redmarsshit | 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.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Did you not see the video?" There's a beat of silence, and then Jack lifts his head from where it's resting on a folded towel at the edge of the spa while a pair of very tiny bots massage his shoulders. "That wasn't rhetorical. I'm honestly asking, because it was more or less informative and if you didn't, I should probably paraphrase."

Not moving, though. This feels too nice, He has been stuck on a decaying space station for too long, and baths are a gift from Heaven - or they would be, if Heaven existed. They are a gift from someone someplace, and he's gratefully accepting it, is the point. He allows his head to fall back against the folded towel, and lets out a contented little sigh.

"Video?" Jacob frowns. "There was some old man talking about... something."

He wasn't interested. He doesn't normally bother about public service announcements of any sort, and he tends to have fairly selective hearing even when communications are aimed directly at him.

"Look. I don't really care about... magistrates or whatever problems this place has or whatever monsters want to eat everyone. I want to get back to my friends. If you can tell me how to do that, that'll suit me down to the ground."

Jack chuffs out a little laugh, but leans forward all the same. "Little lower, darling." That's for the bots, who obligingly begin working down his spine.

"I think you mean that charming distinguished gentleman in the fabulous coat." Not that he's biased or anything, about those older distinguished gentlemen with the fabulous coats. "Unfortunately for you, I'm sorry to say, that a big part of his explanation was the fact that we're stuck here. We've faded out of our reality, and into this one. Maybe we'll fade back, maybe we won't. There might be answers to be found, but I'm guessing that if it was that easy to go back, everyone who's been here longer than we have would have done it by now."

Darling makes an eyebrow shoot up, and Jacob can't help but think of Roth for a brief, unpleasant moment.

He takes a breath, letting it go. There are more important things.

Like the fact that he's here for the duration, just like with the City.

"Right. Who is it keeping us here? Some crazy autocrat?" That he can deal with, as long as his weapons aren't confiscated. He can kill them, find out what traps them, and go back to his friends. And obviously free all these other folk.

"Well, I think the answer to that question is either 'no one is actively keeping us here' or it's going to be very difficult to find, as it's being presented as a natural phenomenon. You can take your pick on that one." A beat of near silence broken only by the low grumble in Jack's chest as he feels the tension leaving his very tight shoulders. "If it's any consolation at all, and I know it probably isn't, the idea of fading from one dimension to another isn't unheard of. In fact, it's more common than most people think. Depressingly so. It's pretty likely that the offered explanation might be entirely honest. For all the good that does us."

Jacob sighs.

"This is not my first time being dragged away from the place I was before." Not home, because London isn't a home unless the people he cares about are there. His sister is but not Charles or Connor or Angel.

And as far as he knows, they aren't in this place either. But he has to make sure before he tries fighting his way back to City of Sin and tracking them all down.

"I don't believe things happen by accident. Something dragged us here. We just need to figure out what and how."

"Yeah. The shift. The fading from one reality to the next? You're... not going to just accept that, are you?" His day is about to get much less zen. Jack considers this for a bit, and then he points at Jacob, relaxed hand waggling slightly, emphasis for his own benefit. "You... are young." He doesn't say it as though it's a bad thing, and he doesn't look that much older than Jacob. Not the point. "Young enough to still believe that there's no such thing as a coincidence. I've got a secret for you. The universe is made up entirely of accidents, with the tiniest little sprinkling of reason, just to keep things interesting and maddening."

Doesn't look like he's accepting that. Right.

At that moment, a little bot comes trundling back bearing a pile of Jacob's clothing. A coincidence, not fate. Just a random confluence of time. "I suppose this means we're going exploring?"

Jacob raises a brow again, because no. He isn't going to accept that. Neither does he like his age being pointed out- too many people disregard he and Evie because of their age, and while being underestimated never hurt, it does rub him the wrong way.

"Where I'm from, there's no such thing." He says flatly. The Isu or the Templars always have a hand in it somewhere, anything that looks like an accident of any importance almost certainly isn't.

When his clothes arrive he begins pulling them on, many Victorian layers before belts and weapons and finally the gauntlet and peaked cap.

"I'm going exploring. You can come if you want, but you seemed to be enjoying yourself."

And Jacob doesn't need dead wood following him, making him slow down, unable to follow or fight if it comes to it. He has no ides what lies beyond the baths but he's bloody well finding out.

Jack gets out of the bath, completely naked and entirely unfazed by that fact. He takes his time toweling off, hating the feel of clean clothes against damp skin. "Must be nice. A universe of pure cause and effect. Mine is nothing but endless chaos." He's still even with Jacob when it comes to the final layers, even with his decidedly less urgent approach. The ease of the zipper fly. He swings the greatcoat around himself and onto his body with a practiced motion that looks almost artful.

"Not going to enjoy myself if you end up lost or dead. You're the only other person I've seen here so far. Loneliness is the real killer. Death by boredom." Suspenders, single belt for a simple holster, and the city issue phone clipped on as though he's always worn it there. The last thing he pulls on is a pair of heavy boots, what some might call shit-kickers.

Jacob's almost dressed when the man pulls himself out of the water, wet skin and muscle glistening in the low, relaxing spa light. He's good looking, and Jacob has seen a fair share of naked men in his time not to be shocked or offended.

He does have a certain grace as well as being good looking, although Jacob has always been more attracted to powerful personalities and praise. Still, there was a time he wouldn't have said no to exploring right where they were. But now he has Charles, and everyone falls short in comparison.

He has to find him.

"I don't intent to get bored. Are you done?" He says, because he is, and sitting still and waiting has never been one of his strong suits. There's a door, on the opposite side of the room to the one they entered by, and Jacob heads for it, full of restless energy.

When Jacob asks if he's done, Jack sweeps his hand in a universal (multi-universal?) gesture of after you, and then follows him out the door at the far end of the room.

He's like a tiger in a cage. Coiled restless energy. Jack has to wonder if he was ever that full of fire.

"Where do you want to start? Back at the arrival room? Probably a good idea to watch the video, even if it turns out to be a nothing but lies. Knowing what people want you to believe, and why they might want you to believe it, it sometimes ends up being more valuable than you think." It's also a place to start. Though wandering around isn't a bad way to kill time, either.

test drive meme: november 2019

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