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

2b . . .

[deem]

[There are many humans, and it would seem, only one unit such as himself. For this reason, 9S is on the move more than he might be otherwise. It's a temptation to stay at any given camp, watch over any given human, but he's most often flitting between one and another to ensure that they at all safe.

Because his core programming drives this desire, this need, to ensure that they are all well and have what they require. Really, it's wearing him out, despite the inexhaustible source of power his black box represents. He doesn't remember running around quite this much even when 2B was accepting every task that every stranger shamelessly lobbed her way.

...He won't dwell on such a thing long, particularly not when he hears the human he's presently watching over speak. 9S had only strayed into this camp a short time ago, and they hadn't quite gotten to speaking yet. He'd been reluctant to interrupt what seemed to him such a serene hush]

I wonder what Bob would think of that. [He muses, if only because of his natural inclination to wonder, and alas, it's not in him to forget if he isn't forced to] Having guests all the time.

of course . . .

[lonelywar]

[Truth be told, that 9S wasn't human is something Ashitaka will most likely not pick up on if not directly informed of the fact (or, well, doing something like bump into him, to realize that he's got a lot more weight and mass than a flesh-and-blood human being might). It's a special sort of irony, having met Genji, who appeared to the world to be machine but was instead human at the core of all of the metal and wiring. Ashitaka knew precious little of machinery and technology; the very primitive rifles of his time had seemed to be almost entirely out of his ken when he'd first seen them. This had changed, of course, given his months with COST, but still he feels he has the limits of his belief pushed every day.

Regardless of the truth on this matter, he is happy to have company. Just because his quest back home had required him to be alone through much of it doesn't mean he relishes such a thing; it's actually in solitude that his demons find him easiest, eroding at the steel of his conviction with doubts and concerns. It's more difficult for them to find purchase here, lost in the wide wilds of the coelacanth's back, in the grip of an adventure which seems to chase away thoughts of anything else.

Even that the company is largely silent doesn't bother Ashitaka; he doesn't always need conversation to fill his time. There is value in silence as well.

Though what his companion offers does give him some confusion. He turns to look at him, expression quizzical.]

...Bob?

[He has context clues, sure, but he's making sure he's got the right idea of what he means...]

[deem]

[From his perch on a tree that leans so far horizontally as to make a decent bench, 9S swings his legs. He doesn't know whether design or accident has left this particular example of plant life in such a state, but he's accustomed to trees that towered so high they clung to and wove through buildings]

Bob. You know, this big fish we're all on now.

[It's a strange thing, being on an organism so vast. Nothing in his world, nor the records he has access to, was nearly so large as the creature they've found themselves roving along the back of, scarcely the size of insects to a being of such proportions]

He said to call him that, anyway.

[That was it, that was 9S' one question. He's gotten enough existential crises out of his short life that asking a giant ancient fish anything at all hadn't tempted him to pose any deep, philosophical inquiries.

Besides, isn't it nice to be addressed properly?]

[lonelywar]

(ooc: im just imagining 9S on that one tree in Destiny Islands now)

Oh.

[He looks away from 9S once more, out across the grand expanse of landscape laid out before them. Truth be told, he often forgets the truth of their situation, that they are on the back of a giant primordial fish floating through the expanse of aether that exists outside space and time. There are obvious tells, of course. The sky is not stars, just the twisting nether they saw outside the portholes of BASE, and that means there isn't really day or night. But when scaling mountains or fording rivers or navigating forests or running through fields, he finds himself forgetting, instead wrapping himself in the comforting memories of home.]

I was not aware he had a name.

[A brief pause...]

Or that he could speak. [He supposes you just go wherever his head is and talk to him? Ashitaka hadn't considered such a thing. Perhaps he would journey there, though he isn't sure what he would say to him.]

I hope he does not get lonely. It does not seem like circumstances align often for him to have visitors.

[The whole situation with the shapers and their being brought here, though... perhaps whenever he got lonely he just summoned company like that?]

[deem]

[9S thinks it surely would be lonesome. The creatures he had come across were, at best, capable of parroting speech. For a being with greater intelligence and potentially eons of life, that surely was insufficient. It seems like a yawning, lonely sort of existence]

He'll answer if you talk to him, but just one time. I don't know what makes that so, but...

[That, too, seems terribly isolating to a unit who has always craved companionship, for whom being alone was worse than being dead]

I observed a few others talking to him from a distance, and I got to thinking, maybe it's been a long time since someone last asked what he's called, or said his name.

[He knows how that is, too. Bob may be a giant ancient fish creature drifting through the void, but he's sentient, and he must have feelings too]

I hope he's not lonely either.

