redmarsshit | redshift: tdm #5

redshift: tdm #5

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. don't be a sap.

Good morning, October 25th! Whether you're a confused new arrival or a current resident, you probably had some plans for today, right? Grab breakfast, visit a friend, pick some fruit, explore a new part of the massive city.

Well. Too bad. Because, as every single bot in the city will be telling you the moment you show your face, it's GOOP FESTIVAL DAY! What? You've never heard of it? Preposterous, everyone knows about the Goop Festival, it's one of the most anticipated holidays in Anchor! Haven't you been preparing for this for a week now?

The Goop Festival is a harvest celebration, in particular, a celebration of the sap-producing trees that grow wild in the Park, thick around the edges of the south side of the lake. The bots have been hard at work setting up the festival grounds in the shade of the trees in the balmy fall temperatures. There are spiles tapped into trees with buckets placed underneath that are already half-full of a thick, viscous, amber-colored sap. The bots have also set up troughs of shaved ice with long sticks nearby, with which they will demonstrate for excited residents (you are excited, right?) how to cool the sap in the ice and wrap it around the stick to make it a sort of taffy candy. That's not the only sweet surprise waiting, either.

A long table set up in the grass is loaded down with all sorts of delicious sap-related goodies, ranging from cupcakes with thick globs of sap-flavored frosting to sap-flavored jerky to sap sugar candies, and just about anything else you can imagine. There are a wide variety of offerings that would taste good coated, flavored, or glazed with the sap, which tastes sort of like a caramelized toffee. Another table is laid out that has row upon row of cups, each half-full of the sap, heated lightly to a thinner consistency and served similarly to hot chocolate - at least, if hot chocolate gave you a floaty, happy, hazy sort of feeling. Everything made with this sap does, actually, with the cups of pure sap having a stronger effect and items with less sap content having barely any effect at all.

Does this not sound like your cup of weird tree sap? Too bad. This is the GOOP FESTIVAL, and everything is shut down for this lovely paid vacation day. Spa? Locked down. Kitchens? Locked. Bar? Nope, totally shut down and the server bots are all down at the park. VR Gaming? Too bad, the computers are all shut down. Even roaming the halls and trying to stay out of the way won't help much...be prepared to be dragged down to the park to participate in this mandatory festival! Isn't it exciting?

b. familiar ground.

Every year in Anchor near the end of October, there's a very strange interaction between the protective dome over the city and seasonal radiation surges that happen in the wastelands. Some complicated combination of refraction and reflection means that for the last few days of the month, residents will experience some of the more benign effects of the red shift inside the city.

Did we say benign? Because while there may not be any dangerous radiation to melt your skin off, there are some mind-bending dangers. Characters experiencing the shift will find the world becomes distorted, warped, impossible to navigate; they are enveloped in auditory and visual hallucinations, and can become so disoriented that they can't even recognize people they've known for years. And characters will find that the citywide shift brings in slivers of other universes, little slices of places characters have never seen before...or places so familiar they make the heart beat hard with joy or fear.

And just like in the wastelands, the things that show up in these shifts are all too real. Characters may find themselves walking through a door into a scene straight from home, or from someone else's home. Whether it's a favorite place to share with a new friend, or the nightmare landscape you almost died in, complete with the monster that almost killed you, be careful. Everything you experience here is real, and if you die in the shift, you die for real.

Of course, the city has its own safety measures in place - residents experiencing the hallucinations and appearances of items and places from other worlds may find themselves locked down in the room they're in, trapped with the otherworldly effects of the shift.

c. the virus.

A few weeks ago, people in Anchor started getting a case of the sniffles. While some of the earliest cases might be clearing up, there are still a few people suffering, or people freshly infected by those who were sick earlier, including some of the new arrivals who may not even be feeling it yet.

Which may make the cause of some unexpected 'glitches' around the city a little unclear. Residents who are feeling the effects of the illness, or who are infected but not showing symptoms yet (or anymore) will find that their access to certain parts of the city are restricted. Suddenly, automatic doors aren't opening for them, as if they were ghosts, particularly when they try to access anything that may facilitate transmission of the virus. Suddenly, only some of the residents of the city will find they can't get into half of the MedBay, or the spa, the kitchens, the VR or games rooms, the bar...anywhere people gather or eat or sit close together.

Residents may put together that it's related to the illness some of them have been experiencing over the past few weeks, but it might take a while, since these safety and security measures are affecting people who are showing no symptoms yet. Be prepared for a few days of paranoia while seemingly perfectly healthy people are locked out of common areas. What does the computer know that residents don't? Are these people security risks? Is it a system glitch? What could be going on?

c. the network.

Need to get hold of someone, call for help, ask the city at large a question? Need to warn a friend not to leave their apartment unless they want to be forcibly press-ganged into the Goop Festival? Maybe you need to hold your sat phone up to whatever crazy thing you're seeing and send out a recording to double-check if your eyes are deceiving you and what you're looking at is real?

Whatever the reason, the network is going strong, so feel free to include a post to it in your top-levels.

Mod Note: The "familiar ground" prompt will be active between October 29th and October 31st; "the virus" prompt will be active until the next introductory mingle, which will be kicking off the second part of the illness plot.

