test drive meme: december 2019

[modblob]

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

Kylo Ren | Star Wars (TLJ) | canon fresh

[killthepast]

a. this ain't your grandma's Life Day
He comes out to the wreckage seeking anything useful. Information. Supplies. Salvageable parts. What Ren doesn't expect is all of these boxes littering the crash site, prettily wrapped, if scorched and battered from the impact. Was the pilot a courier of some kind?

(Or were they a smuggler?)

The gifts are curious things. Something attached to them, some sentiment, some sense of belonging, radiates out into the Force. And there's one box in particular that calls to him. It's familiar, in a way that cuts, that finds that weak, fractured part of his heart and drives itself in.

It's a gift meant for Ben Solo.

Jaw clenching, he wraps his fingers around his lightsaber and stalks into the ship, his stride purposeful. A man on a mission-- or maybe he's just an overgrown boy spoiling for a fight.

SO COME FIND KYLO REN HUNTING REINDIRE.

b. 404 not found
The relaxation room doesn't really know what to do with him. Any potential scenario, any calming place from memory, comes so loaded with baggage that it's liable to make him grief-stricken, guilt-ridden, or enraged and smashing things.

(Maybe that should be Kylo Ren's happy place: a room on the Finalizer with endless consoles to smash... ALAS. Doesn't really fit the theme here.)

So, anyone who happens to walk in on Kylo in the room will just find it... well. Looking like its default state, while the helpful AI pleads: "Please just take a nap."

c. ¿dónde está santa claus? (network; un: ren)
Has anyone located the body of the pilot?
The one with the red jacket, and the gifts.

[ Look, I just want people to troll Kylo Ren about Santa Claus, is that too much to ask. ]

[hyperthermic]

Chronos doesn't know why he makes his way back to the relaxation room.

He tells himself he doesn't want to see that warehouse again, with its collection of mismatched furniture, with Leonard's collection of books to one side and the worktable and tools that belonged to Mick Rory to another.

That isn't what he gets, when he steps into the room. What he gets is the AI saying "Thank goodness," and a spreading carpet of fire around him, not close enough to touch, not close enough to burn, but close enough that he can feel its heat. It ripples up the walls of the room, turning the place into a hotbox around the tall, black-clad man standing at its center.

[killthepast]

Ren exhales, opening his eyes as another man enters the room. No, he wasn't napping, despite the AI's insistence. Kylo Ren doesn't nap. (Which is why the AI really, seriously thinks he ought to take one.) But he was meditating, seeking answers from the Dark Side. A place like Anchor, still bearing the scars of conflict and death, ought to be screaming through the Force.

But he didn't find anything. And now he's totally surrounded by fire. Warmth radiates from the flames, and he has to fight this small, childish instinct to reach out and touch them. After all, the fire may be real enough to fool the senses, but ultimately, it's nothing more than a particularly advanced holo.

Still. There's nothing gained from sticking his hand in it. Instead, Ren turns to face the man, eyeing him with some cautious curiosity.

"I was wondering how to turn the heat up."

Deadpan, with that Solo sass.

[hyperthermic]

Chronos feels strangely exposed, with the fire around them. In spite of his armor. In spite of the helmet-mask under his arm, and the gun slung across his back. Like he's somehow told this kid a secret about himself that he forgot about until now.

He grunts, trying to shrug off the feeling, trying not to let his attention be drawn to the fire. It's hard, when it's all around them. He reaches out, passing one armored hand through the scorching light.

It's not the same as flame against bare skin.

"S'what I do," he says, his voice a low rumble. He forces himself to keep his eyes on the kid's face. It takes every bit of the resolve tempered by conditioning. "Didn't know the place was occupied."

[killthepast]

In a way, it feels somewhat like a mutual exposure. Now that he isn't alone here anymore, Ren's acutely, uncomfortably, aware of the vulnerability inherent in interacting with this program.

Now, he knows that the armored man finds some relief in flames. (Though it begs the question: Is it the warmth, or the power of it?) And now, too, the man may realize that whatever conflict Ren feels, it runs in so many directions that even the AI can't make sense of it.

He holds the man's gaze for a few beats, until his eyes flicker down, briefly, to note the mask. Whoever he is, the man's got the bearing of a soldier, but the state of his armor better suggests a mercenary.

"It isn't." Casting a quick look around, he adds: "This room holds nothing for me."

