THERE WERE MASTERS AND SERVANTS,

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Prepare for the historic Battle of Valmy.
WHEN? Mid September 1792, France.
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.

IT'LL BE FINE;

between sainte-menehould and valmy,
1792: revolutionary france.

read the valmy setting infopage

DEPARTING JERUSALEM

The clean up of the battle is slog. A full day of piling together corpses. Noting down famous men and women. In the heat, the bodies bloat and become fetid, and the smell builds until it cannot be ignored. Insects swarm, and vultures blot out the sun, swooping down and taking back what's been left for nature. Stragglers and the poor pick through the field for scattered weapons and valuables to collect. The bodies of important men and women are taken for burial; the rest are left for scavengers, animal or human.

It's in this gruesome scene that the order comes:

PACK UP, GET READY TO MOVE OUT. THE TARGETS HAVE BEEN NEAUTRALIZED. WE MAKE OUR DEPARTURE LOCAL TIME, DAWN.

DEPLOYMENT: VALMY, FRANCE. IT'S GOING TO BE A WET ONE. WE ARE EXPECTING MORE TRANSFERS ON ARRIVAL.

The present COST soldiers that have been in strict cover begin finishing their work, if they've decided to help the army move out, tend to the wounded, or clean up after the dead. There is no sign of the Commander yet, but maybe you recognise some of your fellow operatives. They seem be taking advantage of a particular event that maybe you stopped to see, maybe you didn't.

Saladin beheads Reynald de Chattilion and his words fill the camp as much as the news of their next move.

A king does not kill a king, Saladin says to King Guy, and the orders run like wildfire through the camp: next they take Jerusalem, and it's in this march, that when the rest of the army moves on that COST slips away. A order to fall back in steady increments; when the time comes, Saladin's army is out of sight, marching toward Jerusalem.

In the midst of all of this, COST operatives begin to disappear, here one moment and gone in another. Such a strange sight, more than one native soldier muses, must be the fault of heat exhaustion.

The Time-Step

The transfer begins, and it starts like a vibrating heat on the collar bone, not painful, not to start with. Just a hum of sensation. But the vibration spreads. Veteran COST soldiers often refer to this phenomena as 'the buzz'. The sensation builds, feeling not unlike standing near a great engine, or the wind rattling the branches of a great tree. There is long a moment of motion sickness, and one cannot always be sure if it is you that is shaking from the inside out, or the world that is shaking you from the outside in. It may just be better to close your eyes against the growing nausea as the world blurs out of focus. A star shines in the distance. You may hear the faint rustling of leaves. Some swear they hear voices in this moment, indistinct words echoing off nothingness. Some swear they feel a touch of the divine. One thing is for sure: One moment you are here, and the next, you are not.

The soldier next to you might not have been so clever, when it stops and you find yourself standing in the green fields of France, September 1792. She or he throws up as the vibration fades. Everyone seems to stumble sideways for a second. The world turns, and then rights itself. The heat is gone, replaced with cold and wet.



ARRIVAL FOR TRANSFERS FROM JERUSALEM

It's raining.

You're inside of a tent, (another one), and it already seems to be bustling with movements, they call to you in French, which you understand if you did not already: hurry now, they say, you need out of that cuircass before they're spotted. The rest of the army will be following, and the Prussian army to meet it. There isn't much time to loiter around getting sick in this weather. You have a kit to pick up, and perhaps training to do.

ARRIVAL FOR NEW RECRUITS

The first thing you'll notice is the sound of rain. You awake in a tent that seems to be sheltering against the ruins of a farm house, and everything feels damp. It's a wet September morning in 1792, and when the woman across from you in the tent speaks, you understand it to be French. If you didn't understand French already, you sure do now.

If you ask, she'll explain: you are fighting for France, as the Prussian army intends to invade and sack Paris. You may be a citizen, you may be a soldier; you have risen up in defense of France all the same.

She asks you what role you wish to play in the coming battle, and provides you with clothes and supplies to suit. She won't let you leave until you can pass for a native of France, setting up camp in the rain pouring down between Sainte-Menehould and Valmy.

MISSION OBJECTIVE

The forces of COST have gotten word that Regency operatives have gone to Revolutionary France, intending to turn the tides in one of the most historically important battles in European history. The Battle of Valmy, which decided the entirety of the French Revolution and all that follows it, must be won by the French army, as it was in history.

Unlike the incident in Jerusalem-- you may remember it, you may not-- COST has managed to get here before the day of the battle. Make no mistake; it's coming soon. But this time, you and your fellow travelers have time to prepare.

