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Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redmarsshit2020-04-27 08:43 pm
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test drive meme: april 2020

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.

▶ SPECIAL NOTE: We're only a month off from the 1 year anniversary of the first TDM, and we received this request for a fancy dress ball, so we thought it would be funny fun to run with it! This TDM will only have one prompt/event, as the monthly log with a bit more plot-related stuff will be going up on Friday May 1st.

a. an invitation.

There are ears everywhere in Anchor. A maintenance bot here, a surveillance AI there. SINI, restlessly pacing the dark digital hallways as she watches over the things that still matter to her. It doesn't take long for word to get out about Starscream's expedition plans. It takes an even shorter time for that news to circulate amongst Anchor's robo-population.

They know when you're unhappy. They always know.

It's why residents will start waking up one fine day to find gorgeous clothes laid out for them to wear and an invitation to a formal dinner taking place down at the plaza at Anchor’s base. The clothes aren't particularly specific to a character's gender, species, or culture - it's all about what the bots think your character would like best. Even if they're wildly off the mark, the clothes are still made to fit and fashioned beautifully. The invitations are marked "TOMORROW, STARTING AT 6PM LOCAL TIME." A smaller note underneath instructs attendees to see the tailor bot adjacent to the spa if they are unsatisfied with their assigned clothing, and also that the spa bots are on high alert, prepared to beautify anyone who wants some extra pampering and a dash of makeup.

Just be careful. Some of the makeover bots are really fond of glitter.


b. quite the spread.

True to the word of the invitation, the plaza is closed off under large white tents and guarded by bots who encouragingly steer you elsewhere should you try to get inside. They're nice, polite, all the things they've been programmed to be whether they like it or not, but there will be no sneaking by them into the party area.

At 6pm on the dot the day after the clothes arrive, characters will find music playing on all levels of Anchor, broadcast from the musical robots who have been practicing ever since that first tiny party almost a year ago.

Invitations will be taken by a bot in an impeccably tailored suit, and characters will be welcomed onto the red carpet that curves around the edge of the park and into the area cordoned off for festivities. The flashbulbs and cheering of bots that line the carpet echo through Anchor, broadcast along with the music until it sounds like the entire place is full of faintly electronic cheering. Each arrival is greeted with a fresh wave of enthusiasm, their image projected larger than life against the interior of Anchor's dome.

The sides of the tents have been rolled up, revealing the absolutely decadent set-up within.

Rows upon rows of buffet tables laid out with the most extravagant and strange dishes for residents to try. All of it delicious, though not all of it will appeal to every palate. There are sweet dishes, savory, spicy, whatever you can imagine. Appetizers of a hundred different kinds. Fruit plates formed into works of art, showing places and events from around Anchor. There are spun sugar reindire. Tiny plates of hors d'oeuvres that depict the faces of residents, both current and former. One particularly large dish is sculpted in the shape of what looks like an explosion emanating from Anchor's base, near where the locked and flooded rooms were found.

There's a cake near the middle of it all, frosting painting an image of a young, smiling man. Anyone who's seen him will, after a moment, recognize the whole and handsome features of a much younger Creepy Joe - the words on the cake say LET'S CELEBRATE OUR OLDEST LIVING RESIDENT!

While most of the food is at least recognizably from the general stores and from the agricultural level, there are other plants and garnishes that look entirely foreign. If asked where they came from, the bots will simply insist they're part of Anchor’s available resources.

There is also a full-service bar, but...not manned by the usual bartender (for anyone who might ask, the other bots will kindly inform them that the usual bartender is on sabbatical for stress). Instead there's a freshly-built bot serving drinks of all kinds, taking requests for old favorites and mixing up new cocktails based on guests' stated tastes.

The only thing not on the menu is a tequila sunrise.

There's a table full of hookahs and little treats that have various light, pleasant effects. These range from simple mood lifts to treats that will leave characters blissed out and relaxed.


c. dance, our residents, dance!

After people have finished arriving, the band picks up and guests' attention is directed upward toward Anchor's dome, where there's a truly magnificent light show being projected with musical accompaniment. It's spectacular, haunting and beautiful...and it shows more than just lights. It also shows celestial bodies in motion across the planet's dusk-red sky, meteor showers, strange northern lights. The show itself is almost an hour long, and ends with words unfurling across the apex of the dome.


