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.

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. ]
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.
hersay: (smonkin)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-13 09:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Did you have a really awful cough?

[ allison is super worried she's going to get sick, and her body cannot handle a cough right now. ]
itsnotaonesie: (ooooooooooooookay then)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-13 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh yeah, I was hacking all this nasty stuff up.

It might be a little awkward, but if you're worried about getting sick it might not be a bad idea to grab one of the radiation suits.
hersay: (a skeptic)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-14 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
[ a fantastic idea!! ]

Where are those?
itsnotaonesie: movieconnoisseur (lemmie stop you right there)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-14 11:32 pm (UTC)(link)
There are radiation suits at every exit and decontamination area, and we have plenty of them.

I figure if they can protect us from radiation, they can protect us from this, too.
hersay: (soft)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-16 06:24 am (UTC)(link)
It's worth a shot. Thanks for the help.

Let me know if I can do anything for you.
itsnotaonesie: (Default)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-16 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank me if it works, I'm just throwing spaghetti at the wall right now.

Thanks, though. I don't think I caught your name?
hersay: (thot patrol)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-16 04:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually???

I'm Allison! I'm new here.
itsnotaonesie: (welcome to my TED talk)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-16 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
nah like figurative spaghetti

Nice to meet you. Sorry you kinda rolled in at the worst possible time, it's not usually this bad around here.
hersay: (soft)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-16 11:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Nice to meet you too.

Funny, my brother also told me that it's not usually that bad around here. Gonna be honest, though: I'm not sure how much I believe either of you.
itsnotaonesie: (8)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-17 07:51 pm (UTC)(link)
We don't usually have a crazy space plague knocking everyone out, at the very least.

You've already got family here?
hersay: (stairs)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-18 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Fair enough.

Yep, two of my brothers, Ben and Klaus.
itsnotaonesie: (2)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-19 01:07 am (UTC)(link)
omg I know them!!

Ben's like my best friend I love that guy
hersay: (excited!)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-21 05:36 am (UTC)(link)
[ ben has friends!! ben has best friends???? friends that he made all by himself? allison is elated. she loves that journey for him!! ]

Oh that's awesome!! He's a good guy, I'm glad you know him.
itsnotaonesie: (110)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-25 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
[Ben is doing such a good job!!! I mean he's a little awkward sometimes but so is Peter so it all works out.]

Dude me too, seriously. He's helped me get through some really rough patches. Not to get all mushy, but I'm really lucky to know him.
hersay: (soft)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-28 03:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ allison's heart is.......so warmed...... ]

I'm lucky to know him too. And I'm glad you know him.
itsnotaonesie: (all about how)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-29 05:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Good wholesome heartwarming content!!]

No joke this is legitimately the sappiest conversation I've had here, and that's after I told a girl that I liked her.
hersay: (drank)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-29 03:50 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh this is definitely the sappiest conversation I've had here. And it's up there in the ranking of sappiest conversations I've had in my life.

[ she's having a good time, though. ]

Did it work out? You and the girl?
itsnotaonesie: (40)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-29 05:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I can sapify anything, it's like a super power.

It did work out, which honestly shocked me because I managed to completely beef it by literally falling face first into a pool in the process.
hersay: (cute!)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-11-30 06:19 am (UTC)(link)
[ allison chuckles darkly to herself when she gets peter's message. gosh, wouldn't that be great? to have a totally benign superpower, like the ability to make something cutesy? she'd take that over rumors, any day. ]

Oh don't be surprised! Girls like stuff like that, but they'd never tell you outright. It makes guys look sweet.
itsnotaonesie: (70)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-11-30 07:58 pm (UTC)(link)
[It wouldn't be a bad power. It's not as cool as sticking to walls, though. Peter would probably rather keep that, even if it is weird.]

Honestly, she's the kind of girl that doesn't beat around the bush. She likes me for me, which is great because I'm super weird.
hersay: (excited!)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-12-01 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ wow peter and his girlfriend sound very cute! allison hasn't really been into mushy romance stuff since she was a teen, but this really is sweet. ]

Then it sounds like you two are a pretty good match. Congratulations!

[ peter's so lucky! and it sounds like nobody had to trick each other into being in the relationship. allison approves! ]
itsnotaonesie: (turned upside down)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-12-01 03:39 am (UTC)(link)
[What the hell Ben has the coolest sister ever!! What a cool lady. Peter likes her already.]

Oh my god thanks! I'm gonna do my best not to beef it.

Man I feel like this conversation got a little off track, huh? Not that I mind, I just wish I had something more useful to tell you.
hersay: (cute!)

[personal profile] hersay 2019-12-05 06:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ oh my gosh...he said beef it...this peter guy really is a sweetheart... ]

I'm sure you won't!

I mean, I just got here so any information you've got at all is useful! But I did enjoy the detour, it's much nicer to think about romance than a mysterious space illness.

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