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Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redmarsshit2019-11-21 09:50 pm
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test drive meme: november 2019

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 truth hurts.

As though everything happening in the past month wasn't enough, there's been a minor explosion in one of the labs. No one hurt, if you don't count the hapless maintenance bot that caused the explosion in the first place.

But there are gases drifting through the laboratories, some of them making their way into the air vents, invisible to the purifiers in the system thanks to the explosion. And those gases are leaking into the air around Anchor, little pockets of danger waiting to be breathed in.

Those who breathe the gasses in might be the unluckiest Anchorites of all.

They're stuck telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth for the next five hours, give or take. Good luck with that!


b. retromedia.

Oblivious to what's going on inside Anchor, the shift rages outside, bringing shadows of things and places from other worlds, those things flickering into existence and out of it again.

The bad news is that the Whole Foods is gone.

The good news is the shift left something behind in its place.

A long, squat building, with cement walls painted over with stucco and punctuated by big windows. A flat roof with slanted sides, painted a deep blue. In bold yellow letters bolted to the roof, a sign:

BLOCKBUSTER

The sliding doors are broken, bouncing open and shut steadily, but the inside is clean and well-stocked with rack upon rack upon row upon row of VHS tapes, all of them neatly packaged in plastic boxes. Some of them have the movie covers on them, but most bear the Blockbuster logo and tiny labels running down the back, declaring the box's contents. There's a giant, somewhat busted up standee of Tim Allen as The Santa Clause, flickering holiday lights strung unevenly from the ceiling, and symbols of various seasonal holidays stuck up along the walls and windows.

Any movie you could possibly want lies within, or at least any movie you could possibly want that was released on Earth during or before 1994. And don’t worry if you can't find a VHS player in Anchor! There are whole shelves of VCRs tucked into one of the closets, apparently part of an aborted plan to rent out VCRs along with movies.

Poor Blockbuster. They were innovators. And now they're lost to the sands of the red shift.


c. sweet sweet self-care.

While sickness persists inside Anchor's walls, those in recovery seem to be getting better every day. And while the health bots have been working overtime, some of their processes have gotten a little borked up from all the work they've been doing.

Along with medical care, they're now administering lectures to their captive audiences about the value of diet and exercise, the importance of personal hygiene, and the healing properties of massage. Some of them are forcing massages on people just to prove their point, which, y'know, could be a lot worse. At least they're good at massages?

The spa bots are getting in on the action, nagging the healthy to come for relaxation and decontamination in one gloriously bubbly swoop. They've converted several of their spa pools into sweet-smelling antibacterial baths, so you can make extra-sure you got those visiting-a-sick-friend cooties off!

No, seriously, go with them. Before they drag you there and make you take a bath like an unruly two-year-old.

Believe them, it's worth it. If you complete a circuit of the spa, including the antibacterial baths and the fresh and zesty decontamination shower, you get a shiny sparkly holographic sticker that says "YOU ARE FREE OF DISEASE" in little cheerful bubble-letters. They designed them all by themselves, totally from scratch. Are you proud?


d. the network.

Need to get hold of someone, call for help, ask the city at large a question? Need to ask a friend which 1980s teen movie classic to watch at movie night? 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.



benhargreeves: (:) proud)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-12-28 08:12 am (UTC)(link)
Exactly what I was thinking.

[ Ben knows it might be a bit of a risk, watching this movie that will remind Julie of a happy time before everything went so awfully wrong. He wonders if, in a way, he's lucky. He'd never had a time like that. Things had started wrong, and he hadn't had anything to compare them to. So really, it had taken quite a while for him to realize that better was even an option. Not for Julie, though. She'd had safety and happiness, and then they'd been taken from her.

Still, if it dredges anything up, they'll deal with that when it happens. She wants to watch this movie and Ben is happy to be the one watching with her.

And he finds himself immediately laughing at the cheesiness of the initial scene, the ludicrous appearance of the ghosts themselves as they try to terrorize some children away from an old house. But it is not a mean laughter - just startled, full of enjoyment. Ben doesn't laugh often, but it is a very infectious one. ]


Oh my god, is it all like this?
mustact: (→14)

[personal profile] mustact 2019-12-28 01:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ ... Yep, disturbing. ]

I suppose at least they boil it.
mustact: (→45)

[personal profile] mustact 2019-12-28 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
The more she talks, the higher his eyebrows go, baffled and amused at once. He doesn't think she lies to him, even as she talks about lying all the time. She'd told him about it before, while talking about how she wants to live life differently now.

