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

[braidmage]

[ That surprises a little laugh out of Reynir. He's talking about Thor! With Thor's brother! Teasing him - just a little. ]

I guess I hadn't ever considered that. Does he rattle things off the walls, when he is talking about whatever he did that day?

[dothelokimotion]

Not so much though his volume is certainly loud enough to do so.

[ thor never did things gently. ]

[braidmage]

Ólafur is always knocking things off the walls, but only ever by running into them.

[ Reynir, who is indeed kind of a twig person, explains: ]

He's an awful lot bigger than I am.

[ Then, because he's not really always the most thoughtful boy and doesn't consider the possible consequences of his words ]

Do you wish Thor were here or is it kind of nice to have a break?

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki falls silent at that. he chose to part from thor, though he's sure thor wasn't happy about it. thor chose to leave his world behind to stay with loki. but a part of loki still finds that undeserved.

( and a part of him is bitter still, so bitter. thor saved the universe and defeated thanos . . . and left loki in dust. )

clearing his throat, loki finally replies. ]

Sometimes it helps to get away from boorish older siblings.

[braidmage]

[ For a few seconds Reynir thinks he's really fucked up and made Loki sad about being separated from his family, and he's about a second from apologizing when Loki replies. Reynir still feels nervous after that maybe misstep, tugs his long hair onto one shoulder and runs his fingers through it as he speaks: ]

Yeah. It does. I've- been feeling kinda guilty for not being more homesick. Isn't that stupid? I love my family, they just... drive me crazy sometimes.

[ Reynir knows it is like that, for most families. Everyone he's talked to has said something similar at one point or another. ]

You're a lot easier to talk to than I would've thought.

[ At least, he is now that the worst of Reynir's initial panic has faded. ]

Is it weird, talking to mortals when you're a god?

[dothelokimotion]

Not so much. I've interacted with mortals throughout history.

[ though rarely for very long and without much interest on loki's part. the last time was . . . london? back when smog and soot filled his senses. when difference was punishable by law. when theo was alive. new york doesn't count much. loki didn't spend much time "interacting" as he was conquering. ]

And I've spent a few years with mortals in space.

[braidmage]

[ For a moment Reynir just blinks at Loki. He understands Loki being immortal, doesn't bat an eye at the idea that he's existed throughout history. But then: ]

In... space?

[ The level of confusion here is intense. Then, thinking he's solved it: ]

Oh! You mean here?

[ This place is some other kind of realm, right? He had been freaking out pretty badly during that welcome video but he seems to remember something about it being a kind of other place... ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ loki shakes his head. ]

No. On a fleet of ships that traveled through space. There were many humans on it.

[braidmage]

[ There was a lot of knowledge that was lost, when the Old World ended - not for everyone, but for the majority of people, who are not scholars. Reynir is definitely one of those people and so he just stares round-eyed for a few moments at the idea of ships which can fly not only through the sky, but above it! ]

That's... so, so, so cool. I didn't know that was possible.

[ And he just assumes, because that's the way he was raised and sees the word, that gods and magic definitely helped to make that happen. In the world he lives in, people can barely cross small stretches of ocean or land without extreme peril, much less go out into the cosmos.]

Are they all immune?

[ He asks it like it's definitely not a super weird question. Which, in his case, it isn't. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ his brow furrows. ]

Immune to what, exactly?

[braidmage]

To... the Illness.

[ He says it with that capitalization audible, as if there were only one possible illness worth talking about.

Reynir has gone from confused to deeply confused, now. He can't imagine why Loki would pretend not to know about this. Is it some kind of test? He is the god of mischief, among other things, but Reynir doesn't really know what the game might be here. ]

The one that ended the Old World?

[ How could Loki not know? ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ hmm. loki shakes his head. ]

I'm not aware of it.

[braidmage]

[ Reynir just stares. And stares. Waiting for the punchline, the 'just kidding'. But Loki isn't smiling and he isn't taking it back. ]

How is that possible?

