Complete Megathread Displaced (Zalra)

[Raid Boss]

Displaced

This is the optional follow up to Zeusterday Express's Cycle 4.

• If your character got a [ 6 ], you may post here and wrap up your part in that threat.
• There is no rule outside of the default site rules for this thread.

Spoiler: Credit Roll

Directed by: Asch
Screenplay by: Asch
Zeus: Asch
Childress: Asch
Uzuna: Asch

Special thanks to all the production staff who are all Asch.​

 

[Sakura Wind]

...Sakura's eyes opened.

The small beastfolk wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but what she saw stunned her. Crystals, everywhere! It was so beautiful! Though, Sakura was unsure of the meaning behind that... dream, it was surely just a dream. And so, she started to get up and prepare to explore.

...Until she noticed a small complication. She was hanging a few feet off the ground. By her yukata.

...Wait, I still have the yukata... then that must have not been a dream.

While she worked on figuring out a way to get down and onto the ground, the beastfolk decided that her yukata would be her main outfit from now on.

 

[Erick Stryker]

...and then that happened.
​

He was from the Midwest, sure, but it was stereotypical to assume that meant Kansas. Did someone catch the number on that-- what had that been, exactly? There was no trace of wind or fluctuation to herald the sudden transfer of matter between places, but for a mercy, they were not torn apart and the molecular level and put back together piece by piece. Teleportation in the proper sense- a phenomenon that he would doubtless ruminate over fervently later.

You know, when they weren't freefalling toward stalagmites of razor sharp crystal, more than willing to tear them apart or impale them. He wasn't sure who else was falling with him, because the blinding light and the frost had done a number in part, and because the clear and present danger preoccupied his thoughts.

Whoever they were, surely they too would benefit from some sort of makeshift safety net.

"Aim for the clear patch!"

He yelled that, but in truth, there was nothing but a field of spikes as far as the eye could see. Anyone missing might have time to scream back "what clear patch!?" in the confusion, a grim jest to be sure, but not unwarranted.

That was because Erick was intent on making one.

Alright magic, don't fail me now, he thought as he reached behind himself, mustering his energies for the daunting task to come. He thrust both hands forward in the next few seconds as he careened toward death, manifesting a sudden and powerful well of gravitic force among the crystals, and another around himself. When the two opposed forces met, it created an expulsion of kinetic force that splintered outward, shattering crystal and blowing sparkling dust across the earth, also creating a pocket of air that would serve to slow the fall of the Starcalled and others as they came closer by the second.

He alighted on the ground a moment later, staggering, having not had the time to drink or eat anything... or even rest.

He was starting to regret not accepting that drink, strangely enough...

@Luthien @Sakura Wind

 

[Luthien]

180 / 180
106 / 115

  Explorers League  

 ​

???, ???, Zalra

The sudden shift of places, not too dissimilar from being yanked around in the loops of a rollercoaster, would’ve normally not been so unsettling… had the teleportation not caught the elf by full surprise as two of her senses were being overwhelmed in the process. No sooner had her body reappeared she felt the pull of gravity as the biting cold winds rushed past her and the others, the tiny shards hidden in the snow causing her eyes to tear up whenever she tried to open them enough to look at the ground below.

"Aim for the clear patch!"
”There’s no clear patch!”

Her voice quickly called out in response, the volume of it matching @Erick‘s own yelling, with hints of panic and frustration clearly peppered around her words. Lúthien’s own mind had been racing with thoughts of what she could do to try and avoid death by impalement for herself and the others, when a shift in the air around them caused her attention to turn back to the blue-haired mage. Two glimmering domes manifested almost instantly, her eyes barely able to catch sight of them before Lúthien was forced to close them shut once more as a flurry of snow and crystal dust was expelled all around them as the opposing forces met.

