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

levelshift: (clarify)

I do that a lot

[personal profile] levelshift 2025-04-10 10:23 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's hard being in charge of a city of over two million, especially when most of that population consists of minors. He's doing his best, though irritations like people still treating him like a child have still cropped up in Etraya, and he just has to deal with it.]

Aurora doesn't have that information, and Echo hasn't told her. [It's not Aurora's fault, in other words. In some ways, she's even more limited than the rest of them.] None of us can talk to Echo, so we're basically stuck.
levelshift: (sigh)

[personal profile] levelshift 2025-04-10 10:24 pm (UTC)(link)
"It's a shithole."

What a way to start. It's his honest opinion and he doesn't see any reason to sugarcoat it. Having grown up in the absolute worst parts of the city, he can't justify making Academy City out to be better than it actually is.

"It was made only a few decades ago specifically for scientific research, so it's a hub for all of that. Even though it's younger than most other cities, it's a few decades ahead of the rest of the worst when it comes to science and technology," he explains with a sigh. "But its main area of research is the creation and development of espers. For that you need a steady supply of kids, since adults can't be made into them. There are a lot of fucking morally questionable scientists who've taken advantage of the situation, and not enough people care."
querulus: (wca - DOUBT)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 10:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[.... Shit, did he just play himself? Was Keller not going to be pissed at him???

Shit.]


/I dunno, man, you're always mad about something. It's kind of your main shtick?/

[Nailed it.]
limiterrings: (pic#17723498)

[personal profile] limiterrings 2025-04-10 10:29 pm (UTC)(link)
[ it's so hard being the pockets around here so he'll take the note to look it over, the fact anything held up on it at all is amazing. the older hedgehog remains quiet trying to decipher what it is in front of him. ]

Mhm.

[ he responds acknowledging that the other has somewhere to go.

tbh i wish he did and it was a tranq, i think it'd be nice. ]


You don't meet the standards....
But you're ... [ catacually bc shadow can't say this aloud and i need it for ref. ] not dumb.
Fine he [ ...alonst... ] the.... drunks.
The payoffs, and ... [ ...urd ] rum.
levelshift: <user name=patch-robots site=livejournal.com> (regretting his life choices)

[personal profile] levelshift 2025-04-10 10:40 pm (UTC)(link)
[Once they're at the door he'll get the camera ready and start streaming. This is weird, this is so weird. He knows livestreaming and stuff are popular back home, it's what normal people are into. He doesn't see the appeal outside of its usefulness for this specific scenario.

... Also, it's kind of hilarious watching her act like a reporter instead of a streamer. Apparently neither of them have any experience doing this.]


Let's get this over with.

[He does his best to hold the camera steady (which is harder than it looks) as he pushes the door open.]
querulus: (x-factor - sucks to suck)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 10:46 pm (UTC)(link)
/Duly noted./

[Even without telepathic senses, Quentin's easy to spot. He's covered head to toe in bright pink—yes, down to his pink converse—and what isn't pink is stark black or a loud black-and-white checker print. Quentin Quire does not blend in.

He lands nimbly—walking is for schmucks—and eyes the floating debris with mild trepidation and raised eyebrows. Cool, yeah, Nate seems super stable and normal. This is all fine.]


Ah, well. Hm.

[He lifts a hand and lightly pushes against a nearby floating rock with his own telekinesis. Not enough to (hopefully) provoke any kind of TK arm wrestling competition. He just wants to see how much of this is Nate actively floating shit around and how much is his powers leaking uncontrollably out of every orifice of the dude's body.]

Well, you're not subtle, I'll give you that. Respect, honestly.
keepitgoing: (pic#17194876)

[personal profile] keepitgoing 2025-04-10 10:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[This guy right here, he'd never steal a unicorn. Not him. No way.]

Um... I feel like you'd be able to find way better human shields.

Look at me, I'm shorter than you. You'll totally get your head knocked off.

[6'2" vs. 5'8"... That's rough, man.

