beleos: (Default)
beleos ([personal profile] beleos) wrote in [community profile] kenoslogs2023-04-21 04:58 pm

The Seeds of Unrest, Phase Two 🌱


UPROOTED
Time has not been kind thus far, and the future will be no kinder.

The slow passage of days to weeks has seen both cities increasingly ravaged by the untamed growth of the enlarging roots. Their size is enough to uproot buildings by their foundations, if not bisect them entirely where they push through unfettered. In the worst-hit areas, entire blocks are left abandoned - if even standing at all, displacing families and leaving businesses in ruins.

Cetina and Kathova have been in near constant contact with Bearers via Communion, feeding them information about which areas to focus their lifesaving efforts. Yima’s Manor and the Seat of the Tribune - despite their closeness to the Trees - have been fortified by your leaders and act as a base of operations for each respective faction. You will be able to return to either to find sanctuary from the chaos beyond, but the innumerable civilians are not so lucky.

Bearers are tasked with rescue and recovery efforts and requested to assist hands on the ground with taking refugees to temporary shelters. Survivors must be dug out of the debris. Those who are capable of healing will be enlisted to assist at hospitals and triage centers. Supplies must be gathered and harvested from areas that are collapsed and too dangerous for civilians to navigate. If you are feeling generous, you can go on search and rescue missions, as many people are considered missing in both Highstorm and Springstar. Some areas are completely cut off to regular foot traffic by the massive, winding roots bearing countless Blight-blooms. Citizens are succumbing to the Blight flower’s effects persistent from phase one with more and more frequency.

While both cities slowly succumb to a deepening catastrophe, the situation worsens.

STIRRING STORMS

As the days pass, inexplicable and unnatural weather occurrences will randomly plague both cities. They can last as long as a full day or as little as an hour before dissolving entirely.
  • Flurries: this snow is tainted by the Blight, making the snowfall look like ash. Any organic matter it touches will be affected by reopening wounds, re-infection of illnesses, or re-experiencing injuries that may have healed over years ago.
  • Thunderstorms: these storms carry a frigid rainfall and heavy cloud cover, making already difficult-to-navigate disaster zones harder to clear. As each thunder bellow crashes overhead, you might swear you hear a familiar voice reaching out to you in the fading rumble… one that sends a message - either from the future or past.
  • Fog: dense clouds of thick, freezing fog will roll in randomly, making visibility even more precarious. In your search for survivors - or your companions, you may find yourself coming face to face with someone else, instead: a version of yourself (or a companion) from another timeline. You may also hear your own voice calling out to you from within the fog, attempting to beckon you further into the mist.
  • General Note: Exposure to any of the above weather patterns will increase your Blight infection.
THE BLIGHT COMES FOR ALL
As if it were not enough to see the cities that have become your salvation at the end of the Timestream falling to collapse and ruin, the Bearers will slowly begin to realize their previous immunity to the Blight is eroding. They will begin to show symptoms of infection that increase into May’s event. ( For more information on the effects of the Blight and purification methods, please see the OOC Summary. )

Now that their last bastion - the Bearers - are just as much in harm’s way as everyone else, the populous’s efforts to formulate a temporary stop-gap solution are being rushed to completion. Time is not on anyone’s side. They will continue to work with those who have been kind enough to volunteer their resources and brilliant minds - collecting materials and attempting to figure out a way to avert their otherwise inevitable destiny.

ORDERS

Orders from your leaders will come as soon as infections among the Bearers have been confirmed.

šŸŒ™ YIMA will stress for all Zenite Bearers to prioritize their well-being and to avoid unnecessary exposure, to manage their symptoms as much as possible. They must fight for their own survival to bring in the birth of a new universe - and their lives are too precious to risk. Beyond that, she asks them to save what they can of their people and their most critical structures with the understanding that hard choices may be necessary.

šŸŒž CYRUS will implore all Meridian Bearers to prioritize the general population's lives and turn their efforts to save as much of Springstar as they can. He will note that Bearers have ways to help keep one another from suffering too much contagion and to coordinate their usages appropriately, to keep one another safe, and watch their backs.

