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

[arcadedragon]

"Of course it is! That is what makes it fun." Pulling his helmet off he leaves it on the counter to go check out a collection of garrish beanies that will clash horribly with his bright green hair.

"Not everything must be ordered and purposeful. Master Zenyatta would say that life is chaotic by its very nature and to embrace that is to become closer to understanding tranquility."

He pauses with a hot pink unicorn hat on his head while he thinks about that, "Admittedly it sounded much wiser when he said it."

[nockturnal]

"Is that who you've been learning all this from?"

Hanzo snorts softly, but it's not with disapproval this time. If Genji has been able to learn and grow so much, then...who knows. Maybe the idea isn't a completely hopeless one.

That had is still hideous. However, there are some fingerless gloves over there that could actually be useful...maybe not the ones with the cheap plastic spikes, necessarily.

[arcadedragon]

"Yes. Well, I have tried. I would like to think I am a better student now than I was as a child, but that is likely untrue." He's at least better at sitting still and listening, but that doesn't mean it all sinks in. Pulling the ridiculous unicorn beanie off he replaces it with a more sedate black one, pulling it low on his forehead and letting his hair swoop down over one eye.

"He taught me many things, but it is up to me to apply those things to my life. I am trying, but sometimes it is difficult." But he has gotten much better at controlling his temper. So it's working somewhat.

[nockturnal]

"Such lessons often are. Some, we learn the hardest way possible."

Some, he's still trying to unlearn. 'The way things are done' has always been that guiding star, but he's in uncharted territory now, himself. He doesn't know what to do, and what the elders would have wanted no longer counts for very much at all.

To have such a teacher would have been a great boon. He is quietly glad that his brother was able to find that guidance, that he was separated from them soon enough for it to matter. Even if how it happened was--

Not important right now. Instead he tugs the gloves he's found on, taking a moment to first roll back the sleeves of the hoodie. Hm. Not bad.

[arcadedragon]

He looks over at Hanzo sharply, does he remember? No, it seems he doesn't. At some point they would need to stop dancing around what had happened and have that conversation, but Genji truly doesn't want to. Maybe it's selfish of him, but not having that looming between them had been .. nice. Comforting. He's just now starting to realize that Hanzo doesn't hate him, he's not eager to return to the fighting and harsh words and strained conversations.

"It's true. And some you cannot learn any other way." He sighs, grabbing one of the blind box figurines from a shelf and going to sit on the counter to open it. "Experiencing things is far different than speaking about them in the abstract. Not everything can be sorted with words. Or violence."

He runs his fingers along the edge of the box before opening it. They're getting into dangerously deep territory again. "That looks good. It suits you. The sort of 'lone roaming warrior' look."

[nockturnal]

Hanzo makes a small scoffing noise, before examining a rack of coats. His own jacket is fine, but having a spare on hand would be practical. Not everything has to be about rebelling, right?

"I am not certain what I am, now. I only know what I have left behind."

The memories haven't come back to him quite yet, but that sense of disgust and finality from that time remains. There's no question that there is no room for him within the clan any longer. Now, no doubt they would both be hunted...although any assassin that managed to follow them here, wherever they've found themselves, would be a formidable foe indeed.

[arcadedragon]

"None of us are what we were, nor can we be here. This place asks us for different skills than we previously had." Meaning that Genji can't sword his problems away. He feels somewhat adrift, all he knew was fighting, all he'd been trained for was battle. And here that was a skill rarely required. Making soup for everyone had been far more beneficial than anyone he could have tackled in combat.

"Moving forward is all any of us can do, time is ever flowing, it waits for no one. Least of all us."

He tears open the plastic wrapper to reveal a green and white vinyl unicorn on a keychain. Smiling he hooks it onto his ridiculous sweater. "But it is not so bad, being able to start over fresh. Clean. In a place where no one knows anything about me."

[nockturnal]

"I know me."

And that's the hitch, isn't it? It's not just tearing himself free of the expectations of the clan. For such a long time he'd internalized those expectations and they'd become his own. It's not enough that he's away from the clan when so much of who he is resides in that life left behind.

After hesitating a moment, Hanzo reaches out to take a pair of sunglasses. The tackiest things he can see, holographic paint decorating the frame. He promptly slips them on, and focuses an intense stare over the top of them at his brother.

Which lasts all of five seconds, before the corner of his mouth starts to twitch, threatening laughter.

[arcadedragon]

"Isn't now a good time to unlearn what you know?" He'd had to, and in far less of a safe environment than here. With no support network and no one to turn to. But he can't deny it was ultimately for the best, he'd only thought he knew himself, but he didn't truly understand himself for years.