HAPPY +1 ANNIVERSARY ANCHOR #3, THE LONGEST RUNNING COLONY.

STAY HERE, STAY HAPPY!



The show fades away and the music picks up again, encouraging guests to dance.

Go on, dance.

It’s a party after all.


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.



writtendestiny: (075)

[personal profile] writtendestiny 2020-05-16 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
You look different.

[In a good way, she thinks, and Poison has never looked stranger to herself as she does right now. She'd barely recognised herself in the mirror.

The young woman steps up and slides her fingers around Carlisle's forearm, just below the crook of his elbow.
]

Do you need me to lead the way?
aintyourbro: (Clud Struff)

[personal profile] aintyourbro 2020-05-16 10:37 pm (UTC)(link)
"So, elemental spirits. We don't have anything like your pacts, not really, but if you've got the right materia you can summon a spirit."

Granted, they just show up to smash the hell out of whatever you're in a fight with. There's not a lot going on by way of tales and lore.

"Can you summon your spirits?"

circumspector: (( MINOTAUR ) » don't belong to no city)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-05-17 01:38 am (UTC)(link)
It feels like a secret when they're standing like this. So utterly between them and that no one else existed. It wasn't true, obviously. They were in a room full of people and robots.

But it feels like that, when she closes her eyes, and draws up the image of the flowers she had once seen across her screens, watched in her mind, and feels the warmth of his breath on her cheek and the softness of his words, his hands held in hers - it's just them. It's only just them.

"They're the colour of honey with the light going through it. The veins of the plant are crystal and bioluminescent. They... shimmer. Like gold. Threads of gold in the honey that pulse with life. The petals are little, the size of your littlest nail. But they double over themselves, one flower is a handful of petals."
nothinglikefather: made by peaked (028)

[personal profile] nothinglikefather 2020-05-17 07:37 am (UTC)(link)
"I know bastards like that." Jacob says, grinning at the robotic bartender and setting up a line of five bottles on the bar. There's not all that many people at the bar at this point, thank goodness.

"Ready to show me what you've got?"
seaboard: (alone in the rain)

[personal profile] seaboard 2020-05-17 07:45 am (UTC)(link)
Gilia flickers somewhere between confusion, horror, and then her face falls like she has remembered something utterly crushing to her.

"I would never summon the Father-Sea. He is not my servant. He is our... our great benefactor." It is appalling to her, to think the Spirit works for her, in anyway, that she would just beck and call him. "He gives us great gifts - for instance, I can breathe water like you do air. But - " There is where her face falls, looks bereft, if it were to be put to a word... "... There is no ocean here. I cannot feel his presence. He is not with me... It's..."

Heartbreaking and terrifying, all at once. Like she has lost a part of herself that had always been there. Truthfully, it had. Since she was three days old, it had been. Kept cool and safe by the ocean's touch.

Now she sits in a hole in the ground in the middle of a desert.
seaboard: (your feet would touch the floor)

[personal profile] seaboard 2020-05-17 07:55 am (UTC)(link)
She has tried very much to not stare at him. He is not something she can make heads or tails of. He? She? They? Spirit?

But it was very rude to stare, so she makes sure not to, apart from the brief fleeting glance as she slowly adjusts to the sheer mass of his presence laying on the grass.

At least when he answers her, she is at leave to meet his gaze, her neck craning up from where she is seated the once to acknowledge him and then appropriately lowering her eyes. "Not at all. I know them as I know myself, and as they know me." Polite as could be before he calls her on her longing look and she shakes her head at being called out at all.

"No, nothing is wrong. I was... I was merely thinking how grand the dancing is?"
seaboard: (there's a dew under the bed)

[personal profile] seaboard 2020-05-17 08:04 am (UTC)(link)
She lets him settle without further comment or interruption. There seems to be something to those pipes that people seem to enjoy. That was very nice for him.

When the little blue... dragon? She thinks it might be a dragon. Like the ones she often saw playing in the waves... she can't help but smile. What a sweet spirit!