ANOTHER EN-TREE-TY
The Tree of Life continues to sicken, yet - thankfully - the progression of the Blight is slow. Still, Bearers will find themselves occasionally compelled to take a moment to sit beneath its boughs and vibrant leaves, even as some begin to show signs of discoloration and rot. Any characters who sit with the Tree with the purple leaf they found on their person after phase one will find it warming to the touch, its veins laced with gold. This effect will be even more effective if taken into the cavernous roots beneath the Tree! While this may fill you with a temporary sense of calm, it doesn't seem to have any other effects... yet still, you are compelled, if not curious.

The Tree has offered you this gift for a reason. Perhaps you will find its use before long.

...As long as you - and Kenos - survive long enough to discover it.

CODING
hauntedking: (23)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2023-04-28 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
...can you really live with such little food?

[ Dimitri seems reluctant to think of Byleth as being quite that resilient, if only because he's probably worried that Byleth is over-stating it. ]

If you can... that makes sense. But I do worry about you.
muchalucha: (Default)

[personal profile] muchalucha 2023-04-28 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[ She laughs sunnily in response as she sets the large piece of rubble down and out of the way, then will go to grab another. She’ll just continue along with this methodical digging unless it looks like there’s a section that’s more unstable. ]

Just a bit, right? This is definitely a good way to use my strength!

[ As much as she loves fighting and a serious fight, especially… Using her strength to help people is far better. ]

I’d thought we got off easy compared to Highstorm since they had those strange flowers… But I guess it was our turn to get a little trouble too. These roots are really a problem!
fishfearme: (gentle neutral)

[personal profile] fishfearme 2023-04-28 06:18 pm (UTC)(link)
There's no need to worry about me on that front. I'm not fully human, after all, so I don't require the same needs as you do.

[Since Claude was aware of his... everything, he was assuming that Dimitri - with his claimed close ties to his Byleth - knew the same information............]
epiprocta: this is my favorite icon by far, if you give me an excuse to use it ICly i will kiss your hand (88)

[personal profile] epiprocta 2023-04-28 09:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[ More than the indignity of the fall or the impact of Vash’s slamming face-first into his chest and knocking the air out of him in a spectacularly uncool ā€˜oof,’ it’s that panicky demand that has Gen struck dumb for a moment because

wow. WOW. He’s tired from digging people out of rubble all day and just wants to get to somewhere quiet to rest when this absolute moron asks HIM for help, and this is the thanks he get? He got his tail grabbed and it’s still sore? He doesn’t owe this asshole anything and yet here this fucker is, with the gall to tell him to hurry up???

Yes, he sure feels the ground fracture beneath him, but Gen makes no move to stand, or even push Vash off of him. Instead, he takes a precious second to do something very important: flip Vash the bird right in his face. ]


Go back by yourself, then.

[ And without giving Vash much of a chance to respond in any way, Gen simply melts into the ground beneath him, instantly dumping Vash onto the cold, crumbling dirt and leaving him to fend for himself. For Vash, it must be awfully confusing — did that rude young (dog)man fall into the sinkhole first, somehow? Or did he just vanish? It is a mystery!

But ā€˜floating’ safe within the ground, backed away from the unstable portion that’s steadily spilling into the hole, Gen sourly watches to see what happens next. Maybe he’ll get to see this guy whinge and cry while getting his ass kicked by whatever the hell is down there. That might get his spirits up a bit after this exhausting day. ]
hauntedking: (06)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2023-04-28 11:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Well. He'd... sort of known that? Maybe? Dimitri blinks. ]

I... see. That certainly explains some of that.

[ Look, his route didn't involve them dealing with any of that. ]
fishfearme: (wha)

[personal profile] fishfearme 2023-04-28 11:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[I know and it's a CRIME.]

You...weren't aware?