The French Army has managed to get ahead as well; they've maneuvered around the Prussians, cutting off their supply lines. You and your fellow soldiers are now chasing the invaders as they head for Paris. This is time to prepare and ready your forces. The fight is coming soon.



STAY DRY, STAY SECURE

A few things are strongly remembered about the Battle of Valmy; one of them is the rain. It's really pouring out here, and you're in the thick of it. Rain is a dangerous thing for an army such as this; during this era of warfare, gunpowder was an essential commodity, and wet gunpowder is useless gunpowder. Secure the supplies, rescue supply carriages from muddy sinkholes, steer the horses, check supplies, and try to keep the essential materials for victory dry.

TRAIN UP

General Kellerman and Dumouriez are training peasants in basic military tactics. While veterans make up the core of this army, there are a substantial amount of peasants, and most here have never seen battle in their lives, or ever held a gun. Many are equipped with only rudimentary farming equipment. Help train or be trained so you're ready when the Prussian army arrives.

MEDICAL

Plenty of people need medical attention, not from battle wounds so much as malnutrition and overwork. These are mostly peasant laborers, and they're not entirely fit for battle. Help people get as rested and ready as possible.

ESPIONAGE

We have reason to believe some of the 'peasants' are actually Regency spies. Root them out by seeing keeping an ear to the ground for suspicious activity. They don't know all the words to La Marseillaise? Off with their head! Be careful not to attack time travellers on your side, though!

MORALE

Keep spirits high! Sing, dance, and generally try to keep people from succumbing to fear. Despite the rain and the mud, despite the seemingly impossible odds, the average soldier is full of excitement for battle, ready to fight to the death to defend their freedom.

SUPPLY AND SEEK

Since the French army is behind the invading force, they've cut off the enemy's supply lines. This means that, should the Prussians become encamped here for any amount of time, they won't be able to send for food and munitions from their home country. It's your job to make sure it stays that way. You may see someone riding on a swift horse in a Prussian uniform, attempting to sneak through French lines and try to get word back to mother Prussia. Chase them down, and make sure they can't get their reports back home so a second force isn't sent-- or worse.

BE A COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

This battle is one that's widely known for its popular support-- for the most part, France unites against this invading force with alarming cohesion. Someone gifted with a clever mind, or perhaps a clever tongue, may be able to use that. The French army passes farms and peasant villages along the way-- make rousing speeches, and try to recruit more to the cause, secure donations of food and weaponry, anything you can get.

read the valmy setting infopage

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

EREN YEAGER | OTA

[trample]

-i. stick in the mud.

There's a lot to deal with almost immediately. He's gotten used to the fact that he's now part of a interdimensional, time-travelling response force trying to change the very fabric of history just for the sake of some political fiasco. Sure. But that's not in the least bit helpful when it comes to dealing with things on a day to day basis.

Today, that meant he was shit out of luck when it came to getting around. Mud was his worst enemy and he didn't know it until this very day. His crutch had carried him through thick and thin, but it could not carry him through mud. There was little else he could do but take refuge inside a quiet, dank tent.

His corner's nice and dry, at least. It's a small one, and there's little room for but another. Maybe you were there before he came in, maybe you came in to find your company was a filthy hobo caked in a layer of drying dirt. Whatever the case is, he'll be brooding in his corner. Do tents have corners?

-ii. play ball

One day, the rain will end. That day happens to be today. For now, the skies are looking clear, if a bit dull. There's a bit of movement so that the forces can get a foothold further into what will soon become a wasteland. Better to be ahead of the game than behind it, is how the logic goes. And Eren was way ahead of anyone else in his game.

With some spare leather scraps and a bit of handiwork on his own part, he managed to fashion a pair of mitts not unlike the ones used about, you know, two hundred years from now. No one's gonna bat an eye at this, least of all the French. Their priorities lay elsewhere. Eren's priorities involved picking a fellow COST agent out from the crowd and asking if they wanted to play some baseball.

He certainly hoped they would oblige.

-iii. what a load of horse shite

It's nostalgia that drives him to the stables. Something about the particular way it reeks sends him down memory lane, to all the good times he had to clean the shit out of the stables, to all the bad times he had to clean the shit out of the stables...really, fond memories left and right.

Of course, him being a part of the most skilled cavalry at one point in his life meant he had more finesse with riding a horse than most would proudly admit. He certainly didn't have anyone to boast to, not that he would. Given his bum leg, he wouldn't judge anyone for sooner laughing at him than admiring him.

That said, he's hoisted himself up and onto a horse, and the saddle beneath him is comforting. His ass is just a little pained, and it's likely due to not having a second leg to rely on. It's about this point in time that he slowly rears it out of the stables, only to have it stop near the exit with its ass facing out. He was about to turn his head before realizing he didn't need to -- the stench hit him first. That was a fresh one.

