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

feeling pretty sappy

[ Through the Door at Hadriel's end and - surprise - she isn't back in her own world at all. The whole thing has been both more and less of a surprise than she'd figured, but Cecily Trevelyan is exasperated nonetheless. ]

I've experienced some truly silly festivals and celebrations, but this one is-...well. Wouldn't want to say something that might get me into a sticky situation, would I?

[ She'll wink at anyone within earshot, perfectly pleased with her terrible pun. The Goop Festival, as it's apparently called, has a terrible name, but she's never been one to turn up her nose at a party of any kind. As such, the Inquisitor makes herself at home at the table, sampling some of the sap-based treats, as well as the not-hot-chocolate. ]

It's got a similar effect to a glass or two of wine, apparently. Brilliant. [ Cecily hums contentedly as she drains her glass, letting the warmth of the...whatever it is wash over her. Really, this festival isn't so bad at all. ]

it's familiar...but not too familiar...but not too not familiar

[ As with any new world, there will be dangers. Today, it's something...less obvious. As she stands stock-still, Cecily watches as she road ahead of her bends and undulates, causing her to moan aloud and press her hands against her face as if warding off a migraine. ]

What in the Maker's-...? [ Definitively odd. She exhales shakily and tries to steady herself, peeking out at the world and...seeing it as it should be. Without the street twisting unnaturally.

For now.

Cecily gives it one last, suspicious glance before hurrying on her way. She's even starting to feel as if it could've possibly been a harmless trick of her mind when she steps through a door and into...Skyhold. The courtyard, specifically, with its garden and arbor, with its usual population milling about and the chill of the Frostbacks hanging in the air.

Something lodges itself tight in her throat. This...is not simple trick, but neither is it real. This is what she reminds herself as she takes a nearby leaf of elfroot into her hands and feels its substance. Its textured, physical substance.

Not real. Certainly not her first experience with phantoms and visions. And yet... ]

u up???

[ Fortunately for this medieval lady, texting, and an electronic network, are not new. ]

That nearly-coma-inducing sap drink seemed an excellent idea at the time, but it's left me feeling a bit knackered today. Does anyone have a recommendation for how best to overcome this particularly-nasty hangover? Thank you in advance for your wisdom as I overcome this great trial

[ This is on the list of weirder things that's ever happened to Jay, but the festival doesn't seem that bad. Sure, it's called GOOP FESTIVAL, but people seem happy and nothing is actively trying to kill him.

Which, all things considered, makes this place several magnitudes better than how his shift was going back home. So, without much more than a shrug at the fact that everything else is closed, he tries one of the shaved ice rolls they're giving out, wandering through the festival with waves and nods to the people he passes.

He sidesteps someone who passes too close, mid-mouthful of sap, and bumps into the back of someone else. ]

Ah— shit. [ It's hard to talk with a mouthful of chewy goop, so give him a second. ] Y'good?

Ah - [ She starts as she's bumps, but steadies herself well enough. ] Fine, fine, nothing...lasting.

[ She has one of the offered goop candies in her hand, but it goes forgotten as she smiles gradually at this stranger, having now had the time to take a better look at him. ]

Just fine. [ Cecily repeats lightly. ] And you? Any permanent damage?

[ Ah, good. ]

I'm sound, thanks. [ And look, there's a conveniently blank space next to her for him to sit down. ] What's all this here?

[ Looks like... someone turned sap into hot chocolate. ]

Oh, better to try it for yourself. I'd hate to spoil the surprise.

[ He's staying, though. Excellent. She smiles in a sideways sort of way and offers him a cup of the stuff, brows lifting expectantly. ]

It's nothing too terrible, I can tell you that much.

[ Carl would have a quip about maybe being allergic to something in it ready, but Jay isn't quite that ridiculous. Instead, he shrugs and grabs a drink of his own, eyeing the liquid for a moment before knocking it back. ]

...Alright. [ He nods in approval and smiles. ] I like your taste. [ Though drinking too many of those might get dangerous. ] What's your name?

Cecily. [ She's long since learned the immaterial nature of her surname or title in these places. ] And I like your taste, seeing as you like my taste. [ beat ] And your name?

[ Damn. He'd finished that quickly. She chuckles and reaches for another glass to pass over. ]

Careful now. Nobody really seems sure of what these are.

"It's one of the nicer things here. There are tiny tiny machines that pretend to be Nightmare."

Cole does Cole. He just starts talking from over her shoulder, not bothering to alert her to his presence in any normal way.

"I'm not your Cole. I'm sorry about that. My Inquisitor was Nadezhda Cadash."

"Are there? Lovely."

In all the years she's spent with the spirit (-turned human, in her world), she's never gotten better at deciphering his cryptic messages. All the same, Cecily chuckles lightly, expression not darkening or growing confused with his words.

