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

[passio]

—sorry!

[ dextera is, appropriately, surprised to see misa here. he’s been devoting himself to relief in springstar since things have taken a turn for the worse, and he assumed that the zenite loyalists—like misa—would be doing the same. anyone else, and he might be suspicious of their presence here, but he wants to believe that misa’s reasonable approach thus far means she’s not here to cause any problems for the residents.

he starts to reach out for her to ensure she’s steady, but at the last moment, his fingers curl away with the quick reminder, looking at his own frostbitten fingers, that he’s afflicted. ]

You shouldn’t be here. It’s dangerous…

[lifespanned]

Well, I'm trying to leave, but I'm all turned around...

[ She pouts, pulling her cloak around her more tightly. In a funny way, they're of the same mind: had Dextera been anyone else, Misa would have almost certainly lied about the fact that she is lost. But Dextera has always been pretty well-meaning, so her initial thoughts aren't to suspect him or to view him as a potential threat. A quick look at his frostbitten fingers only bolsters that opinion. ]

I'd ask you for directions, but you look terrible, Dex. [ (affectionate) ] Shouldn't you be the one looking for help?

[passio]

[ there’s always a kind of cautious dance he has to do with zenites, even the ones he considers relative allies. still, again, he reminds himself that this is misa. for all the time he’s known her, she’s been thoughtful, level-headed—and most importantly, kind. ]

I’m… trying.

[ he rubs his own fingers in vain to warm them up. ]

I haven’t had the chance to talk to anyone.

[lifespanned]

[ Her gaze lingers, as he tries to create warmth for himself. Of course, all shard-bearers have a strange, inherent knowledge on how to alleviate the Blight... but in all honesty, she doesn't feel the urge to do it in this moment. Ever since Kathova and Yima had presented her with the chance to be with her family once more — it's not enough that Zenith prevail. Meridian can't prosper or have the chance to get in her way.

Even when that extends to the ones she likes. Cruel as it is, it isn't the first time she's sacrificed those she would normally consider friends for her own drive to make the world a better place. It was necessary then, and it's necessary now, is what she tells herself. But she can still be nice about it — or better yet, divert his attention from her. ]

Don't be silly. [ She says, a little scolding, as she pulls her hood up higher. ] You can't Communion someone from around here? I'm sure they're looking for you by now! What about — [ quick, what meris does she know off the top of her head, ] Set, or Hayame?

[passio]

[ it’s childish, but he is expecting her to offer—and when she doesn’t, he isn’t hurt per se, but he is a little surprised. he wasn’t specifically reaching out for misa’s assistance, but he’s more aware of the obvious chill on his hands and in his blood when she casually, thoughtlessly snubs him.

he doesn’t hold it against her now, though, since he didn’t ask. ]

…no. Not them.

[ of all the people she could have chosen, they’re just as likely as a staunch zenite to let him die.

now clutching his hands, he looks up where one of those many storms seems to be forming. ]

You can follow me.

[lifespanned]

[ Now... should she really be accepting help from him, when she's making less than subtle attempts to try to avoid helping him? Probably not. But Misa is both confident and naïve enough to think that she can get away with it, or can charm her way out of needing to give him anything in return. That, or perhaps in the crueler corners of her mind, she wonders if Dextera will be too much of a doormat to do anything about it.

Well, there's only one way to find out. She might as well try to get the help she needs, even running a risk of a conflict. ]

Oh, would you really do that? You're a sweetheart, Dex...

[ For what it's worth, she does sound genuinely thankful, brows raising in gratitude as she steps in so they can be shoulder to shoulder. Her gaze peers up to the sky as well, making note of the ominous clouds — they serve to embolden her will to go along with him. Pressing her body against his at the shoulder, she loosely links an arm with one of his, ostensibly to offer him a bit of warmth and to show that she's ready to follow his lead, but really? In hopes that the affection and mirage of aid will be enough to carry her through. ]

Let's hurry, before we get rained or snowed on. Those storms have been making people sick in Highstorm too, you know.

[passio]

[ it is enough.

dextera has grown in a number of ways since he was forcibly taken from his world, but at the end of the day, he’s still unaccustomed to casual affection like this. it’s not the same as the girls at madam dee’s, where even at their kindest, he knows it was all a transaction. misa is… honest. he thinks she’s honest, anyway, and it’s hard to want to feel otherwise when she’s cuddled up against him like this. ]

I saw… but I didn’t stay long.

[ he’s trying to play both sides as long as he can, to give proof to the highstorm residents that springstar is not a conquering force.

leading her now toward the cornerstone, he glances at her. ]

Are many of you infected?

[ not the people, but the shardbearers. his question is asked sincerely; it’s not a tactic to get an edge, regardless of how she might take it. ]

[lifespanned]

Not a ton, yet. But I've been pretty busy helping with the rubble and stuff, so I could be wrong! As far as I know, my friends are okay.

[ She answers pretty quickly - confident because she knows her information is not that accurate. She's a little too self-absorbed to know how the greater status of the majority of Zenites... she only knows about those she talks to regularly. In the back of her mind, too, she thinks it would be pretty dumb to tell Dextera that a lot of shard-bearers had been weakened by the Blight. ]

Ohhh, are you worried about me little old me getting sick? I'm not scared, if that's what you're wondering about. [ There's a clap of thunder up above, signaling the beginnings of a drizzle. ] No way am I dying to something like a flu...