december 2019. welcome to the void.

[modblob]

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.

Comments

[itsnotaonesie]

Peter's come to find that it's easier to just let the robots put him wherever they want him, and then wait for them to leave before he just goes about his business. Less headache and less robots to repair that way. He was going to do the same thing here, but then the robots shove him into the spa lobby with a big fucking critter, and his curiosity gets the better of him. He has got to check this shit out.

"Whoa, nobody told me we had a griffin! Man, I really have to stop cooping myself up in the lab."

He's inching closer to investigate the poor, very cold looking whatever this is.

[birdical]

Having been huddled so long in the desolate spa with only blankets and robots for company, Elleru is genuinely surprised when she suddenly has company. She thought briefly she recognized the voice, but when she lifts her great head from the floor, one of the blankets draped over her like a hood, she finds it's someone she doesn't know. His outfit is certainly... interesting. Perhaps it is to keep him warm -- she can't blame him for that.

Normally, she would be cautious about being seen in her natural form, even in another world where no one has heard of or is hunting the kaulahren; she would be apprehensive about speaking in front of others while out of her upright guise, so sure the sight of a talking beast (or what uprights may likely assume is a mere beast) would frighten some of the individuals she's met in Anchor. She wants people to believe she's just like them, and nothing more.

Unfortunately, most of that goes right out the window with her immediate excitement.

"You are here to fix the baths? They are frozen over!"

[itsnotaonesie]

OH, the griffin is people. COOL. Peter pulls his mask off and approaches way less cautiously since this is someone he can talk to and not just some very cool looking animal. Nothing surprises him anymore, man.

"Oh, um, no? I think they stuck me in here to keep you warm, if I had to guess. I can definitely look at the baths, though. Unless there's some kind of programming that I can't override, I should at least be able to get one of these up and running for you."

He starts heading towards one of the baths to do just that, but then pauses and turns his attention back to that beaked critter, "Y'know, you sound really familiar."

[birdical]

The costumed man replies, and Elleru immediately realizes that her exuberance got the better of her; her neck scrunches in, her ears flattening as she buries her beak in the fluff of her chest in what is likely an expression of embarrassment. This is the second upright she's spoken in front of while in her natural form, and once he pulls his mask off, she realizes this is one she knows.

She warbles uncomfortably. Unwilling to outright lie even when she may be caught for what she is, she avoids the question entirely. "They were once so warm. I was disappointed to find they are not working when it is so cold."

[itsnotaonesie]

Oh my Goooood, the big griffin is so cute thoooough. He wants to pat her head, but that would probably be rude. Instead he's gonna start fiddling with the controls of one of the spa baths,

"Nothing sounds better than hopping into a hot bath right now, not gonna lie. I don't know if it was the cold that broke them, though. Seems to be stuff shutting down all over the place. I hear the agricultural level is still warm, though." Which is good, because they don't need all the food dying too.

[birdical]

"Ag-ree-cul—" she starts, parsing out the word syllable by syllable before realizing what he means, continuing, "ah, the farm. Yes, it is warmer there, but I was hoping to bathe here. It is closer to the people, you see."

She means the barracks. It's lonely in the agricultural level, okay.

[itsnotaonesie]

"Oh, yeah, that's fair. I'd prefer to be around everyone too."

He's distracted for a minute by the spa controls, turns out that he can't make this thing do jack shit because this goddamn station has a mind of it's own. He's going to have to see if Qubit can reprogram some of this shit later, but for now, he just shrugs.

"Well, nothing's broken, but the computers are gonna be stuck like this for a while, it looks like. I know it's not much, but I can sit with you for a while? I'm not very big, but this suit has a built in heater so I could probably warm you up a bit."

[birdical]

The news that the baths aren't broken, but still aren't working gets another sad thrum from Elleru, who was so looking forward to dipping her entire body in their steaming waters to fight off the chill; however, Peter's suggestion gets her to perk up just a little, her ears flicking forward and taking the blanket draped atop her head with them. True, he's not very big, but she's truthfully been somewhat starved for affection since she got here. So many of the uprights in Anchor -- perhaps uprights in general, she now realizes -- have been closed off, unwilling to allow someone to be physically close to them. For someone who comes from a culture where camaraderie is often expressed with communal preening, affectionate nuzzles, and shared burrows, she's struggled to adapt more than she'd like to admit.

So she doesn't say it, but her body language probably says plenty for her as she moves right behind him at the spa controls, not even waiting for an invitation before she uses her head and massive claws -- carefully, of course -- to try to pull him toward her, fully intending to wrap herself around him like some kind of beast burrito.

[itsnotaonesie]

Since she isn't closing in to ATTACK his spider sense doesn't ping at him at all, so he just lets her do whatever she's doing and apparently that's just coiling around her like a big critter. This is fine, he's just gonna be a bro about it and free his arms so he can adjust one of her blankets for her, chucking the whole time.

"This isn't quite what I had in mind, but I think this'll work just fine."

[birdical]

If the contented rattling that escapes Elleru is any indication, then yes, this will work out just fine. The noise rumbles through her chest heavily, vibrating her whole body, as well as the human she's surrounded with it. She'll just hold onto him long enough to warm herself up, that's all. She's not allowed to keep this upright all to herself, no matter how much she might want to.