[Byleth briefly looked surprised - then wary, realising that he had assumed Claude and Dimitri's level of knowledge regarding his origins were equal. He didn't understand. Both of them said they'd been close friends with their Byleth, so he'd assumed...]
sharethememory: ([screenshot] 073)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-04-29 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
[ Zhongli glances down to the hand pulling him farther into the house, but like a boulder he does not budge. In this, he cannot. Instead he uses that closeness to catch the cuff of Childe's sleeve to keep him from heading toward the kitchen.

(This is no time for soup.)
]

Childe.

It is not safe here. Please gather your things and get ready to leave.

[ His voice is agitated, glancing between Childe, the cat and the plants as if he's trying to mentally jenga the most efficient way to scoop them all up and get them out of here. But ah, there were also the shards in the foyer that could not be left behind... how distressing, would Childe be allowed to keep those if all went according to plan?

Perhaps Zhongli was being a little heavy-handed and overly dramatic, but he had been patient long enough and anymore time spent dallying in Highstorm would certainly spell disaster for both of them. Zhongli needed to return to Springstar - he needed to protect his people, he needed to aid his fellow Shard Bringers, but yet he could not in good conscious leave without Childe. Not with great chunks of the city disappearing before their very eyes. Perhaps it had been advantageous in the beginning that they could keep a watchful eye on both sides, but for now---
]
kinaesthesia: (1)

[personal profile] kinaesthesia 2023-04-29 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
[She’s watching him much the same through that stretch of silence, evaluating that weariness of his own as he leans back, trying to puzzle out exactly what sort of guy he is.

And the answer is he’s incredibly no-nonsense about it all, which frankly is the best way to appeal to her, especially when she’s gotten it into her head to be stubborn about something. Death happens, it's inevitable. And, right, here in particular it's even less of a thing to fret about, at least for their kind.

It’s not like she hasn’t heard about the whole ā€œreviving from deathā€ thing. She’d be half-inclined to dismiss it as bullshit if it weren’t the sort of thing that the more senior Shard-bearers would have had plenty of time to learn the truth about already. So sure, it’s probably real and that should be a comfort. She can’t help but wonder what it would mean for an Infected Shard-bearer to die here though. Does it make a difference how you die? Would her body still be a Grade-A hazard, for however long it stuck around? At least it’s looking like she might have someone who wouldn’t balk about what she’d ask for, if it came down to that.

But still. He’s right in that it’s better in the long run if she doesn’t overwork herself here, push past things she probably shouldn’t. The answer to those questions aren’t necessary if she just avoids it in the first place. (And if she can’t, well. They can deal with it.)]


You’re real annoying, you know that?

[Being so casually right about this, and all. But it’s clear from her light tone and the grin briefly lighting up her face, as tired as it is, that it’s mostly a joke. As someone who tends to be a persistent pain in the ass herself, she can appreciate someone giving her a taste of it in return.]

But fine, fine, you win. [She sighs, crossing her arms over her chest as she gives him a side-long glance.] Maybe I could use a little help. It probably is just a result of too much contact with the Blight, though…

[At least, that's her working theory. Because if it isn't, then she really might just be shit outta luck. Can't exactly treat Oripathy here like she could back home.]
hauntedking: (03)

[personal profile] hauntedking 2023-04-29 12:54 am (UTC)(link)
...it wasn't something that I think either of us discussed much beyond the obvious.

[ Like his mysterious powers and everything. ]

The specifics weren't made known to me.
vapour: (pic#15056232)

[personal profile] vapour 2023-04-29 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
Not safe? [ Well... true, nowhere seems particularly safe, especially with the tree roots rising to the surface as they are. So far, the house has been lucky and not breached, but he's well aware that isn't something he can count on indefinitely.

Still, as far as he knows, there is no real safe place, at least in regards to the two cities. (Has the underground been spared, he wonders?) Does Zhongli know something new that Childe hasn't yet gotten wind of because he's been limiting his exposure? ( He just... can't be bothered trying to protect nameless people, especially when Lady Yima had made it clear who and what to prioritize. He's going to have to protect Zhongli and the others from themselves since he can't stop them from trying to help everyone, which means he has to be extra vigilant to be in a good enough position healthwise to do so
]

What are you talking about? Where are we going?

