etrayamods: (Default)
∎ ETRAYA MODS ∎ ([personal profile] etrayamods) wrote in [community profile] etrayamemes2025-03-28 09:16 am
Entry tags:

TDM 007

content warnings for this TDM include: violence, potential death, body horror, physical transformation, loss of senses, loss of autonomy

⏵ arrival⏴



Arrival does not happen as Aurora usually plans for it. New characters are introduced to the AI, then informed of a mission that they are required to participate in before they can return to their home base of Etraya. A world called Aphaia is falling apart, and while there is nothing they can do to resolve this broken world, they can participate in the Gamerunner's Stratagem.

Their mission is simple: step through the glowing purple portal that Aurora creates once they've had time to listen to her, and survive until a similar portal reopens in front of them, allowing them to return to Etraya. The Gamerunner's Stratagem is something they have been working on building for quite some time. She informs all newcomers that they will not be present on this world that long: their exit will appear to them exactly when it's meant to, allowing them to meet the others who have been recruited to save their worlds. She provides each and every arrival with an earpiece, allowing them to communicate with the other Etrayans. Aurora suggests taking a bag full of supplies along with them, which she will fill with a few generic items as well as any specific items they may need: synthetic blood for vampires, protein bars for those who may burn through calories faster, medication for anyone who requires it.


⏵ aphaia ⏴


Aphaia is a neon-lit, chaotic planet. Cameras are everywhere, every action and inaction is judged by the 'audience'. Towering holograms advertise upcoming events while flashing leader boards track the most "popular" players. Contestants are thrown into challenges, many of which are games of skill, survival, and deception all to keep the viewers entertained. Not participating is an option! However, avoiding playing along and not putting on a show will quickly cause participants' score to go down, and scores that reach zero? Well.

Unfortunately, there are only so many resources left on Aphaia. Their wildlife has died off, their planet is falling apart, and most others in this galaxy were either destroyed from the inside out, or warring planets trying to gain control of remaining resources destroyed them to avoid others getting involved. Their natural resources are depleted, and only those who manage to keep their scores up are given the luxury of having any supplies. As soon as one steps foot on Aphaia, as soon as they breathe, they intake nanotechnology which tracks their oxygen consumption, their food, everything they do or need. As soon as their scores reach zero?

They disappear. There one moment, and completely gone the next. Their communicators go offline, and while everything they were carrying will be left behind, no one will be able to find them. They are simply--gone, erased from existence.

This is a death and counts as a death as outlined in the game FAQ! Please keep this in mind.

"Points" that go towards their total score will be assigned to contestants from the moment they drop down on planet. This will be visible using the HUD on their earpiece, and will be randomized at the beginning. For the sake of the TDM, we ask that no one be assigned Paragon initially, but you're free to use other ranks!

The possible rankings are:

100: PARAGON
99-80: LUMINARY
79-70: CHAMPION
69-50: CONTENDER
49-30: UNDERLING
30-0: SHADE

Ranks may change daily, or even hourly depending on the kind of situation one has found themselves in. Are they having a very public break up in which it comes out that they wronged their ex? They may go from a Champion to a Shade before they can even blink. Did they save a defenseless reporter from the big bad villain of the week? They may find themselves quickly elevated up to Luminary and given all the benefits that comes with being upper class. The world is their oyster, they only need to figure out how they'd like to utilize it!

Aphaia is broken up into four districts.

The Colosseum is a dynamic battle arena where combatants fight for entertainment, with shifting environments controlled by the audience. Victories earn points, while losses depend on performance.

The Symposium is a lavish social hub for top contestants, where alliances and betrayals are made under the audience’s watchful eye.

The Agora is the public center of Aphaia, where contestants engage with the audience through polls, interviews, and challenges to maintain popularity. It also houses the contestants in high-rise apartments.

And Backalleys provide hidden spaces with intentional blind spots for secret dealings, though the Gamerunner is always aware of what happens there.


⏵ st★rlight soirée ⏴


Something special is happening in the Colosseum. Lights flicker as the arena shifts, rearranging itself into a grand, glittering ballroom - if a ballroom had stadium seating, paparazzi drones, and an ever-changing floor plan designed to disorient those within it. Silver chandeliers pulse with artificial starlight, their glow refracted through the crystalline floors. Music swells, but it sounds - unnatural. It thrums through your veins, setting your blood alight with the urge to dance.

