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Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redshiftlogs2019-09-04 09:06 pm

september 2019. welcome to the void.

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Third Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of September 2019
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. turrets.

That power surge kicked off some sh... stuff, all right. It took a while for the systems to cycle back on, but two new areas of Anchor are now accessible and usable. One of them is nice and relaxing and safe, and we'll get to that one in a minute. The other one, addressed first, is not very nice and not very relaxing and definitely not safe.

The internal defense systems on the upper levels have come to life, and have targeted anyone within their range as a hostile entity. Get ready to run the gauntlet if you want to turn them off - you'll have to dodge lasers, bullets, and aggressive defense bots (that can be rewired and/or rebooted to assist characters instead of trying to murder them). The reward? Getting to the heavily protected (think many many murderbots and lasers) security control room. If you can make it, you'll be able to reboot the internal defenses, turning off the aggressive targeting and having access for the first time to surveillance of almost all of Anchor. Those areas your characters didn't know were there? Revealed. Those dense patches of jungle-like growth in the agricultural center? You've got a spotlight into their heart.

Though, huh, not all the cameras seem to be working. What's with those screens that show up from time to time that are nothing but static?

Oh well, doesn't really matter, does it?

b. hot springs episode.

One of the areas adjacent to the bar and intimacy lounge has been sputtering on and off ever since the power surge. One evening, with a loud crack and a humming sound that slowly dissipates, the lights come on and water starts flowing down the artificial waterfall into the fountain out front. The spa is back online!

The lobby is inviting and zen, with holographic walls that depict scenic locations (some of them very unlike Earth), with fountains splashing delicately on either side of the door. The attendants are slightly malfunctioning bots, but the most harm they'll do is bring you six towels when you ask for one, or a bucket of massage oil to work on those knots in your back with.

There are three areas in the spa, each of them fully-outfitted with towels, robes of all sizes, fuzzy slippers, the works. One has all the amenities of a Turkish bath, right down to the fantastically arched roofs and mosaics of Istanbul. One is designed not unlike a Japanese hot spring, though the spring is heated artificially rather than naturally. The springs are large enough to be communal in some areas and small enough to be private in others, varying in depth from deep enough to swim on one end and shallow enough to sit on the bottom on the other. All hot springs have a stone shelf around the edges where those who don't want to swim can sit. The last area is more Western, with steam rooms, saunas, massage tables, and mud baths for the adventurous.

One thing all of these areas have in common: the settings on virtually everything can be adjusted to taste. Not in the traditional way, either. The steams and waters can be tweaked to be soporific, can serve as muscle relaxants, can ease anxiety, and can even bolster moods. None of these effects are involuntary, and none of them are brought on by drugs - it's more an advanced mix of pheromones and harmless compounds that can affect a single person or a given pool or room. Also, the baths and hot springs have adjustable bubble settings. The water colors can change, some of them even allowing characters to dye their hair the color that's been selected for the tub without staining their skin. Bubbles of all kinds can rise up out of the water, from the foamy comfort of childhood bubble baths to hovering golden bubbles that chime when you pop them. Characters can choose from a variety of bath salts, scents, and oils - the spas were designed not just for relaxation, but for pure and simple fun.


c. joe's dirt.

So you've survived the security malfunction. You've washed off the dirt and anxiety at the spa. But the newly reactivated security stations throughout Anchor have revealed something odd. There's a blip in the power systems in one area of the agricultural level, like something is siphoning off power from the main lines. Tracking down the source in the deep tangle of underbrush won't be easy, and there may be a few mutated, fanged, clawed cattle that maneuver shockingly well between the trees, but eventually you'll come to a breach in Anchor's wall. At first it just looks like a crack, but it's large enough to squeeze through and there's the darkness of an open space behind it. A tunnel, leading down into the earth outside, well below surface level and thus largely safe.
Wires run along the roof and floor, though the tunnel itself is dark. Walk long enough and you'll come to a wider space, open enough for two or three people to move around comfortably at the same time. It's still dark, lit only by screens that show the same security feeds that are available at the stations throughout the city. And others. Angles on the surface that show Anchor from a distance, and other visuals that don't show Anchor at all, trained instead on massive structures or formations or lakes out on the surface somewhere. But there's something more disturbing: there are cameras set to record some people's rooms. And the only rooms that are shown are occupied.