[ As he waits for an answer, Childe suddenly notices the fog that came in with Zhongli starting to creep down the corridor aiming for them both. The way the wall is brushed with that strange color of the blight flowers before the paint flakes off and the wood begins to shrivel and rot has the harbinger cursing before defaulting to a kneejerk reaction: Childe will immediately throw a conjured barrier around the flowers and the cat made of hydro even as the fog surrounds them both.

— And he slams the door shut (it gleaming with the sheen of a hydro barrier itself that stretches over the walls and encircles the room to prevent the fog from entering it,) too, even if it puts one or both of them into an awkward physical position as a result.
]

Is this what you're talking about? It's... it's fine, it'll go away. We need to check your infection, though.

[ His own grip does tighten around the other though, as if needing to make sure the consultant doesn't somehow disappear into this sudden and unwelcome fog. ]
Edited 2023-04-29 01:18 (UTC)
intervener: (ā–„ dittany.)

damn, smooth 😳 is this... flirting

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
[ STOP HE DOESN'T MEAN IT LIKE THAT, OKAY, GOSH,,, Dokja is a perfectly handsome dreamy hunk just like Eustace in his own way, all rumpled and cute and punchable haha... love this loser,

Vash's smile becomes a smidge more sincere as Dokja picks up the glass in acceptance of his offer, and he clinks his glass against his companion's. ]


Happy to do you the favor of giving you a rest! You probably need it.

[ yeah, everyone does, huh; these poor people... ]

You're a Bearer, right? I think I've seen you around before, but maybe with less of the 'caked-on dirt' look. It's in vogue right now, though; looks good on you.
intervener: (ā–  anise hyssop.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 01:22 am (UTC)(link)
[ it isn't just the look in her eyes that gives away the "I'm at my brink and trying not to cry" condition she's got going on. something unspoken lingers between them; maybe it's some remnant of the empathic link they'd shared, or maybe it's something to do with wherever the hell they are right now - but he feels it, too. a squeeze of his chest, a sense of something rueful.

with her eyes closed, she won't see him unclasp and shrug his way out of his coat, draping it around her shoulders. it isn't much, but... well, it's warm, and it's something; he'll shift to sit side-by-side with her, a little space between them to give her some semblance of privacy. ...even if it isn't much.

he doesn't ask her for an explanation. it isn't the time; questions can come later. maybe the best thing he can give her right now is a few moments where she can just... sit, sort through what just happened, and grieve if she needs to. with some company, if that... helps, at all. ]
intervener: (ā–  basket flower.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 01:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ haha wow, she sure is bright and sunny - he can definitely get the association! he has no idea it sure is nice to run across someone so upbeat, especially around the more dour and morose atmospheres that have befallen both cities...

✨ he's soaking in the sunny rays of Quetz's Vibes ✨ ]


So you're a Bearer? [ he kinda knew that already, but hey, ] And a Meridian if you're here, right? Wow, how come we've never crossed paths before? Pretty sure I would remember someone like you...

[ ✨ v i b i n g ✨

kicking his feeties where they're hanging off the arm of the chair like a schoolgirl writing about her crush in her diary on her bed ]
sharethememory: ([official] Ginkgo)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-04-29 01:30 am (UTC)(link)
[ Zhongli gratefully takes the seat, nodding to the staff as they taste the dish for themselves. Yes, this would be the most expedient method of teaching. And that also means that Zhongli is free to give his full attention over to Mamoru. ]

I did not know you had such a discerning eye for gastronomy. Perhaps after the Blight is properly dealt with, we might try some of more renowned restaurants in both of our cities.

[ While normally a more reserved person (at least from their few meetings), Mamoru seems even more quiet and focused right now. Surely the Blight has run them all ragged, Springstar moreso as he had seen more people out and about trying to save everyone that they possibly good. Small respites like these in the midst of chaos - well, sometimes that was the most important. (And sometimes they were barely respites at all when the mind could not calm itself.)