Even now he struggled to reconcile his half man, half machine existence, but at least he knew his own morals, the standards he'd adhere to. And that was a starting place to work forward from.

Glancing up to say something else somber and wise, but he can't help but crack a smile, "Those are ridiculous. I love them."

He laughs a little and, it feels good to be able to be relaxed and happy with Hanzo again. To joke about the little things. Genji can only hope it lasts.

[nockturnal]

Hanzo chuckles, in turn, and those stern lines etched into his face soften just a touch. Just for a moment.

It feels like a knot starting to come loose.

"I don't see a need for many of these things in the days to come. They will likely clutter our space. But it's not all entirely without use," he remarks, putting the glasses back and moving to another rack.

This one appears to only have pajamas, one-piece, in the guise of various cute, cuddly animals. Corgis, red pandas, unicorns, and the like. He pulls out one that has a chubby-cheeked bird on the hood and little fabric wings attached to its back.

"Hmph. It would suit you, no?" And he holds it up for inspection.

[arcadedragon]

The little sparrow flutters over to take a look. Pulling the neon disaster of a hoodie over his head so he can try it on.

"Is there something fitting for you? We can have a movie night in our pajamas. I will make popcorn." He bounces on one foot to get the fleecy bird onesie on, the fabric bulky on his slender metal legs.

"Maybe this will keep me warm, when it was very snowy inside I was freezing the whole time. But my fish were safe, so there is that." his tone indicating that's the important part of all this and not that he spent a few days sneezing and shivering because his metal body is really good at dissipating heat and not containing it.

[nockturnal]

"You could have put on clothes." As though that were the obvious choice he'd somehow neglected to make in all of this.

Though his mouth curves at the mention of the fish. It brings up happier memories, the festivals and the little goldfish scooping games that had fascinated him so. They were both so much younger, so much more easily satisfied.

He reaches absently for one of the pajama sets, a wolf with fluffy ears and an equally fluffy tail. It's childish, tacky, and very soft to the touch. So, perfect.

[arcadedragon]

"I did! I was wearing everything I own and a blanket!" He looked like a light up marshmallow at the time, and it barely helped. "The armor is designed to not overheat, but it does too good of a job."

He zips up the onesie and pulls the hood up over his head. Giving a little wiggle to make the wings flap he flits over to the mirror to take a look, grinning at his reflection. "I look stupid. This is fantastic."

[nockturnal]

"No more so than usual."

It's a jab with little edge, more the casual nudging they had given each other in youth. It's second nature, even if it's taken a little while for Hanzo to loosen up and remember how to be a brother. He's been out of practice for some time, after a while.

"We should also see if there is anything of actual use here. Should another such an event occur," he murmurs, frowning thoughtfully. As much has happened since he arrived, there doesn't seem much in the way of defense or preparation.

Just...these silly things. Which, while fun in a sacrilegious sort of way, were not necessarily all that useful.

[arcadedragon]

"What? I look cool! I light up!" He sounds just oh so offended, making his lights shine even brighter so that they're vaguely visible through the fleece of his new pajamas that Hanzo may have trouble convincing him to stop wearing.

"I do not think there's much here that's useful. That is what makes it fun, it is all unnecessary and poor quality. Where have you been shopping before this? Where did you get the jacket? I like it."

And he will just be copying his accidentally stylish big bro in the future.

[nockturnal]

"I was...traveling. I would find things along the way, while I..."

Wait, why had he been traveling? There's something verging on remembrance there and Hanzo frowns, shaking his head for a moment as though trying to clear it. He'd left the clan, left home and traveled, seeking...

Why isn't it coming to him?

[arcadedragon]

"Traveling?" He'd sort of assumed that Hanzo had left and gone elsewhere, not that he was roaming the countryside as an assassin with questionable taste in clothing. There's still so much they don't know about each other. A decades long gap between them even without Hanzo's current lack of memory.

"It's fine. You do not have to tell me. Grab what you want and then let's go pick out a movie!"

It's going to be movie night whether you want it or not Hanzo.

[nockturnal]

He'd felt this strange haze since that day, below the complex. It seems to be coming back, but only as a vaguely remembered dream. Nothing solid, as of yet.

There was time. It seemed to be growing stronger, if he allowed it to come back of its own accord.

Genji receives a grunt of acceptance, before he reaches for a new backpack, in order to store what he's collected so far. Since it all appears free for the taking.

[arcadedragon]

Genji will count this as a win. Still wearing his very fashionable fleecy bird outfit, he scoops a few things into his messenger bag. Mostly clothes but also a couple more blind boxes. The thrill of the unknown.

He'll wait for Hanzo to be ready before dragging him to the Blockbuster for movie selection.

And yes he will wear this the whole way home.