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

hotspots;

[hakanai]

[And what else does one say to that but:]

Yes. You look terrible for it.

[Nothing like the blunt truth, is there? Yoshitsugu is kneeling close to Merlin, just outside of the warm spot the mage had taken his nap in with his wand-like command baton resting across his lap. Anyone who isn't extremely perceptive might think that the little of his face that's visible above his face-cloth looks... bored.]

[He's not, though. Not at all.]

Fall for the enchantment, did you?

[servant]

[merlin's response to the criticism is a sheepish grin. he supposes it's true, and he's been called far worse things. but that smile falters at those last words.]

Enchantment? You think this was magic?

[it makes sense, now that he thinks about it. when has he ever been one to just fall asleep no matter how tired he was?]

Who would've cast such a spell? For what purpose?

[hakanai]

[Yoshitsugu shrugs lightly, and taps the floor with his baton. His own particular brand of magical training has not left him with the skill to uncover specific enchantments but he can sense something in the air here. Not what it is specifically, just... something. It could just as well be his sense of foresight picking up on small clues.]

I'm not certain it's magic as I, or you, know it, but there's something unnatural here.

[He grunts lightly, and after a moment of quiet thought rises to his feet. Yoshitsugu's gaze remains fixed on the floor, however, brows knitting into a slight frown.]

The crows avoid these spots, and every one I've walked through has made me feel weary the moment I walk into it. [His gaze shifts to gives Merlin a pointed look.] So you might want to move, unless you want to hit your head again.

[servant]

[he thought the lack of crows might've just been something to make the spot more peaceful, and therefore rest a little more likely. but now that the other points it out...why wouldn't they be here the way they're everywhere else?]

You're right, they are avoiding it.

[merlin backs out of the spot carefully, feeling an immediate difference between where he was standing and where he is now. of all the familiar things that he longs to see, a sleeping enchantment isn't one of them.]

Thank you. For the warning. [the young sorcerer turns and offers his hand.] I'm Merlin.

[hakanai]

[Once that gesture would have confused Yoshitsugu, but he's been in COST long enough now to have come across the custom. So he briefly and light grasps and shakes the offered hand.]

Yoshitsugu. [And lets go rather swiftly.] Three months a veteran in this unit. You're new to it, aren't you?

[Returning his attention to the hot spot, Yoshitsugu considers for a moment before reaching out his hand towards the warmth and summoning a scattering of violet balls of light within. There's no reaction to the magic, at far as he can tell, so he lets them fade away after a few seconds.]

The flow was kind to you, then. Most of us were plunged straight into missions.

[servant]

The flow?

[no matter how much he's told, merlin still feels overwhelmed by how much he's yet to learn, to truly understand.]

Erm, yes. What sort of missions have you been on? [he's asking so many questions, but he's always been that type. but the most important one of all comes after the other man stretches his hand out, with violent lights dancing around it.] You have magic?

[he looks at yoshitsugu with wide eyes before quickly glancing around.]

[hakanai]

You ask a lot of questions, don't you? [Yoshitsugu so helpfully points out himself with a slight snort.] The flow is the movement of the times, or what someone grander might call fate.

[He turns around, moving his attention away from the hot spot for a moment to regard Merlin with interest. Reaching out a hand, he opens it upwards and summons a glowing insect into his palm as a kind of demonstration, letting the illusion's wings flutter delicately.]

Yes. I'm hardly the only one, so don't act so nervously. Outside of missions it's not going to mark you as a target.

[France had taught him plenty about how people in that world, that time and place, had viewed magic: both incorrectly (or, well, stupidly) and with deep distrust. Judging by the way this Merlin reacted he probably comes from somewhere with its own issues with magic.]

[servant]

I've been told as much before. [merlin gives a little grin. at least yoshitsugu doesn't seem too cross about it. and the way that he explains it makes sense, especially the part about fate. merlin murmurs his next words with a soft sigh.] Sounds about right.

