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

[benhargreeves]

[ Ben blinks in surprise at the vehemence of Peter's protest; he hadn't thought there was room for any other interpretation of what Peter said. It's difficult, to lift his eyes up and look at Peter. Once he does, Ben is distracted by how young Peter is. He's just a fucking kid and already carrying too much on his shoulders, and Ben knows right now he's only making that worse. It should be the opposite of this. He's the one who keeps people from falling to pieces, not the one who falls to pieces.

Peter doesn't just reassure him that it's all going to be fine, which is good, because that definitely would not have worked. Instead he says that yes, they have less power right now, but they don't have none. This time, Peter leaves no doubt that they will take action to stop this and that they can take their privacy back. ]

We can?

[ Ben's voice is a mixture of hope and fear; he looks at Peter's fierce, determined face. He looks like he isn't afraid of anything and never has been. Ben knows that's not true, but it steadies him. It's not the face of someone who lets themselves just get accustomed to something so intolerable.

Shakily, Ben forces himself to admit (as if it weren't screamingly obvious from the complete meltdown): ]

I don't want to live with it again.

[ Well he definitely hadn't meant to say that last word on the end there, and also super does not notice that he has even said it. Oops?

But that paralyzing fear gripping him by the throat is loosening bit by bit. This isn't just how things are going to be from now on. He won't have to go back to living with the knowledge that every visible action of his is being minutely observed, recorded, dissected, for purposes he has no control over. So he shuts his eyes and focuses on taking slow, deep breaths, trying to convince his body he's in no danger. There's a pressure in his head like he's going to cry but no way is Ben going to let that happen. ]

Okay. It's not impossible. We're going to do something about it. We're not gonna let them... we're gonna stop them.

[ Ben opens his eyes again; his expression still looks small, and frightened, but that alarming blankness is gone from it at least. He glances over to the computer Peter had been working at; he definitely had not been a state to really hear what Peter had said about footage. He asks: ]

Did you finish with the encryption?

[itsnotaonesie]

We're gonna stop them, and then we're gonna kick their ass because this is bullshit.

[Peter looks visibly relieved when Ben starts to come around. Like he could just hug Ben right now, that's how relieved he is, but he settles for a friendly clap on the shoulder before he pushes himself back to his feet.]

I managed to get through some of the encryption. There's a lot of footage of people's private rooms that was recorded. I can delete it no problem, but... mm, part of me thinks we should find out why they recorded the specific things they recorded? Like, did they find something they'd be able to use against us? But at the same time, I don't want to watch this stuff just in case it's uh... Y'know. like. Private.

[Like people bangin', he doesn't wanna see that. He really hopes the person who'd been recording stuff wasn't just a total pervert but at this point like who even knows.]

[benhargreeves]

Yeah.

[ Ben is still gathering back his composure, and it's all too clear he isn't just fine all of a sudden, and isn't going to be any time soon. But he's not falling to pieces. He's holding himself together, enough to keep going. ]

Sign me up for the ass kicking. I would really, really like to be part of that step.

[ See, he made a joke. He's fine now. It's all good. Hopefully Peter will just... forget about that little moment he had just now.

Ben rubs a still-trembling hand over his face, thinking over the dilemma that Peter is posing. How do they figure out what the surveillance folks were after without watching through all that shit and ending up just as bad as them? Ben considers for a long moment, silent - but not the awful silence of panic he'd been mired in a few minutes prior. ]

Maybe... we put up a message about what we found here and give people access to their own files. Let them report back to us what sorts of footage got saved, and we can put together trends from that.

[ He knows he wouldn't want anyone else watching the footage of himself, even if there won't be anything all that remarkable on it. The strategy isn't a perfect one, though, and he knows it. ]

Or. We just watch our own, first, and see if that's enough to pick up a pattern.

[ Less data points, sure, but also, fewer people involved, greater secrecy, less chance of stirring up trouble.

