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redmarsshit2019-09-21 12:52 am
modblob) wrote in redmarsshit2019-09-21 12:52 am
redshift: tdm #4
Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.
▶ Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.
▶ All TDM threads can be considered game canon, and current players are welcome to either top-level on the TDM so prospective players can tag them, or use the prompts for logs or network posts on the communities. All threads on the TDM can be used for Activity Check.
▶ All TDM threads can be considered game canon, and current players are welcome to either top-level on the TDM so prospective players can tag them, or use the prompts for logs or network posts on the communities. All threads on the TDM can be used for Activity Check.
a. the red shit.
There are rumblings in the deepest, most overgrown part of the agricultural area, where until very recently there was a lingering pocket of red algae. The good news is, the red algae is gone! The bad news is, it all got eaten by a mutated bear-thing with giant antlers. The algae did a number on the poor thing, doping it up and confusing it to the point where everything is an enemy.
What’s worse? The algae has adapted, colonizing the creature’s entire body. The algae has mutated in the process, releasing a protective cloud of toxins that causes severe hallucinations, as well as some of the protective and euphoric qualities that the red algae originally possessed. Which means the mutated, antlered, bear-thing is accompanied by a small army of other creatures, from large to small, who are all very invested in its survival and also are being driven crazy by its presence.
Prepare yourselves for one hell of a hunt. These animals can pop up almost everywhere in the agricultural zones, and when they do show their paws it’s to go on a rampage.
What’s worse? The algae has adapted, colonizing the creature’s entire body. The algae has mutated in the process, releasing a protective cloud of toxins that causes severe hallucinations, as well as some of the protective and euphoric qualities that the red algae originally possessed. Which means the mutated, antlered, bear-thing is accompanied by a small army of other creatures, from large to small, who are all very invested in its survival and also are being driven crazy by its presence.
Prepare yourselves for one hell of a hunt. These animals can pop up almost everywhere in the agricultural zones, and when they do show their paws it’s to go on a rampage.
b. fashionista.
It wouldn’t be Anchor if the bots weren’t fucking shit up.
This time, the spa bots have gone full stylist coach, chasing down residents and trying to do their hair, nails, makeup, or change their clothes. In some cases, they're literally sweeping people off their feet and carrying them to the hot springs, massage rooms, and spa areas to be pampered. Too bad most of their cosmetics are fifty years out of date and the closests they’ve raided either had another resident’s clothes or moth-eaten dust-covered rags.
Is that the jacket Idris Elba was wearing in the introductory video? It kinda looks like it.
But it’s not all bad! The bots actually give great massages and fantastic mani-pedis. They also have a small stash of fresh cosmetics and clean clothes that got left behind in the spas. They might not fit great, but they look pretty good!
If your character doesn’t practice proper self-care, well. They’d better watch out. These bots have a particular eye for the sad, the filthy, the tired, and they’re going to make sure you get some damn fine pampering.
This time, the spa bots have gone full stylist coach, chasing down residents and trying to do their hair, nails, makeup, or change their clothes. In some cases, they're literally sweeping people off their feet and carrying them to the hot springs, massage rooms, and spa areas to be pampered. Too bad most of their cosmetics are fifty years out of date and the closests they’ve raided either had another resident’s clothes or moth-eaten dust-covered rags.
Is that the jacket Idris Elba was wearing in the introductory video? It kinda looks like it.
But it’s not all bad! The bots actually give great massages and fantastic mani-pedis. They also have a small stash of fresh cosmetics and clean clothes that got left behind in the spas. They might not fit great, but they look pretty good!
If your character doesn’t practice proper self-care, well. They’d better watch out. These bots have a particular eye for the sad, the filthy, the tired, and they’re going to make sure you get some damn fine pampering.
c. whole foods: 2.0.
Remember that whole Whole Foods grocery store thing that happened? Well, the grocery store and the zombies are still there. Only now there are more zombies, and two giant supply trucks have shown up, one behind and one in front of the store.
The one at the rear of the store can be accessed fairly easily. It’s painted to look like a giant United States flag, with a dramatic crying eagle emblazoned across the back doors. Inside, there is beer. Lots and lots of beer, and a bunch of semiautomatic rifles. Also some skeletons. Seems like the guns and booze didn’t help them.
The one in front of the store is thickly surrounded, the creatures clawing at the plain white sides of the semi like there’s something precious inside.
If Anchorites can make it through, if they can fend off the monsters and keep from getting torn to pieces by a hoard of bloodthirsty beasts, they’ll find out what that precious truck contains.
