The Seeds of Unrest, Phase Two 🌱

[beleos]

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

Comments

[fishfearme]

[Byleth didn't correct him, his gaze sliding away to stare into the middle distance instead. Byleth gave up on others all the time, and it wasn't a case of 'liking' or 'disliking' it. He simply did it.

('Survive at all costs', Jeralt had said. 'Even at the cost of everyone else. Honour's for dead men, kid.')]

...what do you do with lost causes, Dimitri?

[hauntedking]

You fight them to the bitter end. Because that's all one can do.

[ He glances up at the ceiling, as if it might have answers. ]

Some causes can't be given up.

[fishfearme]

That's illogical.

[But that was always the case with most people, Byleth found. Faerghan knights baffled him, with how readily they threw themselves into hopeless causes for no material gain - and for what? For their kith and kin to daub their eyes and say 'oh, he died so honourably'? For them to dig in their heels and fight and their deeds immortalised in tales around the campfire, when a retreat and conceding ground and ambitions would ensure survival and possible victory later in the future?

For some reason, he felt mildly agitated at the thought of Dimitri doing something so pointless, in the same way he felt agitated when Claude had dug in his heels about Adelfoúla, even though Byleth had told him to give up on those like her as it'd just bring him pain to be continuously attached. It was logical. Pragmatic. It was basic survival.

Annoying, he thought, how annoying is it that those he was close to didn't understand how to protect themselves from the pain of living. Even Jeralt was a hypocrite, as much as Byleth loved him - Jeralt would never give up on him, no matter how hopeless Byleth became... and in turn, Byleth was the same. He'd never give up on Jeralt, no matter how hopeless.

It was confusing. So Byleth shoved it all aside and ignored it.]

Survival is all that matters in the end. That's what I believe.

[hauntedking]

If I have to choose between my life and the lives of the people I hold dear or even the lives of the people I have promised to protect... it is not even a choice.

[ Survival does not concern him much. But perhaps that's not a surprise considering what he's been through and what he's been through. Or the culture he was raised in. While he tries not to throw his life away pointlessly... there are things which are worth staking his life on. ]

If I survive and lose everything I hold dear, everything I fight for... what good is it?

[fishfearme]

If you die, you'd be subjecting those you leave behind to the pain of your loss.

[Physical pain, Byleth can withstand without flinching. Emotional pain...? Those were splinters that could never be teased out, digging and biting and aching no matter what one did, weeks, months or years into the future. Entertaining the hypothetical scenario of Jeralt's death made him feel an emotional agony so acute it was worse than any physical pain he had endured.

To experience it in reality...?

To realise that, at some point, Dimitri and Claude were gaining that state too: that considering the purely hypothetical scenario of their death was... painful, of the worst kind. In their current situation, with the Blight and the two cities slowly being torn apart? That hypothetical was inching dangerously closer to reality with each moment.

There were no words to explain this, though. Not in a way that Dimitri would understand.]

But it doesn't matter... I can see I won't change your mind on this stance. I can only ask that you try to prioritise your own safety when things continue to deteriorate.

[hauntedking]

I will stay safe for as long as I can. But if I feel that I have to throw myself into danger... I will.

[ He cocks his head at Byleth. ]

Surely you understand that. You throw yourself into battle without hesitation.

[ Although, to be fair he doesn't quite understand Byleth's thoughts at the moment. ]

[fishfearme]

Not recklessly. I only engage in battles where victory is heavily weighted in my favour due to either my superior skill, strength or strategy. If defeat is inevitable, I retreat or surrender.

[It was why he had joined the Kingdom forces in the first place. He and Jeralt saw the writing on the wall and wiggled through a loophole in their contract to the Empire to secure a contract with King Dimitri instead. Some may call that a betrayal, but it was simple logic. Defending the Empire was pointless. It was a lost cause.]

The same applies here. I'm assisting with the healing, as it allows me to maintain distance from the Blight while still fulfilling my obligations to our faction. The moment the situation worsens however, I will distance myself to minimise contact with the Blight. Perhaps I'll transfer my efforts to Alenroux and ensure the occupation there remains stable, despite Springstar falling into ruin.

[hauntedking]

I'm less thinking of the faction than I am the people, Byleth. Everyone here needs our help, whether it's to do with Meridian or not.

[ He's... a little disappointed that Byleth would choose to leave people in need behind. ]

Surely you wouldn't simply abandon them.

[fishfearme]

[Byleth heard the disappointment and knew he had failed to match up to an expectation he had never been told about. Likely Dimitri's Byleth would've held a similar opinion to him: saving as many people as possible, even at the cost of one's life.

He felt his jaw clench.]

I'm not abandoning them. I'm prioritising my safety. If we succumb to the Blight, or die in some other fashion, then Fódlan is lost forever.

[He straightened up from his slouch, his grip visibly tightening around his clipboard.]

We must be pragmatic about this. No matter how difficult it may be to turn a blind eye to the suffering, we must cut away our sympathy and focus on our survival - for Fódlan.

[There was more Byleth wanted to add, but even he knew they'd be words he'd regret, spoken only in the heat of the moment. Instead, he forced his grip to relax around the clipboard, trying to ignore how hot he suddenly felt.]