Ben, leaning against the wall, gets back to his feet, too. He really is feeling fairly mortified, now, and even though maybe it's not the best time, says, voice strained: ]

Sorry - about that.

[itsnotaonesie]

[Peter will absolutely not forget that little moment he'd had but he's also not going to bring it up. Just something to keep in mind for the future.]

I like that idea, let's determine what we should do after we watch our own stuff. There's no need to get everyone all paranoid if we can avoid it.

[Peter imagines that footage of his room wouldn't be too interesting. He spends most of his time in his lab, and so far he hasn't found recorded footage of anything aside from people's personal rooms.

He hangs around close to Ben in case he needs a hand up, or just someone to lean on for a minute.]

It's okay, man. I mean it.

[benhargreeves]

[ PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MELTDOWN BEHIND THE CURTAIN, PETER! ]

Okay. Okay, that's... a good plan. Have you got a VCR or whatever the computer equivalent of that is, so we can review the footage, like... somewhere else?

[ Yes, he kinda thinks the surveillance is on video cassette tapes. But the humor of that is a bit lost in the way he is rubbing at the back of his neck, body language still hunched and uncomfortable. He glances around the room, the dirt walls and the screens, this awful claustrophobic little hole, and adds: ]

I don't. Really want to be here anymore.

[ He heaves an unsteady sigh. Gives a little shake of his head when Peter says it is okay. It's not okay, none of this is okay. But lingering is only going to get him stuck in the mire again so he presses on: ]

And I'm pretty eager to rip the cameras out of the walls or wherever they're hidden, like. Now. Like ten minutes ago.

[itsnotaonesie]

[TOO LATE

Omg VCR's, how precious. Ben is precious.]

Oh, yeah, I can make a copy or just pull the whole hard drive. That might be the easiest way to do this, actually. Either way, I can get it back to my lab easily.

[He gives Ben a reassuring shoulder squeeze and nods his head toward the exit.]

This'll just take me a minute if you wanna start heading out. I don't know about you, but I'm really starting to feel kinda cramped in here.

[He has a feeling that Ben is feeling pretty similarly. This hole isn't very big, he gets it.]

[benhargreeves]

[ Ben just nods, trusting that Peter knows what he's doing with the actual files themselves. For just a moment, he wishes there would be some mix-up, and Peter would delete all the footage and no one would have access to it. Maybe it would be better not to know. It would make it so Ben couldn't find out what these people see as worth keeping.

But of course, it wouldn't really make anything better. Not in the long run.

Grateful for the suggestion - the permission, really - Ben shakily replies: ]

Yeah. I'll- I'll wait at the entrance.

[ There's only one way in or out. Peter will be safe enough, right? Ben is grateful for the few moments alone as he makes his way out the dark tunnel. No cameras here, for sure. No one seeing him. He lets himself pause, punches the wall just once. He doesn't have Peter's strength, and there's no danger to it - apart from his knuckles hurting a little after.

Ben is just outside the crack in the wall when Peter emerges, leaning his back against a tree, arms folded tight across his chest. If a killer mutant cow were to come at them now, he would have absolutely no guilt about venting some of these awful feelings on it.

But that doesn't happen and instead he says, before Peter can say anything at all: ]

We should get the cameras out. Before anything else.

[ He had been able to judge from the angle of the video the area where it must be hidden. Ben isn't going to be able to sleep or even sit still in his bedroom until that is done. It's something he might be able to accomplish on his own, but...

But the truth is, he wants to have Peter there to help. He wants to have a friend there. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

[Sorry Ben, Peter's too good at this to accidentally delete something. He's decided to just pull the hard drive, it's faster and kind of just easier, so when he emerges he's carrying part of the computer. And wooo buddy is he ever glad to be out of that hole. Ben doesnt give him a chance to talk, but it looks like he'd had the same thing in mind that Peter had. Great minds think alike, my dude.]

