may 2020. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Monthly Mingle
When: The Month of May 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. useful information.

It's midmorning on a bright and sunshiny day, and even as the several brand new (to Anchor anyway) suns pour their eye-bleaching brightness down upon the dome of Anchor, there is a rumble from deep in the city.

It's preceded by a voice that sounds very much like SINI's, echoing faintly through the halls: "Bitches want me to be useful, here, have something useful."

Those who investigate will find that the cube maze behind the door under the city has been reshuffled, and its doors are open - leading directly across and down into a new area. Beware, the traps are still active, and there are new ones there, too - use your imaginations!

b. tabula rasa...or not.

Should a character risk traversing the maze and actually succeed, they will find a door on the other side. As soon as they step through the door, they'll find themselves entering a decontamination chamber much like the one at the entrance to Anchor. Only, along with a rather invasive scrub down, adventurers will also be hit by a thick cloud of vapor meant to induce amnesia and/or delirium. Remember those memloss orbs? No? Well, those lucky lucky people who handled them or were infected from someone else will find themselves immune to the vapor that pours into the room. Those who are affected, well. Just don't let those affected wander back into the maze unattended.

The mechanism holding the second door at the opposite side of the decontamination room is shut, but it can be opened by brute force, but you'll have to really brute force it. In the 'can't close it again because it's busted open' kinda way - here's hoping you wanted that open permanently.

Beyond the door is a long hallway lined with cages, each cage with a door set into the back wall. Some of the cages are empty, or have ancient, grotesque dessicated animals inside, some strange and obviously twisted and others torn apart or mutilated. Others are broken open. Is that sound coming from deeper down the hall growling? Whatever it is, the creatures who broke out and survived can be familiar or strange - maybe a little something from home that you really didn't miss.

Man, it's too bad you had to break that door open and now things can get through the maze and back into Anchor.

Those who were smart enough not to go down into the maze could still face the creatures in the depths, should any of them get past the adventurers who released them. Not all of them are vicious. But all of them are definitely hungry and angry and scared.

c. welcome to the strip mall.

Should people emerge from the depths of the maze again after being hit by the memloss drug, those who know them (and those who don't) will find that the effects are not passing. Not after a day. Not even after two or three. There's a problem here, and it's one that will take work to solve and fix.

Meanwhile, a new store has appeared at the end of the row of shops propagating outside the dome. This one, a garden center for truly alien plants. The place is department-store huge, sporting everything from outsized venus fly traps to utterly foreign, tiny little trees, with grape-sized fruit hanging from their branches.

Down several aisles are… for lack of a better word, the "chatty" plants. These are the noisemakers, rattling against each other, chiming like tiny bells, making sad trombone noises or just...

Talking?

With a snap of...whatever passes for lips and teeth in the creepily vertical slit "mouth" of a three-foot-tall plant with broad fluffy leaves that sway despite the lack of a stiff breeze, anyone venturing too close will hear a deep, raspy, sarcastic voice making snarky quips at them.

"Wow, you sure are wanderin' around a lot. Forgot what you're looking for? HAH! Well, y'know, we got a cure for what ails ya!"

How is that helpful commentary?

Navigation.

Comments

Ratonhnhaké:ton (Connor) // OTA

[mustact]

A. Tabula rasa

Even though it may not be a good idea to go snooping in every new area that is revealed - or every old area that reappears - it isn't about to stop Ratonhnhaké:ton from doing so. If they don't, how will they find out what happened in Anchor? How to potentially get people back home? It may usually come with risks, but it's never easy to know what will happen.

Unfortunately, he's not immune to the vapors.

For anyone who joins him in the decontamination room will find a very confused assassin, turning a lap on the spot to figure out where he is. When all he sees is blank walls, he wonders if this is supposed to be prison. Only it doesn't look at all like he thought a prison might look. Then again, he supposes that doesn't really mean much.

B. Around Anchor

Once he gets out of the maze, he doesn't settle. He moves around the colony with resolution in his step, almost manic in the way he explores every nook and cranny as though he's searching for something. He can be found in the library, in abandoned stores, in the park at the very bottom.

If he isn't doing that, well ... You may at some point while going about your own day feel someone's gaze in your neck. Because there aren't a lot of people about, and anyone he meets is instantly a target for scrutiny.

After some time, however, he'll stop being a strange wallflower, and the next person he sees coming towards him, he will halt with a hand and a sharp question.

"How long have you been here?"

C. Wildcard

B Wildcard ish

[circumspector]

Angel didn't have half the problem escaping the maze - but then she didn't expect Connor did much either. Even with them losing each other in the inside of the maze, eventually, they'd end up the other side of the walls. After all, she'd run the gauntlet of losing her memories once already, it had no effect now.