Ignore the fact that his argument for not being a human shield is that he has horrible coverage.]
shadowsincryo: (pic#14906586)

[personal profile] shadowsincryo 2025-04-10 10:57 pm (UTC)(link)
I’ve seen all sorts of people. A fair number of them weren’t human. [He waves a hand.] If you’re looking for someone specific, I need a description.
vexant: (6lGNRPU)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 11:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Because if I have to keep him from self-destructing, he's going to end up more fucked than not.

( do you know how often he sits here just picturing quentin's face getting smashed by his metal fists. it's a lot. it'll likely be a hell of a lot more now that they're going to be stuck in a very small city together.

the arm does move along with her though. his grip is lax, more resting the weight of his arm against her than anything else. )


And you've got a better chance of reeling him in than I do.

( it's her hot girl privilege. )
vexant: (pic#14770540)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 11:10 pm (UTC)(link)
/Is that the best you've got? You're the one who was telling me I should be pissed./

( not being able to do this face-to-face is very unsatisfying, so, you know what? he's just - going to start looking for quire. )
sophielicious: (33)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 11:19 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm gonna come out and say it, me keeping him from self-destructing never really worked. Mostly the opposite.

(Sometimes, very literally! He probably wouldn't know that bit, anyway, but there's just so much that she could bring up that would probably convince him, but that last part...

Julian, dear Julian.)


He accused me of being on a date with you right now, so maybe you got that part right.
limiterrings: (pic#17684734)

[personal profile] limiterrings 2025-04-10 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Forget it.

[ there's no need to think that they'll become friends, if anything, this is business of sorts. he's helping her with the points she has, and her with his, and after that they have no reason to speak at all. even with her hand in his own, the game wastes no time to begin with the floor generating new colors underneath them. some areas only allowing one step, some allowing three, but the one that they stand on shows that one they move... it'll disappear from how see-through it is.

shadow stares at the young girl before him, not moving himself as though waiting for her to be the one who leads this.

if under other circumstances, maybe he would have been able to follow through, but this seems like a waste of his time if it's only to humor the monsters that watch. ]


We aren't going to be friends, ever.

[ she doesn't know what she's asking or what she wants, the fact that she only wants to understand him because of his previous words doesn't make sense. why does she care? he's only a stranger. he's never understood why these types of people feel so inclined to intrude on lives of others, but there's only so much thinking he can do with the loud cheering that's insisting that they go ahead with this. ]

You're better off using me for points, make this transactional, and you won't feel bad.
limiterrings: (pic#17753219)

im glad you understand i was like whoops

[personal profile] limiterrings 2025-04-10 11:20 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you know where "Echo" is?

[ answers seem smaller and smaller when it comes to aurora and this "echo" person. with a click of his tongue, the hedgehog only notes that it's not like the other wants to be without answers, that's simply how things go here. ]
vexant: (pic#17694978)

[personal profile] vexant 2025-04-10 11:26 pm (UTC)(link)
( okay, fine.

that's reasonable. quentin's accusing julian of going on a date with sophie when all he did was take her out of a rough situation because he was two seconds from losing his shit. which. was mostly her fault, but not actually her fault, just the timing was. doesn't matter. )


Want to give him something to really be jealous over?

( he's also pissed at quentin. is this helping the self-destructing thing at all? absolutely not. will it make julian feel a little better? maybe slightly. )
sophielicious: (nyx_011)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
(A. She is trying to be a better person.
B. QUENTIN.
C. He also dated her sister.
D. She is trying to be a better person.
E. God, fuck you, Quentin.)


You have my undivided attention.

devota: (⚖ i’m not in it for the fun of it)

[personal profile] devota 2025-04-10 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Claudia stands where she is. It's clear she wants to approach Heather, but she doesn't move.]

That was the decision I made, yes.

[Unless Alessa changes her mind? That would be preferable, for Claudia, but she won't push it.]
querulus: (w&txm - you wanna run that by me)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 11:35 pm (UTC)(link)
[Okay, hold on, what the fuck is happening right now??]

