march 2020. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Seventh Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of March 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. escape the dome.

It seems the mysterious, massive plant with its giant bud is not going anywhere. In fact, the bud is starting to bloom, which presents a problem - it's starting to press against the dome that protects Anchor. So far, no harm done, but is this really the best way to test the kind of pressure that the dome can withstand? There's got to be some way to bring the plant down without destroying chunks of Anchor in the process...

And uh, you might want to get on that. The plant has been growing, sending out thorny vines into the various levels, and the flowers growing from those vines are, shall we say, aggressive. In fact, they're liable to bite if you get too close, and these things have razor-sharp petals. More eerily, they can mimic the voices they hear, usually using those borrowed voices to beg for help at the end of long corridors or in the back rooms of abandoned shops and restaurants.

b. planetary fly traps.

Following the voices can get a body in all kinds of trouble, because, well. They want to eat you.

In those dark areas where the voices call out there are larger buds, too, ones that look similar to the one now pressing up against Anchor's dome. They're about twice the size of an average human, and they've just barely opened. The colors inside are brilliant, gorgeous, mesmerizing, kind of exhausting... Get too close, and you could find yourself being slowly dragged in through the mouth of the plant into a bath of liquid that saps your energy while also slowly (very slowly, don't worry) consuming your flesh.

Better hope you snap out of it quickly, or have some backup to get you out of there.

c. misfire mayhem.

In case that wasn't enough, there's something funny going on with the comm system again. Texts being sent to the wrong people. Simple things, small things, yes, but also some things that you might have wanted to keep private or off the network. The misfires start on the morning of the 20th with just a few texts going to the wrong recipients, but slowly amps up throughout the day until voice and video calls are connecting to the wrong people. Recordings of conversations, including the audio and video ones, getting sent to completely unrelated residents, regardless of how private the conversation was.

The reason for the malfunctions becomes... well, clear-ish when Creepy Joe appears on the network. He’s in the agricultural sector, petting a reindire and very much not in that secure quarantine where Qubit et all left him. The angle is odd--not from a communicator, but from one of the security cameras overhead. It blinks from one shot of Joe to another angle. Almost like someone is trying to keep an eye on him.

mod notes.

Misfire texts, voice, and video conversations are on an opt-in basis, it is up to each player if they want their characters tormented with their messages being sent to others or receiving misfires. Misfires can be played on this log, on the network, or in IC inboxes.

The NPC network entry will explain some details on why, but characters who were kind to Creepy Joe or who have put in a lot of effort to contribute to the community will find that their messages are getting misfired much less often and the contents are nowhere near as sensitive. Characters who were cruel to Creepy Joe or who have hurt/stolen from others will find their messages going astray more often, and with more sensitive material.

Messages received by characters can include any message posted in redshiftrp or in IC inboxes, including messages from dropped characters. Have fun with that!

Important but Unrelated: March and April have been designated as check in only for AC. If you have not yet posted your AC, feel free to just put a check-in notice under your character's AC thread. April check-ins can be posted any time on or after April 1st.

Navigation.

Comments

QUESTIONS.

[modblob]

Mod questions can go here!

[superposition]

1. This may be obvious but I'm guessing Joe wasn't expected to leave quarantine at this time?

2. Can the plant also imitate the voices of dropped characters? What about characters who've dropped in the time since it appeared?

3. Are fire or frost effective against the plant? Does the station have any readily available herbicides (or chemicals that could work as herbicides, even if that wasn't their original purpose and/or they have other side effects)?

[birdical]

How far down do the roots of the plant go? Very far? Are the roots aggressive?

Genji | Overwatch | OTA

[arcadedragon]

A: Dome
Genji has definitely noticed that the plant is much taller than it had been, and that it's kind of scrunched up against the dome now. That's probably not good. He's gone up to inspect it, seeing if he can get his hands between the glass and the petals. There's still some room there, it isn't cracking, but things are not looking promising if it keeps growing.

He gracefully jumps off the top flower and does several flips before landing a crouch at the base of the stem.

"Should I cut it down before it does damage? How do we direct where it will fall?"

C: Network @ Sparrow - Misfire time!
((OOC: Anyone can respond to any of them, the names are the intended recipients.))

1. [For Carlisle] Poison taught me to make bread and it is like magic! Can I learn the things that you do as well?

2. [For Hanzo] I found a movie about dinosaurs and you are going to watch it with me.

3. [For Elleru] The fish send their greetings.

A

[mustact]

Were the flips really necessary, Genji?

