test drive meme: november 2019

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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

[theweakhavepurpose]

Pratt blinks as the robots drag someone past him, obviously heading for the spa. They hadn't been so aggressive with him or anyone else he'd seen, but then again he also showered daily. Maybe they'd found someone who needed a good dunk. But the way they're struggling and trying to escape is unsettling to him. He doesn't want to see anyone suffer, there's been too much of that already.

"Hey. Hey! Put him down."

He grabs one of the robots and yanks him away harshly, a lot stronger than his emaciated form would indicate. The words floating over his head get a weird look but honestly, with all the other stuff he's seen, it's not even in the top ten for strange things here.

"Come on, get off him."

[0thingsonmymind]

He probably needs a good cleaning, or at least the blood-stained hoodie he's wearing does. He'd prefer it on his own terms, though!

Pratt's intervention allows him to dart free of the robots. He quickly makes sure the other man is between him and the robots.

The text changes to
donot want
spa
go a way

[theweakhavepurpose]

Pratt shoves the robots away a little more aggressively than he needs to, but the guy is sort of hiding behind him, and he'll protect this weird floaty text person.

"You okay?"

The robots give up on this lost cause, heading off to go harass someone else and Pratt turns to look at who he rescued. "How are you doing that?"

[0thingsonmymind]

He backs away from Pratt once the robots have left and nods.

magic
iwish ed for

[theweakhavepurpose]

Sure. That's makes about as much sense as everything else. Why not.

"You okay though? I'm Deputy Pratt." He doesn't move to get closer, or try to touch him, because it's clear that whoever this is wants to be even further away. "Just get here?"

[0thingsonmymind]

iam
fine

He nods. He hasn't been here long at all.

iam call ed
brian

[theweakhavepurpose]

Alright, that's a start.

"Come on, let's get away from the spa before they spot us again. Want something to eat?" Because Pratt is hungry pretty much all the time. He knows that just arriving in a strange place is unsettling and he assumes the last thing Brian wants to do is eat, but can't hurt to try. Maybe some normalcy will be reassuring?

He's not very good at being the welcoming committee.

[0thingsonmymind]

He nods eagerly; no more robots plskthx. And he'll always take food, if not to eat now then to store away for later.

He has no idea where to go, though, so he'll wait for Pratt to lead the way.

[theweakhavepurpose]

Pratt inclines his head, indicating for Brian to follow him towards the kitchen. Cho is often cooking, and Genji made a bunch of soup - so there's bound to be something edible.

"There's a kitchen and a dining hall, there's usually food around which is probably the only good thing about this place. I'll show you where the rooms are if you want to hole up in one until the robots stop doing... whatever it is they're doing. They get like this and then they stop. I dunno what's wrong with them." Robots are new to him, especially ones like this. He saw his first roomba while here so he can't even begin to fathom how these things work.

[0thingsonmymind]

He follows, glancing over his shoulder now and then to make sure no robots are heading towards them. So far so good.

He nods, please show him somewhere robot free.

ro bots are of ten
prob lems

Well, the ones he didn't know where robots were fine. The ones he did know were robots mostly sucked.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Do they have a lot where you're from? The only robots we have back home are the ones that like... automate factories. Not sentient things. There's even a few robot people here - who are different from these weird maintenance robots that wanna force feed us sugar or bathe us or whatever." Pratt usually avoids the robots if possible, they tend to make things more difficult than they need to be. Usually he just wants coffee but they'll insist on trying to give him goop or soap or all kinds of other random things.

He heads into the kitchen, opening one of the cupboards to see what all is in there, "What do you want to eat? There's some chips and crackers and stuff. But there's also actual food in the fridge if you want a sandwich or something."

[0thingsonmymind]

notwhere iam
from
but wherei
was

He didn't see them all that often, but assumed the spider-robots in Norfinbury were everywhere.

He never really thought about what he ever wanted to eat. So he just follows after Pratt as the other man rummages, occasionally stuffing packages of food in his mailbag.

[theweakhavepurpose]

He can relate to that, thinking that this guy might be a fellow prepper. When he first arrived in Hadriel he basically cleared out the shelves of canned corn and build himself a fort in his house.

