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 shakes his head.

"I do not mind. I'm Connor." He pauses for a moment, considering the name and the way Genji talks about America. "Where are you from?"

[arcadedragon]

"Japan. But I have been in America for some time. And England." Though of all the places he traveled he hated King's Row the most.

Turning back he looks out on the little village. "I don't understand how this room works, why it shows what it does."

[mustact]

Perhaps he's heard the name Japan in passing - it feels familiar - but little else. He'll have to ask about it. For now, however, he falls silent in thought, considering the room. It's his home, and he'd wandered into it earlier, straight into somewhere that Charles knew very well. Where he had struggled to survive and keep those who mattered to him alive.

Something in the room had spoken then.

When Juno first spoke to him, and gave him the form of an eagle to travel through the visions, she had told him she wanted to give him something that he knew. To make it easier.

"Perhaps it wishes to show us something that is familiar. Something we miss."

[arcadedragon]

"Maybe. When my home showed up it was different than this, not in a room - it felt more real. I turned a corner by the fountain and it was there, others could walk into it and out of it at will as if it had actually been lifted up from the ground and transplanted here. This is a simulation. It's only slightly off though, slightly dulled."

It reminds him of the difference when he touches something with his real hand, and when he does the same with his metal one. The cybernetic hand can feel in a way, it's transmitting the sensation of what it should be, but it's only a simulation. It's trying to recreate it as best it can, but Genji can always tell the difference.

"Earlier it tried to suggest I eat more vegetables, so it may also be trying to give us what we need."

[mustact]

He makes a thoughtful sound, nodding slowly. Perhaps it's bound to tell him to get more sleep at some point, then, and the thought makes the edge of his lips twitch just slightly. He knows he doesn't quite sleep as much as he should, most of the time.

Maybe it will change here. Things seem ... slower.

"I wonder how it would know."

While he had time, in the City, to read about a lot of advancements from beyond his time, this is difficult to wrap his head around. As far as he can tell, there's nothing to tell the room about their health, and he hasn't said anything to it. And this is clearly taken straight from his memories.

Even this place reeks of the work of Those Who Came Before. While he felt quite certain they had something to do with the City's existence, Angel's stories and now Anchor are making him question himself. Perhaps there are many people out there who would be capable of the same things Those Who Came Before were.

[arcadedragon]

"I don't know. It must be sensing it from us somehow. Though it failed to know that I ate some broccoli with my dinner last night," That last part directed towards the place at large. He doesn't need your help room, he eats something leafy and green at least once a week, he's doing fine.

"Were you thinking of home when you came in here? Perhaps it knows what we are thinking."

[mustact]

There's a slight raise of an eyebrow, a tilt of his head as he ... kind of stares at Genji for a moment. He's not normally one to do that, but 'some broccoli' doesn't sound like enough. From what he could tell, the Agricultural Level seems to have a good amount of vegetables and fruits to eat.

Then he catches himself properly, and shakes his head as he turns away.

"I don't think so, but I suppose not a day passes without me doing so."

[arcadedragon]

Oh he sees that. Don't start on him, the fact he's eating vegetables at all should get him a gold star on his toddler chore chart.

"Understandable. Have you been away from home long?"

Either here or elsewhere, he hadn't seen his own home in years even prior to his arrival here.

[mustact]

Not starting. Not starting anything. See how he's looking away now? Not starting anything.

"I suppose it depends on what one might call long, but it has been around four months."

Which can surprise him when he thinks about it, as it feels considerably longer than that sometimes. He'd spent a lot of time away at sea before being taken to any other planets or realities, and it hadn't felt like this. Perhaps something about being away and knowing you won't be able to return at will makes it feel longer.

[arcadedragon]

"If you want to be there, any amount of time will feel like an eternity." He leans down to pick a blade of grass, letting the breeze carry it away. Even knowing that it's not real, it's just a simulation, it's a pretty impressive one at that.

"Do you want to go down there?"

[mustact]

He doesn't answer for a few seconds, thinking about it. On one hand, he's not so certain he wants anything to do with a village that looks and somehow feels right, but isn't possibly real. On the other, he wonders just how far this illusion goes.

"I wonder if we could reach the walls of the room."

[arcadedragon]

"I've never seen a virtual reality simulation this well done before, perhaps it will shift so it will feel like we are walking that far? I'm not sure how big the room was to begin with, when I entered it was a beach scene and it has been shifting ever since." He glances down at the village, and then off to the side away from there where there's more grass and flat area.

