test drive meme: november 2019

[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 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.

Navigation.

Comments

[kaballin]

[He shrugs. Cranially defective wouldn't be too far off, as it is he looks a bit like a walking husk of BBQ in a mask.]

It's some kind of settlement where people are trying to make a new life in a galaxy far, far away I guess. If you want to sit around a campfire singing songs and being a part of the common good this is definitely the place to be.

[Kabal wants none of those things which is why he is currently wondering how he can dismantle this guy to sell for parts, conveniently forgetting that there probably isn't a big market here for Decepticon pieces. He's not the brightest bulb in the Mortal Kombat roster, but he is the most self aware.]

Sucks for you then because that sure as shit isn't happening here.

Reconquer? You get your ass kicked or something?

d.

[substances]

oh man
u dont even wanna kno

[braidmage]

[ That spelling is... challenging, but Reynir works it out after a couple moments. ]

No, I do want to know!
That's why I'm asking.

[substances]

u sure abt that?
it was real bad
gory ghost stuff & all

[braidmage]

[ Guess who definitely also got hit with some truth gas? This guy! Not that it will make a huge amount of difference. He's pretty honest to the point of oversharing most of the time, anyway. ]

So you're a kind of mage, too?
Are there others who have similar powers when they dream?
My friend Onni sometimes becomes an owl when he's dreaming. Only that's his luonto. Sort of... a third part of his soul, he said.

Is Nymeria a part of your soul?

[braidmage]

[ He's... not sure, honestly. But he really does want to understand normal dreaming. No pain no education, right? Wait, that's not a real saying. ]

I've dealt with ghosts before.
I think I can handle it.
But thanks for the warning.

[substances]

uve dealt w/ ghosts?
wait wat when?
was it here b/c every1 has seen em here

[braidmage]

I have.
I was talking about back home, not here. It's kind of a long story.

I was on an expedition and we stumbled across a place where a whole lot of people had died, really suddenly, and really awfully. Their spirits had been trapped, without access to their afterlife, for almost a hundred years. They were... wrong. Angry and tormented. More and more of them followed us and kept attacking us. They said they were never going to stop.

[substances]

[Holy shit.

Hooollyyyyyy shit.]

omg srsly?
ive never met any1 else who coud see them its always justb een me no one else knows how awful it is with them screamin ur name & goig at u & stuff

sorry that happened 2 u
it sounds bad
uh
wats ur name?

[braidmage]

[ It really is like deciphering another language with the strange way this customs around spelling this person seems to be following, but Reynir thinks he gets the basic idea. ]

So what you're saying is, you can see ghosts and spirits and hear and see things other people can't, and you've never met ANYONE else who could?

[ Wow, that sure sounds fucked up and lonely! ]

I don't know what word they'd use for it in your world, but where I'm from someone who can communicate with spirits and see ghosts and hear the screams of trapped souls is called a mage.
Are there no other mages where you come from? Really?

Thank you. I found a way to lead them to rest. With some help. Okay, with a lot of help.

Reynir Árnason. What's yours?

[substances]

ya
basically
thats it p much

theres no word 4 it in my world its just me
thot u had 2 do magic 2 be a mage
or am i gettin my d&d rules wrong?
i mean some ppl say they r but mostly theyre fake?

im klaus hargreeves

[braidmage]

[ Reynir isn't one to mince words. ]

That sounds really lonely.

[ Well... it does! He's sure Klaus is more aware of that than he can imagine. ]

I wonder how that happened. A mage all alone in a world without other mages.
Have you ever tried doing magic? It's possible you can and you just don't know it yet.
I didn't realize I was a mage until this last year. I had no idea.

I'm sorry, but I'm not really sure what d&d rules are.

[ Then, because the situation is only getting more and more garbled, and Reynir is suddenly pretty invested in helping this guy: ]

I think whatever spell they have in this place to translate may be malfunctioning.
I'm having a pretty hard time reading your writing.
Do you think we could try talking out loud?

[substances]

ya i guess so
mostly terrifying but my shit dad didnt help w/ that so

uh well its complicated but we kinda kno hwo it happend
never tried doin magic but i manifestedmy dead bro 2 fight some time traveling douchebags
rly?
dad said i had potential for sumthin gr8 mayhbe thats wat he meant

oh.
sorry no thats just becuz im a shitty typer we can go audio

→ audio

[braidmage]

[ Okay switching to audio was definitely the right call because Reynir got maybe half of that. So now Klaus will just hear a voice, with a lilting accent, asking: ]

I'm sorry, I'm noooooot really sure I understood your last message. Did you say you manifested your dead brother?