/You get pissed off at me for doing literally anything. Walking. Talking. Breathing. But then I deliberately withhold information—multiple times, by the way—about our island paradise crashing and burning so you won't get all mopey and shit, and that. That is totally fine? "Eh, whatever, happens to the best of us. Why would I be mad about that?" The math isn't mathing./

[Aaand now he can feel Keller going somewhere. Great.]

/Where are you going?/
sawtrap: (Default)

[personal profile] sawtrap 2025-04-10 11:45 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Nothing appears to fall out of the other balloons. Looks like the two of you have to (frowns) work together. ]
overconfidently: overconfidently. (pic#15681331)

[personal profile] overconfidently 2025-04-10 11:55 pm (UTC)(link)
( Where Quentin is hard to miss with the bright colours he boldly wears, Nate is more muted with the blue, yellow, and black palette he wears. It’s similar enough to his father’s but also his own, especially in style; he lacks any sort of X on his attire for one thing.

He eyes the other telepath the moment he taps down — watches the way he pushes against the floating debris with his own telekinesis. He hasn’t really been around another with a similar power set as his. There’s Jean and there’s Maddie, but. About as close as it gets really.

There’s nothing in the way of resistance when Quentin moves the rock which, is enough to show that this isn’t a case of a TK measuring contest and more that the Grey-Summers mutant is dealing with a case of telekinetic instability currently. Forge and Sinister had both made a point to bring up that, if not careful, his lack of control could lead to his powers controlling him where he was the one at their mercy.

Case in point. )


I wasn’t exactly expecting company.

( Nor did he expect to suddenly get hit with a flood of voices in his head leading to all this. With that said, he lifts a hand and gently begins to set everything down, a careful claim of control over the moment what with Quentin having served as a sort of distraction he could cling to within all the incessant chatter. Maybe he should thank him. )

What do you want? Or are you checking me out like everyone else does?

( For his power, he means. Not anything… else. )
devota: (⚖ to crush upon with heavy feet)

[personal profile] devota 2025-04-10 11:59 pm (UTC)(link)
My father was... equally paranoid.

[Leonard hadn't been concerned with worst-case scenarios, though. In any case, she doesn't elaborate, leaving it as a vague commonality.]

This world does seem no stranger to violence, but the score system in place seems like a reasonable deterrent, for the moment. But it's best to be prepared.
rudelanguage: (Default)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-04-11 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
[Knife grumbles, waffling on it for a few paces before just committing. it'd be flighty and annoying to not, and what if this punk has seen Soliton?]

Shorter'n you. A little. Yellow hair. Markings... [they drag their finger down their cheeks one after the other.] Like, uh. Clock hands.

He would be...pleasant. [and smart. and maybe a bit over his head in all of this? unless acting really is the goal...in which case, he'd be 200x worse than this guy right here. all the numbers.]
devota: (⚖ but now we’ve come too far)

[personal profile] devota 2025-04-11 12:27 am (UTC)(link)
...Indeed. It's such a tragedy.

[It seems like humanity is quick to make the same mistakes, no matter the world. History repeats. It's why people need God. But even Claudia is aware that telling these things to a complete outsider is unwise.]

Is it not possible to bring people of this world with us?
futuremessiah: (hope5)

[personal profile] futuremessiah 2025-04-11 12:46 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, nothing makes sense at home. But that’s just my life.

Which will be great since I need the practice.
eatsnutsandkicksbutts: (SG - *WINK!*)

[personal profile] eatsnutsandkicksbutts 2025-04-11 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
We're pulling an Ocean's 11! I mean, we have to figure out where the USB stick is first, but after that, full heist! Man, if that wheel hadn't messed me up, I could've been the acrobat.

[ Doreen genuinely loves heist movies, she is kind of excited for this mission despite herself! ]

Are there any triggers that make you get younger? If there's anything that sets you off, we can try to avoid it. I mean, Benjamin Button aside, if you turn into a mini-Loki, you might get tossed out for being underaged!
devota: (⚖ i’m not in it for the fun of it)

[personal profile] devota 2025-04-11 01:09 am (UTC)(link)
It is. I hate feeling so powerless.

[She might look strange, but her love of people is completely sincere.]

I'm not certain I know what a zip drive is, but I'm willing to help you look for it.