modblob: (Default)
Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redshiftlogs2019-11-01 09:49 pm

november 2019. welcome to the void.

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Fifth Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of November 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. outbreak.

There's a plague in the city.

What was an annoyance before, a bug that seemed to be passing, has erupted into a full-scale biomedical hazard. Onset is slow. It’s a near mystery who is infected and who isn't, who is immune and who isn't. Doors lock themselves seemingly at random to prevent people passing through. Is that person with you one of the sick? How do you know? Would they tell you if they were?

The city will do its best to isolate the ill, once again locking them out of communal areas and trying to force them down toward the MedBay for quarantine. All bots will be temporarily shifted to plague protocols, rounding up and caring for the ill as best they can. (Lucky you, you get your cough syrup with a mixer courtesy of the barbot.) But they might not always get things right, and what healthy person wants to be locked away in a ward full of the violently ill? How do the bots even know which is which?

The ill will slowly find themselves dizzy, lightheaded, with chills and fever. They may cough hard enough to spit blood from irritated throats, or sneeze so long and hard they give themselves bloody noses. The symptoms can vary wildly depending on body chemistry, species, and dozens of other factors, making it difficult to pin down a specific set that indicates a person is infected. All bodily fluids are dangerously infectious. Maybe you want to keep your distance from your friends if you start to feel the onset, to keep them safe. But you also want to keep your freedom, not get trapped in a room full of people who seem to be dying. And anyone who was exposed to the first outbreak will find themselves either completely immune to this new one through early exposure...or far more susceptible, their immune systems doing almost nothing to protect them, with extreme symptom sets that hit them much harder than the average infected.

And through all of this, that voice that cheerfully chirped out helpful hints during the item exchange, that giggled and sang songs in the crashed spaceship in the wasteland can be heard again - but this time it's different. This time, there's very little cheer left, and though the commentary is still sing-song, it's much harsher, more monotone and without much energy. 'Go on, hurry up to the MedBay. No breaking quarantine!' it says, or to those moving through the city with friends, 'You must not like those people much, are you sure you want to get them sick?' In the depths of the worst of it, in the third week of the month, people may start hearing more of those 'helpful' suggestions - 'Maybe it would be better if we just left them out in the wastelands, you know? For the greater good and all...'

Mod Note: An NPC post will be going up next weekend on [community profile] redshiftrp to supplement this prompt. Keep an eye out!

b. gone to shit.

With 90% of the city's bots repurposed to serve the ill (the matchmaking bot being the notable exception), things are starting to go downhill fast elsewhere. Didn’t realize how much work the bots were actually doing? You can't avoid knowing now.

Restaurants, slowly coming back online after the increased activity in the agricultural areas, are promptly shut down again with things starting to go bad in the fridges. The VR rooms have no attendants to help with glitches. The maintenance bots are prowling the halls looking for ill people to assist to the MedBay. The spa bots are all down in the lower levels helping keep people comfortable while they convalesce, leaving the spas to run themselves. Sometimes to overflowing. It's definitely going to be an adventure discovering what else the bots were doing to keep things running smoothly.

There's no bots manning the bar (make your own drinks while you can), but this also means there are no bots cleaning up the messes people leave behind in the bar either. The detritus of people living their lives starts to pile up - which means if you don’t want garbage filling up the most used common rooms, you're going to have to apply some good old elbow grease. Exactly what you wanted to do while everyone is violently ill, right?


c. dance of the moonlight jellies.

In spite of everything going on elsewhere in the colony, something magical is happening in the lakes and ponds of the park. Maybe your healthy or recovering character stumbles across it on their own. Maybe they see the glow from a higher levels and are drawn down to it. Maybe a persistent and super helpful voice, the same voice from the item exchange, the same voice that suggested throwing the sick out into the wasteland, suggests that you should go down and look at what's happening there.

