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.

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[Cam is taking in the sights when a sharp, high voice cuts through the repetitive buzzing of the crowd. He turns to look at the girl, brow raised.

She's small, scrappy, and short-tempered. In stark contrast to the smiling and fresh-faced populace. An aberration in the simulation. Or what Cam assumes to be a simulation.

He isn't a scientist, but he has seen the Matrix, and while he hasn't had the opportunity to ogle Keanu Reeves, it's impossible to notice the many 'glitches' in the system.

Truthfully, she's a sight for sore eyes. He'll choose scrappy over Stepford any day of the week.]

No, dear. I'm afraid not. From what I can tell we're in a computer of some kind.

[Says the man who yells at the MIA IT department every time his toolbar gets locked in the wrong place. Truly an expert.

He nods very confidently. Cam isn't great with computers, but he's one hell of a politician.]

[ She may have let her temper out, but her confusion stays tucked behind her irritation, hidden as best she can manage.

It's still given away when she answers him, though. Steady as the question is. ]

What's a computer?

Ah.

[It's either too late or too early in the day for Cam to explain the concept of a computer, or question how a pre-pubescent girl doesn't know what a computer is (Cam's daughter lives on her laptop). He furrows his brow, glancing away from the girl to look off into the sky. As if the clouds will part to give him an answer.

Where's a tequila sunrise dealing robot when you need one?]

It's like a book that contains a thousand books. You can read, write, or draw in it. They're good for learning. Back in my day children learned from so many incredibly heavy books, but now all anyone has to do is open up a computer.

You can also play games on a computer, against the computer, or other people. I think this might be a very big, very realistic game. We are the people.

[A broad wave of his hand towards the crowd.]

These are the computer.

[ A book that contains a thousand books. She's never letting Neal find out what a computer is. She would never see him again.

Kel isn't sure how you can play games on something like that, but she's not sure she'll get a better explanation if she asks. What matters is their current situation. She frowns. ]

How do we win? [ --she's forgotten something in her frustration, something her mother would probably smack her with a fan for ignoring. She bows, Yamani-style with her hands on her thighs, the proper depth for someone of unknown rank. It comes more naturally than the Tortallan bows, still, even if she should use the ones her etiquette teachers are showing her. ] I'm Keladry of Mindelan.

You know, I'm not entirely sure. It's quite possible there is no winning.

[Wow. That sounded far bleaker than he intended. Cam smiles down at the girl, offering her the comfort he wishes someone would offer him. It's tough being an adult, but tougher still to be a child without parent or guardian in an entirely foreign place, so Cam will do what he always does.

Grin and bear it.

Keladry bows an adorable little bow. Cam bows back. Whether or not it's custom for elders to bow to youth, there's no harm in being polite. Better to be safe than sorry with an unfamiliar culture.]

That would make me Cameron of New York. You can call me Cam.

[ Kel bows again, hiding her alarm at his invitation. She looks up at him from under her bangs, still holding the bow. Lord Wyldon would probably set her to scrubbing every latrine in the palace if she referred to a lord by a nickname.

So what does she do? She could call him 'my Lord' anyway, but that would be disrespecting his request. ]

Thank you, sir.

[ There. A compromise. She straightens, studying their surroundings and carefully avoiding looking right at the drop toward the lake. It still tingles at the edge of her awareness like an unscratched itch. ] There must be a way out of this. We came here somehow. We should be able to leave the same way.

[ She looks up at him again, realizing that she just contradicted him openly. ] If you would forgive my saying so.

Edited 2019-05-16 02:44 (UTC)

No forgiveness is necessary. Feel free to speak your mind. Unless you're going to say "Isn't this wonderful". That, you can stuff.

[Cam smirks down at Kel, arms folded across his chest. After repeating the same banal dialogue for the past hour, he's all too happy for real conversation.

A few women in pretty, light coloured dresses drift past them. Smiling and waving.

"Isn't this wonderful?

God, they need to get out of here. Cam is ready to slap the iced tea out of someone's hand.]

That said, we're still in agreement. I don't think we need to win to get out of here. We just need to find the exit. What entrance did you come in from? I can't remember for the life of me.

