redshiftlogs | september 2019. welcome to the void.

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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.

Navigation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Wouldn't have to be the surface. My guess would be a subterranean cavity, fungi can't resist those.

[ But they'll find out when they get there, presumably. As they reach the fissure, he frowns and takes his tablet from his pocket, holding the gun (a little precariously) in one hand while he tries to unlock the screen with the other and yeeeah this isn't gonna work. He huffs in frustration and turns to Peter. ]

Can you hold this a second? [ He'd set it down, but you do have super strength, so... ]

Y'know, fair enough. I don't hang out in many subterranean cavities.

[BUT YES, Peter reaches out to take the gun from Qubit, and hefts it effortlessly onto a shoulder.]

You want me to just hang onto this for you?

[ He shakes his head. ] No, just for a second. If there's anything living in there, I don't want your mobility compromised.

[ Sticking Peter with the gun is bad for both of them, actually. Peter needs his agility, and Qubit needs ... the gun. He doesn't want to be caught unprepared again. Anyway, he points his tablet into the fissure and runs a quick battery of scans. ]

... Hm. I'm picking up some EM signals, but no life signs. Radiation level's slightly elevated, but not unsafe. Not sure how far back it goes, though. [ He taps in a few commands. ] I'll have it alert us if anything changes.

[ That only leaves heading on in, but as he turns back to Peter, he hesitates - briefly, but it's hard to miss. Logically, Peter's better equipped to take point, but Qubit finds he isn't eager to suggest it. It's only been like two days, and that fiasco with the defense bots is still fresh in his mind. Hell, Peter's armor is still out of commission from that. What is he doing? He ought to be protecting the boy, not -

Catching himself, he forces a deep breath through his nose. That's your amygdala talking, Qubit. Peter chose to be here - this whole thing was his idea. Past a certain point, you have to let go and trust him... but be there to back him up.

He pockets his tablet and goes to take the gun back. ]

Looks like it's going to be a tight squeeze. You ready?

[Peter would protest that carrying this thing around wouldn't really compromise his mobility at all, because like super powers, but he decides it's not worth arguing about.

He watches Qubit fiddle with his tablet, arching an eyebrow at the way he hesitates, but decides not to call him out on it. Which is probably for the best, he'd probably be pretty irritated if he knew that Qubit was doing this whole overprotective thing on him. They've known each other for what, like a month max? Don't be weird. Peter's pretty much an adult, man, he's got this.]

I've been ready the whole time, man. Let's get this show on the road. [He hands the gun back, pausing for a moment to make sure Qubit's now going to fumble it, and takes point at the entrance of the fissure.]

[ It's not weird! He just thinks Peter's a good kid, and full of potential, and wants him to survive to adulthood! And maybe has some legitimate hangups about everyone he gets attached to dying horribly! It's fine. This is fine. Whatever. Shut up.

Anyway, he gets the gun situated on the other shoulder this time. ] Lead the way.

[It's FIIIIIIIIIIIIINE, there's no way Peter's going to die twice, it's someone else's turn. Which is awful.

Peter slips into the crack, making sure he doesn't get too far ahead of Qubit on the way in since now Qubit's got this big dumb gun and bringing it into a narrow hole in the wall is sure to slow him down a bit but THAT'S OKAY.]

Man, this is... this is going pretty far in, isn't it?

[ Yeeeah, it's definitely slowing him down some, but he's managing. ]

Yeah. My question is, how long's it been here?

[ - just then, the gun gets caught on something on the low ceiling, and Qubit has to take a second to free it. But seeing what it caught on, he gestures along the length of the ceiling and floor. Wires. ]

Look. There's your power draw.

It could have been here since before we ever started showing up. I think we would have noticed someone digging it, y'know?

[Peter stops and looks up when Qubit get stuck, aaaand yep, that sure is a bunch of wires. Peter was right! Which is nothing to celebrate this time because this is kind of not good. In fact, Peter's heart sinks a little. Aw maaaaan.]

Dammit. This isn't good.

Edited 2019-09-30 00:51 (UTC)

Just stay alert.

[ ... As if he needed to tell Peter that. Now, there've been no new alerts from his tablet, which is maybe a good sign. But it also doesn't necessarily mean they're safe.

After a few minutes, the tunnel finally opens up and gives them some breathing room. There's some light up ahead, faint and flickering; its source becomes clear as they approach. Monitors, with camera feeds showing the inside of the station.

Qubit's eyes narrow. ] Quite the setup we've got here.

[Far less eloquent that Qubit, Peter pauses abruptly when he realizes what's in the room and just exclaims,] What the shit.

[He heads right on over to the monitors, clearly disturbed by what they're displaying. Bro that's his ROOM.]

Oooh, this is screwed up. This is really screwed up.

[ Qubit follows, keeping an eye out for motion, but they seem to be alone in here, so he turns his attention to the displays. What initially catch his interest are the exterior shots and landscapes, depicting parts of the planet not visible from Anchor - so it takes him a moment to catch on to what Peter's so upset about. ]

Is that the barracks?

[ But it's not just that; he briefly catches sight of a cot in the back room of a lab, before the screen switches to something else. That was his cot, his lab.

His expression darkens, though maybe it's just a trick of the light. An unknown party spying on select residents? That's a public safety issue, one he can approach with a degree of professional detachment. An unknown party spying on him, however? They've just made it personal. ]

Who else has the technical know-how to do this?

[YUP that sure is the barracks. There's his room, there's his girlfriend's room, which bothers him more than anything else right now. Peter nods in reply, stepping away from the screens to get a better look at the rest of them before turning to Qubit.]

