CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE DIED.

[agogemod]

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.

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!

Comments

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[agogemod]

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.