redshiftlogs | february 2020. welcome to the void.

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Seventh Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of February 2020
Where: Around and outside the city.
Warnings: Please add any warnings in the subject lines.

Redshift: Welcome to the v͖͕̺̲̘̱̜͎o̴̦̣̠̦̘̹͞i̯̖d̛̪̬͈̱̦̝͍̕.

Click here to read what characters will experience when arriving in Anchor.

a. the maze.

The sun is back. Only one this time! It is very very large.
But never mind that! Anchorites have a whole new area to explore. With the sun's return and the power surging through Anchor again, the water in the underground area has drained off, revealing a door that leads down to another level. There's only two doors. One that leads to some kind of observation room, the technology waterlogged and largely destroyed. The other leads to a blank hallway, short, with what looks like an open airlock hatch with a door that can be winched shut with a handle on both the inside and outside, leading into a room beyond.

That room beyond is empty, and the door will remain open until it reads more than one life sign inside the room. Then, it slams the hatch shut and starts to turn, rolling clockwise until what was the roof is now the floor. Then doors open. One straight ahead. One to the left. One to the right. One pointed downward. Even odds whether you walk through into another empty room or walk in and find yourself having a no good very bad day. If you do end up in a blank room, you may be sent in an endless zig-zag of empty spaces that either lead you to the door you came in at long last, or, well. End up ruining your day. Regardless of where you go or how you get there, you're aware that every hour on the hour, the rooms move abruptly forward, backward, up, down, without any rhyme or reason. The place is in motion, reshuffling itself, and the only way back out is through.

There are several types of rooms, scattered seemingly at random among the various rooms you can exit through.

ROOM A

The door opens and lets out a billow of cold air. Not just cold, it's freezing. You could take one of the other doors, but at least this one is different, isn't it? It feels like progress. But when you enter, the way back slams shut, leaving you in the dark and the cold with no one but your fellow trapped soul for company. This room won't open again for at least an hour. If you want to live, you're going to have to get nice and cozy.

ROOM B

This room, like the first, closes once you get inside. Crackling beams of energy flash across the room at seemingly random intervals and angles, blocking the way to any of the exits. Put a foot wrong, and you're liable to end up with a hole through it...or your torso. Watch long enough, however, and you might start to see a pattern in the way the energy travels. It still won't be easy to reach the other doorways, but at least now you have a fighting chance.

ROOM C

This room is a puzzle box. Immediately after you enter, the walls start moving, giant tiles sliding into place over the doors. It lurches, turns, spills you against one wall and the next in a dizzying, bruising circle. When it stops, the doors are hidden behind tiles of different sizes, and the only way to escape is to puzzle out how to move the tiles away from one of the doorways. Be quick about it - the longer it takes, the more layers of tiles creep in to make things harder, layer by layer, until the room starts to get pretty small....

ROOM D

Step inside, and the room lurches, dropping downward, then shifting left, then moving upward again. The doors in this room point in all directions except down. There are colored tiles all over the floor and walls. But that floor and those walls are moving, the tiles shifting in nebulous patterns, like some exterior hand is treating the space like a Rubik's cube.

Careful where you step. It's not an obvious puzzle to crack, but once you step on a tile of one color, you can only step on tiles of that color. Step elsewhere and who knows what will happen. The room could fill with toxic gas. It could start playing ear-splitting screams and the lights could start flashing. Or, one of the tiles could simply explode with a small enough charge to take off the leg that stepped there. The consequences vary, but they're never pleasant, and they never leave their victim unscathed.

ROOM E

There are monsters behind the glass walls. Rather, there is one very familiar looking monster. Ropy, plantlike tentacles weave in and out of one another, forming shapes and intricate designs with their tiny flowerlike mouths. They could almost be pretty, if you hadn't seen them for the first time protruding from Creepy Joe's eye.

Holes punctuate the roof and floor, and through those holes, sensing body heat, the tentacles start to crawl. Hunting for bare skin. Hunting for a host.

There's only one door out of here, and it's across the room from where you came in - and the way back is closed. Crossing the room poses the very real risk of infection from the creatures in the walls, but doing nothing is almost a guarantee of ending up with a nasty parasite.

Good luck.

b. matchmaker, matchmaker.

Those who don't venture down into the newly opened lab will suffer a very different kind of torture. The robo-matchmaker is at it again. Even odds as to whether or not it's malfunctioning or it's just bored because of how few people use the intimacy lounge. Either way, it's setting up dating profiles for residents of anchor and broadcasting them over the network to be seen by all and sundry. They might not be accurate, they might not even make sense, but what the 'bot lacks in prose style it makes up with enthusiasm. It's so enthusiastic, in fact, that it's messaging people on behalf of those too shy to do it themselves. The texts it sends are as off the wall as the profiles it creates, so seriously. Go nuts.

Thankfully, this time it's had the foresight to make a version for anyone underage, but where it draws that distinction can vary wildly, and is up to the player.