That aside, Genji is not the only one concerned about the plant. Ratonhnhaké:ton is too. However, he's hesitant to go along with Genji's suggestion immediately, looking up towards the top of the plant with a concerned frown.

"We may want to take it apart piece by piece."

1

[circumspector]

Sure, if by bread you mean 'attach knives to guns'?

C - 2

[vosseeker]

Dinosaurs?

Arthur Morgan // OTA

[towhatmatters]

A. Careful, they bite

[ The first exposure to the volatile plants for Arthur is in the plaza outside the park. The agricultural level is a lot more green, but it doesn't have a huge plant growing in it, which is kind of interesting.

Interesting, until one of its vines latches onto his boot and he can feel it trying to dig its teeth in. ]

What the f--?

[ He yanks his foot free and takes a few stumbling steps back, staring at it in bewilderment as it tries to get at him again. ]

The hell is that?

B.

[ Then, on the mid levels, he stops abruptly when he hears a familiar voice - Charles - calling for help from within one of the abandoned shops. Even though his heart skips a beat and he tenses, instinctively on guard, he doesn't react immediately, his hand hovering over his gun as he squints at the doorway.

That doesn't seem right. What would anyone be doing in there? Hoping that there's anything edible at all and then getting jumped by a vicious plant? ]

C. Wildcard

B

[borntohurt]

[ It would be a far simpler thing if the real Charles could appear at this moment. And, in a fashion, he does.

But not in any way that makes the situation simpler.

What appears instead is a wolf, almost as large as a pony, its weight thudding softly against the floor as it paces forward. But its eyes are not on Arthur. Instead it stares ahead at the darkness of the abandoned shop, growling soft in the back of his throat.

Bad. Whatever is in there is bad. Wrong. Threat. ]

A!

[birdical]

[Arthur's question is met with another vine swinging toward his leg, trying to get him by the thigh this time around; however, before it can reach him, someone tall and colorful and very irritated at this mess stomps right on the offending tendril, its thorns digging into her heel.]

I said no!

[She's apparently been at this a bit, if the way her bare feet are bleeding and the razor-sharp petals attached to her hair and clothes are any indication. She lets out an animalistic hiss as she pulls the vine back, scraping it along the ground with her foot; it splits and tears it apart, though just how when she doesn't seem to have anything sharp down there is anyone's guess. Someone with a keen eye may see there are definite clawmarks in the grass, gashes where her toes had just been.

Another vine heads their way, and she's just going to try to pick Arthur right up off his feet to keep them from reaching him. He might want to be quick if he doesn't want to get hoisted into the air by a lady with a real hatred for these aggressive plants.]

Jacob Frye - AC Syndicate- OTA

[nothinglikefather]

A. Some Light Pruning

[ Jacob has been itching to try and cut this overgrown weed down to size for a while now, ever since it was pointed out that it hadn't yet stopped growing.

He's been surveying it again, staying clear of the flowers and vines as he tries to work out a way of cutting the thing down without damaging Anchor in the process.

And as he has no idea how resilient the plant is, he decided to perform an experiment. Pulling out a knife, weighs it in his hand as looks for a weak point in the stem.

And then his stabs it.

Turns out that is a VERY bad idea, as several thorny tendrils make a beeline for him. ]

C. New phone who dis?

fuck / marry /kill: Kabal, Qubit, Carlisle

C

[itsnotaonesie]

[WELL THIS SURE IS A WEIRD TEXT but fuck it yolo.]

Kabal / Carlisle / Qubit

that was actually really hard

A

[borntohurt]

[ Charles in his right mind could have told him that was probably a bad call. But that's not the Charles Jacob has at his side right now.

What he has is a massive wall of black fur and muscle that barrels him out of the way of those tendrils, snarling and snapping as they try to make their way past. But the wolf is having none of it, bristled and trying to seize hold of those vine whips as they strike, intending to tear them to pieces.

The wolf understands Pack. And it will protect. ]

C I'm hollering

[abheirrant]

I don't understand what it is you're saying about me.

[But he gets the distinct feeling he totally does, and that he doesn't like it.]

Scaramouche | OTA | Will Match Format

[numerouno]

B. Planetary Fly Traps (cw: creepy)

[It started out as a leisurely stroll, but in Scaramouche's eagerness to follow that sweet sound, he's begun to walk at a brisk pace, his features dark with delight. He keeps quiet so he can trace the echo of those quavering cries to their source, the click-click of his heels being his only giveaway.

He could listen to it all day. The hitches of rising desperation; the hoarseness of someone begging for something they're not going to get.

