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etrayamemes2024-11-11 03:04 pm
etrayamods) wrote in etrayamemes2024-11-11 03:04 pm
Entry tags:
TDM 005
 ⏵ arrival ⏴ Arrival goes as anticipated. Characters awaken in a sterile hospital bed in a clean, white room to the hum of machines under the unnatural lighting common to well-kept institutions. Every bit was designed to be comforting and calming, even with the jarring undercurrent of this situation. The first face they see is Aurora's: her smile appears to be warm, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. She might offer a quick explanation, or leave characters to figure it out for themselves depending on their approach. The door to the room swings open, revealing a hallway that stretches out ahead of them. There’s noise from outside and strong pumpkin spice scents coming from the lobby. Ah, muffins and tea. Grab one and head into the crisp, sunny fall morning ahead.  ⏵ potluck ⏴ Cutthroat Iron Etrayan Bake-Off As you step out of the arrival holding area into the main thoroughfare, the entire street has been turned into tents and chef stations to accommodate the activities of thirty people at once. There’s seats, trailers, and robots bustling about to make sure everyone is ready. A couple of cheerful robots in aprons and colorful sweaters approach and redirect you as you step towards the cooking area. There’s gas ranges, ovens, grills, blast chillers, mixers, and set walk-ins and pantries with just about every ingredient you can imagine. There are cameramen (also robots) patrolling the area to capture all your best moments and to broadcast them directly to your fellow citizens’ devices. Your instruction? “Make your signature dish. You have one hour, chef.” It can’t just be straightforward, can it? The land itself is held together with pure chaotic energy. If you’re lucky, all goes as planned. If you aren’t… well…
* All kittens disappear at the end. ** These however, stay.  ⏵ share a meal ⏴ As all the cooking concludes, you will be invited to plate your meal into one of many casserole dishes, regardless of what was made. A ladle will be tucked into the corner and placed on the table with a folded bit of cardstock declaring the chef’s name and the name of the dish. A helper camerabot will come around to each participant and ask for their thinking and their process. Even if you got away without having to cook, even looking towards the table of dishes will spur a helper bot to start making you a plate with one of everything. The helperbot will insist that it is rude to not at least try what their peers have made. In fact, if you are to fill out the score card for each person, you really must taste everything! The robots can’t try the food, so it’s up to you. The cards look like so. The grading system is opaque. Is it meant to be numbers? Stars? Letter grades? Well, you’re the judge. You figure it out. Chef: ___________ Dish:_____________ Judge:___________ Overall Rating:_______
 ⏵ tummy ache survivor ⏴ No matter how well your compatriots cooked or baked their dishes, there are… factors. You see that carrot? It’s really just condensed chaos in the shape of a carrot. No matter how powerful you are, these particular ingredients may not mesh with your being. …And even if it is truly a carrot, do all the chefs know the proper cooking temperature of chicken? Even chickens are aliens to many. (Optional) Roll a Die
Please direct all questions to our mod queries comment! |
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( her hand lifted up from her hip and she pointed towards the bowl james had been eating from. )
It turned into soup. I'm actually surprised I was able to even find the ingredients needed to make the burger, but it's pointless now.
( if this place actually had any cash system, she might have just tried to convince him to score her higher so she could win. unfortunately though, 'points' were the go to system here. )
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Which is fine. He's already done his part.]
I see. What restaurant is that?
[He says as he idly fills in a few more categories, giving them solid B's or B-'s. It's more small talk than anything else.]
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but he also wasn't someone she cared for deeply. their relationship, which they barely had one back home, was strained and he wasn't one to speak about such silly things as a burger joint.
so sharing this with james was new for her too. she didn't want to brag, but surely it beat whatever he had in his world. )
It's this place called Happy Burger, they have pretty good stuff. Unfortunately, the food here isn't always trustworthy, so I thought if I made this by scratch, I would have no issues.
Clearly I was wrong.
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Unexpected.
He looks vaguely confused for a moment. Are Happy Burgers multiversal? What an absolutely unhinged thought to be having.]
I've been to one of those. Fast food place, right?
[Not that his last foray into the establishment was all that pleasant, given it was in Silent Hill. And his last visit to Silent Hill was— Well. Illuminating. But generally, not a fun time.]
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still it was hard to ignore the brief look of confusion on james' face. in fact, heather can't help but match it, looking a bit strange herself. there was something odd about this man, but that didn't mean he was from her world, right? even if he was, that didn't mean he knew about the order or silent hill. he could just be anyone really. )
Yeah....a fast food chain.
