Blight. [With the Great Tree here in the city being quarantined, it seemed like the logical conclusion. But… He takes the floating mug in hand for a moment, turning it over.] With the way things look right here, I can’t help but think of a certain mage who likes to play around with time.

[Maybe he’s just jumping at shadows, after his recent capture. But it’s coincidence enough that he feels like it’d be foolish to dismiss the idea of Aetós’ involvement outright.]

[eyesite]

( given he has been in kenos for far less time, john's perspective is somewhat different — where trouble and conflict might have been sparse, intermittent, and atmospheric in their first few months here, the current generation of Shard-Bearers are now paying witness to its slow encroachment, just as one might watch a borderline of shadows slowly creep forward as the fire which kept them at bay died. springstar and highstorm, which might have once seemed like bastions against the unknown, now fall beneath its curtain and therefore victim to the chaos which reigned within. )

Roots, leaves, flowers, and the blasted cold — yes, the same is happening in Highstorm. Though I didn't come across anything like this...

( though perhaps that had just been a combination of good and bad luck on either side.

he wouldn't at all blame the man for not wanting to frequent the midnight city, though; the construction of the sociopolitical framework within which the Shard-Bearers interacted with one another and the locations available to them was not what any might call cut-and-dry, and it largely bent to personal impetus and one's unique situation. those newer to kenos, like john, might be able to get away with more freedom of movement than others, whose previous actions would mark them to Bearers of the opposing faction. regardless, with the cities under attack from their environment rather than their inhabitants, at least neither of these two would harbor ill intentions when there are more dire circumstances at foot.

if the oblique reference to alenroux was noticed by john (it was, of course), he doesn't pay any mind to it; his own involvement in that situation is such that he is more motivated than most to remain perfectly mum about it. he instead focuses on what's before them: ) A sound assumption. ( that the Blight was behind this was something he felt was without a doubt, though...

it makes sense that vander's thoughts would go to aetós. ) It's certainly a possibility that they might be involved, but based on the scale of everything - I would caution jumping to conclusions. ( from what he had managed to glean from the facility, it seems to him that aetós makes a tool of time, pulling out of it what they wish, but that seems magnitudes different than what they are standing within now. it would be more likely that the further intensification of the Blight might have been something they — or others — had a hand in, but otherwise...

he's about to say they should perhaps look around and try to see if there's a way out of whatever's going on — or perhaps some way to fix it — but he's cut off by a glimpse of movement out of the corner of his eye. based on where he's standing, a narrow alley cuts in-between several towering buildings to his right, leading to another backstreet parallel to this one. movement. it had been movement. someone had just walked across the narrow gap visible of that other street — the silhouette had seemed... small. a child? )

Did you see that? ( he asks sharply, beginning to gravitate in that direction. he's not necessarily sure; not everyone is as keen-eyed to their surrounding as an avatar of the Eye. ) I'm pretty sure someone just walked past. ( though, oddly enough, the area around them is still utterly quiet; he can't hear any footsteps beyond their own. )

[exhound]

[John is right, of course, that it is a pretty big conclusion to jump to. Perhaps he’s overthinking it all, trying hard to look for a clear-cut answer to a problem that only seems to be getting bigger—one that there is no easy way to solve. There is no physically fighting off a phenomenon like this, no sitting down and negotiating a way to make it all go away. Maybe that’s why he’s so keen to consider Aetos’ involvement; if what has become his own personal boogie-man has their fingers in this, at least it gives them a place to start. And maybe it’s good for that, but he can’t let it cloud his judgment just yet.

Still, the idea nags at him in the back of his mind.

While he doesn’t like hearing that both cities are apparently having it rough with this new development, at least it means that folks on both sides might be a little more open to cooperation. Tensions have been up and down so many times between both factions ever since they first had to see one another as opposition back on the Scorching Isles. He’d like to think people would wise up enough to work together to overcome something that is mutually detrimental, but some people will always be set in their ways. He knows that all too well.

It is a bit ironic, though, that a problem the Shard-bearers had faced while at each others throats might now be turning into something to bring them together. At the very least, opposition hardly seems to be an issue for the two of them here and now. Which means, yes, they should probably begin trying to find a way out of this strange situation.

And evidently, they aren’t stuck in here alone, either. Vander hadn’t caught sight of whatever it is that John had noticed, but he follows his sharp gaze toward a nearby alley, eyes narrowing. Nothing to see now, but if they aren’t the only ones untouched by the freezing of time here, then it’s best if they check it out.]

Let’s see if we can catch up, then. [He follows just behind John, keeping his eyes peeled as they step into the small alley. The quiet surrounding them feels odd, though.] If there’s more of us stuck in this mess, it might be best to stick together.

[Better for putting their heads together to puzzle their way out of here, and especially for keeping an eye out for trouble. Which, speaking of—might be wise to tread carefully here.]

[eyesite]

( if aetós had a hand in what was happening, john would think that it was only a facilitating one. the fact of the matter is, their primary issue is the Blight, and whether or not it began to spread so quickly and with renewed severity either due to aetós' influence, the Shard-Bearers' (directly or indirectly), or completely on its own is no longer part of the solution. even if they did anything to neutralize the cause, it would not stop the rest of the damage that's being done — investigation into its root will have to wait until they get everything else under control.

which feels like a very tall order from within this time bubble, completely confounded as to what could be going on. )

Yes - right. Let's go.

( any change to their surroundings is as solid a lead as to what's going on as anything they can hope for, so he knifes through the alley, aware that vander is following close behind by the sound of footsteps on stone echoing through the emptiness of the space they find themselves trapped in. caution would be paramount here, but there's a feverish sort of eagerness to the Archivist's steps that draw him forward perhaps a little more quickly and recklessly than he should. part of that is innate; he has always chosen to pursue knowledge, and perhaps that is what brought him to the Eye (or vice versa). they come by one another naturally, as so many avatars do to their patron Powers.

they turn a corner, and there is someone moving through this space ahead of them. they aren't very far ahead, as they are walking, and their strides are far shorter than either john's or vander's. that's because the stranger is a child, dark-haired, certainly no older than ten. he walks away from them, head down as if watching the ground directly ahead. he doesn't seem to have noticed them.

already, there's something nagging at the back of john's mind, but that's nothing new; he ignores it, moving forward to try to intercept the kid. ) Hey - excuse me!

( no response. but as he gets closer, or at least close enough to see that the boy isn't looking at the ground but instead at a thin children's book held in his hands, he realizes how his limbs move ever-so-strangely (as if puppetted by invisible strings), and he knows with all the sudden force of a sledgehammer just who this is and what's going on.

he stops and goes completely still, even the air in his lungs and the beat of his heart pausing for just an instant. he goes suddenly pale. )