They're trying to be loud enough for somebody--anybody--to hear their pleas. If they knew Scaramouche would answer the call, they might have thought better of it.]

Wildcard

[ooc: Want to do something else or have a plot idea? Shoot me a message on Discord or onthelam, or PM this journal.]

angel | ota

[circumspector]

i. the only way out of this is if i am a killer too
Whatever it was that tipped it over, Angel isn't going to talk about it, now or later it seemed. Who cared?

( Jack's voice. Her mother's voice. The screaming and the silence that is still so clear, so many years later ).

But she'd like to tell the plant, that it should try its stupid tricks on a planet where people don't shoot each other as greeting. That it should try that on someone who hadn't made an art out of just his same type of ploy.

('Angel! Angel help me, won't you help me! )

Making molotov cocktails isn't exactly difficult, if not as challenging as she's used to.

But the darkness isn't so bad when she hurls it and the plant explodes into a wash of fire that illuminates what waits down there. That her gun follows, the pistol gripped in both hands as she lines down the sights and begins to shoot - and the gun begins to chatter in reply each shot being fired with... enthusiasm.

"KILL! KILL! KILL! I THIRST FOR BLOOD! CONSUME THEM! DEVOUR THEIR SOULS! LAY THEM TO WAIST SO WE MAY EXALT IN THEIR DESTRUCTION!"

ii. new number who dis

1. I once saw a bandit that screamed at the top of his lungs to be shot in the face. His name was Face McShooty. I never understood another human being more than that bandit.

2. You throw the gun. It turns into a grenade. Why do you think I am making this stuff up?

3. No, Connor stays with me because I give the best back scratches, that's all, everything else is just a bonus.

iii. eye on the skies

Angel's hand cups across her eyes as she looks up - sensitivity to light was a problem, a trade-off from all that seeing in the dark, quite probably. But she needed to see just what they were dealing with.

That plant was a problem, and as much as she knew it was probably easier to find the root and kill the plant at the source, who the fuck knew how long and far that could be down. What they might face, how many might day in the hunt of that.

"If that keeps up - we're so, so fuc- screwed."

Let the girl say fuck

[nothinglikefather]

"That's what I thought to myself. We're so fuc-screwed."

He looks up, following her gaze, at the doom and the plant pressing up against it. "How is it doing that? I assumed this place was dug out of rock. Where are its roots?"

He shakes his head, looking back to her. "What do you think? There's no golden goose at the top, I've checked."

II. 2

[vosseeker]

Why wouldn't you just carry a grenade then? Seems like a waste of a gun to me.

I

[towhatmatters]

The scene is, from Arthur's perspective, weird enough for a start. There is a woman with horns, goat legs and fur brandishing a gun, and it causes him to slow to an abrupt stop, just in time for her to start firing and the weapon to start screaming. Only that's not what he concludes, at first. The sound certainly seems to come from that direction, but that would be ridiculous, so he starts looking around for another source.

Only there is none, and he looks back at the woman with an expression of pure confusion. Really? Is this happening?

"What's wrong with this place?" he mutters to himself, and then shakes his head.

Doesn't matter. The lady's clearly on a mission, and he probably shouldn't be standing here gawking. He doesn't know what good it will do against a plant, but he'll take his revolver out and shoot anyway.

Starscream | Transformers: Prime | OTA

[vosseeker]

A. DOME;

Starscream isn't sure what to make of the giant plant that's grown out of control, but it's worth an investigation. Standing at its base, he flexes his long talons and gives it a few experimental swipes. The vines have a surprisingly resilient composition to them: he's able to cut into them, but they absorb a lot of the force first, resulting in much less damage than expected. It would take him quite some time hacking and clawing to make any real progress.

C. MISFIRES;

1. I'd say you're a credit to your species but that's a low bar.
2. YOU try hitting a bird at Mach 2 - there's a good reason I took an alt without forward-facing intakes!
3. Come collect your former cleaning bot. It had a sticker with your name on it.

c.1 [message 1 of 2]

[nothinglikefather]

Excuse you?

Poison | OTA

[writtendestiny]

a. escape the dome.

[She notices the way the blooming bud is pressing up against the dome, but she can do little more than keep an eye on that and leave the demolition of the plant to those more equipped to handle it.

What bothers her more are the aggressive vines permiating the lower levels, and her first encounter with them is when one lashes out at her legs when she passes a half-collapsed doorway.

