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

A

[hauntedking]

[ Dimitri has been working as best he can to help people. To recover them from wreckage or danger. But not every resuce is successful. Not everyone is alive by the time he gets to them. So naturally, their bodies must be brought somewhere. He gently lays the shrouded body of someone done amongst the others. A mother or sister. A daughter. Someone who mattered a great deal to someone, but now... now it is all gone. Like so much frost under the morning sun. He glances up and listen in silence as Gray murmurs her prayer. ]

...it's good of you to help like this, Gray.

[ Even if this is the grimmer aspect of the crisis they face. ]

[gravings]

[ Gray feels her help is less than what these people deserve; her prayer is incomplete, half of it lost to her inadequate memory. But the precision of the process isn't as important as the intent, she knows, so she endures Dimitri's compliment as she turns to look at him. ]

I hope it will help them rest.

[ She means it in the most practical sense. If ghosts arise from these untimely deaths, it'll be the worst case scenario in her mind. ]

Thank you for helping too, Mr. Dimitri. I know it isn't easy work.

[hauntedking]

None of it is easy...

[ He sighs. ]

I'm glad when we can find someone alive. But... there are so many where we simply weren't in time.

[ His shoulders slump a little. ]

It's a thankless task, I suppose. But we cannot simply leave them out there - dead or alive.

[gravings]

[ He's right on all accounts. The truth of it sits between them in a few seconds' silence. ]

I'm not sure what the... common procedure is when so many pass at once. I've never seen this many dead waiting to be taken care of.

[ How many gravekeepers are there in the city? Surely they'll be overwhelmed. Gray isn't particularly excited at the prospect of helping them with their work, but the thought of these bodies sitting out indefinitely sounds much more grim. ]

[hauntedking]

...I've seen death such as this before. But usually only after a great battle.

[ He frowns. He's reluctant to say more, but he feels he has to. ]

...usually, when nothing else can be done, all are buried in a common grave together. Noble and commoner alike. Or burned.

[ It's a grim thing to deal with. ]

[gravings]

[ That makes sense to her. It's as things should be. Despite the civility she pays toward the bodies of the deceased, dead is dead, no matter who they were in life. So she nods, accepting the practicalities for what they are. ]

It feels like even that will take too much time. The Blight... it's making everything difficult.

[ Though he doesn't need her telling him that. ]

I wonder how much more the people can endure.

[hauntedking]

...people can endure a surprising amount of hardship if they believe it is worthwhile or for a good cause. Although in this case, I hardly think it's anything like that. It's merely... a hardship that must be endured.

[ He sighs softly. ]

All we can do is try to assist them. All we can do is... move forward. There's no other alternative.

[gravings]

[ He's right, of course. It can be hard to endure tragedies like these, but it's even harder to simply lie down and die. ]

I just hope it all stops soon. Usually there's something we can do to help put an end to things...

[ But she hasn't heard anything beyond Cyrus's call to action. ]

[hauntedking]

Yes, I agree. This seems almost beyond us, to an extent. What else can we do but help as best we can, though?

[ He seems a little bothered. ]

I hope Cyrus has a solution. But he must, surely...

[gravings]

[ It seems like Dimitri has faith in Cyrus, or at least enough to hope in his leadership ability. She tips her head up to look at him. ]

This might be a strange question, but what do you think of Mr. Cyrus?

[hauntedking]

...I'm not sure. I think he thinks he's doing what's best. But I don't know if he can actually fulfill what he promises... but I also know there's no other alternative.

[ He's being honest, at least. ]

I struggle with it.

[gravings]

... I feel that way too.

[ It's a bit of a relief to hear that she wasn't the only one. ]

I think he tries to be "human," but leaders of people can't really be human, can they?

[hauntedking]

[ Oof. That hits close to home. ]

No. They can't. However much they would like to be, they must lead - and that means putting aside humanity, at times.

[gravings]

[ She nods slowly, accepting that. ]

It's humane of him to ask that we help the people of Springstar, but I'm a little worried that one day, he might ask us to do something less kind. No... it's probably inevitable that he will.

[hauntedking]

...I do worry about that, too. What are we willing to do to get what we've lost back?

[ It's a thought. Not one he enjoys. ]

[gravings]

[ She doesn't know the answer to that, not by a long shot. ]

What would you be getting back?

[ A broad question, but an essential one. ]

[hauntedking]

...everything. My home. My friends. My people.

[ His kingdom. Although he doesn't think of it quite like that. ]

[gravings]

And if you couldn't have them back... if instead, you stayed here or went on to make a new world, do you think life wouldn't be worth living anymore?

[hauntedking]

...I don't know.

[ Dimitri's answer is honest, at least. ]

...I would feel guilty, for having a chance to save them and not taking it.

[gravings]

[ It sounds like Dimitri is a man who seriously listens to his conscience. ]

Then I think... you should do whatever lets you hold your head high. You seem like you wouldn't be able to live with yourself otherwise.

[hauntedking]

...that's true.

[ He smiles a bit weakly. ]

I want to leave my world a better place. That's a part of it, I suppose.

[gravings]

[ Hm... ]

You seem like a good person, Mr. Dimitri.

[hauntedking]

...am I? I try to be. I cannot say I always succeed.

[ But he accepts the compliment all the same. ]

What about you, Gray? What are you trying to get back to?

[gravings]

[ That's a good question. Though she asked it of him, she doesn't have an answer readily at hand, and she has to consider first with a sliding gaze. ]

I have a mentor I still want to learn things from... a friend I'd like to have more tea with... and a lot of things I need to speak with my mother about. It isn't much compared with everyone else.

[ She's young, after all. She didn't have property or patriotism — just a handful of people, pocket change, and plenty still to learn. ]

[hauntedking]

It's still something you deserve to have a chance at.

[ He smiles sadly. ]

I'm not that much older, you know. I just happen to have been given a burden to carry.