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beleos ([personal profile] beleos) wrote in [community profile] kenoslogs2023-04-21 04:58 pm

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.

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
intervener: (â–£ crocus.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 04:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ ...Vash's gloved fingies sliiiide over to hold Melshi's, giving them a squeeze. ]

You're SO brave.
diversionist: (r1 » this parka on top of a jacket.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-24 04:38 am (UTC)(link)
[ irritably swatting his hand away, ]

What are you still doing here?
intervener: (â–  alyssum.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 04:43 am (UTC)(link)
[ ✨✨ he is unperturbed about being given the annoying fly treatment ✨✨ ]

What, you think I'm going back out into that? [ a gesture to the tent flap and the awaiting Death Snow, ] Nah, think I'm good for a while.

[ it's a perfectly reasonable response, isn't it?? ]

Sure you don't want me to get the missus?

[ it's the last time he'll ask. he just... wants to make sure this is how Melshi wants it. ]
diversionist: (andor » consider: no.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-24 03:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ as he settles onto this cot, his expressions of pain are as quiet as ever: the particular clench to his jaw, the whiteness about his knuckles, the way he swallows when he shifts to glance vash's way. buried in his eyes, tight despite the smokescreen of annoyance. his gaze only lingers briefly on the ghostly green iv — well, why not — especially as something cool filters through his veins, starting to blunt the ache. ]

For what? [ a scoff as he closes his eyes briefly, shifts a last time before he's — steady, if not comfortable, then looks back to vash as he asks, ] A scratch like this?

[ then, ]

Kwame wouldn't be here if she didn't know what she's doing. There's no reason for you to stay.
intervener: (â–  aubrieta.)

1/3

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Vash doesn't push any further. 'Melshi' has made his choice, and that's that.

but he doesn't humor his push for Vash to leave; instead, he's pulling the flimsy folding chair from the side of the tent, plonking it down beside the cot and sinking into it with a heavy exhale. yup, just making himself nice and comfortable here... ]


...
intervener: (â–  aubrieta.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 08:54 pm (UTC)(link)
intervener: (â–  christmas fern.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 08:55 pm (UTC)(link)
No can do. Need my coat back.
diversionist: (andor » squints at vel.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-24 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
[ DISBELIEVING NOISE ]

You think I want to keep it? It's awful.
intervener: (🌵 anise magnolia.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[ leaning ominously closer... ]

What's wrong with my coat?

[ wait til he regains his ~geranium red~ coat bro if you talk smack

IF YOU TALK SMACK, ]
diversionist: (andor » teasip.jpg)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-24 09:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[ concedes, ]

Maybe you're trying to be visible from parsecs away.
intervener: (🌵 amaranth.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-24 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
[ why does 'Melshi' fill him with the familiar urge to be extra obnoxious. hm. mysterious ]

Now you're just making up words. If you don't have a valid argument, that's a pretty lame fall back.
diversionist: (andor » 005.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-24 09:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[ well — he's used to meeting people who don't know about space, by now. (laughtrack.wav) ]

Next time we meet, [ he says instead, after a pause, ] let's try for something calmer.

[ laughtrack intensifies. ]
intervener: (â–£ brugmansia.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-25 01:52 am (UTC)(link)
[ Kwame looks meaningfully into the camera and exchanges a glance with the audience

Vash folds his arms over his chest, leaning back in his chair with a grunt. ]


You say that like you're not the guy going around trying to stab someone every time I see you.
diversionist: (andor » more crossed arms icons.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-25 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
[ he doesn't roll his eyes but like, it's so tempting. he tilts his head back instead, says, ]

I'll try not to do that next time, too.

[ LAUGHTRACK INTENSIFIES. ]
intervener: (â–  banana.)

[personal profile] intervener 2023-05-25 02:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ the plot twist we never saw coming: Cassian stabs HIMSELF instead of someone else?!?!?!?! STAY TUNED FOR MORE,

but hey, this is as much a concession as he's gotten from 'Melshi' thus far, and Vash'll take it. watch his expression smooth over some, a modicum of the feigned, put-upon irritation fading. ]


Yeah.

[



he isn't leaving btw lol :) just going quiet so Kwame can work and hoping Melshi's tired enough he'll inevitably pass out... ]
diversionist: (andor » nothing bad happens here.)

[personal profile] diversionist 2023-05-25 02:11 am (UTC)(link)
[ LISTEN,

it was for a good cause. will be for a good cause. time is fake. anyway.

the truth is that he resists sleep, even as kwame's magic does, in fact, make him progressively drowsier. he's content to be quiet and let the healer do her work, not strike up conversation if vash doesn't — truth be told he's more comfortable with silence than, he thinks, vash is — but he tries to stay awake as long as he can. it's just

he's not sure if he'll ever wake up again, if he does pass out. knowing what he does about kenos, about magic, he can know, rationally — but the last time he'd been this wounded, well. he'd welcomed his death with open arms.

(and then he'd woken in kenos.)

still, eventually...eventually his eyes do slide shut, and his breathing does even out. ]