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etrayamemes2025-03-28 09:16 am
etrayamods) wrote in etrayamemes2025-03-28 09:16 am
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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. |
hello grandpa
[His eyes already wandered across Bruce, taking him in mentally and physically, assessing him from mind to toe. Nothing about him looks anything but relaxed - and he hardly bats an eye at the sudden resistance in their conversation. Though he holds his hands across his stomach in a calm and rational manner, creating distance with his gestures as well as his physical appearance.
Relaxed. Calm. Confident. There are plenty of ways to encourage people. There are more means by which to break them. He leaves it to the older man to decide [perhaps he already has] what he has come to do tonight.
His expression changes - an invisible shift of intensity - as he processes that he has been seen. But something behind his facade implies that he wanted to be caught.
There is a cold moment of silent before he continues.]
But we're all a long way from home, really.
[Aren't we? You can hardly single him out for that, can you?]
be nice he has a heart condition
And a herd of bird themed children.He senses the distance despite their proximity and it prods at something in the back of his head. Something familiar. Like he's maybe had a conversation like this before.
He still doesn't sit. ]
We are. Are you with the new arrivals?
nice
He glances around the room, first left then right, then back to his interrogator. Because an interrogation is what this feels like.]
I was.
[He speaks quietly, evasive of revealing emotion through tone. His voice is little more than a drawl.]
Our paths got separated.
no subject
Unfortunate that you find yourself in this place instead of where you're from.
[ An invitation to fill in that blank if Jon was interested in taking it. Bruce is certainly interested in how he'll answer. ]
no subject
Can he be certain? He is the same and hiding plenty about himself.]
Not necessarily. Gotham has, to quote the common vernacular, seen better days.
[He cannot bring himself to call his home a shithole. That language is a tad too strong.]
no subject
Why? Is it missing something?
[ Or someone? A bat themed vigilante perhaps? ]
no subject
[Gotham lacks any kind of positive light, from the environmental kind to the emotional. Gotham is a city where people are used to struggling in darkness. He picks up on the hints in their conversation, the knowledge familiar to only another from the city.]
There are no shortage of lowlifes. Gangs and individuals who enjoy throwing their weight around. Sometimes it seems crime is all there is...
[One man can only do so much to stem the tide.]
no subject
It can. But it isn't. There are still good people there.
no subject
He begins closing his eyes but keeps them open. People are quick to label Gotham a bad environment. But he sees it as productive. Ripe and ready for experimentation.]
There are no good people. There are only people.
[His calm voice is matched to a serious subject.]
Unless of course you believe criminals cannot perform good deeds?
no subject
Crane is just wrong. Bruce feels that deeply, even if it doesn't show in the hard lines of his face. ]
Good deeds doesn't make a good person. [ Bruce is the poster child of that. ]
no subject
That other people might find these conversations frustrating or difficult? He hardly finds it bothersome. Their slow and dull minds are not his problem.]
Bad deeds hardly make men wicked.
[Do they? He almost raises a brow.]
no subject
[ There's a pointed look at Crane, as if Bruce is trying to assess him in the same way. That familiar feeling pulls at him again and he's not entirely sure what he wants to do with it. Is he curious enough to figure out what about this man bothers him? He just might be. He hasn't had a good mystery in a while. ]
no subject
[That pointed look is returned, a fixed and focused stare without pause. Not quite predatory but certainly aware.]
Or thankless. People often confuse the two.
no subject
[ He taps the cane against the ground. ]
If they can be rehabilitated they're not wicked are they?
[ Everyone could have a second chance. Everyone. Even the worst of the worse. It's more idealism than Bruce usually expresses these days, but it's no less true. He still believed that. ]
no subject
Then perhaps I might ask what you define as wicked?
[What makes a man wicked? A lack of concern? The absence of a moral centre? He hardly reacts to the cane and its expression of emphasis. The former is an observation his old mentor had made once upon a time. The latter is a standard he cannot feel troubled by. Others might think he lacks one but their standards are limited by ignorance.
Isn't his moral centre just different?]
no subject
There'd only be one person who would ever fit that definition and he's been dead for 40 years.
At least, that's what Bruce tells himself.]What I think doesn't matter.
no subject
Crane has counselled others who believe their thoughts are irrelevent. Inmates and patients who suffered such deep wounds their psyche had to crack or shatter in order to survive. Such minds can never recover. They can only adapt. That he is responsible for those wounds is a separate matter. Those people made choices that brought them into his world. Gotham and her people had turned on him since he was young. In the end, those people are finally getting what they deserve.
Such is what he would tell himself were he his own counsellor. But his emotionless face buries the truth beneath reasons and motivations. He enjoys the reversal.
But what he cannot hide is the life behind his eyes. Sparks of curiosity and intelligence matched by the confidence that he is right. His voice is soft and convincing, thoughtful and therapeutic.]
Only the deepest loss makes us believe our thoughts are irrelevent.
[This is light conversation for him. What people think about that doesn't matter.]
no subject
Besides, he's far more interested in piecing together what exactly about Crane is so off putting, aside from his demeanor and cadence in how he speaks.
He's a man who knows how to control himself; not easily rattled or picked apart. There's a handful of names that come to mind. But he's not ready to commit to one yet. ]
Is that what you think? Do you see deflection everywhere, Mr...?
no subject
[Crane's response is calm and controlled; and shared immediately like he was prepared for a fishing expedition. He sees nothing wrong in sharing his name, considering the curiosity the older man has right now - a curiosity leading someone down a dark path.
There is no conflict upon his face, no hesitation in his voice as he identifies himself. There is nothing but the urge to create distance by addressing himself with his proper title.]
no subject
Scarecrow.
He'll put it away for now. Better to leave it for when he can inform the other Bats. ]
A pleasure, Dr. Crane.
[ He doesn't offer his name in return. ]
no subject
But he understands the truth. Society is a disappointment and you are too disillusioned to care.
In any case, Crane likewise chooses to disobey the rules of polite conversation. He tilts his head and regards Bruce with a cold and clinical stare, attentive and curious. The answer the other might expect but not care to hear? It never comes.]