And when she corrects herself, the amusement takes over.

"I could try, if I knew what caused it." Unfortunately, he has no idea. "I hope I do not count my numbers wrong very often."

He sees to the trade at the homestead. It would be very unfortunate if he gets his calculations wrong all the time.
braidmage: (:o impossible)

[personal profile] braidmage 2019-12-28 07:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Is it happening to you, too?

[ Reynir is becoming more accustomed to the sorts of strange changes and tricks that this place sometimes plays. He isn't usually bothered by them, but this is... well, a little unsettling. But not enough that he would consider being any less than his usual curious and chatty self.

He lowers the tool he's been using to prune the tree and asks, head tilting to the side: ]


Why would you pretend not to care if people like you? Doesn't everybody want people to like them?

[ That just seems logical. ]
benhargreeves: (:) you do that)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-12-28 10:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, I'm not gonna ask anything that actually makes you uncomfortable, duh.

[ There's a gentle teasing in the comment, but it is still deeply true: Ben is uncommonly averse to making people uncomfortable. He avoids it at all costs. He is willing to make Peter sad, if he thinks it will genuinely provide wisdom and comfort to him over unhealthy coping mechanisms. But the thought of making him even remotely, actually embarrassed, just for his own entertainment? Yeah, no. Ben's way too much of a softie for that.

He listens to Peter's story with open glee, covering his grin with his hand as Peter reveals just what he'd said. And oh, that really is a good one. Ben's eyes are bright with mirth as he stifles giggles, trying to imagine a baby version of Peter absolutely dragging that old lady, without even meaning to. ]


Ohhhh my god. Amazing.
circumspector: (( iunno ) » 'cause the freest)

[personal profile] circumspector 2019-12-29 02:15 am (UTC)(link)
"Not always, usually you're pretty good. I fix them before it causes a problem most of the time. It's not like Jacob. He gets it wrong a lot." she covers her mouth with her hand. Trying to cut it off before it gets worse. "Sorry. Don't tell him I said that."

More squirming, more wriggling. She just can't shut up, every thought as good as said.

"It's not your fault, that's just human error. I mean, I have a computer in my head, you don't. You're pretty good anyway, for someone not augmented. I don't even have to let you win games with me that often. Usually I have to throw most matches, but I only have to do it with you 4.6% of the time. Which is a much better average than the 6.7% I do for most people."
itsnotaonesie: (158)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-12-29 02:27 am (UTC)(link)
"I know car batteries can't actually electrocute someone, but then most people don't have as much going on in the cybernetic augmentation department."

He is 100% brainstorming how to make cyborg batteries now, because he totally needs more side projects (he doesn't).
borntohurt: (pic#12911993)

[personal profile] borntohurt 2019-12-29 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
"...can't tell if that's a good thing or not."

But she's still smiling, and that nuzzle doesn't feel like a reprimand. So he'll take it, allowing the quiet moment of reprieve before stepping back once more. Just seeing her again, knowing everyone's back again, it almost doesn't matter that they're somewhere else. It doesn't matter that the rules have all changed.

"You seen the others?"
itsnotaonesie: (164)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-12-29 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
There's not too much that makes me uncomfortable these days, but I sure do appreciate that.

[And that's why Ben is Peter's best friend, he's just so goddamn thoughtful. Even if he is willing to deliberately make him sad sometimes.]

Do you have any good embarrassing stuff you said as a kid stories?
benhargreeves: (? pursed lips)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-12-29 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ben casts his mind back, for a story that will be funny - outright funny, not tinged at all with anything grim or depressing or messed up. A lot of the embarrassing stuff he had said as a kid had come from being ignorant and isolated and abused and not really having a sense of what was normal. A lot of it, in retrospect - stories he can still laugh about with his siblings - is majorly fucked up.

But he hits upon a story that will work, one that is completely harmless, and similar enough to Peter's story that it connects, in a way. His face lights up, and he begins: ]


I must've been, like, five? We got a lot of stuff delivered to the house, and we didn't go out much at that age so it would be like such a big event to sneak to the back door and get a look at whatever strangers were bringing, like, groceries or soap or cigars. It got to be where we recognized a lot of the guys who would make the deliveries and it was always the same one who brought produce. This older dude. He might not have even been that old - maybe fifty or sixty, but that seemed ancient. And then one day there was somebody new. He was maybe college age? Who knows.