Navigation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

u just gotta go w/ it man
do wat the bots tell u
its the only way

[ allison thinks about taking advice from someone who calls themselves "gosuckadick."

she's not having it. ]

I'm not the type who "just goes with it."

Have you been here for a while? Do you know if these robots become the killer kind if I give them a good whack on their tin heads?

ive been here like 4ever
ive never seen em kill sum1 but i make no guarantees things get fuct up here

u new?

I'll take those odds.

[ allison gives the nearest few robots a loud, clanging smack, and bails for the lake. once she washes the stick off her hands, she responds: ]

Thanks for the tip.

Yeah, I'm new. My name's Allison, what's yours? No offense, but it's hard to believe your loved ones chose to call you "GOSUCKADICK."

[ after all, why not make some friends? ]

no problem i live to serve
truly my lifes calling

hahahaha oh man it'd be better than wat i was actually named
at least its funny

[Wait...]

wait wait wait hold on for just a moment here
a.h.
does the h stand for what i think it might stand for???
could it be im speaking to THE allison hargreeves, famous actress??
because im a HUGE fan

Edited (autocorrect trying in vain to fix my intentional typos) 2019-10-25 18:29 (UTC)

[ allison...didn't expect to be famous on anchor. anchor definitely isn't earth, so it's not like her movies exist here. allison stares at her phone for a while, unsure on how to proceed. the old her loved the attention of fans -- that's partly why she got into the business. but the new allison, the one who wants her life to be real, as opposed to some rumor? she's not entirely sure how to deal. probably best to play it low-key. ]

That's me. Thanks for your compliment, I'm glad to hear there's at least one other person from earth here. Anyway, just call me Allison.

(You didn't answer my question, btw.)

[He's being a jackass and he knows it but it's kind of nice to take the piss out of a sibling after all the shit that's gone down here.

And for him it's been so many months since he was where she is now, with all that apocalypse horror on his mind.]

oh man no probs ive seen like all ur movies & stuff
i think i actually got ur autograph at a really limited function once
b4 i got bounced by security
security am i right??
buncha big hairy apes

[...okay okay he has to stop now. This is that famed 'when to stop' he keeps hearing about. He's sure Ben would tell him it is.]

oh rite rite i didn't
hey allison its klaus
welcome to the hellhole my tied-for-favorite sister
missed u.

[ allison thinks briefly about the "big hairy ape" in her life -- the one that made her feel seen, heard, and loved, until he didn't, and in his own way, helped bring about the apocalypse.

she's not sure how she feels about luther. "anger" is too simplistic. allison pushes that thought to the back of her mind. she can deal with it later. or never. ]

They do their job, I'll give them that.

[ allison then reads the second half of the message and grins. this is so, so much better than a fan. the fact that he even bothered to see her movies makes allison sniffle a little. just a little.

not for long, though -- she's got some brother-pestering to do.]

Tied for favorite? After I so graciously lent you my favorite fringed skirt? I'm hurt.

;) Not really. Missed you too.

Also I can't imagine this place is worse than (a) the apocalypse or (b) Dad's house.

[Awwwww what a nice reply. He's touched, truly, she seems to actually be happy he's here which is more than he can say about...most of his siblings? Half of them? Give or take.]

i mean im sure v would lend me her skirts but theyd be way 2 short
like that awkward length thats not a mini and not a long one
like the lenght modest catholic school girls wear
y u c k

& u kno u have a point there
apocalypse was maybe 2x worse
dads house was a good 10x worse
& its better than being tortured by psychos or nam or weird robot jungle war
a little better neway
still a ibt like torture

[ new year, new allison! she's tried to be a better sister to vanya, but it's not just about vanya. allison wants to be a better, more real person with all her sibligs. she's doing her best. ]

Oh, you mean like the kind Dad made me wear? I still think they looked better than your little schoolboy shorts. Don't tell Five.

[ allison tries her best to piece together the latter half of the message. ]

You fought in Vietnam against robots?????

[Klaus has been trying too. They all have. It's been...really nice, actually. Helpful in a lot of ways.]

yes
srsly tho those shorts sucked
i was always jealous of ur skirts
theyre cute wen ur a kid

oh
no
4got i shud fill u in huh
i time traveled to vietnam (did i tell u that back home i cant remember)
then when we all zapped out w/ five
i ended up in this place called hadriel & met some cool people (i need 2 intro u 2 julie shes so gr8)
but there was another jungle war against robots & i was pretty badass if i do say so myself
then instead of going home i ended up here
o and ive been clean 6 monts w/ 1 slipup

wats the last thing u remember?

;)

I don't think you did? But also I was a little [ allison pauses, trying to find the right word. ] preoccupied, I guess.

Wait are you saying we've been zapped to other worlds? That that's what happened when Five tried to send us back in time? The last I remember, we were all in that circle and Five was trying to send us back, and then I woke up to an embarrassingly fake Idris Elba video.

Sounds like you have been badass!! Congratulations on getting clean!

