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CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE DIED.
While death and dying always goes in ways a little unexpected when you're engaged in time-hopping warfare, it's even weirder when you die on the skull of a god. Especially when his mined bones keep you rooted in time.
And several of you bit the dust quite magnificently. So, without further ado:
SO YOU'RE DEAD.
VISION: NOT JUST A SUPERHERO.
WAKING UP IS HARD TO DO.
I NEED HEALING.
OTHER STUFF.
As always, if you have questions or concerns, please voice them in the comments below!
And several of you bit the dust quite magnificently. So, without further ado:
SO YOU'RE DEAD.
Let's have a refresher on how that works!
» RECOVERY TIME: As you may remember from the FAQ (and your characters might've discussed with the MedDact droids), it takes two weeks for the formerly deceased to recover. The character remains unconscious at BASE the first week; the second, they'll be conscious, but still in recovery and not allowed in the field. It isn't until the third week that they're allowed back on missions.
» MULTIPLE DEATHS: While it might be wonky here on the remains of Ymir himself (aka let us know if you go this route), if a character dies more than once, they begin to experience some troubling side effects. Each additional death will bring the deterioration of a sense, a memory, or even a motor function. What a character loses is up to you, from something inconsequential to major.
» RETURNING TO THE FIELD: BASE operates by its own clock, meaning there's no guarantee when a character will return to a mission. While it takes at least two weeks to recover in BASE time, how much time passes in the mission is up to you; characters may get teleported back almost right after they died, while others might find a month has passed upon (re)arrival. This is flexible, even for characters who die at the same time, as time travel isn't always an exact science. Our only stipulation is that you cannot stretch this longer than an OOC month, as that's the maximum amount of time we allow for hiatuses.
And, as a general note for completion's sake: If you'd like your character to die, you never need our permission. You're also free to have characters win or lose in the arenas or elsewhere as needed; RNG is only there for fun (although you're free to RNG as many matches as you like). And, for those of you whose characters lost in the arenas but didn't roll low enough to die, you're welcome to choose otherwise! A loss is a loss, but how dramatic the loss is always in your hands.
VISION: NOT JUST A SUPERHERO.
First, this section is not mandatory. If you'd like to forego a vision (and all this TL;DR, yikes), your character doesn't need to have one. But for those of you interested in this option, here's the (extra) weird part.
Thanks to being in close proximity to so much Ymir, recruits who die on Jhashch will experience extremely vivid visions post-death. It's a mystery whether they have them after they die and before they revive, or during their first week in stupor. But they have them and, despite their disjointed quality, the visions feel real at least on an emotional level.
Every vision begins at a crossroads marked by the trunk of a giant tree, wrought from light and knitted throughout reality. Infinite and indifferent to their existence, it still marks a defining moment in their life. This moment replays around them, studded by stars, and splinters into different paths they could have taken but didn't. But this time, they take one of these alternate paths. And until they wake from their vision, this is their reality; this path redefines them, rewriting them from the inside out.
In straightforward terms, you get to change a single event in your character's life and they'll dream about this AU in HD.
The rest of the vision may diverge in one of the following ways, in a mix of realistic, surreal, and nonsensical. While you can create a narrative that links these visions, how they work together (or if they do, in any coherent way) is up to you. When in doubt, go with whatever you think is the most fun or interesting, that will get a reaction out of your character; there's no right answer!
» 1. COST still exists in this reality and your character is still a recruit, somewhere with planets strung across the sky and impossible rivers. But they've been captured by the Regency and a jackal-masked agent threatens somewhere important to them, intending to torture them. The Regency is prepared to create someone from their remains who will obey them without question.
» 2. As part of the Regency, your character firmly believes in its cause and has a warped love for its structure. They've been granted a boon of their heart's desire in exchange for abiding by the Regency's rule, a wish that's surrounded by a halo of clouds and an endless landscape that is preserved forever. And they know that this will never change; this is the status quo.
» 3. Your character has no part in the war, whether with COST or the Regency, but it affects them all the same. It destroys the lives of their friends and the tree shines with light as the sky collapses. Ultimately, they're left alone and isolated, powerless to change their past or future. They only know that this is the result of a war they tried to refuse, but it happened anyway.
» 4. COST or Regency, this is a war zone where both sides engage each other directly. Your character fights and kills as many enemy operatives as they can; it's brutal and, if they're killed and there's enough of them to revive, they're sent back out to fight again amongst jagged cliffs and red skies, as light pools between the two factions. Their past is just as bloody.
