kenoslogs | The Seeds of Unrest, Phase Two 🌱

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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.

🌙 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.

🌞 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

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As do you.

[Byleth's heavy-lidded gaze lingered on the injured arm, his pen pressed against the paper on his clipboard. Though it looked like a terrible injury, John seemed unbothered by it. He recalled their conversation at the Meridian mingle a while back, him being capable of manipulating organic matter or... something like that. So...]

Are you dying. If not, then you'll need to wait to be healed. There's a priority system in place.

[First time ever Byleth was scraping the bottom of the barrel here. His Crest Stone felt uncomfortably hot behind his ribcage (like an overheating engine...), and he was rationing out his healing spells for those who really needed it.]

[ john smiles tiredly because byleth isn't wrong, and he opened himself up to that, but he waves a hand (the good one) at the mention of a priority queue. ]

I'll live. It couldn't kill me the first time; it won't kill me now. [ comforting? ] I just came in here to get out of the snow, but I never claimed to be a fast runner.

[ he hates talking about himself, so he squints at byleth instead. ]

Are you actually accomplishing something here besides burning yourself out?

[ he still can't entirely make out what byleth has going on physiologically, but it's obvious he's pushing himself. ]

[The snow? Byleth tilted his head minutely, having not had the pleasure of being introduced to the snow's effects just yet, but untilted it at the question.]

Mm, that's the question, isn't it? If these events continue, what I achieve here will be meaningless.

[Springstar and Highstorm will be swallowed up by the Blight, the Tree will die and... well, he supposed if there's time, he'd travel to Alenroux and stay there, or wherever there was safety from the Blight. 'Survive at all costs,' Jeralt had told him. Byleth intended to obey the order.]

I intend to cut my losses when we draw closer to that moment. [Said so bluntly and without a hint of shame.] But until then... things are manageable, and so I'll try to manage them - within reason.

[He's been keeping his distance from clearly Blighted patients. He's trying to minimise as much contact as possible with it, and since healing those injured from falling debris and the like was safer than crawling around the Blight roots... well, Byleth's decision here was selfish.]

They might be less manageable much sooner at this rate. The weather's starting to turn unpredictable, but if you've been busy indoors, I suppose you wouldn't know that.

[ which is why, for all his necromantic skill at manipulating flesh and bone, he still has an awful-looking wound that stubbornly refuses to heal. ]

As much as I hate to ask, if you can spare a roll of gauze or some cloth, that might be helpful in the meantime.

[ he'll purge this later and buy more time, so he's not overly concerned, but his hand trembles despite his efforts to make it stop; it's been a very long time since john has had to experience physical pain he couldn't just switch off. ]

[The weather? Byleth recalled him mentioning the snow... he made a note to inquire about it further. But first-]

Ah, yes. One moment.

[Byleth ambled off, towards where the medical supplies were stored to tend to those who came in needing immediate dressing of wounds. He collected some gauze and surgical scissors and tape, and ambled back.]

I may be able to alleviate some of the pain with light healing magic, if you wish. I can spare that much.

[ john considers this offer, uncertain. he's never needed the healing. he was the guy with the power, he was the healer. for ten thousand years, he managed to never even bleed for all the good that's done him.

then he looks at the roll he'd asked for and imagines wrapping his entire forearm, elbow to fingertips, and he rubs at his temple with his good hand again. ]

Ah, what the hell. What have I got to lose?

[ he says this mostly to himself before looking up at byleth again. ]

Do you need physical contact for that? I wouldn't ask anyone to expose themselves over that, but [ sigh. ] I'll take it if it works at a distance.

Worse comes to worst, I'll take it off, but we're not quite to that point yet.

[ he talks about taking off body parts as he talks about changing clothes. ]

[Byleth wasn't sure what he meant by 'take it off', but decided he meant the gauze if he put it on? Maybe? It wasn't important he supposed.]

No physical contact is required. That would be unhygienic.

