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

[fourthwalled]

[Some of these people they are fighting are just as stuck in this place as they are, but Wade is very actively not thinking about that. Or the amount of blood on him that doesn't belong to him. Add it to the bucket of heinous shit he's done that he's never going to deal with, thank you very much.]

Well, I was going to say that I'd also like for him to smash me in the extra fun way, too. Balls deep. But I didn't say that out loud, did I? [He nods at Cable thoughtfully.] That's what they call growth.

[Wade's grateful that Cable is here too, beyond thrilled, really. He's moving closer to him as the ground shifts and alters to ready the arena for their next fight] Have I mentioned how much I missed you? Wolverine is fun and all, but you've always been my favorite comic foil/Will they, won't they...

[sodark]

You don't get kudos for not saying something if you say it five fucking seconds later.

[Unsurprisingly, he sounds terse. Whether that's because he's stressed or because he doesn't want to think about what the Hulk's sack looks like is unclear.

There's trace amounts of wariness in Cable's expression as Wade closes in, then he's distracted by the changes around them. Then Wade's saying something and Cable's glowing eye snaps back ro perceive him again.]

What? [He immediately regrets asking an open-ended question and cuts Wade off before he can take advantage.]

I just saw you back home. Leaving the orphanage. [It's a very real possibility that Wade has had a year's worth of adventure in a day or so, but it smells like time bullshit to Cable.]

What's the last thing you remember doing before you got here-- don't say jacking off.

[fourthwalled]

I wouldn't have if you hadn't asked me that question! So this is really just your fault.

[The gates across the stadium open to reveal their next challenger. Not people this time. And not the Hulk. But a pack of ferocious looking alien animals-- some real freak show monsters that almost made Wade look normal by comparison.]

Aside from that-- [The jacking off.] The last thing I remember was saving the goddamn universe with Wolverine, while 'Like a Prayer' blasted. It was fucking epic. The orphanage was like six years ago, man.

[A realization hits Wade just as he starts to run off to hack into a beast with his blunt axe, a bit too gleefully.] Oooh! Does that mean now I'm the one from the future?! Ha! Get fucked!

[sodark]

[Cable's frustration with that response is such that if he were the fourth-waller, he'd be staring at the camera.

Unfortunately, Juggernaut crushed the shit out of his big gun. He'll make another one, he'll make all kinds of shit. Now? He'll have to make do with what he has and ideally not use too many bullets.

He takes all the panic-worthy confusion and frustration out on the aliens. He bashes their heads with callous swings of the shield he picked up from some dead guy. All the while, he keeps a wary eye on Wade and his reckless and haphazard style of combat.]

Right. [What else is there to say about that? As Wade goes on to point out, time travel isn't exactly new between them.]

You've got about forty-four years until that's true. [Cable punctuates that by slamming his shield into an alien's abdomen.]

Get fucked.

[fourthwalled]

[Wade isn't fighting with any thought about protecting himself from injury. He never did. The axe swings around, not nearly sharp enough to decapitate anything, but the impacts are certainly bloody enough.

And the crowd is loving it, if the points added to his score is any indication.]

I might get there. Might be doing this shit til I'm ninety! [Just like Jackman.] Provided we don't... [What had Cable said before-] Fuck the planet into a coma.

[And the universe didn't get wiped away again, apparently. But he saved it once-- he'll do it again, dammit.]

[sodark]

[Cable is utterly unsurprised that people find Wade's antics entertaining. They've never had to carpool with him, they don't know what it's like.

And yet when a projectile is hurtling toward a distracted Wade, Cable doesn't hesitate to prove that he's not incapable of being agile by using a dying alien as a step up so he can generate a forcefield high enough to protect Wade's stupid skull.]

Watch your back-- you waste time regenerating. [Cable nags, but he drops the shield and punches an alien square in the face.]

I'm not angry that you've moved on already, by the way. It's the best goddamn news I've gotten in a long time.

