etrayamemes | TDM 007

Entry tags:

!tdm

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:

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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( josh doesn't have the same authoritative look that santo has before he opens his mouth and ruins it, but he isn't chopped liver either. from appearances alone? julian'd put him at a solid four on the intimidation scale. the lack of attached hands tends to throw julian's own off a little which is as irritating as it sounds, but. from what he can make out looking behind him out of the corner of his eye - )

I told you to tell him off, not threaten to kill him.

( probably a step too far, dude. julian moves his attention back to the cards in front of him for a moment, mouth pressing together into a hard line, before he drops the cards down and folds. his attention's been pulled elsewhere, and it wasn't like he was getting anywhere here, anyway. )

That was a friendly warning.

[ but that... sure was a thing that came over him. josh ruffles his fingers through his hair, lips quirking down into a little frown. ]

Not my fault he's a wuss.

( friendly warning, huh. julian snorts, but turns to move away from the table. his eyes are still anywhere but on josh or - literally anyone else, mostly keeping down towards the floor while he tries to walk around bodies to get out of the crowded areas. )

Uh huh, sure. If he knew you, taking off like that wouldn't be considered a wuss move. ( well. ) Not that I'd be stupid enough to run off. Only an idiot'd be afraid of you.

Yeah-huh.

[ weird how easily you can fall back into a bad habit. trailing after julian like they're still sixteen and friends, not twenty-something borderline strangers. ]

So that makes you the ultra-badass genius, 'cause you're not running away from me?

Does this look like running away from you? I was done at the table. I left. I'm talking to you.

( so he is a badass, thank you. even if he's not looking at josh at all. )

You arrive with anyone else? Haven't seen you without your posse in a while.

Just me. Or...

[ god no he's not unpacking the hope thing yet. he's not ready to deal with whatever weird grief comes with re-meeting someone who doesn't know you after you've forged such a deep bond with them.

or digging into how much of an expert avoider he is. ]

Or, well... Hope's here. But she's from before, y'know, Krakoa.

So, no hivemind.

( it's good and bad. on one hand: it'd be useful to have the five around. although just foley here is good enough for the crowd they've gathered, too. and - it's been a while, since they were kids and friends. teammates, for a brief period of time between josh's breakdowns. julian'd spent a good amount of time reconnecting to the hellions on krakoa - and sofia just recently. but josh moved high enough above his head that tracking him down was near impossible.

yet here he is. )

Thought she looked smaller.

( a loose lift of his shoulders, as julian continues to lead them toward some of the dining tables away from the casino floor. )

We’re not a hivemind, dude. It’s just easier to work when we’re linked up.

( they are a little hivemind. )

Anybody get yanked through with you?

You're totally hiveminding.

( his head tips back to look vaguely in josh's direction, but not at him. )

And your old pal Icarus showed up. He doesn't remember waking up in goo, but considering he's winged and remembers what he did, pretty sure he just got here before it was his egg's time.

No, we're not. We're still - like, individuals. We just have the same goal, and like, zero life outside of it until it's done.

[ if someone hadn't pulled a necrosha 2.0 that work might've gone faster but alas. they're stuck doing it the old fashion way.

and at the mention of icarus, he goes a little quiet. and he'll be thinking about jay and how lost he looked for a while. ]

We already talked... he's probably struggling more than he lets on.

I could've told you that.

( dropping the hivemind point, because it's not important anyway. it's just josh here, which is a lot easier for julian to handle than - any of the other five of them.

julian tucks his toes under a chair, pulling it away from the table so he can twist around and sit down on it. )

He's been borrowing Brian's side of our old dorm. If Bird-boy's desperate enough to stay in my vicinity, something's off.

( he's also one of like a hundred kids and had a roommate at xavier's so julian's assuming part of that is just - jay's not used to being on his own. but his point stands: jay left the hellions as quickly as he could, he wouldn't be sticking so closely by julian if he had other options. )

[ josh doesn't sit immediately. his gaze shifts to the room around them, arms folded across his chest. scanning for threats, and only sitting when he finds none. ]

Well... [ the word hangs uncertainly in the air a minute. ] Yeah. Think about it, man. For him, everything is raw. [ he leans back in his chair, a hand coming up to rub his face. ] And the guilt that comes with that has to be crushing.

[ his blank eyes scan over julian a moment, then skim away.. ]

And, like, he also only knows us at sixteen. We weren't exactly, y'know, forgiving of mistakes back then. Especially Reaver adjacent ones.

It wasn't his fault.

