test drive meme: december 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. santapocalypse.

As the suns set over the unforgiving landscape around Anchor, a bright light flares in the sky, streaking low and fast across the horizon, throwing off flares of green, white, and red.

The impact...is not explosive. Just another flare of light, and then smoke to mark where the object went down. Whatever it was, it didn't come from the redshift. It came from within the planet's atmosphere, such as it is, and landed barely a few steps outside the city.

Characters who choose to investigate will find something strange at the bottom of the pillar of smoke. They'll find a small ship, one that seems to have been cobbled together with pieces of a dozen different ships from a dozen different universes. The cockpit is busted wide open, a red jacket caught on a piece of glass, with no other sign of the pilot. Except for, y'know, the red ringing the broken glass, but we'll just ignore that, shall we?

Scattered all around the vehicle, some of them scorched on the outside but otherwise unharmed, are boxes, boxes, boxes. None are bigger than a shoebox, and all wrapped beautifully with bows on top. Characters who start opening them will find box after box containing nonsense items that might be valuable to someone, but maybe not anyone here. But if they open enough, eventually they'll find something inside that could only be intended for them, it’s so specific, odd, or precious. Any other box they open after that will be empty.

Those that dare enter will find the ship appears larger on the inside. And it also seems to be mostly made of hallways. Hallways that lead nowhere, hallways that, from time to time, are filled with an ominous...jingling.

The source of that jingling is the reindire.

Twisted, monstrous creatures with talons in place of hooves, they will hunt whoever enters the ship through its halls and even back across the wasteland should characters attempt to run. Most of them can be calmed, even tamed. Eaten, if hunting for venison is your character's jam (have at, SSSSs).

Only one cannot be reasoned with, or easily defeated.

The largest of all the reindire, one with fangs and wings and a lust for blood. And a big red nose that shoots lasers. You wouldn't want it following you back to Anchor, would you? Best to defeat it out in the sands, where it can't do any real harm.

b. keep calm & carry on.

As characters have worked on improving the city, they've knocked a few loose screws back into place and rewired a few polarities that needed reversing and now, a new area has opened up. It announces itself with a loud screech as the bulkheads that kept it blocked off open up. The new space is huge, at first seemingly empty.

This space does what the VR rooms can't. It reads minds.

It won't show scenes from home, no, but it will create a facsimile of a place that your character would find most relaxing. And this isn't the simple visual experience of the VR rooms. This is full-sensory immersion. Characters will see, yes, but also be able to touch, smell, even taste what's on the air in their surroundings. If there is fruit, they can pick and eat it - it won't satisfy them, but they'll be able to taste what's there. If there's water, they'll be able to swim it in, and will even feel wet until they climb back onto the shore or out of the pool.

Some lucky souls will even get Anchor's therapy AI chiming in to their scenes, with suggestions like, "Talk to your anxiety the way you would to a friend. Ask it where it comes from, see what it’s doing for you, and redirect it into healthy self-expression." Or, "Have you tried yoga?" or, occasionally, "I think you really really need a nap."

The focus of the room is to help characters relax. Those rolling blackouts that have been happening around Anchor ever since the room opened up? They’re probably nothing to worry about. Right?

c. the network.

Need to get hold of someone, call for help, ask the city at large a question? Need to ask a friend to back you up on the reindire hunt? 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

[mustact]

He covers Jacob's hand briefly with his own, giving it a gentle squeeze before he turns back around and braces both hands against the branch. Perhaps even more than the familiar view and his beloved village below, the fresh air is rejuvenating. A gust of wind tugs at his hair, and he closes his eyes as he breathes it in. How a room can create something that feels so real, he's not sure he could ever hope to understand.

But it's good.

They'll be all right.

"Has the room shown you anything?"

[nothinglikefather]

Its good to see Connor so happy, so perfectly at home somewhere. He had seen him at the wheel of the Jackdaw, and he had seemed to have something similar there.

But nothing quite like this. Nothing that was this at ease. Perhaps that's how people are, when they get a taste of home.

"Haven't had the chance to try, yet. Wasn't completely sure it was safe, so I'm glad you've tested it out."

Would he see London? Or some vision of Crawley? Good god, he hopes not. He's left that place far behind.

[mustact]

He makes a sound of recognition as he opens his eyes again, looking thoughtfully into the sky for a while. Wonder how far this reaches? Surely, if you walk in one direction, you have to eventually walk into a wall.

