redshiftlogs | may 2020. welcome to the void.

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may 2020. welcome to the void.

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

01 | Qubit'); DROP TABLE Memories;-- 

[ My name is Qubit.

The square root of -1 is i.

No three positive integers a, b, and c satisfy aⁿ + bⁿ = cⁿ for any integer value of n > 2...

He goes over the familiar proof in his head, and the overwhelming feelings of panic and dread start to subside. Proof by contradiction. Assume there's at least one solution, and use a, b, c, and n to create a semi-stable Frey curve... Fermat's Last Theorem, naturally. But ... why was it so important that he remember this proof? He does remember it, easily, like a song he's heard a million times - but a moment ago, it felt absolutely vital to recall this piece of information, whereas now he has several far more urgent questions.

Such as "Where am I?" or "How did I get here?" or "Why am I naked?"

Okay. Don't panic. Start with the facts, assess the situation. He's naked and soaking wet. Some dizziness, but it's subsiding. Tiled room, showerheads - communal shower? Would explain nudity, raises several other questions. He's not alone - young man, muscular, also naked and soaked, also appears disoriented. ]

... Hey. Are you all right?

[Disoriented doesn't even begin to describe the state of one Peter Parker right now. He's soggy and butt naked and has no idea how he got here or why he's here, but he is sure of... two and a halfish, maybe three things? His name is Peter, he knows the entire periodic table by heart, and he has an aunt who's name he totally remembers, but not her face.

This is alarming, to say the least. For a moment it's all he can focus on, dedicating all of his brain power to trying to remember this one thing. He is naturally facing the wall while all of this is going down, one hand braced against said wall while the other clutches his head. A voice behind him startles the absolute fuck out of him, and rather than carefully turning around on the wet floor like a normal goddamn human being, he so very gracefully whips around only to slip and fall right on his ass. The dizziness certainly doesn't do him any favors either. He cracks the tiles of the wall that is now behind him with his elbow, but he'll worry about that after he's figured all this other shit out.]

Uhh, no. Nope. I just discovered that I'm showering with an old guy, soooo. That's how my day's going.

[Totally don't panic. Just. Maybe try to diffuse the situation with humor, right? That's totally gonna work.]

[ Okay well he was wincing apologetically when the kid slipped there, but apparently he's well enough to crack wise. Qubit bristles for a second - ]

Old?! I'm not -

[ - before it occurs to him he has no idea how old he is. Yeah, that's always a good sign! He sighs and rubs his forehead. Stay calm. One thing at a time. Focus on the facts, not on how incredibly uncomfortable this whole situation is. ]

Never mind. So - you don't remember what we're doing here, either. Is that right?

[It's all good man. Peter also has no idea how old he is. Old enough to be pretty ripped, at least. Probably 20-something? Maybe? He'll maybe figure it out later, right now he's going to worry more about picking his ass up off the floor and finding a towel to wrap around himself. His soggy shower companion is on his own.]

Uh, showering? I guess? As for why we're in here showering together, I couldn't tell you.

[ Are there towels? Oh, hey, a couple of towels have just been dispensed from a wall slot. And they're even clean, apart from some minor rust stains. He'll let Peter grab one first before doing the same.

The group shower isn't really the part that bothers him - it does seem unusual, but there are plenty of potential reasons that are perfectly innocuous. Not knowing why, on the other hand...

He secures the towel around his waist, then puts a hand to his temple, his mind racing. It's not just that, obviously - there's a lot more missing. A lot more. However many years old he is more. That's the part that's bothering him. ]

All right. Okay. What about... do you remember, let's say... anything at all, before about ninety seconds ago?

[The fact that neither of them can remember shit is significantly more alarming than the shower, for sure. Peter stops being a smartass long enough to stop and really think about what he does and doesn't remember. He comes up with enough chemistry and other science nerdfacts to assume that he must be pretty smart, but apart from that there's only one other thing that comes to mind.]

