[center][img]https://ind5.ccio.co/mB/1B/83/clockscreen02.jpg[/img][/center] [center][i]A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. [b]~ G. K. Chesterton[/b][/i][/center] [sub][sub][h3][color=Dodgerblue]P R E M I S E[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr] [indent][indent]If you could travel time, wouldn't the massive injustices of history you witnessed, piling on year after year, century on century, millennia long, wouldn't they start to trouble you? Even reaching into your sleep? How could you possibly ignore the suffering, the screams, and live with yourself? Could you shrug these blood-drenched humans away, and still claim to be one yourself? Our collective foe has all the power and force and organization. They enjoy the fruits of the civilizations they tend, as many times as they can stand enjoying its sameness. They do nothing to better the eternal horrors of history, claiming it to be impossible to even try to alter events. They dispose of their souls in the process, killing and eating and birthing as their fixed destinies demand. They often lose their sanity in the process, too. Sometimes we have nothing left but our wits. But when we go insane, at least it's not from obscene quantities of boredom or angst or ennui. When we die, we know we fought for something . And when we do survive, and when we do save people from the sword and the flame, we go to worlds and lands unsuspected since man was born, and we can live forever . But we begin life as nothing more than ants. To become something bigger it takes one big mistake. Maybe it would be more correct to call it an accident. You saw something you weren't supposed to see. You suddenly became aware of the Waltz, and that makes you a threat. So they kidnapped you. You woke in a strange place, surrounded by strange people. Some other folks like you that don't know other better, others are your Initiators, the ones that took you in the first place, the ones that [i]make[/i] you. So they give you a whole talk about the sanctity of time and who billions of lives depend on its continued linearity. And if you just do a few things for them you can join their little society, and it's best not to say no, you wouldn't want to know what happens to those that say no. But you my friend, you are a smart one. Somehow you escape their clutches before their damn mantra can get rooted into your head. And soon you get picked up by some like-minded individuals intent on changing things, making things better for everybody. Fuck that sounds better than preserving the status quo right? But this isn't a game nor is it some graceful Waltz as they call it. This is war. Every time you Traverse you are putting your neck out there. Every mistake you make brings them closer and closer. And when they do find you, you won't be able to escape, they will be behind you, they will be ahead of you, they will push you, they will destroy everything you hold dear and then they will devour you. So get a move on Breaker, time’s running out.[/indent][/indent] [sub][sub][h3][color=dodgerblue]A G E N T LE M A N ' S G U I D E T O T I M E T R A V E L[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr] [indent][indent]The ability to jump through time is what the Enemy refer to as Traversal. Traversal comes in three distinct forms. Static Traversal which occurs when you travel within the same plane of time your just moving yourself and not say the entire universe. This allows for teleportation and while useful isn't that powerful in comparison to its elder siblings - Descension Traversal and Ascension Traversal. In short when one descends, they descend from their plane of time going into the past, when they ascend they head into a future. As Breakers are reliant upon antique technology the range of their traversal is limited to decades at the highest level where the Enemy can span full millennia at will with seemingly no ill effects. Yet smart and cunning as they are Breakers have devised ways around this. The Enemy calls this system Breaking upon which the Breakers names are derived. A Break occurs when a time traveler induces a paradox. By carefully observation and understanding of an event you can alter the events to create a small parallel universe. A flux of distorted time and space. Breaks are small and unstable things that are either closed by the Enemy or collapse in upon themselves after some period of time, you don't want to be even near one of those when that happens. Luckily for you, your just using them as a short cut. For when you ascend or descend within a Break, the effect is amplified launching you up or down through across much longer ranges. The main goal of the Breakers is to create a Break big enough that they can traverse with enough power to escape our current Universe all together. [hider=Diagram][Img]http://i.imgur.com/OsMnqfX.png[/Img][/hider] Looking at the diagram above it goes something like this. You have a breaker currently stuck in the Ascendancy prescribed universe this is (Point A). This of course sucks a lot so they want to escape so they create a paradox. (Point B) At that point a break occurs allowing them to jump into another paraverse for a limited period of time (Point C). At the same time members of the Ascendency are sent out and fix that Break (Point D). This causes the break to collapse back in upon itself reconciling itself with the timeline of our universe. The goal of a breaker is to create a break stable enough and large enough so that a hole can be punched into another paraverse and it won’t collapse allowing for them to effectively live in another Universe away from the Ascendancy's rule hopefully. (Point E) Breakers are trying to change things, the Enemy is trying to change things as well but they want to put back to way that they were. Either way you are damning an infinite number of other universes to a similar fate. In the end nobody can save everybody. But you can save those that you can. Lastly any traversal event creates presence. Presence are noticeable fluctuations that others can pick up on and use to find you. Generally the bigger the traversal the larger the presence, and the higher the presence the higher the chance that the Enemy finds you. Presence can be mitigated in some regards by performing traversal events in secluded areas where such disturbances can go unnoticed but there is always the danger that the forest in the last is a city in the future and vice versa. Remember the more you know, the safer you are.