Welcome to Gaia! ::

1. Table of Contents
2. Introduction
3. Database
4. Character Creation
5. Accepted Characters
6. Current Mission(s)

Database:

While The Nexus was the first device meant for time-travel, it is safe to say that The Nexus is certainly not the only method of time-travel. There are far more compact means (some available to the Agents of The Nexus).

Streamers: Streamers are small, portable devices, similar in technology to the very first time-travel device, but very compact. About the size of a small remote-control, these devices fell into many a wrong hands. This is the standard method of time travel for time criminals. Ever Agent, however, is outfitted with their own Streamer, which is a special model that can not only perform small time-jumps (up to about 100 years in either direction) but can also transmit an Agent back to The Nexus. Other standard Streamers cannot perform the jump to The Nexus.

Time Criminals: Time Criminals are loosely defined as those who travel in time and alter events. Mere observation can be overlooked, but blatant interference with the Timeline can be punishable by death. In this respect, Doctor Wilhelm Godfrey is judge and jury, while the Agents are often executioners. In the case where death can either be counterproductive or unfit, Time Criminals are often detained (as the jurisdiction of CIRA is, quite literally, anywhere in time itself, since the jurisdiction has in some times already been in place, but in some others technically doesn't exist yet) and taken to a time-frame where judgment by a third party is possible, namely the government at hand during that time-frame.

Timeline: The Timeline itself is the continuity, history as we know it. The Nexus sees time, however, as a constantly-extending thing, and while the past must be preserved, the future must be kept intact as well, since, not only is the future the future for some, but it is the past for others. Often, Agents find themselves rescuing the children of their own descendants, preserving the future that they themselves are generally unaware of.

The Chronus Directive: The Chronus Directive is a set of laws set in place by Wilhelm Godfrey, who, after thorough analysis, decided that this law would be effective in keeping chronological order. The general rules are as follows.
1.) It is best not to be seen or heard.
2.) In the elimination or capture of a time criminal, no witnesses is the best course of action.
3.) Eliminate the threat before it becomes a threat.
4.) When in Rome, do as the Romans do (in essence, act like you belong in the time frame you're in).
5.) Never fail your mission. It causes a mess of calculations to be made just to track down the point where the mission could be 'retried.'
6.) Never speak of The Nexus or the Agency itself whenever you are in an era where such an Agency does not exist.
7.) Never be seen transporting yourself to another time frame or back to The Nexus. Sudden disappearances wreak havoc upon individuals from other time frames.
8.) Interference with the Timeline is strictly prohibited. The only interference that can be made is the repair of another's interference.

Chronological Isolator (CI): A special little device that can be attached to nearly anything, but is generally used on people. This device isolates something in time, and time treats it as if it will exist no matter what. While this seems possibly good, it is vital for any Agent, as there have been times where events were altered that none of these Agents would be alive if it were not for these Chronological Isolators. It simply keeps you alive (or the same) in case something happens in the past that would effect your life. CIs are small and can be attached painlessly to the skin (and have to be). They never run out of charge, and are easily concealed behind clothing (most agents have them attached to the shoulder or to the chest). CIs are the size of a quarter and about as thin, but have a glowing, blue dot in the middle of their dark metal surface. This glow is easily masked.

Dynamic Hologram Projector (DHP): A DHP is just as it sounds. It too is also easily attached to clothing, and is necessary for any mission. When programmed properly, one appears as the DHP is programmed to make them appear. It casts a hologram over the person's body and already-existing clothing. It also can manipulate facial structure ever so slightly as well as features (teeth, hair, etc) to match the time frame. This also alters a person's (apparent) wardrobe to fit the era they are in. It does not, however, mask any weaponry an agent may be carrying.

Time Paradox/Time Crime: Time paradoxes are created when an individual travels back in time to a location where they were unborn and unknown and interacts with others, in such a way that would totally alter the Timeline. In doing so, the time criminal is often destroyed in the process in the future, but in order to fix the Timeline, Agents would have to go back in time before the interference occurred and apprehend the time criminal. A time crime is similar, but generally involves something that does not totally or perhaps even significantly alter the Timeline, but it generally involves a murder, theft (of some large scale, generally) or robbery (once again of some large scale) where an individual used an illegal Streamer to time-jump small intervals to make it possible.

Reintegration: When a person commits a time paradox, it can create multiple instances of the same person. Both of these people have consciousness and sentient thought, but neither is controlled by the other. When these multiple instances meet, they are not automatically reintegrated, but it requires the use of a special device known as the Multiple Instance Reintegration Device, or MIRD for short. This device reintegrates the person into the present and most recent Timeline and also keeps the memories of the time-crime.

Time-Snap: An interesting phenomenon created when an Agent is killed, but only if they are killed in a time-frame previous to that of The Nexus's creation. If an Agent is killed in the future before The Nexus was technically created, their CI responds to their life-sign failure, and immediately activates an emergency Streamer integrated into their CI, transporting them back to The Nexus for medical attention (or a complicated series of copy/pasting memories into a cloned body). If an Agent is killed in the past, before The Nexus was created, the CI disengages from the Agent and activates a disintegration process, destroying the Agent's body (along with the CI and anything else on their person) without a trace. This allows for a catch-up, where the Agent is born, raised, and lives once again, through their own sort of time paradox that has a very low incursion factor. Oddly enough, previously-deceased Agents experience a 'Time-Snap,' when they board The Nexus for the 'first time,' a sort of deja-vu. They suddenly feel as if they had been there before, and also suddenly recall the way they were killed. While this is often traumatic, Doctor Godfrey makes an ample therapist.