( but it was clear even she was starting to become intrigued by all of this. )
I uh....I don't think I caught your name?
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[-he echoes, a little owlishly. This is definitely one of those situations where he's been given information he doesn't know what to otherwise do with. Thankfully, Heather offers up another question to redirect the flow of conversation.]
Uh, my name's James. James Sunderland.
[In case it rings a bell, which he would guess it certainly does not regardless. James' is no one special; in the end; the most he could hope for is that someone would recognize his surname because his father is superintendent of an apartment complex in Ashfield, but what are the chances of that?]
Didn't really spend a lot of time there, though. [Happy Burger, he means.] It's not exactly the main draw of Silent Hill.
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so much so that she immediately slammed her hands down onto the table and leaned in closer to james. her expression was full of stress and fear, a droplet of sweat coming down at the side of her face. was he....a member of the order?
no, no vincent would have told her, but then again, he couldn't be trusted. )
James...are you from Silent Hill?
( she isn't going to say anything else until she gets an answer. )
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Except, oddly enough, this is a reaction that elicits less confusion than revealing they both know what Happy Burger is. After all, James' experience in the town has been less than pleasant — to see Heather reply so heatedly could be painfully telling regarding her own time there.
He could be completely wrong, but... his gut tells him otherwise. But more importantly, he should probably calm her down.]
Woah, hey. [Hands up in a placating manner.] No, I'm from Ashfield, but Silent Hill was the last place I visited before I was brought here.
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with a tense movement, she pressed her lips together before her tongue nervously glided against them. she took a deep breath and leaned in closer. she needed to know if he was truly from her world, if he had seen the rebirth of the order's god, and if he had been a victim of it or an enabler.
there was a reason why vincent and heather had felt their world was doomed- prior to her own arrival, she had been pulled away before she could kill god. )
You visited Silent Hill? Why? Are you with her, Claudia? The cult?
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James just looks even more confused, and maybe even a little distraught for her sake. A cult?]
I was looking for my wife. She was supposed to be dead, but she sent me a letter asking to meet in Silent Hill.
[He feels a little guilty for framing it that way, because it was clearly not at all the whole truth behind the matter, but those details aren't necessary right now. Not when he's having to clear up some possible misunderstanding that has to do with someone he's never met and a cult he might've only read about in passing.]
I don't know anything about any Claudia or a... a cult. I promise.
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after all, it was many years ago her own father was drawn into the town much like james was. only he was looking for her past self during that time. additionally, she couldn't help but realize that if he had been drawn into silent hill, he too must have seen the 'other world', which drew its powers from the anger and desperation alessa felt all those years ago. )
Sorry, I didn't mean to make it seem like I'm mad at you or anything.
( really she wasn't, especially now that she felt assured he wasn't someone who was after her. )
It's just...I'm from Silent Hill and if Echo brought you here....maybe our world isn't doomed after all. Did you happen to run into any kind of large monster that had long dark hair while you were there?
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Heather looks... so young. Could she really have anything like that, nightmares gnawing away at her...? (Then again, is she that much younger than Angela was?)]
No. Not that I can remember. [How many times has he lived through that experience, looping through again and again, and never seen a monster with long dark hair even once-
Wait, where did that thought come from? He pushes it aside.]
I... Why?
[What's the significance of that monster in particular?]
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in her short time here, it seemed anything was possible [what with a talking wooly mammoth running around]. it also came to be known that consequences to actions were rare here, unless someone was specifically looking to get even. so she could be risking her safety...
yet the more she looked at james, his confusion painfully visible, she less worried she became about him trying to do anything to her. so she sighed a bit, taking a step back before speaking once more. )
I wonder....if you didn't see her maybe our world isn't doomed after all. It's a really complicated story, but I'm guessing you saw monsters while you were there? I ran into many myself.
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Worrisome.]
Wait, back up. Long story or not, what does the end of the world have to do with anything?
[He'll answer the monster question in a bit, but it's safe to say: yes, he saw plenty of monsters. (Well, like. Nine. (If you count Maria. Sorry Maria.) That's more than enough for him.)]
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she hated dealing with his moods and menacing words that loomed over her, constantly pushing her to her breaking point.
so before she answered him, heather took a look around and signaled for them to move somewhere more private. she waved her hand, and as they walked along, she finally found a more secluded spot. )
Before I say anything else about Silent Hill, you have to promise me you won't tell anyone, especially someone here named Vincent Smith.
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Once they find somewhere a bit more departed from the main event, James just kind of blinks at her.]