The rest is just a matter of reconvening, later on. Takes the time to do her own rounds of checks. On the Reindire, Charles and Jacob, Her bird.

When she sees him again, the response is the same, she just bounds up to him on her hooves to tumble into his chest with her arms around his waist. It's light, arms not very heavy, tilting her head up to look at him with a smile, but thinks she knows what he means, right? "Connor, I only just made it out myself. Got a little sidetracked."

[mustact]

Make no mistake; the whole situation is very confusing. Anchor is something unlike anything Ratonhnhaké:ton has seen, and his quest to make sense of it has so far not proved fruitful. It's not that seeing someone who appears to be half woman half goat isn't equally as confusing, just that ... everything is, and it's just one more thing to add to the pile.

That said, while he's never seen a structure like this, this woman is even more fantastical. And she seems to know him? In fact, she acts as though he's very familiar, and he's so stunned by the hug that for several seconds, he says nothing at all.

"I ..."

And even when he tries, he still doesn't know what to say. There are so many things he wants to ask. Why does she know his name? Why is she hugging him? Who is she? What is she? Is she behind this?

Is she somehow connected to Those Who Came Before? Are they behind this?

[circumspector]

Something is.... wrong.

No, something is very, very, very wrong.

He says nothing, but he often does. He'd always tended to let actions speak form him. That wasn't it. No... No, it wasn't that as she realized what was offer. No matter how bad, no matter if they needed to talk, or one of their moods was bad since they'd... they'd decided to try this, Connor always managed to at least press a kiss to her forehead. A hand on her shoulder at the minimum.

Not this cold, sudden, retracted presence from her.

Angel's head tips back, looking into his brown eyes with her own black ones, flicking between them, looking for it. The warmth, the way that he smiled, just in the corner of the eyes that made her feel like she was the only one he saw. No corner of bemusement at her exuberance. No reassurance. Nothing.

It wasn't there.

Her fingers slowly loosen from where she held, sliding flat to get more space.

"Connor? What happened? Did something hurt you in there?"

[mustact]

She's backing off, giving him space, and he visibly relaxes. But his gaze stays on her, wary, as he takes a step back to further increase the distance. What is going on? Who is she? The vision he was given through that artifact hadn't been this real, this clear. It looks like something that could exist, even if he can't quite make sense of it.

"I am not supposed to be here."

Can't be here. It's wrong. He has things he needs to do, things that are far more important.

[circumspector]

That hurts, that hurts so much. Her fingers curl in like she'd been burned. Her arms falling back to her sides, then in, tucking around her, like she doesn't know what to do with herself.

But that wasn't useful. So she focuses on what she usually does. Work, and what is happening in front of her.

"I'm. Uhm. Okay. Okay, we can work with that. Where do you need to go?"

It comes out shakey, but it's a clear something is wrong, and if they are going to get to the bottom of why her boyfriend all of a sudden doesn't want to even touch her - then, making him feel at ease and helping him work out where he needs to be is... is where they are going to start. Even if looking at him and not being even known by him... hurts, hurts like a knife in between her ribs, searing and hot.

[mustact]

The tremble in her voice and the look on her face makes him pause, hovering uncertainly as he tries to work out why she seems so ... hurt. If he'd met her, surely he'd remember. She isn't someone one simply forgets.

There is more going on than he can begin to comprehend but-- What can he do about that? He needs to reach New York, he needs to make sure the plan to assassinate Washington isn't successful. How much time does he have? It must be running out.

"I-- I'm sorry," he says, because he thinks he has to say something. "I need to reach New York. I do not know how I got here."

[circumspector]

Angel inhales in a short breath. New York? Shit, where does she even start?

"So... So this might be a little bit hard to understand right now. But you're not on Earth. So... nowhere near America, either. You're on another planet, in another galaxy. It's called Anchor."

[mustact]

It's not just hard to understand - in fact, it may be less difficult than she thinks, because of what he's been told about Those Who Came Before - it is also completely unacceptable. And he can't work out how he got here. As far as he knows, he hasn't touched any artifacts since the crystal his village had. Did the man going to New York with him have something to do with it?

"Why?" he asks, his tone tense. "For what purpose am I here?"

Because there has to be one. Doesn't there? For the last few years, at least, he has felt that what happens has had a purpose. This? He can't be here. He needs to deal with the Templars, he needs to help his people.

Isn't that what the crystal told him?

