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redmarsshit2019-07-19 09:07 pm
modblob) wrote in redmarsshit2019-07-19 09:07 pm
redshift: tdm #2
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. smoke and generators.
It's early morning, and if any of Anchor's residents thought that taking a vacation in an abandoned hellscape would at least be relaxing enough to sleep in, they're about to find out they were wrong.
It's about 5:30 AM when a loud screeching noise of metal scraping against metal rings out and echoes through the entirety of Anchor, quickly followed by a plume of smoke coming from the topmost levels, near the Research & Development area and a loud series of catastrophic banging noises that simply refuse to let up. Once residents converge on the area, they'll discover a previously closed and completely impenetrable metal door that had comprised most of the back wall of a room full of burn damaged and broken down generators slamming open and shut, shrieking on unoiled hinges and sliders, and emitting plumes of smoke with every slam. A bit of technical finagling with the control pad (or a well-placed blow with a hard object or shot from a gun) will make the door creak to a stop at the top of its usual arc, exposing an enticing scene.
A pristine room sits behind a thick pane of violence-proof glass, decorated starkly with the walls white and white LEDs shining coldly on the scene, it's spartan except for a display of about 5 generators in perfect working condition, complete with pulsing blue-glowing power indicators. Sweet. Those would definitely come in handy for rebooting a few of the city's amenities and life support systems, with the main power grid offline as it is. The only trouble is getting inside. A bit of research would find a few ways:
There are a few options for getting into the room: through the air vents around the door, by hacking the door locking mechanism, by blowing through the door in some way. Each has its drawbacks (the vents are full of large mutated and possibly radioactive vermin such as rats and scorpions; hacking the door is incredibly technologically advanced and difficult to do; blowing up the door comes with a risk of any damage reflecting off the door and back at the people trying to blow it up, or damaging the generators inside, or the structural integrity of the area) and its advantages.
Whether residents want to try one of these options, or think of something on their own (feel free to pitch your ideas in the mod questions thread!), this treasure is definitely worth trying to get hold of.
It's about 5:30 AM when a loud screeching noise of metal scraping against metal rings out and echoes through the entirety of Anchor, quickly followed by a plume of smoke coming from the topmost levels, near the Research & Development area and a loud series of catastrophic banging noises that simply refuse to let up. Once residents converge on the area, they'll discover a previously closed and completely impenetrable metal door that had comprised most of the back wall of a room full of burn damaged and broken down generators slamming open and shut, shrieking on unoiled hinges and sliders, and emitting plumes of smoke with every slam. A bit of technical finagling with the control pad (or a well-placed blow with a hard object or shot from a gun) will make the door creak to a stop at the top of its usual arc, exposing an enticing scene.
A pristine room sits behind a thick pane of violence-proof glass, decorated starkly with the walls white and white LEDs shining coldly on the scene, it's spartan except for a display of about 5 generators in perfect working condition, complete with pulsing blue-glowing power indicators. Sweet. Those would definitely come in handy for rebooting a few of the city's amenities and life support systems, with the main power grid offline as it is. The only trouble is getting inside. A bit of research would find a few ways:There are a few options for getting into the room: through the air vents around the door, by hacking the door locking mechanism, by blowing through the door in some way. Each has its drawbacks (the vents are full of large mutated and possibly radioactive vermin such as rats and scorpions; hacking the door is incredibly technologically advanced and difficult to do; blowing up the door comes with a risk of any damage reflecting off the door and back at the people trying to blow it up, or damaging the generators inside, or the structural integrity of the area) and its advantages.
Whether residents want to try one of these options, or think of something on their own (feel free to pitch your ideas in the mod questions thread!), this treasure is definitely worth trying to get hold of.
b. it's all fun and games...
Getting the generators out of the hidden room was a trial, but finding places to hook them up is a snap - the only real problem is that there's way more spots to hook up to than there are generators. It's completely up to the residents where said generators get hooked up, but no matter what they choose, one room will power up. The VR Room.
