∎ ETRAYA MODS ∎ (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
etrayamods) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
etrayamemes2025-03-28 09:16 am
etrayamods) wrote in 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:
 ⏵ 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:
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. 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. |
closed to quentin quire
——that she wishes she hasn't. God, she wishes she hadn't. Quentin's presence just sours her entire mood, and she can not only feel his signature, she can sense him nearby.)
/Ew, seriously? You're coming, too? You're here? Just kill me, Quire./
👀👀👀👀👀
He can feel her as soon as she arrives, and it's definitely Sophie and not one of her sisters, because despite what all of the other morons around them think, the Cuckoos are easy to tell apart for anyone paying the slightest bit of attention. And Quentin, well, Quentin's paid attention to the Cuckoos. To say the least. Arguably too much. But that's a whole tangle of emotions he's not remotely willing to dissect any time soon.
He knows Sophie doesn't like him. Shouldn't like him, probably. Sophie's death is the one part of his stupid little rebellion for which he can never seem to atone. But... he also knows she can feel his psychic signature as much as he can feel hers. And hers is... off somehow. Maybe because she's separated from her sisters, but it could be something else, and she could need help, and well... okay, maybe he's not the best person to offer help. Possibly the worst, actually. But by the time he's started working towards some kind of conclusion on that front, Sophie's voice is already in his head, and he has to blurt out some kind of answer.]
/Sorry, I, uhh. Look, I'm not following you or anything. I'll stay out of your way, I was just. Uh. Making sure you were okay. And stuff./
no subject
The issue is how glitchy everything is right now. Sometimes, too silent, sometimes, it's like nothing is happening at all with her abilities, and she is on her own. It wouldn't hurt to have an Omega with her right now, filling blanks when she can't do it herself. It's not like they haven't done this before, and well. This is Quentin.
It's a matter of survival, so she might as well, while she figures this thing out.)
/You're better than that, aren't you? You know something's not right. Before you stay out of my way, get in my way, so I can fix you up for this thing. I'm sure I hate whatever you're wearing./
no subject
[His normally faster-than-average brain is sputtering, because it almost sounds like Sophie... wants... to be around him? He has no expectations of that meaning anything, other than him being a telepathic port, if a less-than-ideal one, in a storm. And that whole thing about "I hate what you're wearing" is kind of ominous, because Quentin does in fact really, really like his uniform, and he wouldn't exactly be excited to change it. But like... it's not like he's going to say no, right? That would be stupid. For... reasons he cannot adequately express.]
/... Should I, uh. Meet you somewhere or come find you or. You find me or. Uh. Well, that's all the options, isn't it./
no subject
While he is nervously buffering, she's walking to where she feels his presence to find his... Shorter self? Oh. It's nerd Quentin, all over again.
Perfect nails tap his shoulder.)
One step ahead of you, Quire.
no subject
Oh. Hey, Sophie.
[He crams one hand in his jacket pocket in an attempt to seem casual and confident, with... mild success, but it's utterly ruined when he uses the other hand to instinctively and anxiously fidget with his glasses, which are unfortunately not mere accessories. Does he want Sophie to be impressed with his new look? Yes, yes he does. It's iconic, perfectly color-matched, silhouette on point, layered, meticulously accessorized. He wants very much for her to like it. Even though she probably won't and doesn't like him and absolutely won't date him and he isn't even sure if he would want her to anyway and none of this actually matters and yet it really, really does.
Also she's totally gorgeous. But that's not new.]
You good?
no subject
She needs to live, and Quentin is the easiest life vest in history. Sophie knows he's nervous, it's the trying-too-hard of it all that gets her. The way he gathers confidence, and loses it so quickly... And as a surprise, she doesn't even hate his outfit, but 'impressed' is a long shot. Her hands go to his hair, move it this way, that way, until it's a little more defined, a little more curly— it's nitpicky, and she's doing it anyway.)
/I just said it — What do you think?/
(SHE IS NOT GOOD. SHE IS. NOT GOOD. QUENTIN!!!)
no subject
Hair.
There's a very, very short list of people Quentin will tolerate messing with his hair. That list includes... well, the Cuckoos, obviously. Idie? Yeah, probably. Maybe Logan. Like in an affable, semi-belligerent mentor-type way that he would endlessly complain about.
Point is, he likes his hair, and while he does stand perfectly still as Sophie does... whatever to it, his eyebrows are raised as he watches her hand with mild trepidation.]
Uh.
[What does he think? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. A thousand thoughts per second, and all of them are kazoo noises.]
/Something's off with your powers. Is it because your sisters aren't here or...?/
no subject
She's satisfied.
And this is easy, isn't it? She'll go ahead to set hands on him again to lift his arm to make it as if he was offering it to her.
