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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.

circumspector: (( focus ) » i'm never complete)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-01-15 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
Once she finishes drinking it, her head lowers into the body of the Reindire, briefly rubbing her face to wipe away the alcohol off her skin and fur against its body. Settling herself back against its body once more, though no longer dozing. Regarding him instead. A little bit more awake, to take him in fully this time. Though it's frankly more assessing of him. Pushing herself up onto her hands, her hooves curling underneath her from the spot she has nested into.

She climbs out from her pile of warm bodies. The limbs all wrong, her arms that little bit longer, that flicker of stars that shimmer across her skin. A rough, soft, bark that isn't human by any measure as they question where she is going, and soothes them. To circle around their new company. Her tail dragging behind her on the ground.

If he thought he was getting out of this with his dignity intact, he is sorely mistaken.

Because as she leans in, sniffing him briefly, then she shoves her face and shoulder into his back, not hard, she is being gentle. Because she is dense, every bit of her heavy and strong. All she wants to do, presently, is topple him into the other Reindire. Hers, now. All hers.

One push, then another, insistent. Until however he manages to handle that with grace or otherwise, she barks that little bleat again. Reassurance, as she follows him down. Leaning to rub her nose against his jaw, his neck. Crawling over him. Pinning him down with her weight, but it isn't invasive, it's just the same way she settled in with the other animals. Curling up on his chest, her leg over his hips, her tail hooked over another of the Reindire, horns tilting away to not scratch anyone.

"There. Better. See? Nothing to be unsure of." This is the only kind of world that matters.
nockturnal: (26)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-01-19 05:40 pm (UTC)(link)
There's a surprised noise as she nudges him forward, and suddenly he is in a pile of very warm, very soft deer, with this...deer woman, this otherworldly thing, nestled on top of him with such weight that he is not certain he could move her if he wished to.

He wishes to. Very much. This level of physical contact is strange and unnerving and he goes entirely tense, gaze darting around for any sort of escape or exit he can make. Hopefully without rousing her ire, or that of the beasts beneath him.

He should have just kept going. Why. Why did he think stopping was a good idea...
circumspector: (( beam ) » hoping for more)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-01-19 06:55 pm (UTC)(link)
It gets no better. As she settles, so do the other reindire, moving to curl around a new warm body. A new part of the herd, with her reassurance they lean in and begin to sniff and lick him like they do each other. Learning him, and Angel does the same. Wriggled up to his side, she noses at the corner of his jaw, his ear, pressing her face against his hair, inhaling before settling.

"Your heart is so loud." she leans down and rubs her cheek there, like she could soothe it just the same.
nockturnal: (25)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-01-19 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
"I...mean no offense, but...I really must..."

And that's a deer tongue in his ear. Fantastic.

Shuddering, he tries to push the fuzzy muzzle away from the side of his face, though it's difficult with Angel nuzzling down on top of him so insistently. Again, it strikes him how very un-human she is. She's almost as wild as the beasts.

With about the same sense of proportion and personal space.
circumspector: (( MINOTAUR ) » don't belong to no man)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-01-20 11:25 am (UTC)(link)
Shh, heart, shh.

The kiss she presses on his chest to his heart, like she could tell it hush just like that.

His voice drawn her head up, where she wriggles against his body. Nestled between all the others, warm and soft.

"Don't you like it? I like being like this. Warm, surrounded." her chin rests on his chest as she runs her fingers over him, gentle, bracing. "You should touch me. I know you want to. Everyone wants to touch me. I'll let you, as long as you know you'll never keep me."
nockturnal: (17)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-01-20 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, how intensely uncomfortable he looks as she kisses him, and once more he tries to pry himself out from under her. Unsuccessfully.

How does she even weigh this much? What is she?

"No. I would like to stand, if it is all the same." His shoulders tense. "I...do not want to be touched. And you have my apologies for our previous meeting. I did not realize that you were...this."

Not a deer, in other words.
circumspector: (( siren ) » at least i'll be free)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-01-22 10:21 pm (UTC)(link)
She looks, more than anything, hurt. Her eyes going big and wide, pressing her lips together so she didn't sniffle. A little furrow in her brow, frowning with it.

"It's okay when I have four legs to touch me but not when I have two?"

Angel presses up, onto her hands and knees, pressing palms flat beside his hips as she settles back onto her haunches. "Fine. I don't care."
nockturnal: (20)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-01-28 07:19 pm (UTC)(link)
It is not often that Hanzo feels regret after hurting someone's feelings. He doesn't much care about other people, to begin with. Not as individuals, anyway.

