TDM 007

[etrayamods]

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⏴

Comments

[shadowsincryo]

[He sighs, turns his head, and points at the earpiece. The magic snaps off like a light switch being flicked.

He takes out a small notepad and writes on it. He holds it up.

'Insert the earpiece, and you can understand anyone.']

[rudelanguage]

[...sooooo this guy's a mute. and thinks Knife can read.

yep. half-orc was the right call.

they sigh, patting themself down. where did they put that stupid...annoying little...ear...thingy that the not-goblin pointed out.

ah.

here.

they hold it up with a bland look on their face. ta da. it's a look that pinches with some apprehension, watching for the affirmation. they...really gotta put this thing on again?]

Bah. Fine.

[but they're not going to look pleased with putting it back on!]

[shadowsincryo]

[He looks completely unphased by the attitude. Once the earpiece is in, he says smoothly.]

Keep it in; you can understand everyone with it. And, more importantly, if things start going terribly, you'll get to know where to dodge to.

[He tucks the notepad away. There's no trace of it, or the pen that seemed to have just been in his hand, and then it wasn't.]

[rudelanguage]

[Knife grunts.]

From who? S'a lotta chattering voices around. Expect me to keep up with alla it?

[shadowsincryo]

The voice you first heard upon arrival would be the one to listen to. You can ask her questions if you like. She will answer you.

[He crosses his arms and leans against the wall, glancing to the right for a second.] Watch yourself going down this way. The blind spot ends around the corner and resumes once you enter the tunnel.] Have any questions about this place you ended up?

[rudelanguage]

[Knife's jaw clicks to bite back saying you mean the illusory bitch?]

Blind spot. From her? Even with this garbage in my ear?

[shadowsincryo]

Blind spot from the cameras and the lights on this dying world. [His expression turns serious, the smile fading to nothing.] We're here to see it and understand what's happening to various worlds.

Etraya is where we'll return to. And no, there's no blind spot from her. Even if you didn't keep that in. Her signature tags us.

[rudelanguage]

...

[what the fuck is a camera.

Knife folds their arms, straightening their posture.]

Messed up. So we're just belongings now?

[shadowsincryo]

More like adventurers on a long commission. We weren't asked, no. But we're mostly free to do what we want on these missions. Our pay is what I'm investigating.
Supposedly, our worlds are protected in return... [He sweeps a hand out.] If that's true then there's a few things to rethink. Now then, this place.

Got questions about it? Or wish to mess about and see what you find?

[rudelanguage]

[they close their eyes so they may roll them behind closed lids.

when they open again, they're narrowed back on the stranger.]

You're awful easy with the intel. What's the angle?

[shadowsincryo]

The angle is I prefer people dumped into bad situations to survive. And I'm investigating this world. [His number right now is 80. He's keeping middle of the pack and slightly above it for as long as he can without it dropping.]

Having you open to telling me what you hear makes that job a little easier. I can't be everywhere. I'm asking when we cross paths if you've heard anything about what this world was like before. Or why it is dying. Tell me.

[I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Getting a few hands to help could yield results he couldn't on his own.] If you want more for this trade, tell me that too. Let's talk terms.

[rudelanguage]

You ain't inna position to get me what I want, sorry to say. Not really. [not unless he's got Soliton holed up somewhere safe. in which case: yay, but also, what the fuck? give him back!]

And I can't be much use to you, since I ain't been listening to the chatter. It's just noise. [also: what the fuck is a camera?????]

If the IOU's something that can float on from here, then...maybe. [beat.

shrug.]

I guess.

[shadowsincryo]

That's fine. Naturally, it will be an iou for information of equal value to what you ask for. To make it fair.

[He resumes crossing his arms, his expression shifting from serious to a lazy kind of smile. Good enough.]

[rudelanguage]

[Knife's got a feeling that value will be a floating number, too, but they're not about to nitpick on that right now.]