[ Reynir is suddenly wishing Onni were here right now so he could ask if this is a kind of magic he's ever heard of - Finnish mages call on the elements, call on spirits, can even call on gods. But to make a departed soul manifest, tangible? ]

I've never heard of anyone doing something like that before. But I'm not, um. I'm not super well-educated when it comes to magic. I only took an expedited summer course... and honestly it kinda sucked. So maybe other mages can do that in my world and I have just never heard of it 'cause... yeah.

[ He's not even going to touch the time traveling bit because any time he tries to talk about time no lining up between this place and other worlds it gives him a splitting headache. He's just given up on the time stuff. Time stuff is beyond him. ]

I know a few other mages here, I can ask if any of them have heard of something similar. But - even if they haven't. Mages are different in different cultures. We have different traditions, different gods. It wouldn't surprise me if your magic is different in some ways.

→ audio

[substances]

Oh, oh yeah yeah yeah, sorry about that, sorry. I never had to type much before I came here and then picked up bad habits, you know? Those bad habits, they'll getcha. But uh, yeah, I sure did manifest my dead brother. Cooperative powers-using and all that, didn't know I could do it until I did, you know?

[A soft, breathy laugh almost completely devoid of humour.]

You know, I'm not tooootally convinced I'm a mage just yet. I mean, that'd be super super cool and all but like, don't you need to do magic? I don't think letting my dead brother use his superpowers is really what you'd call magic, per se. But like, I'll give it a try. You've got more education than I do, most of my so-called training consisted of being thrown in a freaking mausoleum to get screamed at by dead people for hours. Not my best moments, not super great learning opportunities.

So, uh. That. I have no idea what the cultures and traditions of mages where I live might be. Unless you come from the United States. Do you come from there? You don't, do you, you've got an accent.

Great accent, by the way. Very sexy.

[braidmage]

[ Even at the pace Klaus is keeping up speaking, it's much easier than trying to parse his written text. Reynir is honestly used to being the chatty one, but in this case he listens attentively until Klaus is done.

Of course all the calm and thought-out and helpful things he was planning to say all fly out of his head when Klaus ends on that strangely flirty note. Reynir's not entirely sure he isn't being made fun of. Not because he's self-conscious about his accent or anything, but it's just so totally out of nowhere. ]

I- um. It's. I. Thank you? It's just. How I talk.

[ Reynir's gone bright red all the way up to his hairline, now, hope you're happy, Klaus.

Stammering a little, Reynir attempts to steer the conversation back on track. ]

So... maybe you may not be a mage, by your definition. It's just the word we use for people who can do certain things. You said you see ghosts and interact with spirits, so - to me, that's enough. Even without other magic.

[ Even if there is some mismatch, Reynir doesn't see the harm in expanding the category to include whatever it is Klaus is, and can do. Better than him being a singular entity, all on his own. ]

I don't come from the United States. Everyone there died of a plague, in my world. I'm from Iceland.

[ Hey, Reynir is learning some things, being in this place. He knows where America is, now, and he's sure one of them existed in his world and he's sure it got hit by the Rash in a major way.

That doesn't mean he gets everything Klaus said. ]

What's a mausoleum?

[braidmage]

Is that something you... like?

[ Hey he's not making any assumptions here. Plus, people like Emil exist, so. ]

But it's not someone completely specific who you could identify, just maybe a borrowed face?
That's interesting.
He was crying about his mom? Was he concerned the bomb would hurt her? Was that part of the dream's story?

[justbeingknife]

[ What was with those ellipses ]

As long as I ain't on the wrong end of them.

Anyway, that's what I wanted to know. 'What's defusin' bombs have to do with your mom?', I said to him. He told me his mom lives by herself out in the sticks, and if anything happened to him, she'd be by herself.

But that was why we were disarmin' it in the first place!

[enumerator]

Real time travel?

[ arya stands, head tilted to one side. she was confused before, but now, she's curious. curious enough to not get exasperated when ben tells her that the book is fiction, because of course it is! it's a story, and she's not stupid.

and then the stranger tells some story about his brother, and all arya can do is laugh. ]

You say that like it is a bad thing, to have an old mind and a young body! [ arya picks up the knife, balances the tip on her thumb, flicks it into the air to make it spin, and then catches it by the hilt. she's showing off, sure, but look at what a young body can do! ] I bet he can do this, and also be wise!

