THE AMAZING BASE.

[agogemod]

WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Welcome home, nerds.
WHEN? Outside time and space, in the aether between dimensions.
ANYTHING ELSE? There is also a fish. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.

MYSTERY FISH;

question the mystery fish

DEPARTING GALLIPOLI

The order comes the day after the Marie Antoinette sets sail:

PACK UP AND GET READY TO MOVE OUT. WE'VE DONE ALL WE CAN HERE.

DEPLOYMENT: BASE.

WE NEED TO RESTOCK. BE PREPARED FOR MORE TRANSFERS ON ARRIVAL.

STAY SAFE. TIME-STEP EXPECTED TO BEGIN WITHIN THE HOUR.

FOR THOSE OF YOU NEW TO COST: FIND A SECLUDED SPOT AND TRY NOT TO EAT ANYTHING BEFORE THE JUMP.

The Time-Step

The transfer begins like a vibrating heat on the collar bone, just a hum of sensation.

But the vibration spreads. Veteran COST soldiers often refer to this phenomenon as "the buzz". The feeling builds, not unlike standing near a great engine or the wind-rattled branches of a massive tree. There is a long moment of motion sickness and you can't be sure if the world is shaking you from the inside out or the outside in. It may 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. Others say they feel a touch of the divine, that the eyes of the eternal look down upon you. Ancient bones rattle just out of earshot, cold and brittle and nothing more than the suggestion of sound. Or maybe it's only an illusion, brought on by the powerful technology grafted into your skin.

One thing is for sure: One moment you are here and the next you are not.

The shift takes you from whatever solitude you could find aboard the Marie Antoinette to the temperature-regulated hallway of what looks like a very poorly put together space station. Droids rush up and down the long hallway, fixing broken bits of machinery or just chattering with each other. A few crows sit on high ledges, looking down and watching. Someone mutters something about a centaur around the corner.

And you might just notice, provided you were in Gallipoli long enough to acquire stowaways, that the parasites lurking on your skin are mercifully gone.

For new arrivals who didn't experience Gallipoli: You, too, will appear in this long hallway, filled with droids and crows and humans (still filthy and clad in ANZAC uniforms, carrying battered equipment from the first World War). And you'll be wearing the minimal COST-issued athletic underwear and holding whatever one item you were allowed to bring. Surprise!

READ THE BASE INFOPAGE.

home away from home

Those who have been to BASE before may find a strangeness to it all: BASE seems...still. The windows show a verdant world instead of the usual aether (though with the typical paranoia), and the halls are bereft of all but a few crows. A man stands at the end of the long hallway you arrived in, waiting for you to get your bearings before he speaks.

Except, you know, he's not a man. He's a centaur.

"It's been barely a week since you left, by my reckoning. But for you, I'm sure, it's been much longer. Still, much has changed. You may have noticed we are...becalmed. This is due, it seems, to an error in our ways. We kept something that does not belong to us, several wild creatures that are meant to be free. They seem to have psychically called out to their home, and their home responded; we are now somewhat stranded.

"But let me explain—the Aether is the nexus between worlds and times, but it is not a dead thing. Creatures live in it. We have crashed onto the back of one such creature, a mighty beast, as large as a small country and entirely undiscovered. We have found why the creature has intercepted us: we have accidentally taken captive some of its children. Shapers, the wild creatures I mentioned, it seems they form a symbiotic bond with the creature, and live happily within its stomach."

He frowns, considering this.

"Shapers, I should mention, are creatures that briefly infested our fair BASE. The issue was dealt with, though we kept some for experimentation. The coelacanth took issue with this, it seems. It can speak, of course; we are stranded very near its head, and if you wish to ask it a question, I implore you to do so. The creature is older than creation—older than me—and only speaks once to any creature it encounters. It's said its wisdom brings kings to their knees."

His eyes crinkle in humor.

