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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
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
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
[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.
no subject
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?
no subject
[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.
no subject
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?