Fine. If you're honorable. [but possibly not. who's to say!! Knife doesn't fucking know! people can be duplicitous as fuck! they're doing that right fucking now!!!! raugh!!! where's Sol!!?!?]

What...am I saving the world from. And why did it mean being here.

[shadowsincryo]

Evidence suggests we are here to travel quickly and grab items for the ultimate goal. Aurora and others like her have groups of people like us that they send out after these things—many chances for life to survive a storm, if you will.

[He drags his hand over his face and looks a bit tired. This has been stressful, and he is alone from his home.]

I've been leaning toward the idea that they are not lying. Our worlds are dying. It might be part of the natural order of life. It might be something after them. I haven't yet found out.

[rudelanguage]

Foul play. [they glare down the alley.] They're...doing it. On purpose. Whoever you said it was. Rory. Whatever.

[because Knife's world? that thing's going on forever. Soliton saw it. Soliton said he's going to see it alone.

Knife's not going to let him see it alone.]

[shadowsincryo]

Aurora. And no, I suspect it might be some kind of creature but- the investigation is in the early stages. I arrived the mission before.

[He pushes away from the wall and glances to the left then looks back at his companion.] Having a bias now might miss a clue or two. With what might be at stake? I can’t afford that. Can you?

[rudelanguage]

[bias might be the only reason to survive, Knife thinks, and thinks it the way Soliton would.

they huff loudly through their nose.]

They did not tell me this.

[shadowsincryo]

What did you hear? She plays the same message for a group. I’ll share what I was told when I arrived. [He takes out his notepad again. And the pen appears as if by magic. But the more observant would see he slipped it from his sleeve.]

[rudelanguage]

...

[they stare askance, a faint aura of guilt.]

Forgot.

[because they were busy slashing and attacking the moment they woke up.

a beat.]

Wasn't a lot. Disappeared.

[shadowsincryo]

[He gives him the flat knowing look of a man who knows his counterpart has fuck all for cards.] How odd, I recall I woke up with the ear piece in my ear and her giving me and the other arrivals an apology and explanation. We all got the same one.

Including details of what mission we were tasked with. Perhaps I should ask her myself. Best to ensure she is alright.

[He reaches for his ear. Calling your bluff hard.]

[rudelanguage]

[sourly:] Might be racist. That's why...not talking to me.

[yeah. YEAH!! what about that, huh? lots of people are rude to orcish people!! this is completely legitimate, salvageable, and not at all implicating them of immediate wrongdoing.]

[shadowsincryo]

The boy who told me to keep my ear piece in and gave me all I know about Aurora looks exactly like you. We can talk to Gorgug when we get back.

He stayed behind this time to tighten up security. [He smiles, all summer sunshine and not at all like a cat that has food to leave on their food butler’s doorstep.]

Sadly I can’t reach him while on mission. But a simple correction with Aurora is possible. [He turns slightly, that smile growing wider. More like a shark by this point. But the professional tone comes out as he says,] Aurora. Do you have a moment?

[rudelanguage]

[Knife's shoulders draw up as though they were bracing to get shot, their lip curling back in a wincing snarl. that thing's HERE, too?! she's gonna fucking narc on me if she knows MY face is--

nope. nope nope nope nope nope.

they stiffly turn, starting to walk away, trying to outpace the racing of their heart.

she didn't see them rearrange their body. she wouldn't know. she can't rat out what she doesn't know. it's just like...like a sending stone or, or the telepathy Soliton does, that's all. yeah.

yeah...

thinking that, they, stop and march back, perturbed but seemingly stuck for what to do about it.

so they just stare incredulously at Kaeya.]

[shadowsincryo]

[He watches him go and waits, patiently until Knife returns. He lets the silence drag for a minute.] Let’s start again.

You were uncertain about the place you woke up in and ran off without getting a good look at anything. Took the portal and it didn’t help matters at all. It’s all been noise until now.

Correct? [The shark in dark waters expression is gone. Just the usual pleasant smile and smooth voice.]