"My name is Chiron and I am the caretaker of this place, for those of you whom I have not had the pleasure of meeting. More importantly, I am a trainer and a teacher of some experience; if you wish training or schooling of any sort, do summon me. I will be happy to assist."

He's easy to contact, often found in the library, the training area, his capsule, or elsewhere in the station, attempting to fix what he understands and arguing with crows.

"We intended to spend this time exploring, for this is a rare opportunity to discover more of an entirely uncharted world. I hasten you to see if anything on the coelacanth can be of use, but be careful. Take only what you need, not what you may want. I intend to learn my lessons well; these creatures are not pets. Takes food, water, and any materials of use to us for our survival and perseverance, but no more. We task you with this: explore the coelacanth, and see what of it can be understood. Bring us back samples, but do try to interrupt the natural habitat as little as possible. We are guests here."

He bows and the action shows a slight limp in one of his back legs.

"I would join you, but I am far too old for such activities. Still, do pepper me with any questions you should encounter. I am always available on the network, or in person, within this hulking mass we call home."

And then he leaves you to find your capsules and rest.

CAPSULE ASSIGNMENTS

Once you've found your room and settled in—perhaps taken a shower, collected clothes, and eaten—a droid will approach you with camping equipment and give you a brief explanation of how to access and use the database. It's time to get your gear and go.

Of course, you can decline. You can stay and tend to the fort, maybe try and clean up this patchwork jumble of metal and machinery. But seeing the sights on the back of a giant fish flying through non-space? Who can say no to that?


the undiscovered country.

BASE's airlocks open into a lush valley, vibrant with color and rustling with life that has thrived on the coelacanth's back for millennia. It's a striking shift from the rot and gunfire of Gallipoli, unmarked by shrapnel, bombshells, and never-fresh air.

No, the air here is clean in a way that can leave you breathless, untouched by pollutants and stirred into a gentle breeze. It's a marked departure for anyone used to a more modern Earth or rough equivalent; letting the air sit on your tongue leaves a crisp, unsullied taste behind. And the whole forest feels alive, in a way that reminds you of how small you really are.

A white crow perches in a tree near BASE's exit, too high up to properly engage but a stark contrast to the bright leaves around her. She merely watches recruits come and go with a shrewd eye, feathers fluffed against the light chill. There are other crows scattered throughout the wilderness, some easier to find than others as they flit through the trees, sit on camping equipment, or hitch rides on the hoverbikes.

Besides those brief flashes of black feathers, however, you're left unsupervised.

Try not to fuck up anything too badly.

EXPLORE:INFOPAGE|DATABASE
talk to a fish | destruction report

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC MEMES PLURK

Comments

[lefthandfree]

Bucky hums, refining the raindrop shape as he thinks, as if that helps somehow, and then he adds what’s clearly a window on it, except it’s not like the screen windows they actually have, instead a square with a plus in it, like a house window. This totally makes sense for a tent.

There’s a rather significant pause as he tries to actually find a real answer to reply with, but inevitably he comes up empty. He doesn’t really know why, even if he has an idea of why not. It’s not like anyone he really knows is here, not like anyone would care. He already acts so easy and careless because he knows no one really knows him in COST, lets some of his truer colors show when they normally wouldn’t have back on earth. Even the Regency operative that had contacted them hadn’t any real clue of the real James Buchanan Barnes. So does it even matter? Should he even care if he doesn’t even know why?

“Yeah, probably not. It's kinda weird, really. Always was the kind who'd try anything once a long time ago. Maybe it's just been so long that I've forgotten why I bothered to.”

[courtintrigue]

[ Her attention snags on him. Even though she feels no need to apologize or be apologized to, she feels a twitch of a smile tug at her lips. ]

Turn into spider once and people get leery.

[ She teases, mostly.

After how close everybody seemed in the trenches, she appreciates her solitude all the more. But 76 is an intrusion she knows she can bear, even more now than in Gallipoli since everyone is cleaner and less itchy and much kinder to the nose.

