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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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Vash doesn't know what's coming. but he knows that giving Rin to this thing... that isn't an option. that isn't even close to an option. ]
If you have the energy to say something like that, you can take Illya to the church!
[ his footfalls skid to a halt; they aren't going to make it to the church in time. even if they do, will it provide sanctuary from whatever is about to happen? he doesn't know, but he doesn't think so if she's talking about self-sacrifice.
so he slides Rin onto her knees on the forest floor and settles Illya beside her; the luminescent glow of unearthly feathers brightens as further wings build from his right side, covering the pair of them. ]
You're not done yet. I see it in your eyes. Think; there's something we can do, isn't there?
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Illya should have had wome commentary for this, but she's oddly quiet. As if she's more of a prop than anything. Unsettling. Rin frowns at the homunculus, and those ruby red eyes simply stare back. Almost empty.
Tohsaka forces herself to stand. Unbalanced and unsure. Yet once she's finally up she puts on her best face and places her hand to Vash's back right near the curve of his shoulder blade.]
Yeah, but I don't think you'll like it.
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If you're thinking about giving yourself to that thing, then you're right - I'm not going to like it, and it's not going to happen.
[ his stubbornness bleeds from him like a sieve, and unapologetically on this subject. yet despite the almost childish set of his jaw that suggests he isn't going to accept any arguments on that point... there is a softer note in his eyes approaching an unspoken plea. ]
I don't know what's going on, but... there's another way. There's always another way. You can help me find it, or you can sit here and regain your strength... alright? But we're running out of time.
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[If Vash won't allow Rin to confront what is (used to be?) her sister then she will take matters into her own hands. Things are already wrong here. He shouldn't be here, Illya is strangely quiet, and this thing is taking whatever form is most convenient. Everything feels real, they might actually die, but if this version of events doesn't follow logic, well...
Does that mean she doesn't have to either? Despite being drained, Rin knows her power output. Her Od, the natural magical energy produced from herself rather than absorbed through the atmosphere of the world like mana, is nearly 20 times greater than the average output of a matured mage. If things were following logic this might kill her, but hey — they might die either way.
So Rin presses her fingers harder against him. Making contact through his clothes as she forces her magical energy into him. Flooding him with what she shouldn't have anymore. His physiological structure might be strange to her, but the flow of energy is the same with nearly every living being. Even plants. So she will be his battery.
It will be overwhelming. It will be like the constriction of drowning yet the relief of surfacing for air. It will be an ocean of memories with the only lifeline feeling like loneliness and isolation. It will sting — like the tearing of muscle to rebuild it stronger. It will be the loss of family and the deep yearning to have it all back. Sadness, anger, resentment, begrudging acceptance and red hot determination.
The shadowed ribbon may be fast in gathering its energy, but the flow from Rin is faster. Willingly shoved into Vash like pushing him into a lake instead of that thing trying to draw blood from a thousand tiny sources.]
I don't care what you do with this, [she hisses through gritted teeth] but don't you dare waste it.
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he doesn't.
those eyes fly open when an oppressive, unnatural amount of energy begins flooding him as if a dam had been opened, unlocking something it shouldn't have. this isn't the first time he's experienced something like this - no; even if he has mastered further control over it since, the feeling that mimics the Gate being opened sends his every nerve on fire with a violent warning. the last time it had been pried open like this--
Rin's forceful impressions of loss, grief, sadness, anger are overwhelming. resentment. acceptance; determination. he feels it, understands it like it were his own. is it his-- or hers? maybe it's both, and she would feel it too, this overwhelming tangle of identity that seems to meld them together, twisting right back at her as feathery, winged tendrils radiating a soft light build out from around them, making contact with her bared skin, initiating an empathetic bond.