If you're unfortunate enough to be there, witnessing this travesty, then you'll doubly be unfortunate enough to hear Eren casually brush it off like it were nothing.

"It's not what it looks like -- I swear."

iii.

[thingpuncher]

Midnighter refuses to clean stables. He was made to kill people and reign down terror and confusion everywhere he goes, not get elbow-deep in horseshit. Not only that, but he's not a huge fucking fan of animals to begin with. Sure, the gigantic fucking horses in Jerusalem were cool as fuck, and it was fun to steal them from unsuspecting knights. But these horses are skinny and boring and they bite sometimes. Or, in Midnighter's case, they sure try.

So he only pokes his head in the stables to see how that works-- he's never seen a stable before and he's curious. "Looks like what?" He grins at finding his favorite little weirdo. "Like you're stealing a horse?"

[trample]

"I should be appalled that that's the first thing that comes to your mind when you see me." He shrugs on top of the horse, which he redirects head first into the building. "I'm not. I'm also not stealing anything. Everything this side of the battlefield is ours for the taking. Unless it's someone's private property. Which I don't think exists the way it does in my time. Yet."

They'll all have to wait and see. Eren, in the meanwhile, manages to hop off the horse and land fantastically -- by his standards, fantastic means only using one hand to break his fall instead of two.

"My crutch is somewhere around here. Can you get it for me?"

[thingpuncher]

"Everybody steals sometimes, kid," Midnighter says with a shrug. He's somewhere between not giving a fuck and genuinely attempting to give advice. "Take it from me."

But let's not get into that.

When a one legged kid asks for his crutch, you get his crutch. It isn't a politeness thing, or a societal thing, or even a kid thing. It's an urge to help so deep in Midnighter's backbone it doesn't have anything to do with the computer or Andrew or Bendix or his years living rough. He walks over and picks up the crutch, handing it over to Kruger.

"So what were you doing with the horse, kid?"

[trample]

"Stealing is a crime. I'm no criminal." He says this more as a joke than anything, but there's an underlying truthful sentiment to it. Eren would hate to be seen as someone ready to commit crimes for the fuck of it. Though he does understand the intent behind Midnighter's words.

"I was simply...reminiscing about a time where riding a horse wasn't such a pain in the ass. Well, it's always a pain in the ass, but now it's a real pain in the ass. You know what I mean? This leg and all."

Of course, he could always do himself a favor and pop out a new one, but...he just knew he'd get weird looks doing that. So screw that. For now, this hobo look'll have to do.

[thingpuncher]

Midnighter makes a vaguely obscene gesture with his hand near his hip, twitching his wrist away a few times while rolling his eyes. Sure, kid. "We're all criminals sometimes. It's the why that separates us from the real bastards, not the how."

Deep philosophical shit for sitting around in a barn full of horseshit. Midnighter grins.

"You considered some extra padding for that sore ass of yours?" And then Midnighter cringes, just slightly. Ugh, that sounded almost like a come-on, and this kid is, what, twenty-two? Twenty-three? Too fucking young for Midnighter to feel okay hitting on him. He shakes his head and casts around the barn with a critical eye. "Gotta be something in here to get you back in the saddle."

[trample]

Fortunately for Eren, he is most certainly not twenty-three. Otherwise he would likely be on his deathbed at this very moment. He's a twenty year old mess with eyebags and stress lines that make him look a few years older than that, sure, but he hardly thinks anything of it. There's enough of a berth between him and his inevitable death that he's not worried -- yet.

"I happened upon a reading once that detailed how an amputee not unlike myself managed to fashion a prosthetic that allowed him to keep racing atop a horse. Professionally, even." Eren rubbed his chin while he said this. "If there's anything that'll get me back to doing acrobatics on horseback, I figure it'll be something like that."

[thingpuncher]

"You used to be an acrobat?" Midnighter knows less than nothing about horses, so he seizes on the information he does have. He leans against the nearest support beam, ignoring the smell of horseshit. "Knew a guy who used to be in the circus. Dunno if he worked with horses, though."

But let's be real: he probably did.

[trample]

"Yeah. Complete with the wire tricks." From the tone of his voice, it should be obvious he's messing around with Midnighter's expectations. Not out of any ill intent, just to fuck around. "If I couldn't do a triple backflip onto the back of a horse, then what the hell else was I supposed to do?"

He's telling the truth. Sorta. 'Wire tricks' is vague enough that he can get away with not lying, at least. Let him have a little fun.

