all this energy calling me

[agogemod]

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.

TOUCH BASE;

backfill armed services echelon
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

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC PLURK DISCORD

Comments

[lonelywar]

[It's interesting to him that the Metal World was something slumbering beneath the one that her people had lived upon. It made him think of Irontown and how its people had told him about how they found their famed metal in the nearby sands and used their forge to transform it into the resource that established their wealth. He doesn't think it was the case, but it was truly something to think that the metal in those sands might just be the distant fringes of a whole world beneath them.]

Oh. [Before COST this would have sounded completely outside of understanding, but now he nods, one hand lifting to touch the hollow at his collarbone. Or, rather, the device that was embedded there.] Like this? [The BCE that they all had, which allowed them very similar capabilities: speaking, sending messages, even with some capability to save what they saw and heard.] But for what had already happened rather than what is happening now.

[Interesting. He is sure that if it is as useful as she said it was, COST would try to get it back to her. He has to wonder how it might interfere (or improve itself) upon the technology that they had already been equipped with.

After all of the weeks since she had first talked of these subjects to him, he has adjusted to the possibility of such things, and seeing the droids roving around the BASE on their own imperative helped make it something something he felt he could see. He's considerate as she recalls the different types of beasts made of machinery, and he nods as she concludes.]

You told me that life on your planet had disappeared a long time ago, but it managed to return. Were these machines around when that happened? Did they try to... replace what life had been destroyed?

[He was just thinking about why they would take those shapes, why they would act in that way. Machines and living creatures were just so different. This had just presented itself to him as a possibility.

And then what life they might have stepped in to replace gradually reappeared. With the balance so different, was peaceful coexistence of humans, beasts, and machines something viable for the future?

It was things like this he found himself stuck thinking about as he wondered if similar peaceful coexistence was possible for what he had left back home.]

[rappels]

Essentially? I can take it off, though. [ She motions along the shell of her ear as she continues explaining ] It has a little piece shaped kind of like a hook, so it just sits on my ear. Definitely better than COST's version.

[ She's not really making it into a competition, but she prefers the Focus since it's, well, not a part of her. She considers that a marked improvement. It at least doesn't cause her any problems, otherwise she would take signficantly more issue with it. As it is now, it's mostly just a mild annoyance that makes her want her Focus back. It's functionality is more useful to her.

Instead of answering with the kind of immediacy that she usually does, his question gives her slight pause. Technically, the answer is simple. Yes, the machines had tried to replace... Well, everything. Not just people. But it wasn't the same machines, not really, and she couldn't really direct much ire at the original ones either. She would fight and kill them, but she didn't really consider them responsible. It was the person that made them's fault, since the machines were only doing what they were meant to do. They really were like animals in that way. ]

It's... complicated. [ That's an understatement, she thinks. ] The machines there now, the ones that look like animals, they're actually fixing the planet. The original ones weren't, though. They— I don't think they were trying to replace life or anything. They were just tools for war, but the person that made them is an idiot. They're kind of powered by "life," so when they lost control of those machines, it ended up killing everything.

[ She sighs and shakes her head, and Aloy seems almost frustrated. Every time she thinks about it, it is frustrating, because it sounds so avoidable to her. Elizabeth may have made an ingenious solution, but wouldn't it have been better if it weren't needed? ]

I don't blame the machine as much as the people that made them. It's like I wouldn't blame a bow for killing someone instead of the person holding it. They're both just things doing what they were made for, but people are really stupid.

[lonelywar]

That would be nice.

[Sometimes the constant notifications are annoying, like the buzzing of a gnat in your ear or something just outside of your field of vision you couldn't help but keep seeing. If there were any options to completely silence it, he wasn't aware of them. Perhaps it was meant to be that way — so they could always be reachable should their mission require them.] It does sound more convenient.

[Being able to see an opponent's weaknesses through such a device would certainly be handy. There was something to learning them and instinctually being able to find them despite the havoc of war, but since they were being sent to strange times and stranger locales, that amount of versatility would be useful. Perhaps there was some modifications that could be done to the BCE to make it as handy in combat as the Focus was...

The thought of machines — even ones that behaved as beasts did — fixing the planet was a strange one to him. For some reason, the droids repairing this ship made sense; they were both machinery, made of metal, so like tended to like. That machines would tend similarly to the earth itself was odd, since he had seen so many instances of them causing destruction to nature and everything in it.

