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redshiftlogs2019-09-04 09:06 pm
modblob) wrote in redshiftlogs2019-09-04 09:06 pm
Entry tags:
- !mod post: intro mingle,
- dragon age: cole,
- irredeemable: qubit,
- mcu: loki,
- mcu: peter parker,
- original: carlisle longinmouth,
- original: rey,
- poison: poison,
- red dead redemption: kieran duffy,
- samurai jack: scaramouche,
- ssss: onni hotakainen,
- ssss: reynir arnason,
- umbrella academy: ben hargreeves,
- umbrella academy: klaus hargreeves,
- warm bodies: julie grigio
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
no subject
[It doesn't.]
[Quick, try to ask something relevant!]
What kinda stuff do you, uh, sci...ence?
no subject
All kinds, really. But my specialties are in quantum physics and electrical engineering. [ Aaaaaand he's not gonna know what either of those are, is he. ] Machines, in layman's terms.
no subject
[He mostly got it.]
And that lightnin' trick y'pulled before? Is that part of workin' with machines?
H-Hope you're doin' alright, by the way. Looked like it hurt.
no subject
Not that he's going to mention any of that! Instead, he casually waves off Kieran's concern. ]
It's nothing to worry about. [ For you, anyway. He's got the worrying covered. ] As to your question, yes and no. It's a... unique ability I have. Allows me to reshape machines however I like. So it's part of how I work with them, but it's not the usual way.
no subject
Glad yer feelin' better, then, friend.
[That's as far as he's willing to go before falling silent for a bit.]
[...but that won't last for too long. The awkwardness of not having conversation and wondering if he said or did the right thing is a bit much for him to bear, especially when dealing with someone he's trying to make a good second impression on.]
The ranch a-ain't too far from here! Is there anythin' you wanted to look at in particular, or do you wanna see the whole thing?
no subject
[ Qubit's not oblivious to Kieran's discomfort, but he doesn't comment on it. Is he just nervous? Intimidated? Well, it's hardly the first time he and his powers have gotten that reaction. He was among the first supers to go public, and there was a lot of fear and uncertainty surrounding them at the time. The mere existence of people like him had caused huge paradigm shifts throughout every society on Earth, challenging humanity's most basic conceptions of itself and its place in the universe. They were an unknown, and they'd upended so much of the known, even before the Plutonian.
So... he can understand why Kieran might be wary of the idea, that's the real takeaway here. He could try reassuring him, but ... realistically, isn't Kieran better off maintaining some of that wariness?
... The question draws him out of that line of thought, thankfully. ]
Hm... Why don't you show me around first, and then I'll move into the specifics. I'm interested in getting the overhead rainmakers working again, for instance.
no subject
Yeah, I can do that!
[The very prospect puts a little more people in Kieran's step as he hurries along to the ranch.]
[Soon enough it's in view, and Kieran--careful to make sure he doesn't leave Qubit behind--eases into a trot.]
C'mon! We'll start with the barn!
no subject
I'm coming, I'm coming.
[ Okay here's the barn, whatcha got for me coach? ]
no subject
[Kieran starts off by giving Qubit a tour of the outside. It doesn't look like much--in fact, the barn still has a couple of holes in it that haven't been patched up entirely, but the paint looks fresher and the wood a bit newer across most of the building.]
Me and Pratt have been workin' on patchin' up the holes and sealin' up the spaces in the wood. We also found some paint, but I ain't sure it'll be enough to cover everything.
But it's good enough to keep me and the horses in! And all that weird growth's gone.
no subject
You're still living in here? The fungus may have gone, but I'd hardly call the area secure yet.
[ ESPECIALLY NOT WITH THAT BIG HOLE IN THE WALL. ]
no subject
[Kieran sways back and forth from one leg to the other for a few moments before he responds. Qubit isn't wrong, but how can he fully articulate that claustrophobic feeling he gets in the dorms? Or how he's always felt more comfortable around animals than people?]
I-I'm more comfortable on the ranch out in the open than with everyone else inside.
Not sayin' I wouldn't like a real bed--I think that's gonna be somethin' else I work on--but those rooms j-just feel... cold. I can't sleep like that, thinkin' that the walls are pressin' in on me.
no subject
[ It takes Qubit a second to respond, trying to see where Kieran's coming from. He hasn't camped out in many years, and hasn't done it on purpose in even longer. The main thing he remembers is the cold, the wet, the rocks. But then he realizes Kieran doesn't mean it literally - he means cold as in stark, lifeless. It's not how Qubit thinks of it, but then, machines feel alive to him in a way they don't to others. ]
More of an outdoorsman, then? Where did you live before this, out of curiosity?
no subject
[Kieran nods. It looks like Qubit's getting him, at least on some level!]
Kinda. I, uh, before comin' here, I roamed around a lot. It was a lot of campin' and not a lotta stayin' indoors.
I didn't really have a home fer a while.
no subject
Looks to me like you're on your way to having a nice one here.
[ But without leaving too much time to absorb that, he turns back to Kieran with a wry smile. ] Although, truthfully, I meant that more in a geographical sense.
[ Odd as it is, he's starting to find Kieran interesting? Not in the same way he usually finds people interesting - those with potential to cultivate, or threats to mitigate, or mysteries to solve. Rather, Kieran's got this certain unassuming appeal as... just a regular, salt-of-the-earth human being, with a background and outlook very different from his own. It's refreshing, in a way. ]
no subject
[So he'll just go ahead and do his best. That's all anyone can ask of him.]
I, uh... I'm from America. Closer to the southern parts. S-Spent some time out west, when I was younger.
no subject
Qubit nods, but he's still curious. ] This may seem like an odd question, but what year was it?
no subject
Nah, it's not odd at all. Lots of people have been askin' that.
It's, uh, it's eighteen ninety-nine. How about you?
no subject
2009 originally, but most recently 2016. [ - he should probably elaborate. ] I sort of skipped the intervening years by accident. It's a long story.
no subject
[He doesn't pry, though, counting on Qubit to make it known when he wants to share whatever the long story is.]
[Kieran does have one question, though...]
Say, uh, weird question but... do a lotta people get really weird powers in the future? 'Cause I know this kid from New York who climbs on ceilings and stuff and he said he was from two thousand seventeen...
no subject
[ Who else goes around climbing on ceilings? But yeah, Qubit knows him. They were both helping drag Kieran's high ass to safety that time, remember? ... There's a good chance he doesn't remember. ]
No, that's a good question. I wouldn't say we're a dime a dozen, exactly, but there are a fair few of us. Why do you ask?
no subject
Yeah! Yeah, Peter.
Also, I wasn't asking fer any reason in particular. Just curious.
The future sounds like a wild place.
[HE KIND OF WISHES HE COULD SEE IT.]
no subject
[ DO YOU THOUGH, KIERAN? Maybe we can just... tell him only the good things about the future, and leave out all the wars and turmoil and alien invasions and apocalypses. ]
Anyway. Where to next?