redshiftlogs | december 2019. welcome to the void.

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december 2019. welcome to the void.

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Sixth Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of December 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. the generic holiday cheer prompt.

It's a dark, quiet, uneventful night. Only those up and about in the wee hours will notice something odd starting in the park.

It's snowing.

The phenomenon seems to be coming from a small bank of unmoving clouds hanging suspended above the trees and lake. A cloud that, upon closer inspection by any scientists in the room, appears to be made of harmless nanites whose sole purpose is to unleash a cheery, blustery kind of weather that remains mostly contained to the park.

Some bots are out serving hot chocolate, cider, flavored snow cones, and other small baked treats. Others are building a solid-looking bit of scaffolding that the snow is rapidly turning into a sledding ramp. In fact, there are sleds ready and waiting at the foot of the slide. The smaller ponds have frozen over in a sharp cold snap that came with the nanites' release, and there are other bots handing out ice skates - careful, though, because one of them is a chef bot and he's made the blades of the skates ridiculously sharp. At least they'll glide well?

Around the middle of the day, the intercoms squeal loudly, crackle, and start pouring generic seasonal music out into the air. Is it for Hanukkah? Christmas? Kwanzaa? Some strange holiday no one has heard of? Who knows, since half of it is in alien languages, but man, it sure is peppy! And kind of annoying after a while! Maybe someone should hack the system and change the music up?

b. the body heat trope prompt.

As the day wears on toward evening, the nanite winter storm starts to gather a little more force, sending cold seeping through the halls of Anchor. There are pockets of warmth here and there - notably, for once, the agricultural areas are largely unaffected thanks to their temperature regulators--but most of Anchor has a wintery chill, and snow is starting to bluster across the levels from bottom to top. Temperatures continue to drop when the suns go down.

The bots are out being helpful, though they can't stop the storm. They're rolling around handing out blankets and thermoses of warm drinks. Unfortunately, it's one blanket and one thermos per two people. Better get cosy - it's going to be a long, cold night!

c. the terrifying monster attack prompt.

The cold has woken up some creatures that have been slumbering away in one of the sealed-off areas of the labs. They couldn't get through the door that kept them caged, but they sure could freeze the windows and escape that way when they got cold enough to break. The little critters make a beeline for the park, prepared to wreak havoc-

If eating snow and ice and rolling snow into tiny balls for meal stockpiles is havoc.

These little creatures look conspicuously like the western dragons of Earth, though most are no bigger than a person's forearm. Their wings - some strange shade of white that sparkles when they move - seem largely decorative. They use them to communicate, to posture, and to keep themselves balanced when they rear up on their hind legs, but none of them appear able to fly. They're a mix of colors, blue and silver and white, some of them with a variety of shades swirling down their bodies, others with one color on their bellies and contrasting colors on their back and head. Some have splotches, or speckles, or tiger stripes of blue. They breathe steam and can freeze things with their clawed forepaws.

Also, if you feed them a flavored snow cone, they will follow you forever. No, really. You'll have yourself an undyingly loyal new pet.

Navigation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The words themselves might not be the most encouraging, but it's not like Hanzo is telling him to go away or asking why he keeps talking to him. Some people are just shy! Perhaps he is one of those people. Reynir certainly can give him that benefit of the doubt. He nods to Hanzo's response, sipping his hot chocolate before venturing another question:

"Have you ever tried it before?"

Just because it's common doesn't mean everyone has gotten an opportunity to participate! If that's the case for Hanzo, Reynir is all ready to give him instruction and encouragement as needed. Or maybe he was a world champion at it and he's just being modest! Who even knows.

'Shyness' is not something he could be accused of. Surely that would equate to some sort of fear, or lack of confidence, and thus could hardly be the case. One does not grow up expected to lead a criminal empire and retain such a trait.

But there is the sense that Hanzo...isn't sure sure what to do with this forward, friendly exuberance Reynir is showing him. Other than view it with suspicion, as one does with all unfamiliar things.

"No. There was no need." Again, the reply is somewhat stilted. But it lacks any true bite of hostility.

So no, Reynir is not being run off quite yet.

"Oh, I see."