She is oddly pleased to see him no less scruffy than before, though. She beckons with one hand. ]

Despite appearances this is not my room.

[courtintrigue]

[ The exhale huffing out of her sounds suspiciously like a laugh. ]

Smart man.

[ She can take the opportunity to catch her breath, though, and she does just that, wiping sweat from her brow and then gathering her wayward hair back into the band holding most of it up. In the meantime she gives him a bit of an up-and-down look, the casual appraisal circumstances did not really allow on the beach. ]

What do you think of your new home away from home?

[mcscouty]

[ There's a slight shifting of weight on his hip where he's currently leaning, but it's not because of the look. Oh, he knows she's looking, gauging, but in fairness he usually assumes people are. You can't be in a room with him and not be aware of him on some level, it just isn't allowed.

But he's comfortable enough to leave it lie without the need for a whole lot of posturing. It's just him feeling restless, a little twitch in his shoulders as he shrugs, squinting around the area. ]

I mean, it's a base. You've seen one, you've kind of seen them all. Probably fewer dragons and fairies than you're used to though, huh?

[ The curl of his lip? Definitely a teasing one, with a hint of tooth behind it. ]

[heilt]

I'm alright.

( she squeezes his hand gently, her voice a little extra soothing. she knows that he'd worried, as jack would, and finds it sweet. for all that angela frets over them it's nice to know that they care about her too )

That's why they brought me back so that they could fix the problem. I'm going to do what I can to minimise it happening again.

( she'd spoken to chiron about examining the technology. angela knew that she couldn't do much but it was peace of mind at the least, and help at the most )

hes beautiful

[mylawn]

[76 doesn't look back, nor does he pay attention to whether or not Chiron is passing him. His eyes are directly on their makeshift road, if he can even call it that, trying to focus on the speed of the bike and the feel of riding it. He is pretty sure it is spewing a not insubstantial amount of smoke, but the rush of the race has him putting thoughts of the Coelacanth getting cheesed about it in the back of his mind.

Thrilling as it is, the bike tops out fairly quickly. 76 tries to shift gears again, perhaps to see if there is another gear, but it seems the run-down tech has its limits.]

[mylawn]

I wasn’t gonna ask about that.

[He says that in a way that indicates he is extremely curious of the nature of the ability, however. 76 seems to have enough sense not to address it in a way that might be insulting, but it is something of an elephant in the room. He manages not to press the issue, the tension alleviated slightly when she invites him into the space.

76 still approaches with some measure of caution, like he doesn’t get invited into people’s spaces very often.]

Any good reading material?

[mylawn]

[Yeah, that sounds like someone unappreciative of being woken up. If 76 cares about that, however, he certainly doesn’t show it, standing at the base of the tree with his arms folded. He cranes his neck a little to get a better look at what’s going on. At the very least, it doesn’t look like Aizawa has been chewed on.

Small mercies. 76 decides to be diplomatic.]

You don’t want to pitch your tent?

[You just want to. Stick your sleeping bag in a tree?]

[mylawn]

[76 supposes there is something to be said for brute force, and he files what she says away for later. He understands that Mordred means Dany, and finds the team-up to be intriguing, at least. Whatever they managed to do, it was certainly effective.]

Nice work.

[It’s about as close to a complement as he gets, nowadays, but suffice to say he’s impressed. That does not, however, overshadow the fact that somehow, the Regency knew everything about them. When the consequence of that might be erasure from existence, 76 can’t help but feel like COST should be doing a better job with their identities. He certainly hasn’t told anyone who he really is, after all. He’s done nothing but use his alias since arriving.]

You’d think if they know who we are, they might as well just go back in time and kill us.

[Isn’t that how it works?]

[heilt]

( there's a small nod and then, soon enough, thor will feel a very gentle pat on his arm, angela taking a step back to replace her equipment )

There. ( she turns back and actually answers his question ) And yes. This is always what I wanted to do.

( just never quite how she imagined it )

[mylawn]

I’d rather not think about it.