And she loops. It's easy, familiar. Nothing she hadn't done before.)
/I went no-contact even before I got here, and it went bad for me. Pretty sure even if they were here, we'd still not, like, be in the best of terms. Shall we?/
no subject
[He should probably say something smarter than that, but Sophie's moving him around like he's a mannequin and looping her arm around his, and he's trying to process what's happening right now and mostly failing.
If she was Phoebe, it would be familiar. Equally euphoric and agonizing, but familiar nonetheless. But Sophie isn't Phoebe. Sophie is... well, if his feelings about Phoebe are "complicated," Sophie is a veritable labyrinth. A Gordian knot of emotion that sits in his chest and shows no sign of unraveling any time soon.]
/What are you...?/
[It's obvious what she's doing. It's also obvious that he's not doing anything to stop her.]
/I mean. You hate me./
no subject
Successfully done, giving her a party to dazzle and shine in and a title to look up to, but as of now, his voice is in echoing in her mind and Sophie turns ever so slightly to glimpse at him with an arched brow.)
/Yep, really do, but I'm giving you an opportunity to change my mind, or are you not interested?/
( :( )
no subject
/No, no, I am! I mean, I'm not not interested. That sounds weird, but uh. I just... Why?/
no subject
It's with the upmost elegance that she does, crossing her legs and checking her nails for a moment before she takes in the party before her.
There's the undeniable truth, and there's the manipulation she can achieve with it. She said she was going to try to be better, she did, the willingness to be better is there, but...
This is different.)
/What good does it do if it's just the few of us against the world, if I don't even try a bit? I've been trying. You can check./
(If he does, he'll see exactly what she told him. The break-off from her sisters. The apology she gives Kamala. Julian.
If anything, it can reinforce the idea that she's working on herself.)
no subject
"You can check," she says. Quentin hesitates briefly, but he does take her up on that. She's a fellow telepath, and even with her powers bugged he can tell she's still fully capable of guiding him to what she wants him to see. So... he sits down next to her, and he looks.
Seeing Phoebe—because he can tell, he can always tell—for the first time since he was brought back to life, even if it's through Sophie's eyes, is... strange. Raw. But seeing her working with Empath of all people? Trying to regain the glory of Krakoa through some kind of publicized terrorism stunt? That just... Well, it hurts. He can't put into words why it hurts, but it does. No, that's wrong. He doesn't want to put into words why. He gets why Sophie cut them off and... kinda respects her for it? Not that he didn't respect her before, but... Whatever, it's complicated.
And then there's everything with Julian: his role as the supervillain-slash-blunt-force-instrument and—yeesh—everything Sophie pulled out of his skull before he kicked her out, and Quentin is immediately compartmentalizing all of that because he already gets way too much trauma-dumping from Keller himself. No thanks, not opening that can of worms. Good to know he didn't kill anyone, though? "Welcome to die" is very funny and cringe. He'll keep those two things for future reference. Everything else is going into the "deal with it later" bin.
Quentin is silent for a long moment. His mind has been more or less an open book to Sophie up until now, but this? He wants to digest this for a sec before letting her hear all his thoughts again.]
/So you and your sisters—Phoebe—you... were partners with de la Rocha?/
no subject
"You're a better person than you think you are."
And that's her current dilemma as she sits here, posh and flawless, next to Quentin Quire. Ridiculously effortless would it be to have him do all her bidding, protect her when her power fails all of them — that is her plan, but does she want a regress? Yet another step towards 'no turn back' land?
Is this just a drop in a bucket that won't matter in the future? It's not nearly as bad as what she had just done, it's just using what is already there.
Maybe it can be both. Maybe she can be better and use him just a little bit.
A tad.
Unsurprisingly, he goes straight from those memories to ask about Phoebe because, of course, he would. Unsurprising, unimpressive.)
/We were. She is./
(Probably. She's assuming, because that was the last she heard of her sisters, and she doesn't think that would be the end of it.)
/So, since we were talking about me, that's why you're sensing my powers being off. Welcome to One-in-One era, and this is going to totally suck. I need you. So, you can take this opportunity to be a knight in shining armor, or well, I guess I'm gonna have to flirt with Helion, so you can be a doll and save a dame from two nightmares./
(Thiiiiiis is how you fish them, ladies. :( )
no subject
[Which Julian very much isn't. Quentin looks down at his hands in his lap for a moment. He doesn't believe for a second that Sophie won't flirt with Keller: the guy's as dense as he is charming, in every sense. It's rare that someone becomes more intolerable the more they use their brain, but hey, guess Julian is just special like that. That Jay Guthrie guy—Icarus—is probably on the table as an option too. He's got that whole soft boy aesthetic thing going and big flashy wings that make it utterly impossible for him to blend into a crowd. And there's probably dozens of other handsome eligible bachelors hanging around to vie for Sophie's attention.
