agogemod: (Default)
⌞THE AGOGE⌝ MODS ([personal profile] agogemod) wrote in [community profile] agogelogs2018-02-12 10:55 am

Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three.


We do not merely destroy our enemies;
we change them.


WELCOME TO THE END OF TIME.

The Regency has its spies and its cloaks and daggers. You may have even brushed shoulders with one and not have known it. There is a place for such tactics. You are not in that place any longer.




On missions like these, the Regency prefers to keep its base close, in a intradimensional time pocket. You're apart from Gallipoli, no longer technically on Earth or in the 1910s. There are multiple segments to this complex base of Regency operations, but you can only really see two places...

THE BRIG

This is your holding cell, a constantly shifting room of indesctructable grey squares. It folds and bends to hold you and your seven companions as you await... something.

There are no guards in this place. There are no bars to look through, or sounds to listen for. You are simply in the box, left to your own devices.

Occasionally, holes will open in the ceiling, and packaged, processed rations will fall from them before immediately closing. This is the only way to measure time. There are always exactly eight bags, each with the name of one captive written on the side in their native language.

Holes will occasionally open in the walls, and they always bring with them a searingly bright light. Sleeping and sitting is difficult on the ever-shifting floors, and when you try, it always seems like a pinhole of light opens right on your eyes. Even leaning on the walls has mixed results.

DON'T GO TOWARDS THE LIGHT

The windows of light that open always stay very small, making it difficult to look through, and always pour radiantly bright, hot light. If you're feeling particularly self-punishing, you might be able to peek at an odd angle and see something of the world outside without being completely flashblinded. The world outside the Brig looks rather like the interior of a Dyson sphere. In the center, a great, bright, hot energy radiates out like a sun, and it reflects off the exterior globe the pocket dimension functions within, illuminating everything from every angle. The Brig floats around it in a slow orbit, as do many other similar looking box-rooms made of similar material, connected by constantly moving tubes and chutes. Some boxes have more chutes going toward them than others. No chutes connect to the Brig, unless someone is about to disappear into the floor...

Getting this view will be difficult, but not impossible; it will just take characters willing to blind themselves with an overabundance of light multiple times until they get the correct angle, allowing them to see outside for roughly a half second before the room shifts to redirect the light back into their eyes.

not so solitary confinement

Occasionally, the cube will split into smaller segments, throwing characters together with others at random in close confinement. This is unpredictable and fast, splitting you off from the whole for what feels like hours at a time, often with only one companion as the cube shifts and squirms around you.

technical malfunction

The power nullification is still in full effect. No magic or special abilities rule this place. Your only master are the walls, undulating with no discernible pattern, always moving.

The Regency has also attempted to break the BCE's translation capabilities, but due to the fact that COST-jailbroken BCEs work on a different system than Regency ones, this is an intermittent problem that occurs sporadically. (ie, have the translation capabilities blink in and out at your discretion.)

THE OTHER PLACE

And then, suddenly, the floor drops out from underneath you. The shifting walls make a hole perfectly your shape and size, and sucks you through. The hole closes neatly, immediately, and you slide along in a world of boxes pressing close to your skin as you are moved from one holding area to another.

When you emerge, you do so in total darkness. Power nullification is still in effect, but even if you can naturally see in the dark, it doesn't matter. All you can see is an endless blackness, and walking doesn't help. You can keep walking for however long; there is nothing to walk to. The floor is perfectly level, but you'll never reach a wall.

Finally, there's light in the distance. A spotlight from nowhere shines down on a person with the head of a jackal. Looking closer, you'll find it's some kind of highly technical mask. They are wearing armor that obscures their exact shape-- no skin shows, no hint of identity or personality, just the cold eyes of the mask. They turn to you, and speak in a voice clear and soothing, almost gentle.

"I am Kebechet. I have been looking forward to speaking with you."

agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-15 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
Kebechet tilts their head forward, a quiet acknowledgement. "Many of my agents are very new, and younger even than you. If you have criticism, I would hear it."
garbagepilot: (I’ll let my hunger)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-15 12:21 pm (UTC)(link)
For a moment she just looks at them like they've grown another oddly shaped head, not sure she heard that right. They want tips now? Tips on how to better ruin lives?

She doesn't even dignify it with an answer, just turns away while keeping track of where her masked friend is not with the Force, but just by listening for their movements. Trying to look around for a way up, a way out, it doesn't get her very far when she's trapped in such darkness, but she takes a few steps away, hands out to keep from running into anything as she tries to find a wall to scale, anything to get herself out of here.

Returning to that room isn't ideal, but it's better than this.
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-16 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Would you ignore your only company? Perhaps you prefer isolation."

