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my oath shall be sped;
WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? The January TDM.
WHEN? The mythic dimension of Vorspiel.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.
WHAT? The January TDM.
WHEN? The mythic dimension of Vorspiel.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.
JANUARY TEST DRIVE MEME;
Vorspiel; a land of song.
arrival for new recruits
You wake up in a patch of verdant forest, with the birds chirping all around you. You're not in a clearing; your body lies between the trees. Near you, a frail woman with tired eyes rocks back and forth. You have none of your clothing, just black military-issued underwear, and none of your previous possessions beyond the one you chose (if you remember choosing) to bring with you.
When the tired woman notices you've come to, she speaks in a tongue you won't recognize, but somehow understand, in tilting tones that somehow always rhyme. Tired and sorrowful though she is, if you have questions as to what's going on, she'll answer: you are a member of COST, a paramilitary organization of time travelers fighting against the Regency, a tyrannous kingdom of the future who are trying to stamp out freedom and individuality in the name of peace.
She will provide you with the clothing necessary to fit in, and show you how to use your BCE implant to look up information on this dimension and its social and political mores. She won't let you leave until you're properly dressed to fit in, but once you are, she'll wish you luck. She thinks you'll need it.
And, she says as you depart, if you see the Gods, spit on them. They will do you no favors here.
ARRIVAL FOR VETERANS
While on BASE, you'll receive a message on your BCE.
URGENT MISSION: VORSPIEL UNDER MAJOR ATTACK. ALL POSSIBLE VOLUNTEERS NEEDED TO PROVIDE AID.Selecting 'Y' will instantly teleport you to Vorspiel. Or maybe you're not the volunteering type, but your BCE glitches and signs you up anyway. Them's the breaks.
ACCEPT: Y / N ?
When you appear in Vorspiel, you'll find yourself in that same forest with the same woman who is ushering new recruits. She will give you clothes and wish you luck-- though luck, she says, is something true heroes have in short supply.
VORSPIEL
Regardless of how you got here, your BCE will have a short rundown of the situation once you arrive.
Vorspiel is a mythical, magical dimension rich in rare and precious resources. During the course of the war, it's been fought over by both sides. The Regency has recently allied with the leader of the misty country of Nibelheim to issue what is known as a Time Break; a sort of spell only possible in ancient dimensions such as these. Essentially, linear time has been destroyed in this dimension. Everything is happening at once, simultaneously and perpetually, a never ending cycle of lives and deaths and battles. While Vorspiel is a vast dimension, its borders have become warped; it is possible to walk from one country to another across the sea in a matter of moments, by accident. While the BCE is trying to send people to Nibelheim, it's entirely possible it misses the mark completely, or sends them to several places before they reach Nibelheim.
This chaos is meant to be a punishment: bow down before the Regency, or nothing will ever be the same again.
There is good news, though. Vorspiel is a dimension of inherent magic; singing or humming or whistling certain magical tunes will have an inherent effect upon one's surroundings. The BCE lists all the spells, though it notes that some have varying results (AKA go wild, guys, have fun), and the ones named after people will do little unless the person in question is present (a statistical unlikelihood).
As you enter different parts of Vorspiel, the BCE will sometimes give you different assignments, prompting you to take this action or that. If you have any questions about how this setting works, feel free to ask!
THE RHEINAs a final note: This will not be the main mission for January. This TDM is meant as a one-off to dump characters into a setting they don't have to read a ton of infopages for, while still getting a sense of what Agoge could be (and as always, this TDM is game canon).
You come upon a giant river with clear and beautiful water. The sun shines down upon it in yellow light, and wherever the light touches it, gold floats to the surface of the water. The BCE will prompt you to fetch as much of this gold as you can-- it is an extremely powerful magical resource, rheingold-- but it will not warn you about the Rheinmaidens.
The rheinmaidens are mermaids, essentially, and at first, they are very friendly and gentle, singing nonsense songs and welcoming you to their home. But as soon as you begin to make any moves toward the gold, they will curse you, dive for you with surprising speed, and attempt to drown you. They will be vicious, and their natural element is water. You're in their territory, taking their things, as far as they are concerned. They have every right to kill you.
