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

[lonelywar]

[There's the faintest hint of a smile on Ashitaka's face as he notices the hint of pride. It's not something someone would typically be prideful of, but Mordred was... a unique case, in that regard.

The rest is slightly less reassuring. He wouldn't usually think that blowing everything up would result in something like that, but... regardless of what he thinks, he ends up nodding.] It is true; we did not have many options. It was either that or remain in captivity, so I understand why you did as you did.

[He didn't really feel as though he had much reason to be cross about it.

He is contemplative for a moment before he continues.] Thank you. [A beat, then,] I only regret that I was not of more use to our escape.

[bloodings]

[ She blushes a little at the thanks, but she's quick to shake her head at the rest. ] Don't beat yourself up. I would've gone crazy without someone normal to talk to.

[ Mordred got along well enough with everyone in their little group, save for Kylo, but it's Ashitaka she felt most comfortable around in the cube. She isn't even sure why: probably because he shared his food, or because he hadn't managed to piss her off somehow. ]

Besides, we had to trick them to get out in the first place. That sort of thing doesn't suit you. You're a straightforward kind of guy, you know? [ There's some faint laughter at her own assessment of him. ] I like that.

[lonelywar]

[He gives her a small smile; without the influence of exhaustion and for once in so long outside the confines of the first world war, it's a genuine sort of expression, pure in its own way.] I am happy I helped in this small way, then.

[He'd felt similarly of their small group, though a lot of the time he had spent in there he had spent walled off not physically but mentally, numbed by the sinking personal assurance that there was nothing else he could do for himself by this point: that the Regency had discovered who he was and could at any point pull him from history by the root, just as they had done to Xici.

Even if Kebechet had denied that was the case at all, for him or for her. That was something he was still thinking about, but... surely there was no reason they should trust anyone from the Regency, right?

He hates dealing with duplicity. He prefers taking everyone at face value.

Apparently that's evident enough in him that Mordred picked up on it too. His expression becomes pained, though it's something done more in jest than anything else.] I have been told I am not much use in spying and subterfuge, yes. [Really the only thing he had going for him in a non-combat arena was that people did tend to like his honesty, as Mordred said she did. In some diplomatic situations, it appealed to some sense of goodwill. But in others, where more subtlety was necessary, he quickly lost his usefulness.] I would have been fooled as well, I think, but this would be only because I feel as though you have been straightforward with me too, in the past.

[She kept things to herself, lies by omission, but even Ashitaka isn't free of that fault.

He's quiet a moment as he considers something else, another piece to what she had said. One that he hasn't really broached as a topic to too many others.]

The Regency... [His tone is slightly hushed.] If they had wanted us dead, it would have been very easy for them to do so. Even still, I think it is in their power, given what they have done in the past. [If it was true that they had been behind what happened to Xici.] They seemed far more interested in swaying us, which is why your ploy worked so well. Why do you think this is?

[Didn't they have armies enough? Wouldn't removing soldiers from COST regardless of the method be more useful to them?]

[bloodings]

[ It's a good question. Admittedly, Mordred isn't terribly concerned with the answer, at least for herself — the Throne of Heroes rests outside time and space, so even if the Regency erased her existence in the past, this version of her would continue to live on. But most of the others wouldn't share her fate.

So why, then, with the ability to change time itself, do they live on at all? ]

... They're obsessed with being "right". With perfection. Erase us, and it's the same as admitting defeat, in a way. [ She doesn't know about Xici, but she's drawn her own conclusions, based on her experiences. ] It's not like we were on their side to start with, and then betrayed them. They probably see us as misguided fools, not a credible threat.

[ A mistake, she thinks. Whatever the others are capable of, she alone can crush armies. (But if her confidence could win a war, they'd already be done here.) ]

[lonelywar]

[With what he had seen and heard from Kebechet himself, he knows what she says to be true. They were obsessed with the idea of something perfect, with taking something as wild and organic as time and history and regulating it into something ordered. Perhaps at its core there is something understandable in there, the human desire to make structure in chaos, but how they go about it is so indefensible he has little personal impetus pursuing that train of thought.]

You are right. [He nods, his expression grim.] Convince us that COST is wrong, or plant the seeds of doubt within us, and they could dismantle their efforts from within. If they merely killed us, those that remained might become stronger in their resolve, having an averse effect.

[He is silent a moment, a breath escaping him in a short sigh.]

This is frustrating, facing an opponent which tries to convince you that the fighting is due to a fault of your own.

[bloodings]

Damn right it's frustrating. We haven't done anything wrong.

[ ... Mordred has done a LOT of things wrong. ]

That's why we have to kick their ass. It's the only way to shut people like that up. [ Preserving history is all well and good, but sooner or later, they have to go on the offensive. That's what she's waiting for. ] Thinking they know what's best for everyone... I can't stand that sort of arrogance. They're just tyrants in a different form.

[lonelywar]

I doubt that is true from their perspective.

[Though clearly the Regency thinks them not completely culpable for their supposed crimes; that was what he gleaned from their imprisonment, at least.

He smiles at her a little wanly. He doesn't agree, naturally, but... he feels as though attempting to understand this dispute so they can find another route of achieving peace might not be possible here. The odds were too set against them, the goals and methods too obfuscated and confusing. They knew only what COST told them and could only do as much as they were commanded. It was restrictive, and it didn't offer them much ability to either mediate or wage all-out war.]

I will admit that, upon first hearing their goals, I thought them admirable. But how they go about it completely defeats the point. If mankind cannot choose for itself to be better and to strive for a peaceful path, then that peace is a false one, and it will break eventually.

[It would be best if they broke their efforts to set it up so it never got the chance.]

[bloodings]

Exactly. If things were so perfect, COST wouldn't exist at all. Something obviously went wrong in their plan for so-called peace.

... Besides, there's no place for me in a world like that. I destroyed an entire kingdom because of my own grudge. Do you really think they'd just let that slide?

[ She wouldn't, in their position. She can't be trusted to stand down and obey for the 'greater good'. ]

Even the most peaceful countries need change from time to time. Those in charge screw things up, and people with new ideas take their place. Standing in the way of that process is even worse than being part of it.

[lonelywar]

[He gives her a wan smile.]

No... I do not think they would.

[A sobering thought, certainly. He could not claim to be completely separate from what she described either. Though some might argue that what he had done was just, in the eyes of many his mark was that of a mortal sin: that of killing a god. When judgments of their actions were placed in the hands of those all-too-willing to make such drastic changes, it's possible there are very few of them that would avoid scrutiny.]

To halt the flow of something will cause it to grow stagnant. [One could see this in nature: block a river or stream and the lake it emptied into would grow still, soured. It would spread from there. Plants and fish would grow sick, and then the animals as well. To exert control or change to one aspect of how things were meant to be would suddenly enact a chain reaction that would damage everything nearby.] I do not care for bloodshed or warfare. Often I think it is unnecessary. But it is up to us and not the Regency to decide which conflicts are worthwhile and which are not. It is in this that I agree with COST.

[There are many things he struggles to agree with them on, but this core difference between them and the Regency will always make him feel secure in his decision to keep fighting by COST's side.]