redshift: tdm #4

[modblob]

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.

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.

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 Too bad most of their cosmetics are fifty years out of date and the closests they’ve raided either had another resident’s clothes or moth-eaten dust-covered rags.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.

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.

Navigation.

Comments

[birdical]

Elleru's ears prick up as she takes in the details she's given. She makes a mental note to seek out this 'Peter,' as that's the second time she's heard his name (and she would like to meet his cat); she assumes this upright must be young, judging by her size and how she speaks of being a student. She's worried about being useless, wanting to find her place and a way she can make a difference.

"I, too, would like to contribute," she admits. "I have not been here long, and already I feel as though I should do more. Perhaps we could learn something together?"

[livingdeadgirl]

That's... actually a really good idea! It takes a second, but Ami perks back up. Yeah! Having a study buddy adds some incentive to keep at it, and also she would no longer be the only student, which makes the scenario way less depressing.

"Really? I'd love that!" she says, with renewed enthusiasm. "Two heads are better than one."

[birdical]

Ami's enthusiasm is infectious; Elleru perks up herself, smiling widely.

"Now to consider what we will learn," she remarks, "although we should first make with introductions, should we not? They are belated now."

She extends her hand to shake -- it's a bit stiff, like someone who hasn't had much practice at it, but she's certainly eager. "You may call me Elleru."

[livingdeadgirl]

"Oh, right!" Introductions! You know, that thing that you do when you have manners. She shakes Elleru's hand, a little awkwardly since they're both lying prone. "My name's Ami. That's a beautiful name, though! 'Elleru.'" She tries to pronounce it just as Elleru did, imitating the little trill on the 'R' (with mixed results). A beautiful name for a beautiful lady.

[birdical]

"Ami," Elleru repeats, utterly delighted by how her own name is pronounced (including the trill). "That is also a beautiful name. What does it mean?"

[livingdeadgirl]

"Uhh... it doesn't mean anything in particular, I don't think? It's just a name," she says. If it were written in kanji, maybe, but her dad's the native speaker, and he's always written her given name in hiragana.

"But my last name, Aihara - when you write it in Japanese, it means something like 'love meadow'? I think the second character is 'meadow.' But the 'ai' part is definitely 'love.'"

「愛原あみ」, if you were wondering.

[birdical]

"'Love meadow'?" Elleru says again, letting out a little sigh of contentment. "How lovely that is. But it is strange to think your other name has no meaning. All of ours do."

She stretches a bit, pulling over more hair to be brushed by the nearby robot. "Fervor bright burns both within and without. That is me."

[livingdeadgirl]

That is really cool, actually. "Oooooh. I'm amazed you can pack all that into three syllables!" Ami says, only half-joking. "What language is it?"

[birdical]

Elleru smiles wide enough that it pinches her eyes. "It is my native tongue," she answers. "My true name is much longer, but it is... difficult to pronounce in this tongue?"

How does one say it's hard to pronounce as an upright without specifying that she isn't one?

[livingdeadgirl]

Once again, something gets lost in translation - Ami thinks that means it'd be hard for her to pronounce. So she shrugs. "I can always give it a try! Lay it on me."

[birdical]

Ami's insistence gives Elleru pause, her uncertainty showing for just a moment as it knits into her brow and pulls her lips together, pursing them tightly. She fears that speaking in her native tongue -- a language which is very bestial indeed -- will reveal what she is beneath her upright guise. However... perhaps kaulahren are not native to other worlds. The first upright she met didn't seem to recognize her natural form in the slightest. If everyone has been drawn to Anchor as she has, plucked from their homes like flowers, then maybe no one knows of her people?

That's an enticing and frightening prospect: no one knows what she is, but that may just give them more reason to fear her if they find out. Uprights seem to be afraid of what they do not understand so often. Perhaps if she can find the open-minded ones first...

Well, Ami has been kind to her so far. It's only fair she return the gesture. Her mouth quirks with a hint of shyness.

"Well... forgive me if it comes off wrong." Or comes out -- one of those. She attempts her native pronunciation with her upright guise, and while she manages better than she thought she might, it likely comes off strange that her name is composed of a series of harsh trills and buzzes. The sound is more akin to a cross between a vulture and a songbird than a spoken word.

[livingdeadgirl]

Whatever Ami might have been expecting, it wasn't that.

For a few seconds she doesn't reply, and her expression doesn't seem to know what to do with itself, switching from surprise to confusion to almost asking a question, before finally settling on a perplexed smile.

"Dang, you're right, I can't pronounce that. And here I thought Finnish was hard! Uh - can you say it again real quick?"

[birdical]

Elleru smiles sheepishly and says her full name again, though slowing it down might have made the various trills and warbles that much harder to discern from one another. It definitely sounds a little more like a sentence of some sort the second time around, though.

"It is fine if you cannot speak it," she reassures her companion, leaning her head on her arm, her free hand reaching over to twirl a piece of Ami's hair. That's a thing uprights do, right?