Meant in the because I'm way too sure of myself to need it kind of way, with a side of so I'll leave you to it. Because that's totally convincing when you've got a tendency to wear your every emotion on your face.

[hyperthermic]

"Noticed that." Even as Chronos, he's never learned to hold his tongue. He's never seen the point. He walks deeper into the flames, toward Kylo, goosebumps traveling up his arms at each one that licks close. He hates and loves it--hates that fire still has such power over him, loves the flames like he's come home after a long, long time away.

"You shield your mind from it or are you just that miserable?"

[hypothermic]

Yeah.

He's the strawberry jam smeared halfway across the desert.

You're welcome.

[killthepast]

Disappointing.
I wanted to learn more about him.

[ Such as: HOW DID HE GET DADDY'S GOLDEN DICE AND PUT THEM IN A BOX FOR ME-- only you know, more dignified. ]

[hypothermic]

C'mon. Who doesn't know ol' Saint Nick?

Even baddies get coal in their stockings.

In prison we asked for pennies. Waste not, want not.

[killthepast]

[ ............

he understood virtually none of that ]

Saint Nick.
That's the pilot's name?

b.

[audax]

Harry isn't sure what to make of this whole place and the madness surrounding it, but he'll do his best with it. Perhaps he ought to take some time to relax and when someone else described something not wholly unlike the Room of Requirement, he had to go investigate.

"You'd think if it wanted you to sleep, it would, at least, give you a cot." He's a young man, in his mid-twenties, with a lopsided smile. When he pushes his hair back, out of his eyes, Ren ought to be able to see that he's missing the top two joints on his ring and pinkie finger.

[killthepast]

It's strange, being in a place where he's enough of an unknown, a nobody, that a stranger would actually smile at him. And though he doesn't return the gesture, Ren isn't hostile, either. Rather, he just seems uncertain for a moment, corner of his mouth twitching like he isn't quite sure whether to snarl or just speak normally.

It's awkward. He's awkward. Displaced. Yearning for an impassive mask. But, in the absence of that comfort, he lets out a wry hum and looks up at the ceiling, as if the AI might be looking back down.

"Or even dim the lights a little. It doesn't seem to know what it wants."

Or maybe his own constant state of uncertainty is breaking it a little. Nah.

[audax]

Nah, that couldn't be it.

"I'd guess you'd want quiet, but the thing keeps talking, doesn't it?" When Potter entered, there was a moment where the AI's voice stalled and the program (or whatever it is) began to re-calibrate.

"If you want that, I'll head out. But if you want whatever this thing'll cough up for me, I don't mind sharing. At least it'll be something to look at." Curious about the whole thing, he runs a hand over the wall, trying to see if there's an edge to the panels and, if so, could he figure out how it works? Magic? Science? A mix of both? (Something, something, Asimov quote.)

[killthepast]

He eyes the young man for a moment, considering the offer. They share, at least, a mutual curiosity regarding this room. Before the stranger entered, Ren himself had been studying the room, trying to figure out the tech that must be involved. Difficult, since it wouldn't respond to him with anything other than pleas for him to nap.

At least now the room's programming seems to be producing something.

"Stay." If it weren't for the mild tone of his voice, it could almost sound like an order. Instead, it's an invitation, an attempt at a guarded almost-friendliness. "I'd like to see what this place is capable of."

A) If he'd still try to hit her plz go ahead, she can take it not a problem

[circumspector]

When he goes hunting for a Reindire, it's not one of those he finds, or at least not alone.

No, in front of them, is a tall, white, powerfully built creature. Similar in stature but the horns far different, and between the huge horns that jut like the jaws of a great beast, hang galaxies, spinning in idle motion. Ghost like, cacooned in bones and stars, a being left to bleach too long in the heat of the galaxy.

Rather than angry, however, her head lifts where she had been sniffing at the ground, following trails and patterns. Her cloven hooves clip on the ground, ears swiveling around to prick forward at the sudden company. Who was he?

Then steadily, slowly, she approaches him. Lifting her head up the full height. Calls to him in a bleated soft bark. An invitation for him in turn to approach.

[killthepast]

He expected to find a monster.

Everything about this ship feels wrong. The size of it, far too large to make any sense with the outside. The layout, with its maze-like corridors leading to nowhere. The sounds of jingling bells and scraping talons. Everything within sets him on edge, waiting for a trap, or an enemy to strike.