[he's not exactly surprised to end up here and almost immediately hear the word tossed about. but any further thoughts are pushed aside at the display in the palm of yoshitsugu's hand. he can probably guess merlin's personal thoughts on magic by the smile that crosses his lips.]

That's amazing. [he looks up from the insect, swallowing hard before continuing.] Where I'm from...it's believed that magic is used for evil purposes. But I know that isn't the case.

[hakanai]

[Yoshitsugu certainly can, which is why he makes more of a show of it and 'tosses' the insect into the air, summoning more so the two of them are surrounded by little glowing insects that flutter through the air.]

The last place COST went for a mission had books and the like which said the same... but their ideas about what magic was were ridiculous. [He shrugs lightly.] It's a tool, an ability like any other. You can't call something without thought evil. That's down to the person wielding it and them alone.

[He looks Merlin up and down, thoughtful. Already he has a few ideas about the kind of man this person is but these kinds of questions always get some entertaining responses, if nothing else.]

What kind of person are you? Aside from curious and prone to sleeping in warm places.

[servant]

[the other man doesn't know how good it is to hear someone else with that attitude. in camelot, even those who might agree didn't dare give it a voice, not even with their closest friends and family.]

Me, I'm just a servant. [merlin's quick to insist that he's a no one, but in most people's eyes, that's exactly what it is. having someone taking an interest in him is pretty new. he hesitated for a moment before continuing.] But I'm someone who spends a good amount of his day sharpening and polishing swords. I know that in the wrong hands, they can do as much damage as magic.

[just saying that much feels good. arthur would be furious to hear it, however true it is.]

Did the people there treat you cruelly?

[hakanai]

They didn't get to know I had magic, even when I used it. [He clicks his fingers and the insects explode into balls of light before vanishing completely.] People often consider me suspicious but if I don't want them to know I've done something, they usually won't.

[He's not stupid enough to think there aren't exceptions, but intelligent enough to know and judge his skills well. The only people he would put a name to who can see through him are his mother figure, Lady Oichi, and to a lesser degree Takatora. It'll be interesting to see if he finds more amongst COST.]

Even if that something is setting their sleeve on fire. [No less thoughtful and interested, Yoshitsugu faces Merlin properly and crosses his arms.] You're a servant that sees and hears a lot, aren't you?

[servant]

[merlin's eyebrows rise when the insects disappear so dramatically, but only a moment before the smile returns to his lips. it sounds like he's pretty good at keeping secrets when he needs to too. he straightens when yoshitsugu takes that posture, almost like he's inspecting him. merlin wipes the smile from his lips, but there's still a glimmer of something in those blue eyes. amusement and secrets of his own.]

A prince needs a lot of looking after. [but for some reason he feels a little proud at the assessment. ] So I guess you could say that not much goes on within the castle walls that I'm not aware of.

[forgive him, he so rarely gets to pat himself on the back.]

[hakanai]

[Yoshitsugu has never served a prince, but he's seen and served plenty of nobles in his time. The de-facto ruler of his land was the last one, in fact. Which is why he can nod, why he can be amused, at that comment.]

I have been a soldier on the lowest rungs of an army and a commander at its very heights. [Relaxing a little, Yoshitsugu allows his arms to fall to his side and laughs quietly.] Which taught me again and again that the best servants usually know more about what's going on in a household than their employer does.

[Pat yourself on the back as often as you want, Merlin, if it's recognition of things that you know you do. ♥]

I suspect you'll be good at certain kinds of infiltration and information gathering missions.

[servant]

I think that any who served under you must've been very fortunate.

[he seems calm, skilled, clearly unprejudiced against magic. merlin can't picture him throwing a copper pot at someone's head, but maybe he just hasn't known him long enough.]

I'll do my best in all the missions. [this isn't his original destiny, but if what he's been told has any truth to it, it's just as important.] I hope I'll prove to be someone you can rely on.