It’s twinkies. A semi full of twinkies. We hope you’ve got a sweet tooth, Anchor.
The one at the rear of the store can be accessed fairly easily. It’s painted to look like a giant United States flag, with a dramatic crying eagle emblazoned across the back doors. Inside, there is beer. Lots and lots of beer, and a bunch of semiautomatic rifles. Also some skeletons. Seems like the guns and booze didn’t help them.
The one in front of the store is thickly surrounded, the creatures clawing at the plain white sides of the semi like there’s something precious inside.
If Anchorites can make it through, if they can fend off the monsters and keep from getting torn to pieces by a hoard of bloodthirsty beasts, they’ll find out what that precious truck contains.
It’s twinkies. A semi full of twinkies. We hope you’ve got a sweet tooth, Anchor.
no subject
It's magic. They can't come near it. It repels them.
[ Damn, that's a whole lot of confidence coming from this guy that nothing bad is going to happen to him. It's almost enough to make Reynir shrug and let him go about his business... but sometimes confidence can be misplaced. And surviving death up until a certain point doesn't mean that luck will continue. ]
Well... just take it, okay?! It can't hurt to have it. Ghosts aren't something to mess around with. Just because you might not be able to see them doesn't mean they're not there.
no subject
Why do you stay here? Do you not want to leave?
[He's wearing clothes now thanks to the robots, but he's not used to having pockets. Instead he tilts his right arm, the plate over it retracting and revealing rows of razer sharp shurikens. He tucks the papers in there where they will be safe, if a little crinkled.]
no subject
[ Look it makes perfect sense to Reynir, who has the desire to help and be involved, as well as the desire not to be violently killed, inside him in equal measure.
When Genji opens up his arm like that, shows that it is metal on the inside, not a suit of exterior armor the way Reynir had thought, he gapes. Mouth open, total carp impression. Be glad he's not pointing. ]
How...?
[ For a few moments he makes inarticulate noises of shock and confusion that aren't words, and then: ]
Are you a machine?
no subject
No!
[He pulls back from Reynir, huffing out something grumpy in Japanese before continuing.]
I am not a machine. Or an Omnic.
[The light of his visor and various others across his chest, faintly visible through his sweatshirt, start to glow with a vibrant green intensity. He is not pleased with that question at all.]
no subject
Sorry! I didn't mean to offend you! I just saw your, uh - that, and I thought - anyway. Sorry.
[ And Reynir makes a little gesture to the inside of his arm, where Genji's arm had opened up to show some spiky things that really looked deadly but maybe he's mistaken about that, too? So many unfamiliar things in this place and Reynir is just guessing about half the stuff he sees nowadays. ]
I don't actually have any clue what an Omnic is or whatever and I didn't mean to be rude, honest. I don't really understand a lot of the stuff here so I end up asking dumb questions 'cause I'm trying to catch up.
[ Then, because twice just didn't feel like enough: ]
I'm sorry I hurt your feelings.
no subject
Another breath and his stance relaxes ]
No, it is a fair question. I am not a machine, but I do have mechanical parts. I lost my arm some time ago.
[And his legs. And had his throat slit. But thats a lot for a stranger he's just met.]
How do you not know what an Omnic is?
no subject
[ And, because he lacks any of the cultural context around cyborgs and Omnics and the lot of it, Reynir just assumes this is the reason Genji was so offended. Obviously having his arm amputated was probably a shitty situation and he doesn't like people asking dumb questions about it. Perfectly reasonable. ]
That's really cool actually. I mean! Not that you lost your arm, obviously! That would be horrible if I meant that! I just - we haven't got anything like that in the world I come from. If someone loses an arm they just... have to make do with only the other one.
[ He had heard some truly gruesome stories, from his sister who is a nurse in the city. People mangled in all kinds of ways after battles with Sea Beasts and who knows what else. Maybe they had had technology like that in the Old World, but so much has been lost, it's probably impossible to say... ]
I - it's - I don't think we have Omnics, in my world, whatever they are. Or... maybe we do and I'm just really behind.
[ Then, with a pained expression and a dollop of self-deprecation: ]
I mean I did spend most of my life on a tiny farm in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere. There's a lot of stuff I've missed.
no subject
It is fine. You are okay. I am simply surprised no one has heard of such things.
Your town must indeed be small and untouched. Sounds nice. Is it? Or is it so small you want to leave?
no subject
[ For Reynir, those explanations have tended to be about his world, about the Illness, about how different everything is to those other versions of Earth people are always talking about. Apparently, for this man, the thing he'll have to learn how to explain is an Omnic...
