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

querulus: (x-manhunt - ........)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-09 11:47 pm (UTC)(link)
[Oh. A kid. Asking about mutants.

Quentin squints down at her, trying to get a read on her. Keller mentioned a younger version of Laura, and this kid does kinda look like Gabby, but the psychic signature doesn't quite match up.]


Uhh, yeah. Sure am. Say, does the word "snikt" mean anything to you, squirt?
querulus: (gen x - wow dude that's mid)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-09 11:51 pm (UTC)(link)
privilege of us full-time psychics

the asshole who cut off my head and put it in a box
sophielicious: (36)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-09 11:53 pm (UTC)(link)
And waste precious 2 seconds out of these 2 minutes you've given me?

(But hey!! She's being normal now!! She's even giving her hand to shake, like a normal person.)
futuremessiah: (013)

[personal profile] futuremessiah 2025-04-09 11:54 pm (UTC)(link)
So you're just a head in a box?
querulus: (psylocke - literally why)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 12:06 am (UTC)(link)
no??

i got better dwbi

so i'm guessing there's no victor creed variants then. who else do we have?
futuremessiah: (052)

[personal profile] futuremessiah 2025-04-10 12:14 am (UTC)(link)
How was I supposed to know?

I've talked to a couple of Cyclopes, Jean Grey, Nate Grey, Josh Foley, and Hellion. Jean said there is a baby Wolverine here, Laura, not Logan. I know they said there were others as well, but that's all I know.
rudelanguage: (pic#17730072)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-04-10 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
[holy shit this guy's annoying. Knife considers just shoving them like a schoolyard bully and leaving, but what'll that accomplish? no fresh intel...maybe less of a headache. or just a delayed headache; this whole fuckin' place is a headache.

Knife wrinkles their nose while he jaws on.]


Uh. Thanks. Can you...be helpful now? [...] Please?
rudelanguage: (pic#17730078)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-04-10 12:16 am (UTC)(link)
You're gonna find it here? While doing... [they gesture. all this shit?]
querulus: (psylocke - literally why)

arrival!

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 12:19 am (UTC)(link)
[Quentin Quire has a headache. And that headache's name is Nate Grey.

Not that he has anything against Nate specifically. He barely even knows the guy. Sure, maybe there's a little competitiveness because of the whole "crazy powerful telepath and telekinetic" thing and being one of a pretty short list of male telepaths. But that's whatever. No, no, his beef currently with Nate is the absolutely godawful mess he's spewing out into the telepathic landscape. It's just rude! Quentin is on his way over there from the other side of the city to uh... undecided. Help? Complain? All of the above?? But he reaches out telepathically in the meantime while he figures out the actual plan.]


/Dude. You wanna stop thought-barfing all over my frontal lobe? Can barely hear myself think over here./
bubblegumheart: (pic#16030307)

[personal profile] bubblegumheart 2025-04-10 12:20 am (UTC)(link)
That sucks. I'm sorry.

[Maybe it wasn't as big a deal to him as it had been to her, but it's still pretty sucky to have to miss out on something like that. Either way, she's given up on mirroring him for the time being in favor of doing the cupid shuffle, to the audience's apparent delight.]

Don't worry- I'm not trying to end up dead a third time.

[The flippant way she admits that is probably cause for concern, but it is what it is.]
rudelanguage: (pic#17713221)

[personal profile] rudelanguage 2025-04-10 12:22 am (UTC)(link)
[Knife can't tell if that's genuine praise or she's just patronizing. Knife being Knife...decides to be offended and elbows back after she elbows. quit iiiiit!

they huff, trying to think fast. what would Erast do...that...didn't involve disembowelment.............or seduction. fuck, okay, forget Erast. not helpful.

actually? thinking on what any of his party would do isn't helpful because Knife is not: part horse, a furry, remotely charismatic, or a ghost. thanks team. FOR NOTHING!!!!!

Knife would shank and spree. but Knife isn't Knife right now.