[hauntedking]

[ Dimitri is silent for a long moment. He doesn't entirely disagree with Byleth, but the disagreement that does exist stings. Even if this isn't "his" Byleth, hecares for him deeply and to have them not see eye to eye makes his heart ache. ]

The people here still deserve a chance. I cannot... will not... cut away my sympathy, Byleth.

[ He closes his eye with a soft sigh. ]

...I have walked a path where I turned a blind eye... where I inflicted suffering. I cannot and will not do so again. Everyone deserves a chance. A helping hand.

[fishfearme]

[Byleth looked at him with heavy-lidded eyes. Slowly, his brief loss of composure was neatly tucked away under his unreadable mask, until he was back to being dead-eyed, blank faced Byleth. He lifted his clipboard, rested it upright on his lap, as if erecting a sort of barrier between him and Dimitri, no matter how flimsy.]

If that's what you wish to do, then I'll say no more on the subject. It's your life to do as you will with it.

[hauntedking]

[ That gesture isn't missed. Dimitri can see what Byleth is doing and that hurts. There's a flicker of something in his expression - hurt, maybe. Something else. He glances away after a long moment of uncomfortable silence. ]

...I understand.

[ He doesn't know how to reach across this gap now. ]

[fishfearme]

[Byleth was seemingly immune, or unbothered, by the awkwardness that had descended on them. He shifted his gaze to across the waiting room of the triage medical centre, seeing the various people sitting in various states of glumness and shellshock. Their home was being destroyed around them, seemingly with no solution in sight, and Byleth honestly empathised with them. He felt bad about it. He wanted to help them.

But he couldn't. Not if it came at the cost of his own life, and by extension Fódlan's.]

I'll tell you what I told Claude, though he didn't seem to agree with me either. [his tone was quiet.] But you shouldn't get attached to the people here. You'll only hurt yourself in the long run- no. You are hurting yourself. I don't want that for either of you.

[hauntedking]

...if we are given the power to save them, we must use it. Attachment or no.

[ Dimitri responds quietly. ]

Whether that harms me or not does not matter. To forgo that responsibility is a failure on my part. I am a king, Byleth. Someone given power. Someone who must wield it. If I do not use it for the sake of others, what good is it, in the end?

[fishfearme]

[It was almost like speaking to an alien. Byleth struggled to understand his point of view.]

You're not a king here, Dimitri. You're just another person.

[If Dimitri was so inclined, he could find a cabin in the woods and live as a hermit for the rest of his days, and in Byleth's eyes, that was perfectly fine. Dimitri didn't have to do anything, he didn't have to destroy himself trying to protect everyone with a power born from a Crest stolen by his ancestors. There was no unwritten rule that a human must achieve 'x' amount of selflessness to deserve to live in happiness - just by virtue of being alive did Dimitri deserve that.]

You have no responsibility to anyone here. And- [he added before Dimitri could speak.] -if you disagree with that, then your responsibility is to those who are left behind in Fódlan. They'll want to see you again, hale and whole.

[...]

Your Byleth will want to see you again. The one you truly care for.

[hauntedking]

[ Dimitri could walk away from being king back in Fodlan, but he'd never forgive himself for doing that. Even if he would like nothing else better. He exhales in a low sigh. ]

...I know. [ This hurts. ]

To risk myself for people who aren't my loved ones or the people I swore to rule and protect...

[ He closes his eye. ]

But... I cannot turn away and close myself off to these people. They are still people, Byleth. And whether or not you are "my" Byleth are not, you are still Byleth. I care for you. Do not doubt that.... please.

[fishfearme]

[Byleth will continue to doubt, just like he doubted Claude as well, despite his better acting abilities. But he could see that the conversation risked devolving into a circular argument of some kind, and Byleth lacked the mental energy for it. He decided to concede the point.]

As you say. I can see I can't change your mind... just, be mindful of your own health as well, Dimitri. Don't do anything needlessly reckless.

[hauntedking]

I'll take care of myself.

[ Dimitri manages a little smile. ]

I'll ask you to do the same. If this is the first chance you've had to rest... should I try to find something for you to eat or drink?

[fishfearme]

It's alright. I can go days before I require food.

[And he had delved into his stockpile of food that he had saved up in case of a disaster (hah! It wasn't paranoia if it really happened!!!) this morning. Eating wouldn't really make him recharge any faster either, not unless Dimitri was hiding a feast underneath his cape somewhere.]

[hauntedking]

Just because you can go for days doesn't mean you necessarily should...

[ Now he's worried. Time to act like a grandmother and just bring food every time he sees Byleth. ]

[fishfearme]

I should, as food is likely to grow scarcer due to this disaster event.

[Byleth literally went two solid weeks without food once during one of the harsher winters in Fódlan (as did Jeralt), and the only thing that happened was that he felt kind of nauseous by the end of it (whereas Jeralt had been slightly worse off). He had his provisions. If he spaced it out, he could last for probably an entire month without needing to take any food circulating the city's provisions.]

You and Claude will require at least two meals a day to maintain your strength at optimal levels. I can manage the same with only one meal every three days. Therefore, it's logical for me to fast to allow others requiring more food to maintain their strength for longer.

[hauntedking]

...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.

[fishfearme]

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............]

[hauntedking]

[ 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]

[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...]