ximilian: (Default)
ximilia mods ([personal profile] ximilian) wrote in [community profile] ximilialog2022-02-02 06:57 pm

MISSION: BAD COMPANY, PART 2

M I S S I O N   4 . 2

INTROTHE DREAM DEFERREDYOUR WAKE UP CALLFYI

// INTRO. WELFORD BRANSON  


It is barely past twilight in Scorpion’s Bend, the twin suns having just set, taking their light with them — but the moons delay, and so darkness lingers over the town as Lan Xichen’s conversation with one Welford Branson comes to an abrupt end. At the same time, all around the town, the team will notice the town natives around them stilling — some freezing in the middle of a sentence, a man with a fork in the air, a woman mid-step on the street, some youngsters with their mouths open in laughter. All of them become statues in less than a heartbeat; still, eyes vacant, like everything that made them seem alive has been taken away.

And then — a reverberating sigh, echoing heavily in the ears of all the Orbers. What follows are words, spoken by a chorusing voice now familiar to most of the team —

Well now you’ve done it.

The orb’s echoing sound is filled with disappointment, even annoyance.

Some may see that amidst all the frozen townspeople, an old man runs, clawing at his thinning hair. Some of you may hear his words, muttered, desperate:

I don't understand, I thought 'twas just a bad dream, everyone was fine, don't understand, what in the name of the Eight could've done somethin' like this —”

The disbelieving mumbles trail at his wake, making it clear he does not know what is going on at all — in fact, you may have a better idea as to what has happened than he does. But as you turn to follow him, open your mouth to yell at him to stop... everything around you shatters.

The lights in the buildings grow dim and break; the smell of food disappears; the horses in the stables simply fade away. You notice that if you were wearing or carrying something you bought while here, it too disappears, your clothes turning to those you had on upon arrival, all equipment shimmering away slowly.

But perhaps most importantly… the frozen statues of people crumble into ash right in front of you. It may fill the floors of the now-silent, dusty and worn-down houses, or it may blow away with the harsh desert wind — whichever it is, sans the team, the town of Scorpion’s Bend is now devoid of people.

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// PART I.THE DREAM DEFERRED  


The town that now surrounds the team is very different from the one it used to be — the houses are quiet, filled with sand and dust; doors broken, tables turned over, drawers open and mostly empty, aside from anything not valuable. The beds in Thornbush Inn are ragged, insects of various sizes skittering along the floors. The Saloon is dusty, furniture broken, and a lone piano stands in the corner, half its keys having crumbled away. The door to the Mayor’s office is ajar, a banging sound repeating as it hits the wall in time with the wind.



1.0   In the corners of the Sheriff’s office, the school and the church, the embera slither along, searching for food; owl-shrews hide from the Orbers on the streets, while feathered coyotes howl at the five moons now lending their light to see the town’s destruction better. The team may be the only living humanoids, but they are not the only living beings in the town anymore; in the absence of people, animals have made the town their home. And coexist they must, now, to survive the rapidly dropping temperature of the night that has fallen upon them.


2.0   The next morning, as the moons disappear underneath the horizon and let the two suns bring out their scorching rays once more, the team wakes up to the reality of having to survive Scorpion’s Bend… with very little supplies. So search the empty houses, for they still stand; the fire that has burned away the people has not touched the buildings… but they have not been immune to the passing of time, or the harsh weather in the desert. You may find clothing, basic equipment, pots and pans left on a now-cold stove; but no valuables, no money, no gems, no jewelry, no weapons.

But amidst your search through the town, remember that what you need, first and foremost, is to find water and something to eat — it will not be long until the suns are high in the sky, and some of you are already in desperate need of proper nourishment, without being left to endure the scorching temperatures the days on the planet of Badrock bring.


3.0   But should you want to brave the heat, you’ll find it is now possible to leave the town and venture out into the desert. Out there, the rock dragons search for prey, while bald vultures circle above your head in groups of three or four, their shrieks growing in volume the farther you walk. If you show weakness, any weakness, they strike — and the dragons, sensing their chance, are not far behind.

