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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.
no subject
Just fine. [It's weak, the dragon won't survive much more of this. It bellows in pain as the blade pierces its serpenty guts.]
It's time to put it out of its misery.
[She means that. As much as she dislikes dragons and their ilk, torture for torture's sake is not her style. She jumps back in the fray and does a somersault, landing right on top of the dragon's head. There aren't really any horns to grab hold of but the frilly mange along its neck and chin worked just fine. Samus grabs fistfuls of it and uses the weight of her legs to try and keep the dragon's nose bent towards the ground. She's exposing the back of its neck, or trying her damnedest to.]
I WASN'T DONE WRITING, DW
Well, that and she just wanted to fight the thing too, it wasn't every day she got the chance to take on beasts like this, okay.
In either case, as Samus makes her way to the head of the serpent, Shinobu manages to dodge a tree the beast attempts to ram itself into, to try to harm her. Instead, she uses the trunk to parkour off of, getting herself up to a higher branch on a nearby tree. While she's planning to try to strike from above, at an opportune moment, she finds that the other woman quickly presents the chance to her, exposing the back of its neck.
So, as she's done many times before, she drops from above, slashing her blade through the back of its neck. A large geyser of blood squirts out from the cut, splattering across Shinobu's face. Reaching a fist to swipe across her face, a minute amount makes its way into her mouth, granting her the ability to hear the birds speak around her.]
No Valkyries needed here.
[No, she's not even going to question why the hell birds were speaking, all of the sudden.]
no subject
You hear them too?
no subject
They definitely weren't this chatty until just now. I wonder why they decided now was a good time to start backseat fighting.
no subject
[She's not as inclined to give the how or why much further thought and decides to quietly file away what's more relevant: something about the Valkyries and Fafnir was likely the beast's name. It lays dead and unmoving, other than the steady flow of blood that stains the grass and gold.
Right... the gold. She nearly forgot in the heat of the moment. While Shinobu cleans her blade Samus walks towards the dragon's den and idly kicks some of the gold around with the heel of her boot. Poor quality boot, she'd mention. These disguises were primitive to her in many words. Was this gold really worth so much...?]
There's plenty here to take.
no subject
[Once her blade is wiped free of the blood and not in danger of staining, she places it back in her scabbard, following not far behind Samus. As the beast is slain, Shinobu feels more comfortable in glancing over the gold on display, bending down to check it out a little better.]
Guess no one else could figure out how to kick Fanfir's ass. [Still a little wary over how easy this seemed, she reaches down with her prosthetic arm (currently covered by a long glove to prevent confusion in this world), picking some up. Huh. Didn't seem like there was any catch to this.] Their loss.
[Opening a rucksack
(that I'm going to assume was given to people idk), she begins to fill it with as much as she thinks she can safely carry. Once she's done, she slings it over her shoulder and heads in the direction she came from.Before she can get too far, though, Shinobu sharply turns when she senses that there was definitely something strange going on. Her suspicions prove to be on the mark, as she soon sees Fanfir reconstructed (head and all), giving a loud roar to the sky, once every wound seemed to heal itself.]
Seriously?! [It reminded her a little of when one New Destroyman managed to heal the other back from death, in Santa Destroy. However, this thing seemingly brought itself back to life. Now this was some bullshit.
In spite of this, though, she glances over to Samus.]
So, what do you say? Wanna beat this thing again?
no subject
What the hell... It's alive again!? Even Ridley--for as much as that purple people eating Samus hating space dragon loved to defy death--would never be able to resurrect himself so quickly. This was some bullshit.
Her distaste is almost enough to forget the briefing the old woman and the BCE gave her on this place. Right... this is Vorspiel.]
It's the Time Break. [One thing to be briefed on it, another thing to see it in action.] Cathartic as that was, there's no point unless you want more gold.
no subject
But, as much as she just wanted to kill the damned thing all over again, she was disciplined enough to know that the other woman likely had a point. Though she prided herself in battle, she was also very good at completing a task to her as well – letting her pride consume her would likely lead to more repercussions than it was worth. She had made that mistake once and was trying really hard to not make it again.
So, after a sigh, she resigns herself to the choice.]
I guess. [The hesitation is evident in this one.] All right, let's get the hell out of here, then.
[And, just like that, she's jumping to the nearest tree to try to give her some cover as the two of them try to flee from the scene.]