Zhongli idly brushes bits of dust and debris from his own coat and gloves under the table as he waits for the chefs' self critique, one eye on Mamoru as he does so.
]

This world has taken quite a turn into the chaotic. Have you and yours fared well during these times?
intervener: (ā–£ cup flower.)

LKSJDFLKJSDF THIS TAG

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 01:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ h

he just--
this kid just
this kid just di,
DISAPPEARED THROUGH THE--

HELLO????


Vash ends up sprawled atop the rapidly cracking earth, his face catapulting forward as gravity takes him for a ride with Gen suddenly GONE?? now, his senses are something spectacular - and while they are admittedly a bit fuzzy from the growing spread of Blight, they aren't that dulled down. ...are they? no, no. definitely not. couldn't be. he couldn't miss it if the kid had managed to grapple himself free and escape to--

....TO WHERE??? he's NOWHERE, Vash can't find a single trace of him as he sends a frantic, utterly flummoxed look this way and that, even as the sinkhole begins swallowing more and more of the ground behind him with an ominous creek of steel supports from somewhere below. ]


H-Hey! Don't do this to me, you're... you're REAL, right?!

[ DID HE JUST HALLUCINATE AN ENTIRE INTERACTION WITH A DOG KID SOMEONE TELL HIM THEY SAW THIS HOW IS THERE NOT A SINGLE WITNESS TO THIS TRAVESTY OH MY GOD he's falling into the sinkhole and screaming ]
erbe: Keeping me waiting is (014)

[personal profile] erbe 2023-04-29 01:36 am (UTC)(link)
[It doesn't! She swears it doesn't. His help, his kindness... at first all it seems to do is embitter her. The only thing she knows to do when faced with her own vulnerability is to get angry. To bite back like a cornered prey animal with nowhere left to flee. However she doesn't have the strength left for any of that.

When Vash's eyes finally peel away from her Rin sits back up. She pulls the overly large red coat around her like a blanket, and she scoots so that her back just gently brushes his. There. He can't possibly see her like this! And as soon as that thought solidifies it happens. Tears flow from her. They spill over and fall quickly from her face. Rin's dark lashes become dotted with little droplets as the larger ones roll over her cheeks and gather at her chin before falling off.

She hates this. It's so raw. Tohsaka scrubs at her face with the heels of her palms, and she can't help but sniffle a little to keep her face from getting worse.

A few hiccupped sobs, and she leans back. Her small frame resting weight on him like he were the back of a reclining chair.]
lifespanned: (pic#15666258)

[personal profile] lifespanned 2023-04-29 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, tell me about it!

[ She sighs, still struggling through the snow. There's a moment where she almost falls flat on her face, letting out a surprised wah!!! before righting herself by doing some arm circles for balance. Eventually, though, she's able to make it to his side. ]

We've gotta get inside. I was just on my way somewhere.

[ It's an unspoken offer for him to follow, as she points down the road. ]

What're you doing here in Highstorm, anyway?

[ It's a struggle to speak above the icy wind, but she goes through the effort, anyway. What he's doing here is important to know first, she thinks, before she goes right in to huddle against his shoulder for warmth. A simple glance at him is enough to tell her that he's pretty badly infected... and rather than sympathy, what she feels is a curiosity as to how he's accumulated all that Blight. By helping the people here? Or stalking around causing trouble? She doesn't exactly expect a sterling, 100% expository answer, but she sure expects Something to color her judgment on how much she should help him. ]
lifespanned: (pic#11709528)

[personal profile] lifespanned 2023-04-29 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
Mad because you took the sand, obviously!