"Shall we explore?"

[nothinglikefather]

You would think that but perhaps there's some technology in place to prevent that happening. After all, they must still be in the floor now but... Jacob feels like he's high up in the branches of a tree.

"I think you should show me round." The forest and the place in general. This is, after all, his first sight of America.

"Is the whole country like this?"

[mustact]

Of course, he wonders that too. He hadn't climbed this tree. It had simply come into being beneath his feet. Yet his feet are somehow hanging off the edge of the branch, and when he slips down to instead grip onto it with his hands and drop down the another branch below, that works too.

Perhaps it's like the crystal that Juno spoke to him through. He stayed in one place but it felt like he had flown great distances. Still, the room had seemed big enough to be meant to fit all of this in it ...

He doesn't understand, but he thinks perhaps it's best not to wonder too much. Perhaps Angel could provide an explanation.

"No. It is a big country. South is warmer and does not have the same forests we do here."

[nothinglikefather]

"Big enough for people to settle down in their own spot and not have to bother anyone else?"

That's a rhetorical question, as no piece of land or country seems big enough to satisfy some people. They know that all too well. Land is money, and money is power.

He follows Connonr's example, climbing down the tree rather than giving in to his urge to jump and roll on impact. It would probably hurt, if the hallucination they're sharing didn't react to them quickly enough. Besides, it's Connor's hallucination, if he's not thinking about the bottom of the tree, who knows if it's there yet? Best stay close, until he understands how this thing works.

[mustact]

"No." He pauses for a moment, as he makes his way down another couple of branches, and finally reaches the ground. "I do not think it was ever big enough for that."

He knows that different tribes have fought each other long before the colonists arrived here. There is a reason the Haudenosaunee was created. In the hope that it would serve to prevent more war. Humans never seem to quite get along as well as he'd like.

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob makes a noise of agreement, and drops down next to the taller man, dusting his hands-free of bark dust, moss and general tree-dirt. "Templars or not, that's humanity for you."

Not that Templars help, mind.

"Lead the way. Forests all look the same to me."

[mustact]

Despite the rather grim conversation, his lips twitch upwards slightly at the idea that 'all forests look the same'. He supposes if one hasn't grown up in it, they would do. Trees as far as the eyes can see. Cities have far more landmarks.

He's been hesitant about going down into the village, worried about what this false reality might conjure up, but with family at his side ... Maybe he can.

And so, he starts walking further down into the valley.

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob wasn't about to suggest they go anywhere specifically- he doesn't know what is out here, after all. But if Connor wants to go to the village, Jacob will go with him. Maybe it'll be okay, maybe this is the glimpse of home and past he needs. Jacob couldn't do it himself, go back to Crawley, but then again, does he have very many happy memories of the place?

Maybe that is why the room showed him London, with all its opportunity and room to explore, even if he had only just left the real thing.

[mustact]

"Our people, especially the children, were not allowed to leave this valley. We did not feel it was safe outside, with the colonists so close. We did not trust them."

But they weren't lacking. He hadn't felt any need or want to leave it. His friends and family were all in the village, and it was all he knew. For a while, when he was younger, maybe he felt frustrated that he couldn't explore further. That changed as he got older.

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob looks around- the trees still hide most of the valley, but from what they saw from the high branch, this valley isn't enormous. Large, yes, and certainly very pretty. Pristine, really.

But you'd explore it fairly quickly if you were a curious kid.

"Doesn't anyone ever leave?"

[mustact]

"Eventually we had no choice. After the colonists won the war, the new government started selling land to earn money." He pauses for a moment, lips pressing together in a grimace. "I killed one of the Templars to stop the land being sold. Then it was sold anyway."

Not that it makes much of a difference, he supposes. Eventually, he would probably have been given another reason to kill Johnson. Even so, it feels ... pointless.

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob knows this happened. Distantly, he has been told that native land was claimed by white Americans, parceled up and sold off. Its history to him.

But its painful, to be here, to see the place and speak to someone who witnesses it and see the pain on their face. Especially someone you care about.

"I'm sorry Connor." What else can he say? He can't make it go away. It can't be fixed, they both know that.

[mustact]

"Me too."

There isn't really anything to say. It's simply the way it is, and it seems it doesn't matter who 'won' the war because, in the end, his people were not seen as people, but were expendable and could be moved and removed for any reason. All he can hope for now is that wherever they've gone, they're safe. That they have found somewhere else to call home for the time-being.