[livingdeadgirl]

Ami closes her eyes and listens closely. Yeah, when it's slower she can kind of hear a cadence to it that could be structure, make out particular patterns that maybe could be words. It's such a strange language, though. She's stumbled onto a Youtube video or two about languages from faraway lands that include sounds very, very different from English phonemes, but Elleru's sounds like it's all those. It's as if her people learned to talk from birds.

... Which, hey, for all she knows, might actually be the case! We're off the edge of the map here, after all.

Her train of thought is interrupted by a gentle, but distinctly non-robotic, tug on her scalp, and she opens her eyes... to find Elleru playing with her hair.

UM.

Ami's face heats, and she sits up quickly, brushing her hair behind her ear and avoiding eye contact. It is a thing uprights do, yes, but nnnnnot with people they just met.

"Uh - sorry. I just - could you not -" She's not quite sure how to articulate her discomfort, though. Elleru's been so nice, and Ami doesn't want to drive her off or anything.

[birdical]

Ami sits up, and Elleru does the same, though her eyes remain on her companion, her expression softening in confusion. Perhaps uprights are not that social when grooming, the way her kind are -- the books she's read have been scant on the details of what to do in situations with casual acquaintances, as they were more focused on people who either already knew each other, or got to know each other very quickly.

She mimics Ami out of habit, brushing her hair behind her ear, as well. "It was... too forward? It is common to preen among my people." She probably should have found a more upright-appropriate word to use than preen, but she forgets herself for a moment as she blushes, embarrassed. "I apologize."

[livingdeadgirl]

"I-it's okay!" Ami exclaims, smiling awkwardly. "I mean, you're okay."

A cultural misunderstanding! Haha, of course. Really, it's amazing we don't have more of those, given how everybody's from a different corner of the multiverse. We'll just call this a learning opportunity. Yeah.

"My culture's just a little less... preeny, I guess? Especially since you're older than me and we're not related, and also we met for the first time like ten minutes ago." As an afterthought, she adds - "But I mean, it's not as weird as it would be if you were a guy."

[birdical]

Elleru continues to run her fingers through one of her pigtails, still clearly a little embarrassed, but definitely taking mental notes. Uprights socialize in a very different way, especially if they are only acquaintances; something about being older and not related makes it even less acceptable. That does make sense, as uprights don't often use scents and pelt texture to identify one another. How can they tell who is what, then? How are their roles in society determined?

If only they'd covered such things in her research. She continues parsing out what Ami says. A guy? Males. "Are males unallowed to preen females? Or is it your age?" She is younger after all, right?

[livingdeadgirl]

"A little of both," Ami explains, relaxing. Giving context and exposition is something she's good at. "Girls do each other's hair all the time, but if a guy messes with your hair and you're not dating, that would be considered kinda creepy. The age thing comes in because it's also creepy for an adult to date a teenager. Actually, if one person is over eighteen and the other's not, it's straight up illegal."

Or, well - technically age of consent only applies if they actually have sex, but that's not really important right now.

[birdical]

Illegal -- wrong, taboo, but in the eyes of their written laws. That makes sense.

"I see. The children are protected. That is how it is for my kind, as well. Although- is eighteen years for all uprights? Or people! People, is. Does it not, ah." She fumbles over her words for a moment. "Is it not different for those people who are longer-lived?"

[livingdeadgirl]

Uprights? Ami tilts her head at the odd wording, but assumes it's probably a lost-in-translation thing. Anyway, her actual question merits its own head tilt.

"What do you mean?" Old people? The same taboos and social norms do apply to them, it's just that they're too old to give a shit.

[birdical]

Elleru scratches at her hairline at the base of her neck, trying to smooth over her embarrassment. In good news, Ami didn't ask what an upright was -- she hadn't meant to let that slip, but given it's a very common term among her people, it was bound to happen.

"The dwarves?" she clarifies. "Or the elven? They live much longer than humans do. Many to them are children?"

[livingdeadgirl]

Ami's jaw drops. "Your world has elves and dwarves??" she exclaims, delighted. "That's so cool! Are you an elf?" It would explain the unconventional hair and pointy ears!

[birdical]

"An elf? Oh no, I am not an elf!"

Elleru can't help but laugh at that, as though the very notion of her, tall, a pointy-eared upright with an unconventional hair color, would look anything like an elf, who tend to be tall, pointy-eared uprights with conventional hair colors. Very different. She recovers from her giggling, the buzzing thrum that cuts beneath it dwelling in her throat a moment longer.

She's already told Ami about her true name, and Elleru decides to brave another truth about herself. If other worlds don't know about her kind in the first place, what would be the harm in telling one or two of the kinder uprights a little about them, avoiding some of the key details? It may seem a little dishonest, but she doesn't have to say kaulahren aren't uprights, after all. They're just another people, nothing unusual.

"I am kaulahren," she replies, pressing a hand to her chest with pride. "We are also longer-lived."