In a rush, Reynir blurts: ]
Okay I'm sorry maybe I shouldn't ask but what is an Omnic, because I've still got no clue and maybe it'll come up in a conversation with someone else and I don't want to say the wrong thing twice.
[ When Genji asks about his home, Reynir rubs at his neck, a complicated smile tugging at his lips as he shrugs: ]
Both?
[ Can't it be nice, lovely and untouched, and also a place he wanted to leave? Reynir doesn't see that this is an either/or question here. ]
I love my home, I do. It's beautiful, and safe, and the village is full of good people I have known my whole life. There's nothing wrong with it, I just... wanted to see some other places, too. A city. Other countries. Palm trees.
[ He says that last bit about palm trees in roughly the voice someone else might say they would like to walk on the surface of the moon - like they're something impossibly exotic and unknown. ]
no subject
[Better. Stronger. Faster and Smarter than humans. Or that's what the idea had been before they became self-aware. Genji firmly believed in his master Zenyatta's teachings, that these later robots with the capacity for free thought and free will were also imbued with a soul as any living creature is. They were equals with humans and therefore should have all the same rights.
A view that was not often shared. But that's a deep thought to reflect on later, because now he's laughing. ]
Palm trees? Are you from somewhere cold where they do not grow? In the Horizon Lunar Colony, which is similar to here, they were growing many plants from seeds, maybe palm trees are one of them.
no subject
A machine person? That's so awesome! Are there any Omnics here? I would love to meet someone like that.
[ How many more strange wonders will he encounter in this place? What an adventure it all is! Reynir's green eyes are wide with credulous excitement. Not a hint of suspicion about such a creature's motives, or competition and feeling of human superiority, or doubt that a machine could have a soul.
That joy becomes tinged with a small amount of embarrassment, and Reynir tucks his braid over his shoulder, playing with it absently as he answers: ]
I'm from Iceland. It's too far north for palm trees. There aren't a whole lot of any kind of trees, actually.
[ Then, tilting his head to the side in confusion, he asks: ]
Lunar Colony?
[ He knows both words, but Genji can't possibly be implying what he thinks, can he? A settlement... on the moon? In the sky? No, it must be a base in some other country just named after the moon. Right?! ]
no subject
[He isn't fully convinced that he's not still in his own world, but a different colony site maybe.]
I have never been, but I have heard at night you can see the lights in the sky there. The.. [What's the word for it.. hm..] Aurora? Hai, the aurora borealis.
It sounds beautiful.
no subject
[ He proclaims it with absolute, child-like, bright-eyed delight. He had left home because he wanted to see new things, different places than where he'd grown up. He had done that in the Silent World but also it was terrifying there and he'd lost people and all that somewhat dulled his zeal for exploring. But it's all coming back, since he'd arrived here.
And that is the thing - meeting people from other places only makes him appreciate the beauty of his homeland in new ways, consider how it might seem to them with their experiences and beliefs. When Genji mentions the aurora, Reynir nods, smiling:]
It is. I hope you get to see it one day.
[ Then, because he is intensely curious about this man (even if a little part of his mind is worried he'll ask another question that is unintentionally very rude, like the one about him being a machine): ]
You're from somewhere further south? Where?
[ Not that he'll have heard of it based on past experiences but you never know. ]
no subject
[Everything strange, people are not what he's used to, there's a whole foods out in a desert..]
Hanamura. Japan.
no subject
I don't know, either. There's plenty of space in the Agricultural section to grow enough food to sustain the population, so it wasn't like they were forced out by famine. The animals and plants there are still alive so nothing happened that would've wiped them out, too. And I haven't run into any corpses at all so if everyone died they didn't do it in here.
[ Abandoned places? So completely standard practice, to him. Even much of Reykjavík is empty after everyone migrated out to the country, afraid of contagion and forced there by famine. But he's not used to not knowing why a place is empty. ]
Oh! Japan!
[ He is so startled to actually recognize the name of the place, and it shows. Reynir's knowledge of the rest of the world is extremely limited, but: ]
That's an island, isn't it? Way way far away? I've heard of it!
[ Not really thinking about how very much context he's skipping and also whether what he's saying might potentially be a little distressing to hear, he adds: ]
They were the second country to close their borders, after Iceland, when the Illness started to spread all over the world. There's a few people - not a lot and mostly crackpots but still - who think maybe there might even be some survivors there!
no subject
[he hasn't been here long enough to really know what might have happened, but this place clearly cost a lot of money so why is it sitting in disrepair?]
