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

dreamsofearth: (Surprised)

[personal profile] dreamsofearth 2025-04-02 06:17 am (UTC)(link)
[Maria smiles brightly when Shadow gets up to sit next to her. He was already pretty close to her, but she closed the distance, scooting over until their sides were touching. Sliding her arm under his, she rested her head against his while she curled her fingers against his hand in invitation for him to take if he wanted.

The pose reminded her of all those times on the Ark. When they would watch the Earth down below together. Sometimes if he was particularly tired after testing, she'd cuddle him while he napped in her lap and she would read a book or stargaze. The safety and peace she felt now, was the same as then.]


I know. [She said softly, when he assured her she wasn't alone. That he would watch over her.] I definitely feel a lot better now than before. [Safer too. She felt like nothing could touch her right now, and the sense of safety and quiet enabled her to finally relax. Something he said, caused her to blink curiously. She lifted her head and looked at him.]

Points? Oh...I think I remember some numbers showing next to my picture when....when I first appeared. But I don't remember what they were. [She frowned slightly. She didn't think it was a very large number.] At the time I didn't think much on it with everything else that was happening.

mossheaded: (pic#17732922)

[personal profile] mossheaded 2025-04-02 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
Don't go making up names!

[ so says the man who shoved a sword in his mouth, and decided it was three sword style.

he grit his teeth, biting back his mounting frustration. this was a ridiculous argument, even more so with not knowing her technique to begin with. there was no guarantee she was the one responsible for the faded blood on her clothes, but she had said she used blades. deep breath.
]

It's your technique.

[ hm. his temper seeming to have cooled for the moment, zoro tilted his head slightly as he looked at her. ]

So you've fought here before, then?
dreamsofearth: (Default)

[personal profile] dreamsofearth 2025-04-02 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
I feel okay so far. [Maria reassured, a little sad that the fun moment was going to end. But she was so happy to have experienced it in the first place in a place like this. When he let her hands go and did that flourish with a bow, she laughed out loud and clapped before doing a curtsy and dipped.]

Why thank you, good sir! [She couldn't help but play along, giggling.] That was a wonderful dance!
worldmapping: (pic#17767303)

never apologize!! ♡

[personal profile] worldmapping 2025-04-02 06:28 am (UTC)(link)
Well, she had been hoping to run into someone she knew. She just hadn't counted on the fact that it might be an odd... version of someone she knew. He'd have to forgive her for staring. The similarities were there, of course, but there were just as many differences, and that was the part that confused her.

Still, his was the only remotely familiar face she'd run into as of yet, and that had to mean something. Right?

It would almost be comforting if the implications weren't so horrible. The question was a reasonable one, and it only served to irritate her because as of yet there'd been no sign of the wayward captain.

"I haven't seen him yet. Or Sanji. Or the others."

Aside from Zoro.

"What happened to you?"
querulus: (wca - oh good)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-02 06:46 am (UTC)(link)
[Look on the bright side, Quire. Maybe it'll be fun. Maybe you'll have a great time with Sophie. She'll make you a stunning dancer, and you'll make a quippy joke that she'll laugh at, and the pigs will fly and Hell will freeze over and Santa will be real.

Sure. Yeah.]


/Got it./

[Quentin is not a naturally charismatic person. He knows that, and mostly he's come to terms with that. He has friends, people who care about him, and that's plenty. But what he is is a mind-reader, and one who has been to his fair share of high society social events. And he's (unfortunately) pretty good at pretending. Or at least he used to be. It's been, ugh, a while since he's tried this particular facade, probably since his Hellfire Club days, and he's not pleased about having to dust off the thin veneer of charm he used to use on people much, much worse than Sophie Cuckoo. But eh. C'est la vie.

He stands and offers Sophie his hand, mouth quirking into a smirk that's a little too stiff to have any true wow factor, but it's hopefully enough for the cameras.]


Shall we?
nimbuster: (hope?...maybe)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2025-04-02 06:58 am (UTC)(link)
[Well, that explains the weird 'clout' comment, he supposes. Getting out of here would make for a much easier conversation...probably. Assuming leaving the room without playing any games or anything actually does free them from the wheel's tyranny. But...