Hanzo's reply, to someone as soft-hearted as Reynir, seems very sad, indeed. Skating is a common hobby, there, but he'd never tried it because it wasn't necessary? It doesn't sound like he's saying 'there was no need, I was having all the fun I needed doing x' either. It sounds like he'd lived a life of hardship where there wasn't time for fun. Because he comes from such a rural place, Reynir defaults to imagining it as Hanzo growing up trying to eke out a living on a farm somewhere with bad soil, bad weather, bad fortune.

"Would you like to try it, with me? Like I said, it's been a few years, but I do still remember how."

And then, realizing he's completely forgotten his manners, Reynir circles back to:

"I didn't introduce myself before, but I'm Reynir Árnason."

"...Hanzo."

His mouth twitches, but it's hard to say if it's a smile or frown that threatened to show up. Ultimately, it's neither.

"And I'm afraid I have no time for such things. I have only just arrived, and there is much yet to learn about this place that we all seemed trapped within." And now he is scowling, though not in Reynir's direction at least.

It's more this place. This situation he's found himself in that he knows nothing about. That lack of control is...disconcerting. Playing games is the last thing he should be doing.

"I understand. When I first arrived, my friend and I spent a whole day looking this whole place over, making sure there were no signs of beasts or trolls or infected people. It took us a while to adjust, too."

Genji had not mentioned his brother's name, the few times he'd come up in conversation. But a little furrow is forming between Reynir's brows. There is something familiar about Hanzo's particular way of speaking - his accent, a few phrases. And Reynir feels not like he's seen his face before, but it's reminding him of someone he saw once? It's a strange echo, not quite deja vu.

"But... chances are you'll still be trapped here tomorrow, but this little snow festival will probably be done by then. Can I suggest an alternative. I've been here a few months, now. You can ask me any questions you'd like about this place, and I'll answer them as thoroughly as I can. And... we can be skating while we do it!"

Best of both worlds, right? There are things Hanzo will doubtless want to check and investigate on his own, but talking to the people who live here is a valuable way to get information, isn't it? And who could doubt that honest face of Reynir's as he makes his offer, all freckles and optimism?

Hanzo.

Hanzo doubts that face, because doubting those around him has pretty much been his default setting for the last decade and change.

There's another issue at hand, that being he doesn't really know how to skate. And making a fool of himself in front of someone new does not seem at all like fun, whatever Reynir says. His eyes cut towards the ice, the skepticism clear in his eyes, before he shakes his head. "I would rather not."

The chocolate is more than enough. And perhaps he's already wasted enough time on that, alone.

...though there is the matter of Reynir offering information, for his cooperation. Would such an exchange really be worth it?

The polite thing to do, the nicest thing to do, would be to respect Hanzo's wishes and drop it. But there are times when Reynir's stubbornness outweighs his consideration for other people. He's gotten this into his head as a great idea. He knows it will be fun! Hanzo just has to give it a try.

And why not? One potential reason occurs to Reynir, and so he reassures (in entirely good faith, never thinking about how this tactic might goad Hanzo into agreeing - that sort of manipulativeness was really more Tuuri's department than his own):

"Are you worried that it's dangerous? I know it looks like it might be, but we don't have to go as fast as some of those other people over there. It's really easy, once you give it a try, I promise."

He doesn't really mean to be giving Hanzo the puppy eyes. It's just sort of something that happens all on its own.

Hanzo's jaw works tightly for a moment, eyes narrowing at Reynir. Oh. If only he didn't rise to such bait so easily. "Don't be absurd. I am not concerned about the danger." No, that's not right.

This really isn't going well, is it.

"I'm well aware that is not dangerous...and I am not afraid of ice skating." He folds his arms, looking mildly incredulous at he mere suggestion.

Reynir blinks, surprised by that intensely negative reaction. Oh, he'd stepped on a nerve, apparently! Hanzo looks totally peeved and is insisting that thinking he could be afraid of anything is 'absurd'. Seems like a really strong choice of word to Reynir. Is he someone that gets called cowardly a lot and now he's got a complex about it? Is it just your sort of garden variety masculinity bullshit? Reynir has always been kind of lost when it comes to all that.