» 5. The Regency prides itself on drawing order out of chaos. Your character is given the task of ensuring the noble families live for kalpa, defined by purpose and import; they craft propoganda as a monster from or inspired by their memories gnaws at the tree, hidden beneath a stairwell. Planets sit atop lampposts and guide them through the present.
» 6. Whatever the circumstances, your character is a COST agent who has to kill someone important to them, in order to preserve the future. They're granted one last conversation, near an ocean that parts beneath clouds shaped like bridges of stars, but one of their deaths is inevitable. Somehow or other, it's a necessity for your character to complete their mission.
» 7. The Regency tells their empire that they will recreate the world and transform violence into peace. This is your character's daily life, as someone who lives in a world annexed by the Regency. Through what means and whether the character agrees is arguable, but the Regency claims they bring justice. And they make it look beautiful, as waterfalls cascade through the clouds.
» 8. COST is at a disadvantage for resources and, sometimes, cells are abandoned to die. This is one of them and the recruits know it, left adrift. There's a general loss of faith in the cause as the storm crackles black, voices lost in the roll of thunder, and all that's left as retribution is to wait for the end and cling to whatever is most important to them.
» 9. A voice speaks to them in an incomprehensible language, one that they don't recognize but somehow still understand. It tells them a way to pursue redemption, matter-of-fact with bone-deep truth, and they're left to escape a prison. It takes them to the place most important to them, with a sun that shines and a sky that goes on forever.
...All of which is pretty surreal, so don't be afraid to ask questions if you're confused. And we intend to give you guys a lot of freedom with this, so if you want to do something, it's probably fine. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you opt into this section, please reply here with your selected vision.
WAKING UP IS HARD TO DO.
When characters wake from their week-long coma, they'll find themselves in a small, dark space, surrounded by fluid. Each pod is roughly a meter (39") in diameter and 2.75 meters (9') tall, but they'll gently warp to fit a slightly larger recruit. The weak lighting reveals the liquid is a translucent red, too thin to be blood, and it takes less than three minutes for the need to breathe to kick in. At least, if a recruit needs to breathe, but who really wants to stay in a pod longer than necessary.
There's no sense of gravity in the liquid, so it's impossible to tell up from down, but characters are always oriented so a window—and source of light—is overhead. But the cap doesn't open; rather, recruits have to crawl through it. The window will stretch to accommodate them and the faux glass is cool but heavy and resilient to the touch, like liquid metal.
The pods are stacked in a wall, so characters better watch their nasty, goo-covered steps. There's a good chance they'll vomit up more of the liquid, which comes up a viscous black instead of red. And, uh, they're naked save for their BCE implants. Sorry, y'all. The revivicator can't be assed to grab clothes, so hopefully no one was too attached to their digs. A Dactyl droid will helpfully indicate a pile of scrubs near the door (in case walking to the capsules in the nude is too daunting), before it returns to scouring the floor.
The room itself is connected to BASE's medbay and has two dozen pods set into one wall. All of them are filled with fluid, occupied or not, with a square window roughly 50 cm (19.5") across. Characters who look inside the occupied pods will discover they can only see the tops of people's heads and maybe the shadow of their shoulders, floating in the dark. The cap is impervious until a recruit sufficiently recovers; there's an emergency drain function, but it's really not a great idea to mess with that.
There is a single large pod embedded in the opposite wall, clearly meant for recruits of more inhuman dimensions.
I NEED HEALING.
During a character's second week of recovery (i.e., first week of consciousness), their eyes will begin as a jet black. As time passes, they'll slowly return to their natural color; first their irises and then the sclera. They may also find any bodily secretions, down to blood and sweat, discolored much the same way. It's their bodies' way of purging itself of the chemicals needed to restore them to life; while they appear a translucent red in the pods, they turn opaque black when they react with a recruit's body. So have fun sweating that stuff out, guys. Don't be surprised if you cough up more of the substance.
Characters may also have particularly vivid dreams. While what they actually dream of varies from person to person, everyone shares the same daytime hallucinations (if they have them): The impression of tree branches spreading over their shoulders just beyond their peripheral vision, like shadows flickering at the edges of their eyes...even if they can't exactly see anymore. Sometimes, they might hear leaves rustling, akin to the time-step. But these fade with the chemicals.
Only once these side effects have subsided will they be allowed back in the field. In this case, they'll be ported to the terminal where COST originally arrived. They might want to text a friend for some company!
OTHER STUFF.
You can handwave or thread as much of your BASE stay as you like. You guys have free rein to make logs, pester each other in inboxes, or troll the network. Follow your heart and try not to die again. Chiron and (some of) Young will be hanging around the premises, which are detailed here for anyone new. And yes, BASE is free of the coelacanth's clutches.