[ the dream, honestly. ]

[enumerator]

There are at least two others. My brother and my sister. I'm not a mage, I think. Mages in my world are old men with long beards who live in towers and cast spells and I'm not that and cannot do any of that. People who do what I can do are called skinchangers.

[ oh no oh no why is she spilling jon and sansa's secrets! she would never do this! the whole thing is stressing arya out! ]

I don't know. I don't know if I have a soul. How do you know if you have one? Sometimes I don't feel like I have one.

[ sometimes she feels empty inside, hollow, like she's becoming no one again, especially when she thinks about robb or her parents or how she can probably never go home. ]

[braidmage]

Reynir has no experience with telepathy or compulsion or any of that. He just thinks of it as... asking a question, without actually asking the question. Sort of like when his mom and some of the other people he knew in the village were pretending not to gossip, but actually definitely gossiping. Talking about something by not talking about it, dancing around it.

"I guess the thing I'm wondering the most is... about how you got a mutation."

He gives Scott a look, as if to ask, was that good? He'd told him what he was wondering, not asked for an answer.

However, Reynir has no such restraint when it comes to talking about Kieran.

"Are you serious? That would be really really great. I'm worried about him. I've been trying to cheer him up every day but I don't know if any of it's working and I'm worried it's not. I don't know if he's feeling bad because he can't see anymore or if he's feeling bad because people attacked him and hurt him and that's awful and no matter which one it is I can't fix it and I hate that because he's so nice and I like him a lot and I don't understand why it happened."

[substances]

Maybe to you, but to my uncultured American ears, it sounds like a super hot European accent.

[It's cheerful and completely genuine at least? This guy sounds flustered, which just makes him sound even more cute. Ah. He can imagine the blush already. One of his favourite things to do - make boys blush.

That next part, though, that catches his attention. That he can be a part of a group of people who are like him, who see ghosts and interact with spirits, that there's a name for them, no magic required.]

Huh. Klaus Hargreeves: Mage. It does have a nice ring to it. I mean, it's nice to not be alone with this stuff at least.

And whoaaaa Iceland, really? Is that whole joke they make about how Iceland is green and Greenland is ice true? I always thought that was really fu-

[A pause.]

Everyone in the States died from a plague? That's super grim, wow.

[Another pause.]

Your ghosts must be super angry. Uh, but yeah, mausoleum...sorta like a crypt? Little cement room full of dead bodies, they keep 'em there instead of burying them.

[braidmage]

[ AaaahhhHHH, Reynir is pretty sure this guy is serious and he's flattered but one of the virtues of having grown up in such an isolated and tiny town is that he's never been hit on by a total stranger before, and it is very strange and weird and he's just going to ignore it? Ignoring it will probably make it stop, right?

But secretly, he's rather flattered... ]

No, you aren't alone. I know what it's like, to hear things and see things many other people can't. Trapped souls, screaming in pain... I - can't imagine how hard it must have been, being the only one who could hear it.

[ When Klaus brings up the Illness, Reynir hastens to clarify: ]

Oh! No. I mean, yes. But not just there, specifically. Everyone almost everywhere died of a plague. Or were infected and transformed into these twisted, ruthless monsters, with their souls still inside, tormented until someone puts them out of their misery.

[ ...maybe he should have not mentioned that part. Too late to unsay it, now. So it's silver lining time. ]

There were some survivors, though! The Illness never spread to Iceland. And there are settlements in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

[ Klaus's description of what a mausoleum is is easy enough to follow, but only raises more questions than it answers. ]

Why would someone put you in a room full of dead bodies?

[benhargreeves]

Wow. Yeah... that sucks, Peter.

[ He's trying with all his might to say something comforting, how they're probably missing him too, or he'll get to see them soon - but the specifics don't matter, because when Ben opens his mouth to speculate in that over-optimistic way, he can't seem to make a single sound.

Instead, he manages finally to say: ]

I don't feel like that, because I don't really have anything to miss. All I had for so long was Klaus, and he's here. But you... are separated from so many good things and people you had in your life back home, and I didn't even think about how much that must've been hurting you. Does that make me a bad friend? I think maybe it does -

[ The only way Ben halts that train of though is by literally clapping a hand over his mouth and holding it shut until the impulse to talk has passed. Once that happens, he says, keeping his hands close just in case ]

I didn't mean to say most of that. The words are just coming out, like I've got no control over them at all. What is going on? Is something going on?

[im_the_weapon]

Peter could websling, but Scott still needs stairs and would take just as long to get down.

"That would be really great, thanks."