She felt how the change in the air caused their descent to be reduced, before the elf instinctively reached out to the forces of nature and harnessed the wind around them. A gale quickly blew upwards towards those falling, decelerating their speed further even as it aligned those in the edges towards the newly cleared patch by the mage below. "Oof!" The blonde grunted as her boots finally touched down onto the solid ground below, the momentum carrying her a couple of steps forwards. A pair of ethereal Hermes’ wings fluttered by her ankles, beating softly before they dissipated back into the air with a small burst of light green sparkles. Not too far from them she could hear the rustling as another figure landed, though this one found a tree in their way.

"What was that…?" She voiced out a question that was probably on the mind of those present, the question of where they were easy to answer by the aerial view they had all been granted while falling: somewhere in fucking Zalra. "A-Ah, Yugam?!" Instinctively she looked around for the dark-haired man as the elf called out his name, remembering that he’d been standing beside her on the sleigh-train just as that blinding light enveloped them all. "Did anyone see him on the way down?"

---

▣ Attire: ❰ ❱

 

[Schilva Flasch]

100 / 100
92 / 120

-uuuuuAAAAAGGHHHH!

Popping out of the sky with slightly more displacement and delay than everyone else, Schilva had not the luxury of @Erick Stryker's magic nor @Sakura Wind's safe landing as he plummeted downwards, reminding him of his first entry into the world. Wracking his brain for solutions to his impending death, Schilva has a lightbulb moment, thankfully before his body is dashed to pieces on the cruel points of the deadly crystalline spikes below him.

Wait a minute, I know AEROMANCY!

Struggling to right himself in mid-air, Schilva takes a short, sharp breath of air lined with snow and sparkling dust, shouting out the incantation that would save his sorry ass from being impaled.

WINDWALKER: ASCENDANT STEP!

His ability activating just before he hit the ground, the chill air very nearly chokes Schilva as his held breath catches in his throat. But he had made it in time; seconds before the tallest spire pierces through his foot, a brief cushion of solidified air stops his fall. Verdant winds swirl about his body for a moment as he leaps off onto safe terrain, not too far from @Luthien.

Similarly disoriented and thrown totally off course, Schilva knew neither who nor where this Yugam person was, and said as much.

Who...what...where the...Zalra???

▣ Attire: A thick navy overcoat over his usual robes with a fluffy collar and clumsily stitched Christmas-palette scarf

 

[Kamala Graham]

‧͙⁺˚･❀･˚⁺͙‧

Adventurers Guild

100 / 100
90 / 120

Shining Outpost, Zakaden, Zalra

When Kamala re-materialized, she found herself in a different place albeit a familiar one. She has only been at the Outpost once before and it was to help @Chrys and his miner friends find a mysterious mine born of the stories of locals. She never went back...until now. Looking around her, a little scared for so many reasons, she called out to the friends she could not see, who were quite possibly not even in the area. Despite that possibility, Kamala still hoped they were around.

"AYNA! CHRYS!"

Unlike others who were dropping from the sky or someplace dangerous, Kamala found herself much safer. She was just...plopped in the middle of a busy street, near merchant stalls and trader shops, her feet on that crystal-plagued ground. Before she could linger on that thought, however, that oddity of fate, a familiar voice called out to her with surprise, "Elf girl? What's going on? Are these your people dropping from the skies, from out of nowhere?" It was the kindly merchant who gifted her some clothes way back then, his shyness gone and instead replaced by fear and concern. Kamala quickly realized how the strange events, people suddenly appearing out of the blue, might be too traumatizing for the landers who had no idea what happened with Zeus' sleigh train.

"...people? Can you take me to them?"

With worried eyes, Kamala placed a hand on the small, rotund merchant's shoulder, hoping for his kind assistance once more. The merchant didn't hesitate but simply nodded and led her elsewhere, intending to do his part to keep people, those displaced and those confused, out of harm's way. Kamala then spent the rest of the day trying to help the discombobulated people who were displaced nearby. With her harmonious ties to the mending spirits of nature, she could at least provide small physical and perhaps even mental relief to those victimized by only gods know what. Ayna... Chrys... Childress... I hope you're all okay...wherever you are.