July; Jeneora Rock. the Fifth Moon. countless towns, the Seven Cities, pieces of No Man's Land, people buried under months of sand and sun-scorched rock-- regret; guilt; remorse. faith; trust; hope. they manifest as nothing more than a jumble of chaotic impressions, but--
their shared determination pierces the veil.
and though he knows he should not have access to this much unfettered energy, this much free-flowing power like this - whatever she's doing is causing it to erupt, the feathery mass of his right arm beginning to coalesce into something they have created together. as if Rin had subconsciously known, as if she had placed her remaining impossible reserves in this stranger understanding what would come next, the weapon that manifests produces something that might be equipped to counter the creature's inevitable assault.
a black hole is building at the mouth of the Angel Arm, one Vash can barely brace himself to control as he levies it at their adversary -- not in hopes of destroying it. but to swallow whatever comes from it, next. ]
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The result of the decisive confrontation isn't learned. The moment the creature's attack meets their counter the world turns white. Like a flash so brilliant that it burns away the fabric of existence. Or, at least... the existence that was created around them. The two of them, together, rejecting the narrative of the nightmare. Refusing to accept the false reality. The forest is gone, her sister is gone, Illya is gone... but that also means there is nothing to fear. Nothing to protect nor anything to run from.
Just the two of them. Raw. Alone. Surviving.
Together. He did it. They did it? Yeah. They did it together.]
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Futile attempts at shoving him are made.]
Get off me, you giant twig!
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well, it isn't.
...and what comes next shouldn't be, either.
Vash doesn't know if his vision just whited out or if his sight had simply failed him in whatever had resulted from the blast. regardless, he finds himself coming to sprawled atop a rather... soft? and yet also hard. cushion. beneath him. yeah, it's kinda... hm. here and there it's just a little off, you know, definitely isn't the grass or forest floor he anticipated,
...
.......he's tilting his head backwards at that TWIG outcry, looking at her (and poking her in the face all the harder) upside-down. ]
Who YOU calling twig?! And what happened to the weird ribbon-balloon thing...?! [ no, he isn't moving his weight off her at all even as he points his fingers accusingly in the direction Ribbon Balloon Thing had been, ] AND can't you give a guy a little head's up before you go and pump him full of... of weird energy like that?! If ANYONE should be calling someone else names, it should be ME! You know you coulda gotten us both killed?!
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We were going to die anyway! You should be thanking me for my quick thinking!
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We were not-- probably, and your bright idea right before that was to give yourself over to that thing! I don't know if your 'quick thinking' can be trusted if you ask me!
[ THE GIRLS ARE FIGHTING,,, ]
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Shut up! You had no idea what you were dealing with or the consequences of anything! Trying to save everyone is a fool's errand!
[And the man that he reminded her of, the cause for that sliver of hope she had when Rin had mistaken him, was proof of that. The man who tried to save everyone. Who couldn't even rest after his death. The man who shouldered humanity's mistakes and was forged on a hill of blades.]
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[ sadly for Rin, this is a win(??) in Vash's book; both of them are alive, and none are worse for wear - or, well, much worse for wear. ]
Call me a fool if you want to. [ petulant as his tone might be, it's already softening some. she's been through... ah; he doesn't even know how to categorize what she just experienced. that girl back there - that had been her sister. and he couldn't help but notice the similarities between those ribbons, and...
...he casts a look behind them, but there is no forest. there is no rising enemy, no city streets, nothing. wherever they are, all traces of what they had experienced together has vanished. ]
You okay? You looked pretty rough back there.
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And now? Reliving those moments with a stranger. Standing her ground and disintegrating "her sister" with the power of another. The yearning for Sakura, the heartbreak for Archer... It's difficult. It's much too difficult. It weighs on her like an anvil on her chest. Pressing air from her lungs and causing the muscles of her throat to knot up. Tohsaka wants to cry, but she cannot. The last time she cried in front of someone was when Kirei handed her the ceremonial Azoth blade that her father should have gifted to her, and she hated every single second of it.
Rin's lip quivers, and her brows furrow to keep her eyes shut.]
I'm fine, [she forces out] I just need to rest.
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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. ]
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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.]
ow :(
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. ]
:3c
Goodness, how many absolute juggernauts with a complex about Saving Everybody is she going to meet? Is she just a magnet for them? A little relief falls over her. If only because even if exposing her recent fears is terrible, it's at least a small reassurance to know something familiar.
After drying her face Rin shuffles the coat around yet again. While wearing it she leans more of her weight against him. Her front draped against his back, and her chin perched on his shoulder.]