"Are those words tangible? Like are they actual things? Do you hit them on doorframes?" Okay so that might not be the most pressing matter to ask about, but he's really curious. He's not going to try and touch them even though he wants to, but he's really wondering how that works. "You got a phone and the speech from what's his name in the wall right?"

[0thingsonmymind]

He'd make a good prepper. He has being off the grid down (well, except for youtube maybe) and he hasn't gotten over the 'horde food, you never know when you will get more' habit from Norfinbury.

theyare just
words

They can't be touched. He pokes them to show; its basically just a magic hologram.

He nods and takes out the communicator. He's been over the network but hasn't done much with it. Yet.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Good. That's step one. Now we need to get you a place to live. Unless you don't want that?" Some people don't and he absolutely doesn't get it. Having a safe place to sleep at night where you're not going to wake up with a knife in your ribs is probably the most important thing after having enough food to not starve.

"So if you need to contact anyone, you can use that. Sorta like a phone. But with less video games."

[0thingsonmymind]

He hasn't been through his place enough to figure out where people are living. Or even supposed to live.

dojust
sleep
any where ?

He assumes its more like Norfinbury where everyone just took what they got instead of the Meadous where everyone got a house. He woke up in the house in the Meadous, after all, and he wasn't sleeping in that arrival room here. Too many robots.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"There's rooms. I'll show you. There's still quite a few empty ones so you don't have to share. But I guess eventually that's gonna be a problem. There's more than one bed in mine so I guess it's supposed to house a bunch of people, but that'll .. kind of suck." Pratt is not someone that does well in close proximity with others. He hadn't enjoyed it before the cult and he definitely doesn't now. He doesn't even really like the plain metal walls - reminds him way too much of Jacob's bunker.

"There's also a bar. A spa. Kitchens and dining hall."

[0thingsonmymind]

He shakes his head. If he has to room with people he'd rather not. Not that he has a better idea of what to do when he needs to sleep.

donot wantto
share

donot
trust

Anyone here, yet.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"No that's fair. I still don't know everyone here and I've been here half a year. Though they seem to be trying to make a little community. Well, most of them." There's always going to be a few problems and troublemakers. But as far as he knows no one has tried to kill each other - so that's a win in his book.

"Come on, we'll get you a place. Or you can at least look at them." Pratt gestures him to follow, heading towards the sort of barracks where most of the rooms are located. "I mean I guess you could live anywhere. No one would stop you. But these have bathrooms so..."

[0thingsonmymind]

Oh yeah, a bathroom would be nice. It was nice having his own in the Meadous. He nods and follows.

howmany
are
?

How many people, he means. Or maybe bathrooms. Who knows.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"People?" He's going to guess he means people and he's not some bathroom connoisseur who wants to try them all.

"Thirty I think? I haven't counted lately, but if you just showed up then there's probably more, people tend to come in a big group all at once. I think that's how the teleporter works? It pulls in a bunch and then goes offline and then comes back and pulls in more."

[0thingsonmymind]

He nods. Pratt guessed correctly!

Thirty, though...is that a lot? There had been a lot in Norfinbury but they were mostlu spread out so it was okay. He's not sure how may were in the Meadous...

how big is
?

And how easily can he avoid these 30ish people.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Way bigger than it looks. A buncha floors and they're all pretty spread out. I've been here half a year and there's still new places I'm finding." And there's people he hasn't met but that's more because he keeps to himself. He hunts and he brings his catch to the kitchen and that's about all the interaction he gets.

He leads them down a hallway, hitting buttons on the wall to try and open doors. "If anyone lives in them they should be locked. Or I'm going to barge in on some random people and feel like a jerk or -- ah. Here we go. Empty one."

The door opens up, revealing a pretty basic barracks style bunkroom.

[0thingsonmymind]

Hm. That implies he'll have plenty of space to hide in. Good.

He peeks into the room past Pratt. It reminds him of the bunker back at Norfinbury...he's not sure if that's good or bad, really.

arethey all li ke
this
?

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Pretty much. Some have two beds. Some have four. But they all look about the same." A little claustrophobic for his tastes, but better than being out in the open. Locked doors can't deter everything, but they certainly give the illusion of security.

"Why? Want something specific?"