They were just tools for war. It seems to click for Ashitaka then, his gaze growing both distant and intent, as if seeing a conflict within the confines of his mind. He gives a slow nod.

People are really stupid.] Yes. [The mark along his right arm gives a dull ache.] They will go to any lengths to accomplish what they want, even if those lengths would bring about the destruction of the world.

[Lady Eboshi of Irontown might just be a precursor, dozens of generations before the type of people that had created machines that had razed life from the entire planet.]

Do you believe those are the type of people we fight now?

[rappels]

[ Aloy nods to the talk of the Focus, since she does miss it. So far, the only time she felt she needed it was trying to figure out how the stupid magical metal was supposed to work, but luckily that only took watching how other people used it. It wasn't as convenient, but it was effective enough. Though still, she missed the Focus in the same way she missed her spear or how she would miss her bow if she didn't have it. They were familiar pieces of equipment for her to the point that they almost felt like extensions of herself. She'd grown used to the lack of the Focus on her ear, but at first, she felt a bit naked without it.

If she can convince the people in charge to give it back to her, she'll have to let Ashitaka use it. It's hard to explain exactly how the Focus highlights the world around her, since there's nothing it can compare to. Even the BCE wasn't really the same. ]

Yep... [ Aloy sighs out her own agreement to his sentiment, even though she's the one that had brought it up, really. It's tiring, because even though she'd been speaking of the past tense for the mistakes of the world that came before hers, it's not like hers is devoid of the same struggle. Tribes warred with each other over things that seem inconsequential to her now, or they worshipped HADES as a god. That one she never really understood, even before she knew exactly what HADES was. The cultists at least had to know some part of what HADES wanted. Why would you want the world to end? She shakes her head as if to dismiss the thought and shun anyone in the group that Ashitaka speaks about, but it's quickly followed with a nod. ]

Yeah, I do. Or close enough that they don't really think what they're doing is a bad idea. That's... usually more the type that I've seen. [ Another shrug, and this time she quirks a smile as she answers wryly. ] It's why I agreed to help out with this. I managed to stop someone from letting a machine destroy my world again, so why not more, right?

[ She's joking more than bragging here, since it is a bit funny to her. She could have said no and been satisfied with her own world's safety, but... She couldn't really do that in good conscience. So she had just taken up another impossible cause instead. ]

[lonelywar]

[Even if an item was mundane, if it was yours and had belonged to you long enough to be something you were truly accustomed to, it was always missed. Even with a bow in his hand, he couldn't help but adjust for tiny differences between the weapon he had used on his travels back in his own place and time. A slight difference in the tensile strength of the string, a different type of springiness within the arch of the bow itself. Even the arrows seemed to fly slightly different. It made him wish for his bow just as the paltry swords of revolutionary France had made him wish for his sword, despite both weapons being remarkably simple in the grand scheme of things.

He wishes he had her conviction on this. He remembers what both the commander and Xici had told him of the Regency, of the future which they fought. It was simply hard for him to understand. A future power which was so strong, it completely wiped out conflict by destroying the freedom and will of its people. Wouldn't an end to war be something he should idealize? He felt he should, but... no, it was simply another example of the means not justifying the end. A peace earned through tyranny was no true peace, just a continued reign of violence upon the hearts and minds of men.]

I believe that is true, though I think many are not fully responsible for their own actions. [Xici had seemed so convinced of her cause, until the very end when that cause had turned to destroy her rather than allow her to remain a loose end.

But what were they to do about it? Their enemies, though possibly pitiable, were not within their ability to save.]

I do not remember why I agreed to join this cause. [Though he very often wishes he did. It might make him feel a little less conflicted. What would they have been able to say to allow him to make such a decision?]

There was much I left behind unfinished. They must have made a very convincing argument.

[rappels]

[ That's actually a perspective that surprises Aloy, but she did tend to approach her problems as simple blacks and whites, and sometimes simplifying them too far. She felt it was required to be decisive where she was from, but her decisions did tend to be those that needed to be made more quickly. Do you dodge to the right, or do you rush in with a spear in hand? Do you try and argue with a corrupt machine, or do you simply strike it down? They were decisions that didn't leave much room for gray, but she also didn't really allow that room. ]

Maybe not. [ ...But it does make her think of Helis. HADES was simple to quantify, but Helis was just a man. She had found out why he believed so strongly that HADES was a god, but her sympathy had been shortlived. ] Do you think it matters?