[ She answers, a little too quickly and hotly to be a lie or anything else. Childishly, her arms cross tightly over her chest, and perhaps more childishly, she stalls in getting them out of this fog, a detriment to both their health. Not having the upper hand against her had been frustrating, too, but she'd known going into the encounter that Akua had all kinds of strange powers. So... that part, she was more prepared to feel the sting of. ]

Luckily, it all came back, or else I'd be mad for real... [ She sulks, laying the pouting on thick. She is mad for real, but she's willing to play the prissy, lovestruck girl who's just glad to be reunited with her memories. ] You're so mean, Akua. Misa hasn't ever even done anything to you.
sharethememory: ([screenshot] 007)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-04-29 01:43 am (UTC)(link)
[ There's a small smile at being so casually called a friend, and upon their first meeting no less. Of course it could be a disarming tactic, but Zhongli stubborn as he is, always took first impressions in a positive light. Logically, there was little benefit in getting in the way of rescue efforts. ]

Only if you have one to lend. Though you seem in good health and good spirits.

[ The dust and debris clinging to Vash's clothes hint that it isn't his first time going out into the ruined parts of the city. Though it is curious that Zhongli does not recognize him as one of Zenith. Unharmonized perhaps? Or could it be that only their own city had been hit by this dreadful escalation? Or perhaps even another unknown reason.

Ah, speculation would get him no where. And his own Blight affliction had reached an unfortunate level - one that Zhongli could not ignore. But he had to make sure he understood the trade being offered here.
]

Is this what one might call your second wind? It seems you have seen much yourself.
epiprocta: (18)

[personal profile] epiprocta 2023-04-29 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
[ It’s not just his hair he’s been wringing dry. He’d already shucked off his jacket to start squeezing some of the heavy rainwater out of it, and it’s only Misa’s interjection that stops him from (shamelessly) stripping off his shirt to wring out, next. Good call, Misa. ]

Oh. … s’cool, isn’t it.

[ Coming from most people, that unabashed curiosity would have been easy territory to make fun of or take as sarcasm, but he doesn’t mind if it’s coming from Misa. Given they’re from similar time periods and backgrounds, he knows her curiosity is genuine — and what hot-blooded teenage boy can resist the urge to brag a little bit to a girl around his age? Gen shoots her a casual, if slightly weary grin. ]

Just got it pretty recently, actually. Hurt like a bitch getting used to it for the first week, but s’been good since I got used to it. [ There’s the gentle creak of cable and the grind of gears when he holds his hand out and flexes his fingers. ] Took a while to pay for, but it’s been worth it … and I can do stuff like this too, hold on.

[ And while, yes, it’s partly just that he wants to show off — there’s also just a little more to the gesture when Gen fishes his lighter from his pocket. It lights with an easy flick of the wrist, but following that, a simple cast of a spell has the little ember expanding to a billiard-ball sized flame. Holding a flame of that size would be uncomfortable for most people, but Gen is obviously impervious to heat of this level

… so he holds it out for Misa to warm her fingers on, if even for a few moments. The oil in his lighter won’t last for long with a flame this size, but even a little bit should help, so. ]
intervener: (ā–£ catmint.)

ow :(

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 01:54 am (UTC)(link)
[ he stays still when Rin moves, the light weight of her back against his all he needs to ascertain she's still there and doing what she needs to. he can't begrudge her any; this is miserable. whatever is happening, whatever is unraveling here - it had ripped something personal from her without permission and made her share it with a stranger.

and when he feels her body faintly trembling where her weight is leaned into his, the pressure increasing as she permits herself to relax back into him, his heart well and truly aches in response. he can't deny he has the urge to turn around and wind an arm around her or... something, but instinct tells him that wouldn't go over too well. that isn't the kind of comfort she needs when feeling vulnerable and rubbed raw, exposed. if he acknowledges it, it'll just make it harder for her, he thinks.

so the only thing he can give her is to pretend he doesn't notice her bleeding her pain (even if they both know he does), to be a solid support to lean on (literally, if not figuratively). it's not enough, is it. ]
epiprocta: (05)

I’M SO SORRY VASH you deserve better than this

[personal profile] epiprocta 2023-04-29 02:04 am (UTC)(link)
[ Haaaahahahaha. Dumbass.

