TDM 006

[etrayamods]

⏵ arrival ⏴ Arrival is absolutely not normal this month. Instead of a hospital bed, you wake in a tunnel with a large group of other people. These are the residents. A woman’s voice in an earpiece hurriedly clues you in with an apology. I apologize; I had not planned to introduce you this way, but we are low on time. Please proceed down the hallway. An image of a shattered pearl pops up on your personal HUD and rotates. I am Aurora. You are joining many others on Etraya in order to save your world from destruction by completing missions. Your current mission is to find the pieces of this object that have become scattered in the library ahead of you. For everyone else, coming in is much the same. The instruction goes out to head to designated areas immediately, where companion bots will escort the residents of Etraya down into the depths, the area beneath where much the same is explained. ⏵ disrobing ⏴ The tunnel eventually opens directly into the foreroom of an expansive library, painted in marvelous hues and patterns with skylights far above. There are wizards milling about, bearded and holding tomes, quietly chatting amongst themselves. The reception area of the library has tall ceilings with equally tall doors Before you get too caught up in the scenery, a voice directs you forward. A gentleman, hunched and bespeckled craws out. "Make a line! Make a line, everyone! You cannot enter the library dressed as you are... Come forward and give me your name." The receptionist asks your given name and then hands over a box from underneath his counter. You can give him any name you want, he doesn’t seem to mind. It is tied with a tagged ribbon- labeling it accordingly. “The _____ robe of _______.” (First Letter of Given Name) (Last Letter of Given Name) A Controlling N Helpful A Melodies N Light B Glimmering O Floating B Discretion O Mind-Reading C Wet P Handsome C Growth P Climbing D Gruesome Q Gullible D Grasping Q Jumping E Observant R Ratty E Flying R Hurting F Powerful S Adhesive F Reading S Guiding G Psychedelic T Sweltering G Dancing T Bug-Speaking H Swift U Cheerful H Shouting U Exploding I Voracious V Anxious I Extracting V Complaining J Soft W Likeable J Punishing W Dividing K Keen X Ruthless K Creeping X Slapping L Fabulous Y Dramatic L Walking Y Charming M Fair Z Demonic M Listening Z Combustion As you read what the contents of the box may be, they form inside- Looking and behaving as your character expects them to. After all, magic is all in the wielder’s mind. Don your robes and enter the library. ⏵ unfamiliar familiars ⏴ For those without a familiar (like one hatched from an egg not too long ago) you may borrow one from the library counter. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but they will all assist in the very important mission. As you roam the library, they will make little indications that you are closer or further from finding a piece of the pearl. Pro • Hardworking • Gives correct directions 75% of time • Won’t run away from you • Very affectionate • Gives correct directions only when paired with another rat, toad, or personal pet. • Gives correct directions 90% of the time Con • Must feed bookworms • Will run away if too close to a cat • Does not care for you • Sleepy • Will run ahead • Gets distracted by rats ⏵ the task at hand ⏴ With robes donned and creature in hand, you must now complete your mission. Find the pieces of the shattered pearl. As you enter the library, you may notice that it’s all very dim. There’s oil lamps around the place that may be moved with you to assist in your journey if your robes do not already emit light. Break off and search the library. There is a directory at the front to point guests to all the different sections. Wings of the Library A General Works B Music C Philosophy, Religion D Fine Arts E History, Auxiliary Sciences F Language and Literature G Magic, General H Science J Geography, Anthopology K Medicine M Agriculture N Hobbies, Recreation P Social Science Q Military R Political Science S Practical Arts T Law W People X Education Y Spiders Each section looks enough like the last, though the books within have immense power. Pick up the wrong book, and you might conjure a dragon or a historical figure! You must persist and avoid making too much noise or breaking too many things. Or else the Librarian, a tall mass of knotted fabric will confiscate your robe and usher you back outside. Your name will be struck from the list, and you must pick a new one to re-enter the library to continue the search. You can try to fight back against him- he may be set alight with the lamp. But should you be starting fires in here? ⏵ NOTES ⏴ Any thread with 15 comments between you and another may be submitted to find a piece of the pearl. There are 20 pieces altogether, and we will determine if the mission was successful by March 28th. A post will go live on the OOC comm for this! This mission occurs out of time, similar to how the spaceship had. Meaning, those currently in game can experience these events any time between now, and March 14th. Please direct all questions to our mod queries comment! ⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Comments

[wizard_fujoshi]

Rose snorts at Rosie's heroically-diplomatic response. "So I should take this robe as a compliment," she says wryly. "An admission that the wizards here find my true majesty threatening, so they sought to nerf me."

She looks down at herself, tries... something. Instead what happens is... nothing.

"As it appears that these robes have removed my power of flight, you might be onto something, Rosie. Maybe I should have put down a different name--" She pauses, looking at... nothing in particular, as if reading an invisible page in the air. "...motherfucker. We were just supposed to put down our given names? I put down my initials. I should have had the Ratty Robes of Flying. I nerfed myself."

Rose closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. Maybe if she concentrates just right, she can explode her own head and not have to deal with feeling so fucking stupid. But of course, that would require a different robe.

[hasitsthorns]

"There you go," she offers, so helpfully, to her 'compliment' being received. But when the other woman tries to activate her robe's (or her own inherent) power and nothing happens, she does feel a little sympathy.

"Ah-" she starts, trying to quell the small giggle that bubbled up in response to the now realized oversight. She can't even claim she isn't laughing at Rose but with her since, well, she kind of is amused by the blunder. At least she thinks it's cute more than anything.

"I mean! I did too, actually." Rosie only give the initials of her true name, which was kind of cheating the system. H.N., in her case, though no one here knew what the 'H' stood for and would likely just assume an alias.