[ Her tone is curious, not accusatory, though as he elaborates on joining, her expression turns sympathetic. ]

I didn't remember either. When we were in Jerusalem, I guess they were actually telling the truth. After that, I actually remembered. [ She shrugs, and her tone turns sarcastic ] I guess it would be too much to expect that to be universal.

[lonelywar]

[It's a difficult question. Ashitaka's shoulders rise and fall with a long exhale as he considers it, thinking of Xici, knowing there was nothing that they could have done. She wouldn't have believed them, that she was nothing but a pawn to the Regency, until it was too late. He's convinced nothing would have swayed her convictions except for the very fate she had succumbed to.]

In the grand scheme of things, no.

[The quiet admission was one made gently, in a way that implied remorse on the subject. He shakes his head, closing his eyes for a moment.] It simply makes their position pitiable. [Which, in his mind, makes their strange time-hopping guerrilla warfare more difficult for him.

He opens his eyes again as she continues. He seems a little surprised. She remembered? Well, whatever had been fixed for her still seemed to malfunction for him. In the long run it didn't particularly matter.]

Regardless of the reason, we are here now. [He raises his bow, nocks the arrow and draws it back to rest along his cheek in a practiced, fluid motion.] We should face what is ahead.

[He exhales as he looses the arrow. It hits the second-innermost ring with a thud. He doesn't look particularly pleased with this.]

[rappels]

[ It's not an easy question, and she knew it. She may have given a different answer to the same question if someone had posed it to her before the Proving, but as she became the Nora's Seeker, her worldview had expanded both literally and in this kind of more abstract way. Though because of her own bitterness, her original answer would have been harsher than it was now. It was leaving Nora lands and actually meeting people that made her start to at least see some grays. It's why she hadn't killed Nil. At least in part. There was definitely a part that was just to spite him. So she can hear the conflict and can tell it's familiar. She nods, and though she doesn't agree completely, she agrees enough. ]

Yeah, sometimes. But if they're committed to screwing everything up, then I'm committed to making sure they can't do it.

[ She'll extend her sympathy, even pity if their reasoning actually tugs at her, but rarely mercy if they're operating at such a large scale. Small things she can let go, but the kind of world-changing events that they're fighting against here have much more of an uphill battle against how she perceives the people that would try and push such change.

Aloy watches as he nocks the bow, since she's casually interested in seeing how good of a shot he was. She has a competitive streak, don't worry about it... She isn't surprised either when he doesn't look pleased by the arrow being slightly off-mark, since she would have the same reaction. ]

Have you asked them why you might not remember?

[lonelywar]

That is what we are here to do.

[And if he were back home, it was something he would still do. He was selective, of course; he had decided that simply returning violence to either of the sides instigating the conflict would not put out the fire of war, instead making it more unstable and volatile. There were different enemies between there and here, though, and they were meant to be reassured that their fighting in the war was justified because these wars had already occurred (by others' standpoints, not his). They were meant to happen, and to divert them entirely would cause more destruction than the lives possibly saved.

That sort of long game didn't appeal much to Ashitaka; he saw what was before him, perceived minor avenues he could pursue to try to alleviate suffering and anger where he saw it. Trying to expand his mindset to what COST wanted of him was, in a word, difficult. And tiring. And demoralizing.

He hadn't fired an arrow in several months; he isn't sure he had ever had such a long lapse in practice before coming here. Of course he would be rusty. He would simply have to keep practicing until he had recovered the skill he had lost.]

No. [He goes through the motions of firing another arrow. This one actually hits the bullseye - not dead center, but it will do. He seems a little more pleased with that.] Only that which I was told when I first awoke. There was a malfunction, and that the memories might not be recoverable. [He is quiet for a moment.]

Sometimes I wonder if there is anything else I do not remember.

[But, no, they had all been brought on to this COST crew relatively recently, right? It was probably an errant worry.]

[rappels]

[ She nods as she lets the first topic drop, though the concern he brings up with the second one surprises her. Aloy hadn't thought of it before, but of course she hadn't. With her memories promptly returned, there wasn't much reason to meditate on it much more. ]

I guess if there is, you wouldn't know. It's hard to know what you don't know.