[ Kel bites the inside of her lower lip to keep a smile from showing. She's about had it with the fluttery greetings herself. ]

I don't remember either, I'm afraid. [ She looks around, up, anywhere but at the edge, considering their options thoughtfully. ]

I think... [ She gives him a cautious look, still not certain she can say what she wants without repercussions. Certainly old Nariko from the Emperor's court would never let someone speak out of turn, or voice their opinions when not in command. ] I think there are two choices, my lord. We can leave through the exits to the city, or we can find where they keep their 'computers'.

[ It makes sense to her. If they're inside a computer, then they should still be able to use it. ]

[Speaking of iced tea, Cam nabs two from a nearby server. He's about to take a sip of his, the other glass extended to Kel when she calls him 'my lord'.

Cam spits the iced tea out away from the girl, into the same group of smiling and laughing women, who were passing them for what must be their fiftieth rotation around the plaza. The spray is generous. The women laugh. They smile. They move on, with tea dripping from their faces.

If Kel assumes Cam is nobility, she is very much wrong. He can be noble at times, even regal, but right now is clearly not one of those times.

He does manage to cover his mouth with his hand after the fact. Thankfully his beard caught what might have gotten onto his suit and tie, though he'll likely smell like lemon for the rest of the day.]

I'm sorry if I've given you the wrong impression, but I am not a lord of any kind whatsoever.

Please, call me Cam. Or sir if you need to use honorifics, but I am definitely no one's lord. I'm not even a fan of my world's monarchy.

[He shakes his head, coughs, and stands up straight again. A very classy, mature, sophisticated man who wears tea like cologne, and a very mature girl barely out of the single digits who's even more stoic than he is.

They're quite a pair.]

Anyway. I think those are good ideas. Lets try for the exit, if only because we're closer. If that doesn't work we can search for the computers. I have my own theories, but I'd rather weigh our physical options first.

[ Kel startles very slightly as he spits tea in the women's faces, and feels immediately inclined to apologize to them, which she does with a "Please excuse us" and a hasty bow.

They move on without seeming to care.

Kel takes the offered iced tea, cupping one hand beneath the drink's base and holding on to it with the other.

Not nobility. That surprises her. He certainly carries himself like a lord would, even if his clothes are, like the others around her, nothing like she's ever seen.

She turns over what he's saying, particularly the fact that he doesn't like his world's monarchy. She's not sure if that means the monarchies in general, or the world's monarchy in specific, a single ruling force controlling everything. That's as hard to imagine as this place being real, not some product of a fever dream. Or a computer.

The fact that he doesn't like it is.... She's not sure how to feel about that. She doesn't like King Jonathan--he's not fair, not just as far as she can see--but the Crown itself, the Realm of Tortall, she believes in. She wants to be a part of it and protect it. She wants to serve.

She's also been quiet for too long. She squares her shoulders, looking for the way to the undeniably magical lifts that will take them to the upper levels. There--she bows, one hand on her thigh and the other keeping her drink level, and gestures in the direction they need to go and takes a few steps to see if he wants to lead or to follow. ]

May I ask what your theories are, sir?

You don't have to bow, either. Unless you'd like to.

[Cam sighs, turning to laugh a little. Mostly to himself. Half-happy. Half-sad.

He knows who Kel reminds him of now. Fierce. Tenacious. Stony-faced, but sensitive.]

My daughter could stand to learn some manners from you. She...

[Cam shakes his head. He can't think about JJ at a time like this. She isn't here, still isn't here, and there's a lost little girl in front of him who requires his full attention.

Still, he can't stop himself from thinking about his daughter. If she misses him, or hasn't had time to notice he's gone. What if she's worried? Scared? Worse, completely fine without him.

Better off.

Cam tears himself away from that train of thought. Back to the problem at hand. Theory.]

If this place is in our minds, it's possible we can think our way out. Choose to end the game, and go back to... wherever we were.

Yes, sir. [ She walks alongside him, taking a sip of the drink as they walk. It's strange, but not bad. ]

My parents were ambassadors to the Yamani Islands before we came back to Tortall. Etiquette is serious there. The emperor cut someone's head off because he bowed incorrectly. [ A small smile. ] So learning Yamani manners was important.