[ He remembers now, a little of what that video had said about people from other worlds. He has met such strange foreigners here, strange enough that Reynir had accepted they are from some other place, even if he doesn't understand. But Loki is one of his gods, from his world. How could he not be aware of the thing that had almost ended all life on Earth, except for the twisted monsters that were made by the disease? That still might be the end of everything, if the scales tipped just slightly in one direction or another? ]

[dothelokimotion]

Of course it is possible.

There are many Lokis across the universe. Some of the stories seep through, some change. I am Loki, but I would not necessarily be the one from your universe.

[braidmage]

[ Understanding multiverse theory is kind of asking a lot from this sweet sheep-farming boy, but he at least has the framework of different realms in his spiritual background to help him get part of the way there. He might not understand how, but this is not the Loki from his own story, his own version of the world. There is no way he could be, and not know about this, of all things. ]

So... there is no Illness? On the Earth that you know? [ Reynir honestly... can't even imagine it. ] No trolls or... kade or... how many humans are there? In the known world?

[dothelokimotion]

[ his expression wrinkles briefly. ]

Millions of them. Far too many, in fact.

[braidmage]

[ Millions of people.

Millions. Reynir tries to imagine it. But he can't - the same way he can't really wrap his head around the vastness of the entire planet. He had seen a globe, in an abandoned shop in the Old World, but he'd hardly been able to believe it. ]

There are... very few left. In my world. Not even a quarter of a million.

[ Which felt like a richly populated world to Reynir because it is all he's ever known, but... now and then the scope of what had happened to humanity is tangible to him. This is one of those moments. ]

[dothelokimotion]

[ hmm. this is new to him. loki is very used to hearing how humans spread. rarely have they ever been halted. ]

What happened, precisely?

[braidmage]

There's a sickness.

[ There are others who could explain this better - who knew more about their ancestors and the history of the world. But Reynir will do his best. ]

I don't know how it started. All I know is it ended the Old World. So many people died and there was panic and everyone closed their borders. Because once you are infected, there is no cure, and you - become something different. A troll. Trapped and suffering and violent.

[ Reynir shudders, a tiny thing he can't hold back. ]

Not just humans, either.

[dothelokimotion]

[ what kind of sickness could do that? no mortal power as far as loki is aware of. ]

Did it come from the stars?

[braidmage]

I don't know. It happened generations before I was born. I've been out into the Silent World and- heard and read a little about when it all changed, I guess, but that doesn't mean I know the answers.

[ That is the thing, about the world collapsing all around you, and confusion and death and communication being cut off. No one really knew how it had happened. There isn't a neat story with all the facts that can be taught to future generations. Just... one day one world, and the next, a different one. ]

I just know that - we only survived because the gods protected us. They- [ SHOULD HE SAY 'YOU', THIS IS SO WEIRD, he is telling this story to a god, and yet not one of the gods who had intervened in his own world... ] -saved us from complete destruction.

[dothelokimotion]

[ hmm. loki finds that unlikely. though not impossible. gods rarely care about mortals. even at their most altruistic, there is a nugget of dismissiveness. still, loki sees no reason to question it. yet. ]

I see. How did the gods protect you?

[braidmage]

I-

[ He has no answer for that. He wants to answer but Reynir just opens and closes his mouth a few times before shaking his head. ]

I don't know. I wasn't alive yet. My parents weren't alive yet. I only know that they did.

[ Said with all the nonspecific faith and conviction of someone repeating a religious belief. ]

[dothelokimotion]

Of course.

[ he gentles his tone. loki isn't here to cause a crisis of religious faith. maybe later but not right now. there is a time and place for these things. ]

I suppose I'm not surprised. We're more competent than most gods.

[ fake but whatever. ]

[braidmage]

[ Reynir's not going to argue with that one! Just be glad he's not making speeches about how great Odin is. ]

And now the gods have decided to bring me to this place. I don't really understand why, but... I'm sure there's a good reason. Maybe it's the same reason they chose me to be a mage in the first place. Something I have to do here, some - quest.

[ He is smiling and sounds genuinely delighted about it, bless his naive heart. ]