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Entry tags:
- arcane: vander,
- arknights: gavial,
- bastard!!: dark schneider,
- black butler: sieglinde sullivan,
- expanse (the): amos burton,
- fate/: quetzalcoatl,
- fate/: rin tohsaka,
- fire emblem: claude von riegan,
- genshin impact: tartaglia (childe),
- genshin impact: zhongli,
- granblue fantasy: eustace,
- magnus archives (the): the archivist,
- orv: dokja kim,
- star wars: cassian andor,
- star wars: jyn erso,
- trigun maximum: vash the stampede
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.
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.
🌙 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.
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.
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.
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I'm okay. I'm sorry if I worried you.
[ In other words, Rin isn't wrong. Gray frowns a little as she feels the rawness of her scar (now an injury), her finger tracing the vicious split of her skin. It makes her wonder if there isn't some sort of time distortion going on, which is an amazing thing to even be able to consider.
She's pulled from her confusion by the rapidly thickening fog around them, casting a ghostly haze over the sight of Rin. It makes Gray nervous, especially with all the magic-tinged weather events of late. ]
... Maybe we should speak somewhere else.
[ Maybe it's just her imagination, but she gets an impression of shadows in the fog... ]
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Tohsaka nods in agreement as she folds her handkerchief. She'll have to toss it later because of the blood, but for now she'll keep it just in case that wound opens again.]
Things have been strange in Highstorm as well. Do you have somewhere in mind?
[Gray knows Meridian better than Rin does. After a moment of internal debate she holds out her hand, palm upturned, to the other young woman. So they don't get separated.]
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My house shouldn't be too far.
[ She'll pull Rin along without delay, nervous of the bad feeling starting to come over her. ]
I haven't been to Highstorm lately. What's happening there?
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Much of the same, really. We may have different ideals, but it seems we all suffer similarly in the end. I've been mostly helping pull people from debris, but I needed some sun. It doesn't look like I'll be getting much.
[The sun stopped being a concern when she saw Gray bleeding, though.]
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Before Gray can respond, the fog closes completely over them. Gray's vision becomes drowned in misty gloom so thick that she can no longer see her hands in front of her. She automatically squeezes Rin's hand more tightly in response, stepping closer to better guard her. The feeling of dread is impossible to ignore now. With her free hand she reaches for Add, primed to fight whatever is coming their way.
But nothing comes.
Instead the fog seems to be receding, and it becomes apparent that her hand isn't holding Rin's after all, her cloak also appearing to have been replaced by a slim white dress. An odd sensation sweeps through Gray, warping her perception all at once — and though she couldn't know it, locks of her uncovered hair begin to streak blonde. She frowns, drooping to her knees as her strength seems to leave her. And she glances at Rin to see if she's suffering from similar effects... ]
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Rin cannot seem to stay still for long — or, in reality, the Caster will not let her.]
Shit — ! This is fake, right? It has to be!
["Oh no," the opposing servant replies with a laugh, "your failing attempts at besting me are very real. Accept that you had lost before you even began!"
Rin hurls another exploding gem at the flying Caster.]
Oh, shut up you hag!
[Well. There goes the elegance and decorum that Gray has learned to associate with Rin Tohsaka.]
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There's a sword.
It's large. It's clunky. It looks like something that could have come from a children's show.
It also happens to boast the same colors as Add. The telltale faces that adorn Add in all his forms are absent from this sword, and yet she can't look away from it; her gloved hand grasps the grip and drags it close, though she's now too weak to swing around a bulky hunk of metal. If there's something extraordinary about this sword, she can't tell. She only knows that it feels right in her hand, an inexplicable comfort in the midst of all this confusion.
With a sharp clink, she digs the point of the sword into the ground and uses it as a crutch to try to stand herself up. She isn't sure how she'll be of any use, but she has to try. ]
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Are you all right? That dress doesn't—
[Rin turns, and that was a mistake. The flaxen hair shines gold in the low light. Different from the platinum that set her apart from Saber and Mordred. Her breath catches in her throat, and her eyes cannot peel away from the sight before her. That face, that hair... in a foreign dress and weak at the knees.
The only thing that gets Rin to throw up a barrier in time is Caster's laughter echoing through the church.]
