test drive meme: january 2020

[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. nuclear fallout boy.

There is a mid-90s strip mall forming outside of Anchor.

Which is to say that there is now a Hot Topic next to the Blockbuster, and a little canopied sidewalk connecting the two. The difference between them is that the Hot Topic has an airlock entry and is safe from the radiation outside.

It's also not decked out for any Earth holidays, but it is fully stocked. Just not stocked with things that an Earth-based shopper would recognize as their "typical" fare. There are band t-shirts, with extreme fonts and symbols, but said fonts are almost cuneiform and the symbols are references that no one who wasn't living on Mars-15 in 1994 will get. The joke t-shirts are much the same, with cartoon characters, visual puns, memes, and designs that are, well, out of this world. There are bizarre earrings in standing cases, body decorations that might not quite fit a human, temporary tattoos, and random junk that cool fifteen-year-olds would snap up if it existed on Mars. (Use your imaginations, Anchorites.)

One thing you won't find in this store is advanced technology that serves any actual purpose. Sure, there are thumb-sized fart machines and little wall-mounted projectors that can decorate ceilings with preprogrammed holographic scenery (mostly starscapes). But none of it is any more useful than the keychain of that fat hipster cat with butterfly wings and bug eyes hanging from one of the displays. The cash register, which is the most futuristic thing in the place, is smashed to bits. Gotta get those Mars credits somewhere else.

b. looking kinda familiar.

There are little creatures scuttling through Anchor again, though these ones... well, they really are creatures more than they can be called animals. They're little blue-gray blobs of tissue, growing as they roll around until they finally split in two, both pieces then going their own way. Even though they don't have legs, the little blobs are fast, and many of them have no interest in interacting with the people of Anchor, and disappear into the ether never to be seen again.

Some of them, however, will single people out and start following them. The longer that little blob follows, the closer it gets, the more it takes the shape of an animal that represents the follow-ee's innermost soul or personality. The part of themselves that they hide away. As it begins to take shape, the person it follows will start to hear a tiny voice, at first just muffled sounds that could be coming from anywhere, but as the creature's form clarifies, the mumbling turns into actual speech. Clumsy, at first, almost like babytalk, but soon the little creature following its chosen Anchorite will be able to speak with its chosen person in full sentences. No one else can hear the little creature talk - only the one it decided to follow.

Keep the little bugger (or big bugger, if your innermost soul is an elephant or something) around for a week, and it will settle into its chosen shape, bonding to you for as long as you're alive. It can speak, listen, and understand, but you're the only one who can hear its voice. If this whole animal companion stalker situation isn't up your alley, though, and you're not feeling the connection, the little critter will slouch off to its own blobby existence.

c. creatures from the black locked room.

There's been a lot of exploration happening in that flooded area that Joe warned you all about. A lot of rooms opened, a lot of rooms explored and/or destroyed (thanks, Jacob et al. srsly). It's a lot of noise in a somewhat confined space. And something in one of the rooms is stirring...and done with being locked away.

Midday on the 20th of the month, the sounds of metal shrieking as it is twisted out of shape burble up out of the flooded halls. Thumping, rumbling, and eerie hooting noises are all muffled by the water at first.

There's only one at first, sloshing up out of the water and looking perfectly dry. Well... it looks like nothing, actually. A deep blackness that can hypnotize if it's stared at for too long. Long, dark claws that shine with a silvery edge. The vicious teeth in its shapeless head glow a pale blue-green.

Then another comes to the top of the stairs, and another.

They're perplexed at first by the webbing Peter Parker left to block off the hall, but a few experimental pokes with a claw shows that the stuff gives under their talons with only a little bit of effort. The three creatures slice their way free and move as a pack through the lower levels of Anchor, prepared to mob whoever they come across and tear them to shreds.

There's a problem when it comes to straight-up fighting these things, though: when physically attacked, they simply bounce back, when pieces are hacked off with a blade, each piece becomes a new, identical monster. The only way to beat them is with energy and other alternate fighting styles - magic, lasers, energy projectiles, etc.