Yeah, absolutely. [Peter is wasting no time there, already heading into the trees to get the hell out of this shit forest.] Maybe we should hop on the network and at least just warn them that there are hidden cameras in their rooms? Then we can take care of the whole recording thing and figure it out from there.

[benhargreeves]

[ Ben is glad for Peter's urgency; he wants to be the hell out of here, too. They don't bother trying not to make much noise this time, and Ben is keeping alert for any potential attacks. He doesn't stop wanting some mutated horrible creature to freaking try it, so he'll have an excuse to rip something apart. Smashing stuff has always really been more Diego and Luther's thing. But it had sure always looked cathartic.

But maybe mutant cows can sense that energy off them because none of them come close.

It feels so much better to be out here where he can breathe, moving, planning. Not just giving up. How had he ever thought Peter was telling him to just give up? He's not that kind of person, and Ben admires that. ]

Yeah... we gotta. Even though it's gonna suck. Maybe - we can go to one of our rooms first, find the thing, rip it out of the wall so we can show people on the network, and they'll know what they're looking for?

[ It would also, Ben thinks but does not say, go some distance in proving that what they're saying is true. The last thing they need right now is for some argumentative person saying they are paranoid and they're not gonna bother searching for a supposed hidden camera that probably doesn't exist. ]

Do you want me to make the announcement?

[ If, on the off chance that the people who set up the surveillance don't know who has broken into their little hidey-hole lair, they'll for sure know whoever appears on the network talking about it will be behind it. Could that make that person a target? On the slim off-chance it does, Ben absolutely isn't going to let that happen to Peter. No fucking way. ]

[itsnotaonesie]

[Honestly Peter wouldn't blame him for cow murder at this point. Peter would probably be taking his aggression out on a tree or something right now if his mind wasn't so preoccupied with figuring out all this other shit.]

That sounds like a good plan. We can hit your room first, get the camera. If you wanna do the announcement I'll be able to get this hard drive installed right away.

[He's not even thinking of the idea that whoever makes the announcement might be in danger, he's just trying to think of the best way to make efficient use of their time. He's a little hyper focused on the whole problem solving thing right now, sorry bro.]

[benhargreeves]

[ Hyper focused is fine right now. Hyper focused means Peter isn't asking him any questions about why he's been handling this so poorly, or trying to get him to talk about shit he really would rather not talk about. Ben wants to fight back and Peter's helping to make that happen and that means Peter is golden right now.

Sometime in the walk back to his own room, Ben's emotions have shifted, the panic and helplessness from earlier maturing into a fine vintage of quiet, seething rage. Anger feels so much better than despair and fear and powerlessness. When they get to he room itself, Ben knows where to look. He climbs up onto he desk without delay and tries to get at the inside of the lighting fixture high on the wall. Unfortunately, it is sealed pretty damn securely, and after a minute of scrabbling with fingers and fingernails, he looks at Peter and asks: ]

Can you-?

[itsnotaonesie]

[Can he hop up onto the wall and use his sticky fingers to pry open that light fixture? You bet your ASS, he can, Ben. Peter does just that, and sure enough, there's a tiny little recording device just inside the light fixture. Obviously he'd already been aware that it was a thing, but physically finding it still manages to make his heart sink a bit.

He yanks it out and passes it to Ben. Mission accomplished.]

One creepy spy camera, coming up. I'm gonna go yank what ever I can find in my room and Poison's and then head over to the lab. You good for now?

[benhargreeves]

[ For just one moment, Ben's confused why Poison is on the immediate action list, then he remembers that she and Peter are roommates. Okay, that makes sense. Peter's not gonna take the one in his own room out but leave hers, that would just be a dick move. And so he says: ]

I'll get the one in Klaus's room. I'll find a crowbar or something, it's fine, I got it. I'm good. I'll let the network know, and just - text me from the lab when you got something.

[ Ben's not really good but nobody's good, it's not a day for being good. He catches Peter's wrist before he goes and says, voice tight: ]

Peter? Be careful. Please.

[ Continued here. ]