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Entry tags:
- * dreamy,
- * npc: agent young,
- * npc: commander grothia,
- * npc: sergeant chiron,
- * setting: base,
- achilles [fate],
- akira kurusu [persona],
- arthur [inception],
- ashitaka [princess mononoke],
- daenerys targaryen [asoiaf],
- hei [darker than black],
- henry cooldown [no more heroes],
- keyleth [dungeons & dragons],
- kylar stern [the night angel trilogy],
- mordred [fate],
- noctis lucis caelum [final fantasy],
- ryuji sakamoto [persona],
- siegfried [fate],
- soldier 76 [overwatch],
- travis touchdown [no more heroes],
- yoshitsugu otani [samurai warriors]
all this energy calling me
WHO? Everybody!
WHAT? Welcome home, nerds.
WHEN? Outside time and space, in the aether between dimensions.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.
WHAT? Welcome home, nerds.
WHEN? Outside time and space, in the aether between dimensions.
ANYTHING ELSE? Violence, as always. Please warn in subject lines for anything beyond physical violence, and move to a personal journal if things go beyond PG-13.
TOUCH BASE;
backfill armed services echelon
COST re-appropriated vehicle 854A-5.2
COST re-appropriated vehicle 854A-5.2
read the base setting infopage
DEPARTING FRANCE
The order comes out the second day after the Tuileries is sacked:
PACK UP, 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, and it starts like a vibrating heat on the collar bone, not painful, not to start with. Just a hum of sensation. But the vibration spreads. Veteran COST soldiers often refer to this phenomena as 'the buzz'. The sensation builds, feeling not unlike standing near a great engine, or the wind rattling the branches of a great tree. There is long a moment of motion sickness, and one cannot always be sure if it is you that is shaking from the inside out, or the world that is shaking you from the outside in. It may just 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. Some swear they feel a touch of the divine; the eyes of the eternal look down upon you. Ancient bones rattle just out of earshot, cold and brittle. Or maybe it's an illusion brought on by powerful technology grafted into your skin.
One thing is for sure: One moment you are here, and the next, you are not.
Nausea is commonly accompanied by this shift. One moment, you're in the cold of France. The next, you're in a temperature regulated hallway, looking not unlike 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. Crows sit on high ledges, looking down, watching.
(For those of you who just apped in and didn't participate in the TDM, you'll appear alongside your comrades now, standing in this long hallway filled with droids and crows and men and women in clothing from 18th century France. Of course, you'll be wearing the minimal COST athletic issued underwear, and holding whatever one item you were allowed to bring. Surprise!)
At the end of the hall is a long table with heaps of used clothing on it. The sizes and styles vary, along with color and detail (AKA none look exactly like the linked pics, they're just a baseline, use your ~imagination~). One thing's for certain, all the clothing has been used before, with holes darned and worn edges. They're all clean, though, and each bears a single patch with the words 'KNOW YOUR RIGHTS, THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN' and 'COST sewn into the side.
They're not exactly high fashion, but they might be more comfortable than the late 18th century digs you're still wearing, if you showed up in France. Or, you know, the underwear.
Meet the Drill Sergeant
There is the echoing sound of hooves, and a strange creature emerges from a nearby room: a centaur. He smiles kindly, happy to see you've arrived. He has a significant limp in his back left leg, causing his hoof-beats to pitch an irregular rhythm as he walks slowly through the hall.
"Hello, all!" His voice is kind, but it's pitched to carry. "You may know me as Sergeant-- I am in technicality a drill sergeant. You may call me Chiron, if you wish, though I'm to understand some may know others with the same name." He laughs, amused. "In any case, welcome home. It is not much, but we have tried to make it hospitable for you in your time here. Your room assignments have been uploaded onto your BCEs, along with some technological upgrades we've been testing out. There are a few prototypes and experiments you may find in your rooms as well. Our agents are..." He looks up at the crows. "We are a curious people."
He looks over to the table stacked with clothing. "Please pick out what suits you, and make adjustments as needed. If you have any complaints, and wish to change your rooming situation, your username, anything of that nature, please send me a request. I am also known in some capacity as a trainer-"
One of the crows caws, and it sounds almost sarcastic.
Sergeant Chiron ignores it. "Hm. If you wish for me to make a training regiment for you, to better your skill in this organization, please let me know. But for now: I am to understand your last mission was... tumultuous. Please, rest and acclimate yourself to BASE."
He turns to leave, before stopping-- "And please be kind to the crows. They remember slights."
The crows' cawing sounds like laughter.
HOTSPOTS
There's been some technical difficulty since the prognosticators had their little meltdown. Coolant is in short supply, and some of the corridors of BASE are a little warmer than others. Pleasantly warm. Comfortably so, like walking through a sunbeam. In these hotspots, it feels comfortable and snug.
Characters walking through them will feel the urge to lie down and rest, maybe take a quick little nap.
Sleeping in these spots will cause unsettling or confusing dreams, but not nightmares. Dreams in these hotspots-- and sleeping in these hotspots will never be dreamless-- will be hard to remember upon waking, but they seemed very... strange. Almost as though you were intruding on something important but private.
Yet you can't quite remember it when you wake.
If you're clever and watchful, you'll notice the crows avoid these areas, so you can avoid them as well before you're seized by the urge to lie down and nap.
Particularly watchful characters may notice the hotspots are growing in size and number as the days wear on.
