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redmarsshit2019-10-24 11:41 pm
modblob) wrote in redmarsshit2019-10-24 11:41 pm
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.
▶ 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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
no subject
[Kieran's first instinct is to try to lock eyes with Ben and share his commiseration, and he turns his head to do just that, to try and pinpoint exactly where his friend's voice is coming from, but it's a moot gesture and he's not sure if his furrowed brow is enough to get those emotions across. There are so many, too, constantly fighting against one another to take dominance over his overall being. How can he share his gratitude, his anger, his sadness, his empathy for their shared situations all at once when he can't even tell where to direct that crucial, visual aspect of what is running through his mind and heart?]
[So he squeezes Ben's hand in return, his palms rough as always, but still strong despite his recent ordeals. It's an awkward, clumsy gesture, hampered by years of emotional stifling and pressure to keep soft signs of vulnerability at bay rather than letting them make themselves known.]
Whatever happened, you didn't deserve it. Yer too good fer it.
no subject
[ The words come out even more staccato and rough with emotion than before. Ben knows it would probably be the right thing to do, to share his story, when Kieran has just opened up. He knows that. He can't comfort Kieran if he's sobbing or having a panic attack and he's never managed to tell anyone about his death - apart from that it happened - and Ben just knows that if he tries, it's going to get ugly, fast. He just... can't. ]
I just wanted you to know. I didn't want you to feel alone.
[ And besides, there's something much more urgent to be addressed. He really doesn't like the implications of how Kieran is choosing to comfort him, in return... ]
You didn't deserve this. You don't deserve people hurting you. You didn't deserve to die, Kieran. I really hope that's not what you were trying to say, that I'm more... good than you and so it's okay that -
[ Ben can't even finish the sentence. He has to stop, let out a slow breath. Then, more quietly: ]
You're a good person, Kieran.
no subject
[His tone is quiet and his voice is hoarse when he finally speaks.]
I did.
[Kieran pauses and then continues.]
We had--uh, the Van der Linde gang, I mean--had a little boy with us. Jack. He was the son of two of the members: M-Miss Abigail and John Marston.
One day when I was workin' around camp, I saw a couple of fellers who were workin' with some of the gang leaders pokin' around camp. I thought it was fer business. Turns out, they were lookin' fer a way to kidnap the poor kid. I didn't see them take Jack, or see them do anythin' suspicious, b-but I sure as shit didn't say anythin' to the rest of the gang.
After they took 'im, I told Miss Abigail about what happened. Told her that I'd trade my l-life fer his if I could. Lord almighty, I felt so guilty about it.
The good news is that the gang got little Jack home safe and sound, which is what's important. The next day is when I got picked up by the O'Driscolls. So, uh, I-I guess what I said worked somehow. And I guess... I guess that means I did deserve it, one way or another. Especially if you take all that other stuff from my past into consideration.
no subject
[ Ben listened until Kieran was done with his story, even though he felt like his heart was breaking the whole time. He kept waiting for it, the turn of the screw, the twist that would show what Kieran had done wrong to make himself believe he deserved torture and death. But it never came.
Kieran might not be able to see his face, but Ben's voice is filled with passion and conviction as he argues: ]
You said it yourself - you thought they were there on business. And besides... Kieran, you told me what these people did to you. How they treated you. Do you honestly think they would have listened, if you said you'd seen some men poking around who maybe shouldn't have been there? I don't think so.
[ Maybe they were a little better than the O'Driscolls, but as far as Ben's concerned, both gangs were rotten to the core. They'd both tortured Kieran, both treated him worse than they would an animal. None of them respected him, protected him. It's no wonder Kieran has always struck him as so timid, so overwhelmed by any little show of kindness or gentleness.
Ben Hargreeves is a gentle person. But there is an angry streak in him, underneath the kindness. And he hates every person who had brought Kieran to this point, where he is sitting here in this medbay bed, looking so small and helpless, so utterly convinced he deserved no better. Ben's never been all that good at getting angry over all the injustices that had been done to him, in his life. But he's got no problem with heaping that anger on the people who have been unjust to Kieran. ]
Kieran... it was a coincidence. That's all. It does not mean you deserved to die like that. No matter what you did in your past. You hear me? You didn't deserve it.
[ And Ben reaches over, pulling Kieran against him in a hug, that's made awkward by him needing to lean across the bed, but he doesn't care. Right now, he just wants to hug Kieran to his chest until he realizes it wasn't his fault. That he is not the monster he seems to think he is. Maybe a little bit of it is projecting, yes. But Ben is aware of that. And he still cannot bring himself to believe that Kieran is a bad person. ]
no subject
[He's always waffled between how he feels about how much he actually deserved the treatment he received. Some days, an iota of self-esteem would make itself known and remind him that he has worth. Other days, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't convince himself of anything other than that defeatist attitude of 'this is how it is for a reason, and that reason is you'.]
[But Ben's words, as they have in the past, feed into that validation that he needs and has been searching for, albeit from not the healthiest of places. This is different, though. This is a friend telling him what he should be telling himself already, giving him a booster shot to help him out of that dark pit of self-deprecation he all too often falls into.]
Thanks, brother.