---

▣ Attire: Kamala with a Wintersday hat

 

[Erick Stryker]

100 / 100
97 / 120

"No idea," Erick told @Luthien , shaking his head. Despite having an affinity for light himself, the strange and blinding ordeal that had moved them from Hylands to... Zalra? Had been just as effective on him as it had everyone else. "We should operate under the assumption that everyone was moved at random, but we can't determine if it was local to a single concentrated region or across the entire continent."

The most important thing, though, was: "we need to stay calm. Find everyone who we can in this area." Erick took a quick look around and spied @Schilva Flasch and @Sakura Wind in the immediate vicinity. That was a great start. "Everyone try to gather up," he called out, "then we can form teams and use this as a rendezvous point so we don't get separated... again."

Erick was quick to take charge of the situation because it reminded him of the sort of thing he did in scouts as a boy. They made survival in the wild a top priority, even though realistically no one ever went out into the wild anymore. He always wondered why his father even bothered to make him learn. At this moment however, he wanted to thank the man.

"There's probably more of us around," he told the others. "It'd be worthwhile to reconnoiter the immediate area. Maybe work on collecting some foodstuffs and other supplies to survive."

 

[Schilva Flasch]

100 / 100
92 / 120

Massaging his temples and reorienting himself, Schilva wracks his brain for any kind of explanation, trying to put cause to effect. All he can come up with is 'big monster wrecked the sleigh train, everyone got teleported away by Zeus'. Though it was certainly relieving to know that he hadn't been crushed to death in that unforeseen turn of events, this new situation was not...particularly favourable.

I suppose it's just us around here; didn't see anyone else while I was coming down. How's about you lot?

Forming up with the others who had landed nearby, Schilva looked over his new partners in survival; a Santa-hatted elf straight from the North Pole (@Kamala Graham), another elf who was even more decked out in minty reds and whites (@Luthien), a blue-haired lad who'd apparently taken charge (@Erick Stryker)...and a canid Beastfolk who'd gotten herself stuck up a tree (@Sakura Wind). Huh, usually it was cats up there, but stranger things have happened.

...just a second. I'll go get the dog-girl down. Anybody know who she is?

Zipping over to the tree before any answer could be given, Schilva braces himself and gets ready to catch the Beastfolk.

Alrighty, you! How okay are you on a scale of 1 to 10 with jumping out of a tree? Don't worry, I've got Aeromancy, nothing can possibly go wrong.

▣ Attire: A thick navy overcoat over his usual robes with a fluffy collar and clumsily stitched Christmas-palette scarf

 

[Langley]

So, this whole gift-giving and spreading the holiday cheer thing turned out to be a bust. You win some, you lose some; and sometimes, you "get driven half a foot into the ground due to leftover momentum after being... teleported away? to some unknown location in order to avoid a giant monster stomping all over your face" some.

Langley lay there in his personal crater for a little while longer. Not moving sounded like a great. At least until he really began to feel the chill from the ground leeching away his body heat.

Time to get up. Besides, he could make out some voices nearby and it'd probably be a good idea to group up with other people. He stumbled his way over to a gathering of other people, gingerly checking himself over as he did so. No broken bones, it looked like, but his back was killing him and he was probably going to be bruised purple all over for the next couple of days. A quick glance at his status menu confirmed that he wasn't in the best of shape.

He spotted a white-haired elf who looked like she was offering some healing. "Hey," he called to @Kamala Graham, raising a hand. "Sorry to bother you, you look like you're kinda busy, but could I ask for a bit of a top up?"

 

[Luthien]

180 / 180
106 / 115

  Explorers League  

 ​

???, ???, Zalra

"No idea."

The man’s response was expected; everything had happened too fast for even her eyes to keep track of the events, and the dissonant cacophony of noises all around had done little to help her elven ears pick up any clues. @Erick‘s words made sense, if they had been teleported all the way to gods knew where in Zalra who was to say the others hadn’t been transported further away still?