[He’s no scientist, and time travel is above his pay grade—he had a whole department for this kind of thing, once. 76 finds himself wondering, yet again, what Winston might think about all this, especially given the fact that the BCEs seem to run on a similar principle to his chronal accelerator.

Again, something he’d rather not think about.]

You get anything?

[heilt]

And I you.

( she's smiling, not caring as much about lena's disarray as she hugs the younger woman, giving a brief visual assessment once she steps back )

How have you been?

[inconstantly]

[At first John doesn't register Dorian's approach, which is very unlike him. It's not until Dorian reaches for the staff that John fully registers the other man's presence. But being surrounded in this way only feels natural. He settles against Dorian's form, arm against arm on either side and relaxing his back into Dorian's front. Again John closes his eyes, this time parting his lips to more deeply breathe in the air around them.]

There's nothing like this where I'm from. You either have your abilities or you don't. I've acted as my own conduit before, jolting myself with electricity to bring a skill to light.

[His eyes open and he turns his head to Dorian, still fully enraptured by the staff.]

That's what this feels like now. Like I'm the point where lightning starts, the rumbling of a crack before the bolt strikes. I can feel the extinguishing of the demons, fire to ash.

[heilt]

I think I'll let you drive.

( never having tried the bike before angela isn't certain what it would be like )

[bivariant]

[ cheris is kel, she hasn't the forte or patience for games and secrets. the general's existence has been a flighty thing since their arrival, and she cannot parse if he wished to be polite about it or if he was deliberately obscuring his presence from COST. he's not hiding now, and cheris prefers it that way. seen for what the two of them are. and she waits, her hands itching in their half-gloves, wanting to fold behind her back as her actions and words become clear to percy -- it's like watching a light flicker into existence. ]

I do not know why the Hexarchate would turn the General over to the company of COST, de Rolo.

[ there must be a reason for it, however. kel command has always been prone to withholding information. ]

But to do so, with no recognizable way to continue to monitor him, means that they have made me responsible. I know I cannot do this on my own, I am not trained to combat the mind of a man three-hundred years my senior, with three-hundred years more experience in behavioral analysis and manipulation. I am, however, equipped. The chrysalis gun remains in my possession. Which means there is always a possibility. The lines between the way I think and the way he thinks may blur, without my recognizing. I am myself, Kel Cheris, right now in this moment.

[ for a woman with a solemn face, she hardly lacks expression. there is fear in her, at the idea of losing who she is. ]

It is a likely threat, I've read the guidebook. I've run the numbers, as well. Please shoot my reflection, my shadow, or me, if ever you cannot tell who I am. Even if for a fraction of a moment, you cannot tell who I am. You are a good marksman, de Rolo. It's why I'm asking this of you.

[fessus]

Does the lord of the lake sound interesting to you?

[heilt]

"I wasn't suggesting simply leaving them to it. Having someone to oversee that would help." As well as make sure that the people collecting samples knew how to do so -- safely, carefully and without waste.

[heilt]

( oh my god jack morrison you are a child. an actual child )

When you're finished I'll be in medical.

( she didn't sign up for this. you can just stand in this hallway semi-nude. she was at least going to offer you privacy. angela is now turning to walk away. bye felicia )

[heilt]

I didn't question that.

[verumdicit]

Time. Time and, of course-- [ He can't help it. He hides a grin by taking a sip. ] grapes from the Seelie realm are hardly the same as those from mundanes. Magic runs deep in our forests.

[verumdicit]

[ 'pretty calming' earns an eyebrow raise, but Meliorn is quite proud of how he reigns the rest of his emotion in. He just met the teenager, he certainly doesn't want to actively eyeroll at a terrible, terrible joke. It seems reflexive, anyway. Like Simon.

