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

arya stark | a song of ice and fire | clockbox crau

[enumerator]

arrival and truth-telling.
[ before she came here, a girl woke up from a dream.

it was a long one, and vivid. in the dream, she was living in a giant, infinite clock, full of many wondrous rooms and even better people. she reunited with her family, with her name. she had made new friends, learned about selfies and science and planet earth. she learned to laugh again, and she thought that things might stay that way forever.

she only knew it was a dream when she walked through one last door, and woke up. it couldn’t have been real, no matter how badly she wanted it to be. so the girl became an acolyte of the many-faced god, receiving robes of black and white, trying her best to forget about that better world.

many moons later, a girl has another dream. this time, she’s in a room watching a movie, about portals and science and a place called “anchor.” she doesn’t pay much attention to the contents of the introductory video at all, because what’s important to her is that she’s seeing a movie, which means she isn’t in braavos or westeros. she’s in a dreaming-place. a better place.

arya stark grins.

for the next several hours, arya will be exploring anchor, searching for jon and sansa, hoping that they’ve arrived here too. you can find her in the garage, curiously examining the space jeeps; in the lab, taking a moment to watch the fish; and in the library, climbing all over the rubble, looking for anything noteworthy.

arya doesn’t know she’s inhaled the truth gas, which is going to make any first meeting a little more…interesting. ]


blockbuster.
[ arya doesn’t know what the hell a “blockbuster” is — maybe some kind of training location? to break down blocks? she’s an explorer by nature though, so of course she’s going to check it out! she’s surprised to find rows and rows of little cases. arya paces the shelves until she finds a name she recognizes: miami vice. she pulls the case off the shelf, and stares at the cover for a little while. she thinks she knows what this is — it’s a movie! but she can’t remember how to play it. so she walks up to the nearest person, holding out the tape. ]

Do you know how to use this?

[ once she’s learned how to use the vhs player, you can find a small child, wearing hooded robes that are black on one side, white on the other, watching a variety of earth film classics, including miami vice, a league of their own, and the princess bride. time to get cultured! ]

Blockbuster

[arcadedragon]

[He very vaguely knows what a VCR is, and he's figured out these are movies, but he's from 2070+ and has heard of practically none of them. Still he's going to give it a try.]

I think I can figure it out? It needs to go in the player, and the player needs to hook up to the tv.

[He once managed to get an original Famicom system working on a holocube so he can work out this mess of AV cables and plugs and a remote with actual tactile buttons. This is all kind of quaint and exciting. The tech version of the Renaissance Faire.]

What would you like to watch?

[enumerator]

[ at first, arya just stares at genji, in the tactless way that children sometimes do. she's never seen a light up man. westeros doesn't have running water, much less robots or human-robot hybrids. she's full of wonder, not really tracking genji's description of the technology.

then he asks her a direct question, and she snaps out of it. she hands him the tape. ]

Miami Vice, [ she announces. ] It's a movie, not a code or dangerous thing. [ help her, she doesn't know the difference between tv shows and movies. ]

[arcadedragon]

[Miami Vice. He takes the tape and looks at it. Miami is a place, Vice is a thing, he assumes it's about bad things that happen in Miami? He's never been to Florida he has no idea. But he's gotten the VCR to work so hey, time to give it a whirl. Fortunately for her, he is very used to being stared at, and she hasn't gotten that sad, pitying look on her face yet so he'll ignore it for now.]

Okay. It would make a good code though. Operation: Miami Vice.

[Which if judging from the opening scene would involve car chases and polyester suits. It looks like what would have happened if Maximilien had to shop at a thrift store instead of buying ten thousand dollar suits.

He kneels down on the ground by the tv to watch, wondering if maybe he messed something up when connecting all the cables because the image quality is bad and the screen resolution is a square instead of a rectangle.]

[enumerator]

[ arya nods solemnly. it would make a good code. to arya, "miami vice" has the right sort of ominous don't-fuck-with-me ring to it that is essential to the name of any battle tactic or assassin's guild.

once genji gets the video to work, arya sits cross-legged in front of the tv, her mouth open just a tiny bit. she's absolutely enthralled. the colors! the lights! the music! the men with the bright suits look so tough and their clothes never seem to get dirty! absolutely amazing. ]

Have you been to Miami? Is this what it's actually like? They're so...

[ arya bites her lip, searching for the right earth-word. ]

so cool!

[arcadedragon]

[Battle maneuver is even better. Something that would involve cars and quippy dialogue.]

No, I've not been to Florida, but I would not be surprised if it is like this.