However you ended up in the park, the place is filled with a silvery glow that emanates from the ponds, rivers, and lake. Fish have come up from the bottom, from where they were buried under the sand. They look almost like East Asian dragons, for those familiar with Earth. They're long, muscular, with two sets of fins trailing in the water like legs. Their heads are delicate, beautiful things that trail whiskers in the water along beside them.

And they're dancing.

In loops and whirls, over and under each other, diving deep and then rising up again to create patterns of light and shadow. Anyone who watches for more than a minute can start to feel relief moving through them, calm, the sense that things will be okay. Watching the dance is almost like meditation. Probably, for some, a much-needed break.

redwinekindofgirl: (015)

Julie Grigio | OTA

[personal profile] redwinekindofgirl 2019-11-12 02:14 pm (UTC)(link)
outbreak
[It was annoying before, when she had an itch in the back of her throat and had to wait for someone else to come along so she could actually get through the door of the agriculture area. Now, the way the entire place keeps trying to herd her towards the med bay is becoming more like an entirely aggravating inconvenience that she's finding harder and harder to ignore.

And if that wasn't enough, the voice that comes along with it is enough to make her want to rip every speaker off the wall every time she hears it. 'No breaking quarantine!', it chirps out, and she can be heard talking back to it more than once.
]

Oh, shut the fuck up. [She says while she's passing the currently non-functional VR rooms. Julie coughs roughly against the back of her hand and misses the few spots of blood that the action produces.]

Like hell I'm letting some sociopathic robot tell me where I gotta be right now. You can fuck right off.

dance of the moonlight jellies
[The light is almost like a heat-haze while she watches it.

Julie hadn't been following the suggestion of that irritating voice that's been feeding into the speakers for the past few days - it's perfectly natural to want to investigate the source of any weird glowing where there wasn't any glowing before. It's pretty, and she lies on her stomach in the grass with the occasional cough breaking the silence around her, watching the creatures moving in the water.

It's peaceful, she thinks, and she places her hand in the water and keeps it very still. After a few minutes the dragon-like fish begin to come closer, and she even manages to touch a few.
]

Cool...

wildcard
[Hit me with anything!]
braidmage: (! LIFT the doggo)

[personal profile] braidmage 2019-11-12 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The fact that this guy needs to think for that long - not just that he's gone a long time without food but that he's totally lost track of it - tells Reynir everything he needs to know. He smiles, unslinging his backpack and undoing the fastening at the top, rooting through it to find the tuppers of food. With a hint of dry sarcasm he answers: ]

I imagine it's a contributing factor.

[ He sets a glass container with a lid, full of something that looks like a very hearty stew, down onto the desk. A moment later, a metal spoon follows. Then, a hunk of bread wrapped in a cloth napkin. Then a plastic bottle of water - if circumstances were different Reynir might share from his own flask, but with illness going around? No way is he taking that risk. ]

I don't suppose you've gotten any sleep between now and then, either?

[ That's not something Reynir can shove into his bag, but he thinks it is a shrewd guess nonetheless. Leaving his bag on the ground, he goes to the trash and says: ]

I'll be back in a moment.

[ Then he picks up the trash and carries it out to deposit in the big, wheeled bin he's been dragging around. The robots must have more efficient ways, but this works for him. He can take it to the agricultural section later, sort out what can be used for fertilizer, what reused, and what should be burned.

He returns and, impulsively, just plonks himself down on the floor, resting his back against the wall and hauling his bag the last foot over towards him, reaching in and pulling out some bread for himself. ]


I could use a break, too.
writtendestiny: (057)

Poison | OTA

[personal profile] writtendestiny 2019-11-12 05:14 pm (UTC)(link)
gone to shit
[90% of the bots in the city may be occupied with trying to take care of the people who have already become sick, but that doesn't mean they can let the entire place go down the trash chute.]

We can't possibly be making all of this mess ourselves. [She says out loud as she pokes her head into the spa and finds the entranceway half a foot deep in water producing large, golden bubbles. A tinny voice comes out of a speaker above the door, saying something about quarantine, but she ignores it.

