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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
As for the dude? Maybe. I mean, I see a lot of faces, and he did seem kinda familiar. Mostly I was gettin' annoyed because he kept crying about his mom.
no subject
[ 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?
no subject
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!
sorry this took ages!
That sounds really stressful. Was it?
Some people have mentioned that emotions are sort of different in dreams and can be really intense.
no worries
It made more sense at the time.
And... hmm. I've had worse dreams, for sure. Although this one did end with a somethin' of a boom.
no subject
If I was trying to concentrate and someone was wailing at me as if I'd already failed, I would feel pretty underestimated and irritated.
[ People not taking him or his skills seriously and acting like he's useless is kind of a Thing for Reynir, so he can understand Majima's feelings here, he thinks. ]
So are you saying you died in the dream, but there was NO effect on your actual body?
[ Look, Reynir's ideas about dreaming are mostly shaped by the only kinds of dreams he has had, in which he definitely could really be harmed in a way that would impact his body in the real world. ]
no subject
[ But perhaps Reynir didn't want to hear about spooky urban legends and whatnot. Probably he didn't. ]
Didn't even really feel the blast; I woke up right when it happened, safe and sound. But why all the interest?
no subject
I probably won't have even heard of it.
And what do you mean, not officially?
[ Surprise, that's EXACTLY what Reynir wants to hear. ]
Because I've never had a dream. Not like the kind of dream you're talking about.
I'm a mage, and where I come from, that means, when I'm asleep, I go to... another place. Sort of a separate realm. But when I'm there, it's like I'm awake. Just in a place where the rules are a bit different. So I'm trying to learn more, about what makes my kind of dream and your kind of dreams different.
no subject
[ A bit of hesitation, then: ]
On Earth.
So you're like some kinda dreamwalker? What's the difference between a mage and a witch?
[ This sound, presumably, was the opening of a giant goddamn can of worms. ]
no subject
[ That least, he's heard of Japan. And he'd seen that small part of it that had been Genji's home, when it was brought through by the shift. That wasn't Tokyo, though. Unless Hanamura was a neighborhood or something IN Tokyo. Honestly, there's still a lot Reynir doesn't know. But he knows a hell of a lot more than he had before he'd come here. ]
I'm from Earth too, though probably a different one than yours.
[ He's just guessing since Majima doesn't know about mages. And also he's, like, alive. ]
Witches are mean old ladies. Mages can be anyone that the gods choose.
no subject
[ Although he probably would be one, lbr. He was still more classy than trashy glam. ]
So it's got somethin' to do with divine intervention, huh? Can't say that leaves me with a much clearer picture than before. Dreams ain't really my specialty, either.
no subject
If that's true it must mean something really different in your world.
How would YOU define a witch?
Yes, mages get their powers from the gods.
They don't have to be your specialty.
The whole point is that I wanted perspective from somebody normal.
no subject
Uh
For me it was someone who was mindin' their own damn business when I got sucked into a mirror and then they told me I'd better start hittin' the spellbooks.
But hey, I'm as normal as anyone. It's almost abnormal how normal I am.
[ ....................... ]
no subject
Who is 'they' that was telling you this? You spoke to your gods?
[ Not everything is because of Odin, Reynir, chill. ]
Well now I'm a lot more interested in this than I was in dreams.
Are witches common in your world? Did you already have spellbooks?
Are there schools that help to train new witches?
Does everyone have to pass through a mirror to receive their powers?
no subject
It might be better to say that I went through it. I came out the other side in some city I'd never been before, where they'd never heard of Earth. There was a coven that found us and explained what witches did, and they had the ones of us with magic learn how to use it their way.
As far as witches went, there were some that came through the mirror and some who were born there, in Aefenglom.
no subject
[ Reynir had come straight here from his own world but he has spoken to enough people here to know that he is in the minority, for that. ]
Why did they train you? Did you have a choice or was it compulsory?
no subject
Plus, if we don't work off that magic, it accumulates. And then it starts to overflow, which is a whole other problem. The same goes for here, I have to keep usin' it.
I guess the same ain't true for you?
no subject
[ THAT SOUNDS VERY INCONVENIENT SIR ]
No, it doesn't work like that for mages in my world.
I didn't even realize I was a mage until this past year, nothing accumulated or anything.
The only real clue was the never dreaming thing.
What happens when it overflows?
[ Reynir doesn't stop to consider this might be kind of a rude question. ]
no subject
[ Hard for Majima to imagine having magic and not feeling... something. ]
What happens? Ya explode.
no subject
It's not like there's only one way of being a mage even in the world I come from. I've got some friends who are from Finland and they do something I guess you'd call casting a spell
It's sort of more like poetry, though, asking the gods or the elements to give them strength or behave a certain way.
Whereas I don't really do all that. My thing is more drawing runes that have specific effects.
I don't think I could mess up the shape of a rune badly enough that I could turn someone into an animal.
You LITERALLY explode?!
You're not pranking me about this whole thing, are you?
This is for real?