And when you least expect it, the ground underneath you trembles, like a small earthquake is approaching you… and then you see it: from the sand, a whale surges up, then another, and another, arcing through the air like suspended there, before the sand swallows them once more. Should you get too close, you too may be swallowed underneath the sand; unless you’re very, very careful, or have in your arsenal something else that may help you to deal with these near-immortal giants that have swam across the deserts for hundreds of thousands of years.


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// PART II.YOUR WAKE UP CALL  


Time passes at a snail’s pace without the comforts of the town you were used to. Scorpion’s Bend is now a wasteland you must survive, and it clearly isn’t easy. Some of you might question whether retrieving the orb is still an endeavour worth pursuing after all of this, but the rest of you know that it is. That you’ve come this far and you’re nearly there; you just need to band together and form a gameplan.

As the suns begin to set over the horizon on yet another grueling day of scorching heat and rough, dry sand in the ghost town of Scorpion’s Bend, you might begin to hear a distant thunder that has nothing to do with an oncoming desert storm or otherwise. It rattles at the already weakened structures of the old Saloon and the General Store, bits of broken glass and debris vibrating with the raucous sound of clattering hooves, feet, and paws. And as the sound of the invasion grows louder – you’ll hear the unmistakable manic howling and bellowing in accompaniment: these are the Bouldersnakes that some of you have already heard much of.



4.0   The Bouldersnakes are not a group to be taken lightly, and have garnered the fearsome reputation that they now hold for a reason. Kicking up dust, they arrive like a cloud of chaos in different sizes, shapes, and forms. Some have the ability to shrink and grow in size to match their opponents in physical size and weight. Other Bouldersnakes are agile and quick; and others yet are superhumanly strong and robust – either way, they make for formidable opponents when you, yourself, have been weakened from weeks of a lack of proper nutrition and sleep. The individual members of the Bouldersnakes are like a band of bloodthirsty brothers: from all walks of life and all colours and creeds, with a severe and mean streak to them, who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

What goals, you ask? Should you listen carefully, their leader, riding a winged lizard-like creature, shouts to their underlings:

Find it! This is where it told us to come to. We missed it last time, but no more! I don't care what we have to do, we're getting our hands on that thing!

As it so happens, you are not the only crew in search of that elusive orb; the Bouldersnakes have been tracking down the whereabouts of this mysterious and all-powerful object themselves, burning through towns – quite literally – to get it. News that Scorpion’s Bend has seen a resurgence of life and might still be the resting place of the orb has the bandits seeking out the town again. Their first round through Scorpion's Bend about a year ago had them coming up empty-handed (save for a few bits and baubles), but this time they are determined to find what they've come here to find. Though if there’s anything left here to salvage... they’ll ransack as they please.

Whether you confront them head-on or they catch you in hiding, they won’t easily back down from a fight. It will be best to keep your distance if you can manage it, and hope that they’ll pass you by. But the Bouldersnakes have their weaknesses too: once maimed, they still bleed, and none of them are immortal, though they are notoriously difficult to kill based on their talents alone... and when they carry weapons, too, well — those not accustomed to battles may find it best to hide. And even for those with fighting experience under your belt, teaming up with your fellow Orbers and combining your shared skills will be your best chance at survival.


5.0   By the time the suns have disappeared and the moons have risen, the Bouldersnakes invasion will make the bandit attack from the other night seem like a childish tussle. The Bouldersnakes don’t play nice and have adapted to the harsh lands as ruthless survivors. They arrive like a wave, many equipped with weapons: guns, sabers, pistols and small knives. A few others have engineered their own specially crafted weapons made of metal and magic (in the shape of guns, blow-torches, and blades) that wield a special element harnessed from mined ore called ‘pulsefire’. It is this pulsefire, glowing a deep blue (like the hottest colour of flame), that has the capability to destroy all living beings and allows the bandits to systematically ravage unsuspecting towns down to ash, reap its benefits (either for the town’s riches and wealth, or and especially: for any supply of ore), and then leave without a trace.