And Poison, who is startled by very little these days, lets out a high-pitched shriek of fear and immediately stumbles back, grabbing for the hunting knife at her belt with fumbling fingers.]

Oh, not this again!

c. misfire mayhem.

[Poison, who has been very nice to Joe, does not have anything terribly embarrassing misfired off to anyone she wouldn't want to see it.]

[for Peter]] i. I had that nightmare again. Could you come here?
[for Genji] ii. Meet me in the kitchen? I can show you how to make apple sauce.
[for Carlisle] iii. Are you doing okay..?

A

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter's probably like two levels above Poison's position, but a scream like that is more than enough to get his attention. He stops whatever he's doing and just leaps off the walkway, making his way to the source of the screaming as quickly as he can. He's not happy to find that it's Poison who was in trouble, but he is kind of relieved that she's not being eaten by a space bear or whatever. Some of those vines are definitely getting webbed to the floor as he makes his way over to her, though.]

Are you okay? Are you hurt?

Julie Grigio | OTA

[redwinekindofgirl]

b. planetary fly traps. -- cw: suicidal ideation

[Things have been... hard.

Really fucking difficult, actually.

The one person she could have really done with being here after she got yanked back to her own world and put through another week of hell was no longer around, and Julie had been drifting around Anchor like a ghost ever since. Because what was the point in connecting with anybody when you weren't even going to get the chance to say goodbye before they vanished?

And... god, you'd think she'd be used to it. Her entire life had been people disappearing. A group of five going out and only two coming back. Her mother leaving her. Her father leaving her. Everyone she tried to get attached to leaving her. It didn't matter. None of it mattered. She doesn't remember the last time she was completely sober - or maybe she's just kidding herself on that one.

But she'd heard him shouting for her from the other end of a corridor, and of course she'd followed the sound of his voice. Where it had led her to, though, was struggling against the dizzy feeling that looking into one of the hypnotic buds gives her.

The only problem is she doesn't have the fight in her to keep it up for too long, and she's being pulled in close and closer to the carnivorous plant.

c. misfire mayhem.

[Sent some time before the above - and one during.]

[for Scaramouche] i. I got him to fill a mop bucket with tequila sunrise.
[for Angel] ii. Got a minute to let you take another look at the AK-47.
[sent during fly traps prompt -- no specified recipient] iii. I can hear Klaus, I think he's back, I might need some medical supplies.

[treadswater]

a. weeds & flowers

Annie has been... suspicious. This strange place often feels like a weird, long-term arena, and sudden giant plant? Suspicious. As was the bots' behaviour, honestly, but that's less concerning than the giant plant that has suddenly appeared. So she's wary about the flowers, too.

Wary, but resentfully so. She'd had a beautiful garden, Before. she'd wear peonies in her hair, grown herself. She misses green things, flowery things, living things that's not just this park or the agricultural levels. And those pots are so...

Tempting.

Which is why she's staging something of an experiment before she brings any of the pots into her and Finnick's room. She's separated several pots from the areas they've appeared, and moved them to the corridor of the living quarters, spacing them a few feet apart.

They can just. Stay there. And be monitored for any shiftiness.

b. beware the beanstalk

When Annie sees the vines, she's surprised but not that surprised. It's an arena, when all is said and done. She's seen technology warping nature like this before. Decades of it, seventy-five years of it and she'd taken notes. And this place likes to fuck with its captives.

But if she's not all that surprised at the vines, she is surprised at her reaction to the voices. Annie had been hearing something at the edge of her hearing for hours before she finds some flowers crying at her with Cho's voice. She stops. She stares. She turns on her heel and marches to the kitchen, grabs a heavy knife, marches back, and starts to hack at the nearest flower.

"Fuck. Off," she hisses.

a.

[fishermansweater]

"Annie?"

Finnick calls out to her as he walks into the room. He's not entirely sure that it was Annie who lined the plants up in the corridor outside their room, but she seems the most likely. As soon as he'd seen the plants, he'd known she'd love them, and he'd even picked one out to give to her. It has big purple flowers and shiny green leaves, and he'd been pretty proud of himself. But there's such a line of pots outside their room that, instead, he puts it down next to the door and goes inside.

"Did you plant the corridor garden we've got going on?"

Finnick Odair, OTA | tw: ptsd

[fishermansweater]

a. attack of the plants

It's not that Finnick doesn't know how to deal with vines, even thorny ones. It is, in fact, precisely the opposite. He'd once been known for what he could do with vines, because all of Panem had seen it in the arena. But he's not used to vines that bite, though it seems very much the sort of thing that might have been in a future arena. The Gamemakers could have learned from some of the things that happen in this place.

