modblob: (Default)
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.

killedwithlove: (Default)

2

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-09-12 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
"But you're not like other Asgardians. And that's okay."

There's several things about Loki that drew Cole's attention. The pain, of course, self loathing and anger churning over rejection and hurt.

The other thing is the familiar and unfamiliar cling of space, of the void.

Cole stands by the water, grubby and pale, even in the heat. He clearly isn't here to get in.

"I was in the Fleet too. I was on the Pathstone."
dothelokimotion: (All hail the mighty glow cloud)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2019-09-12 06:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ loki's eyes sharpen, assessing before he responds. ]

There is no Pathstone. Only Goldstone.
killedwithlove: (Lost Boy)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-09-12 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh."

That makes him feel... little sad in a way. He had learned a bit about having a family there, or something that was almost like it. "Were the paintings still there? Solas' paintings, in the halls?"
dothelokimotion: (This is the fear that looms)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2019-09-12 09:05 am (UTC)(link)
I would not know. I did not care much for the Goldstone and none of my friends lingered there.

[ the only ship he truly cared for was his own. ]
killedwithlove: (Conversational)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-09-12 09:12 am (UTC)(link)
Cole hums sadly and rocks on his feet, but his hand wanders up to his neck, where his implant once sat. "I don't have mine. I went home, but then I came here, and I still remembered, though I wasn't meant to. You're so fractured, so many maybes and weren'ts and rethinkings and all of you hurts so much, it's hard to not hear."

Because linear conversation and thought it not Cole's strong suit.
dothelokimotion: (He had lived for the future)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2019-09-12 09:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ loki still has his, unfortunately. he has to look into getting it removed. somehow.

still, he raises a brow at cole's statement. ]


Well. That's rude.
killedwithlove: (Lost Boy)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-09-12 09:28 am (UTC)(link)
"I don't mean to be. I just say what I hear and see. I want to help people. I want them to hurt less. I'd like you to hurt less, but I don't know if you're ready to." He looks off somewhere else and then to his feet. "I'm Cole. I used to be Compassion, but now I'm Cole. You're Loki. You have a lot of names that cling to you, like spiderwebs."
dothelokimotion: (Settles in as the gentle present)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2019-09-12 09:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ mildly: ]

And I've earned every single one. I've gutted men for less.
killedwithlove: (Calm)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-09-12 09:38 am (UTC)(link)
"Yes. You have." Cole doesn't sound disappointed or disgusted or any of the other things that people might be. "But it never undoes it."
dothelokimotion: (You assume the story is about you)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2019-09-12 09:39 am (UTC)(link)
I do not care anymore for the undoing or regrets.

[ loki waves a flippant hand. ]

I live my life as I choose. And I pity any creature that gets in the way of that.
killedwithlove: (Spirit powah)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-09-12 09:45 am (UTC)(link)
"No... not yet," Cole murmurs, maybe more to himself. "That's all right. You have the time. So do I."

Satisfied that he's made his point, he turns and vanishes midstep in a curl and plume of dark green smoke.
dothelokimotion: (Illegal to consider their existence)

[personal profile] dothelokimotion 2019-09-12 09:46 am (UTC)(link)
[ loki rolls his eyes. and people call him dramatic. ]