[ There's a dry humor in her tone, but it's quick to soften. She's only joking there, since her first response is so often that kind of humor first and a serious answer second. ]

That just means you have to trust them to some extent. [ She shrugs casually, but not dismissively ] What do you think about them? Our— Leaders, I guess.

[lonelywar]

This is why it is easiest to focus on that it would not matter either way. Whether I remembered or not.

[In all seriousness, he doesn't think it's much of anything; they had made an argument convincing enough to get him to come along, and he had been transferred to Jerusalem. If there had been any other missions in-between, the results would have been the same: him doing as he did now, the best that he could to help.

Though he yearns for home often enough, but he must think that there are many others that feel similarly.

He can sense that Aloy is trying to lighten the rather dreary subject, though, and he appreciates it. He's just kind of a dreary person at baseline, though, sadly...

He lowers his bow, thinking.]

My first impressions were not strong. [He turns to look to Aloy.] I first met the commander after Xici's execution, and the sergeant when he reprimanded us for our lack of action in Paris. In both circumstances they were frustrating, seeming cruel or overly critical.

But... I have spoken again with both since those times. I feel I still do not know them well enough to know for sure, but they have compassion enough to speak to their recruits, to understand their concerns. It is more than some might.

Time will tell the truth, I suppose.

[A beat.] And yourself? What do you think of them?

[rappels]

[ She listens with interest, since truth be told, her own actions were... minimal to say the least. Part of that was by choice, since Aloy doesn't really do well with authority, but also a bit by circumstance. When you get sent off on your own for a while, it's harder to talk to your superiors. But she still probably wouldn't have. Her independence doesn't make her very deferential. ]

I don't have much of an opinion. It's kind of why I was curious what yours was.

[ Though she realizes that's not much of an answer. She makes a noise of thoughtfulness, a low hum ] I don't think they're incompetent. [ high praise ] I wouldn't be as interested in helping if I thought they had no idea what they were doing. I figured that's why I went to Rheiah instead of staying in Paris with the rest of you. There wasn't much I could do there.

[ It was too much politics for her, or at least that was her impression from hearing about how it had gone afterwards. Rheiah was more suited to her skill-set, so she had felt more at home there than Paris or Jerusalem. She hopes that they'll go somewhere like it soon, though unfortunately, she's out of luck there. ]

As long as they actually listen to people and don't think of them as just numbers for some bigger fight, it works for me. I'm not really— [ She seems to change her mind on the phrasing partway through, and instead says: ] Well, fighting and working like this is kind of new to me. So I don't have much to compare them to.

[lonelywar]

[Ashitaka's own relationship with authority was troubled as well. He had certainly overstepped boundaries most would consider plain with Lady Eboshi, though his earnestness had seemed to work with her; enough for her to show him her secrets, anyway. Moro had seemed less endeared by his bullheadedness, though the gods always seemed more inscrutable. Still, what he was, a rogue and neutral element in what had been a many-pronged conflict, did not naturally subject him to such things.

He knew that it was different here, and that it would be required of him to tow the line in various ways. He might have had a different opinion of it if he had any control of where or when he could go, but as it was there wasn't much they could do.

He listens carefully to her as she speaks, going carefully through the motions of firing a few more arrows at the distant target. His aim certainly seems to improve.

Rheiah? That is why he hadn't seen much of her in Paris, then.]

I have met people who consider people in such a way. Or... [Perhaps that was too harsh. Eboshi did what she did because of those sheltered in Irontown, and surely the gods had their affections for their subjects. But...] Their fixation on their goals allowed them to slip into such a mindset. After speaking to the commander and the sergeant, I do not get that impression from them.

[He inwardly reflects on his conversations with both of them.]

This fight... is very personal, for both of them. That they fight alongside us maintains us as individuals to them, and I think it would prevent them from using us so callously as pawns.

[He lowers his bow.]

Or, at least, this is what I hope.

[In his first meeting with the commander, he had criticized her decision-making, and though he had cooled off and thought it could be considered a mistake, she hadn't gotten angry at him. She had taken him aside and spoken more about their situation and her place in it. Something similar happened with him and the sergeant, though over the network.

He has to believe that those who would show such specific individual interest wouldn't use them as kindling for the fire they were hoping to set.]