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

[raisedbybirds]

[She takes a moment to contemplate how she's even ended up in this situation; what feels like a few mere minutes ago she was silently drooling over a good smell, now immersed in conversation with a complete stranger asking about her childhood over breakfast. Shared breakfast, at that.

...really delicious shared breakfast. Shoveling food in her mouth is an excellent excuse to stall, one she takes readily and answers him only with a nod. Her mouth is full.

She flashes him three fingers, hoping that will satiate further questions and not invoke any more. Since age three, guy.]

[raisedbybirds]

[Sadly lost on her.

Where she was born and where she comes from are questions that come with different answers, the latter being more complicated if she chooses to let it be. She does not in this instance.]

An Earth colony, a mining colony. It didn't have anyone from Indiana there. [She continues to work the tent pieces, stringing them out and splaying it all on the ground to see maybe if she can make something work anyway.]

Plenty of wildlife.

[prizeneck]

[does the button glow? he... can't tell

he hopes he's not forgetting anything]

no not yet

close the lid first
then turn the first knob on your left to aim down
then press the button on the right

[thunders]

[ He's glad that he's found someone with a good appetite - there was a chance he wouldn't have been able to finish all of this himself. At the pace they're going, however, it isn't a concern anymore. ]

You had three friends? Three meals? [ It's hard to tell if he's being deliberately obtuse or just doesn't understand what she's trying to tell him. ]

[mylawn]

We never quite made it to colonies.

[Colonies, plural. Space travel exists, but it's not in a state where humankind would be able to move on from Earth. A nice thought, maybe, but all of that had been put on hold when humanity needed to fight a war for their very survival.

And it's not like their one attempt at space colonization had gone very well.]

Had one on the moon. That's about it.

[No wildlife there, unless you count the gorillas.]

[mylawn]

Grothia's been pretty straightforward with me.

[Whatever that's worth. He's well aware that she could be lying to him, and that he's not asking some of the questions he really should be asking so as not to get in her bad graces, but she has, for what it's worth, put on the air of honesty.

Maybe that counts for something. He likes her, unfortunately.]

I want to think it's the truth. They haven't asked me to do anything that crosses a line.

[Yet.]

[mylawn]

She didn't tell me the name, but it sounds like it.

[He imagines, as with most things, that the truth is somewhere in the middle. They have no reason to believe Kebechet, but without all of the puzzle pieces, it's difficult to deduce what's actually happening. 76 does know, however, that tyrannical regimes are often hypocrites of the highest order, and that's why he thinks Ashitaka is correct in his assessment.

Even Kebechet's ignorance of the situation can be explained by a few different factors, not the least of which is the Regency's purported tendency to scramble the brains of their agents.

After a moment of consideration, he speaks again, something of a sigh in his voice.]

I think you're probably right.

[prizeneck]

[Hm. Storytime. He's not the best storyteller, really. His skills don't go beyond teaching a couple of things.

Frowning at an empty space along the edge of the table Samus is sat at, he tries to wrap the whole situation - complicated as it was - in a nice little bundle.]

There was this guy, big guy in the underworld where I come from. He was targetted by this group who got hold of my partner and another person as a lure for him. So I did what any reasonable person would do and surrendered to the group, they took me with them as well.

Turns out they wanted me and the other asset's partner to fight against this guy for the sake of the kids' lives. The leaders of the group were all holed up in a bulletproof room with the hostages. [He shrugs.] I took the building wall down and destroyed the room.

[thunders]

[ Yeah, his ego is loving this. Thor doesn't have a modest bone in his body, so he responds to the flattery with a spark of humor: ] Nope. Absolutely not. I don't do anything that's not impressive, as a rule.

[ As he says this, he feels something tickle his arm. When he reaches to brush it off, it crawls onto his hand - an insect that seems to be composed entirely of legs. Thor glances at it, and in the moment it takes him to understand what's going on, lets out a very undignified sound and flicks the insect in Henry's direction while scrambling off the log.