(More information about these and the forthcoming December plot will be coming in an infopost on the 12th, but if you have any questions now, feel free to ask here!)
read the base setting infopage
no subject
Oh, they are definitely limited. [He draws himself up a little straighter and rubs his eyes.] But there are many more practical things they could have given me instead of what is simple comfort, and nothing more.
[A couple of tears run down Yoshitsugu's face when he finally allows his hands to drop, though they are rooted in soreness rather than any kind of sorrow. Still, it's odd to see them on the face of someone like himself. He looks like the sort who would never cry, which isn't strictly true, but it's a very rare thing.]
You know about when one should act, so let me pose you a question. [No mention of having noticed that mark yet; instead he regards Ashitaka with curiosity befitting a cat.] What use might someone like myself have for a spell that reveals another's ideal wedding?
no subject
[He trails off as Yoshitsugu lowers his hands; even if he had been rubbing at his eyes, Ashitaka wouldn't have anticipated for something like that to cause the tears to fall. He becomes a little tense, taking a half-step forward — this was not out of shock or discomfort for such a thing, but instead acting upon a sudden worry that something was wrong.] Are - you hurt? [He asks it with a genuine look of concern furrowing his brow.
Apparently that wasn't the case, even without an answer, as he poses his own question: one that stops him in his tracks both physically and mentally, locking both aspects up as well. What?] I — [blink and you'll miss it, but the boy actually does get a little red in complexion for just a moment before he seems to get the better of it.] Why do you ask?
no subject
[The second question, however...]
I was given a book; within ten one-use spells. [Yoshitsugu definitely saw that slight flush and beneath his facecloth, he's smiling.] One to make stale bread taste fresh... another to contact the dead...
[He pauses after 'the dead,' eyes almost closing into menacing slits before he lets the ominous moment pass and becomes calm again. Sometimes he just can't help himself; Yoshitsugu has always had that kind of humour. Even if those around him don't appreciate it.]
Another to reveal a person's ideal wedding to the caster.
no subject
It was something Ashitaka could relate to. So far he had largely avoided questions or explanations of the various symptoms that the mark put upon him, simply because it was something that felt onerous to discuss. So in the end his respect for people's wishes to not pry into their affairs wins out over his concern, though there's still a half-restrained glimpse of it still in his eyes.
It turns to curiosity... and some small amount of caution as he continues about this book he was gifted and what it could do. What it could do to bread seemed like a mere prank (bread was difficult enough for him when it was fresh...), but the others certainly had some weight to them that couldn't be ignored.
Yoshitsugu certainly seemed flippant enough with such a conversely macabre and personal power.
He has control over himself now, but he still makes his answer careful when he replies.] It seems as though such a book might be dangerous or inconvenient if used without discretion.
no subject
You feel the need to explain that to me? [He tilts his head, and this time his half-lidded eyes make him look almost... fond.] How cute.
[COST is so full of interesting people. Even with the horrors it has brought, will bring, through the wars they must fight? Yoshitsugu is happy to be a part of it. A chance to drift in Takatora's love, meet people as strange as himself and see the true vastness of the universe is a treasure. He'll think that even if he dies in a sea of lead or is burned up in a roaring flame. The flow gave him a gift.]
I won't say you're incorrect in thinking so badly of me in this way.
no subject
He is about to say that he didn't necessarily mean that he thought he would be so foolish with these spells, but... well, then the man continues. Ashitaka's words die in his throat.
He pauses a moment before finding them again.] I would not say it was thinking poorly of you. [He must have given the wrong impression. There were others aboard this ship he thought would be far worse holders of such a power.] I would not think you would use any of these spells maliciously.
[Pause . . .]
But in jest, however... [He gives the man a look of careful dubiousness.]
no subject
Ah? Don't worry. [His eyes go half-lidded, catlike.] I won't cast my spells on you. Your ideal wedding shall remain a secret only you are aware of.
[And there's the next tease, but it's at least rather harmless. Honestly, in some ways Yoshitsugu is very curious about the kinds of weddings other cultures has if he thinks about it. The way Midnighter has used the word before suggests that when and where he comes from? They are a lot less political and a lot more loving, and involve 'honeymoons' too, which he's learned are a holiday one takes after a wedding.]
[His first Lord, Nagamasa, and his wife, Oichi, had been deeply in love, but that had been chance. Their marriage was a political one that just so happened to work out perfectly. Few were that lucky.]
So... I pose my question again, man who knows when to be useful and is sharper than he appears. What use might I have for such a spell?
no subject
At first glance Ashitaka might seem relatively unfazed by being let off of the arcane hook so easily, though there is some tension that eases out of his shoulders. It is not necessarily so much embarrassment as it is... wishing to leave something unspoken, in the past, where no one could inquire about it. Some things that he had left behind, unresolved and endangered, back home were more difficult for him to turn his back on than others.
In a way, Ashitaka wasn't sure what the spell would show him, though, and perhaps that was also an aspect of it. Such a thing was something he had thought lost to him when he had left his village, and the entire trajectory of his life, behind him. For him now there was no tradition to really fall back on, for he was a man without a culture, without a people. He might have to make his own, should he return home. Should he navigate that conflict and yet still live after its conclusion.
This time, Ashitaka does consider the question. For a moment, expression grave, as if he had just been asked something far more serious.]
If not in jest, you could offer these spells to those that might wish to know this information? It is, in a way, like the reading of a fortune.
[Might be a good diversion for them, as they drifted through the aether.]