redmarsshit | redshift: tdm #1.

redshift: tdm #1.

Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.

Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.

a. virtual reality.

You’ve been in too long and you know it. You’ve been in too long and you know it. You’ve been in too long--

The day is bright, the air is clear, and Anchor is in the middle of a festival.

"Isn’t this wonderful?" A passerby beams at you, and you have to admit, it is. You're not tired or in pain. Your clothes are clean and you feel refreshed, maybe for the first time in a long time.

In the plaza at the bottom of the city, spilling over into the park it surrounds, are people celebrating the new arrivals. Fireworks crackle to life above the park’s trees, sending little thunderclaps of sound echoing upward along with the cheerful music being played by a band on the plaza.

On the upper levels, in the entertainment district, the shops and restaurants are all operating in full swing, offering free samples, free drinks, and free merchandise. There are coupons galore being handed out, everything from a discounted 45-minute session at one of Anchor's three spas to a solo hour in the VR environmental simulation chamber.

The agricultural centers have contests for the biggest and best quality plants, baked goods, wines, and animals. On every level there are exhibitions of that district's specialties.

"Isn’t this wonderful?" A passerby beams at you, and you stop a moment to watch them pass. You could swear you've seen them somewhere before.

Trying to talk to the people around you only seems to get limited, cheerful responses. If you watch, they don't go far, walking back and forth to the same points along the breezeway or turning into businesses and out of sight before they walk by you again with a friendly greeting and some bit of rote dialog. The songs start to repeat. The food and drinks all taste the same. The fireworks never stop.

By the time you've noticed all of this, you've noticed something else, too. There are others like you here. People, god let them be real. They stick out once you look for them, because like you, they’re the only ones not constantly smiling.

b. lockdown.

You've finally escaped VR hell, and maybe you’re exploring the agricultural levels of the colony. Maybe you're preparing to explore the surface, or you're trying to program different songs into the music bots in one of the empty restaurants, or you're poking around one of the nonfunctional spas. Wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, it’s interrupted.

The lights blink out, then turn on again, the bright red emergency bulbs washing everything with eerie light as the bulkhead doors come slamming down all across the colony. Something or someone has triggered the lockdown procedure. Wherever you were exploring, you're now sealed in. For an unknown length of time. With whoever or whatever else is in there with you. Welcome to Anchor.

c. the red shift.

You've had it, or you just want to know what's out there. Either way, you're geared up (or not) and ready to get the hell out of Anchor. Unfortunately, the planet is far less hospitable than the abandoned colony behind you. In Anchor there are systems in place to keep out the dust, the toxins, and the radiation. Out here there's nothing but rough terrain and red-orange sand.

A drive in any direction will reveal nothing but mounds of red dirt and crumbling hills - and the occasional broken down vehicles and cracked helmets.

On the way back, you get your first taste of what the Anchored call the red shift.

Named for the colors that envelope individuals caught in the phenomenon, it surges up around you like a rising tide.

The world becomes distorted, warped, impossible to navigate. Hallucinations overpower you, both visual and auditory. Disorientation follows. We hope you went out in protective gear after all, because we'd hate to see you cooked alive by radiation so soon after arrival.

Even those wearing full protective gear aren't safe, however. The red shifts carry pieces of other universes, places and objects familiar or strange. Monsters you thought you'd never see again, or never wanted to see in the first place. If you're lucky, these bits of other places will disappear before they can hurt you (one way or another). If you're not, they might just stick around.

d. home away from home.

You've had a long, miserable day. Time to unwind at one of the few functioning entertainment facilities — the creatively named "Rusty Chain" bar. Its (unfriendly) robot bartender can only make you a tequila sunrise, and might get testy if you climb behind the bar, but it's worth getting a few synthesized Maraschino cherries thrown at you to try some of the other synthetic booze back there. There's a lot of it. Maybe you want to play bartender yourself for a while. Why not?

Someone else's favorite mediocre songs from another universe play from the broken music bots on repeat. There's a pool table with holographic balls that flash different colors after being hit by a laser-tipped cue, and a bizarre, violent interpretation of foosball that's closer to foos-battle. Each player controls their team via old-style arcade controls, attacking and defending each other. The goal is to get a holographic bomb into the other players base.

There are also darts. Which are just regular darts. Sometimes you don’t mess with tradition.

Navigation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[So this is most definitely not Hadriel. That's first on the list of things that Pratt notices. Which okay, that's good. Additionally: not Montana. Also good. It's possible that this is Tinya's future which would be weird because she's not here and this is also not how she described it at all. And while this looks like future tech it doesn't look like nine-hundred years in the future tech.

