november 2019. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

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 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.

Navigation.

Comments

[itsnotaonesie]

i swear to god kabal

lockdown as in sections of the station are literally locking down
some sort of automatic quarantine protocol

[kaballin]

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.

[itsnotaonesie]

Of course there have been pancake complaints.

Like a plague or a turbo space flu or whatever, I don't know. It's bad.

[kaballin]

Look some of us have better priorities than the good of mankind.

Gross. How does the place know to lock it down? We getting probed in our sleep?

[itsnotaonesie]

Has anyone ever told you that you're exhausting to talk to

I doubt it but also I don't know how deep of a sleeper you are, but I think that would wake me up.

[kaballin]

Nope. Sounds like a YOU problem.

Yeah fine.

Alright, I'll bite. The fuck are we supposed to do about this?

[itsnotaonesie]

I got 99 problems and you're 98 of them

Sorry, I don't know. I'm still trying to figure that part out.

[kaballin]

Making me sound real important there. I'm touched.

Don't we have some high tech med-bay that can fix all this?

[itsnotaonesie]

I bet you are.

I don't know. I think that's what this forced quarantine is, the station trying to fix this.

[kaballin]

So what I'm hearing is that since I'm not sick I shouldn't go anywhere and the place won't let me anyway.

Great.

I'm hungry.

[itsnotaonesie]

That's about the long and short of it, yep.

There's still food.
I think.
I haven't had a chance to check.

[kaballin]

But not in my room, I have to go get it. Also are you really gonna make me be the voice of reason here?

Eat something.

[itsnotaonesie]

let me now if the kitchensor or whatever are locked down, I can get you in.

I ave been eating.

[He hasn't been eating 8(]

[kaballin]

You got some secret override going on? Smart kid.

[There's a pause because he's actually going to go check.]

I'm in. There's still food. Need me to bring you something so you don't pass out and die before you fix the entire space station on your own?

[itsnotaonesie]

Well no I mean I could come down there and physically force the doors open for you. Qubit could probably figure out an override, though.

If you could bring me something to eat, that would be amazing.

[kaballin]

Sure. I'd ask where you are but I assume you've chained yourself to the lab in some sort of anti-viral protest.

Actually I have something for you anyway. Cuz I'm such a swell guy.

[itsnotaonesie]

That's a fair assumption, but I'm at the medbay right now. My girlfriend's sick, trying to stay close just in case.

You have something for me. I am insanely curious right now.

[kaballin]

Well isn't that romantic.

I do. Know that I am resisting making a bunch of jokes about it being hard and a handful. Look at me being on my best behavior and everything.

Alright don't go anywhere or I'm eating all these sandwiches myself.

[He's heading that way with a bag full of sandwiches because while he could probably cook something if he needed to, he doesn't wanna, so he's not.]

[itsnotaonesie]

You have a weird idea of romantic.

You're allowed to make dick jokes, don't let me stifle your creativity.

[Peter does indeed stay there, don't you worry your creepy little head.]

[kaballin]

Kind of you. You've got no idea how much quality material I've wasted on Cho.

[So he barges in like he owns the place because that's how Kabal rolls, tossing the bag of sandwiches to Peter.]

Eat those before you get all sciency.

[itsnotaonesie]

I'm always all sciency, though.

[He catches that sandwich bag and wastes no time tearing into those sandwiches. Kabal is his hero right now, congratulations.]

[kaballin]

You need to learn to turn that off occasionally. Unscience.

Anyway.

Thought you might want one of these.

[He sets a hand held metal cylinder down in front of Peter. Kabal honestly doesn't know what it is, but mod description is:
Personal Shield Generator: These can be attached to the clothing and will generate an impenetrable personal shield. However, this shield will not allow the wearer to eat or drink once turned on...or be able to be removed, as the device is under the shield. Characters will be able to discover that the device will turn off when the character using it genuinely wants it to.]

Cuz I'm such a swell guy.

[He doesn't know what it is and wants someone to tell him.]

[itsnotaonesie]

You tell me to "unscience" and then you hand me a science thing. Come on, man.

[Not that Peter's complaining, he loves science things. He picks the device up and turns it around in his hands a few times, not turning it on just yet.]

Interesting. Where did you find this?

[kaballin]

That's why I told you to eat first!

Was behind one of the locked doors by the generator room. There were a few and I'm giving you this one out of the kindness of my heart.

[Because he needs someone to tell him what it is so he can extort Qubit for it.]

[itsnotaonesie]

I'll eat when I feel like eating.

[HE'S LITERALLY EATING WHILE HE FIDDLES WITH THIS THING!!!]

You just want me to tell you what this is, don't you. [He is so onto you, Kabal.]