[ allison's gone from perplexed to almost elated. allison can't pretend to have been in klaus' shoes, of course -- but addiction is rampant in show business, and even though it's covered up by glitz and glamour, she's seen what it does to people. how hard it is to stop once you've started. so allison grins broadly, and since there are some things that are just too hard to communicate over text, she writes: ]

Where are you?

ya i dont blame u
everything was a lot

ah ya this is the 2nd one 4 me
i dont think five did it tho
in hadriel there was somethin about a door
and here theres a portal or dropped calls or watever i didnt understand that part
this place cud be worse

[Her reaction is...not really unexpected or surprising but...it's nice.]

thx
caveat tho i have been smoking weed
but even diego said that was ok
im not drinking

& uh im at my apt
where r u?

Edited 2019-10-26 19:12 (UTC)

[ "a lot" is an understatement. allison briefly touches he hand to her neck, then tries her best to put all that out of her mind. it sort of works. ]

If Five didn't do it, then where did he go? Where did everyone else go?

[ diego is here!!!!! ]

Well if even *Diego* backed down from that, I feel like it's gotta be fine.

[ allison registers "not drinking." she wants to be sensitive about that one. ]

I'll meet you at your place, if that's okay? I've found what I think? Is a spa? But it's in need of some major updates.

i dunno
ppl come & go
diego was here & left
a few other ppl too
& apparently it makes no sense

ben is here
like in the flesh not ghost form like i always saw
alive

sure we're in quad 10
ill try 2 clean up a lil

I hope he got somewhere safe.

[ the thought of people spontaneously coming and going...it makes allison a little uneasy.

ben is???

alive???????

allison will believe it when she sees it.]

That doesn't make any sense

I'm on my way

[ about 15 minutes later, allison knocks on the door. ]

doesnt make sense no
but im not gona look a gift horse in the mouth

[But he leaves it at that for now, and manages to clean up a little bit. There are clothes and towels and dishes everywhere. Obviously, it's Klaus' rotation right now, in their usual cycle of Klaus messing things up and Ben trying to tidy up.

Well, maybe Ben will be happy about this?

When there's a knock on the door, Klaus scrambles over to it and opens it up. He's in his usual state - smudged eyeliner, looking tired and energetic at the same time, dressed in an oversized striped shirt and a pair of pink knee-length sweatpants, barefoot. The minute the door opens and he sees her there, he grins and flings his arms around her shoulders, squeezing tight.]

Allison...!

[A second later and he steps back.]

Come in come in, welcome to our humble abode.

[ allison is still in her earth-clothes: jeans, a leather jacket, bowling shoes. the only thing she's been able to change is her bandage, white gauze wrapped around her neck. allison didn't want to risk infection. she's considerably more disheveled than klaus is probably accustomed to seeing her -- she hasn't had time to do her hair since the communal shower, and there's a fine layer of dirt and sand on her clothes.

that doesn't matter though, because klaus is family. allison hugs him tightly, grateful to have a familiar face in this wasteland. she smells sweet though, like the sugary, sappy substance that the robots were trying to force-feed her.

after a few moments, allison pulls back and surveys klaus and their surroundings. she isn't at all surprised to see the mess -- if it's just klaus and ben living here, then ben certainly has his work cut out for him -- but the pink sweatpants are a sight to see. allison is surprised people still make sweats like that, even in this mysterious, futuristic place. she gives a wheezy sort of chuckle, and texts: ]

Juicy coture?

[It isn't like Klaus even really notices how disheveled she is, he's just happy she's here. Probably shouldn't be, because being here isn't super great, but she said it herself - not worse than the apocalypse, or how they'd grown up. So he gives her a little squeeze and then rocks back onto his heels, grinning at her.]

Sister.

[It's warm and fond, and he pushes his hand back through his hair - it's getting long, to where it's starting to curl around his ears. He can see her judging his living space and he snorts.]

I totally cleaned it up, promise. You didn't have to see the dishes, Ben's a total slob.

[A wink, and he spins on a heel as she texts him that question, and snorts.]

Hadriel had a whole bunch of stores and stuff where you could get stuff for free, it was awesome. People used to complain it was awful but I loved it. Aren't these great?

[A little twirl.]

[ when klaus twirls, allison smiles and does a little golf clap. she'd never wear hot pink sweats in a million years, but she does have a healthy respect for the color. besides, they suit him. the klaus before her -- the one who's been to not one, but two alternate universes -- seems more comfortable here. she's glad for whatever, whoever helped him with his sobriety. ]

Free stuff? Without a catch? How could anyone pass that up?

[ allison slips off her bowling shoes and sighs a little. that's better -- those things are disgusting. it's only then that she realizes how tired and dirty she is, and that's not a state allison hargreeves likes to be in for long.

but allison is also one to prioritize her independence, and to a lesser extent, control. which is why it takes her more effort than she lets on to ask: ]

If you don't mind me asking, could I borrow your shower? And maybe a change of clothes? [ she turns over her arms and grimaces. ] I'm a little sticky.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

redshift: tdm #5

text; @ GOSUCKADICK; hi i am so sorry

that username...truly a work of art

I'm so glad. Also your journal name is a work of art.

tysm!

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