(And he wants it. He wants the fight, the excuse to destroy.)

But he stops when he sees it, the pale creature, practically luminescent in the darkened corridor. This isn't some twisted, mutated beast, but rather, something that feels so frighteningly natural. Bones and stars. Death and life. Darkness and light.

He moves his hand away from his lightsaber, staring at the creature as if he's trying to make sense of her. And then, with a cautious sort of curiosity, he approaches, taking her invitation, extending a gloved hand to her.

[circumspector]

She regards the hand as it lifts. Moving out in a long step on her powerful legs. Clip, clip, clip. Each little step echoing, a foreleg curled as she takes stock of him, unsure whether to press forward or retreat. Has to get a measure of it, first.

Get a measure of him.

But with his lifted hand, she extends her head. Sniffing the air around his fingertips. Around his hand. Inhaling the warmth of his scent, ears pricked to his heart beat. Tasting him, hearing him so she might know him, at another time, before gently, she presses her nose into his hand. Nuzzling into the glove. Her black eyes watching him, filled with stars even there, glinting nebula.

a. tlj-flavored, of course - taking her from the end of the supremacy scene

[invariances]

A ship! Rey nearly can't believe her luck — despite the fact that some might think it unsalvageable because of the damage it's sustained, a scavenger knows better and she's already rummaging through some of the spare circuitry, to see what's usable and what's not. She has no interest in the carefully-wrapped gifts strewn aside during the crash; she wouldn't know what to do with such things even if one was meant for her, anyway.

But her discovery is short-lived, because there's a rippling charge of static electricity through the Force, making the fine hairs on her arms stand on end, and she can hear vaguely-familiar sounds from inside the ship — heavy booted footsteps, the crackle and purr of a certain unbalanced lightsaber. She's compelled to follow and enters the ship, moving carefully through the narrow corridors, hand on her saber's hilt; up ahead, further around the bend, the hallway glows a faint shade of red.

Skywalker's saber flashes to life in her hand, bathing her and her immediate surroundings in sapphire blue light. She has a bad feeling, about this.

excellent! And he's from just after everything on Crait

[killthepast]

He finds himself staring down one of the reindire that had been prowling the ship's corridors. The creature, a twisted, monstrous thing, radiates aggression. Fearful, just beneath the surface, a frightened, uncertain animal that feels cornered by an equally aggressive creature in Kylo Ren. It reads imminent threat in his body language, and responds in kind.

Nostrils flare as the reindire huffs, agitated, talons scraping restlessly against the floor. Kylo could stop this. He could reach out to the creature, show it there's nothing to fear, perhaps calm it into tameness. He could show it mercy.

Instead, he ignites his lightsaber, washing the corridor in a red glow as he prepares to cut the creature down. It's only when he feels it, that familiar presence in the Force (so close, he could almost touch-- so close, he almost wants to push it away and burn down everything around him), that his hand stills.

She's here, just around the corner, and at once his heart twists with too many emotions to process. Among the noise, he tries to seek out hurt and rage and cling to those familiar feelings.

Distracted and unbalanced, he almost isn't prepared for the reindire when it charges. It's only a last-second maneuver, a nearly instinctive dodge, that spares him from getting gored by knife-sharp antlers.

It's not a very dignified sight when Kylo Ren rolls around the corner in a heap, narrowly avoiding the trampling beast. Scrambling upright to all fours, he extends his hand in the creature's direction, quickly snaring it with the Force. He grits his teeth, straining from the effort it takes to hurl such a heavy, raging creature back.

The reindire hits the wall with a squeal and a heavy thud, alive, but injured, and an afterthought for now.

Retrieving his lightsaber, Kylo gets to his feet, then turns and looks at Rey. His gaze is uncertain, almost wide-eyed, before he makes an effort to harden his expression and watches, waiting to see what she'll do now, after everything that's happened. His saber, crackling with instability, is lowered, by his side but ready to rise in an instant. There's nothing to say yet.

i did it so that she'd have a lightsaber - but i'm liking where this leaves them, now!

[invariances]

There's nothing for him to say, perhaps, because he's said enough already — on the Supremacy, amidst the dead bodies of Snoke and his Praetorian Guards littering the burnt-out throne room. Let old things die, he'd implored her, implying that her friends were a part of what should be given that hardest of resets, with the two of them at the helm of it all. He had to know she wouldn't acquiesce to that — he had to know she wouldn't let her friends, his mother die, but she was pulled into this place before she could give his outstretched hand an answer.