She pulls her tail around her as best she can, though it doesn't flex as much as one may think, failing to fully circle her frame on its own. She pulls it toward her with one of her feet, gathering the bare appendage under her leg as she settles back down. With no fur covering it, it's one of the main reasons she's freezing.

"You are warmer than you look," she admits, her voice a little muffled from where she's tucked her beak against herself. "You said it is in your clothing?"

[itsnotaonesie]

Awww she's like a great big catbird. If she wasn't like literally speaking to him, he'd probably try giving her ear scritches.

"Yeah, it's got a heating system built in. Kind of uh, kind of like the ones that heat the pools, only small enough to fit in this suit."

It's not quite the same, but it's close enough to where he figures that should be an easy enough explanation for someone less familiar with this sort of technology to understand.

"I'm Peter, by the way. I don't think I caught your name?" Tell us your secrets, catbird.

[birdical]

Oh no, now he's asking for her name, and Elleru faces a conundrum: does she tell him her name and reveal herself as having an upright guise, or does she deceive him intentionally so as to protect her identity? She's already done the latter once, and while avoiding mentioning her upright guise isn't exactly lying, it still doesn't sit right against her forthright, honest nature. What upright would understand having two names and secretly living between two worlds, though? Surely not this one in particular any of them.

She buries her beak in her chest fluff, looking as guilty as a bird monster possibly can. Peter has been so sweet and so cute, and he went to all the trouble to try to fix the baths when it was hopeless, and she can't forget that he returned her book to her -- it would be wrong to lie to him, wouldn't it? Yes, yes it would.

"You... may call me Elleru," she admits with her normal cadence. "We have met already."

[itsnotaonesie]

It takes Peter a second to get it, but as soon as he does he just sits upright like OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH.

"You're the really tall book lady! Oh my God, I-- you're a shape shifter!? This is awesome!!"

He is very easily impressed and not the least bit bothered that she was being all secretive about it. Secret identities are important sometimes, y'know?

[birdical]

Her face remains buried in her chest fluff, but her ears prick back up as she looks Peter's way.

"You... are not angry I did not reveal myself sooner?"

[itsnotaonesie]

"Well no, I figure you had a reason to not wanna talk about it. Besides, we're talking about it now, so it's all good."

Just don't turn all human shaped while you're all tangled up with Peter and everything will stay all good.

[birdical]

That seems to assuage any fears Elleru may have had as what seems to be a purr comes rumbling through her: it's a low, heavy thrum, more like the rattle of crow than something feline. She sets her head right atop his, thoroughly encasing Peter in fluff.

"My kind do not normally tell others of our abilities. It is forbidden, but I cannot help myself when it is so cold. How it is you uprights are able to survive!"

[itsnotaonesie]

He will not complain about this fluff cocoon, it is soft and warm. He chuckles, reaching up to give her cheek a rub. Which again, would be super awkward if she was people shaped right now.

"Indoor heating, layers. What we lack in fur, we make up for with being able to find ways around our shortcomings." Like his fancy heated suit, for one. God he wishes he could high five Tony for putting a heater in this thing. "So, you want me to keep your shape shifting thing between us, then?"

[birdical]

Thankfully, she's not people-shaped, and she appreciates the cheek rub -- what critter doesn't, no matter how big she is? Not that she's a critter, of course; she's a favored beast blessed by the divine, and no one better think otherwise.

"Yes, if you will? I do not want everyone to know. They should not know. What if they are frightened?"

[itsnotaonesie]

"I'm happy to keep it between us, but knowing the kind of people we have around here, I don't think they'd be too scared. I don't think you have anything to worry about."

He's seen the aggressive, freaky mutant animals around here, she she wasn't anything like them.

[birdical]

"That is true," she agrees, "but... I would like for people to think I am an upright. I do not want them to treat me as something else."

She pulls in a breath, sighing as she pushes it out; having disturbed some of her fur and feathers, she immediately sets to brushing it back down with her beak, giving Peter just a little breathing room as she moves her neck. She looks down at him from where he's buried in her fluff.

"Is that silly of me, Peter?"

[itsnotaonesie]

"Uprights are like, humans, right? I don't think it's silly to want to be treated the same way everyone else is treated at all."

He is snuggling right into this fluff, he is in fluff heaven. "My point is, we're all people here, no matter what shape we are. Most of us are used to people looking different by now. Hell, one of my best friends in the last place I was stuck was this guy made entirely of metal, and we have a metal guy here who's like, thirty feet tall."

[birdical]

She tilts her head, setting it along her haunch, her magenta eyes on him.

"Like Scaramouche?"

She's apparently met approximately one metal man, and he's the one she's going to judge all others by.

[itsnotaonesie]

"Yeah, yeah, more like Scaramouche in terms of appearance. Personality-wise, they're nothing alike."

Scaramouche sure is an interesting robodude though, isn't he. Like, really interesting.

[birdical]

Yes, very interesting. She hms quietly, musing.

"How so? Were they not... flashy?" Is that a good word to describe Scaramouche? Because that's what she's going with.