Someone has been here, recently enough to track where new people have moved in.

On the floor in one corner, there's a crumpled photograph of a man some might recognize as Creepy Joe, happy and whole, with a little girl sitting on his shoulder. It looks like it's been stamped into the dirt.

circumitus: (oops got into another fight sorry dad)

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-09-11 06:53 am (UTC)(link)
Okay, that's not... overly suspicious. Her gaze falls to the machine he had been working on. "So those things are equipped for combat, then?"

Good thing Rey got out of that room fast as she did after punching that robot... It didn't look like it was going to attack her, but she'd rather not take her chances when it comes to machines. Even more so when she isn't yet familiar with the purpose and programmers that made them. For all she knew, Rey was never intended to wake up and the robot would have done something about that.

She brings a hand to her chin, her face still sore from the beating and rough trip that occurred before she woke up in that solitary room.

"Rey," she replies, not providing any more than what she's been given.
superposition: ((william hartnell eat your heart out))

[personal profile] superposition 2019-09-11 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"Charmed." He doesn't attempt a handshake, and doubts she'd be receptive to one anyway. "They are. Although more specifically, they appear to be custom-designed intrusion response platforms tailored to Anchor in particular. It'd take some doing to adapt them for general combat... if we had any reason to do that," he adds, shrugging his shoulders.
circumitus: (come again?)

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-09-14 09:09 am (UTC)(link)
Oh thank fuck this guy isn't looking for physical gestures and the usual niceties that come with first greetings. Already Rey had left that decontamination area expecting that she might have to snap a few necks before she could get any answers; she's still trying to ride down that edge without letting down her guard too much.

"Right," Rey says through her teeth. "Those things'd probably be better off as scraps, honestly. If they can be rewired and hacked, just means someone else can do the same. Make it worse."

Then again, the same thing could be said for Rey and her synthetic brain, herself. It's not like fake memories haven't been planted into her head to manipulate her towards a specific goal before.
superposition: ((assume i know something you don't))

[personal profile] superposition 2019-09-15 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Qubit shakes his head thoughtfully, eyeing his project. "Hmm... I disagree. All they are is machines, you know. Tools. You wouldn't throw out all your kitchen knives just because someone could attack you with them."

... It's not a perfect analogy, since kitchen knives don't normally get up and attack you on their own, but her hypothetical did involve a hostile third party, and he is nothing if not insufferably pedantic.

"The risks can be mitigated. Believe me, I've got a few upgrades in mind already," he continues. "They're far more useful intact - and I have a hunch we're going to need them."
circumitus: You owe me waffles (sunrise bitch.)

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-09-16 10:04 am (UTC)(link)
How infuriatingly reasonable this guy is being. Not that it's a bad thing, but when you're looking to take some of that pent up panic and anger on something, anything...

Well, Rey is having a sudden itch to go back and punch that medbot again.

"This place crawling with much more of those things or something?"

She hates the idea of running into multiple machines in the future. She hates not knowing which ones will be controlled by someone else or be running on its 'factory settings' and what that could mean for survival. She hates literally everything about this.
superposition: (For idle hands to do)

[personal profile] superposition 2019-09-20 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"Er - well, at the moment, yes. I'm still working on that." He waves his hand dismissively, but also seems mildly embarrassed. It's a work in progress! It'll get better...!

"But I'm talking about after we've reestablished control," he adds quickly. "Think about it. The people who built this station put them here for a reason. Whatever trouble they were expecting, we'll need to be prepared for as well."
circumitus: Keep up the good work. (it's a 12/12/12 miracle)

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-09-22 07:44 am (UTC)(link)
"Or maybe they played a role in whatever happened here." She glances around. "Place like this should be bustling like clockwork. Where the fuck are the people?"

And maybe Rey should be counting her luck that she isn't somewhere on the brink of the stratosphere, about to have her chest cavity ripped open. But she'll work on that gratitude part somewhere much later down the line.
superposition: (I'm so sick and tired)

[personal profile] superposition 2019-09-27 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
"Also possible." It's not farfetched, but it's also not why the robots were built. Both things could easily be true at once.