Over a few days, she does her best to try and keep things relatively tidy in the areas that see more use, still convinced that there's no chance the handful of them are possibly causing the level of detritus that's being found everywhere.

The sooner it's over, the better. Good thing she isn't feeling unwell.
]

medibay
[After some increasingly violent sneezes caused a 30-minute nosebleed that had Peter rushing her into the MediBay, Poison finds that the damn place won't let her out once the bleeding has stopped. It's just as well that she doesn't really have much in her to fight it.

Once she has some drugs in her system to combat what's happening to her, she'll probably appreciate some visitors...
]

wildcard
lallipop: (pic#13514182)

[personal profile] lallipop 2019-11-12 09:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Later, when he's more coherent, Lalli will realize how strange this encounter is. Right now, though, all he can focus on is the sensation of Cole brushing his hair back, and how nice it feels, and so does the sound of a cold bath right about now.

He also registers that Cole is probably not going to stop talking until he moves, so he attempts to lurch to his feet with a groan, one hand on the wall to steady him. He's sweaty enough that it impedes his progress, but give him a hand for trying.

"Weird name." So there, Cole.
lallipop: (pic#13516254)

[personal profile] lallipop 2019-11-12 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
'M sick.

[He manages to muster enough energy to make it pointed. No shit he's burning up, Onni.

Part of him feels bad; if Onni and Reynir had felt this awful then he might have done a bit more to help them out. He'd just figured it was a normal bout of flu that seems to come around every autumn. This feels like dying.

He's maybe being a bit dramatic. Still, the brush of Onni's knuckles is enough to send a shiver through him, and he curls up further so that he looks more like a ball of blankets than a person.]
lallipop: (pic#13514183)

[personal profile] lallipop 2019-11-12 09:50 pm (UTC)(link)
[Great, now Reynir is here to talk at him. Somehow, this eventuality did not occur to Lalli when he was deciding whose bed to steal.

He peers balefully at Reynir from below the blankets but doesn't make any movement. It's a testament to how much he feels like crap that he's even letting Kisa sit on him, so he doesn't have the energy to properly sass Reynir right now.

As much as he wants to.]


Go away.

[It's hoarse and difficult to hear with the fever in his throat, but there it is anyway. Said to the guy whose room it is in the first place. This is Lalli's bed now, Reynir, deal with it.]
killedwithlove: (Conversational)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-11-12 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
"You can call me Cole. That's also my name." Cole is there, helping Lalli to get upright and holding him in place with surprising strength for such a lanky frame. "If I carry you, I can get you to a bathroom quicker. Would you let me, Lalli?"
lallipop: (pic#13514206)

[personal profile] lallipop 2019-11-12 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Despite his earlier indignation at the idea, now it's sounding like a pretty good one. His limbs aren't working right, and being upright is making him dizzy and like he might need to vomit. His head flops contemplatively against Cole's shoulder.

"'Kay."

Cole is an easier name to remember, at least; it has Lalli's approval. Though the introduction makes something click sluggishly into place in Lalli's mind.

"How come you know my name?"
killedwithlove: (Conversational)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-11-12 11:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Cole scoops Lalli up bridal style, helping him rest his head into his shoulder. When it's for someone else, Compassion is capable of some extraordinary things.

"Because I'm Compassion. I know people when I meet them, so I can help them." He starts walking, smooth and even to not jostle Lalli.
itsnotaonesie: (don't make that face at me)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-12 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[I mean Kieran can't see it but Peter is giving him the weirdest look right now.]

He. He summoned a mons-- okay, sure, he summoned a monster. Why not.

[SIGH. Peter does indeed pull off Kieran's bandages, and those sure are eyeballs that don't react to anything. It's a good thing Kieran can't see Peter's own eyeballs right now because my dude he is just fighting back the saddest sadboy tears ever. He has no idea how to fix this, but he wants to so bad, man.]