He's really super impressive. ]

[lonelywar]

[One day Ashitaka will remember that, Mamoru.]

Yes... of course. That makes sense.

[He... does these very obvious steps.

Hmm...]

This was much easier than I thought.
Are all the machines like this?

[neutronium]

"I can understand that. I think if families are around long enough, they often become difficult to explain." Convoluted messes; his is complicated for different reasons, but that is for another time.

He wishes there was a better way to explain things that didn't involve his terms--but translating it into other words was difficult. Still, Chiron seemed to understand. "Yes; almost like folding a map in two, and just moving directly from point to point." That was a vast oversimplification, something he didn't like to do--but without fully defining terms, it was perhaps a better way.

[prizeneck]

[The word itself and its weight is something that Mamoru knows well. Not exactly in the way Haruka would've wanted, and he doubts to the same extent 76 is referring to, but with a certain charge to it, a voltage that when cut, disappears and leaves some sort of emptiness that neither of them wants to acknowledge.

He's been left in the dark many times, so Mamoru can't help but wince at the fact that he was lucky his BCE hadn't glitched. He would've hated to be in this guy's shoes.]

You don't seem to be someone who believes in something just because. [He rolls his shoulders. Stretches out the worn muscles and the 'what ifs' in the air.]

[prizeneck]

unfortunately they're not
the difficulty level only goes up from there
anything else you'd like to know

[horsepowered]

"And the moment immortality is thrown into the mix, complications multiply." Is that a near smile on Chiron's face? It may well be. He looks amused at the very least, offering a very small smile.

It endures as Hux confirms that Chiron actually has understood the concept of hyperspace well enough. He wasn't expecting to, given how advanced it sounds, but it's a nice little victory to have. "Fascinating. What are the effects it has on the body?"

[doublejumps]

[ Lena takes the hit, but recovers from it so quickly that it barely seems to matter. She hasn't yet rewound time on him (a 'recall,' isn't that what they'd dubbed it?), at least as far as he can tell, and he's wondering if he can push her to that.

Whenever Genji's enemy is on the defensive, he knows the best thing is to keep applying pressure until they're forced to compromise. So he lunges to her side and then darts in toward her, shoving the heel of his palm toward her shoulder. In a real situation he might have gone for the chest, but he isn't about to risk any accidental damage to her accelerator. ]

[mylawn]

[76 offers a noise in the back of his throat that might be a laugh, but there's no real feeling in it.]

Peace is never really painless.

[You fight to secure it, and then you fight to maintain it. It never ends, and that's something 76 has learned intimately over the course of his career.]

What the Regency wants isn't peace. It's power. I know what happens when one regime thinks they know what's best for everyone.

[doublejumps]

[ The sudden change of subject doesn't bother Genji at all, especially since there's not much else to be said about their respective physical differences. Genji wouldn't think of himself as having a disability, given that he's now more capable in so many areas, but that doesn't mean he isn't treated differently. ]

It's hard to know what to make of them. If they had been straight-forward in recruiting me, I might feel a little more secure. But their cause seems like a noble one. I have friends here who seem to believe in what they're doing, and I respect their opinions.

[ That isn't to say that Genji doesn't think for himself, but since he's still so new and hasn't seen enough to form his own opinion yet, he's willing to listen to what people like Jack and Angela have to say. ]

Are you hungry?

[ They are approaching the kitchen, so it seems only polite to ask. ]

[doublejumps]

[ This isn't the first time that Genji has heard of a mission in Jerusalem; Henry had mentioned that as well, and even described it as "good times." ]

I assume your briefing was the same as mine. What else happened there?

[ Even if Angela just tells him what her role had been in that mission, he's curious to know what else COST has asked its recruits to do, other than helping to evacuate soldiers. ]

[heilt]

We weren't there for too long.