"Y-yeah, you’re right…" She had never thought such a feat to be possible, and yet there was no denying they had definitely traveled a great distance from their original location. Whatever item Zeus had reached for within his cloak had been a powerful one, and perhaps the only reason they were still alive and breathing now. "I just hope everyone’s okay."

That still didn’t stop her gaze from taking in their surroundings once more, hopeful to spot a familiar head of dark-hair among the snow.

”I'll go get the dog-girl down. Anybody know who she is?” Their other companion offered to assist the caenis stuck up a tree, his question causing the blonde to shake her head softly. "Hm-hm, saw her around that uwu camp but I have no idea who she is."

It wasn’t hard to see that the ranger was distracted even as she spoke, her attention lingering elsewhere before it was finally rewarded. There, not too far from where they stood, she could see a figure stirring in the snow. Her heart skipped a beat even as Lúthien’s breath caught in her throat upon seeing the dark crown of hair, her boots quickly sinking into the snow as the elf took hurried steps towards the form.

"Yu?!" Her voice carried over the distance with ease, reaching the other long before her steps would. It caused them to turn around, a gasp of surprise escaping the ranger as her eyes locked into the gray gaze of the sword spirit instead. "Unmei?!"

"Luthien! Are you okay?" She finally reached the woman, her hands reaching out to help the spirit onto her own two feet before carefully looking her over. "Y-Yeah I’m fine, what about you?" The spirit inspected her back with similar concern, nodding back a response as the blonde carefully brushed off some of the snow that stuck to the smaller girl’s cloak. What happened?

"I think Zeus teleported all of us to keep us safe...?" The bigger question was from what, but that was an answer that none of them probably possessed right now. A sigh escaped the blonde before she looked around them, certain that if Unmei was here then the hunter wouldn’t be too far from them. "Is Yugam nearby?"

What she hadn’t expected was the sudden worry that trickled into her mind, mingling with Lúthien’s own concerns and causing the elf to look back in the direction of its source: Unmei. "No, I haven't seen him. I can't feel him either." Though the woman’s voice remained steady there was a troubled look in her eyes, and for a moment the elf couldn’t help but blink confusedly at the spirit as the meaning behind her words finally sunk in. She had never seen the spirit far from her wielder, and as such had always assumed it wasn’t possible to separate them… and it was possible Unmei had thought the same.

A hand reached out to take hold of the spirit’s own, giving it a comforting squeeze as Lúthien spoke. "I’m sure he’s alright… we'll find him, I know it." Her eyes turned back to look at the others, and after scanning the snow one last time the ranger gently tugged at Unmei’s hand to lead her back to the small group.

---

▣ Attire: ❰ ❱

 

[Kamala Graham]

‧͙⁺˚･❀･˚⁺͙‧

Adventurers Guild

100 / 100
90 / 120

Somewhere beyond the Shining Outpost, Zakaden, Zalra

Kamala had just finished healing someone else when she heard @Langley approach and request some help. Without even hesitating, she went closer to him, leaving the already healed former patient with their friends. The white-haired elf almost stumbled once or twice in her clumsy attempt to be faster than she was.

"Goodness! I'm here, I'm here!"

Kamala gave her new patient a quick look-over, her eyes wandering from the horns on his head to his feet in a matter of seconds, before carefully holding his hands. She usually held her patients' faces but this bull-man was taller than her by a lot. Closing her eyes, she channeled the mending spirits of nature through a quick and quiet song, almost a simple hymn, to give him some relief from any and all forms of pain he might be suffering.

In his mind's eye, and only his mind's eye, he'd see a bright light suddenly bathe him before everything else around him faded into an illusory sanctuary, with graceful swirls of green and white vines of ivory and marble snaking toward the sky, where they then tried to come together to form an organic roof. From that roof, phantasmal green leaves wafted through the air and slowly descended upon them. A gentle sort of warmth, the smell of spring flowers, and a whimsical, playful tune then overcame his senses, only for everything to disappear once his body returned to near-top form.