Why is the ballroom designed as if intentionally put together to throw off one's balance? Well, it's time for the Panopticon Prom, of course!

The Panopticon Prom isn't just an adventure in dancing and impressing your most recent crush. It's a test of endurance, cunning, grace, and charm. The floor beneath your feet moves as if it has a mind of it's own, shifting to the beat like a living creature all of it's own. It tilts, undulates, even vanishing in sections to keep dancers on edge. After all, it's difficult to keep up one's pace if they're falling through a hole in the floor to the foam pit below.

Drones zip through the air, catching every stumble, every misstep, and every attempt to throw off others on the dance floor. This is a competition, after all; and what fun is a dance battle without having the freedom to thwart someone else on their road to victory?

The rules are simple:
  • You must dance with a partner. This can be an ally, an enemy, or someone you intend on using as a stepping stone to victory. It matters not, as long as you have one hand (or limb) on them at all times.
  • The longer you last, the better your chances. Endurance is the name of the game, meaning one must pace themselves on the dance floor. While epic twirls and impressive moves will garner more attention, it may also hurt your chances in the long run.
  • You may sabotage others by throwing them off balance, but keep in mind: everything is televised, and it won't stay secret for long.
  • The arena adapts to the chaos. Expect sudden obstacles, environmental shifts, and sudden changes in the music's tempo. Gravity may shift, walls may close in, but participants can't let that stop them - they must continue to dance, if they wish to win.
The audience is watching. Who will make the final cut and become Prom King and Queen? Everyone is vying for the titles: it doesn't matter what rank you started at when you joined the Panopticon Prom. Whoever wins becomes a Paragon until their points drop. There aren't many opportunities to sail through the rankings, but this is a sure way to do it. As long as they can keep up.


⏵ casino royale ⏴


Out in the Agora, another popular quarterly event is being set up! The Casino Royale has been destroyed countless times, but it seems as if the Gamerunner just can't let it go - every time it gets knocked down, it gets rebuilt.

There is one rule. One must take a turn at the revolving wheel just inside the door as their entry fee, and whatever the wheel lands on, they must maintain until they exit the building for the night. Sometimes, this is easier: an effect they have no control over and cannot undo even if they wanted to. Sometimes, this is more difficult: an assigned task they must complete. Failure to abide by the wheel once means receiving a penalty. Twice? Certain death if caught by any employee.

The wheel's effects are as follows:

1 You must speak entirely in rhyme. 2 Your body has become unnaturally delicate. The smallest injury hurts like a fatal wound.
3 You must avoid stepping into any sources of light. Doing so causes massive burns to appear on any area of your skin where light has touched. 4 You have been transformed into an animal! You can still think as you had before, but you cannot speak or communicate easily.
5 You have been cursed with supernatural strength, but cannot control it. 6 Time doesn't flow normally for you anymore. Each mistake you make makes you visibly younger, slowly erasing your experiences, skills, or even memories.
7 You can no longer form your own words, but only repeat what others have said to you. 8 You cannot meet another person's gaze.
9 You can no longer turn around, physically or metaphorically. If you try to return where you came from, you'll find that the pathway no longer exists. 10 You are given a specific letter that you must avoid using out loud entirely. "A"? Better hope you know enough words without one.
11 Every time you speak, your words come true - but never in the way you intended. Trying to control this is futile; the monkey's paw curls with every new sentence. 12 Within the casino, you lose the ability to feel anything. No pain, no pleasure, no warmth, and no cold. At first it may feel like a blessing - until you realize you cannot feel hunger, or tell if you're injured.
13 Regardless of if you've drunken anything, you still act inebriated. The effect only gets worse the longer you stay. 14 No one can see you. You are invisible, even if you are still able to reach out and touch or converse with those around you.
15 Any special ability you have is gone. You are reduced down to what an average human being is capable of - regardless of if you are human. 16 Violent impulses become impossible to ignore. You are rage incarnate, and you will be heard.
17 Every time you make a decision - to walk into an area, to start a conversation, anything, a small thread pulls loose from your clothing or your skin. Keep making choices, and you may become entirely undone. 18 You may speak freely, but for every syllable you say, your ability to hear slowly fades. You may want to watch your word count - too many, and you may not be able to hear at all.
19 Perhaps you arrived with a friend, or beside a stranger. It matters not: whoever came in either just before or just after you, you feel a powerful urge to protect them to the point of aggression. 20 Love is in the air - at least it is for you. Every time you meet someone's gaze, you feel the need to try and make them fall in love with you, through whatever means necessary.