"If I did not have the Brotherhood and my own land to attend to, I might have gone looking for them."

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob nods, walking alongside the man in silence for a little while. It's a rare treat, and he's not sure anything he can say in that moment will do anything- he can only hope that should they ever end up back in their own worlds, Connor does find his people. Just as he hopes Charles finds his.

But that will mean, one day, that they're all split up again. Jacob knows that when he was home, he had no memory of them. He doesn't want to go through that again, no matter how selfish that makes him.

They near the village, and he can hear voices, children playing, adults talking. It sounds... happy.

[mustact]

The sound of people, of life, makes Ratonhnhaké:ton immediately nervous. He's not certain what to expect, but even if his shoulders tense a little, it's not too obvious.

He makes his way to the opening in the walls around the village, absently raising a hand to run his fingers along the wood. It has been months and months since he's been here. He hasn't wanted to visit while it was empty. Not that there is any point in visiting an empty village, to him.

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob puts a hand on Connor's shoulder, a silent sign of support. He's not alone, he's got friends and family beyond the walls of this village. If he doesn't want to do this, they can end the illusion and go back into Anchor and find Angel and Charles, talk it through and if need be, come back all together.

But Connor doesn't seem like he wants to turn back, he seems like he wants to savour this memory, to take in all the details. Jacob will wait, and take his cue from the other assassin.

[mustact]

The hand on his shoulder makes him stop for a moment, to throw a look over his shoulder with a very slight smile. He's all right, really. Despite all that happened, his people made it out alive, and that's something he reminds himself of often.

He doesn't linger for too long, and soon enough they pass the inner wall and reach the village. While there are some adults not far from them, their conversation is indistinct, and he doesn't recognise them, nor the children who run past chasing each other. But that's fine. He wouldn't want to see anyone he knows and not be able to talk to them. So instead of thinking too much about that, he starts making his way towards one of the longhouses.

[nothinglikefather]

Jacob is normally all for exploring in his own, but he has to keep in mind that this place isn't real. If he goes too far from Connor, will the hallucination stop? Will he start seeing London? Best not to chance it. Besides, he's here to support his fellow assassin. Connor will show him round, if he asked.

But he seems to have purpose to his strides, as he often does, and so Jacob will follow.

"This is how you remember it last?" He asks, as London is reasonably static, unchanging as far as its landmarks go. He wonders if the same is true of such a small place.

[mustact]

"Everything but the people, yes."

When he reaches the entrances to the longhouse he used to live in, he slows to a stop and puts his hand on the doorway. The fire burns in the same place it did when Oiá:ner showed him the crystal. It's strange to see it burn at all, because for months back home, it hasn't.

"This is where I lived."

[nothinglikefather]

That seems odd, very odd. But perhaps its also a blessing, that none of these people are going to bring back painful memories for Connor. This is probably bitter sweet enough as it is.

Maybe Angel will have some idea why it doesn't replicate people. Maybe that's too complicated. And none of them seem to notice them, or if they do they don't react. Again, probably a blessing.

He follows Connor into the house, and he can't pretend he's ever seen anything like it. No furniture, no chimney pot, no pictures on the walls. Not even peeling paint.

"You and your mother?" He asks, knowing very little about Connor's life, apart from about his father.

[mustact]

He nods.

"And the clan mother, and a few other people." He sits down on the shelf next to the fireplace, pulling his legs up and crossing them in front of him. "This is where I slept."

It's been years since he's been inside this house. Even if he might have passed the village since his people left, he's had no interest in going further. This is strange, but in a way, it's nice to show someone he cares about how he used to live.

[nothinglikefather]

"Is the Clan mother a leader, or a grandma?" He asks, squatting down by the fire. The smoke seems to naturally find it's way up to the roof, so the room is surprisingly clear, warm, and cosy.

He rather likes it, despite the fact it's completely different to what he imagined Connor's village to be like. He'd always imagined conical tents on rolling plains, but perhaps that's something else, some other tribe.

"It's a lot different to the place I grew up in," Completely the opposite to the house in Crawley, in fact. Maybe that's why he likes this so much.

[mustact]

He huffs quietly in amusement, not because it's necessarily a strange question, but ... It sounds innocent somehow.

"A leader," he says, and studies Jacob's face for a moment, trying to decide if he should ask at all. "What was it like where you grew up?"