But none of them are telepaths.
...
It's something.
He looks back at Sophie.]
/What do you need me to do?/
no subject
Vulnerable is a weird place for her to be, anyway. She's a Cuckoo, they're hardly alone, and even if she did cut the mental cord with them recently, she would still have a back-up if she ever needed one. Sisters do, historically, come first even when there have been moments of separation and disparity in thought.
Alone is weird. Quiet is weirder. To be backed into this wall means she jumps headfirst to protect herself, and this is what it looks like for her. Using what she can, who she can, because what else is there?
And Quentin is just.
Quentin. She wasn't expecting anything better from him. The lack of self-respect is just too easy to use — doesn't he feel guilty for her death, a little responsible?)
/Fill the gap for me when it glitches. Be on my six. Stand by me. Right now, though, I need you to dance with me because I'm not going to win prom Queen with us just staring at each other.
Besides, you owe me./
no subject
/Right, uh./
[The telepathy he can handle. Easily. He has a lot of ideas he's... actually kind of excited to share with her, assuming she doesn't immediately dismiss him for being a nerd or whatever. The dancing, however...]
/Sure, yeah, um. Gonna need a little help with the dancing part. You know, my foxtrot's a little rusty./
[It's a joke! A clumsy and hesitant one. Kind of like his dancing skills!]
no subject
It's just a lot to unpack when it comes to Quentin. Disdain, from the way he acts like the hottest Omega-shit, but allows it to crumble just so easy— acts, all of his bravado, immature, insecure and urging to be seen, but he doesn't back it up, much like a faulty backbone. Irritation, Xavier paid way too much attention, with playing favorites, and when Quentin messed up? Who cleaned it up? Who paid with her life?
It wasn't him, and she knows it, they all know it, but if he hadn't just ruined all they worked for, there wouldn't be a smoking hot gun for Esme to pull the trigger of.
Contempt. To think that just bringing her back would just make her his girl, the insolence, like she was supposed to swoon after that bullshit... And then, he proceeds to replace her with her favorite sister. That isn't fair, not really, to held that against him. They never really looked at him with anything other than disgust, so to latch to the only one who thought anything positive isn't that ground-breaking.
She never said she was fair.)
/Time to soak you in vinegar and turn you into a dancing machine, so excuse me like I move you around./
(Rusty? Please, Quentin, she knows you move like an neglected, unlubed gear.)
/Take my hand, and lead us to the dancefloor. I got the rest./
no subject
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?
no subject
(This is a shallow place. Gossip and appearances pave the way to stardom, coming along with a superior title to flash around — alluring, if not tailored for her interests. It most likely isn't surprising that flickering lights and people calling her name are addictive to her; it's a patent flaw of vanity.
Her hand settles on Quentin's, delicate and warm, and there is no pull back or grand gestures of displeasure from her as there would be in another situation. This is her idea after all, and she can make it work. Overall, there is no desire in her to change Quentin; she's not Phoebe. No desire to pull him apart and reassemble him to fit her own assertions on the long-term, in fact, she doesn't care nearly enough as her sister did to go to such lengths.
But tonight is a special occasion that will benefit both of them. Mostly her. Because she's going to make this look as gorgeous as she possibly can, with the tools she has been given (Quentin 🙄).
One step after the other, the sound of her heels clicking perfectly in synch to the song that echoes in the room. However busted Sophie's powers may be, this isn't particularly hard, especially when she has quite the performance in her mind to go along with it.
So, she wills his arm to wrap around her waist tight, as her own hand settles on his chest.)
I take care of the dancing, you take care of the environment. Deal?
no subject
As you wish.
[When in doubt, deploy reference humor. Maybe he'll get lucky and Sophie has never seen The Princess Bride so he can seem very suave.
Anyway... Environment. First things first, the undulating floor. Easy. He can see in her mind where she's putting all four of their shared feet, and he simply moves floor tiles to match their steps and shift with them. Next, well... This is a show, right? Quentin may not be charismatic, but presentation? He can do that. He'll start with some softly glimmering pink lights floating around them through the air.]
no subject
She has not watched it, but he does utter some of her favorite words that hit right in the hot girl main character syndrome. The four collective feet move in unison, this is actually a pretty standard thing for her, being in synch, and she has Quentin have some amount of charm in the way he moves (we work with the tools we have), and once she has him dip her, she's able to see the lights proper.
Extra. This is so very extra, but it does bring eyes, which does bring some points. The sad thing is that she might be (begrudgingly, unrecognizing) having fun. The saddest thing is that she will soon realize it's with Quentin 🙄.
She'll be mean about it. :( )