Killing the rhienmaidens will work... for a minute or so. And then they will rise again. Wounds will undo themselves-- whether they're inflicted by the rheinmaidens or you. Drowning doesn't seem permanent either-- you're pulled under, and all air escapes you, death befalls you... and then you wake up a moment later, standing on the shore.
Time has been fundamentally broken. Nothing done here is permanent.
WALHALL
You stand outside a fortress bathed in rainbow light atop a glorious mountain. Around you, the air is cool and still, and the roof of the sky seems terribly close. No matter how far toward the fortress you run, you can never make it inside. And thundering footsteps are coming just around the mountain pass, coming for you.
Lumbering giants wander around the fortress, searching for something they mutter and murmur is theirs. If they see anyone around, they will attempt to carry them off, kidnapping them for unknown purposes. They do not seem interested in eating their catch; they seem more interested in kidnapping it. Still, they are dangerous, brutish and sloppy with their strength. It is best to avoid them if possible, hiding in the trees.
Or perhaps you'd rather fight these fifteen-foot monstrosities on your own?
Of course, if you kill them, they just... come back. Death cannot be permanent in a place where time has been caught in an endless loop.
NIBELHEIM
The misty country of Nibelheim is located within a network of caverns dug into the side of a great mountain. It's a foggy, polluted place that brings to mind a city on the brink of the industrial revolution, not unlike Victorian London, though Nibelheim is entirely underground. There is smoke and smog everywhere, and living conditions are generally poor. The rich class is one family, ruled by a Nibelung named Alberich. He has various objects of great power that keep him enslaving his fellow Nibelung, working constantly in factories of his making. He has allied with the Regency to achieve this goal, and the time break within his home dimension is due in large part to his planning and plotting.
Human visitors to Nibelheim aren't unheard of, due to trade, though they are in a minority. Nibelungs, for the record, look and feel and act completely human, but they are ultimately alien, averaging a foot shorter in height at least, having naturally sallow skin, large eyes, hairless regardless of gender, and long, nimble fingers. They are a race of people made to live underground, and it shows; most can see in the dark, and climb nearly any surface. They are famed as smiths and metalworkers. Most just want to make a living and feed their families, though Alberich's clan keeps them in line.
Your duty here, the BCE says, is to try and befriend these people, the average Nibelung, and spark some kind of revolt. There are Regency spies everywhere, however, so be careful; you cannot call for rebellion in an open voice on every street corner. No, it's better, safer, to be subtle about it. Win the trust of a local businessman, seek out influential Nibelungs and figure out their opinions. Be tactical, be clever, be quick.
And avoid Alberich and his family at any cost.
But if you can, try and save some of the Nibelungs. Due to Alberich's machinations, Nibelheim is the only part of Vorspiel that has been untouched by the time break, but that will only stay true for so long. If you can convince any Nibelungs to join COST, they will do so willingly; you'll just have to escort them to safe places in hidden back rooms within dingy bars and forgotten libraries, the places where COST cells have been fermenting under the nose of the Regency. Don't get caught, and be careful; save as many as you can.
AT THE BASE OF A GREAT TREE
A man lays dying. He looks very much like the woman who introduced you to this place. Regardless, he lies in a pool of his own blood, a stab wound through his heart. The time break keeps him from ever truly passing into the next life; as soon as he dies, his eyes open, and he begins the process of his last painful moments once again.
Each time, he begs you to avenge him and find his love (or sometimes his sister; he seems very confused), and if you ask him his name, he will only respond that he is, "the woeful one". And then he will die again, for the hundredth time.
In the trees, warriors watch, poised to attack. They see you communing with their enemy, and they wish to defeat you as well. These warriors care little for your protest; they are locked in an endless battle that they cannot free themselves from, and you have just joined it.