The best way to fight against pulsefire is to acquire weapons of pulsefire of your own and best a Bouldersnake before they best you. (Think high stakes, noon-time duels of the pistol.) Of course, this is a very risky and very dangerous affair as one shot by pulsefire could mean your untimely demise and the element itself isn't easy to put out either, so it might be best to work in teams to strategically disarm and swipe a pulsefire weapon to use before they manage to overwhelm you.

NOTE:   If your character is alive, your character will be vulnerable to the effects of pulsefire. Unliving things such as buildings and infrastructure will not be affected. Pulsefire has a slow spread-rate over unliving things, but its effects on the living are instant. Once in contact with the element, pulsefire quickly consumes the living body and spirit until it is turned to ash. Putting pulsefire out over unliving things is relatively easy, but once pulsefire has touched the living, there's little to no chance of making it out in one piece.


All through this, you must still remember your goal — it is not to stay in Scorpion's Bend, or even fight the Bouldersnakes, but to find the orb... and that means finding Welford Branson. How will you convince him to give you the orb, when all signs point to him not even knowing what it is, or what it has done? That is what you must decide... if you survive the Bouldersnakes in one piece, of course.

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F Y I

The events in this log take place ICly right after the end of the NPC thread.

The voting for how to get the orb is now open! Please head HERE to submit your idea for how the team should proceed to get the orb, or +1 others’ ideas.

The conclusion of the mission and the return to the station will be posted on February 13.

If you have questions about anything in this log, please direct them HERE.

And finally, your soundtrack for this log:

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NAV

bossily: (Default)

[personal profile] bossily 2022-02-11 04:15 am (UTC)(link)
[She feels the warmth immediately when he sits down, and glances up at him with a look of surprise. She shifts a little closer to him to get warmer, making sure to keep the blanket wrapped nice and tight around them. ]

You don't have to thank me.

[Clara reassures him, giving a shake of her head. Giving someone time to grieve is a kindness that everyone should be capable of being granted.]

You also don't have to explain things now. Not if you don't want to. I know what it's like to need the privacy to grieve.

[She had needed that time recently, and isn't sure she gave herself the proper peace and quiet to mourn the loss. While her story is different than his, as all stories are, loss is such a fundamentally universal concept that most everyone can understand it on some level.]
calmness: commissioned; DO NOT USE (LXC 13)

[personal profile] calmness 2022-02-14 01:33 am (UTC)(link)
[while the blanket isn't needed, the proximity is appreciated. even with the touches he's exchanged with her, with others, this is the sort of proximity he has missed the most.

this comfortable closeness, sitting near someone you consider a friend. it makes the memory of loss more stark, a painful thing that is too near to the surface after ford's frenzy and xichen's own panic.]
I don't have to but I still wish to thank you.

[to thank her, to explain.]

When I return home, if I succeed in changing my regret, it will be to Seclusion. It is both a punishment and a self-imposed family curse but then... [he shakes his head.] Then I won't have anyone to speak to or listen as I explain. I will have plenty of privacy then.

[and that is a terrifying thought too, even if he knows it is the right thing to do.]
bossily: (Default)

[personal profile] bossily 2022-02-14 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
[His admission makes her swallow roughly, if only because it's a terrible fate to have to endure. Seclusion is absolutely miserable. And she's worried she's going to face the same thing, in a manner of speaking. What good is being able to live forever if she can't do it alongside the person she loves?

She can't go back to her old life on Earth.

She only has exile.

Which she isn't afraid of, she's willing to endure. But that doesn't mean she wants it hanging over her head the entire time she's here.
]

So explain it to me now. I'm here, and I'll listen.

[If she can't do anything else for him, she'll listen to his story.]

