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Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redmarsshit2019-12-24 10:36 pm

test drive meme: december 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. 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.



circumitus: I held one once. Then I washed my hands and rinsed my mouth out with wine. (babies are disgusting)

[personal profile] circumitus 2020-01-28 08:56 am (UTC)(link)
The sudden shift in not only the room, but everything else has her hackles raised at first, and Rey isn't sure what to make of this stranger. Her entire appearance alters and she can't help but wonder which is the real version, or if they're both one and the same, much like Rey herself and her past selves...

For a moment she inclines her head to just stare at the now-winged woman, eyes widened as she retreats a step. This is exactly the kind of thing that she was afraid of when she first came here -- the possibility that none of this is real. That it's all just a simulation put into her mind by IV, in some sick and twisted method of torture to wriggle her way into Rey's brain.

Against her better judgement, she moves forward instead, drawn by curiosity and the beckoning gesture.

"What are you doing?"

This isn't just the AI in this room, is it?
circumspector: (( pleased )  » kept to all my lines)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-01 08:50 am (UTC)(link)
"This is who I used to be, a long time ago, now, I suppose. The room is just giving me that appearance because this is who I used to be."

She shrugs, unending in her calm, her removal, her soft tone. Coaxing like a guide, a friendly hand on the shoulder.

"I understand you're scared of the technology, but don't be in this scenario. I was given powers, once that meant I manipulated technology by my sheer thoughts alone."
circumitus: Seriously. Its 80 proof rum that was 8 bucks for a liter. I'm afraid. (you don't want any of i have)

[personal profile] circumitus 2020-02-04 07:46 am (UTC)(link)
"You misunderstand," Rey says calmly, her arms hugging over her chest, shoulders squared and tense. She isn't angry; doesn't let her emotions get the best of her. How could she expect someone who doesn't know her, or the history of her world, to just get it?

Save for maybe the AI in this room, which Rey does everything she can to try and shut it out of her own cybernetic brain. Her father may be a flawed man, may be the cause of the state of the world as it is, but Lucas Coffey has centuries of experience with technology to have safely secured that part of Rey's cerebral coding from third party interference. It should be safe. Should be...

"It's not the technology itself. Hell, am part of that technology," she continues, deciding that she at least owes some examination. "It's what someone intends to do with that technology. Use it to control people. Control you. Make you do whatever they want, even things you never wanted to do." Her jaw tightens, fingers clench, nails dig into her sides and she seethes between her biting teeth as she forces herself to admit: "There is nothing worse than being a prisoner inside your own body."

It'd been that way for most of her lives. It should be different, but she can't help but worry that there might be a vulnerability that can be exploited someday. That she'd have been better off dead than to take that risk.
circumspector: (( mmhm ) » you hold onto me)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-03-05 02:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Angel presses her lips together.

"Then technology never had anything to do with it. It's just like people. It just is. I did the things you're afraid. Technology helped, but not really. I got into their heads, and I did it with only my voice, I got them to do terrible things."

Witb, and this the greatest of all sins - love. "That isn't technologies affliction, that is the measure of a person. Toold are tools, it's who we are when we hold them that matters."