[circumspector]

She nods slowly, and some of this is by wrote, so to speak. She is placating, her hands palm up, and gives him his space. Assuring and not demanding, and most of all, not losing her patience with his questions.

"We are still determining that. What's happened is called Cross Dimensional Travel, and the study of it isn't... exact. This one appears to be at random, and currently irreversible with the technology we presently have. But we are working on it, to get ... get, people like you... home."

It hurts to say. Hurt to know she'll lose him. But it was what they always agreed on, and right now is hardly the time to tackle that when he can't even remember why it's hard.

[mustact]

Irreversible?

No. Can't be. He shakes his head furiously, and turns away from her, putting his hands on his hips as he turns his head to the sky. An unfamiliar sky. Not even on Earth? This can't be happening. It twists in his chest and his throat, makes it feel hard to breathe, and he can't be here.

"That is not good enough."

There has to be an artifact. Somewhere. If he could just find that--

[circumspector]

"I know. I know you have a lot of people waiting for you. A lot to do, for your home, and your homesteaders..."

She doesn't know all of it, she knows she doesn't. He has kept those parts of his life to himself, often enough. It had always seemed better that way, somehow. She contented herself like she often had in life, his happiness in that place was enough her for, even if she couldn't be part of it. Best leave it vague.

Still, this was Connor, what Connor wanted more than anything was action over petty assurances, not being told this is how it is and no one is going to change that.

She just can't hold his hand and tell him he'd be okay, and that was... harder than she ever imagined.

"But we are working on it. We all are. To get you home. A lot of people are stuck and everyone is working as best they can to get out. Every day we get closer and closer to managing that too, I'm sure of it."

[mustact]

I know, she says, like she could possibly know anything. Who is she, to say that so confidently? She doesn't. Doesn't know that there is more than just people waiting, that there are lives at stake, that he is the only one who can prevent tragedy. Nobody else knows about it.

"I do not have that time," he says sharply, with just a hint of the anxiety and desperation that makes his head feel thick.

Not good enough. No word on when, nothing about how close they are, too much uncertainty. He needs to find this out for himself. He can't stop.

So he starts walking again.

[circumspector]

Angel's eyes widen as he walks away from her. Heart stuck somewhere in the back of her throat in the pain of it. He never walked away from her. He always listened, even if they had to talk it through because they didn't come to it the same way, he always tried to listen.

Swallowing down, she can't let it get to her right now. He's not safe, they're not safe, and he wasn't listening to her. Why did they never listen to her?

( Because you're a liar, Angel. )

Tried and true tactics, then. If he wouldn't listen to her as a friend. He will listen to her for what she knows.

If he thinks he's going to just walk out of here like that. Well, he could try to, but like hell, she was letting him get hurt. "Okay, so you don't, but you do have enough time to listen to the Magical Minotaur Mythological - " lover, friend, girlfriend, the person who you kiss and make smile and I make you smile, I do, I do, I do, and I won't forget that even if you - . Her tail snaps like whipcord as she out steps him. " - companion you're stuck with, who can't get lost even if she tried, when we're stuck in a maze."

Despite her short stature, he can't outpace her. For the first time since she met him, she uses it all. Her speed, strength, senses, to march past him to the door he's head towards, and before he can try to get it open in any sensible way, she leans over and punches it clean off its hinges. Then gestures for him to go through. "So since we're stuck together, why don't we work together?"

[mustact]

Well, if there was ever an efficient way to distract him from his worries for a moment, it's punching a door off its hinges with such ease. Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that someone who is so obviously part monsters like she is can do that, but his eyes widen and his mouth opens with it nonetheless.

"Who are you?"

None of this makes any sense.

[circumspector]

"I'm Angel." Angel rolls her shoulders back as she shakes out the easy display of strength because there is something exhilarating to letting loose like that when she often doesn't get to. That metal, concrete, all the trappings of simple beings mean nothing to her. Rolling her weight with a hand on her hip, tail flicking, lifting her chin to lift those big, terrifying horns of hers, eyes as black as her hair as she watches him. Half dressed, as always, because nothing fitted sat well on her fur, and most clothes were designed to go over horns or a tail. Somewhere between human and animal, but comfortable there, she realizes as she lets him look her over and really take her in at last. "- and I'm your girlfriend."

But there she whithers, she's not being fair to something that isn't his fault, and he would be with her, so she sinks her shoulders. Sighing out her frustration at the whole - whole situation.