The casino is alive with the hum of conversation, the clink of glasses, and the steady whirl of the roulette wheels. Golden chandeliers cast a warm glow over velvet-lined tables, where fortunes are made and lost with the flick of a wrist. But something feels. . . off.

The dealers never blink. The cards never seem random. And the house always wins - always. Maybe it's just paranoia, or maybe this casino is something more than just a den of chance. Tonight, you're not here just to play; you're here on a mission.

You've arrived dressed to kill, blending into the sea of bodies filling the casino's floors. But you're not here to win points or boost your social standing - you're here to win intel. Somewhere in this casino is a single flash drive containing information on just how Aphaia maintains their system. The only problem? The House knows someone is coming for it. After all, they're well-aware of the game: whoever retrieves the flash drive will obtain information on how to flip the script, to change the rules of the game to fit their wants and needs, rather than following the current Gamerunner. After all, this is the Gamerunner's Stratagem that Aurora has sent them out on! Many apply for 'employment' within the Casino Royale in hopes of getting insider information on where the flash drive is hidden and what it looks like. However, it seems that even the employees have no clue where it has been hidden.

⏵ NOTES ⏴


This is an extension of our Aphaia Mission! We have included enough information in this post that catching up to current in game logs isn't necessary to play with it, but you are welcome to use any part of the Aphaia setting in your prompts as you'd like. Current players are also welcome to bring the events from this TDM into their in-game threads.

This mission can happen outside of time as needed! Incoming characters will find themselves introduced to Aphaia as they arrive. Current characters may find Aurora calling on them to visit Aphaia after the current mission for the Gamerunner's Stratagem.

Characters already in game are welcome to post to the TDM, too! Please mark them as current characters in your header. Threads can be kept as game canon as long as both characters get into the game!

Please direct all questions relating to this log to our mod queries comment! All other questions can be directed to our FAQ.

FULL NAVIGATION

rudelanguage: (pic#17713218)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-04-10 07:24 pm (UTC)(link)
[surly:] Human people. [beat. wait.] You seen...other types? Elves?

[nephilim dhampir masquerading as an elf? maybe?]
limiterrings: (pic#17779880)

[personal profile] limiterrings 2025-04-10 07:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ shadow lets the human explain what stands out to him. the thing about a pair of eyes that aren't his own, they see things that he doesn't. as much as he doesn't care for anyone's opinion outside his own, it's still information presented.

there are some things that has stood out to him as well, but there are routes he hasn't taken part in. others, general players have always lost as though this is all repetition to them. in this world, either it's already generated the playstyles of those here, or they're cheating every time. ]


....Hmph.

[ he has a point, or they enjoy watching the struggle, the color that drains from players faces once they lose everything in their bet. ]

If there was a way to blind them.

[ unless their eyes isn't the only way that they see, but that would mean cheating to have that means of success. or... sabotaging them as they switch shifts which... do they even do that? ]

Have you seen the host at a table swap with another while you've been here?
thelightshines: (But listen carefully)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-10 07:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[He watches as they pulled out a key after violating the alien. To what? He is as puzzled as the other, not remembering seeing anything that would take a key. Seeing them searching, he takes the opportunity to speak.] I have something. [The note still being held in his hand. Thinking about it, he wondered if the other balloons in the room carry a clue if he popped them as well.]
shadowsincryo: (pic#15080372)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-04-10 07:49 pm (UTC)(link)
I agree. The more of us looking into what is and is not true, the more chances we have to find out what the truth is.

[He takes a second. He has thoughts and ideas, but all of it is up in the air. He crosses his arms.]

