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

[bivariant]

Machines have long since obtained sentience, where I come from. They have societies I don't pretend to understand.

[ She speaks freely of her reality, but only when applicable -- some matters require her to play things close to her chest, but other situations call for comparison. It's a practical way that she looks at things, tinged with the influence of the general who looks at people. ( She's grateful that her shadow curves away from the two of them, right now. That Jedao's eyes are closed. ) ]

These machines haven't reached that point in their lives, yet.

[ Doubtless, they will. One day. ]

You are familiar with guns, but the dactyls are foreign to you. You look at parts of BASE with fresh eyes. What kind of place did you come from, de Rolo?

[decisions]

A place very much unlike this one.

[ what else can he say? what he has to base off of it? nearly nothing. he squints as one of the dactyls teeters a bit off balance, reaching out softly to right it once more so that it can scuttle off to the side and continue tending to it's little piece of reparative real estate. ]

I am only familiar with rifles as I'm the one that made them. These... we have constructs, but I've never seen them in person. Never met one face to face long enough to study its inner workings. [ yet. ] Most beings brought to life to work at the hands of others were either dead brought back to life, or are made of stone... crystal. Some are made of metal but not to this extent. Fact of the matter is, they're far more clumsy-looking. There's a meticulous design given to these. I wish to learn.

[bivariant]

[ Visible on her face is the way her mind trips over the idea of a world where invariant guns have only just been created. Created, nonetheless, by the man before her. It's like watching someone trip down the stairs in slow motion, as her eyebrows rise -- and then crease, all in a matter of seconds. ]

I thought you a clever man, I didn't realize you were the premiere intellectual of an entire field of study.

[ It's difficult not to compare to her world, with its mothdrives and an entire vault of destructive weapons purposed for the Kel. She can't pinpoint what causes her to do what she does, but from her hip she pulls the chrysalis gun she had arrived to Gallipoli with -- weaponry of her world, sleek and dull green-grey. She flips it flat, into the palm of her hand, and offers the handle to Percy. ] This is from my reality, [ she clarifies. ] It is a gun, but it is not for fighting battles. If you wish to learn, then by all means, COST will be a banquet of new technologies and interstellar history. I want to know what you think of this, first. Call it... a personal curiosity.

[decisions]

[ percy thinks him self clever some days, the harbinger of something dramatic and dark during others. they're wretchedly useful things, guns, and he'll die before he stops using one. it's become an extension of himself he can't excise no matter what the tool, so he uses it for the better than for simply power.

he wants to wince at the remark, but remains steeled, a bit of a smile on his face until cheris offers him something, handle first it appears.

he reaches over carefully. there are many things about cheris he knows he has yet to learn. softly: ] It's clean. Streamlined. [ a spike of fascination, perhaps jealousy of the make. ] Light... [ but how do you load it? ] I've no idea what to make of it.

[ he smooths a hand reverently over the shape of it, bringing it up just slightly to study its appearance. streamlined, sleek, a faded olive color. he keeps a finger clear of the trigger's home, lined up along the barrel as he turns it this way and that with the eye of an engineer. ] If not to harm the physical, then what's your target, Cheris? Something intangible? What do you load into it and what is its intention?

[bivariant]

It's the only thing that came with me, from my reality.

[ Thankfully, or perhaps regrettably, she no longer feels the urgency to wear full-fingered gloves. She still wears a pair, but they're half-gloves, sleek and molded to her palms and the tapered lengths of her strong fingers. They look foreign on her hands, but they allow her to feel something of the command she had possessed of her swarm. In this, a place where everyone is disjointed and wildly individualistic. ]

It is an invariant weapon, self-sustaining and capable of being used under any calendrical regime. The Nirai have only ever created one, due to its precise function -- [ As Percy looks it over, she rests her hands on her knees, at ease in the crouched position she's found herself in, the way she had been at ease on a war-tattered battlefield. ] -- ah, glad to see I was correct to ask you about this. Aim it at my shadow, for a moment. You'll see.

[ Slowly, she twists on her toes and points to where her shadow stretches alongside her, curving up onto the wall as one of the dactyl droids adjusts its tiny light source, to better see what it's repairing. She regards her shadow, in silence, until the winking fox-like eyes begin to open and then sharply twists to bring Percy back into her field of view. ]

It's intent is to kill a revenant. This revenant, in particular.

