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.

superposition: (You won't see me anymore)

[personal profile] superposition 2019-12-07 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Qubit's also keeping an eye out for Peter, and waves him down when he spots him. He's almost in Section C by now, on the trail of a maintenance bot emitting a flashing yellow light from its head, like all its fellows that have gone into quarantine mode. Although the quarantine-related dialogue it spouts every few seconds is also a pretty good indicator of that. ]

Peter, over here!
itsnotaonesie: (126)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-12-07 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[Between the flashing robot and Qubit's hair, Peter doesn't have any trouble tracking them down. He hurries over, refraining from engaging the robot in a wrassle or anything just yet while he assesses the situation.]

So how many of these things have you actually managed to straighten out up to now?
superposition: ((laying down the law))

[personal profile] superposition 2019-12-11 10:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Qubit turns back to the robot, casting it an irritated glare. ]

Including this one? ... None.

[ And then he immediately launches into a tirade - ] Which is ridiculous, by the way! I've pushed out four different patches, but they refuse to install them! Even my remote override - well, see for yourself.

[ He points his little doohickey at the bot and clicks the button, but the robot only responds with a single flash of red light and a bland "Access denied! Quarantine is in effect!" ]
itsnotaonesie: (80)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-12-13 04:28 am (UTC)(link)
[Peter puts his hands up, trying to get Qubit to calm the fuck down a bit.]

Okay, well, obviously their quarantine protocol was super important to whoever programmed them. Honestly, I think the best course of action right now is to just let them do their thing.
superposition: (But no more apologies)

[personal profile] superposition 2019-12-23 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Qubit shakes his head emphatically. He is calm, shut up. ]

There's no reason it should be overriding core functionality on all of them. We've got more 'bots than people here, for God's sake - they could easily enforce a quarantine with the number we've got in the spa. And it certainly shouldn't be tapping the ones that keep the radiation shields working.
itsnotaonesie: (42)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2019-12-24 05:29 am (UTC)(link)
[If this is calm, Peter would hate to see him panicking. He lets out a frustrated huff and crosses his arms, turning to watch one of the robots be a gigantic pain in the ass.]

Yeah, that-- yeah. Kind of a big deal to make sure the shields can keep running. Have you thought to try overriding them at the security station? It's just, this seems more like a security issue than anything else, if there's a way to override them I figure it would be there.
superposition: ((tight-lipped))

[personal profile] superposition 2020-01-09 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ Um excuse, you have seen him panicking, he kicked his own ass halfway into a coma, and that's pretty much the best possible outcome when Qubit panics BUT I DIGRESS. ]

That's the first thing I tried. [ - with the same tone he'd use if Peter had suggested turning it off and on again. But about now, he catches himself getting frustrated and pauses to dial it back a notch. More calmly - ] Followed by the patches, which they won't install. So now I'm trying the direct approach.

[ He pulls something from an inside coat pocket and shows Peter - it's a thumb drive, essentially. ]

Do you know what a rootkit is?
itsnotaonesie: (Default)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2020-01-09 03:58 am (UTC)(link)
[oh so this is just Qubit being RIDICULOUS got it

Anyway, Peter leans over to peep this thumb drive, yo.]


That's like malware, right? It can get you into a computer system that you wouldn't normally have access to.
superposition: ((explain you a thing))

[personal profile] superposition 2020-01-14 01:23 am (UTC)(link)
[ that's my secret Cap, I'm always ridiculous. ]

[ nods ] Exactly. Once this is in, I'll be able to commandeer the platform and overwrite its command module. The trick is, the delivery vector I've chosen is a firmware vulnerability - essentially, it has to be plugged in manually, to a specific port, while still powered on.

[ He offers Peter the drive. ] And since it's not letting me close, I thought I'd let you take a crack at it.
itsnotaonesie: (110)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2020-01-14 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit

Anyway Peter takes that drive and looks it over with a nod.]


Jam this goober into the thingy-whatsit, got it.

[He flips it into the air and catches it all cool-like. so cool.]

You said a specific port, which one is that?
superposition: (So let it be known)

[personal profile] superposition 2020-01-27 12:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ Yep, the goober and the thingy-whatsit, those are the technical terms, of course. ]

It's under the access panel on its back. The figure-eight port third from the right. Its right. [ A wry smile. ] Think you can manage?
itsnotaonesie: (40)

[personal profile] itsnotaonesie 2020-01-27 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Of course I can manage, it's not like you're asking me to save the world.

[Just a simple 'jam the thing into the other thing' mission, he's totally got this.]