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

[diversionist]

[ cassian, by contrast, doesn't really know these people. he cares — he wouldn't be here if he didn't — but he's more hesitant to act in ways that seem reckless to him. they're dealing with a danger that even his working knowledge of is incredibly patchy, far outside his wheelhouse. what does immunity really mean, in this case? it's hard to take calculated risks when you don't know any of the variables.

such as: is using magic the same thing as touching it? he shrugs. ]

Let's hope not.

[ like, fuck if he knows. but he produces a knife from seemingly nowhere and hands it to her, then one for himself. how many knives does he have on him? don't worry about it. and cautiously moves towards the vines. they stir, just as they had when lottie approached a moment ago, but he crouches anyway to start trying to cut. here goes nothing, he thinks. ]

[oomfies]

[ What the absolute fuck. ]

.. Have you had these the whole time?

[ She asks, not because she's upset or worried about him keeping it from her. No, she's asking because one knife.. One knife she can understand. But two? It weighs heavy in her hand despite how deliberately lightweight it's supposed to be (pocket knife, and all), sitting strange in her palm. It makes her uncomfortable in a way that she might seem dumb holding it the wrong way, because what if she's not cutting right? Is there a right way? Should she be more worried about that, or the way the leaves rustle when Cassian approaches?

The crouching mitigates the intensity of movement — the vines are more sluggish, lethargic, in their reach as they feel out where (and what) it is the air is being displaced, where exactly the motion is happening. What doesn't help Cassian's gentle ease to pluck those flowers is the loud, seemingly manifested out of nowhere, rattling of chains above him. That's right, this is the magic Lottie was alluding to: the now physical set of chains wrapped around the entirety of the building, pressing down against the, now thrashing, set of vines along the wall. But the magic isn't looking all that tight, some vines are wiggling and worming their way out of its grip. ]

[diversionist]

[ a quirk of his eyebrows. ]

I didn't pull them out of thin air.

[ because it's clearly her question that's weird here, not the fact that he has multiple knives on his person??

except what's really weird here is the sudden appearance of huge, rattling chains that lottie actually did pull out of thin air. he startles, if slightly, head jerking up to watch the chains wrap around the building and smash the vines against its sides. he does move hastily backwards, then, all to avoid being taken out by some of the particularly violent writhing vines. a thinner vine gets loose entirely and lashes out at him; and if not for a particularly quick sidestep and flash of his knife, cutting off a flowering appendage, it might have cracked his ribs. ]

Can you summon more of them?

[ is tossed off at lottie, alarm making his voice harsher. ]

[oomfies]

[ If she wasn't so intently focusing on holding those plants back, she'd roll her eyes back so hard they'd disappear into her skull. Of course she knows he didn't, that was never the problem!!

But at least he doesn't throw the question back at her — that much she's grateful for. Him actually knowing how to use said knives? That makes her infinitely grateful too, because she audibly gasps at how fast he moves and his instinctual reaction to slash. ]

Uh, yeah — [ Fuck, why is her mouth so dry?! He's stressing her out!! ] want it by your face??

[ That's the only warning he gets before a bundle of them are thrown into existence, arguably even louder than the first set, haphazardly overlaying each other. It's sloppy, but it conveys the urgency that seizes at Lottie — there's no careful planning to her placement, just execution. The meeting point rests right beneath where he severed that vine (now simmering hot and cold on the floor, the smell pungent and foul)— with the more active of them slowly, painfully, working their way through all the loops and knots she's created. ]

[diversionist]

[ truthfully, his answer might have been a no.

lottie isn't throwing these (big, heavy) magical chains around with much finesse. inviting her to materialize some by his face seems a lot like asking to be smacked across the face. but there's no chance to express anything of the sort — or accept anyway, because it might be better to get slapped by magical chains than blighted vines, maybe — before lottie's made the decision for the both of them. instead, he simply takes advantage of the opportunity she gives him —

and moves. going to hack at freezing leaves and budding flowers with surgical precision, or as close as he can get while dodging all of the hazards around him. it's making some difference, at least; areas of the vines are being restrained by lottie, getting easier to restrain as flowers and leaves fall off and wither or are crushed underfoot. but the vines are powerful, and cassian is tiring as time passes. perhaps lottie feels some strain too, using her power as much as she is. frost starts crunching on his gloves and sleeves and boots from the proximity to the coldest centers of cold, and he finally calls back, ]

How much longer can you hold this?

[oomfies]

[ There's a sound of confusion, just barely audibly between all the noise they're making. ]

I don't know!? I've never done it for this long before—

[ Or used this much of it at once. There's a lot she doesn't know about her magic, and she is learning the hard way because she is feeling fatigued. A different sort of tired to Cassian's (although arguably he is the braver of the two, Lottie is more than aware of this), but she sweats at her temple all the same. The longer she holds them down, the weaker she gets— which doesn't bode well all considering Lottie is frail to begin with.

It's nippy when she steps closer, the frigid air making her wince when she materializes a chain — one thick, and heady, but small enough for her to slot her hands into — from the mass of it atop the vines. The cold burns into her skin as it's seeps into the metal, already, her palms an uncomfortably icy hot as she tugs and the plants squirm tight against the building.

The good news is Cassian's work isn't without reward: the vines that he's nipped the flowers and leaves from are shriveling up, halving in size. The bad news is it makes the remaining ones shoot out a wave of bitter cold that even she feels. ]

By now if it was you [ A vine swipes at her, barely misses her fingers. ] or me it'd be asleep!