IN THE FOREST
There is a serpent, larger than anything you have ever seen, sitting at the mouth of a cave. It sits upon a hoard of gold that may be familiar to you. It may not, but the BCE will inform you of what it is: rheingold, an incredibly potent and valuable magical resource.
Regardless, the serpent will attack anyone that comes near it or its hoard, even by accident. It, too, is caught in an endless loop of battle long over, for it calls you boy and foolish young man regardless of who or what you are. It speaks in a deep and sonorous voice, and will not stop until its head is cut off. The creature is obnoxiously large and highly dangerous, and battle with it will be long and painful, not least because, like everything in this place where time has been so fundamentally broken, it is very bad at staying dead.
Be careful when you fight it -- if you accidentally get some of its blood in your mouth, you will be suddenly and temporarily able to understand the language of birds. Which is cool, but also, you know, distracting.
The birds will tell you to find the Valkyries, who will bring you great fame and glory. They will also tell you to run, for Fafnir does not die so easy.
AT THE END OF THE WORLD
You are at a funeral. A golden-haired woman stands upon an unlit pyre, standing next to the man who, she sings, is her dead husband. Her song is beautiful and loud and incomprehensible, and when the pyre is lit, the fire swallows her whole. But the burning doesn't stop there; it begins to destroy the assembled mourners, the forest around it, the castle, the very river burns. The fabric of the world crackles and sets to flame.
Run from the flame all you like, but it always licks at your heels.
There is a trick, though, to saving your life. If one is truly unafraid of death, the fire cannot harm you, or anyone you touch. The BCE won't warn you of this; it doesn't know. But if you are unafraid, you can simply walk through the flames unharmed.
It will bring you to a wide field atop a mountain, where a woman lies sleeping. It's the same woman at the funeral, peaceful in sleep, unmoving, unsinged. She can be awoken by a kiss.
Of course, awakening her will begin the cycle again: the pyre, the fire, the fearlessness, the clearing. Over and over again, endlessly, until the BCE manages to pull you out.
This is the will of the Regency.
The main mission for January will be the Gallipoli campaign, as detailed here. Future missions for Agoge are always listed here months in advance.
Natasha Romanoff | MCU | new recruit
This is what she was made for. The role she was born to play, or one of many, really, so it's not much of a surprise at all when she reads the mission statement her BCE delivers. And really, what else does she have to do? She's got nothing but time to kill until she can go have a conversation with the organization that supposedly recruited her--figuratively, if not literally, who knows with the way time is broken in most of this world--and Natasha has never been a woman accustomed to idleness. So, inciting rebellion it is. Quietly. A whisper here, a veiled implication there. Rumors and stories filled with allegory.
It doesn't take her long to find the right place to start. The bar is dark and dingy, like most of its kind here in Nibelheim, the kind of place you go to drown your sorrows in drink or tell them to a sympathetic barmaid who always has a smile for you. That barmaid in a lot of cases over the next few days happens to be her: Rauda, they call her, red, and she doesn't argue with the name. It's apropos, after all.
Despite the close quarters in the dark and cramped rooms, she doesn't seem to have any trouble navigating the crowd of chairs, avoiding hands reaching for her with a smile or a scolding word as she makes her way close to a recently seated table. Looks like she's not the only human here, though there's not really any foolproof way she's determined to weed out the genuine humans of this place from those displaced like her. Yet. So the conversation is fairly innocuous, to start.
"An ale for you?" she asks, voice a confident lilt. "The smoke from the factories is terrible today, I'm sure you'll want something to wash it from your throat."
{2. deja what-a great tree}
She's no stranger to a trap, and the tableau before her is far too perfect to be anything but. One lone warrior dying from a stab wound to the heart, no sign of blood anywhere but directly around him, no sign of anyone else nearby? Every nerve ending she has is on edge as she watches from concealment in the bushes deep on the far edge of the clearing. And her caution pays off, she sees, as she watches another hapless adventurer spot the dying man, running to his side and kneeling, only to be swarmed by what looks to be a sizeable regiment of other warriors as the wounded man dies. The adventurer runs, but judging by the agonized screams not far off, his story ends just as painfully.