[lonelywar]

[When you were a creature of such a magnitude, perhaps your perception of this was different. Perhaps you were content with being able to foster so much life. The shapers also had curious powers over dreams, able to communicate through them. Perhaps they kept the incredibly massive beast company, speaking to it through sleep, if the creature even did such a thing?]

I see.

[That was strange. Perhaps he is not so lonely after all, if he restricts himself so much with regards to how much he speaks to others.

He listens to 9S' reasoning, and Ashitaka for the first time remarks that it is ironic that, given one question he would ask, he asked for the coelacanth's name. It was a kind way of using such a limited ability, he thinks.]

I am sure he is grateful, in a way. It certainly does not seem he gets much of an opportunity to give others his name. [Even if it is... Bob.

He considers the last statement for a moment, watching a mysterious shape swoop between some trees in the distance. He couldn't quite make it out, what it was. Perhaps one of those enormous owl-like creatures Akira found.]

Perhaps the shapers keep him company. [9S hadn't had any personal interactions with them, but they were the reason they were here, after all.] Or perhaps he occasionally sweeps up ships like ours from the aether whenever he feels the need.

[Thinking such a thing made the coelacanth's existence seem a little less upsetting, at least.]

[deem]

Do you think he's capable of something like that?

[Traveling through time was still a scientific impossibility in 9S' distant, distant era. To gentlemen like Sebastian ever more distant still, and he himself seems to be the sort of thing some couldn't even conceive of, so 9S can't rightly say how improbable it would be for surprising realities to exist. If anything, their present state of affairs makes most anything seem possible, although not necessarily probable.

He was under the impression that they're unexpected guests, if not somewhat unwelcome, but he hardly minds that. If anything he feels Bob was reasonable enough in providing his name and not shaking them off into some void like pests, and that's sufficient for him]

I don't know what a shaper is though, or what that means.

[It's safe to assume contextually that it's some sort of noun of course, but new as he is, he can well imagine there's information that he's lacking. Off the top of his head he can think of numerous subjects about which he has even more questions, in point of fact.

But these are not pertinent to the existence of Bob, and whether or not he is lonely]

[lonelywar]

After what I have seen, I believe anything is possible.

[It was a likely conclusion that Ashitaka had thought of; it had been mentioned off and on by the commander and sergeant in passing, that the sudden disappearance of the few shapers left aboard the vessel (and the fact that you could occasionally find one or two here, on the back of the coelacanth) was a little too convenient to entirely ignore.

The aether was so vast and otherwise empty that this all being some kind of freak accident also seemed unlikely. But, then again, it is all speculation. In the end there's not much reason to wondering why something happened after it already occurred, especially when there are more pressing matters at hand.

He had overlooked that newer recruits wouldn't have any recollection of the shapers, though. Of course...] They are a small, alien creature that invaded and infested BASE before we were deployed to Gallipoli. They are not dangerous, but they can encourage one to sleep, and then can link people into dreams together. It caused a great deal of strife among us before we decided to release them back into the aether, where they came from.

[A brief pause.] Not all of them, however. Which is, perhaps, why we are here. I have seen them occasionally here, upon this creature's back.

[deem]

[It sounds like something out of some Old World fairy tale. No creature was truly capable of such a thing, back where he comes from. Nothing natural, at least. He supposes that certain methods of hacking or technological errors could produce a similar effect, but it's difficult to imagine this happening to flesh and blood organisms.

Humans were not capable of interfacing in the same manner, and so he is left to question how. And yet this remains true of everything he has observed since joining COST on the slim hope that he might yet be of use to mankind, as flagrantly dubious as it all sounded at the time.

Now, here he is, in a sea of impossibility engaging in conversation with the extinct, atop a being of such magnitude it should not exist. Here he is, and his thought routines could be working on it for the rest of his life, however long or short it might be this time]

So then you believe we were...collateral damage, more or less?

[He asks with an idle wave of a hand to indicate their surroundings, supposing the meaning is that they were brought here only because these creatures were returning to this environment. It would explain why their presence wasn't necessarily a desired one, he admits, though surely other methods must have been possible]

[lonelywar]

[There was very little that Ashitaka had seen since waking up in Jerusalem that would have made sense to him back home. The state of confusion and the very peculiar sensation of being misplaced was something that followed him day in and day out, to a point where he was almost familiar with being unfamiliar. There were many and more things that confounded him but which he also accepted in the same breath, deciding not to worry so much on things that weren't all that important in the long run.