Besides you and me, maybe Shepard? But she usually works in the medbay, so I can't imagine why she'd set up a camera to spy on herself.

[he points out a screen showing footage form the medbay. SEE that would be totally weird.]

If there's anyone else that could rig something like this up, I have no idea.

To deflect suspicion? Who knows.

[ He knows of Shepard, but they haven't really spoken one-on-one... it's too early to rule anyone out. He sets the gun down and takes his tablet out again, scanning the console. ]

Whoever it is, there's no way they hijacked the camera broadcasts through thirty feet of solid rock. Either they hardwired it, or they've got a repeater somewhere. And if it's the latter, just sealing off this area may not stop them.

[ He glances up at the monitors again. One of them, now, is displaying the room of a girl in pigtails, who can be seen sitting cross-legged on the bed. Her back is turned to the camera, but she's unmistakably young. He sneers. ]

Even spying on children. Revolting.

I'm willing to bet they've had time to set up more than one of these, especially if we're dealing with more than one person. Which we obviously don't know yet...

[He trails off, his attention turning to the monitor with the pigtailed girl. Ami, he's like 99% sure. Of course he's pissed, how dare some fuckball spy on his friends and all that, but he finds himself squinting at the monitor. Either his eyes are playing tricks on him, ooooor uhhhhh. Her walls are lookin' a little weird there. JUST A BIT WEIRD THERE.]

[ It's all definitely possible. After a moment, though, Qubit notices the change in Peter's behavior, and follows his eyes back to that monitor. What he initially parsed as some kind of texture or wallpaper, he now recognizes as ... writing? Though from this angle, it's hard to tell what it says. Odd, sure, but it's not really within the scope of this investigation. ]

Focus, please. [ Don't spy on your friends, it's rude. ]

[Peter quickly snaps out of it, making a mental note to maybe ask Ami about her creepy wall doodles later, and turns his attention back to Qubit.]

Yeah, uh. Sorry. Where uh, where were we?

[ He returns his attention to the tablet. ]

Hm. Strike the repeater idea, I'm still getting strong camera signals in here.

[ Don't ask why he can access those from his tablet. ]

And these... [ he points at a few spikes on a graph, then remembers as an afterthought to turn it so Peter can actually see the screen. ] These are all in roughly the same band as our cameras. Until now, I thought they were garbage signals, background noise. They've been popping up, on and off, for as long as I've been here to measure.

[ Care to connect the dots, Peter? ]

[That's a good tablet.

Anyway Peter leans in to have himself a look at this here screen, very much not liking where this is going.]

Turns out your garbage signals have been the cameras in our rooms this whole time, and whoever this is has probably been watching us as long as we've been here.

[Which is exceedingly creepy. Peter sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose and mentally kicking himself for not somehow being able to magically have known this all way sooner. For as diligent as he is, how did he miss all this? He expects way too much from himself, this is not news.]

Guess it's a good thing I don't make a habit of strutting around my apartment naked.

[that is, of course, the least of his concerns. But y'know.]

[ It's a fucking good tablet and if he ever loses it he's gonna be up shit creek without a paddle.exe my friend. ]

More than likely. I'll audit the power logs, though. That should give us a more accurate window.

[ He raises an eyebrow at the quip, but lets it pass. Qubit's prone to gallows humor himself, at time. In hindsight, he'll probably realize that Peter's blaming himself for this, but for the moment he's too busy being angry. ]

[Peter's like 90% quips, don't mind him. But yes Peter is absolutely blaming himself for this and everything else that goes wrong. It's like an every day thing at this point don't even worry about it.]

Sounds like a plan. What- what should I do in the meantime?

[He doesn't like not having answers, but at least Qubit seems to have his head in the game.]

[ Qubit crouches to get at the underside of the console, where he finds a loose panel and removes it to look at the innards. Where are the drives at... ]

Start by going over the files. Check timestamps, see how far back the footage goes, take note of who is or isn't being monitored.

Okay, got it.

[Now that he has a task, he seems a lot more focused, a little more relaxed. He hops onto the computer and starts pulling up different files, not really wanting to like actually open them because dude this shit is super creepy. Hopefully he won't have to.]

It looks like... I think they've been watching us ever since we got here. Some of these timestamps seem to go back a few years, too. I can't uh... it looks like these files are encrypted. I can't really do anything with this stuff right now.

Edited 2019-10-23 02:46 (UTC)

I didn't mean right now. Get the terminal shut down as much as you can, we'll take the drives back to the lab and analyze them there.

[ He's located where they're housed, but common sense dictates he maybe shouldn't stick his bare hands into an electrical system and yank out the data storage while it's in use. ]

R-right, of course not, duh. I knew that.

[SORRY QUBIT he's just antsy and anxious and he needs something to do with his hands or he's going to lose his entire mind. Aaaaaanyway he's going to start getting all this shit shut down so Qubit doesn't get all zapped.]

[ IT'S OKAY KIDDO Qubit gets the same way sometimes.

The cave goes dark as Peter powers the system off. Rather than go groping around for whatever light source they used on the way in here, Qubit makes some light of his own - first with his powers, for a second, but then with a brand-new flashlight. With that, he sets about getting the drives out, handing them to Peter as he goes. One of them's stuck pretty good; it requires some elbow grease, and when it does come free there's the sound of something plastic snapping, which Qubit grumbles at. Piece of junk. ]

That's all of them. Here - [ he'll take back the stack o' drives please thank you ] - why don't you take the gun, I've got these.

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