Considered necessary rather than just an amenity by the previous residents of Anchor, the VR Room is a necessary outlet allowing the opportunity to relax and unwind for residents. And it's set up to divert some power from the system no matter where the generators were set up. When the room powers up, an automated message is sent out to all functional sat phones - a pretty little series of bells, and an audio announcement that the VR and Games Room is open and available for use, with an attached GPS map showing the room's location in the city.
Any resident who goes to the indicated place will find the VR Room open and powered up. Everything is dusty, but there are couches to lounge on, vending machines with snacks - some of which are decades past their expiry date and some of which are preserved or shelf-stable enough to still be edible - and a little coffee bar. The most important part, though, is the VR and the games.
One area of the room is set up with various interactive video games that two or more people can play together. They run the gamut from dancing games, racing games, first person shooters, and even some simple sports games and childrens' games. It's like a mini digital arcade and anyone is free to play. Some games function with the use of a handheld sensor, or sensors attached to feet or other body parts; some function via camera to track player movements; some have unique functions specific to the game style (players can use their imaginations for this one).
The VR area is a little more complicated. "VR Room" is something of a misnomer - there's one large room to the left, with a hallway sporting more, smaller rooms off to the right. The large room is an environmental simulation room with artificial sunlight and a default oceanscape that can be programmed to resemble a person's own world. There's a certain degree of automatic cerebral interfacing to make sure it gets the details just right. The smaller rooms have access to a library of VR games, some of which work and some of which will insult you in various languages before crashing. People can meet and socialize in the environmental simulation room, or in any of the smaller rooms through virtual reality. Additionally, there is a completely digital "shared world" that any character accessing the VR Room can enter, which represents the city at its peak of functionality and beauty - this VR shared world is the first place that some new arrivals manifest, as ghosts in the machine that can interact via VR before waking up physically in the arrival room.
Anyone accessing virtual reality will receive a warning spiel before entering their chosen program that states that excessive or long-term use of the VR services can cause users to experience mental and/or physical damage.
As long as it's been since the VR rooms were used, however, there's bound to be some glitches, and a few of the programs seem to load up fine only to glitch out partway into the scenario - whether it's an escape room, an in-depth virtual reality murder mystery, a dance party, visual novel, or any other program, there's a chance it might stall, freeze, glitch, and trap players inside until they can figure out how to unfreeze the program, or until they're rescued by someone on the outside recognizing their plight. Good luck!
Considered necessary rather than just an amenity by the previous residents of Anchor, the VR Room is a necessary outlet allowing the opportunity to relax and unwind for residents. And it's set up to divert some power from the system no matter where the generators were set up. When the room powers up, an automated message is sent out to all functional sat phones - a pretty little series of bells, and an audio announcement that the VR and Games Room is open and available for use, with an attached GPS map showing the room's location in the city.
Any resident who goes to the indicated place will find the VR Room open and powered up. Everything is dusty, but there are couches to lounge on, vending machines with snacks - some of which are decades past their expiry date and some of which are preserved or shelf-stable enough to still be edible - and a little coffee bar. The most important part, though, is the VR and the games.
One area of the room is set up with various interactive video games that two or more people can play together. They run the gamut from dancing games, racing games, first person shooters, and even some simple sports games and childrens' games. It's like a mini digital arcade and anyone is free to play. Some games function with the use of a handheld sensor, or sensors attached to feet or other body parts; some function via camera to track player movements; some have unique functions specific to the game style (players can use their imaginations for this one).
The VR area is a little more complicated. "VR Room" is something of a misnomer - there's one large room to the left, with a hallway sporting more, smaller rooms off to the right. The large room is an environmental simulation room with artificial sunlight and a default oceanscape that can be programmed to resemble a person's own world. There's a certain degree of automatic cerebral interfacing to make sure it gets the details just right. The smaller rooms have access to a library of VR games, some of which work and some of which will insult you in various languages before crashing. People can meet and socialize in the environmental simulation room, or in any of the smaller rooms through virtual reality. Additionally, there is a completely digital "shared world" that any character accessing the VR Room can enter, which represents the city at its peak of functionality and beauty - this VR shared world is the first place that some new arrivals manifest, as ghosts in the machine that can interact via VR before waking up physically in the arrival room.Anyone accessing virtual reality will receive a warning spiel before entering their chosen program that states that excessive or long-term use of the VR services can cause users to experience mental and/or physical damage.