This is different, and he knows he's done something to invoke her ire, even as he moves to try and push himself a little further upright. "Your legs have nothing to do with it. You are...more than you seemed to be. There is a difference between petting an animal and a..."

Person? He still has no real clue what she is, does he.
circumspector: (iv » how can you jubilate)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-01 07:57 am (UTC)(link)
"Why?"

Her arms are crossed, so small mercy her chest is sort of covered, her back facing him with her long proud mane flicked out. "I liked it, both times, and I can break your ribs like twigs in either form, so if I didn't want you to I could have stopped you, and I didn't stop you then or now so that doesn't make any sense."
nockturnal: (21)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-02-01 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Most of the time, Hanzo would not bother holding his tongue. This time, however, it seems prudent to measure what he says carefully. He sees the displeasure in her dark eyes and lifts a placating hand.

"It is not customary to behave so...intimately with someone one does not know, where I come from. To stroke an animal does not bear the same weight."
circumspector: (xviii » or are you screaming)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-03 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
She frowns, in as much thought as it is her hurt and irritation. "Do you meet a lot of animals that are covered in bones and shimmer and understand you even if they can't speak?"

She looks over her shoulder back at him with both her eyebrows raised, as she absolutely does not sulk.

"Besides, that's silly. I like being touched, don't you? Why are there are rules like that?"
nockturnal: (17)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-02-08 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
She is very much sulking, and he hesitates once more. "It is improper. It is not done."

Whether or not someone likes being touched is irrelevant. There's a distance one maintains, out of respect. A concept she seems to have no need or care for. Perhaps, as powerful as she is, she simply obeys her own rules of conduct.

Imagine what that must be like.
circumspector: (( MINOTAUR ) » i'm a wanderess)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-09 07:13 am (UTC)(link)
"Well I'm telling you it's okay, doesn't that matter? I like being touched, it feels nice in my fur."

Absolutely still sulking, it's practically petulant.

"I bet you'd like it too if you weren't so worried about being proper."
nockturnal: (21)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-02-09 03:04 pm (UTC)(link)
The sulking has less of an effect when she still has him pinned in place, tense and entirely uncomfortable with the situation.

"I do not transform as you do. I can only conduct myself as humans do. And where I am from, it is not done this way. It is a matter of honor...a matter of respect."

Which might be the reason he looks so unhappy, at the moment. Personal space? What personal space.
circumspector: (( mmhm ) » you hold onto me)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-09 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
"Honour..." she hums, considering and he has some mercy. A concept she has not encountered as a purpose yet, that makes her pause and lean back a little, ever curious. "Where I come from if you're still alive and no one has eaten all your limbs, then it doesn't really matter what happens. Does that fit into honour?"
nockturnal: (19)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-02-09 04:04 pm (UTC)(link)
A grim image. But Hanzo does not flinch, meeting her gaze all the while.

"Honor is all that matters. Without it, we lose our way, our purpose. It is our bond and our strength, what sets man above beast. Even a killer may know honor."

You could let yourself go, descend into chaos and act on whims and baser instincts. But to do so is to sacrifice something you could never recover entirely. You could only spend the rest of your life attempting to.
circumspector: (( beboop ) » gritting your teeth)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-10 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
She nods along, and her contentment in her curiosity is double fold, even as she is still half laying on him, because as she stills, so the Reindire settle. Which is always a good thing when they are huge clawed things, after all.

"And honour says cuddling makes you a beast."
nockturnal: (04)

[personal profile] nockturnal 2020-02-10 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, he would truly prefer not to have to contend with unhappy reindire, particularly when he happens to be trapped in their midst. The only way out is through Angel.

And it appears this is going to be a very long conversation.

"That is not..."

He cuts himself off, brow pinching. "If one were married, or similarly intimate, then it would be permitted. It is not something one would do with a stranger, or even a casual acquaintance."
circumspector: (xxv » damask and dark)

[personal profile] circumspector 2020-02-11 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
Angel pauses, her thoughts still that dreaming tumult of drinking and memory loss and the comfortable worth she has surrounded herself in. Not agitated.

"Only marriage or intimacy." she takes his summary, rolls it around her tongue as she goes back to laying on him - two steps forward, one step back, sorry Hanzo - "that is so lonely. Your poor heart would beat and no one would hear it." she turns her head a little, and that one step is at least he is spares a kiss this time. "It's alright, I will be here to hear you, even if I have to stay far away."