"Before you forgot how you got here, anyway. But don't worry, I'm not asking for anything from you. You should just know I care a whole lot about you and don't want you to get hurt." There she finally lets out the breath as she turns her head to look forward, "but what you actually want to ask is 'what are you?' I'm a Minotaur. I wasn't born this way but got turned into it by a magical God that thought it was funny, I guess. She did it to lots of people. So now I can see in the dark, smell things at a mile that humans can't, hear down to your heartbeat, know my way around mazes... and yes, punch through doors if I want to."

[mustact]

His girlfriend? Since when? What has he forgotten? So he's been here before, long enough to bond with people, and he has no recollection of it.

What he actually wanted to ask? He just shakes his head, very slightly. He really had meant who, because it had been so obvious she knew him, when he didn't know her. Not that being told what she is is ... bad. It just also wasn't really what he cared about. Truth be told, he wonders if this is real at all.

He crosses his arms, frowning deeply. This is only getting worse.

"How long have I been here, then?"

[circumspector]

"Here? A couple of months. We met somewhere else though. A city. We were there for it felt like a year, I think?"

But if he's lost it all.

"What's the last thing you remember?"

[mustact]

Over a year? How is that possible?

"I was on Earth."

He lifts his hands slightly in a questioning gesture. What else does she need to know? He was on Earth and now, somehow, for whatever reason, he is here instead. And it's all wrong.

[circumspector]

Yikes.

Right. Okay. Don't panic. Just... everything. He'd forgotten everything. So she nods, gesturing him to follow her into the next room.

"Right. So there was a City. It was called the City of Sin. It had demons and stuff." This one time you got really hot from fighting a literal God and we were all over each other. Clears her throat. Why was it useless information came up when you were trying to be sensible.

But true to her word, when the puzzle is in front of her, she scans the room, slowly, slowly. "That's where we met. You saved me from myself. A few times actually." It didn't matter, really, that was a whole series of events he didn't remember. "- This way. Step on the tiles I step on." Angel began to pick her way through them, one after another in delicate little touches of her sturdy hooves. "It was ruled over by this jerk Emperor. You didn't like him very much, I always got the feeling." Not that they'd ever talked about it at length. "I helped you and the other Assassin out. Mostly with money, that sort of thing. I'm the best accountant you can find."

[mustact]

City of Sin? Demons? The more she talked, the less sense she made. How could he not remember any of this?

When she brings up the assassins, he slows to a stop, his posture tensing as he puts his guard up all the way again. She knows about it? Does that mean she truly does know him as well as she tries to claim? It doesn't, necessarily. She could be lying. There could be so much else going on here.

"Other Assassin?"

[circumspector]

Angel turned back to him. The change in his scent, the stop of his footsteps, nervously watching over her shoulder.

"Jacob Frye. He's from London. The Brotherhood there? I don't know, really, you guys... well, it's your business, not mine. You've told me some stuff? But I don't come from Earth, so I don't even really know what... well, London is."

She clears her throat. He's never looked at her like that. In frank suspicion, and it turned her small, turned her unhappy, and she has been on the receiving end of it too many times for it not to hurt. Not from anyone, but from Connor.

"You just get me to help with... stuff like this." Her hand gestures at the room. "I know this kind of stuff. I built the gun you're carrying. I fixed Jacob's hidden blade." She gestures with her chin at his hip.

[mustact]

London. He can't know anything about who that is, then. If there truly is another Assassin here, though, that's a good thing. Someone he could talk to. That's good.

At first, he dismisses the idea that she's made his gun outright, because he knows for certain she didn't. Something, though - some niggling feeling in the back of his mind - makes him reach down to take it, and as soon as he wraps his fingers around Claw he knows that's not his usual gun. So he pulls it out of its holster to look at it proper, and it's ... unlike anything he's ever seen. Not just the shape of it but the metal itself is new, something he can't help but think no one would know how to create back home.

Has he really been here for as long as she said? The very thought of it makes him feel cold. It can't have been.

He takes a deep breath that shakes more than he wants it to, as he puts the gun back into its holster.

Right.

"I need to see every room in this 'maze'."

Won't tell her why. Can't. But he needs to, just in case there are any clues. If he's forgotten things, and something in this maze caused it, then surely ...

He doesn't know. Just has to start somewhere.

[circumspector]

"... If you want." She clearly doesn't like it. Given that the first time through has done this to him. But... "We're going to have to go forward first, though. The doors don't open for us to go back, unfortunately, we have to keep going the way we came."

She gestures ahead of them. "Granted I think we're at the exit. So we can meet up Jaco - the other Assassin, you can regroup, find out more information and a better plan, right?"

[mustact]

And he clearly doesn't like that too much, initially. After a moment, he realises that that is better. Someone he could actually talk to about what he's thinking. Maybe.

Might be his best bet, anyway.

"Fine."