[ Thinking their way out. She's not sure she gets it. Are computers inside someone's head? Can they be? If her ways don't work, she'll have to ask. As they reach the lift, she adds hesitantly: ] Did... do daughters not get sent to be taught etiquette in the cloisters, where you come from?

Oh my. It sounds like the emperor is the one who needs manners.

[Cam hates tyrants, but it really isn't his place to criticize another culture, their politics, or their religious beliefs. It's the first lesson you learn as an interpreter and mediator.

He's so bloody tired and overwrought with stress that he is forgetting his manners.]

I'm sorry. My temper is embarrassingly short today. I would love to hear more about Yamani manners in the future, if you wouldn't mind taking the time to explain them to me.

[He offers Kel an apologetic smile, finishes the rest of his iced tea, and sets it down on the nearest surface. Somehow, he doesn't think anyone will mind.]

Some are, but not all. I would say the vast majority learn manners from their parents, the school, and the people they surround themselves with. My daughter didn't have a great role model when she was very small, so there was... something of a learning curve.

Now, she knows all the rules, but, well. She's a teenager. Breaking rules is her new favourite hobby.

[ It takes all her training not to squeak when Cam says the Emperor needs to learn manners. It's way too easy to imagine him as the one on his knees, a sword braced against the back of his neck. Her voice is still a little on the high side when she says: ]

I'm happy to tell you anything I know.

[ The lift arrives, and she steps cautiously over the threshold and into the little box. She has a lingering expectation of the doors slamming shut, or the whole contraption lifting or dropping unexpectedly. She can't imagine how heavy this thing is, made out of metal as it is. There's no way a human could work the mechanism to raise or lower it alone.

Still polite, still guarded: ]

I don't know what a teenager is, sir.

[Cam hums and haws over the lift controls. It's all fairly standard. An elevator is an elevator. The only difference is the operator can control the speed of ascent and descent. Seeing Kel's reluctance, Cam sets them to ascend at a crawl.]

Really? Well, a teenager is a boy or girl whose age is in the teens. My daughter is only thirteen, but you'd think she's going on thirty.

[The corner of his mouth quirks.

You remind me of her. Not her attitude, but her maturity. She didn't have an easy childhood, and grew up very fast. Now, I think she's making up for it.

I don't really mind.

Thank you, sir.

[ She thinks. Kel debates pointing out she's only ten herself, but that's largely irrelevant. She'll almost be a squire at thirteen. If she's allowed to stay at the palace at all. The lift shudders slightly and she grabs the rail with one hand.

She considers her next words carefully before speaking. ]

Is this normal for you? This place, the things in it? Are they familiar?

Normal? No. Familiar... Almost. This technology is decades ahead of what's available in my world. So it's similar in some ways, but like nothing I've ever experienced before.

[The lift begins to traverse the colony wall, and Cam's eyes stray from Kel to observe the plaza as it falls away. The rest of the facility looks dark and empty in comparison. As if whoever was running the simulation didn't bother to fill out the upper levels.]

But I'm sure all of this is very different for you. It must be overwhelming. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll answer to the best of my capabilities.

[ She closes her eyes as they start to move upward, throat tightening. Kel carefully puts her back to the glass and the drop, though the sense of it crawls along her spine. ]

I thought this place had to be part of the Divine Realms. I thought it had to be something that one of the Great Mages would know about, but I'm no mage. I can't so much as set twigs on fire.

You don't need magic to start a fire. You have two hands, don't you?

[A smile at her, leaning against the railing. He's comfortable in the lift, obviously, his eyes scanning the different levels as they move past them. It's a larger facility than he first thought, and difficult to tell just how much is below ground.]

Would you mind if we go all the way to the top? I'm curious to see what the surface of this place looks like.

[ She ducks her head a little to hide a smile at that. ] Magic complicates things anyway.

[ Sure, it's useful, and she can't imagine the world without it, but as far as going for her shield is concerned, she doesn't need it. She has enough to focus on without training her magic, too.

Kel pales a little at the prospect of being all the way up there again, but she nods. That was part of her plan, after all--leave the building, hopefully leave this place behind. ]

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redshift: tdm #1.

a. virtual reality

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