Yes, far away from Iceland I suppose.
[He has never encountered anyone who sounds so excited to know where Japan is.]
Illness? What illness? We closed our borders?
[He has no idea what Reynir is talking about anymore.]
no subject
[ Reynir can't be sure, of course. But having been there a little longer, seen what some of the rooms are like - there are still things in cupboards, there is still a level of disarray that lacks the finality of planning and deciding to leave. But instead of contradicting, he just hopes Genji is right.
Then, he realizes he has to go back, explain. Fortunately, he has been in this place long enough now that it is comparatively easy to summarize quickly. ]
There was an Illness in my world. A pandemic. It started with only a few people in one place, but then it was spreading so fast. And - it ended the Old World. There's barely anyone left. A couple hundred thousand, that we know of, and most of them are in Iceland. But - but the more I think about it... Tuuri always said that we wouldn't have any way of knowing if people had managed to survive, all the way on the other side of the world. And I think she was right.
no subject
You have no means of communication? What happened to the satellites and phone lines?
[Obviously he hasn't considered that maybe Reynir is from a time prior to such things. Or that maybe they all rotted or no one knows how to access it.]
So Iceland closed its borders to keep ill people out? What about the healthy ones who were trapped elsewhere?
no subject
I guess they needed people in other countries to help keep them running, or - something broke and no one would go wherever it was to fix it, or maybe they took too much power? Or - I don't know. We have radios!
[ They aren't COMPLETE savages, after all!
But Genji asks yet another pair of questions and Reynir's slightly uncomfortable expression of confusion and uncertainty deepens: ]
I- I don't know. It was only supposed to be temporary at first, I think, and then everybody started dying and all the other countries started doing it, too. But a lot of them were too late, or they weren't islands so it didn't matter at some point. Um.
[ Reynir is fiddling with his braid, mouth quirked to the side in frustration at his own lack of knowledge. And he can't help remembering those brief flashes he'd seen, from Anne's memories in that vision, of those awful days of the outbreak. People lying everywhere, dying. Everyone looking for an answer, looking for hope, finding none. ]
A skald could tell you more. The truth is I'm kinda- [ Reynir hesitates, wanting to make a good impression but wanting to be honest, too. ] -not. Smart. About history stuff.
[ He's a peasant sheep farmer okay the fact that he can read is impressive. ]
no subject
[He's pretty sure it would take a long time to explain what happened and why in a way he could understand anyway. He's not sure if Reynir is from the future somehow, or a completely different world. Though he had heard of Japan, so... ]
This is very confusing. We are not all from the same world? Or the same time?
How does this teleporter function?
[He and Peter should do some more investigating.]
I am going to see what is out there, do you wish to wait? I can tell you what I find.
no subject
[ Understanding dawns on Reynir; this explains why Genji was so confused that Reynir wasn't familiar with the technology on his body, why he expected Reynir to know about Omnics, why he is so baffled by Reynir's explanation about his own world. He must be very new, here, and Reynir hadn't realized. He'd skipped the most basic step! ]
Yeah, so there're people here from different planets, or different versions of Earth, or different times in the same version of Earth. I don't know why the gods chose to send me here, or how it was possible, or any of that. But - the world I'm talking about isn't your world. I am pretty sure if Omnics ever existed I would have heard of them, and I'm pretty sure if you lived in my future you would know about the Illness.
[ Reynir smiles when Genji offers to report back to him what he finds out there, but he shakes his head no. ]
I should probably go check on Onni - just keep those runes close, okay? I know it probably seems weird to you but trust me. They work. It was nice to meet you, Mr. ...?
[ He prompts, and then waits for Genji to tell him his name. ]
no subject
I.. think I understand. But it does not make any sense.
[As for the runes he will keep them, because there's no harm in it, and they might be more powerful than they first appear.]
Genji. My name is Genji.
no subject
[ However, Reynir is fine with just rolling with it, even if he doesn't understand. He's not one of those people who needs an answer to every mystery. Being here is an adventure and he's meeting new people and seeing fantastical new things and it's pretty much everything he'd wanted for years, without the constant fear of infection and a fate worse than death. ]
Reynir Árnason. It was a pleasure to meet you, Genji!
no subject
[It actually has been, he's not met someone so delightfully optimistic in a long time. It's kind of uplifting. He gives a small bow before turning to the Whole Foods and twinkies outside. Time to go stock up on sugar.]