M-May. My... mom? My aunt. I don't... I can't picture her face, I uh-- I have a name, but uh... N-no, I don't know anything else, I don't know where we are.

[This probably counts as some sort of progress? So hey, good for them. Unfortunately now Peter's fixated on the fact that he can't remember anything about this person who is apparently important enough to be the only name other than his own that he can remember, so that's a thing. He almost certainly looks like he's on the verge of some sort of freak out, sorry Qubit.]

[ Well, hey, at least Peter looks like Qubit feels. I mean, he can't remember whether he has a family at all, but remembering your loved one's name and nothing else? That's got to be a special kind of torture. ]

Hey, hey, hey. [ He almost goes to put a hand on Peter's shoulder, but at the last second thinks better of it - the situation is compromising enough as it is, and there's no telling if that would just make it worse. ] Look, I'm - we're in the same boat right now, you and I. But we're going to get to the bottom of this, all right? Let's just...

[ He takes a deep breath, lets it out as a sigh. He's agitated, too, right now. Agitated and scared. But it's imperative he keep his wits about him (whatever wits he has left), for the kid's sake if nothing else. ]

Let's take it one thing at a time. Can you tell me your name?

[The guy's presence and reassurance is enough to get Peter to at least start calming down a bit. He takes an unsteady deep breath and nods, taking this one step at a time is a better plan that he can come up with right now.]

Um... Peter? It's Peter. Maybe I go by Pete, I don't know, I don't care either way. What's yours, do you remember yours?

[ He nods. ] It's Qubit.

[ That's one thing he's very sure of, because he was actively reminding himself of it just as he came to. But... now what?

It's easy to say "one thing at a time," but the truth is, he doesn't know where to start. He glances briefly at the palm of his hand - it's not pruned, they can't have been in here long. Surveys the room again - two visible exits, but which one did they enter by? ]

Do you see anything that could -

[ Just then, there's a half-second shriek of audio feedback from somewhere that makes him about jump out of his skin - but it quickly fades down to a voice recording that, while less painful, is so grainy and distorted he can't tell which of its two or three distinct pitches it was originally supposed to be.

"SCREECHntamination complete. You may retrieve your belongings."

With a rattling noise, a couple of dingy plastic bins roll into the same slot the towels came from. Their belongings, presumably. ]

[Peter is equal parts SO STARTLED and ready to throw down once that noise decides to happen, but he quickly regains what little composure he has as soon as he realizes what's actually going on. He glances sideways at Qubit before moving over to investigate the plastic bins, reaching into one to retrieve a pair of pants.]

Well that was. Convenient. [Which might be sketchy? He has no idea. He holds the pants up to himself to see if they're his, but can't really tell so he turns to Qubit again with a shrug.]

[ Qubit squints up at the speaker for a second. ] What did it say? "Decontamination"?

[ That's deeply alarming. But, yeah, if they're going to be walking into some kind of hazmat situation in a minute, prooobably better to do it with pants on. He can't tell at a glance whether the green slacks will fit Peter (they look a little big in the waist for him, but it's hard to say), so he shrugs back.

Since Peter's trying the bin with the green clothes, Qubit will go ahead and check out the other one. Aaaand the first thing he finds are the goofy spider-print boxers, which he regards with a raised eyebrow. ]

I think these may be your things. [ Cause he sure doesn't want to wear them. AND YET he sets them aside as something else catches his eye - a decorated metallic disc about the size of his hand - and he picks that up instead. ] What's this?

I definitely don't wear these, [he says, holding up the tidy whities in the box the green pants had come out of. He's about to toss them to Qubit, but the shiny thing Qubit picks up catches his attention.]

I dunno, heavy duty frisbee? Explosive? I don't even remember why I'm in this room, what makes you think I know what that is?

[ Omg Peter let's not go throwing people's underwear around, okay. Annoyed, Qubit rolls his eyes, tossing the disc back into the bin with the kind of care normally reserved for things you're 100% sure are not grenades. ]

It's called a rhetorical question. [ And certainly not just a dumb question. GOSH. He motions between the two bins to indicate they should swap. ] Let me see that one.

