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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. |
Casino Royale
A voice speaks up behind him and he glances back, blinking. The fuck, is that seriously a talking purple cat? Holy hell, as much as he doesn't want Last Order to be going through Aphaia's nonsense she'd love this.]
......... Fine.
[He moves aside, but for whatever reason he doesn't feel like he can go into the casino just yet. It's like his feet are frozen to the floor.]
!!!!
round and round it goes, until it lands on... 6.
blaze frowns, but she doesn't foresee any problems—a princess can't afford make mistakes in the first place. instead, she's making her way inside, brushing past the young man who had been in line ahead of her. ]
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Except his feet still don't want to move, not until the weird cat person starts heading into the casino. He knows something is wrong when he starts trailing after her.
And that's super weird, so he speaks up.]
Hey, are you from this shitty planet? Or are you from Etraya?
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What business is it of yours?
[ truthfully, maybe it's the cameras, or the interview hosts on the streets, or even just the sense of unfamiliarity and being out of place that she's felt since arriving, but blaze can't help but feel she has more important things to do than chat with the locals. her patience is wearing thin, but—no, she's being too harsh. still, she'll cross her arms with a sigh. ]
I am not of this place, and I have never been to your Etraya, but I have heard of it. I take it that you have been sent here by Aurora as well?
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Yeah. [She must be new if she doesn't know much about Etraya but knows Aurora. Oof, getting tossed right into the deep end with a mission right off the bat must suck.] This is just another mission. When it finishes we all go back to Etraya.
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[ slow down, and don't lump her in with the rest of you bozos. she did just get here, and she doesn't seem too pleased about it, based on her cold expression. ]
This is my "mission", and when it is complete, Aurora will return my home. Is that not how this works?
[ though she does have her doubts about the honesty of the ai, but for now, she's doing what she can. ]
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[Accelerator raises an eyebrow. Guess she didn't get the whole spiel before ending up here.]
Everyone who got tossed into Etraya by Echo goes on missions, unless you pay for a get-out-of-mission free card. We go do the mission, go back to Etraya, and stay in the dark about whether we're actually saving out universes, or if it's all just horse shit.
[Yeah, there's no guarantee the universe saving is even a real thing. Have fun with that.]
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And you're... calm, despite this?
[ if it were blaze, the very realization that this is unproven horse shit leaving her in such a limbo would have her wanting to burn down this "etraya" he speaks of. learning it from another victim of this wild goose chase, at least, seems to have her more stunned at his own seeming indifference. ]
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No point in getting worked up over it. We've got no access to Echo, so we've had no way to verify what Aurora's told us. Until there's some way to do that it's better to just do the fucking missions, on the off chance it's all true.
[At least, it is for him, since he has a lot of people he's responsible for back home.]
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I suppose that's true...
[ if it's between a chance for her world to have been fine all along, and her to have been tricked, it would be unfortunate. if she were the single cause for her world's destruction though, it would be another matter entirely—one she doesn't think she could live with. not to mention what would likely happen to sonic's world, if hers were to perish.
her expression seems troubled, but if there's no fighting it: ]
It is my responsibility to ensure the safety of my people—I will not let them down. And you...
[ she meets his gaze, eyes searching. if he's similarly responsible for his world, some sort of prince, perhaps? ]
You are?
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Accelerator. [He shrugs.] I run a sovereign city-state back home. Academy City. It's located in Japan.
[He has absolutely no idea if her universe has a Japan.]
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Blaze the Cat, Princess of the Sol Empire. It is my pleasure.
[ and while she is sincerely grateful for his assistance... ]
Thank you for taking the time to explain more about these missions to me, but I'm afraid that I have something important that I must attend to now.
[ that flash drive is waiting for her. ]
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Uh, yeah. same.
[He shifts a little uncomfortably, still not wanting to leave for whatever reason.]
You planning on doing some gambling? [Somehow, she doesn't seem like the type.] Or going to look for that fucking flash drive.
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I'm not opposed to it, but you are correct—it's the flash drive I'm more interested in.
[ really, she can't help but be reminded of amy's birthday party by the whole situation. but just as she had successfully completed the heist with rouge, she doesn't intend to walk away from this casino until she has found that flash drive.
while she could use rouge's expertise here, she'll accept this boy's too, if that's what he's getting at. ]
Have you found any clues?
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No, but I haven't talked to people about it outside this place.
[He isn't the best at information gathering, sadly.]
Figured this place was a good starting point. It isn't part of the mission, but having more information on Aphaia is something good to have.
[It could be useful for Etraya or their own universes. Who knows, he'd rather have more information than less.]
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Perhaps. It's hard to know for how much longer we will be here.
[ she hesitates for a moment... but seems to gather her resolve before she looks back to accelerator, expectant. ]
Shall we investigate together?
[ this whole... relying on others is still new to her, she'll admit, but perhaps this is an opportunity for her to practice it. ]
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Objectively speaking, if they're both serious about learning about this flash drive, working with each other is a much better idea.]
Yeah, fine. [He's going to go ahead and be casual about this.] We might have a better chance of finding out some information together.
[With that decided he glances around.]
I'd say the most logical place to start would be security, but I don't know how easy it'd be to get in.
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I have an idea. Grab me one of those cameras, would you?
[ she would do it herself, but the fact is that most things here are hanging around at a height meant for humans, not for cats. ]
Everyone in this place seems to agree on one thing: entertaining others for points. If we enter as a part of a performance, perhaps they will play along and let us through.
[ and while she's not much of a performer, she's willing to give it a try—or at least get through the doors and go from there using a method like this. ]
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He nods, reaching for the camera with his free hand, grabbing it.]
It's worth a try. [He sounds a little reluctant for the same reason she might be. He's good at being dramatic, but actual acting... nope. That isn't him, and he doesn't like performing for an audience.
It isn't a bad plan, though. They may get way more leeway if they act the part.]
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I noticed some staff heading back and forth from that area. We should start there.
[ and as she thinks it through it, it doesn't really matter who the camera sees so long as they can put on a convincing enough act. gesturing in the direction that she'd just indicated, she looks to accelerator expectantly. ]
Will you lead the way, or shall I?
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Come on.
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while she'd prefer to film, she should expect to take responsibility for her own plan, taking a deep breath as they reach a door labelled 'STAFF ONLY'—and then stepping in front of accelerator with a serious expression. ]
Ahem... This is Blaze the Cat, live from Agora's Casino Royale.
[ she's seen reporters on tv before—particularly in sonic's world, so she's trying to follow that as her guide. ]
Today, we will be giving you an inside look into how the casino operates, as well as demonstrating how cheaters are identified through the casino's state-of-the-art security system.
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... Also, it's kind of hilarious watching her act like a reporter instead of a streamer. Apparently neither of them have any experience doing this.]
Let's get this over with.
[He does his best to hold the camera steady (which is harder than it looks) as he pushes the door open.]
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And now I'd like to present to you, the staff who make running this casino possible.
[ of course, she's never seen a streamer herself, but reporters are common—and still offer entertainment themselves.
anyway, nobody in the security room so much as spares her a sidelong glance. a little help here? ]
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He squints, then deliberately steps over to a nearby employee sitting at a desk in front of a few computer screens. On the screens are various camera feeds within the casino's main floor. The employee is ignoring them, so he helps out a little by violently kicking the poor guy's chair, forcibly spinning him around to face him and Blaze. The guy yelps, but before he can complain he notices the terrifyingly ferocious look Accelerator is giving him.]
Hey, how about answering a few fucking questions about your job, huh?
[The guy just kind of sputters, instead of telling either of them off.]
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