So that wasn't the first time you've made that weapon, huh?
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Vash tilts his head just slightly when her position shifts, making herself comfortable on her Plant-perch. well, alright then; it seems she's managed to wrangle herself from the (probably much-needed) mini-cry she had that he totally doesn't know about. so, he'll keep looking on out into the strange expanse of their limbo, humming his assent thoughtfully. ]
Don't like making a habit of it, though.
[ it's a little odd to be having this talk, honestly; he hasn't met a soul who hasn't feared for their lives after seeing something like that. but... he could nearly swear she had almost been expecting it. it can't be true, of course - but still... considering the state her sister had been in, perhaps frightening occurrences and life-or-death deus ex machinas aren't as strange as they should be to this girl. ]
...You're pretty tough, you know that?
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I can always handle the second or third most important thing very easily, but when it comes to the absolute most important thing is where I fumble.]
Aside from it being clear you're trying to change the subject I have to correct you. I'm in no way tough, and I've lived a pretty easy life.
[Easy... comparatively. She didn't grow up unable to smile because of the Fuyuki fire. She didn't have to endure years of "training" in the Matou basement with the crest worms. She may have lost her parents, but she lived in a nice house and didn't have to struggle for much.]
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[ about her living a pretty easy life, he means. Vash might not know her well or be in a position to speak like an expert on the subject, but... someone doesn't handle themselves like she does if they haven't been hardened by their experiences. what he saw here - wherever this is - should be proof enough that this girl's life hasn't been a walk in the park by any means. ]
You were ready to lay your life down for Illya. Most people wouldn't be able to make that choice with a level head. [ and that isn't even touching on the decision she had made afterward, face-to-face with that too-familiar creature. ]
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[Or at least that's what she assumed. There's a lot of technical details that she's omitting, or that she herself isn't even privy to. Not only that, but... the sequence of events there was wrong. It shouldn't have happened like that. As if puzzle pieces were mutilated to force a fit and create a picture that was never meant to be.]
Even so, you don't have room to talk. You're not human, are you? When I pushed my magical energy into you I could feel that you didn't have circuits in the same way that we do.
[Though what was off she couldn't quite say. Was it the shape, the path, the function, or the flow of how he received her energy? Was it the arm that tipped her off? No, at the very least it wasn't the arm. For all she knew that could have just been the Noble Phantasm, or "crystallized mystery" (powerful armament), of a Heroic Spirit. It was definitely in the way they connected that helped her form this assumption.]
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still, he lets it go. if she doesn't want to accept it - hey, it's alright. he'll keep his (glowing) opinion of her strength of character to himself. grudgingly.
so he looks at her from the corner of his eye instead at her question. it answers one of his own - 'magical energy; circuits;' was what he'd felt run through him? it was different than anything he had experienced, yet familiar despite this. ]
I'm not sure it'd make much sense if I tried to explain. [ the tried and true It's Complicated, huh? what a cop-out. ]
...Not that I can explain any of what's happening, anyway. [ right; his eyes drift back out to their surreal and non-descript surroundings - some shared space that he could not identify nor define if he tried. how they're even connected like this, where this is-- ]
Don't suppose you know what's going on, do you-- uh. [ ...w-wait. ] Hey, I never even got your name.
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No, I was hoping you'd know what was happening. I though maybe you'd be some oneiric traveler, or something similar.
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No, I'm definitely not. [ he is the opposite of that. there is nothing dream-like about him unless you have NIGHTMARES ABOUT IDIOTS!! ...okay actually, Rin might have those, never mind ] I was peacefully dreaming about eating a burger, and suddenly I'm standing there in some fancy yard [ it was fancy by his criteria do not argue thank you ] with you, and...
[ 'your sister.' ]
A... anyway, I'm pretty sure I don't belong here.
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AND OF COURSE SHE HAS NIGHTMARES ABOUT IDIOTS.]
If you feel like you don't belong then perhaps try to leave instead of scrambling around and clinging to me like a duckling that had just imprinted on the first person they see.
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HELP LMAO
NO HELP, SORRY
I FALL TO MY KNEES
oh good that puts your face in the right spot...
................................🧎♀️
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