"I assumed as much. Such has been my luck." For years, now. "I think that I can also safely assume, since you've just said that, that you are also not the 'other' Cole who spent time in the city Hadriel?"

His Inquisitor had been...what, an elf? It all seems so long ago, now.

"No harm done, certainly. I have all the sympathy in the world for these 'other' Inquisitors."

"No. I was in Drift Fleet. I met another Inquisitor, Jove Lavellan. She was Dalish." Cole wanders a bit closer, looking at the table.

He's grubby as hell, and his clothes are even worse for wear than usual. "Klaus is from Hadriel before here, but Ben wasn't there. Ben's my friend."

"Lavellan, yes. I think that was her name."

Maybe not the same one, though. There are so very many of them out in the multi-verse.

Cecily glances at Cole, taking in the details of his appearance.

"...Glad to hear I'm not the only one who wasn't properly sent home." Damn them. She'd wanted so badly to hope, too. "Though I'm not sure I ever met anyone named Klaus there."

"Yes. But probably not the same Lavellan." He sways, rocking on his feet slowly. "There's a lot of them. A lot of could have beens and weres."

He plucks at the grimy wraps around his hands. "You'd remember Klaus, I think. Klaus is very hard to forget, because so long as he's remembered, he's real. Not like me real."

"Any of those others here?" Might as well be. Her life since she was taken from Thedas to Hadriel - and now here - has been more bizarre than she could ever imagine.

She doesn't remember Klaus, but feels a touch better knowing that someone else from Hadriel had been brought here, too. For the moment, though, she looks again to Cole.

"...What's happened to you here?" she asks finally, glancing across the general state of him.

"No. I'm the only one from Thedas."

It's been a little difficult, being alone like that. But-

"I made a friend! His name is Ben. I'm making friends with the Others too." There's a definite emphasis there that suggests he doesn't mean the other people here. "He gave me ice cream, and a gift, and he hugs me. I like him. He bubbles with kindness."

Someone might have a bit of a crush.

"Ah." There's a beat, and then: "I'm sorry."

She's been in that position, and it can be...lonely, to say the least.

"Ben, yes. You mentioned. A friend of Klaus." And...'others?' She picks up on the intonation, but looks a touch puzzled nonetheless. "Bubbles with kindness? Maker's beard, Cole. I think that's the most emphatic - and straightforward - you've ever been." She grins, though, leaning in a little. "Will you tell me a bit more about him?"

"Yes. He cares, so much, it bubbles and fizzes from him. When he gave me a present, the kindness and caring and affection seeped and spilled over, staining my hands."

He doesn't think Ben would want him to tell the Inquisitor about the Others. If it was Cadash, he probably would anyway, but this isn't his Inquisitor, so he keeps Ben's secret close.

"He wants to make things better for people. For everyone. Even me. He was dead for a long time and only one person could see him, and no one else has ever known what that was like before."

"'Even you?' Cole, you are incredibly deserving of kindness and good things. I remember how many you've done for others just in Skyhold."

In another world? She imagines he's more free than ever to live as he pleases. To act the part of a spirit of compassion to the fullest.

"I can't imagine lingering in this world and having no one - or even just one person - for company. I-" am afraid I would drive them away "...would miss my diverse array of conversation partners."

Hopefully, it'll never come to that.

"...I'll have to meet these friends of yours, then. See what sort of people can bring out such descriptive and specific language in you."

But even in Skyhold, most people who could remember him, who know about him, called him demon, even if they didn't think of him as inherently bad. They didn't think of him as a person.

Ben does.

"He was haunting his brother. Klaus can see the dead." That feels like enough explanation there.

"Ben's around here somewhere, inky black wrapped in bright sunlight, soft and warm and floating..."

omg drink fucking water

how do you still not get that

Yes, how silly of me to assume that the unusual substance would have all the same remedies as our standard booze. Your biting response is so very appreciated.

fuck you, bitch. fucking hydrate. you saved your whole fucking world or whatever and yet here you are, hung the fuck over

im not impressed but i found some unexpired aspirin if you can handle swallowing it with whatever brain cells you didnt kill last night

[ Why is Emily so angry? Salt. So much salt. How is it possible to be somewhere worse than Hadriel. She misses Love, fuck ALL OF YOU. ]

Are we sure that it IS alcohol in this? You have seen the state of this world, haven't you? And you ought to know that every substance in these places isn't as it seems. How many times were were presented with food and drink that was MUCH more dangerous than anyone thought?

all i'm hearing is someone blaming everything else for their shitty choices

[ why are you like this, emily ]

You know, I'm really beginning to wonder what motivated your response in the first place, given the tone.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

redshift: tdm #5

inquisitor trevelyan ; dragon age: inquisition ; hadriel crau

feeling pretty sappy

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Goop!

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new phone who dis

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