[He tucked his clipboard against his forearm and lifted his other hand. With a small flicker, a soft glow emanated from his palm, almost looking like a lens flare with how it haloed around his hand - if you tilted your head just right, you could even see little rainbows where the light refracted from its unnatural curve.

Healing magic was said to be a gift from the goddess - even Byleth had learned that, as isolated from society as he was. There had been many gods and goddesses on the fringes of Fódlan society however; those from Sreng or Dagda or Brigid who had to eke out a living as wandering mercenaries, rejected as they were from the suspicious Fódlans. Byleth had assumed it to be an abstract thing, much like how people said human lives were a gift from the gods, but with Sothis's awakening, he had learned there was a grain of truth to it.

Man-made magic, the sort used by dark mages, was blocky, crude and lacking in finesse - or, that's how Sothis described it. She had gifted humans with knowledge of her magic, which drew on the natural foundations of the world, rather than inserting one's artificial will into reality. Healing magic was one of these, yet it was unique in that it required a certain aptitude that was inherent to a person, as it drew on something fundamental within them. Byleth, for example, had astronomically high aptitude.]

Hold out your arm, please. There shouldn't be any discomfort, but if there is, please let me know. I'm aware our different worlds may function off different laws regarding magic and the like.

[Magic allergy, is that a thing? Byleth's seen stranger things.]

[ his lips twist into a wry smile at the thought of anything being unhygienic. that is a reassuringly competent grasp of germ theory — which john always wonders about when dealing with the magically inclined — but it's not like he has any reason to worry about that.

his eyes narrow a little when byleth starts working the magic, focusing on the glow that's powerful enough to bend the light around it. he is fascinated by what exists outside his sphere of influence; he can sense power, but only in the same way a regular person can sense a lightning storm.

john holds his arm out without comment or resistance for once, concentration putting a crease in his brow. he can't understand anything about the magic itself, but his own body is like an open book. ]

I'm sure I'll be fine. I think attunement to this world's energies is considered the great equaliser anyway.

True...

[And there was the magic one could learn from the Factions as well. Byleth set the curiosity aside though, and focused on the task before him. He held his hand above John's arm - as promised, making no physical contact - and the glow brightened a little bit more, bathing John's radiation burns in a gentle light.

The first thing the magic seemingly did was numb the pain receptors - as if it found the exact point where the nerves registered damage and carelessly switched them off - swiftly followed by stimulating the body's natural healing response. Using John's own energy, the healing magic proceeded to enhance cellular regeneration and excite the fibroblasts into producing more collagen.

Were they in Byleth's world, free from the weakening effects of Kenos, he could've healed this injury in a blink of an eye, supplementing the energy required for such a rapid recovery with his own. But this place weakened him, he was already exhausted, and John didn't feel exactly spry either, so Byleth worked economically: a sliver of energy, emplacing a temporary numbing effect, and encouraging the body to focus regeneration in this area, and he was done.

The glow of healing magic faded, and Byleth lowered his hand.]

There. The pain, at least, should be dampened. Apologies, I can usually heal wounds like this with little effort, but I'm exhausted.

[ john's brows creep subtly higher as he watches byleth work with the quiet interest of one expert observing another. ]

Whatever you can do seems to manipulate thalergy directly, without the thanergetic middle man... interesting.

[ he experimentally flexes his arm and hand once byleth has finished, and though the wound still looks unpleasant, it's clearly much better now that it doesn't feel like it looks.

now that it doesn't sting, he can start wrapping it up. if byleth is still paying attention, he might notice the unusual brands that form patterns where his skin is still mostly intact — evidence from the other times he's purged his Blight — but john seems to either not notice or not care that anyone might; he's wrapping it because it's an open wound, not because he has anything to hide. ]

And no reset. [ that's a relief. ] At least, not yet, but that's still an improvement, so there is no need to apologise. We're stuck doing our best with what we've got while we're here.

[ he can sympathise. ]

[Byleth gaze lingered on the brands, but he didn't comment on them. As he was keeping away from all things Blight, he wasn't really aware of the whole brand relationship thing just yet, and just assumed they were some unusual tattoos. Mercenaries inked themselves all the time.]