Gilia lets her hand drop to the flask she had hidden at her side, slowly unscrewing it, to call the water out from within it. It wasn't much water, just what she kept with her as was the custom. For that, her control is fine-tuned. Comfortably, she weave it around her fingers in mimicry of waves before she drifts it towards the little Dragon in a ribbon that holds it's shaping without dripping, letting it drift and tease without dripping water everywhere or all over him - just for the little dragon to play with if it wanted to.

Oh, she did love to find reasons like this to cheer others.
seaboard: (but will not lift you)

[personal profile] seaboard 2020-05-17 08:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Well, I..."

She falters like her tongue had been stolen out of her head for just that idea that she can decide it for herself.

She clears her throat.

"... I think that... that I would not be opposed to seeing it again, now that you have assured me it is not... anything untoward, and it would not trouble anyone else."
vosseeker: (twenty-two.)

[personal profile] vosseeker 2020-05-17 08:29 am (UTC)(link)
If Starscream has noticed the staring, he hasn't reacted to it. He's preened and polished and painted for tonight, even though he suspects the effect will be mostly lost on the fleshlings. A little bit of impressed awe right now would go a long way toward improving his mood.

(Coincidentally, the fairly potent high-grade the drones have cooked into those energon gummies is likewise improving his mood.)

Starscream's red optics go back to the dancing area, and for a moment it seems like he's looking at something else entirely that only he can see.

"Most people appear to be enjoying themselves there," he allows. "Do you not intend to join them?"
itsnotaonesie: (104)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2020-05-17 04:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Not breaking eye contact, Peter reaches over and smashes the ember out with his hand. Once he's got the fires out, he then makes good on his threat and turns the fire extinguisher on Kabal. He's just gonna spray this shit at Kabal until it's empty, just wearing the most deadpan expression on his face as he does so.
redwinekindofgirl: (037)

[personal profile] redwinekindofgirl 2020-05-17 06:33 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's been a while since Julie's actually seen a working hookah, or had the opportunity to try one... but it makes a change from weed and cigarettes and she's been all over it from the moment she saw it.]

Wouldn't know, never been near enough to a llama's ass to find out. [She sniggers quietly and takes another pull before she gives her name, letting the smoke curl out of her lips as she speaks.]

Julie. Haven't seen you before.
writtendestiny: (028)

[personal profile] writtendestiny 2020-05-17 06:48 pm (UTC)(link)
You're supposed to say that because I'm your girlfriend. [She tells him, pursing her lips in a clear attempt to resist smiling.]

Were you going to ask if I wanted to dance?

[Because... maybe, for Peter, she'd consider it.]
aintyourbro: (ty4X8Pk)

[personal profile] aintyourbro 2020-05-17 07:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Hey, if the system works, there's no need to fart around with it.

"I hear that. You either learn to cooperate, or you crash and burn. Has there been any infighting at all, or is everything pretty stable?"
aintyourbro: (Cold Stroganoff)

[personal profile] aintyourbro 2020-05-17 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Aw beans he did that thing again where he opens his mouth and makes things super uncomfortable. Like okay, he has no qualms about summoning fucking Ifrit and letting him wreck shit with fire, he totally doesn't feel bad about that, but the sympathy does kick in when she starts getting upset.

He's not exactly good at being comforting, even with people he knows he's still stiff and awkward about it, but what he is good at it cutting the bullshit and being direct. Confidence can be comforting in the right circumstances, and Cloud's hoping that this is one of them.

"I know it's a lot right now, but we'll find a way out, a way to get back home. If there was a way for us to get here in the first place, then there's a way to leave."

He sounds way more sure about that than he actually is, whatever's going on here is way over his head. Every problem has a solution though, someone's bound to come up with something.
itsnotaonesie: (tripping so many balls)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2020-05-17 09:10 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't remember signing any contracts that said I had to compliment you just because you're my girlfriend. When I say you look incredible, it's because you look incredible.

[he sees that lip pursing and leans in to playfully bump his forehead against hers in an attempt to get that smile to pop. DO IT.]