He arches a brow at that last attempt at a rhyme. She's lucky using the same word twice in slightly different contexts counts.]


I know. It's o--it's fine. I'll ex--uh...I'll tell you...things, but I got...some questions first.

[There. He thinks he's getting the hang of this, maybe.

She ushers him along for a few steps before he plants his feet and grabs her hand to get her to pause. Wait-- no. What about-- ugh no, dammit. His mouth works for a second before he gets to,]


Hold on. The mission.
shoplifter: (pic#11324638)

[personal profile] shoplifter 2025-04-02 07:34 am (UTC)(link)
... But you can't name things without making something up at least once.

[Isn't that how it works? No? Yes?

Either way, she nods with casual stoicism at his question.]


Mmhmm. I'm almost a Paragon. [She taps on her earpiece; if he happens to use his, he'll see her score is a very pleasant 97.] It was important to fight, because it gives you more points for rations. And you do not suddenly die.

[That last bit is important.]
nimbuster: (well? take it already)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2025-04-02 08:16 am (UTC)(link)
[Cloud gives the guy a withering look, hand on hip. Fine, so he can only speak as an echo. Time to see if he has to repeat everything, or just something.

With oodles of sarcasm, he says,]


'Lucky.'

[Cloud's heard enough 'silver lining' jokes to last him a lifetime, thanks.]
agoddessonce: (retail therapy)

works for me! time is fake 💯

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 09:30 am (UTC)(link)
Something sounding worse, does not make it less true. But we will do our best to keep the school standing and defend it from attack or damage. It should not have fallen to you and the others alone - so I hope to help now that I have returned.

A list would be very helpful. We can keep it updated in case more of us arrive. Where one mutant is, others tend to follow after all.
bitchndiagnosis: (pic#16632144)

arrival.

[personal profile] bitchndiagnosis 2025-04-02 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
[ The supply bag House received isn’t huge, but there is some heft to it. He lifts the bag up to eye level and stares at it. Sure, he can open the bag up and see for himself. But he likes to guess what his alien-A.I. overlords are offering him before he pulls the proverbial cat out of the bag.

Before House makes an educated guess, he hears the other man’s quip. His head tilts slightly with his eyes narrowing at the bag. It takes a second before he opens his mouth with: ]


Sure!

[ He turns to face the other guy as he brings the bag down to his hip. The reply itself coated in fake enthusiasm and a healthy portion of sarcasm. ]

I’m a huge fan of the vacuum tube radio. Loved having to twist the knob several times over to learn that polio is all the rave! Just like my dear ol’ meemaw.

[ A beat. ]

Not the polio, just the … being old.
agoddessonce: (Default)

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 09:38 am (UTC)(link)
Mm. I think Jean got me to watch one or two things. [ Something cheesy and very 2000s maybe. Like 13 Going On 30, with its charming and nostalgic soundtrack and silly choreography. ]

But watching things is different from experiencing it. A prom is slightly different from... a gala, is it not? Smaller, and more intimate...
agoddessonce: (look up there)

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
Did your first one happen off-world, as well?

It can be confusing and jarring, being pulled from one place to the next.
agoddessonce: (height difference)

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 09:42 am (UTC)(link)
[ Ororo looks up. That sure is a mammoth straight out of the Savage Land.

She sets the lance back down. ]


So have I. I wonder if this was meant to break easily - perhaps other weapons are available to others they deem more... worthy.

[ very Mjolnir of them, if so. ]
bigpoofymammoth: (Default)

[personal profile] bigpoofymammoth 2025-04-02 10:17 am (UTC)(link)
I wouldn't be surprised if that really is the case here.

[He takes a look at the other weapons in the collection.]
agoddessonce: (inquiring)

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 10:19 am (UTC)(link)
Well, you may rest assured that I know you. We've only worked together a few times. And been on opposing sides fewer times than that. But one thief must look out for another, so long as we aren't after the same bounty, yes?

[ Did Felicia even know she was a thief? ... Well, she does now. ]

And yes; I was here for a few months, a few months ago. As best as I can tell, that is.

How long have you been here?
catsclaws: (casual - lean in)

[personal profile] catsclaws 2025-04-02 10:39 am (UTC)(link)
[ Felicia appreciates that Ororo isn't giving her the criminal third degree. It's not as if she's a villian. Felicia has helped others out plenty of times before, but sometimes people forget that.