I haven’t been here long but, thinkers requested this dying world so we could look into one and see what is going on. We just have to survive long enough to get the information we want.
limiterrings: (pic#17750845)

[personal profile] limiterrings 2025-04-10 08:05 pm (UTC)(link)
[ remember the last time shadow came near him and someone just punched? well, he's not stupid to follow that again even if the other is notifying something of interest. his eyes look over to the other, a brow raised in curiosity to show that he's listening.

if that doesn't help, a small grunt in reply to indicate the other can go ahead with his "something". ]
querulus: (w&txm - moping)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
[Quentin has barely any reaction to hearing his own voice echoing back at him. I mean... yeah. That's literally why she asked him to bring her the champagne today. That whole clusterfuck of a conversation.

He knows what she wants to talk about. He just doesn't know why.

But his eyebrows raise quizzically at her question, because that? That's a trap. That is so a trap. He chews on his lip for a moment, looks down at his champagne, and idly swirls it around in his glass.]


/Sounds like you don't need me to answer that for you./

[Spoilers: it's both.]
thelightshines: (Can I sail through)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-10 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[Buddy you almost killed him. How did you expect him to respond? His hand is extended to present the note to them.]

I need to check something, so take it. [The needle he had obtain was left on the table after their little tussle. Picking it back up.

...He's not going to stab you with it, so try anything funny while he goes off to pop some balloons.]
sophielicious: (10)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 08:30 pm (UTC)(link)
(Oh, nice catch. A little applause to that thought, Quentin. It was 10000% a trap.

Did get a quiet from her though, one that comes out of her lips. He saw her apologize to Kamala, there is something within her that wants to be a bit of a better person.

Does not change the lifelong experience of being... Eh, on the fence, usually. The heroic, self-righteous, holier-than-thou Cuckoo is still a Cuckoo.)


I'm aware, alright?

(That's as much of an apology she can muster right now).

/I'm not gonna force you to talk or anything. Not like I fucking can, anyway, so I'm gonna ask. Do you wanna talk?/
Edited 2025-04-10 20:30 (UTC)
querulus: (x-manhunt - pyro gtfo)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 08:53 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oy vey. Look out, boys and girls, we've got an edgelord over here.

Whatever, the guy's clearly, as the kids say, Goin' Through It, so Quentin will take pity on him. And only partly because Nate being less of a hot mess means less migraines for Quentin. Partly.]


/Yeah, well, now you've got one. Congrats./

[What a nice guy :) ]

/Oh, and yup, X-Men. Look, I'm headed your way, you're not gonna flip out or anything, right?/
sabigoe: (⚙ 18)

[personal profile] sabigoe 2025-04-10 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah! I don't want you or anyone to lose their homes. [ Beaming. Honestly, it's a little scary, that she's once again tasked with a huge responsibility of protecting the world—multiple worlds this time... most likely far more than what the Cage has in its records. She's glad she's not alone. ] We'll work together. Like a team!

[ As the library comes into view, Fio takes a few excited steps ahead to the doors. She pauses, stopping to look out towards the surrounding buildings and the various aliens passing by on the nearby street. A large majority of passersby don't pay them too much attention. Their interest is more for the popular contestants. She's grateful for the breathing room at the moment, despite knowing they'll need to boost their popularity. She'll worry more about it later.

As much as the bright neon lights and its activities are very much not to Fio's liking, she's saddened to know that the current world is already on its last legs. ]


...you know, I wish we could save this world too.
overconfidently: overconfidently. (pic#15681338)

[personal profile] overconfidently 2025-04-10 09:02 pm (UTC)(link)
( While he's not lost on the concept of different worlds and all — he fell from one into another after all — it's the where I am in time part that gets him to look over to her a little more curiously. )

What? You mean in the future?
vexant: (pic#17696768)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 09:04 pm (UTC)(link)
( he does want to be alone, to an extent. being alone gives him the freedom to deal with this as messily as he feels like. being alone means not having sophie shoved up against him while he's trying to - come to terms with everything having been destroyed. everything. with sophie here, he can't break down.

which works in his favor just as much as it works against it.

for a moment, julian's tempted to drop his arm from the back of the couch and wrap it around sophie's shoulders. pull her in, closer, because while the world is fucked to hell and back at least they do have each other. but he doesn't. )


You can't fix crap. The dream is dead, again. We had a place to be safe, and now it's gone. I survived this long, and for what?
sabigoe: (⚙ 44)

[personal profile] sabigoe 2025-04-10 09:06 pm (UTC)(link)
I didn't forget. I just thought I could help you.

