september 2019. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

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.

Navigation.

Comments

[abheirrant]

Rey gestures vaguely in Carlisle's direction; he looks down at himself, then back at her, his doubt obvious.

"I fail to see how this outfit makes me look like I have the potential to be 'a badass,'" he remarks, internally grateful for the reprieve from his nerves. "I certainly no more look the part than you, what with the..."

And it's his turn for a vague gesture at his face, tracing the lines of her scars as though they were his own.

[circumitus]

Of all the physical references he had to use, it had to be that. It's not like Rey's always conscious about her face -- or that most people would have the sense to recognize a battle scar from an calculated and intentionally inflicted injury -- but it's one thing she'd rather refrain from lingering any attention to.

Rather than taking that out on him, however, her mouth just tightens into a thin line as she deflects as fast as she can from that line of thought.

"Right," she snaps. "Well, unfortunately, that 'deal with asshole robots quota' has already been filled, so not in the mood for their shit right now. Try again later."

Read as: Rey is not in the market for taking down machines at the request of others she doesn't trust. For all she knows, it could be a thinly veiled trap to lure her in as bait. Serve as the perfect distraction while he turns tail and saves his own skin.

Wouldn't be the first time anyone's ever done that.

[abheirrant]

Carlisle sees her mouth tighten and immediately knows he's made a misstep, even if he doesn't know exactly what it is; the tone she takes with him supports his assumption. Looks like the option of 'stay in here until they leave' is what he'll be doing, after all.

He groans audibly, putting his back to the door and sliding against it to the floor, his knees pulled up before him. "I am stuck here for the time being, then," he grumbles, closing his eyes as he folds his arms before him. "Fantastic. I am so enjoying this new world thus far. What a delightful experience this has been."

[circumitus]

While she should be concerned about having to put up with this guy even more, at least now he's in a position where she can keep an eye on him and him alone. Putting herself in a spot where she has to worry about him and robots, though?

Fuck that. She didn't sign up for any of that shit.

No, this is much better. For now. If she needs to cut and run, she knows her exits to do it.

"Think that's what the spa is supposed to be for. An experience. But, that doesn't seem to be your thing." Or so she suspects. It's not really her thing, either. And he could contradict her if he wants, but she has enough sense that she can't help but feel something else that's particularly shady about him.

[abheirrant]

"It is not," Carlisle admits with all the warmth of an icy wind, forgoing his sarcasm this time. "I wandered in here by mistake while looking for lodging, and now I am paying for my lack of foresight."

He waves toward the steaming bath, at the moment aggravated by its very existence. "Even if I were in a position to enjoy the temptation of a relaxing bath, who could do it in a place like this? Who would so readily bare themselves in such an alien world, one with undeads and radiation" —he places a lot of emphasis in that word, like someone who just learned what it is and hates it already— "and who knows what else lurking right around the corner?"

[circumitus]

Rey just shrugs. Wasting time soaking up in hot water doesn't exactly sound like her idea of a good time either, so she's not one to talk.

"Clearly you underestimate the priorities of some people with nothing better to do."

Spoken like someone who's got better things to do, herself. Sure.

[abheirrant]

Carlisle sighs. "Clearly. I would think they could find better expenditures of their time here. This place is so vast... and empty."

Not that he prefers crowds, but it does seem suited for more life than it currently sustains. That does get him thinking.

"Do you... believe there will be more coming?"

[circumitus]

At that Rey falls silent on. She doesn't want to state that people might have their reasons to drag their feet -- hell, it's not like she is in any rush to get out and return to her previous situation. The phantom pains stinging in her chest is a steady reminder of how much she doesn't want that right now.

The shift of subject is a little more welcome though, since discussion of one's use of their personal time is a bit too... personal, for Rey's taste.

"Sure. Maybe not in droves, but it doesn't sound like we're the first few to pop up here."

Other than that, does it really matter what she believes?

[abheirrant]

That answer just gets him thinking even more. What kinds of people will be brought in? Will there be more from his world? Will they know who he is, and what the Blight Heir did? There are already people here who know him, met him in a time he can't remember. That is damning enough.

With that in mind, maybe he should just hide in the spa until the constructs get him. It'd be easier than dealing with people who expect better of him than he can ever offer, especially the way he is now.

"I wonder if the undead beyond the walls of this place were once like us," he remarks. "People trying to survive here, not knowing where they are."

[circumitus]

Now that's an interesting theory. Rey sends him a peculiar look.

"Like the ones who were here before, or people who came in the same way we did?" At least Rey can take comfort in the fact that it's not possible for her to end up the same way as those sick walking corpses. The Cleary cells would never allow it.

In all honesty, it would be a mercy to go back to that place to put them all out of their misery. If Rey were the altruistic type, she could do it quick and easy. But that is not her. As she has found quite recently, she's pretty fucking selfish; only willing to extend her energy so far for the sake of others.

[abheirrant]

Carlisle meets her look for only a second before casting his eyes away again, as though he feels guilt for even asking that question.

"Both, I suppose. I cannot help but wonder what turned them, and if we will be susceptible to it, as well."

He shakes his head, already not liking that thought. "Forgive my idle musing, and forget I said anything. Forget I am even here. If you wish to bathe, I promise I have no interest in watching."

[circumitus]

Rey shrugs. "Others might be, sure."

But not her. Either way she's not worried about those corpses, after scuffling with the fuckers a few times now. They're small potatoes compared to the big shit they're having to deal with now.

Her eyes narrow when the guy apologizes then.

"No worries. Was just taking a look." The spa isn't really her scene.