Abruptly he dashes that way, bounding into the air and double jumping before flipping down into a crouch. He'd half expected to crash into a wall as the simulation tried to extend the boundaries quick enough to keep up with him, but it still feels like grass beneath his feet, and infinite space around him.

"Maybe the floor and walls move along with us?"

[mustact]

It doesn't seem like moving like that should be possible, but Ratonhnhaké:ton is well aware he doesn't know everything that is possible. It does make him curious, but for now he opts not to talk about it.

"From what I could see, it looked very big."

[arcadedragon]

"Then we should go down there. It made this for you, if you wish to explore, now is the time." Really Genji just wants to go investigate the little village because it's pretty and this seems like an adventure. And not one to lead to their deaths. The best kind of adventure.

"Though it is yours and I do not want to intrude... Tell me what you find down there?"

[mustact]

He considers the request for a moment, as he starts making his way across the valley. He doesn't particularly want to go into the village, because he's not sure what this room will have put in there or how it will affect him, nor is he interested in seeing it.

"Not much aside from my village," he says finally. "Further away there are two settlements called Concord and Lexington, but I am not certain how long it would take us to reach them here."

[arcadedragon]

Neither of those names mean anything to Genji, but he looks to the horizon as if he'd be able to see them. There's nothing but the soft rolling grass as far as the eye can see and this little village nestled into a valley.

Genji drops back down to sit in the grass, content to watch the peaceful scene.

"I think it would only make those places for you if they are somewhere you want to be. It seems like it is trying to help."

[mustact]

He makes a thoughtful sound.

"You may be right."

Perhaps he could find the homestead instead, then. It's a considerable distance away, but ... Could he will it into being? Can the room be controlled?

"What did it show you?"

[arcadedragon]

"It's trying to show me something that no longer exists, a part of the town I grew up in: the arcade, the ramen shop. But it is not the place that I long for - it is the people. And this could not replicate them." Which is good, he's not sure how he'd handle fake, virtual people acting like those he used to know. That would be more than a little unsettling.

"When that did not work it was cycling between the beach and the mountains."

[mustact]

Hearing that the room can't replicate people makes Ratonhnhaké:ton feel a little better. As much as he misses so many people, he wouldn't want to see them like this, when he knows they aren't real.

Although this makes him wonder if what the Apple showed him was at all true, or if it truly did somehow capture the spirit of his mother perfectly.

"I wonder what makes it hesitate to try. Perhaps it has been instructed not to."

He assumes this has to do with computers, and from what he knows about that, he's aware they usually need to be told what to do.

[arcadedragon]

"Maybe whatever programmed it knows we would not want such things. It would be obvious that they are simply copies, not the true people we wish to speak to." He's never encountered a simulation room before, but that makes sense with what he knows about how machines are made. With the exception of himself, it's generally easy to tell the difference between man and robot, and many do not want to be conversing with the later attempting to portray the former.

"Or it doesn't have the capability to do so. Maybe it's a complexity beyond it?"

[mustact]

"Maybe."

The ground shifts into a fairly steep slope down towards the small road leading into the valley. At the other side of that road, where the ground shifts back upwards to form a mountain, a reindeer stag is busy grazing. Ratonhnhaké:ton is surprised to see any life at all after what Genji said, but he supposes an animal that he has no relation to would be simple enough to replicate.

He slows to a stop, and for a moment it seems like the stag hasn't noticed them. Then it abruptly lifts its head, looking right at them.

[arcadedragon]

Genji freezes, eyes on the stag. It's different than the reindire that had been roaming the halls and causing mayhem. This one looks like how he'd expect them to on Earth, an animal grazing in the peacefulness of the mountain.

"I've not tried to interact with anything, I wonder if it will feel real?" Not that he thinks he'd be able to get close enough to touch it, and he wouldn't attack it unless it tried to attack them first, but he's curious about how precise this simulation can be.

"Maybe it will know we won't hurt it. You cannot eat a simulation." Though he does sound a little unsure, just how advanced is this room?

[mustact]

"Perhaps you could, but I doubt it would be very filling."

The stag does seem to see them as a threat, as it roars briefly in warning before it turns to run away. Ratonhnhaké:ton smiles slightly, because he hasn't seen a sight like this for months, and it's only somewhat sad that it's not real.

[arcadedragon]

"I don't think I'd want to. What would we be eating?" He shudders a bit, that's getting into some deep theoretical territory of how simulations work and he really doesn't want to think about it. Because it's not real, so they wouldn't actually be eating anything. But the experiences are real - and what does that mean... And around and around that thought process goes.

"Go enjoy it while it's here. I will leave you to it." He turns to leave, hoping that by thinking about the exit it will manifest itself.