"Oh! Oh, I just assumed..."

Which, again, unintentionally, is implying that the impression Hanzo had given off was one of someone intimidated by a challenge or frightened to try something new. What else was Reynir supposed to think!

"You assume incorrectly."

The chill in the air is nothing compared to how frosty Hanzo's tone had become. But, it appeared the ploy had worked, at least to some degree. With a grunt, he was gesturing for Reynir to follow.

Tch. 'Dangerous'. What nonsense. Clearly he didn't know who he was speaking to. Of course, that's more or less Hanzo's own fault, but that's never stopped him from internally grousing about matters before now. It wasn't going to stop now.

Reynir blinks, surprised by the hostility, especially paired with Hanzo walking off, not in a huff, but gesturing for him to follow. But he accepts it, setting his mug down as well and trotting along after Hanzo, looking carefully pleased with himself. He admits cheerfully:

"Sorry. I do that sometimes. Assume the wrong things. It can be kind of difficult in this place because people are from so many different types of worlds and sometimes that means you say something you think is a sure bet but it turns out you were wrong and also offended somebody really badly."

One particularly notable instance of that was when Reynir had asked Genji if he was a robot. They’re friends now, but that had been super awkward, and entirely a result of Reynir’s complete ignorance about Genji’s world, and also, robots.

Making that connection makes something click in his mind, in terms of what Hanzo’s accent reminds him of. So, tentatively this time, he asks:

“Like, I’m assuming from the way you speak maybe you are from Japan but also maybe I’m wrong?”

"Perhaps if you spoke less, your chances of saying something foolish would be reduced." It seems an obvious solution to him, but he's slowly getting the impression that Reynir's cheerful, friendly attitude is not so easily contained. How wonderful.

It reminds him somewhat of Genji, when he was younger. The thought does not do much to improve his mood.

His gaze cuts sideways towards the young man as they walk, before humming in confirmation. Though he's worked hard on his English, he's never going to be able to disguise the traces of his native tongue. Nor does he particularly care to.

"You are not. This time."

"Probably! The same way you would trip less often if you never walked anywhere, but you can't just stand still your whole life, can you?"

It's a variation on an old saying his mother had always spouted, though her version involved carrying pails of milk and even Reynir thought that sounded a little too provincial and changed it. Talking about tripping doesn't immediately make you sound like a peasant. Talking about milk pails? Well...

"I've met someone from there before! And saw part of it, in one of the shifts. Has anyone told you about those, yet?"

Reynir seamlessly eases into talking about this place as they approach the bot that is handing out the skates. Reynir gives them a glance and snags a pair that looks like they'll fit.

"I'm from Iceland, myself. It's an island, too, I don't know if you've heard of it?"

Again, he's trying not to assume anything!

There is perhaps wisdom in that, and even Hanzo can't find a proper argument against that sentiment. It reminds him somewhat of a similar saying of his father's. Defeat is the first step to a better result, Hanzo.

And at the reminder, Hanzo lets out a mild grunt that could be agreement. Or grudging acceptance, at least.

Even so.

"I have heard of it," he remarks dryly. "Though I have not yet traveled there, myself." There's a pause as Reynir selects a pair of skates before he eyes his own dubiously. Now that he's agreed to this, it feels like there really is no way out but forward.

Ridiculous, he thinks, even as he finds a place to sit and unlace them. He lowers himself carefully, reaching to unclasp the greaves around his shins.

Reynir can see Hanzo's continued uncertainty, but he is confident that once he's actually moving over the ice, maybe he'll feel a bit differently. So he plonks himself down on a nearby stump and pulls off his boots, lacing up his skates and continuing to talk all the while. He isn't quite as entirely guileless and carefree as his demeanor suggests. If he had met Hanzo in his first few weeks here, he would have happily chatted about how he hasn't been to Japan because no one really travels in his world, because a pandemic wiped out almost all of humanity, outside of Iceland and a few paltry thousand survivors in the surrounding cold, isolated countries. But Reynir had learned that as soon as he started really talking about his own world, people got really upset and really disturbed. So he... is a little less forthcoming, now.

"The part of Japan that I saw in the shift was beautiful. There were cherry trees. I had never seen one of those before."

