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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. |
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Wait, she doesn't want to know.
Don't humanize him.
He dated your mom.)
/Let me guess, Jeanie, the meanie supremey?/
(Pfft.)
/Mmmm, maybe. Call it curiosity./
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[Already so young and he's already defending Jean. Scott Summers truly, 'I met Jean for one afternoon and already attached.']
I'm not some circus freak that you can observe. Get out.
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(Scott, please. Although, nothing she wasn't expecting?)
/Fine. Where are you?/
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[And wait, she actually wants to find him? His actual interest of meeting her is negative infinity. She's a mutant like him, but. Argh. He doesn't like her!!!]
Why the hell should I tell you that? Like implying that you want to actually meet.
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(Does he get what that means, debatable, but she's saying it anyway!!!)
/But don't I? I can find out, you know./
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Fine. Just get over here before I change my mind. You got like two minutes.
[He's going to regret everything, isn't he? But he'll try to... mentally send her an image of where he's at, what he sees in front of him-- although of course it's all in red for him. It looks like he's on some street in the Agora district.]
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Enchanté, Cyclops.
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[He startles, hands swatting hers as he stumbles forward to put some distance between them. When she said that she was going to see him, he figured that she'd come forth at least in a normal manner but guess he was expecting too much!! Why is she like this?!
Yes, he's definitely regretting this already.
Once he's a few feet away from Sophie, he turns to face her with that grumpy look, like none of him is amused by any of this.]
W-what the hell?! A simple 'hi' would've worked!
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(But hey!! She's being normal now!! She's even giving her hand to shake, like a normal person.)
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It's obvious that Scott clearly isn't a fan of her yet, dislike obvious on the young mutant's face as he looks from her hand to her face and back for a few seconds. Honestly he half expects her to pull her hand away at the last second or do something else that would piss him off, because track record hasn't been good so far!!
But. She's at least like him, in some way. On this strange planet. Away from his home. He'll give her one last try, Scott's hand extending to reach for hers.
And if she doesn't pull away, he'll clasp it firmly.]
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You'll survive, I'm like, pretty sure. Thooough, to be totally fair, I'm also pretty sure everyone knows you, and you know none of us.
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Plus he's feeling overwhelmed and that leads to him being a bit more of an asshole.]
Yeah, I've figured that out. [Somehow, that feels worse than no one knowing each other. At least everyone is sort of confused together. Scott's the only person that doesn't know anything with everyone treating him like they know him or have certain expectations of him. He hates it. And thus, defensive mode.]
Now you're here and you can see I'm really different from the Scott you know. [And she can be disappointed again or whatever.]
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That means, winning him over first, and while she could do a little thought change here and there, let's go the old-fashioned route of not doing that. Mostly because her powers are currently unreliable, and she doesn't want to fuck up Scott fucking Summers. So, an angelic smile later, she shrugs as she starts walking, a finger hooking to ask him to follow.)
I already knew that. If it makes you feel better, the girl you don't like, yours truly? Been dead for most of these people's mutant adventures. I'm just as misplaced as you are.
(Eeeeeeeeh, more... Or... Less... Kinda... Sorta... Not really. She knows a few, and if they know one Cuckoo, that works. Hivemind privileges.)
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They're not the only mutants here. He remembers that.
Also-- what the hell is with that comment?? Scott catches up to her enough that he's walking by her side, instead of just talking to her back, because not about that life. She's dead?? A pang of... not really sympathy, but something vaguely upset, comes forth because that sucks. Dying sucks. He's still rather sullen though, with his hands inside the pockets of his jacket.]
You're really dead? How are you here then?
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Once he's finally caught up though, her rhythm slows down a little, the constant clicking of heels more spaced as she shrugs one shoulder.)
I was dead, but that was solved back home, too. You'll get used to the concept. Do you mind if I take a looksie so I know what to fill you in on?
(And here, she's taking his arm to loop with hers, because she just is This Person.)
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Although, shit, does that mean Sophie is a zombie?? Well, she doesn't really act like one. Kind of too hot to be one, not that he'd ever say that out loud. Shit, she's a telepath though-- NO READING HIS THOUGHTS THANKS.
The question gets him to squint at her though.]
You're really asking me if you can read my mind? [He's dubious, but also kind of surprised that she's asking in the first place. He knows that she can just go in without permission; she did that just a few minutes ago. But here she is, asking him.
That scrunched face still sent her way, especially as she takes his arm with hers. Maybe, surprisingly, he doesn't try to pull away. He's just letting this happen.]
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Surely going into his brain for a lite conversation it's one thing, downloading things about his universe and life is a whole different one, Scott! So, she just frowns, keeping the arm looped.)
I mean, yeah. Asking me that is almost like you're giving me umbrella permission, which I appreciate, but we're trying to give you some privacy here.
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Also not saying that out loud!!
She's kind of mean, but she's here and keeping him company. That's nice. Maybe words he's going to regret soon though. They're easily retractable, no life time warranty.]
I thought you'd just read my mind regardless of what I said. [Just bluntly saying that yep.] Look, if you want to know, I only became a mutant like two days ago.
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Also, Scott, you gotta learn how to organize that mind. She's possibly the most nosy telepath here. Fix your thoughts!!! But, hey, she's getting a laugh out of her lips when he actually says something that is accurate. Not that he needs to know.)
I'm trying this new concept thing so I don't freak you out. Huh, two days ago? How are you holding up?
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He doesn't exactly lean closer to Sophie, but there's a subtle way in which his arm tightens around hers.]
...I've been dealing with it. [Bad, then okay, then actually getting good. Then. Here. Scott swallows, suddenly looking at her.] So, you really wouldn't read my mind without my permission? ...And if I say yes, you'd only read the stuff that I would allow you to see?
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And, well. She would read his mind without his permission. She has, already, so if he believes her, it's kinda on him. Not that she needs to point it out.)
Sure, fine, let's respect your privacy.
(FOR NOW)
All you gotta do is just think and remember it and I'll just ride the wave.
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Not... that he thought that would happen here. Plus, he's still not fully sure what to make of Sophie, other than he's glad that she's here and he's not utterly alone in this world.]
Fine. I can do that. [Probably?? Scott sits and closes his eyes behind his glasses and maybe none of this is necessary, but it helps him as as Beginner. Not that he meant to, but he can't help remember the day when his powers first awakened-- just sitting in the boy's bathroom and blasting that other teen across it. Then a world of darkness for a while, Alex bringing him to Xavier's Institute, before sharply jumping to a point where he got his glasses and saw Jean Grey for the first time.
Then it was just taking her, Kurt, and Jubliee out to the mall to have fun. Watching Return of the Jedi together before driving home.]
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Also, awwwww. Look at the little OG team. It's almost cute.
Okay, she's up to date.)
Woah. That's... Actually pretty simple, so far. Two days, a mutant, and now kidnapped. Welcome, Kid Cyclops.
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He only really reopens his eyes when he hears Sophie speak again, eyes blinking into his usual red view and looking at the teasing girl across from him.]
You're talking as if things are supposed to be more complicated. [He mumbles under his breath, but audible enough. He's already gotten the gist that things are more complicated for mutants in this other reality she's from.] And stop calling me Cyclops, no one back home says that. Save it for your Scott or whatever.
[Just. Small grump.]
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(She says, while he is not sweet with all this grumbling, mumbling, and teenage rebellion, but hey.
She definitely is going to move into his mind as much as possible, because well, call it 'so he knows when someone is and is not even hiding it', although it will definitely not be for that.)
Fine, choose your own damn codename. Mine's Five-in-One, for the record.
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