As long as it's been since the VR rooms were used, however, there's bound to be some glitches, and a few of the programs seem to load up fine only to glitch out partway into the scenario - whether it's an escape room, an in-depth virtual reality murder mystery, a dance party, visual novel, or any other program, there's a chance it might stall, freeze, glitch, and trap players inside until they can figure out how to unfreeze the program, or until they're rescued by someone on the outside recognizing their plight. Good luck!
c. the crash.
A few days after the Generator Room opening up, residents of Anchor will experience another rude awakening, this time in the middle of the night. While they were sleeping, a red shift has occurred outside the city, and while they were shielded from the radiation and the chaos that comes with it, there are things outside the city that are affected.
Just after midnight, there is an extremely loud noise - it starts as ground-shaking crash, like something massive has hit the ground a few miles outside the city, and is followed by an ominous rumbling. Residents will feel the ground shaking, enough that items may fall off tables, anyone walking might lose their balance, and people might even fall out of bed. After a few minutes, however, it will die down and after a short, almost deafening silence, wind will start to whistle around the dome protecting Anchor from the outside elements. The impact of...whatever crashed in the wastelands...has triggered a massive dust storm.
Anyone who makes it up to the Observation Room near the Decontamination area and look out the wide glass windows (treated carefully to withstand the elements) over the desert will see the vague outline of a massive hulking form in the desert. With some observation, before the dust piles up too high outside the windows, they will get the impression that it's something artificial, created by people and not a natural formation or monster, though any details will be hard to make out. It could be anything from a building to a ship to something else completely alien.
As the day carries on, the dust storm rages outside the city with no signs of letting up, and with every passing hour more red sand builds up against the Observation Room's windows...and on top of the dome. By evening, what should've been a bright sunset is filtered through a layer of red dust thick enough to tint what little light makes it through a vibrant red, painting the city in psychologically jarring shades of crimson.
Just after midnight, there is an extremely loud noise - it starts as ground-shaking crash, like something massive has hit the ground a few miles outside the city, and is followed by an ominous rumbling. Residents will feel the ground shaking, enough that items may fall off tables, anyone walking might lose their balance, and people might even fall out of bed. After a few minutes, however, it will die down and after a short, almost deafening silence, wind will start to whistle around the dome protecting Anchor from the outside elements. The impact of...whatever crashed in the wastelands...has triggered a massive dust storm.
Anyone who makes it up to the Observation Room near the Decontamination area and look out the wide glass windows (treated carefully to withstand the elements) over the desert will see the vague outline of a massive hulking form in the desert. With some observation, before the dust piles up too high outside the windows, they will get the impression that it's something artificial, created by people and not a natural formation or monster, though any details will be hard to make out. It could be anything from a building to a ship to something else completely alien.As the day carries on, the dust storm rages outside the city with no signs of letting up, and with every passing hour more red sand builds up against the Observation Room's windows...and on top of the dome. By evening, what should've been a bright sunset is filtered through a layer of red dust thick enough to tint what little light makes it through a vibrant red, painting the city in psychologically jarring shades of crimson.
d. red-out (& network prompt).
The lack of light isn't the only problem going on in the city because of the dust storm - there are consequences much worse than a lack of Vitamin D for residents. Dust storms were a common problem when the city was created and inhabited by its previous residents, and there are failsafes in effect. As the dust clogs up the power generation apparatuses on the exterior of the city, power starts to fade. By the early afternoon, the backup generators kick in, but the power from the backup generators only lasts a few hours before technical problems from decades without maintenance cause them to power down almost completely, leaving the city dark and cloaked in red.
Good thing those generators showed up, huh?