( they were brought in at the tail end of the battle though they still had been given orders, as well as working through all of the confusion )

Our task had been to ensure that history remained unchanged.

( that the battle had proceeded as written. angela, as she had done in all missions, had worked as their medic )

[prizeneck]

[Gaze fixed on the floor ahead of him, he’s focused on 76’s rumble of a voice as he seems to wrap the subject and takes it home. When he does, but adds a personal take to it, Mamoru risks a glance at him.

He gets what he means, and it’s part of why Mamoru always felt a little detached from the Elements Network and its goal of vigilantism on behalf of victims’ families. Why he considered himself a criminal despite Igawa’s adamant claim of justice. Why he feels that his life for mastery won’t end in a final accomplishment.

It’s a snake that turns into its tail and cannibalizes itself.

There’s no end.]

What happens?

[lonelywar]

[It was for the best. Ashitaka had seen nor experienced anything in Gallipoli that had been worthwhile. As far as he was concerned, the entire war it was a part of was a scourge and a blemish upon the history of mankind.

But perhaps that was just the way things were, in the future.

After what they had been through, however, there's an ease in knowing that it is just himself and Genji, and that neither of them preferred firearms when fighting. To be completely separate from the sound of gunfire for a time was a calming thought, even though sometimes he feels he still hears similar cracks, though they were little more than echoes still locked within his skull.

He is silent for a moment, continuing forward. He had been vague by necessity so far, simply because he didn't know the specifics. But in this he certainly can answer more descriptively, but so far he hasn't, deciding to be sparing with whom he shares the information of his situation.

But Genji had been open to share his own situation with him and Yakul, and they shared a similar history, even though they were hundreds of years apart.

So he decides to be frank.]

I left in search of a way to lift a curse. [To some for which such things were not common, it might seem strange to say, but Ashitaka's tone of voice is grave and level.] Though, COST recruited me before I could find it.

[doublejumps]

[ Free will is everything as far as Genji is concerned, and he suspects that any COST agent would agree. They wouldn't be here otherwise -- though some of them have been brought here under less savory circumstances, speaking of free will.

Were Genji to demand to be returned to his own time, would they agree to it? He has to wonder.

There's something quite optimistic in Samus' tone, for her to believe that the entire galaxy or universe could achieve peace. To Genji, it sounds impossible, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't aim for it all the same. ]

If you end up asking that question, would you mind telling me what answer you get? I'd be curious to know as well.

[ If they each only get one answer, they may as well share what they learn. ]

[desynched]

[ She backs off and even leans away from the blow just to be sure. He's trying to apply pressure and she's going to have to answer before he backs her into a corner.

So she rewinds with just a bit of regret-- she hates pulling out the ace up her sleeve so early on-- but it does get her out of there and in a good position to retaliate.

Lena aims a sweeping kick at his side, hoping to hit but expecting more that he'll back off and regroup. She's not worried about hurting him-- she's seen what his body can endure and, short of magically summoning Doomfist's gauntlet and punching him into several cars, she's pretty sure she won't make much of an impact. ]

[desynched]

Telling us secure the objective even if we had to die doin' it wasn't the best first impression.

[ Sure, theoretically they could be brought back. But Lena's not sure how willing she is to walk into Hell for COST. Not yet. ]

But we did save a lot of people. That counts for somethin'.

[neutronium]

Immortality seems like something no one should have; even though Hux knows he could do a great deal of good with such a gift--all he can think is that it would cause chaos, in the end. But still, he smiles back, because there is something comforting--beyond the tree--being able to talk to someone like this, and share thoughts. This was rarely something he was ever able to do back where he came from, for so many reasons.

"Well, as the traveling here can, it can make one queasy if you aren't used to it--but on large ships, as long as all systems are working, nothing at all. You might not even know it's happening." Hux smirked. "I'm sure the early versions of it were messy and much harder to bear on the body--but we've perfected it to the point where it's almost nothing at all."