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redmarsshit2020-08-08 09:30 pm
modblob) wrote in redmarsshit2020-08-08 09:30 pm
Entry tags:
august 2020. welcome to the void.
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.
▶ 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. tombstorm.
A few days after the end of July, early in the morning, everyone in Anchor will be able to feel a deep rumbling moving through the city, will hear a rush of rocket fuel, and anyone who goes out to see the source of the sounds and vibrations will be able to watch the alien cruise ship carefully detaching from Anchor's exit, detaching their radiation bubble from Anchor's, making sure to never break the city's dome before flying off into the vibrantly red sky.
The departure of the aliens leaves an unmistakable mark on the landscape. The rumble of their takeoff, the intense roar of their ship's thrusters, blasts a hole in the sand that uncovers a part of Anchor long-buried outside of the dome. An area the length and breadth of two football fields put side by side, with tidy rows of...tombstones? Are those tombstones? They have lettering on them that glows faintly blue, getting slowly brighter as anyone approaches them. When someone gets close enough, a bright beam shoots from the top of the definitely-not-a-tombstone, scanning the person in front of it, and the marks on the metal tablets reorient into a readable language.
They're names. Names with a string of numbers underneath, and nonsense dates below that. Sometimes several nonsense dates are listed in a row down the front of each stone. Oftentimes, the names belong to strangers. Sometimes, though, they're familiar. Names of people who have come and gone in Anchor, sometimes listed on multiple different stones, each with a unique number underneath. Sometimes names of people that the Anchorites might know. May Parker, Jacob Seed, Samsara, Liara T'Soni, Perry Kelvin - the lists of the familiar go on. Sometimes, the names of current residents themselves are the names that appear on the tombstones.
The departure of the aliens leaves an unmistakable mark on the landscape. The rumble of their takeoff, the intense roar of their ship's thrusters, blasts a hole in the sand that uncovers a part of Anchor long-buried outside of the dome. An area the length and breadth of two football fields put side by side, with tidy rows of...tombstones? Are those tombstones? They have lettering on them that glows faintly blue, getting slowly brighter as anyone approaches them. When someone gets close enough, a bright beam shoots from the top of the definitely-not-a-tombstone, scanning the person in front of it, and the marks on the metal tablets reorient into a readable language.
They're names. Names with a string of numbers underneath, and nonsense dates below that. Sometimes several nonsense dates are listed in a row down the front of each stone. Oftentimes, the names belong to strangers. Sometimes, though, they're familiar. Names of people who have come and gone in Anchor, sometimes listed on multiple different stones, each with a unique number underneath. Sometimes names of people that the Anchorites might know. May Parker, Jacob Seed, Samsara, Liara T'Soni, Perry Kelvin - the lists of the familiar go on. Sometimes, the names of current residents themselves are the names that appear on the tombstones.
b. arachnophobia!
Of course, it's not as simple as just walking out to the cleared area in a hazmat suit. That would be too easy. The noise of the alien ship's departure also woke something else up. Or perhaps more accurately, activated it.
A massive robotic spider, glowing with threads of the same light that illuminates the broad valley of marked stones, circles the space endlessly. The lucky can get to the stones without facing it, if they wait until it's on the farthest edge away, but the thing is fast and unfriendly and won't hesitate to attack someone careless. Or someone curious, even. And its legs conceal a variety of blasting weaponry that can do a whole lot of damage on their own. Even worse, when the eight glowing eyes all align on one spot, get the hell out of the way, or be caught in an incinerating green beam. Also, it...really likes stomping on things.
It can be defeated, if its carapace can be broken into and its insides destroyed, but you'd probably have to blind it first. Might be worth it, though. Those explosives in the legs might just come in real handy, and the parts inside the spider could be analyzed to reveal characteristics very similar to that weird humming orb thing buried in those caves - they even have their own faint hum.
A massive robotic spider, glowing with threads of the same light that illuminates the broad valley of marked stones, circles the space endlessly. The lucky can get to the stones without facing it, if they wait until it's on the farthest edge away, but the thing is fast and unfriendly and won't hesitate to attack someone careless. Or someone curious, even. And its legs conceal a variety of blasting weaponry that can do a whole lot of damage on their own. Even worse, when the eight glowing eyes all align on one spot, get the hell out of the way, or be caught in an incinerating green beam. Also, it...really likes stomping on things.
It can be defeated, if its carapace can be broken into and its insides destroyed, but you'd probably have to blind it first. Might be worth it, though. Those explosives in the legs might just come in real handy, and the parts inside the spider could be analyzed to reveal characteristics very similar to that weird humming orb thing buried in those caves - they even have their own faint hum.
c. ⱠɆ₮'₴ ₲Ɇ₮ ₱ⱧɎ₴ł₵₳Ⱡ.