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She follows Rin's line of sight to the flying purple woman. The woman is pure, unbridled magic; her measure is beyond that of a mere "magic-user," of which there are many in Kenos. No, the flying woman is magic down to her fiber, like Faker, like Mordred, like Quetzalcoatl. A Servant in her full glory. Living people like Gray and Rin would need to plan to excess to stand a chance against a Servant at their best, let alone with one of them barely able to stand. ]
... Miss Rin, you should run.
[ She won't survive with Gray to slow her down. As a mage, surely Rin can understand that. ]
1/2
[Two beams of energy, magic nearing its most honest form, strike at her shield. The barrier cracks, and the weakened state reflects on the gem itself that powers their current shield.
Leave me, are Gray's unspoken words. Rin cannot stomach them. Did that teacher of hers not impart any kind of survivability on her? Gray should be leaning on her. Gray should be wearing out any kindness Rin has to give. Not spouting the same martyr nonsense she's been hearing since her first day in Kenos. Meridians... it's always the Meris.
So Rin looks at her with a positively bright expression.]
Not so sure I'd have a good opening though, and what's more embarrassing than being killed while your back is turned? I have my pride, you know!
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If this is an illusion we may have to play by its rules. I won't ask that of you if you're not capable, but you should consider the options.
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More importantly, Rin mentions something about the rules. If they're fighting a Servant, then Gray supposes that means the rules of Masters, Servants, and the Holy Grail War. That's still a world Gray only has peripheral knowledge of, so she stares at Rin's hand as she tries to connect the dots. ]
The options?
[ After all, Gray has never known the Fifth Holy Grail War's "Saber," let alone why that Saber would be wearing a pure white dress. From her perspective, she's merely in a strange situation with her hair strangely blonde. ]
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[She wonders, as Caster tests her shield again, if they'll even live long enough to forge one. Should Gray hesitate too much in her decision they might just be goners. But Rin isn't one for quitting if she knows there's a chance she can succeed.
But ultimately she will leave it to Gray. Rin may not know the circumstances of that face, but no coincidence has ever occurred so conveniently. More than just that intriguing scar has to be what keeps her hood up.]
I can start the incantation now if you agree.
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Of course, that must also mean she's now "King Arthur," as Excalibur was returned to the Lady of the Lake when the king died. Is this just a memory of Rin's being played out? Or is this a different nightmare altogether? There are too many mysteries and no time to waste on them. Cold dread seeps into every cell of her body, staving off the holy warmth that radiates from Excalibur. Without knowing why, Gray begins to shake, her grip painfully tight on the sword's hilt.
There is no choice in reality. Even if everything in her screams to reject this role, she is and always has been more afraid of a miserable death. ]
Please.
[ One whispered word of response that still manages to waver. She can't trust her mouth with any more than that. Nor can she trust her face to contain its wrenched expression, so she remains bowed over her sword, brow to pommel. She will do what she must to fight, for both her and Rin's sakes. ]
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But that's the way of things, isn't it? Nothing good goes unpunished, and that's one reason why Rin is the way she is.]
Heed my words.
[The incantation starts just as Rin's jeweled barrier shatters. Her hand dipping low for Gray to see. To take so that they may face the enemy together.]
My will creates your body, and your sword creates my destiny. If you heed the Grail's call and obey my will and reason, then answer me! I hereby swear that I shall be all the good in the world. That I shall defeat all evil in the world. Thou Seventh Heaven, clad in the three great words of power, come forth from the circle of binding, Guardian of the Scales!
[Gray only need to answer her call and touch her hand. Rin's mana should be more than enough to dispel the dress and revive the girl to full power — or perhaps even beyond that.]
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If you'll have me, I swear to deliver you to safety for as long as we walk together... my Master.
[ There's something alien driving her now, and yet it isn't an unfamiliar phenomenon. Gray has always been susceptible to possession; every time she takes up Rhongomyniad she surrenders herself to the Holy Lance, and in the same way now, she doesn't resist the compulsions of her Servant vessel. She dislikes losing herself, and yet it's when she achieves the greatest calm, trained and meditative. If she were a more insightful person she might see how twisted that tendency is; she was born and bred, after all, to be consumed by other forces with maximum efficiency.
She reaches out a hand to grasp Rin's—
And the contract is complete.