Some people might be lucky enough not to run into them. Good luck to the rest.

d. 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 to take out the toothy voids? 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

Peter Parker | MCU [CRAU] | ota

[itsnotaonesie]

This here's the very cleverly named post-canon update prompt, around the 15thish

A: for Poison

Long story short, Peter's been missing for a couple days. Probably two, probably three, it's hard to say in a place like Anchor. Either way he hasn't been around, hasn't been at home, hasn't been at the lab, hasn't been popping in to check on his buddies in agriculture, hasn't been answering his phone. He's just been gone, ooooh nooooo.

See, he'd been teleported home for five years and eight months, except he was dead for five of those years so they probably don't count? Who even knows how that works, but the eight months he was alive definitely counted. He did a bunch of shit, fought some things, made a friend who turned around and betrayed him, some other stuff happened, it's been a busy year. But now he's back, reappearing in a cool new Spider-Man suit in the same spot he'd vanished from, that being the living room of the apartment he shares with Poison. This of course scares the shit out of the cats which in turn startles the shit out of him, so now he's up on the ceiling trying to get his ENTIRE BRAIN in order and also one of these cats is part octopus and is climbing up the wall because it missed him and wants pets.

B: Open

After finally managing to calm himself down (Poison most certainly did all the work let's be honest), Peter's out and about and on his way to R&D because hoo buddy he and Qubit need to have A Talk. He's ditched his mask, maybe he should have changed out of his suit into something less superhero-y, but fuck it, he's cranky. Not too cranky to stop and chat if someone pulls him over though, and certainly not too cranky to check his phone for messages he might have missed while he was gone.

In fact he's just going to post a brief text to the network just in case.

Hey, it's Peter. Sorry about the radio silence for the past however long you haven't been able to get a hold of me. I promise I didn't get eaten by any crazy, radioactive mutant bears or anything. 👍

Of course he's going to leave it as vague as possible what did you expect.


Looking kinda familiar

Aside from what seemed to be a very brief encounter with one of those weird blob things, there isn't anything obvious following Peter around. He saw it trailing him, went 'aw you're weird and cute' and probably tried to pet it because that's how he rolls, but didn't think much about it after that and never really saw it again. The reason he didn't see it wasn't because it stopped following him, it just made itself super tiny and decided to become a teeeeeeny tiny jumping spider and started catching rides on Peter's clothes and stuff. Which he never noticed, and that was fine up until it decided to start talking to him.

Understandably, disembodied voices aren't really doing Peter's mental state any favors, even if the thing can't quite make full words yet. He's still getting out and can be found pretty much anywhere, but when he's not nervously looking over his shoulder for the source of the mysterious voice, he's grabbing the nearest person to him and saying "please tell me you can hear that too."

This is fine, everything's normal.


Creatures from the black locked room

What Peter wants to do is post to the network with obnoxiously sized sparkle text that reads "I TOLD YOU SO". What he's actually doing is getting his ass kicked by these monsters while trying and failing horribly to stop them. Hitting them does nothing, their claws can cut through his webs, none of his usual advantages are helping him here at all. Life sucks for ya boi Peter, basically. Even more so now that he's gone and gotten his leg torn open by one of theses nightmare puppies, and they've got him cornered in the bar. He's just bleeding everywhere and trying not to freak out while also wishing he'd thought to call for backup before he'd lost his phone while trying to wrangle these things.

So, that's how Peter's day's going.

B; text; @Qubit

[superposition]

[ It's not like Peter to go incommunicado like this, and by day three, Qubit's extremely worried. None of his friends have seen him, not even his girlfriend. He hasn't gone outside (Qubit checked the logs). He didn't leave a note or set an away message or anything.

But just as Qubit's starting to seriously consider the worst-case scenario(s), he spots a new network post from Peter's account. Oh, thank God. His relief is palpable.

... which does not mean he does a good job of conveying it. ]

Where have you been? It's been three days! I was starting to think you'd been Ported out!

text more like ACTION

[itsnotaonesie]

[If this had been from anyone else, Peter would have taken a minute to reply. As it turns out though, Peter's literally on his way to see Qubit right now. What a coincidence! So he doesn't reply, but what he does do is attempt to kick Qubit's door open, remember that it's a space door and it doesn't work that way, and then just opens the door like a normal goddamn human being before crossing the room and slapping the E.D.I.T.H. glasses down on Qubit's desk. Or table. Or whatever he's working at today.

