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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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and then the five had formed. and the burden had not been so great, but josh had not known how to face any of them. even now he's trying to keep a mask up, a little smile, something like the empty-headed idiot whose greatest sin was being a terrible boyfriend. not whatever the intervening years had made of him. ]
Been worse places with worse people. I'm good.
[ he doesn't feel like he has a right to wish he'd never left his hometown. he'd - well, he'd have been one of the guys with a gun that night if he hadn't. ]
What about you? I... [ a brief hesitation. he doesn't know where he wants to go with that sentence. ] should've checked in sooner, but, y'know...
[ 'been busy' doesn't sit right on his tongue, because it's not necessarily true. egg sees people, hope sees people. josh sits in arbor magna with the other people who feel out of sorts and hopes the feeling passes one day. ]
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[ Confusion dawning incredulity on Jay's face. Of all the things they probably have to talk about, why Josh didn't say hi sooner didn't make the top 10. It's not even on the list. ]
You just got dragged into a dying world that makes us fight for points in a colosseum. I think you're within your rights to not check in until you're ready. When I got to Etraya, I camped out in the apartment they give us for two days, until Julian made enough of a stink that it caught my attention. How long have you been here? A couple weeks?
[ If he hadn't been here at least a day, Josh wouldn't be saying he should've checked in sooner. Anything up to a month, Jay won't blink. Over that, well, he might blame himself - but not Josh. ]
Don't worry about me. I've been here or on Etraya for two months. I think I've gotten the hang of it.
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[ except... wait, two months. something's off. He knows damn well Jay's been on the island with his horde of siblings the last two months, except... cannonball whose somewhere in space. this is some timetravel junk isn't it? he suppresses the urge to groan. ]
Guess you're gonna need to give me some tips.
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Must be another time thing. He's from the future, like Julian, where apparently he's treated like a rock star. He's not as physically different as Julian, thank God, but that doesn't mean nothing's changed.
Which is only Jay's way of hiding his stalling from himself disguised as thoughtfulness. ]
I know Julian says that I'm not. That's I'm not dead anymore, but that... hasn't happened for me. I don't know why. I was in the church, and ... I woke up in the hospital in Etraya. So I don't know what any of that's supposed to mean.
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it's funny how old traumas come back to haunt you. even faced with jay like this, josh hadn't imagined thinking about all that had happened since that terribe night and now. he'd assumed there was a buffer, his family to bring him up to speed and ease him in, but no.
fuck. ]
Yeah.... [ he says slowly. ] I - I mean, my team and I - we brought you back. And everybody who died on the bus, and... that night. [ he glances at the wings, considering. ] ... I'm guessing there's some time stuff happening. But we're working on - like... everyone. So I don't have a lot of free time.
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[ It's not really an answer for anything, he just needs something to say while he works out what there is to say. Jay knows what he wants to do - open the floodgates on apologies and bleed off some of the conflicting emotions he's been saddled with since he got here. But he can't put that on Josh. ]
I'm glad you brought everyone else back. Hope you did almost everyone else first. Get to me sometime around Pyro.
[ The timing and patter is trying so very hard to carry it off as a joke, but the thickness in his voice, how he holds his crossed arms tightly against his chest, stomps all over the joke. Self-effacing is more palatable than self-abusive, and if Jay can just get it out, then Josh won't have to think on it anymore. ]
I hope they've figured out how to thank you enough. I'll figure it out eventually. I'm sorry in advance 'cause I'm gonna make you sit through it 44 times.
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[ this is why he stays away from them. this is why he averts his gaze and keeps to himself, because what right does josh foley have to be the adult in the room? being unkillable does not make him responsible, or adult.
a hand lifts to rest on his shoulder. ]
Jay, man, listen. [ he does his best Dani impression, trying to remember how she had comforted him all those years ago. ] Take it from me, okay? It's not your fault. He... that shit gets in your head, and it ruins you, okay? That's how assholes like that get you to trust them. You were one of the first people I brought back.
And I killed the bastard responsible myself.
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What am I supposed to say? I screwed and you had to fix it. I already know I'm not supposed to say I'm sorry, but I am, and now thank you's ruled out too? You never would've had to do that if I didn't believe him. Everything else is just details.
[ They want him to somehow ignore it? This massive thing that was no time at all ago? He does it most of the day, every day for weeks now, because he's got no other choice, but if he can't say anything to Josh, what's he going to do when Laurie or Brian or Andrea show up? ]
I didn't want you to kill anybody. I didn't want anybody but me to get hurt, that was the whole goddamn...
[ Should've stayed away and wait for Julian to find Josh and have this conversation without Jay. That would've been the smart move, but he thought it'd be better to do it himself. Turns out, Jay owes Josh more than he really put together 'til now. ]
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well, anything around that night. the bus. the terrible chasm it left within him. ]
I know.
[ he lets out a breath. trying to think about how he felt - and knowing that his fuckup had him fleeing the others for years. ]
Look, uh... [ his blank eyes shift skyward, searching the neon haze for a moment before dropping back down. ] You're welcome, man. I just meant - that night was a long time ago for me. I forgave you ages ago, and... I dunno, things got messy... forget what you're supposed say. What do you want to say?
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Jay shakes his head. ]
I said it already.
[ Sorry, and thank you. Making up for it is Sisyphean. He might as well scrub the tears out of his eyes try to ignore the boulder. He doesn't have to push it up the metaphorical hill. ]
You wanted to talk strats. They gave me a score of 95. I don't know what they gave you, but I could take a few losses in the fights if yours is low so you don't have to worry about hitting zero and vanishing.
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okay. okay. he's the only one here of the original squad. not david, who could logic his way through this. or sofia, who would be able to find just the right words to ease jay's mind. just him.
he scrubs a hand through his hair, leaving it at odd angles as he looks away. ]
I'm at a 32. [ ...... ] I don't really wanna run the risk of hurting you.
[ the words hang uncertainly for a moment as josh remembers that all jay would know him as is the healer. that he's from the era where his powers just heal and not from where they are now. ]
Unless, like, they give points for entertainment? We could run it like a wrestling match.
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The rest of it will keep. They don't half to pretend move on; they kinda need to. Turns out strategy was important after all. ]
I guess the good news is my healing's, well, healing again.
[ Move it along quick, without talking about why it wasn't, because that should be good news. ]
If you get in a lucky shot, it won't matter, and yeah, obviously we're gonna fake it. I don't want to fight in their stupid coliseum, but I also don't want you flub an interview and lose 33 points. The other options are worse, trust me. We'd have to figure out a way to publicly do something that makes you instantly interesting and popular.
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but he also remembers the way jay had screamed at him. he hadn't wanted to be saved. ]
Like I said dude, here's where Jersey Shore comes in handy. And Survivor. And Big Brother. [ he rests a hand on his hip, grinning. ] My goal was to be on one before the whole mutant thing. So, I got the formula down for what gets the popular vote, just need a few things to make it work.
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But if that's the route Josh wants to go, Jay'll help. ]
If you think it'll work, okay. But I swear if you start losing points, I'll challenge you to a match on live tv before I let you get voted off the island. Now what do you need?