There's a faint smile that rests on Ashitaka's features for a moment.]

I suppose that is one way you could put it, yes.

[The smile is brief, however; they are difficult for him to maintain on a good day, but lately it had been next to impossible.]

Things could certainly be worse, if that is the case. This is not so terrible of a place to be kept against our will. [The words ring a little hollow in his ears, almost discordant. Of all of the prisons he had been locked in lately, this one was far preferable.] I am certain the commander and the sergeant will prepare us to leave soon enough. This might be the first place I am disappointed to leave behind, however.

[Mostly because they would not leave a war behind here. Or, at least, he hopes not.]

[deem]

More peaceful than a warzone, huh?

[9S can't fault him for appreciating the relative serenity of their present surroundings. Had he any say in the matter, he'd vastly prefer that his human compatriots remained somewhere like this, without facing the same degree of threat that they had in Gallipoli. It disturbs him that they're placed in so much danger, even if supposed provisions are in place.

Ones which, when he pauses to think, are a little too much like having backup bodies. Such a thing seems profane where human lives are concerned, and yet he cannot deny that if such technology existed in the Old World, mankind might yet still thrive in his era]

The place I come from, there's plenty of nature...but also plenty of enemies waiting to ambush you in it. I can't say that I have that much of a preference, except that I'd like if you guys weren't in danger all the time.

[If that first deployment he'd experienced is anything to go by, danger is par for the course]

[lonelywar]

[The smile that Ashitaka musters is a little wan.]

This is certainly true.

[Outside of their downtime in BASE (which often contained training for the next war they would be infiltrating), this was the only place they had been that had been without the clouds of conflict and strife on the horizon. So, yes, Ashitaka decides without doubt to embrace the calm as it is presented to them, even if he's convinced it will be sadly brief when viewed in retrospect.

Ashitaka listens, his fingers threading through the fur on Yakul's flank as he does so. He wonders if he would say the same for his own home, but the wilds had seemed safer to him than the open countryside. Beasts were things one could understand: they wished to live, to protect their young, and they reacted accordingly. Men were less easy to understand. So nature had always seemed a haven to him after maneuvering the severe politics of human towns.

Though something catches his attention.]

"You guys"? [He handles the phrase a little oddly; such vernacular isn't so familiar for him.] What do you mean?

[deem]

Humans.

[9S replies simply and easily, for it is the truth. Obfuscation rolls off his tongue with scarcely any difficulty, but when it comes to his purpose, his core programming, the response is automatic. No pause for consideration, no effort to conceal a thought behind a forced smile. This goes to the essence of how he was made.

Even if so much of it, perhaps all of it, had been a lie, the programming remains. He still loves mankind with all his being, still yearned for them so much that it tormented him to know they were gone.

It was the seemingly vain hope that they could somehow be saved that brought him into COST's services to begin with]

I...I don't know how strange of a concept it'd be for you. One person I spoke to understood it best to call me an automaton. Although people take me for human, I was just made in the image of mankind, to defend against threats.

[He knows that wasn't the true intention behind Project YoRHa now, but it doesn't change how he feels, nor his desire to fulfill the purpose he'd once believed was true. And here he can make it real]

[lonelywar]

[Ashitaka's stare becomes a little blank. He blinks slowly, owlishly.

Until this moment he probably hasn't considered that 9S isn't human. Even with the strange name (and he knows Soldier 76, so human beings with numbers in their names isn't that strange for him), even with a moment or two of something abnormal or beyond the reach of a standard human's ability, there are enough strange people in COST's number (himself included) that he wouldn't have been that confused. He has met people with robotic limbs and even cybernetics integrated with their entire bodies, but even that is usually very easy to pick out...

It is certainly true that he was made in the image of mankind, then, and whoever was behind that design was incredibly capable at what they did. Without having been told, Ashitaka surely wouldn't have guessed.

He slowly regains his composure, nodding and clearing his throat before speaking.] In my own time, machinery is incredibly simple and... antiquated, by nearly anyone else's perspective. I apologize, therefore, for my surprise. [By this point, he should be less fazed, by everything he's seen, but every time he feels he's beginning to understand something, the rug is pulled out from beneath him yet again...]

If you do not mind me saying, it is rather odd that you would remove humans from these fights. In all that we have seen, it is men waging war against their fellow man. It... is foolish, yes, but it would be something else entirely to place the responsibility of settling it upon someone else. [Someone like a machine, or android. Ashitaka believes that humans should be responsible for their own peace, and hopefully decide to reach out and achieve it on their own power.

That's obviously not how things tend to go, though.]