I'm surprised you didn't tend to your injury yourself. If I recall, you have some control over biological functions, correct?

Oh, I do, but that's the tricky part. I can sacrifice a limb relatively easily if I have to, and that control is why I can keep it concentrated to the one arm, but that's all I can do about it.

[ he keeps working while he talks, seeming to find it even easier to split his attention this way. ]

Any other sort of injury? No problem. The Blight doesn't just heal when we want it to, though, does it? See, usually, it erodes things and rots them away. It'll start out looking like frostbite and keep moving north, but unlike a normal wound, I can't heal it or regrow any tissue until I purge the infection.

It becomes thanergetically inert, which in layperson's terms, means I can't directly affect the tissue with necromancy while the Blight is active.

[ john works methodically, taking his time and fixing the way the bandage lays just so all the way. that's the sort of person he is — careful. all of this culminates in him getting to the end of the roll of gauze up around his upper arm, where he tucks the edge in and works a knot into it to secure it. ]

The weird thing about the snow is that it seems to work in reverse — instead of rotting things away, it rolls them back to another time. A past injury that I had no problem healing the first time around. I won't demonstrate just in case it undoes what you did, but if I made it whole, it'd snap right back to how it started.

I suspect your healing magic worked because you can manipulate the thalergy directly, but deadening the nervous response is different than repairing all of the damage, so I would wager it would have diminishing returns over time.

[ he gets to the end of all this and only then looks up and seems to remember who he's talking to. ]

If that makes sense.

It does. Thank you for your explanation.

[Byleth was always interested in learning new things - especially pertaining to magic - and he meticulously filed that away. He stared at John's now bandaged arm - except not really, more like he was staring through, his mind obviously mulling over the new information given to him. He'd noticed that his magic was rather limited in healing the Blight. The most he could do was alleviate symptoms and pain...

Though, he could delay the Blight effects using Divine Pulse, but even that was limited. Kenos throttled his ability to gently nudge Time in the path he wanted it to take, and so unless he wanted to thoroughly exhaust himself to the point of death, he could only prevent Blight symptoms for about a handful of minutes at most.

If only Sothis were awake. Perhaps if he relinquished control over to her, she'd be able to do something...]

It's as if the Blight untethers its victims from the natural flow of Time. It carries them faster down it, but... this snow... hm. I haven't yet experienced it for myself, but it sounds just as dangerous as the Blight's acceleration effects. If one had suffered a near-fatal injury in the past...

[Or, in Byleth's case, had been dead at one point and revived only due to the Crest Stone in his chest... what would even happen in that case?]

[ john gives byleth a curious look at that explanation, as it differs from how he imagines it himself. not wrong, just different, and an outside perspective can be good when you're stuck on a difficult problem. ]

That's an interesting way of putting it. Maybe it matters what form the Blight takes..? [ he trails off there, but fortunately, he didn't lose the plot entirely. ]

I would advise protection, given the unpredictability of the weather. Layers, even. I'm going to have to replace a cloak, but it beats reliving when you got vaporised the once.

[ as one does. ]

[Vaporised... surely that was an exaggeration...]

Thank you for the advice. Being caught in that snow wouldn't end well for me, considering...

[Hm.]

The snow reverses time, the Blight in its typical state accelerates it. An icy chill accompanies both. Hm...

[Ice floes could disrupt the flow of a river. Could something similar be happening here, temporally?]

Right.

[ he doesn't need byleth to elaborate explicitly to know what whatever was being considered probably wasn't good. ]

Has it always been an icy feeling every time in your experience?

[ he isn't sure if there is a greater significance to that, but at this point, any detail could be potentially useful. ]

I've considered it could be some kind of corruption of Zenith and Meridian energy, which could explain why Shard-bearers don't succumb to it as easily. And how we know innately how to purge it. That's a bit weird, don't you think?

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The Seeds of Unrest, Phase Two 🌱

STIRRING STORMS

ORDERS

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