The magic circuits in Gray's — no, King Arthur's — body open like a surging river, power suddenly brimming through every inch of her like dragonfire. It's invigorating; it's terrifying. If Gray had time to withdraw and drown in it, she certainly would. Instead, the urgency of the situation sharpens her alarm into focus.
When she lifts Excalibur, she realizes how dim it actually was. Now it awakens with dazzling golden splendor, its light devouring the gloom. This body knows more than Gray does, and with a mere thought it blows away the white dress to manifest a crude yet elegant blue and silver set of skirted armor in its stead.
All of this is pearls before swine where Gray is concerned. She only knows she's been given power and a task. Steel firms her expression, her gaze finding Caster with cold focus. When it comes to a fight, there can be no hesitation. ]
I'm off!
[ With a speed that surprises even her, she shoots like a bullet at Caster, leaving a spray of gravel in her wake. ]
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Watching Gray take off is a wonder all on its own. Tohsaka stands there stunned by the other girl's brilliance as Caster curses in vain. Perhaps it would be a more even match if their opponent still had near-infinite stores of mana, but unbeknownst to the party inside, someone is draining that pool dry with their own fight outside the church.]
Gray...
[The name falls from her lips. Colored with awe and respect. Meanwhile it's all Caster can do to keep her defenses up against the power Gray now wields.]
1/2
Gray feels like an outsider looking in as she dashes and dispels the attacks that come her way. Power and certainty turn every stroke of her sword into a command; she spends as much effort as is necessary to exert her will and nothing more. There's a purity in King Arthur's swordsmanship that Gray has never conceived of in her own aggressive, survival-oriented fighting style. It's a beauty that Gray finds herself falling more deeply into, her consciousness fading, willingly becoming consumed by an existence far greater than her own like a shadow vanishing under the sun...
The next thing she knows, Caster is vanishing around her sword.
Except Caster was never real. ]
2/2
The fog stretches out before her and Rin once again, no Caster or Excalibur in sight. Her hair is still gray, her hood is still over head.
Gray falls to her hands and knees, her legs giving out under her. In a most uncute and inelegant manner, she retches until her stomach is empty, her back bowed with shuddering horror. ]
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Gray!
[There's an intense amount of concern in her voice when she scrambles to settle by her side. Rin takes one hand to ease her gently by palming Gray as her other hand pulls out a handkerchief to offer.]
Here, take this to wipe your mouth when you think it's done.
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When she feels presentable again, Gray sits up with exhaustion more mental than physical and struggles to grasp what just happened. ]
That was the Holy Grail War?
[ Her voice is faint, the acrid taste of bile still on her tongue. ]
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[Tohsaka wonders just how different the Holy Grail war may have been. What would have caused such divergences? was it a change in "cast"? No, 'Saber' and Caster were the same. She was the same. Wait, was Emiya there? She didn't think to check...]
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Her hand moves to her heart, counting the beats beneath her skin, before moving slowly to stand. ]
King Arthur... must have been as impressive as the legends made him seem.
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My feelings on that Saber are a bit conflicted. She was undeniably beautiful and chivalrous, as a king or a knight should be, but I think something tormented her.
[Rin uses female pronouns if only because aside from that battle dress, she's only seen "King Arthur" in her own clothes that she let her borrow.]
While the Grail killed and consumed the servants for power, she remained intact. Darkened by its mud and doing its bidding. Perhaps the evil in the Grail tempted her in some way? She was human once, after all.
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Gray doesn't know the answer behind King Arthur's apparent subservience to the tainted Grail. Such things were for her mentor to mutter to himself about without heed for how nutty he sounded to the people around him. ]
Human... I suppose so.
[ The people of Gray's village treated Arthur like a god, and somewhere along the way maybe Gray began to believe it a little too. Being able to experience some of that power has done little to dispel the notion, and yet Arthur was never proclaimed to be anything but a human being.
In any case, now isn't the time or place to be ruminating on the existential mores of a knight from the Dark Ages, glorious and important as that knight may be. With the adrenaline fading away, Gray remembers that the last time she spoke to Rin, she said something quite offensive to make Rin storm off. She still feels a little awkward about it, truth be told, but mostly she feels she shouldn't bother Rin anymore with her presence. Mages are a proud breed of people with little time or tolerance for the feeble, so Gray will be considerate and excuse herself. She bows a little toward Rin. ]
Thank you for your help. I think this means... I'm the one who owes you now?
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