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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. |
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[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?/
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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./
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/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!]
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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./
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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?
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(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?
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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.]
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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. :( )