Uh huh. [This is Peter giving zero fucks, he's way more interested in finding out what kind of nifty shit is sitting in what is presumably his bin. He passes the one he'd been digging in over to Qubit and tugs the other over to himself, making a face at the spider print boxers.

I mean, he's here and he has a box of clothes, so he's just going to start getting dressed so that he's not just awkwardly standing around in a towel anymore.]

Find anything cool in that one, or do I have all the cool mystery gadgets?

[ Much better. The clothes in the new box are a lot more to his taste, which is probably enough to confirm they're his. But as he's rifling through them, he pauses.

Up close, there's something odd about this bin. He can't quite place it. Almost as if something in there's making a noise, but just outside the range of hearing. He finds the source soon enough, folded up in the overcoat - three mystery gadgets. He picks up the tablet, squinting down at it with intense interest. What is it? It feels like it's on the tip of his tongue. Like a buzzing noise, or a strange sort of tingling at the base of his skull, the tips of his fingers...

Peter's question snaps him back to reality (not a moment too soon). Unsettled, he puts the tablet down and starts getting dressed as well. ]

... A couple things. Not sure how to categorize them. [ Or what he just experienced, for that matter. ]

[Peter leans over to take a peek at Qubit's nifty thingies,] I think those count as cool mystery gadgets too.

[Now that he's dressed and has all his mystery junk, Peter approaches what he presumes to be the exit and turns back to Qubit, waving him over.]

So we wanna like, go look for help? Or just hang out in the shower like a couple of weirdos? I mean, I'm fine either way, really.

[ Qubit takes slightly longer to finish getting dressed, so by the time Peter's waving him to the exit he's still trying to towel off his hair. (His poor, messy, soggy, drooping hair. Alas.) ]

Hold your horses. Are you sure that's the way we came in? [ He thumbs over his shoulder at the other door. There are two exits, remember. ] This is a decontamination shower, Peter. If we go the wrong way, we could be walking straight into an exclusion zone.

[ He tosses the towel aside and holds up his communicator instead, calming a bit. ] Let's at least try to call first.

[Peter is totally still looking like he really wants to open this door, but hairbuddy has a point. Sooo fine, he steps away from the door and crosses his arms.]

Okay, okay, that's fair. Maybe you can check like, your contact list or whatever? Jog your memory?

[ Already on it. Nodding, Qubit turns on the comm and fiddles with it for a bit, but after twenty seconds or so of loading screen, it pops up: "Could not load messages. Check your connection and try again." He frowns. ]

No signal. I'll keep trying.

[ The comm's causing a similar unquantifiable sensation, he notices, but ... less pronounced, if he were to give it a magnitude. Maybe that's normal? He tunes it out for now. ]

Any chance one of your gadgets is an emergency beacon?

[Well that's not working. Peter would be rolling his eyes if he wasn't actually pretty concerned about this.

BUT, Qubit has another idea! Peter picks up the odd little metal disk thing and turns it over in his hands a few times.]

I dunno, I guess I'll start pushing buttons.

[Well, there's like, a thing that might be a button? It doesn't seem to do anything though. Of course, this is Peter, and his luck is stupid. Upon further fiddling with the device he accidentally activates the Iron Spider armor and is immediately engulfed in metal. Naturally he plays it cool and shrieks] OOOOOOOOOOH MY GOD WHATISITDOING!!!?????

[So, that went well.]

[ God damn it, you look away from this kid for half a second and the next thing you know he's screaming as he gets eaten alive by some horrifying contraption. Why does this always happen!! ]

Peter!!

[ Qubit straight up drops his comm and rushes to help, but - what does he do? It's too late, it's already covered him completely! Is it safe to touch, or will the same thing happen to him? This is my fault- ]

What happened? Can you hear me?!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

may 2020. welcome to the void.

closed to Peter (& later Scaramouche) (cw nudity i guess)

Re: closed to Peter (& later Scaramouche) (cw nudity i guess)

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