...guess Knife has to learn on the job. how to throw when tall but not very strong.

lesson one: try and grab lady's clothes and spin.]
querulus: (wca - don't talk to me)

[personal profile] querulus 2025-04-10 12:23 am (UTC)(link)
[Tomorrow.

What a terrible day.

Quentin brings the champagne—rosé of course—to Sophie's apartment door as promised. He knows she can sense him as well as he senses her, and that's why he has his mind locked down to only the most surface level thoughts. It's also why he doesn't knock at her door. She knows he's here. Why bother.

He assumes the amount they do not want to talk to each other is approximately the same, so he drops the bottle in front of the door and starts walking away.]
copsormasks: (004)

[personal profile] copsormasks 2025-04-10 12:24 am (UTC)(link)
[Jason frowns as she changes the steps and switches up as well to mirror her. He's not perfect but he's keeping up.]

Third time? [He asks in between steps.]
futuremessiah: (101)

[personal profile] futuremessiah 2025-04-10 12:33 am (UTC)(link)
[Hope is used to being around odd looking people. Beast is covered entirely by blue fur. Nightcrawler was the same, and had a prehensile tail. Pixie has the most amazing wings. No eyebrows are very low on her list of odd things.]

My dad taught me to always be prepared for the worst.

[That and life, both on the run and since joining Utopia. ]
sophielicious: (nyx_046)

[personal profile] sophielicious 2025-04-10 12:41 am (UTC)(link)
(Her brain is more or less in place now that she had some time to sleep and rest, so it's not particularly hard to discern he comes.

Thing is, she's not just going to let him leave. They have words to exchange, and once she feels him start to leave, the door opens so she can pull him into the room by his shirt... And the pink glow that engulfs the bottle brings it too.

The same pink pushes the door until there's a click. Sorry, Quentin.)


/That's mean./
bubblegumheart: (pic#16923806)

[personal profile] bubblegumheart 2025-04-10 12:43 am (UTC)(link)
[A year ago, she would've jumped at the chance to change the subject by pointing out that he can obviously do more than sway from side to side, but she's made peace with what happened to her so it's easy enough to talk about.]

I didn't come here from the place I'm originally from like a lot of people did. I was somewhere else for a year, and I only found out about the first time when someone I knew told me about it.

[If that explanation sounds needlessly complicated, well... the entire situation is pretty complicated.]
thelightshines: (what is love?)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-10 12:50 am (UTC)(link)
[...It doesn't matter. He doesn't hear their conversation, but it all doesn't matter. Maria can intervene all she wants, but nothing will change if the other doesn't share the same sentiment. And he doesn't want Maria to keep needing to do this for his sake. The other wants him dead. That's all that matters.

...

He knows what he has to do once this is over.

His ears twitch, listening to hear when the other would finish their conversation. Sounded like she got the other to get with the program...it doesn't fill him with much relief, having to work with the guy who wants him dead. So he looks around, trying to remember what he had been doing, because yea, he really wants out as soon as possible. Away from them. There's the sloshing of water when he takes a step, making him pause.

Water? Where did- the bathroom door is to his left. Water has been entering this room. A feeling of dread starts to creep up from his stomach. The water hasn't covered his shoes yet...much more slower than when they filled his tank. But it's still unsettling to him. Their time is limited now.]
fireboost: (pic#17773412)

[personal profile] fireboost 2025-04-10 01:00 am (UTC)(link)
[ blaze listens quietly to the duration of the call. not only to maria, but to shadow's voice from the television as well. watching the younger hedgehog move out of danger's way, she can't help but feel a pang of pity—and she can't imagine that the call will help much with what shadow is putting him through.

still... ]


It's impressive that he listens to you.

[ she'd never taken shadow to listen to anyone except for maybe rouge. even that's pushing it, and it's the very reason silver had asked him if he was taking orders from some oversized rock to challenge him when she had last encountered him. the fact that this young girl has so much control over his actions is almost unbelievable, if she hadn't seen for herself the way he responded to her words. not only that, but the protectiveness he shows—is she okay?

the gears in blaze's mind turn as she watches the television, arms crossed. ]
internationalrelations: (025)

[personal profile] internationalrelations 2025-04-10 01:02 am (UTC)(link)
That's the truth, so yeah. Going with that.