Now she's returning his intense stare warily, radiating hurt and distrust and barely disguising the lingering indecision that had paralyzed her in that red tapestried room. He's just rolled into her view, narrowly missing the horns of a charging antlered beast, and while Rey raises her lightsaber defensively Ben is faster, and he's force-pushed the animal so that it goes crashing into the wall, stunning it at the least.

Injuring it, at the most, and she gives him one last wounded, perplexed look as he gets to his feet before she extinguishes her saber and goes to the reindire's side. It snuffles and growls at her menacingly while groaning in pain, and she approaches it cautiously, hands out in supplication.

"...Shhh." She reaches out with her feelings, attempting to calm the creature through the Force before she can touch it; she's unsure about what she can do for it in this state, but an attempt is being made, of some sort. "It's alright. Stay calm." Whether what she says is only for the wounded animal before her or not, is up for speculation.

[killthepast]

Gloved fingers tighten around the hilt of his saber, as if he's trying to will himself into action. Escalate, and lash out to satisfy that angry, wounded boy inside of him.

Except that boy's never really satisfied. Even after facing his uncle, he feels no satisfaction, and while the ugliest parts of him would insist it's because Skywalker robbed him of that final, cathartic strike, he has his doubts. He felt nothing in that moment when he thought he'd cut the last of the Jedi down, no relief or release, no healing.

Even after reducing the Resistance to that last, tiny handful of survivors, too stupid and stubborn to die, the victory felt empty. Every time he thinks he's found his purpose, he's still shaken and uncertain.

And now it's no different. He doesn't know if he wants to fight Rey or plead his case to her, to make her understand. Both, perhaps. That tends to be the way of things.

His gaze flickers down to her saber-- Skywalker's-- brows drawing together curiously, as he realizes how strange it is that she'd even have it right now. It should be destroyed. It was destroyed. And yet...

Her blade extinguishes before he can study it further, and Kylo finds himself letting out a breath. Relief, though the feeling doesn't quite register as such just yet. Though uncertain, extinguishes his own lightsaber in return, watching her with apprehension tight in his chest as she approaches--

--and moves past him to the reindire.

Kylo blinks in confusion, then turns to watch Rey try to soothe the vicious creature. Foolish. (Admirable.) Weak. (Brave.)

"That thing is going to try to kill you."

It's hard to say if he's really just talking about the reindire here.

[citharede]

Athena is busy stacking up boxes. She fully intends to take as many of these back to the freakish pit city as possible and rip in to every single one.

One of the ones she snatches happens to be Ben Solo's.

When she sees the angry Rammstein looking motherfucker stalking toward the ship--and her--she drops the ones she has bundled in her arms and puts her hands up.

"Easy dude. Are you the present police or what?"

[killthepast]

She's young. Small. Doesn't appear to be a threat-- at least no more of a threat than any other common thief. Ren's hand stills over his saber's hilt, before moving away. It's clear from the tension in his shoulders, the way he carries himself, that he's agitated, but at least there's no immediate escalation.

"Keep them. I'm not interested in the presents." It's not... entirely the truth, because he knows (senses) that one of those gifts is Ben Solo's, but the entire situation makes him too uneasy to want to claim it. Instead, he nods towards the ship. "That ship. Have you been inside?"

[citharede]

She squints at him, trying to place his face. She knows she's seen him before. "Well good, because I was going to keep them anyway."

She looks at the ship, uneasy. "I went in and heard weird noises and left. I've seen too many horror movies to--"

Wait. That's it.

"Holy shit, you're Kylo Ren. Er, what's his name, Adam something."

[killthepast]

Adam who? That's Supreme Leader Kylo Ren to you!

In any case, there's a moment where he looks somewhat bemused. Few outside the First Order have even seen his face in quite some time, but that's ultimately a minor issue. It's not totally unreasonable for her to pin him as Kylo Ren.

No, what makes her reaction so strange to him is the tone of voice. There's no fear, or trepidation, no awe or respect. Just... surprised recognition??

"Who are you?"

SURELY YOU MUST BE RELATED TO SOMEBODY IMPORTANT HAHA HAhashadahiu