[decisions]

[ aim it at my shadow. the directions themselves are enough to bring percy to cock a brow at her, but nevertheless, do as he's told out of curiosity. he lifts the gun, a strange shape cradled in his palms, grip adjusted. not quite a pepperbox, shape more organic than the sharp lines of a typical pistol. he thumbs the line of it, mind rising to meet the design, to get it under his fingers and absorb it slowly.

by the time the muzzle meets the direction of the shadow, he keeps himself from jerking (just barely), spying the slowly moving shapes within her shadow, eyes that blink lazily and then quickly, and then lazily in and out like stars themselves. it's a sight percy won't be able to wash from his mind, so he's thankful when cheris interrupts the sight, and he folds himself into her direction immediately.

he's prim about twisting the pistol handle out once more, gun back to owner. astonished. ]

You're a revena - [ he holds it a beat. the slowly winking eyes, almost alive. it makes his spine prickle, the faintest hairs with an animal-like motion prickling. the creep of something thick smooths over his spine, licks just barely at the collar of his shirt, but doesn't peek more than that. he'd looked into her shadow and it had looked back. ] - no. You carry one. How is that even possible?

[ what is this weirdass necromancy (?????) science (?????) gun (??????) bullshit stop this nonsense right now what the fuck cheris. ]

[bivariant]

[ she isn't pleased with the way that she broadsides him with the knowledge, but the conversation had flowed smoothly towards the inevitable conclusion, and to withhold jedao's presence would be to endanger COST -- she believes that, with all her heart. he's too clever, and now that the two of them are beyond the Hexarchate's immediate presence, she dreads what he may be planning. he has a shuos mind, and she is a fledge a novice at thinking in terms of games within games. cheris may have broadsided percy with this, but her expression is apologetic. sincere, in form. ]

I'm afraid I can't explain the science of it, de Rolo.

[ she accepts the gun back into her possession, holstering it. finally finding her way to her feet, she steps back to be level with her shadow-of-eyes and taps the side of her head. there, that's where he is. he just manifests, influences. she has nothing reflective on her person, or she'd show percy the face of the man who owned her shadow now. it's difficult to tell where she begins and jedao ends, sometimes. ]

I'm sorry, to thrust this upon you without warning, but I would be endangering you and many others, if I didn't introduce him. He cannot physically harm you, he cannot communicate with you. Just me. Which is why hiding him away would be detrimental to my safety and yours. Percival de Rolo, this is General Shuos Jedao, the greatest tactician my reality has ever known and the most dangerous, traitorous madman.

[ matter of fact, like ripping a bandage off a wound, even though her brows wrinkle apologetically ]

[decisions]

[ isn't that always the way? a strangely wound up series of knots and ties binding one to the other. percy takes a moment, lets her rise before he does, pushing his hands off his knees and letting the dactyl droids around them scuttle softly, echoing in the hallway. while the initial shock is apparent, it's intrigue and curiosity, maybe a little horror to think that someone has knit together cheris and this shuous jedao into one being, trailing at her heels where the lights hit her outline. ]

It's likely the science to it doesn't exist where I'm from, so no need. We'll accept it for what it is for now.

[ he looks at her shadow once more, and again the hackles of something lodged deep between his ribs oozes out like an internal ache. ]

General Shuos Jedao, [ he says slowly. ] It is good to know of his presence now earlier in the game than later when we might be in a more vulnerable position. [ dangerous, traitorous madman. attached to kel cheris who seems like none of these things, but dangerous in her own particular way. his shoulders, tense initially and go lax, stance easing up. god this talk is heavy, and unexpected, and half his head is spinning.

how can he really talk, eyeing her shadow, sizing it up for half a moment long as if it might suddenly wink at him once more.

he tilts his head at cheris and offers her a slightly drawn up brown in turn. ] What is he doing there to begin with? Why would they place a revenant inside of you, dangerous and mad as he is?

[bivariant]

[ finally introduced, her shadow makes no further polite attempts to disguise itself as anything less than what it is -- jedao's complexities, spilled inside of her mind, and as percy rises to stand over her again, the shadow is finally, irrevocably, apparent - it's just about as tall as percy, after all. and it seems to be loathe to continue pretending otherwise. just as cheris is loathe to hide dangerous information from others. for a moment, she turns her ear towards her shadow, brow knitting as she juggles an unheard voice with percy's own. ]

Precisely. This way, you may also decide how you wish to proceed. The general assumes you've a hunger for knowledge that will carry the day. You may quote him on that. [ the eyes do not emote, but they arrange themselves in groupings of three. three by three. Watcher in the Dark. ] I would rather not keep this from you, de Rolo. I don't wish to keep it from anyone, my faction is not known for their secrets. That is what the Shuos are for.

[ the look she casts in Jedao's direction is not dark, nor poisonous. it's curious, and hesitant all the same. ]

I needed a very powerful weapon, to reclaim a very well-defended fortress from those that had taken it over and threatened the stability of the Hexarchate. Neither of us were turned loose, per se. We had agents poised to keep an eye on us, and to end him, if he acted dangerously. Or if I was... compromised. That's -- it's why I showed you the gun. It was my idea, and he agrees with it.