[Florida has a reputation even in the year 2070. He smirks behind the mask, "Cool" is definitely not the word he'd use to describe two men in starchy pink shirts, but there is a certain appeal to it.]

I do not think being an undercover police officer is this glamorous in real life. It's probably more dangerous, and the music is not as good. Also I am guessing they always get the bad guy.

[That 80's soundtrack yo.]

[enumerator]

Of course they get the bad guy! Otherwise it wouldn't be a good story!

[ arya exclaims, like that's the most obvious things in the world. justice is extremely important to arya, and while she's learned time and again that it doesn't usually happen in the real world, she likes it to happen in her stories. she's idealistic in that way, like her sister. ]

The music is weird. [ arya adds, biting her lip, focusing. there's so much action happening; she has to pay attention!

during a slow bit, she asks: ] Are police officers like knights, in your world? You're from Earth, right?

[arcadedragon]

Not all stories have happy endings. But it is nice when it happens that way.

[The snazzy synthesizer music isn't really his jam either. But it fits with the ridiculous scenes they're watching.]

I am. Hm. Knights. They were used to fight battles, but police officers uphold laws. It is more about catching criminals and less about war. Less swords as well.

[Though in his time there's little difference since the whole world is practically at war.]

[enumerator]

It is.

[ arya says, staring at the screen, pointedly not looking at genji. she wishes it wasn't always the good people who got hurt in real life. but that's how it is, right? good people don't have that same kind of malice, that ability to hurt, and that's why they die.

arya thinks about what genji says for a moment, processing. ]

Maybe that's better. There are laws where I am from but so many ways to uphold them. And sometimes it's done in the wrong way, and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

[ except maybe vigilante justice! that's what arya has opted for, at any rate. ]

I like these law-people. They dress well and have good hair.

[arcadedragon]

It would also be nice if large problems could always be solved in thirty minutes with a musical montage. Most problems linger for far too long.

When it comes to defense, there's always something to be done, but often it's a losing battle so many don't try.

[This is getting kinda deep for watching Miami Vice.]

What do the police look like in your world?

[enumerator]

[ arya laughs. ]

You mean yours aren't? Then your music just isn't good enough!

[ arya punches the air, for demonstration. the conversation is getting deep, but she's having a good time.

it takes arya a moment to respond to genji's question. there are no police in westeros, but there are those who uphold the law, and the distinction is a little hazy for the local medieval preteen. ]

They don't look like anything. There are no police. There are the gold cloaks of the City Watch, in King's Landing, and they are kind of like police, sort of. In other places it's up to knights to uphold their Lord's law. Or swordspeople. Or worse. [ arya thinks about the faceless men. they're too hard to explain, so she moves on. ] But they protect the laws they want to protect. Really, it's up to you to protect yourself.

What are they like in yours?

[arcadedragon]

It's true. We definitely need better music.

[Lúcio where are you?]

They wear blue uniforms with little hats. Both people and Omnics. Robots. And they are supposed to protect people from harm and from each other and make sure laws are upheld. But there are situations they are not equipped for. And for that there's the military, and global forces like Overwatch to handle big world threatening events.

I was once in Overwatch, before it was disbanded.

[enumerator]

[ arya listens attentively -- or, well, as attentively as she's able, given that miami vice is so bright and loud and playing right in front of her. she looks at the men in the suits on the screen, and then back at genji. and then back at the men again. and then back to genji. is that why he has the bright green? are bright colors for fighters, on earth? ]

So you defend the whole world?

[ that's so cool. ]

a frosty little bird tells me these two have met before *^*

[hyperthermic]

[ Chronos has his helmet off. There's no reason he can think of to keep it on, not when there's no one here to hide his identity from. His armor, though, he keeps on. Even if it's cumbersome for day-to-day use. He's not nearly familiar enough with this place to write it off as safe.

He strides into the garage, curious himself what kind of gear this place has on offer. Their armory is archaic, compared to some of the technology he's seen around the place. It's an odd mix, Anchor.

The first thing he spots are the jeeps, and then the girl looking them over. He grunts, a thread of amusement in his voice when he speaks. ]

Pretty sure they don't make containment suits small enough for you, kid. You don't want to take that thing out of here.

omg hello!! yes they did :D

[enumerator]

[ when the man approaches, arya is busy trying to break into the jeep without breaking open a window. she's got a piece of scrap metal she's trying to use as a crowbar, but so far, she hasn't had much luck. she's glad she's got the makeshift crowbar now, though, because arya recognizes that voice. it's one she recognizes, but not one she likes.

arya swivels around, thrusting the crowbar towards mick. it's a warning. stay back, asshole. ]

I'll take it where I like. What are you going to do, set me on fire so I can't?

