TDM 007

[etrayamods]

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⏴

Comments

[levelshift]

[It isn't hard to see she's having to work herself up to asking, and he gets it. It's often easier to just work alone than with other people, especially strangers. People suck and even on a good day it's hard to deal with them.

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.

[fireboost]

[ thankfully, he accepts her proposition, and blaze finds herself feeling a little relieved after her earlier attempts had not gone so well. perhaps because she isn't jumping straight to 'friends', but offering only a practical suggestion. sonic makes this look so easy... but as for the security room: ]

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. ]

[levelshift]

[Teammates. Teammates is a good word for it, since they barely know each other and have a shared goal. It's a very practical word and that's what Accelerator would go with.

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.]

[fireboost]

[ it just may be the word to use. for now, blaze pulls her attention from those things and to the task at hand. as much as she may be loathe to perform in a traditional sense... she's determined to make this work—evident by the very serious look on her face. ]

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?

[levelshift]

[There's probably a dedicated staff area back that way, which means there's a high chance the room for security is that way, too. He shrugs and turns to start heading that way.]

Come on.

[fireboost]

[ she had thought that they might start their filming as they moved to commit to their roles, but follows along nonetheless as she prepares herself for the camera.

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.

[levelshift]

[Once they're at the door he'll get the camera ready and start streaming. This is weird, this is so weird. He knows livestreaming and stuff are popular back home, it's what normal people are into. He doesn't see the appeal outside of its usefulness for this specific scenario.

... 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.]

[fireboost]

[ accelerator ushers them through the doorway, and blaze is quick to pick up on her cue, stepping inside with all the confidence as if she truly does belong here. ]

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? ]

[levelshift]

[Once they're in there, Accelerator surveys the situation. There are a few people working, Blaze is being awkward, and there's no obvious signs of some special flash drive. How irritating.

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.]

[fireboost]

[ and—there goes accelerator. blaze doesn't seem to mind though, clasping her hands with a pleased look as the employee is finally forced into giving them his attention. ]

Wonderful, thank you.

[ acccelerator? their renowned guest? it seems more directed towards the former as blaze steps a little bit closer. ]

Now that we have your attention, why don't you tell us what your name and position is. The people want to know.

[ that's something reporters say, right? the people want to know, and the people are quite in charge of your points, so you'd better play along. it looks like that sentiment seems to be clicking into place for the security staff member, who immediately sits up a little straighter in their chair as he flashes a glance towards accelerator's camera. ]

[levelshift]

[Accelerator is happy to stay in the back with the camera, looming behind Blaze and continuing to glare at the employee with a threatening gaze. They've got a system down, apparently, because the staff member is warily glancing between the two of them before answering.

His name is Bill Henderson, and he monitors the casino floor for security purposes. In a world that encourages people to be as flashy as possible, he's somehow pretty mundane.]