modblob: (Default)
Mods ([personal profile] modblob) wrote in [community profile] redshiftlogs2020-01-01 03:38 pm

january 2020. welcome to the void.

Who: Everyone in Anchor.
What: Seventh Introductory Mingle
When: The Month of January 2020
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. champagne supernova.

Normally, the changes in the sky are subtle, happening between glances or over the course of days.

That's not the case now, when the bright sky with its three suns is wiped away in an explosion of blue light, right at sunrise on the morning of January 1st. The light pulses across the sky in uneven blazes, sending out lattices of what might be lightning or something worse. There's no moon. No brightness. Just this lightning-storm brilliance in space, shedding little light on the world below.

And the suns don't come back on. As the day wears on, the supernova brightness in the sky starts to fade out and no new light appears. The sky is static and black, with no stars, no moons, no suns. The mild rolling blackouts that started with the opening of the relaxation room intensify with the sudden loss of solar power, as the backup systems try to compensate for the increased use of power.

For a moment, power goes out in Anchor entirely, leaving the place plunged into darkness.

The darkness doesn't last. Thanks to those generators everyone worked so hard to sort out, the backup systems struggle back to life, keeping the lights on and the bar, kitchen, and agricultural supports open, but there are some things that the limited power just can't cover.

b. tower of babelfish.

The first, and perhaps the most noticeable system to start failing, are the auto-translation programs. While not affecting every area in Anchor equally, communication between those who speak different languages is going to be a lot more difficult. The effects are spotty, coming and going, sometimes completely failing, leaving only people's naturally-spoken languages available. Sometimes it just struggles, making conversations sound a lot more like babelfish translations than recognizable speech. People themselves seem to be affected differently by the translation struggles, depending on who and where they are. There's no rhyme or reason to when and how it fails. But the problem persists through most of the month.


c. the hidden passage.

The second system failure is harder to spot.

At the end of what seemed to be a maintenance hallway, a set of doors have appeared from behind what used to be a shielded hologram of a dead end. The doors stick out from their surroundings: thick metal, barred heavily from the outside. A clear attempt to keep something locked away inside, not to keep people from entering.

For those adventurous enough, or foolish enough, to wrestle the locks open, a problem will reveal itself. A short flight of stairs, leading down into an area flooded by murky water. It's hard to see more than branching halls down below.

Those who choose to brave the water will find a hallway lined with bulkheads and sealed doorways, all guarding rooms that could be accessed with the right combination of smarts and brute force. It's the question of what would be ruined by the water if the doors are opened that might give people pause. What kind of secrets could be wiped out or destroyed if the doors are forced and the water passes through the bulkheads? Can the water be drained? How?

But there is one room open, or mostly open, where the bulkhead doors didn't quite manage to seal when the area flooded. It'll be a squeeze, for bigger characters, but the flooded room beyond contains artifacts preserved behind glass - strange medallions, strings of glowing beads, broken sceptres, arrows fletched with feathers from creatures no one has ever seen before.

Only one object isn't sealed away. It's a handful of small orbs, with shifting colors, held in place by a shield array that still seems to function, for the most part. They can be touched, can even be removed from the stand with the right know-how or a willingness to smash stuff.

But once an orb is touched, the colors start to spin more rapidly. The more it's handled, the brighter and faster the colors shift. Whether it takes hold immediately or not is up to you, but those who handled the orb will find the bright colors start to glow under the surface of their skin, in the shape of veins, glowing bright for a few minutes before fading. And those people bring a different kind of contagion back with them to the surface. Memory loss, communicated from one person to the next via contact. It can be partial or complete, or not happen to your character at all - they can be an unwitting "carrier" of the effects, passing it on without experiencing the losses themselves. The loss can last from hours to weeks, with carriers being "infected" for the duration of that time.

It also leaves behind magical traces, ones that don't fade after memories return. The cleverest might start to wonder if it wasn't a kind of inoculation, though against what, it remains to be seen.

hyperthermic: (DuoESRw)

[personal profile] hyperthermic 2020-01-04 10:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Genji. [ He draws out the "I," like he's savoring the name. A fuckin' robot ninja named Genji ]

How'd you find out about the fruit?
arcadedragon: (Meditation)

[personal profile] arcadedragon 2020-01-04 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
They were eating snow when they showed up, so I assumed they liked cold things. And fruit is sugary. Who doesn't like sugary treats?

[A robot ninja named Genji who runs off sugar.]
hyperthermic: (VOQ4P9s)

[personal profile] hyperthermic 2020-01-07 04:27 am (UTC)(link)
You try candy on them? [ He reaches out to the little dragon, tries to pet its head, then pulls his hand back as it starts to retreat. ]

These things don't make good pets, huh.
arcadedragon: (Shuriken)

[personal profile] arcadedragon 2020-01-07 05:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I only have twinkies, they were not interested.

[Maybe if he had frozen them, but the idea of a rock solid frozen twinkie weirds him out a little.]

It's a dragon, less like having a pet and more that it has graced you with its presence and decided to live with you. Also you are probably too hot, they are ice dragons.
hyperthermic: (9Et8T7D)

[personal profile] hyperthermic 2020-01-07 07:11 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He lets his hand drop and the little creature goes back to monching on its fruit.

Mick growls under his breath at Genji's description, but it's not particularly aggressive. ]


Reminds me of someone I used to know.
arcadedragon: (Waiting)

[personal profile] arcadedragon 2020-01-08 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I know some like that as well.

At least the dragons do not talk.
hyperthermic: (B8F940b)

[personal profile] hyperthermic 2020-01-09 08:27 pm (UTC)(link)
[ He gives an amused little grunt, picking up a chip of ice and offering it to the dragon instead of trying to touch it again. Chronos waits, with a patience Mick Rory never would have shown.

The little creature finishes the fruit, rind and all, and takes the ice chip.

Another grunt, this time of pleasure. ]


I see how it is, Frostbite. I don't touch you, you won't bite me. Seems like a good deal.

[ Sorry Genji he's not ignoring you he's just-- Well, kind of ignoring you. ]

How many more of these things are there?
arcadedragon: (Arms Folded)

[personal profile] arcadedragon 2020-01-10 04:17 am (UTC)(link)
[That's fine, he's supposed to be secretive and stealthy and unobtrusive.]

A few dozen. They seem to be following people around so there might be more that are with others currently.

[Like Frostbite here.]
hyperthermic: (HNwP4fN)

[personal profile] hyperthermic 2020-01-16 01:37 am (UTC)(link)
[ He scritches the little dragon under its chin, which it deigns to allow. ]

A few dozen. Bet you little guys could freeze us all to death in our sleep with a little teamwork, huh?

[ Said as someone else might say COOCHIE COOCHIE COO. ]

Where'd they all come from? Through that portal thing?
arcadedragon: (Snow)

[personal profile] arcadedragon 2020-01-18 06:54 am (UTC)(link)
Pulled in from another world like us? Maybe. They were down by the fountain one day, but I didn't see where they came from. Or where they will go when the snow melts.

Do not give them ideas, I have two in my room and I do not want to wake up frozen.