[fourthwalled]

[Wade is fun when viewed at a distance. And he knows it, too. It's the rare person that could stand to be around him for long periods of time. He turns just in time to see Cable's force field and whatever it was that had been hurtling toward his head.] Me, waste time? I'd never!

[He's the most time efficient person alive, clearly! Yanking the axe forcefully out of an alien skull, he flings an arch of blood and skull matter into the air. Then he stops suddenly, forgetting that they were in the middle of a battle for their lives, because-] 'Moved on'? What--[Blink.] What the fuck does that...

[Excuse him, he's 404 erroring. Wade resets just in time to round house kick a monster in the jaw before rolling out of the way of it's sharp claws.] You sure you're not jealous? You sound jealous. Logan's got nothing on you, babe, I promise!

Except for a few inches. Which, what the hell is that about? You should be huge! And he's supposed to be short as hell! Who's ever heard of a tall wolverine? He should be short and mean! Hollywood's to blame, they just don't want a short king to shine!

[sodark]

[Cable looks at Wade blandly, as if nothing about what he said was strange or laden with implications. Gaslighting? Maybe.]

I'll take your word for it. [Tersely, mostly because he's deeply troubled by the way Wade always talks about his height like he's some clairvoyant who can see all the heights he should be in every universe.

But he's not jealous or annoyed that he must have been sitting on his ass while this was happening. This is why he grabs an alien by the leg and swings him around like a mace and he doesn't care if he nearly clobbers Wade.]

And now we're here.

[fourthwalled]

[Maybe he is a clairvoyant. Or he's just crazy. It's easier to just believe it's the latter. So just go with that option, Cabes!]

Woah! Watch where you're swinging that thing! [He only just dodges getting smacked in the head by a flailing alien. Oh, he's definitely still jealous. At least that's what Wade is choosing to believe. He decapitates an alien coming up behind him, blue blood spraying everywhere in the process.]

And now we're here. [Wade agrees.] Although, I've been here before. Not sure why I'm the one expected to save our universe, but it keeps happening. Maybe I really am Marvel Jesus...

[sodark]

Maybe you're just really easy to catch. [Cable chooses not to reflect on what that means for him. This is his first time. He doesn't know how many times Wade has "saved the universe" but two seems like too many.

Cable drops the alien like a sack of shit, then punches another one hard in the face. His metal hand comes away blue. Gross.]

Do you recognise anybody else here?

[fourthwalled]

Maybe. Or maybe it just feels nice to be wanted. [It's not exactly a hard sell for Wade, so desperate to give his life some kind of meaning. He keeps plowing through the aliens, grinning like an idiot because he's fighting alongside Cable again. Just like that time that they murdered all those pedophiles together! Good times.]

Uh, a few? Saw a couple of X-Men. Baby X-23... oh, and I saw a mini-you! Or, a clone of you? Who knows. Either way, we went telekinetic flying together. Why don't you ever take me flying? If you'd shown that kind of go getter attitude, maybe you would have been in that last movie instead of fucking Shatterstar.

[sodark]

[Cable opens his mouth to earnestly clarify, only to snap it shut at the final additions from Wade. He stares long and hard at him, not turning to look when he whips his pistol out and shoots an alien in the head before it can get the jump on him.]

Brother. [He says, finally. And he knows telling Wade to leave Nate alone would be an open invitation to the other man, so he just makes a note to keep an eye on that.]

Maybe I will take you flying. After.

[Also known as "hurry this up so when we're done I can find something to push you off".]

[fourthwalled]

Brother, right. Let's go with that. [A brother with the exact same first name. Makes complete sense. Wade hadn't quite known what to make of the very much younger man, similiar-ish to Cable in someways but in others entirely different. It'd been confusing, to say the least.]

You better! [If Wade's any inclination how exactly he means to take him flying, he doesn't show it. Instead, he's jumping into the battle with an extra pep in his step.] For now, let's win this bitch!

[If there is anything he's good at, it's putting on a show!]