( obviously.

it was, to an extent. jay was an idiot and walked off to help someone who was up to no good - but how was he supposed to know that? they were all desperate to do something, anything to help, and jay just happened to be the poor sap who stryker got his fingers into. julian gets that, now.

but josh has a point. they were all significantly less forgiving back then. and the argument of jay being a kid would have meant nothing to them, given they were all kids. )

Anyway. He's fine, outside of that. ( say what you will about julian's attitude, but he'd never leave another xkid behind. ) Ms. Grey's been around, cleaning up other areas of the school. Quire showed up recently. Now you and - ( his hand raises, gesturing around them. ) The others who've showed up here.

I know.

[ too well. but they both know that.

he scratches the bridge of his nose with his thumb, dropping his hands back down. ]

And here we are in discount Mojoworld. At least mutant drama makes for good tv.

It could be worse.

( julian's lips twist up into a grin, eyes finally actually looking at josh, although maybe that's not - a good thing. )

All the death battles they've thrown here thus far have been fair, at least. No assholes in the audience to help them cheat. That I've noticed.

[ god that sounds unpleasant.

and there's that... protective urge again. at the idea of julian ending up in that arena. ]

Yet. If you get tossed in there I'm gonna be your infinite hp cheat.

( something - shifts.

which is approximately when julian realizes he's failed the simple task of not meeting someone's eyes that he'd given himself after spinning the wheel. unfortunately for julian specifically, that realization hits two seconds too late, because the determination sets in just after the oh shit moment.

the grin sits on his mouth, as julian scoots a little closer to the edge of his chair and hooks his sneaker around the leg of josh's, pulling it closer to his own. )

I won't need it. None of those assholes can get close enough to even touch me.

[ oh, well, hello julian in his personal space. josh's brows tick down in confusion, blank gaze meeting julian's blue one. is his chair about to get tipped? has he gotten way too comfortable being a god amongst mutants to forget how comfortable julian is manhandling him? ]

I did notice your powers have gotten a lot stronger since, uh... [ he ran away? hmmm ] I wouldn't be surprised if they end up reclassified.

Since you left us? ( there's a bit of bitter resentment, there. because josh had fucked off and abandoned them. julian was left comatose and missing his spleen, and foley was gone up until he and nori were two seconds away from certain death. and then gone again, when julian's hands were blown off by nimrod. hands he's still missing, thanks.

but it's not important right now. julian's busy with other things.

like hooking his other sneaker around the other front leg of the chair, pulling it forward until they're face-to-face. there's still space between them, given - you know, legs need room, but it's not all that much. )

It was the whole mess of crap when we were on Utopia. ( fuck if he remembers all of it, he knows moira was involved and - well. ) I went from having my power level fucked to hell to being able to move things on a molecular level.

[ josh lets himself be shifted, and again he feels like he's sixteen. wanting julian's attention and friendship back but anticipating to be - what, noogied? tossed out a window? they're grown men, for chrisstakes, surely he's grown enough.

and he can clock all the damage. the remnants of it. part of him wonders if julian will enter the crucible. another part wonders why it hadn't occurred to him to just... seek him out and offer to heal him.

but people aren't really coming to him to heal them all that often these days. ]

Crazy to think there was a time you couldn't even move a paperclip... [ there's a halfway fond smile on his face. ] I wasn't around but I got, like, details here and there. I kept tabs.

[ ....... ]

... I am sorry that I left. I had to, but the way I did was just... awful.

You didn't have to.

( and maybe they just - won't agree on that. that josh could have just stuck around. if it was a problem with the original team - julian's started crap with summers and logan before, he'd be more than happy to start another bitchfight with them for being assholes. he thinks back, to how crap had been going before josh had disappeared. they'd all been. . . not great, mentally. there's only so much loss one can take before the begin breaking, and they'd all been through the wringer.

but julian's never been quiet. it's both a curse and a boon: his inability to back down, how he's not afraid to talk back to people who think they're above him when they're acting like idiots. he was a kid, and he still wasn't afraid. isn't now, either. )

You could have stuck with me. You know I wouldn't have let anything happen to you. And through all the bullcrap - look, I'm still here. Didn't even need you piecing me together over the last while to keep me breathing.

[ that mouth of his has always been his greatest strength. it makes him a leader, the kind of man that mutants can't help but follow. stubborn as julian was, and as much of an asshole as he could be, josh couldn't help believe his words.

he shakes his head. ]

I should be the one protecting you and keeping you safe.

No.

( a hand presses down on the chair beside josh's thigh, and julian gets - right in his face, not giving josh any way out of their conversation. )

Look at me. You're a healer, Foley. You've always been a healer. Not a fighter, or a leader. It's not a bad thing to be, but you know you're shit at anything else.

[ oh hello personal space is no longer a suggestion. it's not invited to this conversation apparently. ]

And you don't have to be everybody's human shield, Julian.

( personal space isn't a thing when julian is both trying to romance josh for.. reasons he's not sure of, and also bitching at josh for overreaching. )

Do I look like a human shield to you? Because I don't to me.

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