For those of you who just apped in this month, you're welcome to assume your characters' BASE time overlaps with the formerly deceased. It's up to you; just remember your characters get a week of training, before they're ported to Jhashch's terminal.
And, obviously, we have some weirdos to consider. Androids and cyborgs have their typical features equipped, as long as they have them at the time of death. Meanwhile, if there's something of particular import that you can't replace (looking at you, Mamoru), you can trust that Young retrieved it and put it in your quarters on Jhashch. This includes 9S.
This doesn't include trivial possessions; it has to be one of a kind. If you lost your CC chip, that shit is gone. But maybe you want to fight an Aranean to get it back (and, honestly, if you want to fight an Aranean for the return of your one-of-a-kind sword instead of handwaving Young murdering a spider for it, go ahead).
You guys gotta ooze black gunk like everyone else, though.
As always, if you have questions or concerns, please voice them in the comments below!
QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, WTF.
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would it be cool to incorporate stuff from your char's distant future/a warped version thereof?
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VISIONS.
Death: How did your character kick it?
Vision: Pick a vision, any vision.
Details: Anything you'd like to say about the specifics of the vision, that make it unique to them! Tell us about your faux AU.
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Death: in glorious battle with the Twin Generals. Samus puts up a hell of a fight and fights until her body is battered and broken. She uses the very last of her strength to pierce her own heart. She tells the Generals they are strong and they have won, but she'll still choose when she dies. She was vaguely conscious while they started to eat her but it didn't last long. She was very delicious and high in protein.
Vision: NUMERO UNO
Details: Captured by the Regency, Samus is tortured for countless hours and days. They demand she submits, but she resists. They threaten her loved ones but she laughs; anyone she cares deeply about is already dead. "That is untrue," the Regency agent informs her and removes his mask. She stares at a ghost of her past, Adam Malkovich, the man who sacrificed his life to save hers. The Federation had already saved his mind, and it didn't take much more for the Regency to recreate his body. He was a worthwhile investment, a brilliant military mind and perhaps the only one who could "save" Samus once again. He tells her of the future the Federation wanted to create and one the Regency made true, one that utilized her and her abilities to protect and serve, to use her as the weapon she was created for. This is her true purpose. To hear this come from Adam's mouth, from his face and from his form is an unfathomable betrayal, a despair too great to bear. She perishes by his hand.
Time to wake up and puke black stuff.
👍
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Death: Critfailed against a Regency dude in the Arena.
Vision: 6, kinda
Details: The conversation isn’t much of a conversation. It’s comfortable. Familiar. And it’s the one way that Mamoru knew that Detective Genda, #1 Kendo champion in Japan, Detective extraordinaire, father, ex-husband, protector, would appreciate. The scent of tobacco hits his nostrils as a wooden sword swipes along the edge of his own metal one, and it seems to be stronger within the spray of brine when they move across the water at their ankles. Enough to tickle at his nose and lodge at the back of his throat, an ember flaring with each breath.
They pause, lunged, shoulder to shoulder, ears aligned and Mamoru frowns that he can’t hear Genda breathing, even if he knows his shoulders shift with panting motions. “As expected, you’re kicking my ass,” he mutters, and Genda laughs around his cigarette. “Figures that you’d talk in the middle of this fight out of every other,” is his reply.
Backing away from each other, Mamoru stands jerkily. He’s listening to his voice, heard the shake of it before. He smells the blood, and can see Genda bleeding, the red on his shirt staining his side, dripping into the ocean foam.
“I didn’t hit you,” he starts forward as Genda grins on his still lit at the tip cigarette, not burning back as he falls to his knees. “How?”
“Shit doesn’t tend to go the way you want it to go, Hijikata,” he reaches for Mamoru’s cheek, and he feels the blood smearing his skin, and it’s Makabe, his master, tutor, father figure, resting against his shoulder in a weird mimicry of what happened years ago. “Ya can’t give us the death you think we deserve.”
He looks around to look for help, but suddenly the person in his arms is burying against his chest, and his sword is sticking out of Haruka’s stomach. “It’s okay, Mamoru-san. I knew this would happen. I had a lot of time to accept it,” she smiles through the pain, and he releases a guttural sound that he almost doesn’t notice. He scrunches his eyes, curling in on the girl’s body, shaking. He’s not focusing on the how and the why but the weight that his purpose is gone, that she knew about it, that she indulged him until she couldn’t. To her death. He follows her through until her heartbeat stops, lays her down on the surf, golden hair burning at his eyes. He closes his eyes, steadying his breathing, and snaps them back open again when he feels fingers wrapping around his ankle.
