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redmarsshit2019-11-21 09:50 pm
modblob) wrote in redmarsshit2019-11-21 09:50 pm
Entry tags:
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.
▶ 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!
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.
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:
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?
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.
Whatever the reason, the network is going strong, so feel free to include a post to it in your top-levels.
no subject
Your first kiss???? Ben why didn't you open with this that's WAY better than cosmo!
[ allison is elated and absolutely beaming. the teenage her would have probably clapped a little, but allison's trying to keep it at least a little classy, so she settles for the wide, wide grin.
allison gives a slow nod of thanks, grateful that ben doesn't think it's weird that she needs to find out this information herself. or, even if he does think it, he doesn't show it, which allison is fine with, too. it's better than a fight, than hostility. much better than someone getting hurt. ]
Ok that's actually pretty cool? I could see how that could be romantic. [ allison is envisioning cole and ben having some picnic or whatever and cole leans over and says "the trees think you're beautiful" and it's very sappy and very cute!!
she doesn't press on the part related to ben's powers. she sees that squirm and feels a slight pang of guilt. there she goes again, not being as sensitive as she could be to how ben feels about his powers. ]
He's a spirit? What does that mean?? [ he must still be a physical thing, right? if ben kissed him? ]
no subject
I was worried I would sound stupid and too excited about something that shouldn't even be a big deal and I'm embarrassed because you're way more experienced than me, and I just sound like some stupid preteen getting his first crush, and it meant so much to me and I was afraid you were gonna laugh.
[ Ben shakes his head, as if he could jar those worries loose, let them fall off him. Now that he's brought it up, he is bursting to actually talk about it, so he keeps going: ]
But it was amazing, kissing him. It was so much better than I thought, and he's never been with anybody before, either, so I don't feel self-conscious. He said... we're courting, and I really, really, really like him, Allison.
[ He is even, right now, looking forward later to telling Cole that he'd told Allison. Wondering what he'll say. Missing him, even though he saw him so recently. He's totally infatuated, and he knows it.
From the sound of it, though, Cole hadn't explained to Allison what he is, or if he had, it hadn't been an explanation she could fully grasp. It had taken Ben some time before he understood completely - or at least as completely as he does now - and so he is all too ready to fill in the gaps for her. ]
Well, he comes from a world that's super different to ours. They've got elves and dwarves and demons and mages and stuff. There's this realm called the Fade, where people go in their dreams, and that's also where demons and spirits live. Spirits are like ... like different emotions, but they're living beings. So there's a spirit that's Justice, there's one that's Rage, you know, that sort of thing. Cole is Compassion. The spirits come through, sometimes - for lots of reasons.
[ Ben knows mostly about the circumstances around Cole becoming the Cole he is now, but there are other spirits that Cole has mentioned. He might only be giving Allison a tiny piece of the puzzle. But it's a start. ]
So there was a human, a mage, named Cole. He had this... this really sad, deprived, horrible, shitty life. And he got thrown in a dungeon by these motherfuckers called Templars, and they - forgot him. So he was starving to death, and all alone and miserable, and Compassion showed up to comfort him. And Cole, human Cole, wanted to not be forgotten. He wanted so badly to... have lived a life where he wasn't a mage, where he... where all this bad stuff didn't happen. And so Compassion... stayed with him while he died and then took on his memories and, sort of, parts of him. And Compassion made a body for himself to look like the human Cole, and took on his name.
[ The story had been tragic enough even before the shift had brought through a part of that awful place. Now that he's seen it, though, been inside that pit? Ben shudders, imagining what it must have been like. Locked up in the dark, alone, slowly, painfully starving to death. He shakes the thought away, finishes: ]
So... Cole is Cole, but he's Compassion, too. He's not really a human, but he's not exactly all spirit anymore, either. He's sort of... in between.