❰ Heart's Illusion ❱

"Were you also from the sleigh train? Did you arrive with a sleepy, armored man or an angry girl with lightning in her hair?"

Kamala brought him back to the present, to this reality's domain, her hands tight on his hands like she was a mad woman who had lost her kids, and only he knew where they were. In a way, she did lose her kids. Only Gwyndolainn knew what kind of bickering those two would drown themselves in if left together, alone, without her. Kamala believed Langley was her last hope, as she had asked everyone else who came to her for healing, only to come no closer to an answer.

---

▣ Attire: Kamala with a Wintersday hat

 

[Langley]

Langley let the soothing healing energy wash through him, briefly closing his eyes as he let @Kamala Graham's song work its magic. As the vision of the floral sanctuary faded from his mind, he felt a soft warmth pulse through his entire body, taking away all his aches and pains.

Huh, he thought. Really handy, and effective to boot. But before he could even thank her, the tightening grip on his hands and her question pulled his attention.

"I was, yes," he said. "I think I remember seeing the girl with lightning in her hair a while back on the train itself, but there were a couple of other armored guys. But I haven't seen any of them since I found myself here," he added apologetically. "But now that you've fixed me up--thanks for that, by the way--I could go do some searching. If I find them, I'll direct them to you."

He opened up his palm menu, before something just occurred to him. "Ah, you are a pla- Starcalled, yes?" He stumbled over the unfamiliar term, hoping he hadn't assumed wrong. "If you are I could send a message your way if I find them."

 

[Kamala Graham]

‧͙⁺˚･❀･˚⁺͙‧

Adventurers Guild

100 / 100
90 / 120

Somewhere beyond the Shining Outpost, Zakaden, Zalra

Kamala heaved a sigh of relief as if the very weight of this world was lifted from her shoulders. Still, some concern remained in the back of her head, though she tried to shrug them off for the moment to celebrate the tiny victory of meeting a new ally. With a smile, she eased her grip on @Langley's hands until she eventually let them go.

"Oh, thank you! That would be much appreciated...Mister?"

The elf tilted her head to one side. It took her a few seconds more before she realized they had not been introduced...and then another few seconds before she realized it was rude of her not to introduce herself first, especially considering she was the one in need of his help.

Kamala only believed in debts and favors when it comes to her paying them, ignoring the other way around. Her help was free, and it would always be free, but when she receives help from others, she never considers their assistance free. Kamala must always repay them for their kindness.

"Goodness, I didn't introduce myself! How rude! My name is Kamala Graham, of Pormont's Viridian Fields...and yes, I am a Starcalled. If you need anything else, anything else at all, feel free to call on me, my friend!"

She offered her new friend a warm smile, as she usually does for everyone, Starcalled or not.

---

▣ Attire: Kamala with a Wintersday hat

 

[Langley]

"Pleasure to meet you, Kamala." Langley dipped his head in a brief bow. "I'm Langley." He hadn't gotten used to introducing himself by his in-game name yet--hard to shake off twenty years of going by a different name. But, hey, he'd get used to it eventually.

He sent a request to exchange UI details with Kamala, and then let his palm menu blink away. "If I ever end up around that area of Pormont in the future, I'd love to drop by, I'm sure it's a great place. And well, thanks for the offer to help. I don't know if I've got anything much else I can help you with, but same deal, if you think I could help out with then give me a shout any time."

"Anyway, I'll get out of your hair now, don't want to keep you from your business for too long. If I find your friends I'll let them know you've been looking for them!"

He waved goodbye as he decided to head off. Truth be told, he wasn't entirely familiar with the region, but at least he had dropped down near a settlement. From listening in on some of the conversation around him, he'd gotten the impression that that'd made him one of the lucky ones. Sounded like there were a couple of unfortunate people who ended up chucked into the crystalline wilderness, and a few small rescue teams were being assembled to find anyone who might need assistance.

Well, no reason to just laze around. Asking around a little landed him a spot on the next outgoing group with a hastily assembled first aid kit shoved into his arms. Time to set out.