"I got the Swift Robe of Light? I don't even know what that means or what it does though yet. Aside from look really pretty, which- Not to add insult to injury or anything."

[wizard_fujoshi]

Thank God Rosie laughs, even if she tries to stifle it. If Rose's self-inflicted suffering isn't at least funny then what's the fucking point? Just to gratify the universe's sadomasochistic tendencies? A silent audience for Rose's unforced error must necessarily be unimpressed, or worse, pitying. Excessive pity would have doubled Rose's humiliation, and she might have flipped a bitch over it.

But something Rosie says catches Rose's ear, distracting her from her mortification. "The what? Are you... no, you're not screwing with me." Rose folds her arms and monolgues: "As it happens, I'm the Seer of Light, which means that your assigned robe does add insult to injury, though that's obviously not your doing. It's not your fault that the nicer, prettier floral-named blonde gets the gorgeous light-themed wedding dress/robe combo, while the gargoyle who turned her back on 'true love' gets the 'crazy cat-lady' getup. That's just what happens when multiversal archetypes filter through our real-life experiences, particularly if the universe in question is a little misogynistic, which I suspect most are. Frankly I'm amazed that--"

She pauses and blinks for a moment. She looks up, then away, then at Rosie--or more accurately, Rosie's "robe." She squints at it for a few moments before saying, "Try that. 'Amazing.' "

[hasitsthorns]

Well, that's not very generous of Rose to describe herself in such a way. Honestly, she says a lot of words that take the woman a moment to parse but- She catches that self-depreciation in the midst of it. While she's still trying to buffer the rest, she does manage to at least say: "You're not a gargoyle," even if it's softer than she intends. There might have been more about how she wasn't prettier (because if she was, why has she struggled so much here with getting anyone's attention?) or how turning one's back on love doesn't lead them down the crazy cat-lady pipeline by default but she doesn't manage any of it. Just the bit about the gargoyle, which her mind decided was the most important to address.

Also, what was that about a wedding dress? Talk about adding insult to injury if that's what the aesthetic was going for, honestly. If they're talking about multiversal jabs, that feels like a pretty powerful one at her in particular. Oh, well. Moving on.

"Try what? Saying it? Amazing-" It's barely passed her lips before the Library hall suddenly lights up in dramatic, blinding fashion with her as the source. Well, specifically- Her robe. She squeezes her eyes shut to shield from the brief, dazzling light but still has to blink away stars with a groan. "Oh. So that's what it does."

[wizard_fujoshi]

It's just as well that Rosie doesn't try to argue about their relative attractiveness, in part because Rose thinks she could put together a pretty airtight case for her perspective, in part because Rose's counter-argument might end up objectifying and demeaning them both, and in part because Rose is already kind of chagrined that she let herself get so self-deprecating over basically nothing.

Rose lets out a sigh and a "Thanks." She does mean it, and she does believe Rosie, but it's not easy to do a verbal U-turn while going 60MPH into Self-Loathing City. Anything else she said would probably head into that redoubtable sister-city Self-Recrimination, so Rose tries instead to focus on the change in topic. "Yeah, try--"

The dramatic, blinding flash elicits an equally dramatic "Oh, fuck!" from Rose as the light assaults her eyes. She squeezes her eyes shut and scrunches up her face in an expression that might objectively be described as gargoyle-like, but fortunately the only one likely to see that is Rosie. Soon Rose is rubbing her eyes and... laughing.

"This is so stupid," she says, trying to wipe flashbang-induced tears from her eyes.

[hasitsthorns]

The exclaimed curse is a comical contrast to the initial surprised squeak of a sound that Rosie lets out. She thinks to curse, of course, and is mentally doing so as her head pounds after being subjected to that sudden light. The laughter is a bit of a balm though for that.

Well, if nothing else, at least it was funny.

"Welcome to Etraya," says Rosie, giving 'jazz hands' even as she blinks in excess to rid her vision of those lingering dots. "Stupidity tends to be the name of a lot of stuff here, but it does keep things interesting." She certainly didn't expect a flashbang in robe form, after all.

[wizard_fujoshi]

Rose's vision is a little blurry, but Rosie's tone clarifies that those are supposed to be jazz-hands. "Thanks," Rose says, her tone somewhere between sardonic and genuine. Maybe even she doesn't know what tone she's trying to use.

"It's actually been a while since I've laughed like that," she adds, catching her breath. "Literal years, in fact. My body is not thanking me for it." She's reasonably sure she didn't bruise a rib or anything, but not 100% sure.

"I appreciate the help, Rosie, as well as the stupidity. Maybe I'll take you up on the food once I've made some progress on this 'mission' of ours."

we can wrap this one here too

[hasitsthorns]

As long as the jazz-hands were understood, all is good. The tone is noted but not in any kind of way, just taken for what it is. She's going through it. Aren't all of them in Etraya, to some degree? Probably.

Still, it does make her happy to hear about the laughing. Okay, and- A little concerned too! Even for as down as Rosie can get, she can't imagine going actual years without a little laughter in her life. "Another skill you'll have to work at building back up then," she offers. "Thankfully, it should be easy since I'm prone to ridiculous stunts like that. Honestly kind of am-" Wait. No. No, she catches herself, and sighs in relief that just thinking it didn't trigger her robe again. Okay. Cool. It's not a telepathically-powered robe.

"Mmmm- Anyway! Yeah, for sure. You'll have to tell me what your robe does, too, since I am curious. But so as to not hinder your - and other people's, possibly - it's probably better if I, uh, let you go and figure that out." Unintentionally blinding folks on a mission is a recipe for disaster if she ever heard one.