Once his skates are tied, Reynir waits for Hanzo to be done as well before he stands and starts walking towards the ice, balancing as he goes. He asks:

"So. What is it you wanted to know about this place? There are many things I don't know, but I can do my best to answer as much as I can."

Once laced in, Hanzo frowns intently and starts to pull himself to his feet. It takes a moment to adjust his balance in this new way, and there's a dangerous moment of wobbling before he frowns harder still and rights himself again.

No comments from the peanut gallery, thank you. Determined, he focuses on keeping that balance as they make their way towards the edge of the ice. "What did you discover upon arrival? I assume you underwent the same reception as the rest of us," he mutters, not taking his eyes off the ground as he goes.

He will NOT fall.

Reynir gives Hanzo his space, not turning to look even when, yes, he notices out of the corner of his eye that Hanzo has wobbled a bit. Sometimes the politest thing you can do is just pretend not to see something. But he stays conveniently close enough that if any point Hanzo needs to flail out and grab onto something to steady him, well, there will be a nearby Icelander to help with that.

And he also hums a moment, his cheer slipping into something slightly more serious. He remembers how alarmed he was, when he first showed up here. He should not treat Hanzo's concerns as if they are silly, frivolous things.

"This place was once inhabited by many more people than live here now. There's evidence of past conflicts, I'm sure you've seen them. And a lot of discarded items. Less now than when I showed up, and I'm sure there were even more before that. People have been raiding, gathering supplies. But there were a lot of people and they left very suddenly. There are a lot of ruins in my world. I - know how places look when they've been abandoned en-mass. This place looks like that."

They get to the edge of the ice and Reynir steps onto it, skating a few steps forward, quickly realizing he hasn't lost the knack for it, and then circling back around to where Hanzo was following. He keeps talking, as if without interruption.

"But there are no signs that they died or- were forced out by violence. We didn't find any bodies, or places where bodies used to be. This place is not - haunted. The way some places I have visited were. I can't be sure, but - I don't think the past residents all died."

Apparently that's the baseline we're working with, where Reynir is concerned. Which maybe doesn't entirely match up with what Hanzo might have assumed from the very cheerful and cheek demeanor.

To sense the spirits of the dead is nothing to sniff at. That it's something Reynir considers at all earns him some modicum of respect, grudging as it might be.

He hasn't done much to skate out onto the ice itself, either, balanced in place while frowning thoughtfully to himself. He'd assumed the same from the look of the place, but it's good to know he's not the only one. Clearly, something had caused this place to be vacated in a rush.

So why continue to bring people here? That was the question.

"And yet people continue to arrive. And they are simply left here, to their own devices?" It doesn't make sense. Life shouldn't still be sustainable, if the main occupants had already departed.

"Yeah, people keep showing up. And I guess you could say we're left to our own devices, here. No one's in charge. No one is keeping us here, no one brought us here, that we can see."

Reynir personally believes that the gods had brought him and Onni and Lalli here for some reason that isn't yet clear, but he's gotten some pretty hard pushback and some odd looks every time he mentions that explanation, so he keeps it to himself, for now. Instead, he goes for the more diplomatic.

"There are a lot of different theories going around about why we end up here. Religious ones and scientific ones and in between ones. But it doesn't seem to be for any bad reason. This place is strange, but it's safe."

A moment later, he realizes that, perhaps, that statement needs qualification.

"I mean. It's... it... I guess it depends how dangerous a place you come from, and how you define safe."

Another implication, there, that Reynir hadn't really intended - that the world he'd come from is dangerous enough that this place, with its barren irradiated surface and limited food supply and unknown events is 'safe' by comparison. Reynir skates another little looping circle, waiting for Hanzo to pluck up the nerve to follow him. But he doesn't goad anymore - intentionally or unintentionally.

Hanzo huffs, almost as if amused. But there's no warmth to the noise.

"Safe from what?"

Danger presented itself from all sides. The elements, the risk of starvation, all natural conflicts to be overcome. Then there were the people within. Monsters and outside threats and the like were possible enough, but even with the lack of them, could any place really be considered 'safe'?