"... Unfortunately, we don't know yet," he concedes, looking back down at his project. "I wish I could give you a better answer than that. All we know is, by the time any of us arrived, the original inhabitants were long gone. And the little evidence we have suggests they didn't go willingly."
Edited 2019-09-27 05:33 (UTC)
circumitus: I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. (what did u just say u little bitch?)

so sorry this is mega late!

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-10-10 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
Her eyes dart back to the stranger.

"'We'?" Rey echoes. She had been so one-tracked minded that she didn't really think to stop and communicate with any non-machines on the way out. It should be a relief that they're not alone here, but it just makes things more complicated, as people often tend to make things. "So everyone here right now is supposedly in the same boat, then."

Judging by his wording, it sounds that way, at least. The 'original inhabitants' part is more of a comfort than it has any right to be -- it's one more hint that this isn't the place she expected to wake up at. But that requires further investigation before she can let herself get too cozy.
superposition: ((william hartnell eat your heart out))

two can play at the late game

[personal profile] superposition 2019-10-22 12:53 am (UTC)(link)
Qubit grasps his lapels. "Correct. Everyone here was brought through the same gate you were, from many different worlds and points in time - although, again, we've not yet determined how or why. Or, if applicable, by whom."

Now, he's leading the conversation back to some things he's curious about. When Rey charged out here, it certainly sounded like she had a culprit in mind.
circumitus: Also I saw a dead man's penis. It's safe to say I will be getting very drunk tonight. (today has been hell.)

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-10-23 07:24 am (UTC)(link)
Different worlds? That's... not the kind of thing Rey's known the synthetics to be capable of. The GRIGORI Program made damned sure to cut off any spacefaring endeavors over fifty years ago, not that people really knew that. Rey tenses, her shoulders squared and jaw tightens as she eyes the man warily.

"So the name 'IV'... wouldn't mean a thing to you? To anyone?" Because being worlds away from that psycho bitch has got to be the best case scenario Rey has never dreamed about.
superposition: (And why?)

[personal profile] superposition 2019-10-26 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
"'Ivy'? Not to me, no. I can't speak for anyone else." With so many worlds represented here, it's not impossible. "But you're right, this is the first I've heard of her. Who is she?"
circumitus: Your first mistake was not throwing your beer at the RA and running. (i literally hate you so fucking much)

[personal profile] circumitus 2019-11-02 09:53 pm (UTC)(link)
Jaw clenched, Rey flexes her white-knuckled fists, as if wringing out the tension she had been building up to come into this place swinging if she had to. She might be physically capable, but she isn't so stupid to not stop and think over how acting reckless would do more harm than good.

"An enemy," is all Rey says with a hiss on her tongue. She briefly touches the spot in her ribs where she can still feel the narrowed metal ripping into her body by IV's strength. The pain that erupted after, stealing her consciousness. "That's it."

If he doesn't know her, then Rey can just count him fortunate.
superposition: ((walk between worlds))

[personal profile] superposition 2019-11-04 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
Wow. He knew there was some rage going on, but even though she came out of the portal ready to burn Anchor to the ground, the sheer hatred that Rey's exuding is... rather disturbing. He wants to know more, but - no, this is clearly a poor time to ask.

"... I see."

He spares a glance to the spot she touched. Ivy's hurt her, evidently, but without knowing the details...

"Honestly, I'm not sure what to tell you," Qubit says after a moment, putting his hands in his pockets. "To the best of my knowledge, there's no 'Ivy' here. You're safe from her, and she's safe from you. Take whatever comfort you like from that. Or don't. It's your call."

He can certainly imagine why you wouldn't. Qubit hasn't seen hide or circuit of Modeus in over a year, but his absence is far more dangerous than his presence. At least that monster's genius could be put to some good use, if he were still trapped in Qubit's head. (Yeah, he did subsume the mind of another human being once, what of it.)

"Are you injured?" he adds, with a slight tilt of his head. "Our Medbay's on the bottommost level. I can escort you there, if you need."