During the red-out, power will be completely diverted to life support, and the Exit Area will be completely locked down, preventing anyone from leaving the city or re-entering it, apart from new arrivals. All amenities, entertainment, and anything non-essential has been completely shut down. This may result in residents stranded in strange places with or without company, and many other awkward situations, at least until someone can jury-rig the new generators into place to make the not-necessary-but-super-convenient parts of the city work.
The one thing that's completely unaffected is the network, and the city's failsafe includes another way of trying to keep residents from going insane during the red-out: a network game.
Every device in the city will pop up with an prompt:
Please input two truths and one lie about yourself. These will be posted to the network so other residents can guess which is the lie!
Well. It's. Something alright.
Good thing those generators showed up, huh?
During the red-out, power will be completely diverted to life support, and the Exit Area will be completely locked down, preventing anyone from leaving the city or re-entering it, apart from new arrivals. All amenities, entertainment, and anything non-essential has been completely shut down. This may result in residents stranded in strange places with or without company, and many other awkward situations, at least until someone can jury-rig the new generators into place to make the not-necessary-but-super-convenient parts of the city work.
The one thing that's completely unaffected is the network, and the city's failsafe includes another way of trying to keep residents from going insane during the red-out: a network game.
Every device in the city will pop up with an prompt:
Please input two truths and one lie about yourself. These will be posted to the network so other residents can guess which is the lie!
Well. It's. Something alright.
Mod Note: This red-out is set to last from July 22nd until August 1st, when the intro log goes up at the start of the app cycle.
no subject
Okay, Klaus.
[But yeah, true. He had the chance to tailor his to her. Maybe she can dig up something really obscure about herself.]
1. My favorite composer is Paganini.
2. I can make a killer pizza from scratch.
3. I fell off the stage the first time I auditioned for an orchestra.
no subject
neway it wasnt just his chest
he had a great face
& an amazing personality
[Okay. This is making him really sad and he has to shut that down. It hurts too much. BACK TO THE STUPID GAME!]
o damn now u made it hard
im gonna guess
3 is fake
its not like ur ME or something
no subject
It only sounds about as unrealistic as time travel, which... Well.
We've both met Five.
[She'd ask more about this guy, since Klaus apparently still seems to like him, but... she really does not want to talk about relationships right now.]
I sprained my wrist and couldn't play for a month.
And then I was so embarrassed I didn't try again for over a year.
no subject
rly? god sometimes its hard 2 believe we're not actually related
except i guess i wouldnt' be embarrassed haha
so is it the composer one?
i dont know shit about composers
no subject
But probably not. I'm like half your height.
I figured you didn't. That's the lie, yeah.
Paganini is pretty well celebrated. I just think he was kind of a showboater.
no subject
maybe we r ;)
i didnt' kno composers could be showboaters but it makes sense once i think abt it
so its my turn right?
no subject
"Twin" is easier to explain than the truth, anyway.
You know Elton John is a composer, too, Klaus. Music was always about performing.
But yes. Your turn.
no subject
& thx im telling every1 ur my twin now ok?
sorry not sorry
rly? i guess ur rite & im not
ttl shock since i kno nothing abt music except that i like listening to it a lot
o i ttly have my walkman here! if u wanna listen
okok here goes.
1. reading ur book rly pissed me off
2. a medbay robot gave me oxycodone & i didnt take it
3. im super scared of being stuck in the dark
no subject
Be careful with that, you don't know who will decide you're much less cool now.
I'm just glad I got to keep my violin. What's on your walkman?
[And, after a slight pause as she tries to figure out which of these is the least likely...]
3?
no subject
o dont worry no1 here thinks im cool
hard 2 believe i kno but its true
nope. ttly tru. im fuckin terrified
no subject
[Klaus can charm the pants off anyone if he felt like it, or at least Vanya believes so. He always could. Vanya was always sort of envious of that... at least, until it took him down some dark paths.]
Seriously? Me too.
Well. You told me you've been sober here, so unless you were lying then...
[This has also got to be cheating. She doesn't even feel comfortable guessing either of the other two.]
no subject
[Well...he can still do that, though not quite as well as he had when he was high. Maybe not as well as he could before he met Dave either, but that's a road he doesn't want to let his brain go down.]
awesome we should start a club
worst club ever
where should our clubhouse b?
i vote we both go there right now
i wasnt lying
the fake is #1
oh & i 4got to tell u, mostly my walkman just has a bunch of oldies & stuff the kinda music i listen 2.