He doesn't say anything right away, just watches Qubit expectantly. Y'know, as if Qubit was a mind reader or something.]

[superposition]

[ Qubit just about hits the ceiling from the tremendous CLANG at his door, and when it then slides open, he automatically goes for the laser rifle on the bench behind him - but he sets it down again when he sees who it is.

It's Peter, of course, but something's wrong. He's pissed. He is madder than Qubit's ever seen him, and Qubit has no idea why - until the dorky glasses hit his workstation, and then the pieces start to fit together. He eyes them for a few seconds, his expression shifting from surprise through recognition and finally into a sullen glare, which he redirects to Peter with only a flick of his eyes.

He doesn't have to be a mind reader to have an idea what's going on - he knows what he did. The question is how Peter found out. ]

... If that's what you call knocking-

[itsnotaonesie]

[Cue Peter slamming a fist down on the desk, quite possibly denting it. Oooh Qubit buddy you don't get to complain about your door right now. Or your desk, really.]

I trusted you.

[For now that's all he says, he just reeeally hopes that Qubit will just explain himself and make this easy.]

[superposition]

[ It's the past tense that does it.

Qubit flinches, but not just because of the fist-shaped dent in his desk. He wants to cling to defiance, to stick to his guns, but - he can't quite look Peter in the eye while he's doing it. ]

I only did it to help you.

[itsnotaonesie]

How? How was that supposed to help me!? I don't know how stupid you think I am, but I would have figured it out even if I hadn't gone home!

[Which answers Qubit's first question, yaaay progress.]

creatures from the black locked room

[scowlish]

It isn't exactly uncommon for random creatures to be stalking the halls of this place looking for prey or just to make trouble, but Onni hadn't yet run into these ones. Perhaps none of the defensive spells he's recently started putting up caught them because he usually sets those up around entrances from the wastelands and the upper levels of the city, presuming that an invasion would be most likely from outside Anchor. So he learns about these new threats mostly by accident, walking a hallway over and hearing the noises of a fight.

By the time he makes it to the scene of the battle, he's already chanting a runo to the Lady of the Lake, his voice low and rhythmic and a little soothing as he speaks in the poetic rhythm that thrums in him like a heartbeat. The creatures are frankly terrifying, and he can see that they're attacking a young man quite successfully, that he's bleeding. They look like black voids complete with glowing teeth and glinting claws, swarming the person there.

And then one of them turns toward him, and two more follow its lead. For just a moment, Onni loses focus, his eyes widening, but then he bears down and continues, his voice rising in volume and hands lifting as he feels the energy of the lake filling him. It builds to a crescendo and if Peter looks to the source of the noise, he will see a burst of pale blue energy hovering above Onni's head, along with the rough form of an owl. Lifting his hands further, he calls out with a few final lines of the runo and his hands streak forward directing the wave of energy toward the creatures.

As the energy breaks over them, it turns to water, flooding over them in a wave and pushing them back from the boy. It doesn't seem to do them much damage, but it gains some distance for the two of them.

"I'm going to try to freeze them in place. Has anything been working against them?"

His voice is much more terse than when he was singing before, not out of any anger or fear, but for efficiency's sake.

[itsnotaonesie]

Whatever this guy is doing is pretty much the coolest thing Peter's ever seen in his life, and he will definitely be impressed by it as soon as he's done trying not to panic. As soon as the creatures take their attention off of Peter, he leaps up onto a wall the best he can with his bad leg, and once his new favorite person shoves them away with owl magic, Peter hops back down and jog-limps over to take cover behind the guy who clearly has a better handle over this situation than he does.

"I dunno, all I know is that nothing I can do can hurt them."

[scowlish]

As Peter comes over and ducks behind him, Onni steps forward protectively, arms spread a little, eyes narrowed. Glancing over his shoulder, he makes a soft 'hm' in his throat and then inhales deeply and starts chanting again.