Robo-Matchmaker (?̵̢̠̀?̷̠͉͍̝̙̕ͅ?̡̢̡̹̩̖̝̞̪̦̘ͅ)

I͎͇̰̺̼͡ ̝̳̼̻͕̩͚á̷̳͍̫͕͞m̱̱̺͍̳̞̖ ̴̥͇̣͎̺̤̩͕̩͜h͖̕͞͠er͉̟͕͈̳̀ḙ͔̼̠̤ ͓̠̰̗̹̘̣͔t͏̸̤̳̙͍͎̮͕̞͢o҉̨̜͖̠̝͙̜̦̜ ̮̠̝̪̩̤̣m̖̻a̤͙̘̲̫̩̗k̮͓̀͜e̶̠͚͞ ̯̯̘̦͜͠you͈̹̟͔͜͠ͅr͈̮̮̗͖̜̠͠ ̮̗̗̹̘̬̠͢d̴̵̯͖̀r̷͇͍̦̗̯͢eaṃ̘͝͞ş̳̺̭̮͜ ̖͚͚͓͙͇͙͓̜c͖͕̰̞̺̟̫ớ͈̖͇̲̗m̶̞̟̣̘͎̘̲̣̕͢é̠̯͞ ̼t͔͢r͢͏̠̙̜̬͖̞̥̜ư̧͈̫͜e̹̮̮̝͝.̗̠̪̭̫͞

Interests: true love, friends with benefits, e͏͇̫m̲̤̬͟ ͉͍͜ǫ̙̟̳̲͘t̬͓i҉̟̼̣͓̯̜̞̼͜ ҉̛̺̪̣͈͖͖̟̥̺o̴̢͔̙̥̠̟̮̮̪̩n̷̗̜s҉̰̖̯͟͠

Assets: I̤̥̙̺̪̪̱͜ ̢̟k̢̰̫ͅn͕̤̳o̤͚͓͓w̲̬ ͠e̸̞̺̳͔̙ve̝̳̭̣̝͠ͅry͏̝̙̠t̲͚̠hi͕̣̯ng̭͓͕̖͈ ̖̣ą̰͖̲ͅbơ̯̥̹̠̱u͉̯̪͟t̜̞̱ yo̹͙ͅu̢̗.̡̪̥̙̱̘̞ ͕̀:̮̩̯̜̗̘)

Ass-ets: a bot never tells

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It... is similar, I believe? Our- [not 'young,' use something more uprightish] children are raised by the colony, but it is the... [another warble as she parses out her words and some equivalent in common.] The hen? It is their job to watch over the children after they are born.

[That does not sound uprightish at all, sorry. If Rey didn't know better, she'd comment on it... As it is, Elleru seems remiss to tell Rey about her other birdish form. Until then, she'll sit on her hands about it.]

So, the child rearing is handled by a residential institution and the ones in charge of it, then?

By the whole colony, unless they are gifted in some way. Then they are taken in by those who understand those gifts.

Gifted in what way? It's not like someone with an acuity towards mathematics, is it? Or... music, or something?

[This was all fun and games when she was getting to flirt with cute people, but now she's having to explain herself in a way that dodges the topic of her true nature, and it is decidedly unfun. At least this answer is relatively simple:]

Our goddess blesses some of us with abilities. They may shape the trees, or protect the weak. [Or turn into uprights.]

Ah, those kinds of gifts...

[Rey has no reason to suspect that Elleru's shapeshifting comes from said abilities in her world. For all she knows, all of her kind can do that, so she just shrugs it off.]

We have a few people like that in our world, though they're not exactly what many of them would call "gifted". [More like cursed, if such things existed. Instead, it was just Rey's father fucking up the world like every other Tuesday.]

[That doesn't sound good.]

What gifts are they? Where did they come from?

They're not gifts so much as they're immunities... A virus happened, most died horribly from it in all kinds of different and horrible ways.

Others had to live with the consequences.

[She's hesitant to mention this, but she's already mentioned it before, so:] Have the same blood as that virus' carrier. Not immune, but it could make people sick if tampered with or... hurt them in other ways.

[Which is why Rey won't be caught dead giving a blood sample to anyone ever.]

[There's some information there that Elleru isn't sure she understands. She figures that a virus must be something that makes people ill, like an infection or a sickness, though how someone can hurt others in ways other than making them sick as well is what escapes her.]

You would not mean to hurt them, would you?

[Rey figures Elleru might not even be able to do much with the information she just gave anyway, so she's not afraid of sharing.]

Of course not. Won't let anyone within fifty feet of me with a needle if it can be helped.

[Her strain might not be as strong as her father's, but she can't imagine the effects of tampering would be much better.]

A needle? Oh, as in 'have your blood drawn before.'

[Said just like someone else must have said to her.]

[Rey would be surprised, but she imagined that's something Elleru picked up from somewhere, like when Qubit asked for that very thing.]

Er, yeah, that's exactly it. People take blood samples for a lot of reasons.

[Just not hers. Hers were always faked.]

Qubit [Key-U-beet] took mine. It was my first time.

[And how exciting it must have been for her to remember it, but then again, new experiences seem to be her thing.]

Ah.

[On her part, she was skeeved as hell when Qubit made such a suggestion, though not everyone has experienced the things Rey has, so that's expected.]

That was when people were getting sick, right? [Except Elleru. Elleru seemed pretty healthy at the time.]

Yes. He needed both healthy and sick samples, and I was well.

Huh. Ever find out why that was?

[Probably not, but Rey at least knows why she didn't get sick.]

No. So many were sick.

I was glad you were not among them, Rrey.

Well, that's another thing -- never been sick before. Am immune to disease.

Because of your blood?

Um, yeah.

Which is why it's a concern, if people want to try fucking around with it when they don't know what they're doing.

You could help them to know what they are doing, could you not?

No. Might be proficient in a lot of things -- mostly killing -- but genetics and biology are not among them. That was someone else's forte and even he screwed up royally and fucked over the world. Am not going to be responsible for something like that here.

[A quiet hm of disappointment on her end.]

You would blame yourself.

Of course. The alternative would be being a fucking sociopath who doesn't care about hurting billions of people.

[Rey's already got a body count in the millions that she tries not to think about much -- but does, anyway.]

[Elleru would argue that it wouldn't be her fault, but she can tell Rey would say otherwise no matter what.]

I understand your concern. That you care says much about you.

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