And Kebechet disappears. Rey is left alone in the complete darkness, unable to see anything at all, with nothing to grasp at or touch but the perfectly flat floor.
garbagepilot: (I'll bring your words)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-17 09:27 pm (UTC)(link)
It makes her flinch, that sudden flash into darkness, and knowing her eyes are open but being entirely unable to see again is just as jarring as the first time. But there's silence now, and she saw Kebechet wink out of existence.

She's not going to beg for him to come back. Isolation isn't something she wants, but it's better than only having your enemy for company.

Not for the first time, she wishes Finn were here. Not here here, or locked in that room with the other prisoners, just... with COST. There, waiting for her to return, some kind of beacon to lead her back to safety. All she can do now is pick a direction and walk, so she does, hands still out to keep from smacking into anything.

After a few minutes, though, she has to wonder-

"How long are you going to keep me here? If you're going to let me starve to death I'd rather know what I have to look forward to."

She's assuming they never really stop listening in.
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-17 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
A fair assumption, especially when something drops from the floor a moment later. A small object with a smaller sound, that, after finding it in the darkness, Rey will discover to be a single one of Unkar Plutt's portions.

If she feels like she's being made fun of, well, she kind of is.
garbagepilot: (If you ask me to)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-17 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
She can recognize from feel alone, the second she gets her hands on it, and it makes her laugh abruptly, quick and a little hoarse.

That figures. If everything else feels like it's been set back days to when she was little more than a lost child waiting for a family that would never come, why wouldn't she be given this of all things.

Still, she tears it open just enough to get at the slabs of veg-meat, willing to eat them cold despite the fact that they don't taste at all good that way.

And if her captor is making fun of her, she might as well get a jab back.

"Half of this is useless without water, you know. The bread has to be rehydrated."
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-17 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
They are laughing, but not politely. As soon as she says that, she may hear the sound of water, a babbling brook in the not too far distance. It grows louder, and soon, water is at Rey's feet. Then her ankles. It rises at an alarming rate, cold as ice and still impossible to see in the perfect dark.
garbagepilot: (She creeks and moans)

oh I walked right into that didn't I

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-17 10:48 pm (UTC)(link)
At first, she thinks it's just a bad joke. You need water, dumbass is what she says, and she gets a puddle in return. It could have been funny in a different setting.

It could be funny if the only water she'd ever had to drink her entire life hadn't tasted like the inside of a metal tin.

She even lets out a dry little ha, ha for their benefit, and then goes right on walking. The water pulling at her ankles isn't so bad, despite the fact that her feet are starting to go numb, but it's only a few steps before she's fighting the pull of it as it rises and rises, and that's when she stops.

She's not going to beg for mercy, she's not going to beg for them to stop.

"I'm not going to help you," is what she will say. "So either kill me or get on with whatever this is."
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

lil bit kinda.

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-18 12:48 am (UTC)(link)
The water rises and rises, and it doesn't stop. Eventually, it hits the roof of this dark prison, and there's no air left to breathe. The problem is, Rey can't drown. She can choke and gasp under water, coughing and needing air, but the relief of unconsciousness won't come to her.

It may feel like it lasts for hours.

Long enough for the scene to change, but it may be hard to notice when you're perpetually stuck on the edge of drowning. She'll feel a hand reaching for her, pulling her out onto the shores of Ahch-To. It's Kebechet, of course.
garbagepilot: (The back door's burning through)

tlj spoilers

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-18 01:16 am (UTC)(link)
When she had fallen into the pool on Ahch-To, flailing blindly in a desperate attempt to reach the surface, it had felt like this. She didn't know which way was up, panic had made her try to suck in a desperate breath, and it had really only been luck and haphazard splashing that had gotten her to the edge of the cave's floor, up onto the safety of dry rock.

She doesn't have that here. Fear swamps her, she thinks desperately of Leia and if she'll feel her winking out of existence the same way she's felt Han, felt Luke-

But then there's a hand and she grabs on blindly, unwilling to push away a chance to live if it's given to her despite what she had just said, and when she spills onto the rocky shore of Ahch-To again she coughs, hacks up water, and doesn't let go of his hand.

When she feels like she has enough breath back in her lungs to fight, she pulls, yanks his arm hard to try to pull him down with her, fight him, rip off the mask, anything at all that she can to try to win her freedom from this place.
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-18 05:45 pm (UTC)(link)
She doesn't. The laws of physics work differently, here, or perhaps she's weaker than she thought, submerged for so long. Perhaps it's another reason entirely. Truthfully, it doesn't matter. Her hands meet a barrier, just subtle enough to be a trick of the mind, potentially. Kebechet is untouchable, and they drop her as soon as the attack is started.

They push her back into the cold churning water, unwilling to help further.
garbagepilot: (Behind the bed)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-18 05:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Cool.