Gen breathes a low laugh to himself, one that goes unheard as he enjoys that pathetic, flailing display from where he’s nested, intangible and practically weightless in the earth just a few feet ahead and deeper down from where Vash is sprawled. And while he’s half of the mind to just dip and leave this idiot to whatever fate awaits him inside that pit …

how can he resist a good show?

So as the ground fully crumbles beneath Vash, dumping him into that sinkhole, he might spot some movement just off to the side.

Gen (seemingly having appeared out of nowhere??? he just sort of phased out of the earth, don’t worry about it), hunkered down in a comfortable delinquent squat at the edge of the sinkhole a good few feet from where Vash is now starting to go into free fall (no doubt accompanied by Looney Tunes style sound effects as the dirt falls first, and then him next). And just to rub things in, Gen shoots Vash an absolutely insufferable shit-eating grin and a lazy wave of the hand as he watches the other plummet downward.

Then he goes about lighting a cigarette for himself as he peers into the sinkhole. Time to see what kind of trouble this moron’s gotten himself into. ]
intervener: (ā–£ firethorn.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 02:17 am (UTC)(link)
[ things are off to a good start, and Vash's smile seems earnest as he bridges the distance between them with no falter of his friendly candor. ]

Yeah, guess you could call it that! Someone was nice enough to give me a bit of a pick-me-up, so I figure I ought to pay it forward, you know?

[ whether it was a Meri or a Zenite, whether it was a Bearer or one of the citizens who had been born and raised in Kenos all their lives, they were all in this together. there is no reason to leave anyone suffering a slow, cruel consumption by the Blight if it could be helped, and Vash was never one to see among 'party' lines, as it were. ]

You've been at this for a while, haven't you?

[ Zhongli looks-- well, he looks exhausted, if a very regal and dignified sort of exhausted Vash couldn't hope to achieve in all his years for sure. ]
intervener: (ā–£ fairy duster.)

šŸ’€šŸ‘¼

[personal profile] intervener 2023-04-29 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
[ the ground has given way and sees Vash - predictably - flailing in a comedic sprawl of lanky limbs and high-pitched screaming before he plummets into the sinkhole, bonking along some outcroppings of broken cobblestone and layers of foundation along the way. there are, of course, a nice variety of 'ooph' and 'ow's and 'ahh!'s and even the occasional "noooOOOO"--

before he finally lands at the bottom, kicking up a great deal of dirt, dust, and God Knows What along with his heaping sprawl in an undignified pile, just out of sight.

and,

...as if in answer to this,

comes another bellowing howl, another high-octave scream--

--and Vash attempting to crawl up the side of the sinkhole like a cat trying to escape the water at bathtime, scrabbling against the jagged edges of the debris like his life depends on it, tears streaking his dirtied face. ]


THIS GUY'S GONNA RIP ME IN HALF, DON'T YOU HAVE A HEART?! I THOUGHT DOGS WERE MAN'S BEST FRIEND!!!
sharethememory: ([screenshot] 032)

[personal profile] sharethememory 2023-04-29 02:53 am (UTC)(link)
[ Zhongli watches with a furrowed brow as Childe effectively seals them both in this space. While effective at its intended purpose in keeping the Blight out, it is the opposite of what Zhongli was aiming for. Now they were furthered trapped inside this house in unfortunate Highstorm. But the Harbinger had a very good point, Zhongli himself was highly contagious with all the Blight he had encountered today, and Childe's new companion would be terribly vulnerable to it. ]

Any dealings you have with me now will increase your own chance of contracting symptoms of the Blight. I should get rid of these clothes first.

[ Zhongli takes a step back, tugging gently to loosen Childe's grip on him. If Childe's grip persists, he will not further pull away. Lingering concerns from how the horrors of Kenos had already graced this house stop him from completely separating himself from the other. ]

There is no sign of the Blight stopping. To the contrary, the longer we wait, the worse everything has become.

We should return to Heliopolis. I know that previous encounters have not left you with a good impression of the Tribune and his people, but it is where I need to be. And I have no intention of leaving you behind.

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