[ arya scoffs. of all the people from the clock to be here too, why him? ]

i am already delighted

[hyperthermic]

[ Chronos grunts, first surprised, then amused. He doesn’t recognize this girl, but that doesn’t mean much, as long as he’s been alive. Holdover from when he was Heat Wave? Time messing with things, or being messed with?

He mentally shrugs it off. ]

Got me wrong, runt. [ He draws out the last word, making the n almost elastic. ] Fire hasn’t been my thing for a long, long time.

[ Sure, he still loves an open flame, but that love has been buried under layers of conditioning ten feet thick. Chronos hasn’t been Mick Rory since the Time Masters pulled him out of that forest. ]

[enumerator]

[ something is off about mick, but arya can't quite place it yet. arya hasn't been called by that name for some time, now -- after the clock, she went back home for several months, and there, no one called her anything at all. so it's not strange, to arya, that mick only calls her "runt," and not by her name. besides, that's something the old mick would definitely say.

but arya can't imagine that he wouldn't like fire anymore. arya's shoulder tingles, and she claps one hand over it. underneath the robes, the skin there is twisted and mottled, the burn scar extending almost up to her neck. the old mick's work. ]

Why not? You seemed to enjoy burning enough, once. Enough to burn me.

[hyperthermic]

Did I? Don't remember you. Could've been another me. Another lifetime. Different version.

[ He shrugs expansively. ] Or it coulda been me.

[ Chronos slings his gun around onto his back, hooking it into place with the ease of practice. Taking his weapon out of the equation. As much of a peace offering as he ever makes. ] You the type to hold a grudge? [ A hooked smile, like he's making a joke. ] I can appreciate that.

[enumerator]

What do you mean, different version?

[ arya has a hard enough time wrapping her head around time travel, much less the idea of parallel universes or the existence of multiple instances of a single person.

arya sheaths her sword, understanding what chronos' gesture means. even so, she doesn't remove her hand from the hilt. ]

Not a grudge. I tried to kill your friend, and you tried to kill me. We are what your people call "square."

[hyperthermic]

[ His friend. He can only think of one person that statement would have applied to. A low growl. ]

If you mean Snart, I've got dibs on killing him this time.

[ He eyes her, suddenly a lot more intrigued. ] You actual kill some people?

[enumerator]

[ arya's defensive stance drops momentarily, her eyes going wide. mick rory, trying to kill leonard snart? arya doesn't understand. however she might have felt about those two, she always acknowledged that at the very least, they were a pack. ]

That doesn't make any sense. You two protect each other. I've seen it.

[ what happened, to make them hate each other? arya isn't sure, but whatever it was, it must have been awful.

arya's eyes narrow. chronos shouldn't like that she's a killer. he should be scared of her. ]

Some. I could kill you, if you aren't careful, so do not try me.

[hyperthermic]

A lot can happen in two hundred years, Shortstack.

[ He grunts, giving a tiny, hooked smile of approval. ]

That so? I'll watch my back. If you try and kill me, though, I'll have to try and kill you back.

[enumerator]

[ two hundred years? arya climbs on top of the jeep to get some height, squatting and leaning towards chronos to get a better look. he doesn't look two hundred years old. ]

You're a liar. If you were that old, your skin would be falling off your bones.

[ she leans back and crosses her arms, satisfied with her inspection. ]

I'm not a shortstack, you giant old-man oaf. Besides, you can't kill me if you're already dead.

[hyperthermic]

Doesn't matter to me if you believe it or not, runt. [ An expansive shrug. ] All that matters to me is that if you kill Snart before I get to him, I'll take it out of your hide.

[ He grins when she calls him an oaf, more teeth than amusement. ]

You're not the first to say so. [ A pause. ] Shortstack.

[ That's it that's her name now. ] Mmh. You asked what I meant by a different version. I mean different version like a different universe. Someone who looks like me but isn't me.

[enumerator]

So you want Snart dead...but you want to kill him yourself?

[ arya says, slowly, making sure she understands. she wants chronos to confirm that out loud, to be crystal clear. arya knows what it's like to want to kill someone personally. it's an angry feeling that chews away at your heart until there's nothing left, until there's just a hole where the heart should be. it's a feeling that creates its own pain, but is also a way of dealing with a hurt that is far, far worse.

arya cannot imagine what could happen to make mick rory feel that way towards leonard snart.

arya hates that name. she's not taking it on, not this one, and she frowns when chronos says it again. ]

A different universe? [ arya chews her lip. ] Do you think everyone has "different versions?"