I-- I'm glad you're not in pain, at least.
lallipop: (pic#13516238)

[personal profile] lallipop 2019-11-12 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Lalli supposes that makes sense. This isn't so bad, actually; he nearly drifts off to sleep very quickly, but then the surreality of the situation starts to sink in to his fever-addled brain.

This kind of thing doesn't... happen, he's sure, and something is keeping him from piecing it all together. Spirits named compassion don't just come and scoop you up normally when you're having a bad day, so there must be something...

Is he dying? Maybe he's dying. It's not like the other time, but that doesn't mean anything. Nothing makes sense here, and what does he know about the metaphysics of the spiritual plane anyway. Maybe it's different once you're actually going.

"Are you the swan?"
killedwithlove: (Spirit powah)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-11-13 12:15 am (UTC)(link)
"You're not dying," Cole whispers. "I'm not the swan, I'm just Compassion. You're sick, but you're not dying. Just fevered."

Cole has been with many dying people. He was born into this shape by death, so he knows it intimately. "I think you're too sick to invoke my power to heal, though."
hersay: (Default)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-13 12:55 am (UTC)(link)
Quarantine mode sounds right. They won't let anyone out of the medbay, either.

[ speaking from experience. ]

You've never gotten the disease, have you?

[ after being mistakenly locked in the medbay, allison is trying to gauge whether or not she'll get sick too. ]
lallipop: (pic#13516234)

[personal profile] lallipop 2019-11-13 02:09 am (UTC)(link)
"Oh. Okay."

He has more questions, but he can't put them together in ways that will actually come out of his mouth, so he doesn't try. There is something very comforting about this, and Lalli has no reason not to trust Cole, and his thoughts are coming together more slowly with every passing second, so rather than fight the urge, he lets his eyes slide closed and falls into a doze with his cheek still resting against Cole's shoulder.

It's better than in the hallway, at least.
killedwithlove: (Cole)

[personal profile] killedwithlove 2019-11-13 02:32 am (UTC)(link)
Lalli is carried to a bathroom and laid down in the bath, with his feet by the taps so he can't easily turn them on.

He loosens his clothing, fans his hair out again and settles down to wait. Until Lalli needs more than he can provide, or just until he's confident to leave him and go and tell someone where he is.

It takes a little while, but eventually he decides that someone else probably needs to check on Lalli. He pushes himself up, murmurs that he'll be back and whispers 'Sleep' to reinforce that Lalli should stay comfortably under.

Then he sets off, letting his innate senses take him to the best source of help nearby.
Edited 2019-11-13 03:25 (UTC)
hersay: (stairs)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-13 05:24 am (UTC)(link)
[ allison doesn't fully register the other woman at first -- the light show is too captivating, and allison doesn't see anything out of the corner of her eye that would register as a threat or as suspicious. so when the woman asks how long allison has been there, allison is also a little startled, perking up and turning to face the voice. when she sees julie, she relaxes into an easy smile, almost like she's laughing, except she doesn't make any noise.

allison's coat is zipped all the way up, so it's hard to make out the bandage on her throat, but if julie's observant, she might notice a streak of white gauze peeking out.

allison answers julie's question with a shrug and a sideways wave of her hand. she hasn't been there long, but she hasn't been paying much attention, either. allison motions for julie to join her. the show would probably be better with some company. ]
hersay: (a skeptic)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-13 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ allison's been trying to make one of the medbay bots talk, or help, or do something useful for the last hour when she gets the text from ben. she breathes a little sigh of relief. honestly, she should have done that sooner.

allison debates how much she should tell him. enough to communicate the urgency of the situation, and also where she is and the rough details. but she also knows that ben worries, and she doesn't want to cause any unnecessary psychological distress. ]


I'm still in the medbay. The doors won't open and also I don't think the robots want me to leave.

Think you could maybe bail a girl out?


[ the bit about the group of people on the other side of the room with the horrible disease? not yet relevant! ]
kaballin: (Nah)

[personal profile] kaballin 2019-11-13 06:06 am (UTC)(link)
That explains a lot of the weird network posts about not being able to get pancakes.