So this is something else. Probably something terrible. Maybe this is the Null home planet so that's fantastic. There is a third good thing and that's the wolf at his side. Well, it used to be a wolf anyway. It's much larger, whiter, and smarter than a normal wolf. Maybe it had been with Jacob when he'd randomly shown up in Hadriel and had decided to stay with him, though he hadn't seen it previously.

Either way, it's a welcome bit of comfort in this place that's new and terrifying and -- he jumps a literal mile when the alarms go off, immediately on the defensive and drawing his hunting knife as if that's going to help him when he has a full on machine gun strapped across his back.

Okay, nothing is attacking him, it seems it's more a security thing. Heart attack abated, only have to wait this out or find a way to escape or.... well that voice is familiar.]

Peter?

[Somehow hearing a familiar voice is more startling than the lockdown itself had been. Peter stops fiddling with the door and turns around, and sure enough, there's Deputy Pratt. And a wolf? A terrifying looking turbo-wolf, that's new.]

Deputy, hey! Uh...

[Yeah, this sure is a thing. Peter glances between Pratt, the wolf, and the door, back to Pratt again, and shrugs slowly in the most useful way ever, totally.]

...Yeah. I feel like there are maybe a lot of things to address right now? One, good to see you. Two, when did you get a huge dog? Uh, three, this sucks, but at least we're not in Hadriel?

[What the fuck? No seriously.. what the fuck is happening.]

Does this mean we won or lost against the Null?

[He puts his hand on the wolf's head.]

She's a Judge, from back home so I have no idea what she's doing here. And she's going to be good and not attack anyone.

[he says that with a firm glare at the wolf who puts her ears back and whines.]

[What the fuck is ever happening Deputy I mean come on.]

I think we won. I'm gonna say we won.

[Captain Optimism over here. But anyway, he's giving Pratt kind of a concerned look because that's not a thing you should have to tell a dog dude!!]

Is that a concern? Does she just jump on people or what?

[What's trauma without a side of panic and dread? Part of a balanced emotional state.]

It's kind of a concern, but I think you're good.

[He gives the wolf another look.]

What were you doing before everything decided to trap us in here?

[That's not EVEN true and we all need therapy.

Peter just side eyes the wolf for a second, but it seems to be behaving soooo he's just not going to worry about it. Yet. He kind of wants to pet it, but shhhh.]

Oh, just seeing what I can find in here, y'know? So far there's a whole lot of nothing. Old food, broken robots. I hate to say it, but so far it seems like the shops back in Hadriel had way more to choose from.

[He glances over his shoulder at his pile of robochunks,] I am so sick of robots, not gonna lie.

Yeah but now you won't have to see me in Hawaiian shirts anymore. That alone makes this place about twenty times better.

[Look at him, he's almost got jokes.]

These aren't attacking us.

Fuck, I shouldn't have said that.

Aw, but the Hawaiian shirts are part of your charm!

[It's okay Pratt, none of us have good jokes here.]

No, it's-- we're good, man. These things are super busted. Literally everything around here is busted.

Great, so we show up here, and get trapped and then slowly starve to death?

At least I have experience with that. I'll be able to give you the best pro-tips.

[Can you hear the excitement in his voice?]

I- okay, I can't do anything about the showing up here part, but I can probably get us out of this room at least? We'll worry about the food part after that.

[time to EAT THE WOLF no no there will be no wolf eating. Anyway, Peter's going to turn his attention to the door, looking for some sort of control panel or any other sci-fi looking junk. How hard could it be to hot wire a door?]

[They will not be eating the wolf you monster.]

I'm not surprised at all that the whole Door thing to send us home didn't work. But wherever we are now isn't what I would have expected. Kinda figured it would be a planet that's constantly on fire or maybe one where the plants are sentient and want to eat us.

[He pokes at the robo bits half-heartedly.]

I should have headed for the bar first.

[Emergency rations only, got it.]

The bar's not that great, to be honest. The robot running it only knows how to make like, one drink. Didn't even understand the concept of a glass of water. I had to steal water from a robot, I don't even know how I feel about that. I'm probably okay with that.

[Anyway, he's going to yank a panel on the wall next to the door just OFF, and boy howdy there sure are a bunch of goddamn wires and junk in here man.]

You're not even old enough to drink. This place is driving you to crime in the first twenty-four hours.

[Does he need to arrest you Peter?

He arches an eyebrow at the panel. Sure he's seen way more heist movies than anyone ever should, and it looks so simple in those. Just cross the red wire with the green wire and then the doors open or the alarms stop sounding or you hack an enemy outpost. Simple right?]