It's difficult to keep his concentration as he watches the creatures shake off the wave of water and get their bearings, starting to move back toward them.

Thankfully, calling to the Lady of the Lake isn't difficult, in fact she's one of the most cooperative spirits he's ever connected with, it's easy to call to her, to ask for her help, to feel the energy of her spirit move through him. Lifting his hands, he spreads them and then drops them forward and erupts in front of him in the form of a wave of icy air that barely manages to freeze the water still on the creatures seconds before they reach him.

When he drops his hands and finishes his runo, his chest is rising and falling heavily and he's staring wide-eyed at the creatures. Turning a little, he tugs at the shoulder of Peter's shirt, ducking his head to the side.

"We need distance. I have to call something stronger and it's going to take time. That won't hold them for long. Quickly."

[itsnotaonesie]

Peter's momentarily distracted by panic and amazement at how goddamn cool that just was, but when Onni tugs at his shirt he snaps out of it quickly. Very much liking the idea of putting some distance between them and the creepy critters, Peter turns and starts limping his ass towards the exit.

"I can get us on another level really fast," he says, voice strained since he's in kind of a lot of pain and bleeding everywhere, "unless they can fly, it would take them some time to get to us."

[scowlish]

As Peter turns and starts limping toward the exit, Onni turns and follows him. After all, even if whatever it is that Peter can do wasn't working well against those creatures, he'd been holding his own, and Onni isn't going to question whether he knows what he's doing.

"Oh? How is that?" he asks, not doubting but curious as he lopes alongside Peter, keeping himself between the younger boy and the monsters behind them.

"I'm probably going to be willing to try it. I want try calling to Sula Maa, but that takes time."

[itsnotaonesie]

"We're gonna jump off the edge of the walkway and I'm gonna pull us up to the next level with spider webs," Peter says, like it's the most normal goddamn thing ever. He gets up to the edge and looks behind them for a moment before motioning Onni over.

"I know how weird that sounds, but I do this literally all the time, it's fine. I just need you to grab onto me."

Looking kinda familiar

[0thingsonmymind]

The hooded, masked man done his best to ignore the voice coming from the artic fox behind him but a voice from another human is different. Especially one who tries to grab him. He backpeddles away from Peter and holds his hands up. Please no touch him stranger!

It takes him a couple seconds to register the question but when he does he shakes his head. He hadn't heard anything but Peter's plea.

The fox sits down between the two, makes a questioning noise and cants his head. Fox is worried about you, Peter.

[itsnotaonesie]

When the guy holds his hands up, Peter realizes that maybe grabbing some rando and freaking out at them is uhhhhh kind of fucking weird?? He takes a couple steps back and runs his fingers through his hair all smooth-like. See, nothing weird here.

"Sorry, sorry, I just-- I thought I heard something."

That explains basically nothing, but Peter doesn't really want this guy to think he's any more nuts than he already is.

[0thingsonmymind]

He slowly lowers his hands since it seems Peter isn't going to keep trying to touch him. He takes another step back, though, just in case. He cants his head, not sure what noises Peter could be refering to.

The fox stands back up and pads over to Peter, sniffing at his feet.

[itsnotaonesie]

Peter is instantly distracted by this fox because 1, it's adorable and 2, it's sniffing his shoes. He hasn't stepped in anything nasty, don't worry.

"It sounded like a voice, only kinda muffled-- Oh my Gooooooooooood, that's the cutest thing I've ever seen. Where'd you find him?"

He hadn't seen any foxes on the agricultural level, but they could have always been like hiding or someshit.

[0thingsonmymind]

He shakes his head. He didn't find this thing it just started following him.

The fox yips happily and does a little spin.

[itsnotaonesie]

"Oh noooo, it's so cute," Peter leans down and lets it sniff his hand before he starts to give it ear scratches. Then he realizes that he's gone and let himself get completely distracted by this little critter and that's probably rude. He clears his throat and straightens up again.

"Um, but yeah, sorry about grabbing you, I promise I don't make a habit of it. I'm Peter, by the way."