And probably just as permanently, thanks to the ruined and collapsing structure of time, she thinks, as the dead man suddenly gasps, gulping for air, a wheezing sound that almost echoes. His groan of pain does echo, and she's about to turn and move away when another hapless passerby is drawn to the sound. She should probably let this one die, too. It's not her concern, not part of the mission statement. But it's bad form to let a potential ally die, even if it isn't permanent, and who knows when they might return the favor?
A hidden warrior bursts from the bushes with a yell while the newest arrival kneels beside the undead man, but that yell is cut short by the sudden appearance of a knife sprouting from his chest. She's already in motion, drawing the short sword at her belt. It's not her best weapon, but it's the one she has, and she'll use it as well as she can. "Hope you're armed," she says to the stranger as she makes her approach, eyes fixed on the trees and the swarm of men erupting from them all over again.
{3. those who favor fire-end of the world}
She's never been a sentimental woman. There's no room in her world for regrets and sympathies, no place for it in the spheres she travels in. At least, this is what she tells to the people who get close enough to merit an explanation. But this doesn't mean she's immune to emotion, despite her tendency to choose practicality, what's in her head over what's in her heart. The woman's song doesn't elicit tears, but there's a certain look in her eyes as Natasha watches her, something bleak and distant. Like she's seeing something a thousand worlds away.
The song reaches a crescendo and she turns to leave, her eyes meeting those of the person standing nearest her. She opens her mouth to speak, but whatever words she might have intended are swallowed by the cracking of the pyre as it roars to life. Roars, and then roars louder, and the veiled look in her eyes turns to one of inquiry as she turns towards the blaze. The flames are too close to run. There's no point, even as the adrenaline pounds in her veins, and Natasha has never been one for futility. Instead, she takes a breath that she's sure will be her last, closes her eyes. "This isn't exactly how I thought I'd die," she says as the flames swallow her, and there's no fear in the words, only resignation and--perhaps--a deeply amused irony.
3
Drogo's death--the Regency attack on him--is still fresh in her mind, and this woman's song leaves her chest aching in ways she's not yet experienced. Empathy. She is no stranger to this specific kind of loss. Twice she's lost him to death. The third time, she'd never truly had him. And yet, and yet... no matter that she was raped, learned to love the chains which bound her, there was still a place of fondness in her heart for Drogo.
This may not be her khal's funeral, but she stands and pays he respects nonetheless. And in some ways, this is like saying goodbye properly.
The redhead near her looks to be kissed of fire. Oddly subdued, Dany merely watches as the other makes to leave. But before much of an exchange is made betwixt them, fire roars to life. This, too, she watches impassively, making no move to flee. A dragon doesn't flee.
Fire cannot kill a dragon.
And so the flames consume her, revitalizes her, wraps her in its loving embrace and strengthens her as it licks clothing away. As fabrics turn to ash, Dany closes her eyes and tilts her head back, breathing the heat in.
"I never thought I would die beneath the water," she eventually says to her companion, when the heat recedes. It's a surprise to witness the other woman remains in one piece, not a charred corpse. "It seems death has no use for you today."
no subject
The sound of a voice calls her from her contemplation, brings her awareness out of herself and back into the world around her, green eyes seeking and finally finding the speaker. A young woman, so blonde it seems her hair is almost part of the fire, too. It doesn't burn her, only dances around the pair of them, but as she glances around the field there are grisly reminders everywhere of what might have once been human life. "I guess not. We've always been on pretty good terms, I'd thought," she answers, and there's bemusement in the words, still. That bemusement leaves her expression soft, contemplative.
"The woman--the widow singing. Did she burn, do you think?"
( tree )
I don't. [ She says simply, making a less than agreeable face. Besides, there aren't any guns in this place, not one she has seen, and she isn't about to become someone that knows how to brandish a sword or a bow or anything that doesn't have a trigger and is a little older than whatever-the-year BC.
The other woman, however, seems quite intent on fighting an army. Please, no. ] Are you seriously considering fighting an army? [ Why. ]