[/indent][/indent] [sub][sub][h3][color=dodgerblue]C H A N G E O R P R E S E R V E[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr] [indent][indent][Hider= The Enemy] The Enemy would prefer you call their organization by their real name, the Ascendancy but where is the fun in that? The Ascendancy is everything Breakers aren't they are immense, well-organized, and have the tech to back their bark. They have existed seemingly forever as infinite as time itself. The structure, the organization, and the underlying hierarchy of the Ascendancy all act in service to their purpose, maintain the status quo. The Ascendancy has established their dogma that there is only one universe, their universe the one we got the shit luck of getting trapped in. So to preserve this universe and the fate of the millions that dwell within it from past to future they must do all they can to assure that things happen the way they are meant to or what they refer to as the Perceived. Of course it is only an added bonus that be preserving this reality they are ensuring that they continue to have dominion over all things. Breakers generally split the Ascendancy into four major groups based upon their role in the Ascendancy. Puppeteers, who are Ascendancy plants placed throughout time to ensure things are going as they are meant to and generally will be the first to notice any discrepancies. Observers, who as the name implies observe and watch for large spikes of Presence. Executioners, who hunt and kill Breakers for fun and profit, and finally the Hunters. Hunters are the elite forces of the Ascendancy sent in to capture Breakers, unlike the others these trained retrieval squads will chase Breakers through Brakes not stopping once they get your trail. Nobody knows where captured Breakers go but it probably isn't anywhere good.[/hider] [Hider=Breakers] Breakers is a catch-all term for all people with the ability to Traverse that don't follow Ascendancy doctrine. How they would tell it, it would seem the Breakers were a massive conspiracy created to counter their own massive conspiracy. And while Breakers generally get along better with one another than they do the Enemy it is better that you imagine them as what they really are, a loosely connected series of cells all trying to achieve the same means in different ways. The Breakers trace their origin to researchers in the Ascendancy who discovered the existence of parallel universes by creating the first intended Break. The researchers wanted to use this power and the possibility it presented, while the Ascendancy would've much rather preferred that they didn't. This conflict would spark the so called Ascendant War and would result in the fracturing of the Ascendancy and the creation of the Breakers. Not much is known about any of these original Breakers as most by this point are either dead or have managed to escape this reality as many are believed to have done near the end of the war. Breakers lack the technical prowess of the Enemy, where they have nanotechnology that allows them to bend the very fabric of reality in fun and interesting ways, Breakers are still reliant upon old Accelerator Tech, basically heavy bits of machinery that are forcibly installed into you to make you into a shitty time traveling cyborg. Yet what they lack in technology and organization they make up in spontaneity, the Enemy have strict doctrines and rules they must follow which makes them much more predictable, Breakers don't have such problems.[/hider] [Hider=Architects] Nobody particularly knows what these mysterious [i]things[/i] are. If Breakers and the Ascendancy can bend the rules of reality to various degrees it seems the rules just don't apply to the Architects. It is hypothesized that these creatures live in the space between universe and are naturally drawn towards Breaks, the bigger the Break the higher the chance of one appearing. It is also believed that these creatures are responsible for Dead Zones entire planes of time turned inert lifeless areas, really dang creepy.[/hider][/indent][/indent] [sub][sub][h3][color=dodgerblue]C O D E X[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr] [indent][indent][Hider= Useful Terms] [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color]Traversal v. To travel beyond the space of perceived spacetime. I.E Time Travel. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Breaking v. The act of inducing a paradox which cannot naturally solve itself which instead create a hole in space time and reluctantly a pathway to an alternate reality. Such events are extremely dangerous as if the Break is allowed to double back upon itself usually induced by another Verser closing it can cause desirability upon the user which can potentially erase them from time itself. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Break n. A disruption of spacetime that results in small unstable parallel universe. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Breaker n. Any Verser that uses breaks to try and escape the Ascendancy's Universe and in turn have gone against Ascendancy doctrine. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] The Ascendancy n. A time spanning collection of Versers that control the Ascendancy Universe. To them the idea of parallel universes is seen as hersey and they will do everything within their power to put an end to any Breaker. They are Space Police Illuminati and they are pretty damn scary. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Verser n. Anyone with the ability to Traverse [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Anchor n. Anyone without the ability to Traverse as they are anchored to their plane of time. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Nanontechnolgy n. Tech run and created by small robots of minuscule scale. The prime technology of the Ascendancy [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] The Flock n. The civilizations that directly lead up to the creation of the Ascendancy. The Ascendancy forces watch over the Flock's plane of time with large amounts of interest to ensure their own creation. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Ascending adv. The act of going into the future respective to one's own plane of time. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Descending adv. The Act of going into the past respective to one's own plane of time [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Accel n. Short for Accelerator, the name for the time travel device commonly used by Breakers. While the Ascendancy can use their nanomachiens, Breakers do not have that kind of luxury and are instead forced to instill large accelerators into their chest. Imagine Iron Man's Arc Reactor or Tracer's device from Overwatch. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Circuit n. A group of Breakers that work together. [color=dodgerblue]▲[/color] Partaking in the Waltz The Ascendancy code word for an anchor becoming aware of Traversal. Remember it is a game to them, a game where they think they already know all the steps. Go prove them wrong.[/hider] [/indent][/indent] [sub][sub][h3][color=dodgerblue]H E L L O[/color][/h3][/sub][/sub][hr] [indent][indent]Do you enjoy high concept RPs about time travel, espionage, and reality-warping? Well if so you are in the right place. If you want sales pitch Perturbation is basically what happens when Demon: The Descent and Looper get down and dirty in the back of Doc Brown's DeLorean. A small group RP focused on a Circuit of Breakers, a bunch of Time Travelers fighting against a mixture between the Time Police and Illuminati on crack. It's about fighting against the odds for all you have are your wits and some accumulation of gadgets and objects to fight against a force that can conjure fireballs at wall and reserve gravity on you. Don't go quietly into that good night and all. With a heavy focus on character interaction as while the plot is linear for the most part the subplots and various outcomes are all dependent on you. A world of alternate universes, eldritch abominations, and Issac Newton crying in his grave is waiting for you. [/indent][/indent]