[thingpuncher]

Midnighter gives him an interested, if indulgent, expression in return. "Get a better prosthetic?"

He's got no clue what technological level this kid is used to, but damn. Haven't they got, like, peg legs or something? He's seen those on TV.

[trample]

"My God." It's just a phrase he says on reflex, without any thought put into it. Deadpan as ever, Eren delivers the next phrase with a sense of humor so dry that even Midnighter would have trouble not getting it. "You're a genius."

...despite himself, Eren entertains the idea for longer than just a second and realizes it actually would do him some good. Enough good that he almost immediately snaps his crutch in half over his leg. It was impulsive, sure, and before he knew it, he was fitting the splintered ends of the thing around the remains of his shin.

"It's a bit too early to ask around for duct tape, isn't it?"

ii

[mylawn]

The nice thing is that it's easy enough to pick out fellow agents just from some careful observation--nothing the locals will notice, he hopes, but subtle displacements that one might only pick up on if one was in a similar situation. That's what catches his eye about the kid and what's clearly a makeshift baseball mitt. He thinks he'd approach even if he wasn't asked to. Maybe he's just looking for something familiar.

Still...

"Sure that's a good idea?"

76 isn't an expert, but he's pretty sure this particular sport hasn't been invented yet. It's likely none of the soldiers will question what looks like a game of catch, and might even want to join in, but he's a bit wary of risking anything that might cause repercussions down the line, further than they can imagine.

"You might accidentally invent it."

I snorted at how blunt he was

[trample]

The concern's more than understandable. Actually, at a younger age, Eren might have even agreed and immediately shot his own idea down. For what it's worth, he spends a few moments his his hand on his chin before shrugging without a care in the world.

"The sooner, the better." He might have laughed were he not the sort of person to take such things lightly. "It might not be a good idea, you're right. Which is why I'll keep from going all out and setting up a diamond. Ha, not that I could, all on my own."

His humor is dry.

"Since you're already in on it, why don't you join me? I'm sure no one's gonna catch on."

[mylawn]

76 raises an eyebrow in response, clearly indicating that he doesn't buy this. Who knows what kind of far-reaching consequences the invention of baseball had, really? What might come about because they invented it a couple hundred years early, in an entirely different place?

"Is that why you're asking people to come play with you?"

If the idea was to mock up a diamond, 76 would put his foot down immediately--something about butterfly effects. Catch seems harmless enough, and so does hitting a ball with a stick, so for now he'll play along. 76 can match Eren's dry humor with a well-practiced dryness of his own, even as he relents and holds out his hand for a makeshift mitt.

"You get to do the explaining if anyone wants to know."

[trample]

"If it comes to that, I'd be more than happy to. Doubt anyone will, though." He spoke confidently for once, handing off the glove. "They're all too busy, caught up in their motions for the upcoming battle. Me, I'd like to take the time now to just kick back--" He emphasized this with a slight kick of his left leg, the pant knot whiffing in the air in doing so. "--And play ball in the meanwhile. Not like this could be anything revolutionary."

By the time he finishes talking enough to surprise even himself, they're both far enough away that someone would have to be incredibly unfortunate to get hit in the head from one of their tosses. Eren himself does the honor of taking the first throw, underhand. An easy catch.

"Though I have a bad feeling I'm gonna screw around so much now that I'll be mopping in the rain later."

[mylawn]

“Let’s hope.”

The commander seems reasonable enough, but that’s exactly why 76 imagines she might come down on activities like this. Even if it’s an ostensible morale-booster for the ragtag army (if they get a few soldiers to join in), they’re still being vaguely anachronistic, and that’s something he imagines Grothia takes seriously. She has to—76 would do the same, in her position.

So it’s a good thing he’s not in charge, maybe.

His only hope is that it doesn’t really look like baseball unless you squint, but despite his reservations he finds himself lifting his glove to catch the ball, which of course he does easily.

“Does that happen to you a lot?”

He returns the easy underhand toss. No harm in warming up a little.

[trample]

"Wait and hope."

There's a lot he could say about how the past affects the present, and messing around with space and time could very well lead to some major differences in the future -- but he won't. He's not feeling up to anything but playing a perfect game here, with some smalltalk in the meanwhile.

"Not as punishment, though it could have easily been mistaken for it. No, my squad leader was just that much of a clean freak. Builds character, for sure, but..." He leaves the rest to the man's imagination. "I figure a dirty bum like me's the last of anyone's worries. You, on the other hand, look like you're in the prime of your life."

It was half a joke, half a compliment. Eren threw a neat curve ball, certain that if the fellow was half the man he thought he was, he could snag it. There was something about the way he carried himself that made Eren almost jealous.