So we have some kinda plague? Awesome. Thats what we need.
scowlish: (cool)

[personal profile] scowlish 2019-11-13 07:33 am (UTC)(link)
Yes. I'd realized that a few days ago.

[He says it with a hint of teasing, since obviously Lalli is feeling well enough to be sassy. But he's obviously not feeling well enough to do much else. Onni's touch makes Lalli shiver and curl up into a tighter ball, so he pulls his hand back and sighs. It's no surprise, but he can tell that Lalli is going to be a much bigger pain about this than Reynir was.]

Are you cold?
scowlish: (questioning)

[personal profile] scowlish 2019-11-13 08:26 am (UTC)(link)
[All things considered, the past few days could have been a lot worse. Of course he's worried about what it means that everyone is getting sick and the robots seem to be leaving their posts to take care of people. It seems serious, like a serious problem. But it's a relief to be immune to something, for once, to be able to carry on and take care of the people suffering from the illness. It makes him feel less like he's completely helpless when others are feeling sick, especially people he cares about.

But that isn't the main reason why things have been more enjoyable than anticipated. Mostly, it's because he hasn't been working alone. Reynir has been with him, working hard at chores, even the most menial ones, completely cheerfully. He's been scrubbing bathrooms and gathering garbage and rotting food and the whole time chattering about people in his village and his sheep and people here and sometimes even humming away cheerfully while they work. It's been surprisingly interesting to listen to, considering Onni's usual low tolerance for gossip and idle chatter. Maybe it's because Reynir is content to tell his stories and doesn't expect much out of Onni that it's easier to crack a smile or even let out a surprised laugh once or twice at a particularly funny twist in a story that he hadn't expected.

Still, Onni finds himself getting worn out more easily than Reynir, for whatever reason - maybe just because being away from the quiet of his home is more draining for him than Reynir, who seems to thrive on conversation and company. So he's in his room when Reynir knocks and pokes his head in, asking for laundry, lying on the bed with his eyes closed and his arms crossed on his belly.]


Ah.

[He sits up with a heavy sigh of effort, and looks around the room. It's neat enough, but there are a few shirts and pants that need washing draped over the back of a chair, and some smaller items of laundry piled up on the seat of it. He picks them up and walks over to Reynir with his basket.]

Do you need company?
itsnotaonesie: sissybars (what is his hair doing though)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-13 05:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh my God, this is so nice of you. You're like literally my hero right now.

[Dude free dinner!? This is Peter's new favorite person. He straight up tears into this stew while this dude's off emptying the trash, he can't even be annoyed when he calls Peter out on his garbage sleeping habits.]

I've grabbed a couple of naps? I guess that doesn't really count though, huh?

[Of course by "naps" he means he's passed out on his desk a couple times. and then gotten right back to work.]
justbeingknife: (Default)

gone to shit

[personal profile] justbeingknife 2019-11-13 06:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I guess those bots were holdin' it back.

[ The spa water was soaking into the legs of Majima's suit slacks, but he didn't seem to mind all that much as he walked in. ]

There's gotta be a burst pipe or somethin'. How are ya at dealin' with plumbing issues?
Edited (thanks dw) 2019-11-13 18:05 (UTC)
justbeingknife: (observe)

@kyouken

[personal profile] justbeingknife 2019-11-13 06:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Is this normal

[ hi peter ]
itsnotaonesie: (what do they do exactly)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-13 06:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Right like I literally had to force the door open after I dropped my girlfriend off there. Place is locked down tight.

I caught it the first time it went around, but I feel fine now.
benhargreeves: @malagraphic (! arms crossed)

[personal profile] benhargreeves 2019-11-13 06:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Well she answered and that means she's alive and conscious so that alleviates most of his concern, but... something is Up, clearly. ]

Are they not letting YOU leave or are they not letting anyone leave?
Seems like an important distinction.
Did they give you a reason?
I'm on my way.

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