Laid on the sand, he finds Igawa, eyes open, red rimmed, lips purple. “You couldn’t help us.”
He wakes up.
😎
It'll also show up (on him and other characters) if he looks at it while wearing his glasses and exhibit the same bizarre shimmer effect.
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Death: In the stadium, at the hands of a Regency agent.
Vision: 6 (cw suicide)
Details: It's something he's considered for a long time––that if he'd joined COST willingly, then Ana Amari wouldn't have let him do it alone. Unable to remember the circumstances of his recruitment, 76 entertained the possibility that they'd enlisted together and been separated somewhere along the line. He hasn't exactly worked up the nerve to find out, eventually deciding he'd rather not know. This catches up to him eventually, however, when it's revealed he was wrong to ever have that thought.
They're granted the mercy of one last conversation, but Jack knows what he's going to do before they begin. He won't kill her, and COST must know that––or maybe they think he's too good a soldier to disobey orders, even one like this. Either way, it's been made clear that failure isn't an option, but hasn't he spent a lifetime sacrificing larger and larger parts of himself for the greater good? Isn't he allowed to be selfish, just this once?
He and Ana catch up, a little. They talk about the mission back home, the one that he abandoned for a supposedly greater cause. Jack explains his current task to the best of his ability. When he asserts that he won't go through with it, she understands what he intends to do, and that's where she stops him. If it really is a matter of securing the future, then she's willing to make that sacrifice, but he won't accept that answer. COST could be lying. She has a daughter. He's the one that got tangled up in this war, so he should take the fall. Maybe this will give her the chance to run, before they realize he's failed and come to finish the job themselves.
None of this satisfies her and Jack has a sneaking suspicion that she'll choose to remove herself from the equation anyway, but he appreciates that she's at least pretending to let him have his way. Jack won't make her pull the trigger, but he needs her to hold the gun in place, guiding the muzzle up against his BCE. She promises to find Gabriel for him, though he's fairly certain she's lying, because there isn't going to be anything beyond this for either of them. He wishes he had something more meaningful to say––something that makes it clear how much she means to him, or something that neatly closes the book on their thirty years of shared history, but he's never been very good at putting that kind of thing into words. His hand over hers in the moment before everything goes black will have to be enough.
🌽
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Death: In the stadium, at the hands of a Regency agent.
Vision: 9
Details: In Genji's vision, he is not a mishmash of tissue and metal, but still a completely whole human. He can't fully recall how he ended up in this prison, but he assumes it's a punishment for the crime of murdering his own brother. There's a part of him that would like nothing more than to rot in his cell forever, but then a mysterious voice starts sounding off in his head.
He needs to find a way out, it insists. If he does, he'll be able to work toward redemption, and wash himself clean of all the blood that he spilled. It sounds too good to be true, and at first Genji tries to ignore the voice in his head, but it only grows louder and more insistent over time. The world isn't done with him yet, it seems, and it won't let him stew in his misery.
Escaping the prison is mainly a matter of stealth, working his way through vents or sneaking past guards; he would rather not shed more blood, on this quest. Once he gets outside, however, he's suddenly transported somewhere else entirely: back to Hanamura.
It feels like it's been so long since he was home, and at first Genji can feel nothing but pain at being back at the place where he committed such a terrible crime. But there's something about being there -- it doesn't feel entirely real. Everything is bright, the sky has no clouds, and the cherry blossoms are in full bloom.
Ultimately, he finds a place out on a balcony to watch the sky, and then the vision ends.
🐲
👍
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Death: Partially disintegrated by nanobots, leaving only shreds of clothing, his BCE attached to some flesh and maybe a finger behind.
Vision: 8
Details:
It's been two and a half weeks since resources have ran out, and he's staring at his empty hands. They're covered in the usual black leather gloves, hanging limp as he's resting his elbows on his knees. He's outside of his capsule, somewhere, he's not sure where but it's desolate and eerily silent. The urge to look out the window and stare into the living aether had been strong before, his approach to despair was to laugh in its face, but now everyone is listless and tired. There's a hopelessness in the air. The worst sort of cabin fever.
He has no memorabilia to remember his loved ones by, if he can even call them that, and most of the other COST members have either died or something else entirely. In the beginning, he'd chalked it up to time shenanigans. Now he doesn't care. There's not much to care about when you're stuck between a rock and hard place with no end in sight, and he can't decide whether he should just off himself or wait it out. His instinct for self-preservation wants to see if maybe some lingering hope of something can get him out of this predicament, but his fear of a slow and fading death urges him to just get it over with now.