[ Ben can feel his face getting hotter, but he'd committed to telling an embarrassing story and so he's just going to have to live with it. The truth gas is certainly ensuring that he doesn't leave any details out, even if he would prefer to. ]

Anyway he had this really long hair and I'd never seen a guy with such long hair before, and he was honestly pretty cute. The second time he came instead of the old guy, I asked if it was a permanent thing, and he said this was his delivery route now. And I uh. I might've asked him if he'd replaced the other guy and gotten his job because he wasn't so old and ugly.

[ He gives a little shrug, explaining: ]

I didn't know how jobs worked! I didn't get why he thought it was so funny! It seemed like a valid question at the time!
gonzoradio: (Not just fluffy)

Doug Eiffel | Wolf 359

[personal profile] gonzoradio 2019-12-29 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
A:

That was--

That was an odd smell.

Eiffel fanned at his face, nose wrinkled, and he coughed a bit as he took stock. Okay, it didn't smell like molasses so it wasn't halothane... And he didn't feel anything creeping on him like pain, sickness, or death. So... So he was fine. Right?

Lifting a hand to his mouth, he took a deep breath and coughed an exhale into his palm and then quickly sniffed. Not his proudest moment but... well, it didn't smell acidic...

His shoulders sagged. "I shouldn't be so used to this," he muttered, chin dropped to his chest. "Nobody should be used to this. I think every space station has a Hilbert. Whatever." But then, heaving a sigh, he lifted his head and called out, "Who's spraying the dud knockout gas?!"

B:

"Hell yes! This is the motherlode! Sweet blessed magnetic entertainment that isn't Home Alone 2!" He grabbed a VCR first, and then - "Wait, shit..."

He put the case of the VCR down and then stripped off his coat, starting to do some complex fabric origami. Or maybe he was just tying the bottom of the coat shut, and then tying the arms together. He was going to raid the shit out of this place. And he was going to start with Star Wars. VCR case, jacket full of videos. Doug was practically dancing his way down the Blockbuster aisles. "Best. Stranding. Ever."

C:

He's been on a space station for more time than he cares to think about. He's seen the end of coffee and toothpaste. He's seen the end of hot water and the end of time for showers.

And a massage? Sounds fake but okay.

Still, when he's ushered into the baths and the shower and massage, he lets it happen and-

And yeah, those whoops of joy are totally him. He's clean and he's been massaged and he's even been given clean clothes and he's fed and...

"Okay, that sticker is ironic."

D:

Hello hello not-Hephaestus, this is Comms Officer Dougie Doug coming at you in a brand new form and holy shit this place has massages? Man, did you guys luck out. I'd be jealous but I'm here now and uh

Has anyone seen a woman named Minkowski? Or Lovelace? Or a census unit named Hera?

most importantly Hera

Maybe?
circumspector: (( attentive ) » desperate to leave)

[personal profile] circumspector 2019-12-30 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
"It is to me. It's the only thing that truly matters to me. It's the thing worth dying for."

She cups her hand against his cheek. Pushing up to equal the distance between them so she can peer into his eyes directly. Looking into him with eyes that were big and dark.

"I haven't. Not yet. I've been looking everywhere for them."
mustact: (→31)

[personal profile] mustact 2019-12-30 08:24 am (UTC)(link)
He shakes his head, with a quiet chuckle. Let him win?

"You do not have to 'let' me win at all."

He doesn't care. Games aren't only about winning, it's about spending time together. Even though it tends to come with mocking and bickering, it's always with fondness and love.
circumspector: (( attentive ) » desperate to leave)

[personal profile] circumspector 2019-12-30 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
That hot wash of embarrassment bound itself deep within her limb, hard to meet his eyes. Biting her lip as she fixed her gaze at about his throat.

"It's not like that. It's that the game would be over in a minute if I did it that... way. So I try to roll for human error so it's... Not over so fast. I like watching your mind think when you're picking your pieces."
mustact: (→55)

[personal profile] mustact 2019-12-30 10:09 am (UTC)(link)
In a minute? He's never thought too much about her ... 'augmentation', and how it works. Wouldn't have assumed that it could do that, could calculate just how to win a game as quickly as possible. He raises an eyebrow in surprise, and lifts a hand to gently push her chin up.

"We could just play more rounds."