1/2
Sure, Allison approached her the same way when they reunited. Rocky start, but she genuinely did want to be closer. Wanted to repair what damage their father had done.
But some things just stay broken.
It's not... It's not like she doesn't want to believe him. Or maybe it is like that? Something about this effort to repair the damage, after everything that happened, feels... like "truth" #1 isn't the only lie.
Klaus knows about Leonard, he knows about what Leonard did, and he knows about Vanya's powers. He knows about what she's done to the people around her.
He's trying to make sure it doesn't happen to him, too. Right? Surely he's afraid of her. He's not like Luther—he's as vulnerable as Allison was.
Vanya's reply takes over an hour for her to figure out.]
no subject
no subject
Klaus spends approximately the first half hour resisting going for the three pills of oxy he'd stowed away in rolled up socks in his bag because he needs to get out of his own head and the shitty thought spirals he's going into. Then he spends the next half hour chewing his black painted nails down to the quick out of anxiety and trying not to think about Dave or Ben's death or Patch or screaming ghosts in a mausoleum or any other number of awful things that tend to come into his head in the dark when he's unmedicated.
Then she finally replies.
It takes him a few minutes to reply because his hands are shaking and the screen is super bright after an hour in the dark and it's hurting his eyes.]
the book?
i read it in rehab
i was annoyed 4 like 10 minutes that u aired so much stuff but its not like i never aired my own shit in public
i never knew u felt that way as a kid
no subject
Our entire family history, everything the cameras never saw, was the #1 bestseller for almost two months, Klaus. That wasn't the same as just saying something in the moment.
[Is she trying to convince him to be angry? She's not sure.]
I don't know.
I don't really know my way around yet, anyway. I'd rather stay here till the blackout is over.
[So that's her excuse not to meet up like he wanted. Maybe she'll just... practice or something. Even if she definitely has missed the concert by now.
Just something to concentrate on for a while.]
no subject
ya & that sucked
i get why some of the others are so mad abt it
but i personally dont care
let the whole fuckin world kno how much of a prick dad was
at least every1 knew why i was so fucked upt hten
ok
do u wanna keep playing then?
its ur turn
[He doesn't really want to, but he's going to go crazy in the dark if he's alone and he has no idea where Ben or Diego are. He could probably call them, but he doesn't want them stumbling around in the dark alone either. So he just chews on his lip until he tastes blood and stares at his phone.]
no subject
I guess.
[Letting the world know why she was so fucked up is maybe part of what made her write the thing in the first place.
Okay, definitely a large part. That and for someone to listen to her for a change. The Academy always had cameras on them, microphones and tape recorders trailing whatever news they had for the world. Six world-famous teenagers, and one useless hanger-on.
Five called it good. But his narrative ended in the first act, anticlimactic. Ben's ended in the second, gruesome and tragic. And the rest went on.]
Sure.
[She doesn't really want to keep playing, but she doesn't have an excuse for that.
This set of truths is harder to come up with.]
1. I've never broken a bone.
2. I've never seen any of Allison's movies.
3. The violin I have now is still the one that Dad gave me.
no subject
sure.
2 is the lie?
allisons movies r the bomb
[God, this sucks.]
no subject
[To be fair, Vanya doesn't go out to the movies very often as it is. She does occasionally rent them or watch them when they're playing on TV, but it's not really a notable pastime for her.
But to say she just never got around to it would be a lie.]
no subject
is it the bone thing then?
[Klaus...well, he had gone out of his way to go see Allison's movies. He never paid to see them, but theatres were safe and warm in the winter and he liked to see his sister's face.]
no subject
Someone dropped a guitar case on my foot one day in college. I didn't realize it fractured two toes, but I went home early because it was difficult to walk, and it was a Friday, so...
I almost didn't even see a doctor, until the swelling and pain didn't go down for a couple days.