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.

mustact: (→10)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-05 09:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm ... The man doesn't speak?

Ratonhnhaké:ton does notice the blood stains, as soon as that hand raises. His eyes flicker briefly over them, but only briefly, before looking back up to face the stranger.

Far be it from him to jump to conclusions.

"Were you curious about the door as well?"
0thingsonmymind: (Sitting)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-05 10:00 pm (UTC)(link)
He nods, then cants his head, points to the other man then towards the water. What did you find?
mustact: (→24)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-07 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
He briefly glances back at the water.

"There are many more doors, but only one is open. I do not think it is meant to be. Someone really wanted this area to be locked away, but I have yet to find any clues as to why."

Will this be the same as the City? New questions for everything they discover and very few answers?
0thingsonmymind: (Watching)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-07 10:31 pm (UTC)(link)
Hm. That sounds a lot like Norfinbury, things locked just to be locked but full of important progress and/or answers. He doesn't like it, but maybe he should expect it.

Like the exclaimation point, words appear in the air before him.

what was be hind
open
door ?
mustact: (→14)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-09 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
After the exclamation point, perhaps the world should be less surprising, but he stares in wonder at it for a moment anyway. Then, he shakes his head, and frowns in thought.

"I could not see everything very well. It looked like arrows and ... jewelry, perhaps."
0thingsonmymind: (Default)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-09 07:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Jewelry? That's not what he expected. And he assumes the arrows are just to show people where things are.

did
t o u c h ?
mustact: (→45)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-11 09:51 pm (UTC)(link)
He shakes his head.

"I did not go inside. I'm going to find some friends of mine first."

Truthfully, he may have wanted to do so before diving into the water in the first place. But he's curious about that room, and about all the closed doors, and he needs help.
0thingsonmymind: (Sitting)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-11 09:54 pm (UTC)(link)
you shouldnot
touch

itis danger ous


He trusts Creepy Joe in that much, at least.

look is
safe

ihope


He steps aside so Connor can get past easily. He needs to decide if he wants to follow this guy or go in on his own, though.
mustact: (→20)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-13 04:13 pm (UTC)(link)
He doesn't move yet. Instead, he studies Brian for several moments, openly curious. Being told off has seldom actually worked on him, and that little isn't enough to discourage him.

"Dangerous how?" he finally asks.

If Brian hasn't been down there, someone has told him it's dangerous, and without more information Ratonhnhaké:ton isn't inclined to fully trust it.
0thingsonmymind: (Default)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-13 10:50 pm (UTC)(link)
bad
eyes


He shakes his head.

theysaid
bad
but didnot re mem ber

itis on
net work
mustact: (→66)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-15 01:07 pm (UTC)(link)
"Hm."

Yes, he had seen that, but had only noticed being told not to go down at all. If there had been any talk about why, he hasn't seen that yet. Perhaps he'll go back back and look.

Still, it's unlikely to actually dissuade him.

"What's your name?"
0thingsonmymind: (Default)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-15 02:30 pm (UTC)(link)
He did ask about it. A warning is no good without reasoning or explanation behind it.

iam call ed
brian
mustact: (→68)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-18 07:55 pm (UTC)(link)
That's true. Alas, not a good enough reason for him. Of course he'll be cautious, but he won't stay away completely.

He nods in a sort of greeting.

"I am Connor. Good to meet you."
0thingsonmymind: (Default)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-18 08:03 pm (UTC)(link)
He nods. He's not sure if its good to meet Connor or not but that seems to be a thing that people do when greeted.

if goback
tell
what find
mustact: (→01)

[personal profile] mustact 2020-01-23 04:29 pm (UTC)(link)
"All right."

Maybe he will. It depends just what he ends up finding. After all, while Brian has given no indication that he is untrustworthy, he doesn't know him.

But that's enough lingering. He nods again, before finally walking past Brian.
0thingsonmymind: (Default)

[personal profile] 0thingsonmymind 2020-01-23 04:36 pm (UTC)(link)
He nods again and lets Conner head off without following. He has to decide if he wants to go into the water too.