She probably should have seen that coming, honestly, and her hand flails out sightlessly for where she perceives the shore to be, nails digging into sand to keep herself from being washed away, drag her head back up out of the water. She doesn't want to die and she doesn't want to surrender, so it feels like her only hope now is just-

Hold on. Stay in stasis until something changes.

Just like Jakku.

With an angry shout she pulls herself up, unwilling to stagnate, and claws her way back up out of the water. Coughing, hacking the water out of her lungs, she looks up at Kebechet with a hateful glare but this time, she keeps her hands to herself.
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-18 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"Would you really preclude all opportunity to negotiate? Prefer to blindly attack?" Kebechet says with a sigh. "Is martyring yourself truly your objective?"
garbagepilot: (The shingles man they're shaking)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-19 12:09 pm (UTC)(link)
None of that really rings true, but Rey is just too tired to argue with faceless tormentors right now. She wipes the water off her face, takes a few seconds to catch her breath, before she looks up at Kebechet again.

"I don't have anything you want," she says, firmly enough that she might actually believe that's true. "And I don't think I can give you what you want."

Not surrender, not what she assumes will be the deaths of the soldiers they've all fought so hard to protect.

"But- go ahead. Negotiate."

She's at least willing to listen now.
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-19 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"You underestimate your mettle," Kebechet says, somewhat aware of the irony. They stare down at the girl in the water with impassive, metallic eyes.

"Why do you fight for COST?"
garbagepilot: (They will mean something)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-19 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
Without a hand up this time she struggles to get out of the water, but she does it all the same, hands pressed down hard against the cool, solid surface of whatever passes for a floor. Nothing is real here, thinking of it as real won't get her anywhere.

"To get the men fighting here home safely," she says, glancing up at Kebechet. "Your people were just standing around watching these soldiers being murdered in handfuls. Do you even care that people are dying?"
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-22 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
"I care for a world of complexity apparently beyond your ken, little Jedi." Kebechet sighs. "The fate of a thousand outweighs one life handily. The fate of three billion? Your soldiers already volunteer to sacrifice themselves for such stakes."
garbagepilot: (I'll bring your words)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-22 01:10 am (UTC)(link)
"Kylo Ren must love you," she mutters, shaking the water from her hands and trying to wipe her eyes dry. "You sound just like the First Order."

She doesn't exactly think she's counted as a part of the Resistance, at least not yet, but she stands on that side of the line all the same. Of course she'd reject Kebechet's view of the worth of life, but it is surprising to be able to connect it so easily to the First Order.

But it makes sense, she supposes. Why wouldn't evil wear the same mask across universes?
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-26 12:47 am (UTC)(link)
"The First Order? I am aware of them. Their goals are small and petty."

Kebechet reaches down again, offering a hand once more. They can walk together.

"I am to understand the philosophy of your Jedi teaches unity as a truth. That sacrifice made in the name of small goals is useless, and all things have balance."
garbagepilot: (Maybe one day)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-26 12:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Ordinarily, she would slap that hand away or try to yank him down by it again, but the near drownings are adding up with the exhaustion of using the Force and she's not an idiot, she can see she isn't getting anywhere with her own use of force. They're persistent, and if she can't fight them away...

Maybe she can learn something. If she learned anything from Kylo and his attempts to make her see his side of things it's that your captor tends to want to make you join them, see things their way, and if she has a better idea of what the Regency wants it could only help her and the rest of COST in the long run.

She still eyes that hand like it's a snake, but eventually she puts her hand in Kebechet's, lets them pull her up.

"You know more about them than me, then," she says, still a little out of breath. "I didn't get that get far in my training."
agogenpc: (⌞KEBECHET⌝)

[personal profile] agogenpc 2018-02-26 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Kebechet takes her hand, and puts a comforting arm around her shoulders, guiding and warming her as they walk along the cold beach. "We have access to untold resources. In truth, when I read of it, I found Jedi philosophy very calming. A shame you were not afforded the same opportunity."
garbagepilot: (For now they buzz)

[personal profile] garbagepilot 2018-02-27 12:05 am (UTC)(link)
Her shoulders are stiff the moment Kebechet's arm goes around her, warm as it may be, because that's just a little too much. She's still soaked, shivering with the cold of it, and the last thing Kebechet is is a safe, warm person to cuddle up to.

A kidnapper, a tormentor, her enemy, and they slips their arm around her in a move she finds immediately unwelcome.

But she forces herself not to jerk away, hands clenching into fists until she just wraps her arms around herself to keep warm, forces herself to listen to Kebechet and not think about how satisfying it would be to rip that mask off and shove it somewhere unpleasant.

"I'll have a chance to learn," she says, glancing up at them. "I'm not one to give up when things get difficult."

That's kind of a morbid thing to joke about when Kebechet has just tried to drown her twice, but there they are.

"What else did you learn about my world?"