All he has are images of their faces, her words, his memories, which are fading fast. His eyes droop, blurring his hands in his vision.
🗡️
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Death:
Vision: 2...I made him an agent although I MAY HAVE MISREAD THE PROMPT have mercy on me
Details: William's been a member of the Regency for years; he no longer remembers a time when this wasn't the case. His need for meaning has been subsumed by a passion for order and structure. Sometimes maintaining that order, revealing that structure, necessitates violence.
He's fully convinced of his own righteousness.
His heart's desire is Dolores, who exists in a landscape similar to his first glimpse of Westworld, with some stuff from the light tree on the coelacanth and a nice snowfall thrown in for good measure. She loves him forever blah blah blah (quite possibly because she's been programmed to do so).
(I'm writing a longer version of this, but I thought I'd spare you my pseudopoetic posturing.)
💍
When your character wakes from their vision, they'll discover they have a mark that stretches like roots on their body. The location of this mark is up to you, but it does cover a large area of their skin; one on the arm will travel up or down most of the arm, one on the leg will cover most of the leg, etc. It shimmers like it's iridescent when light hits it a certain way.
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Death: In the stadium, sliced and flambéed by Ththkh's halberd
Vision: 6 (oh boy)
Details:
He should have known it would come to this. Elektra always did have a habit of slipping in and out of his life, although he'd always thought death would have put an end to that. Maybe this is just part of COST's time jumping, maybe it's something more sinister. In the end, it doesn't matter.
Years ago, Stick tried to warn him about Black Sky, although at the time he applied the name to a helpless boy, and Matt didn't understand. There's a lot he still doesn't understand now, but COST has made the important things very clear: if the future is to remain on track, Elektra Natchios has to die. For good this time. They don't care about his personal code against killing, or his past with the woman, or the sick feeling in his heart. They think they're doing him a favor, letting him meet with her first, although he Matt knows the only way he'd ever be able to do this is face to face.
Her voice is still beautiful, and he still remembers the scent of her skin. Elektra knows what's coming, but she thinks she has the advantage because Matt Murdock is a soft-hearted choir boy and Daredevil doesn't kill.
She's wrong. And there aren't enough Our Fathers in the world to assuage the guilt he'll carry over this one, although he wouldn't let go of it even if he could.
👿
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Death: killed in his labs hrhr
Vision: 4
Details: he doesn't get to be "prompto argentum". the person who rescues him from the first magitek production facility is a bloodline criminal and murdered before they even clear the ghorovas rift. so, when the regency annexes eos and demands soldiers to stand against cost, unit 05953234 is just one clone at their disposal, distinguished only by the fact someone tried to save him once.
he still doesn't undergo the procedure to become a magitek trooper; it takes the regency less time and effort to upgrade and repair shabti than machines. and, with the advent of the bces, it's possible to revive a single clone indefinitely, so the regency sends them to the front lines, where 05953234 kills and gets killed in kind. it's better than wasting actual operatives on such mindless drone work.
he doesn't feel anything about it, at least in theory. it doesn't change the outcome or his orders even if he does.
like clockwork, he gets up to die again.
📷
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Death: Impaled by Chch like a fucking loser during her HRHR.
Vision: 2
Details:
In this reality, the Regency get to her long before COST does — that's all it takes. Before the Holy Grail War, before Kairi, even before Rhongomyniad is thrust through her body, they come to her with a deal; and, still in the thrall of King Arthur's brilliance, not yet with her hopes of acknowledgement from him dashed, she makes her decision. It's the only way to save him, they lie, and for that, she'd accept a thousand times over.
Her wish is, simply, of her father. Of a king surrounded by light and smiling, the leader of a united, peaceful Britain, an ideal Mordred herself never sees but is assured exists. Through Arthur alone, she receives her orders, and she obeys with a smile, never hesitating as she cuts down former enemies and future allies alike. To raise a hand against the Regency is to raise a hand against Arthur Pendragon, and his most loyal hound is eager to destroy COST for their crimes.
Of course, it isn't really him anymore, or maybe it never was to start with, and part of her already knows that. Yet hearing Mordred, my son from his lips still brings tears to her eyes. His hand on her shoulder still makes her heart swell with pride. Under the specter of her father, the Knight of Treachery becomes the staunchest ally of the very things she hates. None of it matters, because he is beautiful, perfect, and no other is worthy of her devotion.
🐕