[ By volunteering him into the competition, whether he liked it or not.

Once again, his grumpiness reminds Fio of a friend that's incredibly dear. A sad gaze drifts over to his quills sticking out from underneath the helmet, first at the black fur and then at the bit of red color. It's also his unpleasantness that more closely reminds her of a lonely girl, one whose hatred became far too great that she sought out to extinguish every last bond of humanity. And that other girl's anger also reminded her of—

Herself. In her worst state. She too had nothing. She thought she had nothing. Still, she can only continue to guess at the reasons for Shadow's own behavior, left to wonder what his actual reasons are for acting the way he does. ]


I really wanna understand why you're so grumpy. And I'm still hoping we can become friends...

[ There's more that she would like to say. And ask, even if he refuses to give a proper answer. Her thoughts are interrupted by the ticking coming from the earpiece causing her to tense. She casts a worried glance up at the monitor. As if their rank as Shade wasn't already dreadfully low enough. She begins to wonder if the points would've taken less of a nosedive if she hadn't tried to volunteer. Too late for her to feel guilty about it now.

Fio takes a firm hold on his hand. She would squeeze tighter if it weren't for the gauntlet. Another deep breath, squaring up her shoulders and injecting more confidence in her voice. ]
We got this.
overconfidently: overconfidently. (pic#15681318)

[personal profile] overconfidently 2025-04-10 09:12 pm (UTC)(link)
( There's a soft tch that leaves his lips when the other telepath goes and says he is. Seems no matter where he goes, he can't escape the X-Men. It's not that he has a problem with them per se. His parents are part of the X-Men after all. It's more that Xavier has soured him a little on the team and the fact that everyone he's come in contact with has mostly wanted to use him for some reason or another. It's for that and a few other reasons that he tends to keep to himself now for the most part. Every now and then, well. He finds himself with others. But it never lasts.

With everything gently floating around him, he looks off in the direction of where he feels the other telepath is coming in from and gently pushes a drifting piece of junk away from him with the tip of his finger. )


Not unless you give me reason to.

( Sorry, Quentin. Nate here has trust issues. )
sophielicious: (Default)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 09:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Never said I could fix crap. I can't. Can't even tell you it's gonna be okay, I don't know fuck about that.

(She likes to think that she probably did the right thing. For all the anger that she had felt to the point of playing double-cross agent, working with someone as disgusting as Empath, well, that's something.

Perhaps the whole mistake was sending Sophie herself to play the betrayal, and maybe that could get them... Somewhere. It'd be worse. It'd be better. No idea.

She tries not to look back, only forward, but it's a bullshit advice to someone who is going through it.)


If I asked you that, what would you say?

(Point aside that she has not survived this long.)
vexant: (VSsF62z)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
( for a moment, julian considers ignoring quentin. he could pretend he just - didn't get the message. of course, quentin would immediately know how it was bullshit. but it's not as if couldn't just - pretend anyway. why not?

unfortunately for the both of them, julian opts to not ignore him. )


/Who said I was pissed at you?/
querulus: (x-men - so then i was like)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 09:29 pm (UTC)(link)
right because everything makes so much more sense back home

but hey, at least you've got a nice selection of op powers to choose from. that's gotta be nice.
querulus: (sb - HRM)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 09:31 pm (UTC)(link)
/So you're not mad I lied to you./

[PRESS X TO DOUBT]

/About... the future. Krakoa. All of that. You. You're not pissed at all about any of that./
querulus: (x-men - DOUBT)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 09:43 pm (UTC)(link)
["Not like I fucking can". That's certainly an interesting way of phrasing that. Quentin's mouth quirks downward in mild displeasure. He takes a sip of his champagne as he continues. Underrated perk of telepathy: talking and drinking at the same time.]