As for being a thief, that is interesting bit of information. ]


You'll have to tell me that story over some drinks.

I've been here a few months.

So you went home and, what, it's like nothing ever happened?
leastdramatic: ([RH] Check on)

[personal profile] leastdramatic 2025-04-02 12:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[Another similarity and an unfortunate one at that]

Yeah, you’re not the only who got fired by him. I got canned by him too when I wore the suit and cape.
leastdramatic: (Talk all day)

[personal profile] leastdramatic 2025-04-02 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
Logically, yeah. Emotionally, not so much.

[Jason certainly has had his share of flying off the handle]
waxen_wings: (027)

[personal profile] waxen_wings 2025-04-02 12:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Checked in sooner?

[ Confusion dawning incredulity on Jay's face. Of all the things they probably have to talk about, why Josh didn't say hi sooner didn't make the top 10. It's not even on the list. ]

You just got dragged into a dying world that makes us fight for points in a colosseum. I think you're within your rights to not check in until you're ready. When I got to Etraya, I camped out in the apartment they give us for two days, until Julian made enough of a stink that it caught my attention. How long have you been here? A couple weeks?

[ If he hadn't been here at least a day, Josh wouldn't be saying he should've checked in sooner. Anything up to a month, Jay won't blink. Over that, well, he might blame himself - but not Josh. ]

Don't worry about me. I've been here or on Etraya for two months. I think I've gotten the hang of it.
agoddessonce: (timelines)

network: Storm

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 12:20 pm (UTC)(link)
That depends on where "back" is. Where is it you want to return to?
bigpoofymammoth: (Default)

Network: Manny | Voice

[personal profile] bigpoofymammoth 2025-04-02 12:29 pm (UTC)(link)
If you're talking about going back to our worlds, don't count on it. None of us have a single clue about when it's going to happen.
heartofthedream: (What Even)

[personal profile] heartofthedream 2025-04-02 12:29 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[ Even if the simplicity of the answer ends there. Because on one hands sometimes it's felt like she knew him better than himself since all the time skipping. But. Also, because he likeness is the same as that key, just a touch something different, something other. Reminiscent of Scott's, and if this is the Logan from his world, she might need to reach out for him. ]

Your name is Logan.

I'm Jean. You can't remember anything?

[ There's a cursory glance about the street, even as she reaches far beyond it with her mind,
making sure there aren't any groups they might be set upon shortly, while he's in this state. ]
heartofthedream: Marvel Girl (Considering Calmly)

[personal profile] heartofthedream 2025-04-02 12:32 pm (UTC)(link)
Still very competent, but still a child.

[ Even if that argument has been made off and on for years in their own world, until Laura (and then Talon) were in places where they'd become older and grown outside of those boxes. Filled spots on different teams. And it was unavoidable even for her father not to notice. ]
agoddessonce: (I'm handling it)

casino royale (15)

[personal profile] agoddessonce 2025-04-02 12:34 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Ororo had struck 15 on the wheel, and then immediately (frustratingly!) felt the loss of her powers. It's familiar, an old trick that enemies new and old think work against her despite her proving time and again she could cope without them... but it never gets easier.

She's shuffled and shoved ungraciously inside, and before she can turn about to make any comment on that - she hears a commotion, and a too-familiar voice. Her mind flashes back to an affair in the rain, how they'd snuck back into that house in New Orleans under the shadow of storm clouds and lightning - only for her to leave before dawn even touched his sheets.

She spends a moment wondering if he remembers it. But it's only a moment, and then she is striding over to him, ducking under his arm to try to keep him from staggering to the ground.

Predictably, she nearly collapses under his weight. ]


Blast these old bones of yours, Logan.
sophielicious: (11)

sophie vs quentin (2025) another closed thread #2

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-02 12:48 pm (UTC)(link)
(She feels awful, but what feels even worseis the fact that Quentin, of all the people there could be, is the one who shares the same point in time as her. Who knows as much, who lived as much, and, God—

Did it have to be Quentin? Why does it have to be Quentin.

Well. Here goes nothing.)


/I need a word with you. Busy?/