More accurately, he supposes, he's never had the opportunity to feel safe. Not since leaving the clan. Every night, there is the possibility of waking up with a blade to his throat. That's just something he's learned to live with.

Not everyone is as paranoid as he is. Not everyone needs to be. He can't imagine anyone has a desire to kill this one, at a glance.

Reynir hadn't really expected that amount of skepticism from Hanzo, and he laughs softly, rubbing at his neck, not seeing any way to answer the question without getting into topics he hadn't really intended to bring up. He can at the very least be brief, and then return to the main goal, which is making Hanzo more informed and more at ease with the Anchor. Also: making Hanzo have fun ice skating, dammit.

"Well... I don't bring it up that much anymore, since it bums people out, but the world I come from is... dangerous. There's this disease and - monsters, and stuff. So by comparison... I mean, here I can walk around without a breathing mask, and without worrying I'll get attacked if the sun sets and I'm not somewhere safe, and stuff like that."

Reynir moves so that he is standing side by side to Hanzo, glancing down at the ice and then back up, eyebrows raised slightly. Is he going to give it a try, or what? Carefully, Reynir demonstrates a few gliding steps over the ice, then stops, turns, says:

"But you don't need to know stuff about my world, anyway. What else can I tell you about this place, to help you feel better?"

"I don't need to feel better. My feelings do not need to be coddled so. Knowing the risks and being prepared is far more valuable."

He lifts his arms to fold them over his chest for a moment, as Reynir demonstrates a little skating and...appears to be waiting for him to do so as well. He's not going to have fun, and you can't make him.

...

Fine.

With a grunt he lowers his arms, and moves forward. Shifting his weight, he glides forward without too much effort, slowing to a halt not far away. Both eyebrows lift in turn. Happy?

All this talk about not needing to be coddled, as if someone being nice to you somehow made you weak, definitely has Reynir thinking about Onni. Honestly, he has half a mind to tell Hanzo to find Onni and talk to him, since they seem to think in similar ways. But actually he's trying to get Onni to stop thinking that way and he doesn't need anybody reinforcing those ideas to him. So he just gives the tiniest of sighs and amends:

"Okay okay, sorry, bad choice of words. I meant: what can I tell you to help you know the risks, so you can prepare better?"

When Hanzo tries a few tentative steps onto the ice, Reynir smiles, and moves beside Hanzo, starts to skate slowly, deliberately. Looking at Hanzo and waiting for him to follow. They might as well have this conversation while moving. And he doesn't think just gliding three feet really counts as giving skating a try.

"What sort of dangers has this place endured? What enemies have presented themselves? From where do they appear most often? Is there a place to replenish our weaponry stores, should they dwindle?" He says these things as though they were obvious, the only things one should need to worry about. Or at the very least the first things.

But it was the sort of priority he'd had to set, being on the run and constantly worrying about getting a knife in his sleep.

There's been little time to focus on anything else. It is somewhat soothing to have something as mundane as ice skating to concern himself with, though he'd never admit that out loud. Slowly, he starts to follow after Reynir, smooth, even gliding steps as he shifts his balance from one blade to the other.

Hmph. Not as difficult as all that, it seems.

"Ummm..."

Reynir takes a moment to think it over. Hanzo had asked an awful lot of questions, like it's some kind of prepared list he considers, and Reynir doesn't have all that information at the front of his mind right away. He keeps slowly skating, keeping an eye on Hanzo's balance and his feet and how he's moving on the ice, in case Reynir needs to steady him at any point.

"I can't tell you about any dangers from before I arrived. There were some zombies up in a store outside the doors, but that vanished a while ago. The shift can bring... places and people, from other worlds. Some bad people showed up and hurt a friend of mine but um. They're gone now. And uh, I think there's an armory? I'm pretty sure it's locked. My magic only needs a paintbrush and some paint to work so I'm not the best one to ask about weapons stuff."

That's about as thorough an answer as Hanzo is going to get. Reynir is trying to be helpful! But also, he doesn't know shit, for the most part. At least he is self-aware enough to add:

"It might be good to ask around, and not just rely on my answers. Other people have been here longer than me."

december 2019. welcome to the void.

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