Not that it really matters. She can do as she wishes.
circumspector: (( attentive ) » desperate to leave)

[personal profile] circumspector 2019-12-30 11:33 am (UTC)(link)
Her face tilts up as he prompts. Not for anyone else, but for him, always, she'd try. Try to look him in the eye and try to tell the truth. Even if the second was far easier than normal right now.

Even as her lips pull in a smile, because the answer is just so him it hurts. "There you are. The best man I've ever met. You've really got to quit it, or someone's going to have me up for corrupting the last good man left in the galaxy."
borntohurt: (pic#12911962)

[personal profile] borntohurt 2019-12-30 06:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"I'm sure they must be here."

One hand lifts, cupping against hers, so delicate and tiny against his own. "Then maybe we can start to make some sense of this place. Wherever it is we've ended up now."

All he knows it is that it's no part of the city he knows. And maybe that's for the best.
arcadedragon: (Deflect)

[personal profile] arcadedragon 2019-12-30 11:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Now Genji is envisioning having to walk around holding a car battery that's hooked up to him somehow. That's almost worse than when he had to be plugged into the wall.

"No I mean the cybernetics would. They have before if there's a surge of power." His own body betraying him seems to be a constant theme. "I think it will be okay. If there is not enough food we have more problems than if my legs will keep working."
theweakhavepurpose: (Considering)

[personal profile] theweakhavepurpose 2019-12-31 12:39 am (UTC)(link)
"Do they have a lot where you're from? The only robots we have back home are the ones that like... automate factories. Not sentient things. There's even a few robot people here - who are different from these weird maintenance robots that wanna force feed us sugar or bathe us or whatever." Pratt usually avoids the robots if possible, they tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. Usually he just wants coffee but they'll insist on trying to give him goop or soap or all kinds of other random things.

He heads into the kitchen, opening one of the cupboards to see what all is in there, "What do you want to eat? There's some chips and crackers and stuff. But there's also actual food in the fridge if you want a sandwich or something."
nothinglikefather: made by peaked (071)

[personal profile] nothinglikefather 2019-12-31 04:47 pm (UTC)(link)
...You don't boil water before you drink it?
redwinekindofgirl: (106)

[personal profile] redwinekindofgirl 2019-12-31 06:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Well-- yeah, but it's easier to pretend you don't give a shit if they do or not.

[For Julie, who plays her cards closer to her chest than most people realise, this has suddenly become very uncomfortable. She presses the side of her forefinger to her lips like a child being shushed.]

Uh... what the actual fuck?
redwinekindofgirl: (097)

[personal profile] redwinekindofgirl 2019-12-31 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
[When Julie thinks about it now, from her 'older and wiser' point of view, things weren't all roses back then. It's not normal to have country-wide media blackouts, armies in the streets and a penpal who sends a nine year old vicodin in the mail. But... her parents were both alive, and happier, and she hadn't known any better.

But she doesn't think too much about her past. There are many good reasons for that.
]

Uh-- haha, yeah, pretty much. [Julie replies with a laugh of her own, grabbing her bag of popcorn and opening it.]

I dunno, felt like you were the kind of guy who'd appreciate cheesy nineties humour.
0thingsonmymind: (Watching)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2019-12-31 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
notwhere iam
from
but wherei
was


He didn't see them all that often, but assumed the spider-robots in Norfinbury were everywhere.

He never really thought about what he ever wanted to eat. So he just follows after Pratt as the other man rummages, occasionally stuffing packages of food in his mailbag.
itsnotaonesie: movieconnoisseur (ha ha i am so dead)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2020-01-01 02:41 am (UTC)(link)
Oh thank God, I wasn't the only awkward disaster child. [I mean he's laughing, but no, he's still an awkward disaster child. He's just a disaster in different ways now.]

It's probably a good thing that our goofy embarrassing stories are this tame. Things didn't start getting too awkward for me until I got my powers.
livingdeadgirl: (mischief 3)

[personal profile] livingdeadgirl 2020-01-01 02:45 am (UTC)(link)
you know because i didnt want them to see my alien eyes
whats this about a blockbuster though
have we had a blockbuster this whole time
maybe thats what really happened to them all
instead of merely going out of business
they were transported to a deserted wasteland on an alien planet
(thats a joke for the record
im pretty sure you know that but i feel mildly compelled to say so anyway)

anyway do you have indiana jones
i am seriously jonesing for some jones right now

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