Maps: (Note: These are hardly to scale and poorly done in Paint. Use your imagination and common sense when regarding these rooms.)

First Floor
Second Floor
Third Floor
Nexus Sublevel

Accepted Characters:

There was always a constant mess of papers upon the desk of Doctor Wilhelm Godfrey. The desk was indicated not only by the clutter but also by the gold and black nameplate that bore his name in a plain, almost awkwardly blockish text.

Doctor Godfrey sat behind his desk, seated comfortably in a black leather office chair, sifting through the papers and placing them in loosely corresponding stacks. It wasn't a matter of organization, he was just trying to get to his keyboard projector again. Once he did so, he tapped the glowing blue button on the small, black plastic dome, and a holographic keyboard sprung to life before him, complete with a trio of holographic monitors, which transmitted different kinds of data. He began to type almost furiously, his old, almost withered hands still retaining some amount of vigor within them, obviously.

Doctor Godfrey looked old, but this was mostly due to worry. He had not aged since he stepped foot in the fourth dimension, something he had gotten used to. His hair had long since vacated the top of his head, and instead had retreated to the sides, forming a half-circle rim that extended down toward the neck as the typical hairline did. He wore no glasses, though his eyesight was once sorely lacking. Instead, he had been subjected to a surgery, which restored his eyesight to that of a youthful lad's. His green-gray eyes danced across the holographic monitors, and one of his hands ceased typing to scratch his grayed hair. He muttered something to himself, and then continued to type.

The Nexus itself was cozy on the inside, as best as it could be. It had to be made of a special metal, a black, sleek metal that could withstand existing in the fourth dimension, a metal Doctor Godfrey dubbed 'chronite.' While the outside of The Nexus had only ever been seen by its creators, due to the total lack of windows throughout The Nexus itself, one could tell by floor plans that it was built in the shape of a square pyramid, with four 'anchors' extending from each corner, as well as an antenna-like structure extending from the top. But nobody, save for Doctor Godfrey and the fellow scientists that helped develop The Nexus, ever saw the outside. There were no windows in this place. The fourth dimension itself was... well, it was beyond human mental comprehension. Doctor Godfrey felt it would be maddening for the Agents of CIRA to be subjected to the material sight of the fourth dimension.

Doctor Godfrey was a thin man. He was not so thin as to be sickly in appearance, but he certainly looked as if he skipped meals. He was also somewhat tall, though one could hardly tell as he sat in his chair, standing at about six feet tall when he actually stood... which was rarely.

As a matter of fact Doctor Godfrey had gotten up recently. He had acquired a cup of coffee from one of the many replicators stationed around The Nexus, devices that could produce base food materials or some certain food items at certain temperatures, mixtures, and ratios, but still could not do everything, and therefore The Nexus was constructed with a community kitchen.

He wrapped his hands around the Styrofoam cup, taking a sip of the black substance within and set it back down upon his desk, a small bastion of mahogany color around the base of the cup, the rest whited out with papers scattered across the desk. A genius didn't have to be the neatest person.

Doctor Godfrey was charged with the most monotonous task ever in CIRA. It required a constant vigil, and it was monitoring the flow of time, watching constantly for infractions, incursions, manipulations and alterations of the timeline. It was the most boring task, and Doctor Godfrey was in the process of composing a computer program that would do it for him, and possibly make his task simply that of an analytical role, assessing the situation and assigning Agents. Though, half the time, the Agents volunteered anyway...

Doctor Godfrey didn't bother acknowledging Tanis's knock. He knew that she was on her way; part of the information he constantly surveyed was the whereabouts of all the Agents, however they were represented as numbers on a plane, in order to keep things, well, private as they could be. Nobody really knew that he did such a thing, however.

"Vhat is it, Tanis?" Doctor Godfrey asked. He was on a first-name basis with most of the Agents in The Nexus, and was getting to know some of those who had joined recently. He had taking a liking to Tanis. She was young, intelligent, and had a mind that rivaled his own, and he liked that.

This was also an interesting situation, in the eyes of Doctor Godfrey. A 'problem' to Tanis could have been anything, from a lack of paper clips or staples to a replicator malfunction to fluctuations in The Nexus's reactor core to a sharp increase of relevant time incursions. While Doctor Godfrey was the only person that was supposed to be monitoring the timeline, he knew, simply because he knew she could, and therefore would, that Tanis was probably hacking his computer and aiding him in monitoring the flow of time, and therefore keeping track of any alterations made in the timeline as well.

He really didn't mind. In fact, he always silently thanked her for it, provided of course she was doing it.

Doctor Godfrey's desk faced the door that the Agents typically entered. If not, they'd simply be flanking his desk. He leaned over it intently, switching off the glowing holographic monitors in order to let him see her more clearly. He knitted his fingers together before him, gazing at her intently, waiting for her answer.