He's glad they didn't. But the plants are starting to be a problem; the one in front of him now has twined its vines across a corridor he needs to get through to get up to the agricultural level.

If he actually were on the agricultural level, he'd probably have access to a machete or some other sort of tool -- those machetes from the Quell would be useful to slash through this. But as it is, he's just got his military-issue knife, so that will have to do.

Don't mind the man on his knees hacking at the plant.

He lets out a sharply hissing breath and lifts his hand to see a thin line of blood on the side of his wrist. Watch out for the petals.


b. jabbervines

"Finnick?"

Annie's voice sounds plaintive, at first, but he's surprised to hear it because he'd thought she was staying in to read a book she'd borrowed from the library.

"Annie?" he calls back.

"Finnick? FINNICK!"

This time she's more insistent, insistent enough for Finnick to forget everything he'd been thinking about the biting vines. He runs. That tone's worrying. Sometimes, it's that she's having trouble with something and her mind won't let her see her way out. But it could be physical danger, too, coming as it seems to from behind a shop near the spa that he's never seen open.

He grabs at the door to try to pull it open, but it won't open. Locked? Jammed? He can't tell, but he hears the cry again and he crashes into the door, ramming at it with his shoulder.

"Annie! ANNIE! I can't get through!"

He can't get in, and he slumps down to the floor, dropping his head into his hands, whispering her name over and over again.

Elleru 🐦 Original

[birdical]

a. escape the dome; pick your prompt

Elleru has been fighting off plants for days now. Whereas she was merely annoyed before by the aggressive vines growing throughout the park — and into other levels — her attitude toward them soured further the second the roots dug their way into her burrow. It had been her private sanctuary, its entrance hidden by the shrubs in the far corner of the park; carved with her own claws, it was a place she could relax in her natural form, never worrying about being seen.

And now, the walls of her sanctuary are lined with thorny roots that thrash and writhe when she gets too close, the plant having pushed its way into her home away from home. Awful things.

With the gargantuan plant still growing, Elleru has taken it upon herself to try to bring it down, or at least prune some of the vines from her beloved park. At times, she's nowhere in sight herself, with the only sign anyone is around at all being a suspiciously large hole dug at the base of the plant. Surprisingly deep, the pit goes straight down for a ways before veering off in one direction, its maker hidden around the corner. No shovel could dig that quickly, could it? Anyone getting too close might find out as dirt flies from the opening every now and then, with Elleru determined to reach the bottom to uproot the invasive stalk herself.

Other times, Elleru can be found in her upright form and wielding what seems to be a butcher's knife from the kitchens, her arms covered in scratches and cuts garnered as she's hacked away at the vicious vines and thorny tendrils. There's uncharacteristic sweat on her brow, her hair a mess as leaves cling to her vibrant locks. In good news, she's managed to make a large pile of plant debris off to one side, leaving the park significantly more trimmed than it was. There's not a vine or hostile flower in sight, though they clearly still reach into other areas of Anchor.

It's a work in progress. For now, she needs some band-aids and a good shower, as well as some help finding a place to dispose of the pruned vines.

"You. You will help me."

That doesn't sound like a request.


c. misfires; ota [intended recipients or not ;)]
    1. [for Rey] Do not let Tripod out of the room. What I am doing is not safe for his tender skin.

    2. [for Kieran] I would like to visit your animals. We could read to them. ♥

    3. [for Ami] What is fuck / marry /kill? I have seen someone asking this on the network, and I wish to understand.


closed to rey

Though she meant to send a message to Scaramouche to reward herself after a long day of dealing with plants, Elleru doesn't realize the network is on the fritz, and thus, her roommate gets a message instead:

Meet me in the spa if you would like to make some music ♥ ♥ ♥

OH LET'S MAKE MUSIC TOGETHER BABYYYY

[circumitus]

What a weird message.

Rey is still conflicted on the bizarre signals she's been getting from Elleru. Assuming there's even signals to get, that is. Maybe she's been presumptuous and that's just how Elleru is. Whether the text was meant to be literal or a euphemism for something else entirely, she can't say one way or another. Except the spa is an odd place to be making music, so...

So, Rey peeks through the door before entering the spa area, almost careful in her movements when she cautiously scans the area for her roommate. She'd already let Elleru down the last time, it would probably be bad if she no-showed again.

Right?

"Um... Hello?" Her voice echoes across the near empty spa, and already she feels stupid for coming.