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

[nothinglikefather]

I tend to keep an eye on the network mate. There's fuck all else to do here.

[abheirrant]

People have talked about this ELSEWHERE?

[w h y]

[nothinglikefather]

No. I mean.

People don't hate you or think badly of you mate. They really don't.

[abheirrant]

[Oh.]

Perhaps I have not yet given them a reason to.

[nothinglikefather]

No, I don't think you have and I don't think you would. You're not that sort.

[abheirrant]

You hardly know me. Were there people here who thought badly of me, they would not be the first, nor the last.

[nothinglikefather]

You know after what you did to me and my stuff when I was only trying to hurt you, I could very easily dislike you as well.

[abheirrant]

The fact that you don't makes me question your judgment.

[nothinglikefather]

You wouldn't be the first, everyone does. My judgement, my ability. My dedication.

[abheirrant]

I question only your foolhardiness. Have you given others reason to question the other two?

[nothinglikefather]

I'm not perfect, I've made mistakes. I made the decisions I did when I had to. Some of those worked out and some didn't.

[abheirrant]

Do you regret any of them?

[nothinglikefather]

What? No. Regretting things is a waste of time.

[abheirrant]

I suppose.

[He is a man with a lot of regrets, and he wishes he could be otherwise. How Jacob does it is beyond him.]

[nothinglikefather]

[ Oh Jacob regrets so many things
But he won't admit it. Not to Carly, not to himself. When you're 22 you can still afford to be blasé.]

Look forwards, not bad. That's the only trick to it.

[abheirrant]

And if you have little in the way of a future? What do you look forward to, then?

Switching to private audio because some things need to be said

[nothinglikefather]

Carlisle, you make yourself a future. It doesn't just magically appear for you all beautiful and perfect. You work for it. You make friends and you learn things and you pick yourself up and try again when you fall.

I know it seems difficult. But there are people here who have suffered too. Look at Angel. She's come from a terrible place and then it got worse. But she has made friends, she laughs and finds joy in what she can. She's my inspiration to keep going when things are shite.

Maybe... find some inspiration of your own and work out what you want. Look forwards and not back.

[audio; private]

[abheirrant]

[Carlisle sighs audibly. He doesn't like being accosted by someone he has spoken to only once before, and who he therefore feels barely knows him. He didn't appreciate it in life when people said he should have done things this way or that, more like the rest of his family. He's a Longinmouth; why did he not act like it? On the other side of the coin were those who saw him as a twice-cursed first and foremost, never bothering to get to know him at all. They were bringers of misfortune, bearers of ill-content who would doom anyone close to them; what was there to know?

And here in Anchor, they can apparently talk about him on the network all they like. Do the nebulous they know him any better? Or do they think of him as likable because they don't know what a monster he is behind his layers?

As for Angel he hardly knows her himself; however, he could tell when healing her that she'd been through some trauma. Very different trauma than his, but trauma regardless. She has managed to keep moving forward. She has managed to make friends. She is an inspiration, he's told.

Carlisle had a friend, and now he's gone. He has people who are friends with some other version of himself from another world — a better Carlisle. He has Qubit, who he has gotten into more trouble than it's worth; Kieran, maybe, but he was a man grateful for his aid. Genji seems like he understands, but so does Kabal, of all people, and the two of them could not be any more different from one another. Do any of them realize the gravity of what he's done? Of the sins for which he can never truly atone?

They might if Carlisle spoke much about his current existence, but that would mean reconciling with those sins himself. He's not ready for that just yet. He can hardly even speak of himself as being undead, much less acknowledge any future he has as one — a future he feels he doesn't deserve in light of what happened to Bear Den.

Despite all that, Jacob seems to be trying to reason with him. There's something commendable in that. His tone remains even as he tries to explain himself.]

Pleased as I am, lad, that you have such a beacon of hope on your periphery, do not assume I haven't tried to make myself a future. That I waited around for it to appear from nothing. I worked my entire life for one better than what I was offered. I cannot say that what I received was worth it.

[That doesn't explain much, but it's a start, especially for a man so intensely private these days.]

[nothinglikefather]

[ Jacob knows very little about Carlisle, and nothing of his trials and tribulations. He hasn't known him long, but Jacob is one of those young men that is already so cocksure about the world around them and their understanding of it.

He knows nothing of magic or curses or the undead. He can accept they might exist but they are beyond him to such a degree he will treat the people with those abilities just like everyone else. There's only so much a human brain can actually fathom. So much only his can empathise with. It's not that that he doesn't care, he does. He just has no point of reference to understand those experiences.

He doesn't like being called "lad" that's for sure, but he lets it slide. Nor can he understand why Carlisle seems to have lost hope.

Oh the joys of being twenty-one. ]

Maybe you just haven't got to the part where the good things happen yet. Maybe that's going to be around the next corner. You can't give up just like that.

[abheirrant]

[Ah, to be young(er) and still full of determination. Carlisle swallows down an acrid comment, noting inwardly that such bitterness is not only representative of his nature as an undead, but does little to further his argument.]

I believed that my whole life, truly. I clung to the thought that I still had purpose, and that it would be my salvation. The fact I have not yet walked into the wasteland to rot, despite everything I have done, means I must have some hope left, however little it may be. That, or I am a coward.

[He's pretty matter-of-fact about admitting he's a coward. He's more used to that than being a Revenant. He sighs again.]

Tell me what good things could happen here. To me, to anyone.

[nothinglikefather]

[ Jacob looks so unimpressed with that. He's told Carlisle before what good things have happened to him since coming to one of these strange places, and had it thrown back in his face. That was a bitter pill to swallow, and frankly, he doesn't know why he keeps trying. Maybe because Reynir liked this man, and he had been a good kid.

Maybe that's because Carlisle doesn't value live and friendship in the same way Jacob does, he just sees them as things that must come to an end.

So he will have to take a different path.]

We can help each other. We can find out interesting things about the place, we can work out how to make it better. We can learn new things about ourselves- maybe that we can do things we never thought were possible.

We could even be cheerful for a whole five minutes and find joy in small things.