[mylawn]

That has 76 raising an eyebrow, because despite what Eren says, it definitely sounds like punishment. It's not something he would have done to his own men, and he certainly had a tendency to administer some tough love. 76 likes to think, however, that he was at least productive about it.

"You'd be surprised."

Shady government experiments will do that to you, but of course 76 has no real plans to talk about his own storied history. It's much easier to turn the conversation back on Eren, much like he takes a few long strides to catch the ball and fire it back.

"You're military?"

[trample]

"Was. I figure most of us here had answered our own call to duty at some point or another." He thinks about Midnighter and nearly has a laugh imagining him in the military complex before shaking his head and catching the ball by the skin of his teeth. "Most."

The same way 76 keeps to himself about his past, Eren keeps his own mentions vague. There's no bigger buzz-kill than his life story. And for what little they've got going on just yet, there's a certain level of respect Eren affords to anyone who shares the same sort of crankiness he was often called eccentric for.

"I take it you're no different. But if I had the choice here and now, I don't think I'd get very involved, myself."

And the ball's lugged in a steep, overhead arc this time.

[mylawn]

"Haven't met everyone yet."

But the COST soldiers that know what they're doing--the ones who seem to have experience. 76 doesn't know if that's from prior military knowledge or training they've received. It's vaguely reassuring, and would be more so if he wasn't entertaining the possibility of having been kidnapped, but at least he's not surrounded by incompetents.

He wouldn't be surprised if most of them had military backgrounds, though it does open up the uncomfortable possibility that COST knows exactly who they're plucking out of their own times.

As far as Eren's comment goes, 76 offers a shrug.

"I had business back home."

He imagines most people do, not that there's much to be done about it now.

[trample]

"And now you don't." Eren says it with a lick of sarcasm, but he means well enough besides that -- he certainly understands the feeling. "No plans, no home. It's all gone caput."

He returns 76's shrug, made all the more exaggerated by the fact that his glove makes his hand look huge. Quickly tucking his free hand into his crutch (leaning it entirely into your shoulder hurts like hell), he then places said glove over his face in that classic thinking look.

"If I were any younger, I might have been incredibly frustrated." That wasn't to say there weren't reasons to be frustrated besides having your life's efforts reduced to nothing, but that wasn't the point he was trying to make here. "And if you were any younger, I imagine you'd have less reason to look so wired."

[mylawn]

76’s eyebrows furrow as he tosses the the ball back. He won’t give up on home so easily—not when Ana is there and not when there are so many answers he still needs. If this is time travel, shouldn’t he be able to return to the exact point at which he left? It all depends on whether or not COST lets him go, which doesn’t seem in the cards.

At least not for now. The next thing out of Eren’s mouth has 76 looking just the slightest bit quizzical.

“How old are you, kid?”

He talks like he’s been around the block—certainly looks it, in some ways, but 76 can see that he’s young, underneath it. Has him wondering what kind of life he’s lived.

[trample]

If 76 is quizzical, Eren is perplexed. His age was generally the last thing on his mind, aside from being a countdown to the inevitable. While reaching out for the ball, his head does a few tilting motions, signalling that he's thinking real hard on this -- he kind of...has to.

"If it's September now, then I'll be twenty-one in a few months." He holds his chin with his forefinger and thumb. "...Probably."

His shoulders shrug (they sure were doing a lot of that) and it leads directly into a straight toss. He was probably half this guy's age or even less, and now that he thought about it, he probably ought to be taking advantage of that wealth of experience when he had the chance.

"Not sure how much that matters when we're hopping through time like it's nobody's business."

[mylawn]

76 doesn't know why it should matter to him. He'd been younger than this when he enlisted, and not long after that he'd signed his body over to the government for genetic experimentation. It had been desperate times, of course, but looking back on it a few decades later is a little complicated. Wars are fought by young people--he's the one who's overstayed his welcome. Perhaps he just resents the fact that kids are still being made to fight, for various reasons. That there really is no end to any of this, even across universes.

The catch and return is automatic, this time.

"Time travel's above my pay grade."

It's Winston's department, and he sort of finds himself wishing he could have a consult.

"Seems to me, though, that you could just go back to the moment you left."

[trample]

The moment he left was one he was, in a way, glad to escape. Being able to get away from the fight without consequences left him confused, but doubly relieved. There was so much weight on his shoulders that the pressure would have driven anyone else insane. But him, he just sorta took it. Go figure.

"I think I'll stick around here for a bit." He sounds almost resigned. "Not like they're giving us the option to head home anyway."