Existential dread and monster battles not your thing? The bots have you covered. It is, after all, Physical Evaluation Day! Yay!
The medibots have set up an elaborate obstacle course in the park, one designed to test the speed, strength, and stamina of participants. It's a fairly standard military-style obstacle course, with climbing walls, mud pits to crawl through, ropes to climb, and huge monkey-bar sets with a potential drop into multicolored dye that just will not come off if you fall in. Y'know. Standard stuff.
There’s also...laser tag? If you want to add a little extra challenge to your obstacle course, sign up for a "combat sim" and face down fellow Anchorites and specially-programmed bots as you run the length of the obstacle course and try to stay "alive."
If you don't complete the obstacle course within a specific time designated by the medibots and arbitrarily changed every fifteen minutes or so, your reward is a full exam in the medical bay! Yay! You also get a half a gold star that says "effort" on it, but that's less exciting.
Fight all you want, but they will get that urine sample one way or another.
If you complete the obstacle course in the allotted time, you get a little metal star badge that says "I DID GOOD!" with a little etching of a cheering medibot underneath. Also you're gonna get showered with celebratory glitter.
Maybe the medical bay would have been better.
The medibots have set up an elaborate obstacle course in the park, one designed to test the speed, strength, and stamina of participants. It's a fairly standard military-style obstacle course, with climbing walls, mud pits to crawl through, ropes to climb, and huge monkey-bar sets with a potential drop into multicolored dye that just will not come off if you fall in. Y'know. Standard stuff.
There’s also...laser tag? If you want to add a little extra challenge to your obstacle course, sign up for a "combat sim" and face down fellow Anchorites and specially-programmed bots as you run the length of the obstacle course and try to stay "alive."
If you don't complete the obstacle course within a specific time designated by the medibots and arbitrarily changed every fifteen minutes or so, your reward is a full exam in the medical bay! Yay! You also get a half a gold star that says "effort" on it, but that's less exciting.
Fight all you want, but they will get that urine sample one way or another.
If you complete the obstacle course in the allotted time, you get a little metal star badge that says "I DID GOOD!" with a little etching of a cheering medibot underneath. Also you're gonna get showered with celebratory glitter.
Maybe the medical bay would have been better.
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 forge a doctor's note to get out of the obstacle course? 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.
Whatever the reason, the network is going strong, so feel free to include a post to it in your top-levels.
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[Gokudera looks at the tombstones and ponders for a moment.]
There are a lot of superstitions... it's interesting to learn and explore other cultures, and not focus so much on people that are gone. If you've died before, then I think it's important what you do when you're alive, right? Not whether or not your spirit stays behind. I would hope when I die, that it'll be rest, or... nothing. I'd really like the peace of not having thoughts, or to just not exist anymore...
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[ To him, not existing has always seemed scary. Then again, he supposes you can't have much of an opinion on not existing, since ... you wouldn't exist. But even after being alive for longer than they actually had a measure of time (though knowing that he's not as old as some angels), he's never gotten tired of existing. Not really. ]
I've never felt like I was tired of thinking.
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Do you believe in ghosts?
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[ Never mind the fact that it's not a belief, really, but a fact. He's never seen any souls lingering behind. Maybe it happens if Death is on a break. Does Death take breaks? Not like he thought to ask him. ]
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I can't say I have the same beliefs I once held in this world. I don't think the rules all stay the same...
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[ Not every reality has to have a Heaven and Hell. ]
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[ One of the many limitations of English and plenty other human languages. It's charming, really, the things they choose to give a word and the things they don't. ]
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[ He says it very fondly, though. Humans sure do try! ]
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And these tombstones are a joke, as far as I'm concerned. [He rolls his eyes dramatically, waves a hand dismissively at the stone before this man he's been talking to.]
I'm Gokudera, by the way.
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[ He makes a vague gesture at the tombstone, then smiles politely as he makes a slight bow. He knows a Japanese name when he hears one. Hopefully he's not being presumptuous. ]
It's a pleasure.
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The bow earns a smile.] Ah?
You know Japanese customs? [Gokudera crosses his arms and he looks mildly impressed.]
I'm only a quarter Japanese. [His mom was half, and his dad is fully Sicilian.]
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Ah, well, I'm very fond of Japanese cuisine, especially.
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[ Wistful sigh ]
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[That may be the only food in fact that Yamamoto knows how to make.]
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[ How exciting! ]
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[Gokudera does, too. It'd probably make him cry to see some, after so long.]
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