TDM 005

[etrayamods]

⏵ 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… Roll a Die 1 Your leg is now tied to another chef’s 2 Your meal is continually un-cooking itself. 3 All of your ingredients are pickled now 4 The longer you touch an ingredient, the bigger it gets. 5 Every time you lift your pot lid, a component changes. 6 The aromatics are glowing and flashing like LED lights. 7 Your knife has been replaced with a cheese grater. 8 The ingredients are now magnetically stuck together. 9 Your meal is becoming deep fried. 10 Kittens are multiplying out of the cupboard. * 11 All of your ingredients have become incredibly heavy. 12 Your cook pot moves burners whenever you turn around. 13 Eggs scream when you crack them 14 The kitchen has become incredibly slippery. 15 It’s soup now. 16 All utensils have been replaced with crustaceans. ** 17 Your knife has a mind of its own. Watch out! 18 Your fridge catches fire. 19 Your pasta is trying to escape. Go get it. 20 Any ingredient not in the pot starts to float away. * 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:_______ Flavor Presentation Stackability Wet Originality Rizz ⏵ 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 1 Tummy Ache. Go lay in bed. Complaining alleviates symptoms. 2 That plate of food has energized you. You feel compelled to race or spar. 3 The food has reminded you of home. You must tell someone a detail of your childhood. 4 That food was so horrible that it simply must be washed out somehow. Spicy peppers? Booze? Gravel??? You’re going to over do it. 5 You have now discovered your new favorite dish. Make them teach it to you or you’ll lose sleep over it. This is all you want to eat for the next week. 6 The oddity of the ingredients has transferred to you. You start floating away. 7 The range of food and textures have inspired you. Acquire an annoying new hobby or habit. 8 You are now haunted by the digital souls of chickens. ⏵ NOTES ⏴ Please direct all questions to our mod queries comment! ⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Comments

[sonofzod]

Makes sense. Since you're from [ a later time? Hernan isn't sure how to think of it. ] a different time than I am, I wonder if it will reflect your memories too.

[godsandbats]

[Kirk slightly furrows his brow. More bad news he has to deliver]

Might not be a good thing. Will was stopped but not before the power core was going into overload. It had to be taken out. Otherwise it would’ve exploded.

[sonofzod]

[ And they just walked this man into their home. How did Hernan not see this? How could he not tell something was terribly off about Will? ]

We'll see when it's done. Maybe we can shut it down to keep it from overloading.

[godsandbats]

[Kirk keeps his face stoic but he feels that twinge of guilt again. He should've been the first to notice that something was wrong with Will but he let his affections for him and Tina blind him]

It might be possible, depending on how its built here.

[sonofzod]

Then we'll do it. If it cannot be shut down, I will contain it.

[ how? Hernan would have to cross that bridge when he came to it. ]

[godsandbats]

[Kirk has his doubts about that. On the other hand, Hernan can still surprise him despite how long they've been friends so he'll have to try to keep an open mind]

Hopefully better than us. I took down Magnus and Bekka stabbed through the bomb's control panel but not before the core started overloading. That's when it had to be ripped out.

[sonofzod]

[ It annoys him that he has missed so much. It annoys him more that life seems to have carried on without him. Is he really so forgettable? Priorities, Hernan. ]

Then I will rip it out. There are no red beams here, I can probably take it somewhere it won't hurt anyone.

[godsandbats]

Hopefully it won't require throwing it into the sun. It's what it came down to back home.

[Yes, Kirk is dead serious about it]

[sonofzod]

[ madre de dios. ]

...Kirk, just how bad were things?

[godsandbats]

[Oh boy...]

The tower's shields worked too well. Bekka couldn't boom tube into the tower. They didn't break even after you charged at the tower from space. But the physical shock from that was enough for me to flip and smash the metal man that was restraining me. Then I shut down the shields. I was still outnumbered though. You saved me just as one of those things was about to kill me.

Most of the remaining metal men fused into one and you took the fight with it outside. Apparently that fight went through several city blocks, a chunk of the the subway system, and then you smashing the thing straight into the earth and beating the hell out of it in magma. Half of your suit was burnt and ripped and you had a large red sun ray burn on your chest by the time you were done.

It took a boom tube to the sun for Bekka to beat Platinum but not before getting slashed, stabbed, and whipped several times.

Will enhanced himself with nanites for better strength, durability, and regeneration. He was strong enough to throw me across the core room.

[There's just the smallest pause as Kirk thinks about what he and Will said to each other during the fight. Will thought he was a bastard who only loved his bats and test tubes. Kirk's heart was breaking in losing the two people he loved]

I had to punch his face in at least over a dozen times to slow down his regeneration.

By the time we were all done, the core was already destabilizing and that's when you had to take drastic action.