Is this where I find out you're really good at hotwiring cars?

[Peter just laughs while he fiddles with some wires.]

Don't worry, I wasn't there for the booze. Besides, if Hadriel couldn't drive me to a life of crime, I don't think wherever this is will either.

[He too has seen far too many movies, and they really do make this look way easier than it actually is. After figuring out roughly where the wires lead, he disconnects some, crosses some of them together, and the door opens.

Only like, three inches. And then it slams shut again.]

...I'm uh. I'm gonna count that as progress.

It's progress until you cross the wrong ones and turrets fall out of the ceiling to kill us.

[Because he's seen that movie too. Oddly though he doesn't seem as panicked as he normally does. Because this isn't Hadriel. And it's not Montana. And he has a Judge at his side and while Peter is disturbingly optimistic at times, he's good company. So on a scale of: Jacob's Veteran's Center to at home on a Sunday eating pizza rolls, this is closer to the pizza rolls side.]

But not bad. Lemme see if I can find something to wedge in there if you can get it to open again.

[Okay that statement makes Peter pause, and he steps back away from the panel for a moment and looks around at the ceilings warily.]

Y-yeah, that uh. That sounds good.

...You don't think there are actually turrets in the ceiling, do you?

[He'd been making a joke but now that he thought about it... He glances up at the ceiling, inspecting the seams where it joins together.]

I don't think so? But there's also robots so who knows.

[He nudges the Judge with his knee.]

Go find me a gun.

[She trots off, sniffing around the room and walls, on the search for firearms.]

Guess there's only one way to find out.

[And that is to go back to fiddling with the wires and hoping for the best. He does pause long enough to give Pratt a weird look though.]

Okay, does that thing actually know what a gun is?

She does.

[She doesn't seem to be finding one though if all the whining and sniffing is any indication. He pries some shelving off the wall, kneeling down by the door to shove it through and hopefully keep the door open if he manages to make it function again.]

She's a Judge not a dog. Jacob drugs them with this serum, makes them smart, able to understand people. But also really vicious. More so than wolves are normally I mean.

But she's been good so far. I think she's tired and hungry and thinks I'm going to feed her soon. Haven't been able to find much for her though.

Whoof, okay. Can't say I'm a big fan of drugging animals, wow.

[This Jacob guy sounds like a total dick, just sayin'. Peter keeps it to himself, if only because he's distracted by what he's working on. He does get the door to open a few inches, and this time it stays that way.]

I-- hm. I know there's a few vending machines sitting around, there might still be something in there that's safe for her to eat? Man, I'm about to just try to muscle this door open, this is ridiculous.

I'm not happy about it either.

[He wedges the metal bit in there anyway in case the door tries to close again. The wolf helpfully sticks her face under the door and whines until Pratt pulls her back.]

Get out of there. We'll get you food. Don't get squished by a door an hour into being here.

[She growls and snaps at him but he doesn't react, staring her down until she huffs and flops down on the ground, clearly starving to death and too weak to go on.]

Can you do that? I mean I get you're strong but uh...

[Okay first priority is feeding this dog before it eats Pratt.]

Only one way to find out, I guess. Scoot over, I'll give it a shot.

[Once Pratt has done the scooting, Peter kneels down and gets a good grip on the door, and then starts some lifting. Starts trying really hard at some lifting, but even his wacky spider lifting skills aren't enough to just open the door. He manages to heave it up a few more inches, but that's about it. Defeated, he lets go and stumbles back onto his butt, just sitting there a moment while he catches his breath.]

Jeez, that's a good door.

Not a bad try though.

[He gives his shoulder a pat.]

Maybe there's an intercom system or something. I dunno why anyone would be able to open this thing from the outside but it's worth a try?

[He gets up to go investigate, ignoring the soft, pathetic whining coming from the wolf.]

Also if movies have taught me anything it's that these futuristic places have giant air ducts we can crawl around in.

[Peter flops onto his back, groaning in frustration and just staring at the ceiling for a moment. Something catches his eye and he points it out to Pratt.]

I mean, there is an air duct, but it's kinda small. We could probably still wiggle through there.

[He hadn't been serious but....]

You know what... I'm willing to give it a go. Why the fuck not.

[He drags a chair over so he can stand on it and take the ceiling panel off. Pulling himself halfway into the ceiling to look around, his voice echos as he calls back down to Peter.]

It's dark as shit in here. And I dunno if i'm gonna fit.

redshift: tdm #1.

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