He must really be homesick if he's thinking of Simon, let alone the constant comparisons. That's unfair. This man is his own person. He reflects on that briefly as he sits, crossing his legs automatically and closing his eyes. A deep inhale, a deep exhale, and it's then he speaks once more. He may as well answer honestly, it's not like he can't. ]

No. [ He straightens his posture as he speaks, eyes closed throughout. ] The world is vast, but so are we, in the grand scheme of things. The more important thing to remember would be that of all the people in this very moment, you're the one that's touching it now. That's what matters.

[ And, after a beat: ] My name is Meliorn.

[bivariant]

[ the two of them climb and maneuver into position, hei taking the low ground as cheris fits her fingers and the toes of her worn boots into crevices and wills the general's muscle memory to remain dormant as she adjusts her weight and leverages herself onto the rock shelf she had indicated. a moment, to catch her breath, and she rocks onto her toes, tipping forward far enough to line up her approach on the drumcrown below.

slowly, she raises her hand, fingers held in a fist. the organization of a strike without formation is -- well, less of an assurance and more of a whimsical hope. she does not enjoy the way she is not guaranteed to be listened to, the cohesion of a unit, moving in perfect synchronicity. she just has to trust that hei will function ( how did the Hexarchate ever get by without formation instinct, she wonders sometimes. )

and then she signals, and drops down towards the drumcrown, hands grasping the flat plane of its bone mantle, hooking her knees behind it tightly and digging in. she will control the beast's path from its back, using sharp wrenches of its fur and crown to force it to twitch and lunge in the opposite direction. the one she genuinely wants it to go. an animal's psychology is just as easy to manipulate as a human being's, in the end. ]

[mylawn]

[You asked for this! She totally asked for this, and Jack is not about to back down. They both know how stubborn he can be--Angela wants a medical exam right now, before anything else? He will do that. He will make it happen.]

If you have time to go to medical, I have time to take a shower.

[excelsus]

[Dorian's not exactly sure what motivated him to...well he wasn't certain what this was, perhaps this was just the student in him becoming the teacher, or perhaps the idea of someone so taken by magic was just that endearing to him. He felt an impulse clicking like the cogs in a machine and had he been five years younger he wouldn't suppress those impulses. This was a learning moment for the both of them after all.]

Oh, the magical abilities are inherent, not just anyone can pick up a staff and be a mage...the staff merely draws from you, amplifies what you have, gives it distance and precision...there's a...mathematical formula to certain magics. I have some on my arm in fact.

[Granted he's only talking now as a distraction from the proximity, but it's no lie, Dorian is just the sort of nerd that would tattoo himself with magical mathematical equations that would make very little sense to anyone but himself. To most people it was simply geometric designs, but they had meaning.]

It could be drawing that feeling from you, I'm half tempted to let you push it...except we're in a static cage and while electric fingers can be fun...standing in a ring of lightening just for curiosity's sake would be a bit dangerous. [Not that he's going to tell John to let go any time soon, that would mean letting John go, wouldn't it? Instead he nudged John's hand up a few inches until his palm was hovering over a spherical object embedded into the staff.] A rune...that's a spirit rune, it's designed to increase damage inflicted on demons and similar creatures like darkspawn.

[Dorian is curious in the way John seems to be engaging with the staff, there might be parts of the staff that call out to John the most and the spirit rune was a powerful magical element.]

[handsomefoil]

The drawing is childlike and simple, which he's now starting to find strangely endearing. While completely illogical in real life, the thought-process is completely understandable. While he does expect Bucky to take a moment to think, he doesn't realize what's behind it all. He knows very little about the man, and he imagines it's merely due to not asking rather than him trying to hide it. He'll have to try it one of these days.

"Well, now you remember it. You're welcome."

He laughs under his breath though, clearly just joshing him there. Then it just reminds him of his own situation, where as while he'd until recently been sort of like Bucky. Guess marriage just does that to you.

"Guess I can relate, though. I was married until recently, for about ten years, so going around kissing people wasn't exactly on the forefront of my mind. At least, until uh, joining COST. Guess I just needed someone as straightforward as he was."

Not namin' any names, y'know.