Tell me about what it is you regret.
calmness: commissioned; DO NOT USE (LXC 02)

[personal profile] calmness 2022-02-14 03:24 am (UTC)(link)
Maybe it will help me make sense of it all. [because xichen can't no matter how much he tries, cannot figure out why it went wrong though he understands the how of it all.

where his faults fed into it, where meng yao slipped to the temptation that was recognition and the power of having zewu-jun of all people on his side. of having xichen on his side, when xichen had no one else to turn to.]
I will understand if you judge me for it. [at home, he is jin guangyao's fool now after all.]

My regret is trusting someone and lifting him up, giving him the recognition and power he had so desperately wanted and I could easily grant to a friend.

[he shakes his head, knowing that out loud it sounds like such a strange and small thing at first. he looks up at the ceiling, brows creased and voice wavering.] You see, so many people would be alive if I had not so desperately tried to hold on to that trust and that friendship. If I hadn't been willfully ignorant along the way and foolish enough to believe that I could stop every collision he was set on.

[but people do desperate thing when they don't want to be alone, don't they?]

bossily: (clara417)

[personal profile] bossily 2022-02-19 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Clara listens to him explain his regret, and tries to figure out which part she's supposed to judge him for. She realizes that she's not from his world and doesn't fully get the social hierarchy and the way things work, but she also doesn't see what he's saying as something she needs to judge him for.]

Sounds like you're judging yourself.

[It's quietly pointed out, as she gives him a little nudge. There's a smile on her face, one of her calm and patient ones that she reserves for situations that require a little warmth.]

What did he wind up doing, with the power you gave him?

[She understands the woes of willful ignorance and the problems it can cause. So she feels for him, even if she doesn't know the whole story just yet.]
calmness: (well ☁︎)

[personal profile] calmness 2022-02-22 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
Grief makes us our own worst critic. [but xichen knows that back home he is jin guangyao's fool, that there are plenty that will place blame on his shoulders for lifting up a man who so many had considered of bad ilk.

they'd been right, in the end.

he takes a moment to think on that, to figure out what they appropriate answer is.]
He ended up pulling the strings and killing hundreds. Innocents, his own father, his own child, my--- [xichen's only other friend.] Our sworn brother.

And made it look like the blood was on other's hands.
bossily: (Default)

[personal profile] bossily 2022-02-25 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
Oh.

[The word barely is murmured, sounding more like a breathy exhale than anything. Her heart aches for the fact he had to live through that. But beyond feeling empathy for him, she feels sympathy for the innocent people who had lost their lives. Hundreds of them, including children.

Her eyes brim with tears at the thought of innocent children being killed.
]

When someone willingly kills a child, they're beyond saving.

[So it stands to reason with her that someone like he's describing likely would've found a way to kill, even without being given power. But that's not what he needs to hear right now.]

But the missions we go on, they must be able to help you find ways to atone for what happened.
calmness: DO NOT USE (blame ☁︎)

[personal profile] calmness 2022-03-03 05:31 am (UTC)(link)
[xichen is not guiltless in it all, he knows. he had stood at meng yao's side, had seen reason in many of the actions he'd taken and lifted him up.

he knows that he is not as responsible as meng yao. his eyes had been veiled to most of it, to the worst of it, but he had also willingly chosen to see the best. the blood of innocents is still on his hands, that he cannot erase.

he nods.]
The man I thought I knew--- the worst of it, is I knew he was capable of many things but not that. Not-- I thought I could temper what I thought was worst of it. [his own voice is unsteady, a hint of anger seeps into his words. and maybe he is letting himself grieve just a little in this moment, letting the words tumble out where normally he'd temper himself.

at home, he would not be able to speak so freely like this. the gentry clans would not be so forgiving of lan xichen, without who jin guangyao would not be sitting on the chief cultivator's throne.]
I had helped him grieve after Rusong's death, a-as he had helped me after our sworn brother's passing.