Peter 'Perfectly Normal and Not Hearing Voices' Parker. Speaking of which, he apparently hasn't been hearing any for a couple minutes, but there is a tiny spider emerging from over his shoulder and just hanging out on his shirt, so that's a thing.

[writtendestiny]

She pretends it doesn't hurt, when he disappears. She pretends it doesn't cut right to the centre of her to lose another person she cares about so much, and she goes about her business giving short, clipped, sharp answers to anyone who asks where Peter's got to.

But she knows how places like this work, and part of her doesn't quite give up hope that he's going to show up again. That same part of her, quietly hoping, knows very well that if he does he might have no idea who she is.

And Poison doesn't think too much about that.

His return is abrupt, startling, and he's shot himself up to the ceiling before Poison has the chance to voice her shock. She scrambles up from her seat in the apartment's living room, a surprised squeak caught in the back of her throat, followed by--

"Peter!"

It's too late to save him from the octocat. Anderson is already too far up the wall for her to reach.

[itsnotaonesie]

Over the course of the few seconds he spends staring at Anderson, he realizes that he knows this octocat, points at him dramatically in that I know you sort of way, and then he hears Poison calling him and everything slowly starts falling back into place. He drops from the ceiling, landing gracefully and turning to study her for a moment before removing his mask.

He spends another moment just staring, trying to make sense of everything that had just happened before he got here, trying to make sense of being here, trying to figure out why he hadn't remembered this place the entire time he was home. Ultimately he decides that he'll just figure it out later and wraps his arms around Poison, lifting her off her feet into a tight hug. But not too tight. Said hug is going to last a while, but eventually he speaks up.

"How long was I gone?" he asks, his voice soft and apologetic. He knows how long in his time that he wasn't around for, but timelines are always weird when it comes to places like Anchor.

[writtendestiny]

And the octocat, in a far-too-intelligent-cephalopod kind of way, points one arm back at him in an 'i know you' kind of way and stays stuck on the wall while Peter drops to the floor.

Poison doesn't resist the hug. She gasps softly in surprised, muted delight when he picks her up and she wraps her arms tightly around him while her heart hammers in her chest. He knows her. He knows her and her whole being sings with it while she buries her head into his neck and shuts her eyes.

"A few days," she murmurs back to him, leaning back enough to be able to see his face. "I didn't know if you were--" Her voice catches in her throat, her eyes suddenly shining, and she quickly tucks her head into his shoulder again.

[itsnotaonesie]

He turns and presses his lips to the side of her head, just letting it linger there for a moment. So much had happened while he was back home, some great things, some horrible things, his whole life had been turned completely on it's head and honestly, that wasn't something he'd been prepared to deal with. Being trapped back in Anchor wasn't great, especially now that he knows he isn't just dead and actually has a future, but with Poison, he's comfortable. With Poison, he's home.

And that's probably the sappiest phrase that's ever run through his head, but it's true.

"It's been almost six years for me. Well, technically it's only been about eight months because I was dead for most of that time. It's um. It's complicated."

[writtendestiny]

And all that Poison selfishly cares about right now is that he hasn't forgotten her. It takes a few moments for the implications of what he says to sink in, but once they do she looks up at him again.

"You're not dead anymore?"

The implications of that, too, sink in with a kind of selfish twinge. But she's happy, because no one should have to go on knowing that there's nothing for them back home other than no longer existing.

"How? After that long?"

[itsnotaonesie]

He nods slowly, like it's just catching up with him that the last time he was here, he'd been totally dead and knew for a fact that he had no future back home. Hadriel and Anchor had been his second chance at life, and now he was alive again and everyone at home expected him to be the next Iron Man except now everything was fucking upside down. At least he didn't have to worry about that right now, right now it was just him and Poison and Anderson dropping onto his head from the ceiling. Peter's just gonna let him sit there for a minute while he rubs his eyes. Just do him a favor and ignore how wet they look okay.

"I-- I'm alive, yeah. It's... God, kind of a long story and I wasn't exactly around for it. Long story short I guess, this guy Tony that I knew figured out how to time travel, this other dude had some technology that made it all possible, so they took a group of people back in time to get some things that undid the whole uh, half the universe being dead thing. I don't even know how to begin explaining the science behind it."