As it turns out, I am gonna ask you to dance. Can't promise I'll be good, though. My aunt taught me how to years ago, but I never had a chance to actually practice.
vosseeker: (fourteen.)

[personal profile] vosseeker 2020-05-18 01:21 am (UTC)(link)
[ Hmm, Starscream can appreciate a cagey approach. No one worth their sense signs everything over without prompting. ]

Then the first order of business: did the video play correctly upon your arrival?

[ Starscream didn't get said introduction, his own manner of arrival being outside the norm, but he's learned about it since. ]
vosseeker: (twenty-eight.)

[personal profile] vosseeker 2020-05-18 01:49 am (UTC)(link)
He happiness is a palpable thing, and his phrasing often comes across dismissive when he doesn't necessarily intend it to be, so he considers her answer before replying.

"One could argue that the ability to feel as you want to is more freedom than what was given up. That the freedom of a mind is worth more than a physical freedom."
circumspector: (Default)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-05-18 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Another twist, her fingers gathering up the sumptuous material in her fingers, delicately for all it was heavy - but she was strong as she holds the dress out from her in her little clipped steps of her hooves like they were finely made shoes as she swayed this way and that.

"They could argue that, but I don't agree I don't think if I've understood you correctly. We are beings with bodies, our bodies are the will of our mind to act as we want. Physically freedom is as important as mental freedom."
writtendestiny: (018)

[personal profile] writtendestiny 2020-05-18 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't say it had to be logical. Not everything is.

[Though it would help if it was. She leans her head up slightly to briefly meet Starscream's eyes, then goes back to frowning at one of the bots as they trundle by with a half empty tray of bite-sized treats.]

But it doesn't mean there's no reason at all. Aren't you curious?
numerouno: (CV)

[personal profile] numerouno 2020-05-19 03:29 am (UTC)(link)
That earns him a wide smile. Scaramouche knows who's the more handsome of the pair.

"You think this party's big enough for the two of us?"
kaballin: (At Ease)

[personal profile] kaballin 2020-05-19 06:33 am (UTC)(link)
"Friends are good for ya huh?" Some people need a team to function, even Kabal likes having other people around. It's a little hard to banter with yourself after all. But he knows that's not the issue for Carlisle, even though he really doesn't get what the problem is.

He also doesn't particularly care, though of the people he's interacted with Carlisle has been one of the more useful, so it's in his best interest to keep him alive and fully functional. If this is his way of recharging like a cell phone, Kabal is all for it.

"You notice all the forks? If you ask real nice I'll tell you which is which." said with the smug superiority of someone who knows something someone else doesn't.
kaballin: (Nah)

[personal profile] kaballin 2020-05-19 06:45 am (UTC)(link)
You know.. He deserved that. Even he knows he deserved that. Doesn't mean he likes being covered in foam (he had his mask down and everything), but he gets it.

"Way to ruin a perfectly good cheesecake." He lets the plate fall out of his hand and shatter on the ground adding some cheesecakey goodness to the fire fluff. Shaking himself violently like a dog he wipes his face so he looks a little less like some sort of shaving cream goblin.

"Happy now?" At least his suit is white so it's not as bad as it could be.
mustact: (→05)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-05-19 11:16 am (UTC)(link)
He's silent for a moment, trying to picture it. Small petals that double over each other? He truthfully doesn't know much about flowers or the names of them, especially in English, but ...

He slides his arms all the way around her waist, gently tugging her in just a little bit further.

"Sounds like dandelions." A slight pause. "Without the glowing."
circumspector: (( twirl ) » don't want your opinion)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-05-19 11:58 am (UTC)(link)
The step closer makes her giggle. Her skirts bubbling around him like waves against a cliff, there was so much material, it left them a little island together.

"Something like that. Lots and lots of petals you can pick. It's good for that silly little game kids play, that - 'he loves me? he loves me not?' game."
towhatmatters: (→15)

[personal profile] towhatmatters 2020-05-19 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Now? Honestly, Jacob, calm down. Arthur stares at him for a second, and scoffs.

"Hell no. I'm gonna enjoy more drinks before we shoot up anything."

At least finish this whiskey bottles. He's only just started!

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