[HENRY WAS THE SHOVER. Now granted, Alex was indeed drunk and totally goaded him into it by being an annoying asshole, but the facts remain, your honor, that there was shoving!]

And yeah, okay, maybe I drank a little too much. In my defense, I was anxious and annoyed.

[Annoyed at Henry for being perfect and a stuck up jerk. Not that Alex hadn't been a jerk right back at the time.]

So gracious, your majesty. I'm humbled by your sense of grace and mercy.

[Those words deadpanned, he added, grin resurfacing, leaning in to murmur the next words in a conspiratorial whisper to Henry's ear.] I'd say we should call a truce at this point, but honestly fighting with you is too much fun.
sawtrap: (Default)

[personal profile] sawtrap 2025-04-10 01:03 am (UTC)(link)
[ On the shelf, the books are all now easy to read—each of them seems to have something to do with the sciences, though the topics themselves vary greatly depending on where on the shelf he looks. As for the stickers, they appear to be library markers with the books' corresponding dewey decimal placements printed on each one. ]
internationalrelations: (Default)

[personal profile] internationalrelations 2025-04-10 01:05 am (UTC)(link)
"Then... that's even more reason y..you gotta eat."

There was logic here, Henry. It was drunken logic, but it was sound. "Even if you're not feeling hungry... you still have a body. Bodies need food."

That was biology. Now, he wasn't a science major but he was entirely correct about this, and would be very drunkenly stubborn about making sure Henry consumed something right now. "So don't be stubb...stubby...stubborn. Don't be stubborn."
lordfuckleroy: ij @ saveface (pic#17552899)

[personal profile] lordfuckleroy 2025-04-10 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
[ A wry smirk at that statement, of course Alex would make it into a championship sport to annoy him. ] In my defense of which is very valid, when someone accosts you, it's either shove or get the palace guard involved and that was the last thing I wanted to do at my brother's wedding.

[ Aside from actually be there. ] I did not know that you would lose balance and topple into the cake, bringing it all down upon us.

[ A snort. ]

Nice try, however I am not going to believe for a second that you wish to stop fighting. I can imagine that we fight in the future too? [ He could not see that changing, to be honest. ]
internationalrelations: (048)

[personal profile] internationalrelations 2025-04-10 01:18 am (UTC)(link)
Ha! You admit the shoving. I rest my case.

[He hadn't even decided to apply to law school yet, he was just that brand of obnoxious naturally. It was a gift, really. Or a curse. Some combination of the two.]

Of course. You're still a dick. I'm just starting to find it endearing. ...and so far we've avoided any further food-based incidents, which I think speaks to our personal growth.

[Still dancing, still spinning, still in a weird ass alien world. But here was Henry easing Alex's anxiety just by being there and being familiarly infuriating. Go figure.]
lordfuckleroy: made by Nia @ <user name=hiraethe> (Default)

[personal profile] lordfuckleroy 2025-04-10 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
If Henry had the actual capability to laugh, he would do so instead he decided to be non-stubborn for once and open his mouth. No mumbling only opening the mouth so that Alex could feed him.

"I hope you are happy now."

Because Henry was not happy, he was not much of anything.
lordfuckleroy: made by Nia @ <user name=hiraethe> (pic#16623336)

[personal profile] lordfuckleroy 2025-04-10 01:41 am (UTC)(link)
[ It was comforting in a way to know that someone familiar was here, and though they did not voice it-- it was felt wholly. Though he was not going to let know, after all he did not want Henry thinking that he had discovered a tender center or anything; he was not a Cadbury egg filled with caramel. ]

Thank goodness, I do not wish to be ensconced within another Buttercream Scandal.

[ But he could not think of anything to call Alex other than ill-mannered and brash, also loud. These thoughts clearly hid other things that were underneath such as 'charming' and 'very nice arse'. ]