Vincent...? [He'll meet someone named Vincent later, when he's in tummyache hell, but we'll just say he never got a last name and the pain wasn't making him think straight to put two and two together yet--] Okay. My lips are sealed. But who's he?
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( she isn't going to tell james to avoid him or that he's a bad person per say because her own feelings about him were mixed. she had empathy for what he had gone through, and in a past life, she knew how the cult treated the members.
they were all brainwashed victims in her eyes. additionally, being here together, and vincent being her only 'ally' so to speak, made her closer to him than anyone else. )
It sounds like you never ran into them, which is strange. However they've been after me my entire life...
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[-he parrots back, his brows knitting. Did he see a weird symbol while trying to survive Silent Hill? He saw a lot of strange things, it's hard to pick out one over the other. (Maybe, just maybe, he can recall a crimson-red emblem peeking out from behind the peeling wallpaper of a motel room-)]
I didn't run into anything or anyone touting 'The Order'. [Thank god, because he sure did have a lot more on his plate at the time...] I think I've read something about a cult in town, but I didn't put much stock into it. Maybe I should have.
[If they've been after a teenage girl her whole life, that sounds like utterly bad news. And since when is a cult good news, anyway?]
Why are they after you?
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maybe, in a naive way [because despite her real age], she wanted to be his friend. to have someone who could sympathize and understand the turbulence that came with being viewed as a vessel. yet she felt a hesitation-
could this man even care about her struggle? did he have the capacity? he had been drawn to silent hill, and while heather didn't know the town could do that, she did understand and see the symbolism that was shown to her. did he experience that too?
with a deep breath she shook her head. )
I have...very deep connections to that town. To make a long story short, essentially they were trying to birth their religion's God to bring in paradise, using the town as a breeding ground for it. Before I came here....their God was born.
That's why I thought you had seen it, it happened in Silent Hill. If the God is born, then our world is doomed but you're here...
So maybe it isn't?
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...Of course, he could say the same about his own experience in the town. But at its core, his visit had been to find Mary—and ultimately, learn the truth about his own delusions—and had nothing to do with rebirthing gods or anything of that scale. His was a far more personal journey, and maybe as a result, it seems like he was oblivious to many things going on in Silent Hill.
To say the least.
It takes him a moment to reply, because he's both digesting this information and all that Heather's trying to tell him.]
I... that's insane. Not that I don't believe you, but I'd never known about Silent Hill being used as a breeding ground for a god.
[He shakes his head.]
So that's all to say, no. The world wasn't falling apart based on what I last remembered. I hope that's a good sign.
[Not the world as a whole, anyway. His own world was shaken to the core, but now's not the time for that.]
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or maybe he wasn't even from the same world. it was possible he was from another world with its own silent hill. these were the many thoughts that lingered in her mind as she offered him a gentle pat to the shoulder. it was a lot of information, she gets it. )
I hope so too but I guess it doesn't matter. We might not even be from the same world in the end, but if Echo brought you here...and me and that guy I was telling you about.
It's possible we're all here for a reason. To work together to save our world because our world isn't quite doomed yet.
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That seems to be what they're touting. To judge if we're all good enough people to... save our universes.
[A pause. A roil of anxiety in his chest.]
But I don't know. I'm a bad pick. That Vincent sounds like one, too.
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to her she had gone in out of her own volition, and the other world, despite harming her and also showing her messages, kept her alive. it wasn't outright to kill or punish her, but rather to fester hatred in her and bring her to the point where she would birth the order's god. )
Trust me...I've been here long enough to see that Echo doesn't really have a moral stance on things. Good or bad, it just wants us to prove we're worthy.
And you can't be too bad, you let me talk without judging me too harshly.
( all she can do is offer him a soft smile. )
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And he still feels guilty when Heather spins it a little differently. But he can appreciate her attempt, and more importantly, he can align himself with the stance more easily.
Instead of being here because he's worthy, proving himself to be... is more palatable. Doesn't that align with his intentions, anyway? To live, to be better, for Mary?]
...Thanks, Heather. [And he means that.] I'll do my best. Since there are others counting on me to be better.
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Listen, we have to look out for each other while we're here. This place...it does things to you. I thought this place would be a break from Silent Hill but-
not always. So what do you say? I look out for you, you look out for me? Shake on it?
( she had been told to make friends, to have people who would look out for her and she should do the same. so while it seemed a bit advantageous of her propose such a thing after a deep revelation, she felt this man could use all the support he could get. )
And uh...sorry about the soup.
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