/Are... you saying you'd force me if you could?/

[He's not.... entirely sure why that bothers him as much as it does. She's right that she can't force him. He's a stronger telepath and would be even with her powers fully functional. That's not the point. It just... It doesn't—shouldn't—matter. It's never mattered, not any of the times the Cuckoos have asked things of him. Why does it matter now?]
hauntedsnowfall: (z acadimi smile 07)

the girl!!

[personal profile] hauntedsnowfall 2025-04-10 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ It feels awkward being in formal wear again after having worn the monastery's uniform and armor for so long. The silken black suit looks good on him and all monsters should be in black, shouldn't they? Though it isn't just black, it has a deep blue brocade winding around the top above a black velvety sash belt and a lustrous blue shoulder cape. The cape is pined in place with a black jeweled lion head broach. The only thing on the outfit he is not used to is the glitz, the sparkle, and the rather large keyhole on the back of his suit jacket and shirt.

When the woman places her hand in his Dimitri feels something in his chest pull towards her. It's a strange feeling, a tug, as if some inner part of him is saying: you belong. A preposterous notion, he is a stranger in a strange land. Just because the young woman in front of him is giving him a friendly smile... it should not cover him in a feeling of comfort. Like hearing a church bell ring through a forest you are lost in. It's at odds with this entire landscape.

Still, Dimitri will let part of that feeling fuel his smile. ]


The would love nothing more, miss.

[ While still keeping her hand lightly in his own, mindful of his strength, Dimitri sweeps into a deep bow- almost taking a knee at her feet- before sweeping back up. ]

My name is Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, and whom do I have the pleasure of dancing with?
vexant: (NuqS5om)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
( see, that's the thing: she didn't. sophie was dead for the longest time. sophie didn't experience m-day. she didn't get her insides ripped out. didn't lose her hands. didn't fight battle after battle for nothing. and even if she had survived with the rest of the cuckoos - they at least didn't get kicked out multiple times, far as julian knows. and even if they had: they always had each other. julian was alone.

he sighs, more put out than anything else, and does drop that arm from the back of the couch to wrap it around her shoulders. )


You can help keep an eye on everyone else stuck here. Especially Quire.
sophielicious: (nyx_008)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 10:06 pm (UTC)(link)
/No, I'm saying I can't, even if I wanted to, which I don't. More of a reminder than intent./

(God, the mental sigh she gives. Why is this so tiring. Why is it so draining. The gulp on her champagne, and she's already refilling.)

/I could also guilt-trip you, which I'm not. I'm literally asking. Do you want to talk? It's fine if you don't, but I want to know why it is that made you not finish that thought./
fireboost: (pic#17773416)

[personal profile] fireboost 2025-04-10 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[ apologetic smile accepted—she can't help being a little... uneasy at this height, but she trusts silver not to think less of her for it. ]

Does it? Not to my knowledge, but... I hadn't considered that before.

[ if i'm missing a game please god help me. blaze looks somewhat interested in the topic at least, but more importantly—

Kekekeke!!

the star of the show seems to have arrived at last. if silver spares a glance in the direction of the laughter, he'll find himself looking at a ninja. ]
vexant: (6QsFaQp)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 10:13 pm (UTC)(link)
( well, damn. guess he did kind of do that, didn't he. all the secrets of the future, quentin had said, and one of them just happened to be the destruction of everything.

in quire's defense, julian would have likely done the same thing had their positions been switched. there's no need to make someone suffer before they have to. and krakoa?

hurts. )


/Why should I be?/

( he wants quentin to provide the ammo. to say just how wrong he was, give julian more reasons to be pissed at him. )
sophielicious: (nyx_008)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 10:14 pm (UTC)(link)
(Exactly. To her, the question is a little different — why be brought back at all? What was the point of all those human-mutant relationships she was helping build? But she wanted to get him to reflect if someone else put that whole question on his shoulders. He's dependable, reliable, he'd probably have a much better answer than she could ever produce without a little rundown of what the other person wants to hear.

There's no answer.

Telepathy sucks.

At least, for a good 90% of that last sentence, she's okay, she's nodding, yeah, she can do it, for sure— did he say Quire. She has to distance herself a little from the couch cushion to look at him, almost in disbelief. Whether he brings the arm with her or not, up to him.)


... Why "especially Quire"?