[he swallows, trying to hold back the crushing wave of grief that threatens to overtake him fully. jiang yanli had seen him break once, he doesn't want another to witness that again. it's pride that has him trying to collect himself and so he nods his head, takes a deep breath through his nose.] I-I hope so. I want to go back and stop it all. Quench my pride, stop holding on so desperately...

I was so desperate to not be alone... [the sigh that leaves him a soft, filled with remorse and lost.] But in the end, it lead to exactly what I was avoiding and the damage, the cost for years of obliviousness, feels beyond atonement. [and that is partly why this all hits so close, why ford reminds him so much of himself.]
bossily: (clara816)

[personal profile] bossily 2022-03-08 03:05 am (UTC)(link)
[Clara's quiet as she listens to him, her hand going out to press over his as a show of support and friendship. As he speaks, she feels her emotions start to get the better of her. Eventually those emotions build to the point there's tears, and as the tears slowly and quietly fall, she doesn't move to wipe them away.

Instead, she turns so she can try to hug him, her small frame trying to cover him and offer him shelter. His grief is easily seen and felt, and she wishes she could take it all from him. But she can't. All she can do is support him.
]

Desperation to not be alone leads people to being willfully oblivious.

[She's experienced it herself, though she doesn't say so. This is about him, not her.]

But I think your pride has been humbled, based on the words I'm hearing now. You, Xichen, are a good man. Maybe atonement isn't possible. But you're going to have to find a way to cope and move on regardless.

[She moves out of the hug, so she can finally wipe those tears away.]

Thing is, you don't have to do that alone.

[She's there to help, however she's able.]
calmness: commissioned; DO NOT USE (LXC 20)

[personal profile] calmness 2022-03-15 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
[touch is such a precious thing. to be hugged, to be held. the lan sect does not put much value in touch and the uncle who raised both xichen and his brother was not tactile in nature. their mother had been, but they had only seen her once a month and those visits had always been too short.

so xichen misses touch, soaks in the warmth of the embrace and finds his arms wrapping around clara in return. this way, even though she is the one providing comfort, she is tucked under his chin.

he does not mean to make her cry, wishes to raise his hand to wipe her tears but there are still lines of propriety that lan xichen cannot yet bring himself to cross. absently, he thinks that the orb had given him the goal to make someone cry. he had rejected it, had not meant to achieve it even in this way.

his own eyes water, tears threatening to spill as they had in guanyin temple.]
One would think, that in all my years, I would have learned that lesson well. [ desperation had pushed meng yao, wei wuxian-- had driven nie mingjue to madness and lan xichen to desperately try to hold what he held dear together while letting so much slide.]

[clara's words are kind, too kind, but xichen clings to that kindness. it is that desire for trust, for understanding that has him offering a small smile instead of harshly pushing back against her words.] I am glad that at least here, I am not alone. None of us are alone.
bossily: (Default)

[personal profile] bossily 2022-03-17 07:54 am (UTC)(link)
No.

[She agrees with him, pulling away enough she can wipe at her eyes.]

I don't suppose we are.

[Which is one of the best things about being on the station and agreeing to do the missions. Even if things are hard, even if she feels alone. She knows that she never really is. She's built the start of a family unit here, and feels that Xichen can be a part of it. If he wants to be, that is.

Her hand goes to his cheek, thumb grazing against his skin.
]

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but you're a good man.
calmness: (Lan-Xichen-07)

[personal profile] calmness 2022-03-21 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
I didn't mean to make you cry. [he offers, sheepish as he speaks. it is an apology, though knowing clara he feels she will not need it.

she is too kind, too good.

xichen cannot fathom a way to explain that all the blood he has spoken of, that of innocents, it is on his hands too. perhaps the cultures of their worlds are too different to make that clear, but he does not push now.

for now he takes the reprieve, the gentle touch to his cheek. that is a kindness too, a connection that he has missed so dearly. he offers another sad smile.]
Twenty years ago, I may have more readily accepted that. [sometimes, lan xichen forgets that he looks like he is in his mid-twenties at best.] But thank you. You are kind, Clara.