[decisions]

[ percy pays mind to the shadow in his periphery, his gaze primarily focused on cheris as she explains. it's almost unsettling the way it moves, presenting itself without any kind of shyness now that he is aware of it. him. general shuos jedao. ]

Your idea to show it to me? [ he folds his arms over one another carefully, fingers drumming against elbows slowly. there's no enmity, it would seem, that he can outwardly perceive anyways. the relationship by the sound of it appears symbiotic almost, and the questions make the rounds through his head, though ever the listener, he keeps them to himself until she is through, reserving room for the most important one he's just spoken. ] A gun that would kill the revenant inside of you?

[ and the gears turn, but it doesn't take long. the revenant general tailored to cheris' body, the feel of the gun in his palm earlier, the admission itself is enough. his chin tilts up. ] There's a possibility now that you're not so closely kept that the proverbial shit could go, as they side, sideways. Just how likely is that, do you believe?

[ percy schools his face, steady and neutral, everything else within a steady rumble. ]

[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.

[decisions]

I may be a good marksman, but I've so many questions.

[ his voice softens incrementally at the last bit of that, expression never wavering - a neutral brow, a stiff upper lip. my reflection, my shadow, or me. percy knows what this may be like, this strange unearthly possession, and it strokes down his shoulders like an unsettling, thick deluge of memory. smoke and soot, black powder smell in his lungs, choking.

he pushes the thought away. ]

I will save them for later, but for now, Cheris, are you certain this is what you want me to do? There's no other way to put him down if the case may be?

[ a beat. ]

Do we know if this will kill you in the process?

[ the hesitance is barely there, the desire only for information, to do what is right by her. ]

[bivariant]

There are many other ways. All of them guarantee I die as well -- stab me, poison me, shoot with one of COST's guns.

[ She says it plainly, with only a fraction of a wince on her face. The way her eyebrows crease, the twitch of her nose. She doesn't like the idea of dying, not even in the slightest, if only because she has far more use alive, and can do so much more if she still breathes. That, and she hopes that it won't come to it. Jedao consciously will not threaten the hexarchate, or COST. But his madness... it is an unknown variable, and she's heard the way he sounds when he acts. ]

The gun I am asking you to shoot me with is the only weapon I know of, in this very moment, that may spare me. It's designed with him in mind.

[ A nod to her shadow, as it rolls up the wall. Eyes and darkness. ]

Neither of us knows what will happen, ultimately. He's been shot with it before, he's informed me -- but he doesn't know the fate of previous anchors. All he hopes for is -- [ She frowns at her shadow, at the general, at whatever he must have just said to her. It takes her a moment to relay it to Percy: ] He hopes that I survive. And he apologies, for the burden this must be on you.

[decisions]

But all of those ensure your ending without a doubt. [ he gives the shadow his attention briefly, an examination, a slow blink of acknowledgement before leaning against the wall a bit to face cheris once more. ]

To know that I may have to shoot someone whom, in such a short while, I've come to admire, is not the first thing i'd like to hear. I would hope that were I to shoot you, or to shoot Jedao, that I would see you come free of it unscathed.

[ he presses his lips together, and the concern is imminent in his eyes behind his glasses. [ brooklyn 99 gif goes here ] ]

I will do my best to see to it that you in fact do. [ a beat ] If the outcome is unknown, then the possibility for you to come out of this unharmed, or at the very least alive exists.

[bivariant]

I understand that. [ she's not being obtuse this time; what percy is insinuating to her, is that eliminating her may not result in jedao's mutual end. it's a sobering thought, but she knows her value to the hexarchate pales in comparison to a general who has never lost. she has value, she has faith in her service, but of the two of them -- it's jedao who the hexarchate would work tirelessly to reclaim. ] It's all right, de Rolo.

[ it's not, jedao lets her know in the way he points out the way the bridge of percy's nose trembles, the thinning of his lips -- baring his teeth in a way that would be acceptable in most societies. her own mouth tightens, lower lip pressed up in the same way her chin rises. admiration. it warms her, but for a brief moment.

and then she remembers: ] His soldiers admired him, too. It did not stop him from slaughtering them alongside his enemies, in his madness. I would hope that it does not come to this, I would hope you would not have to do this thing and bear this weight. But if it does, you must not spare either of us -- not even for a chance. My first order of business is to turn this gun on him. Then, to turn it on myself. You are the third, in this line of defense.

Thank you, for caring this much about me, in so short a time -- but you must value the safety of COST over my life and that of Jedao's. We both want this.

[decisions]

I will respect this request. It's not an easy choice to be so firm-footed upon but --

[ percy things - to his letter, to glintshore. the moment is brief where there's some moment of half-regret in his eyes. brought back. never take your eyes off me. never trust me. he realizes in this moment it would be purely hypocritical to deny her this, her and her general's orders one and the same. ]

But I understand what it is you're saying. And if the time does come, then I will do what it is that you ask.

[ to have a line of defense on one's self is something percy has not gone without thinking about. his fingers skim the opening of his pocket before sliding in, resting there before it started fidgeting with anything else nervously. ]