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

Quentin Quire | Marvel 616 | new!

[querulus]

arrival

[Preliminary observations? This planet is, technically speaking, fucked. A quick and dirty psychic scan of the place shows several dozen types of unidentified aliens and miscellaneous humans and human-adjacents, including some psychic signatures Quentin recognizes. That's neat.

Oh, and there's the cameras. Some kind of YA teen dystopian we-have-Mojoworld-at-home kinda deal, then. Complete with "if you die in the game, you die in real life" malarkey. Sure, why not.

Quentin reaches out a hand to telekinetically grab a camera drone and point it towards him.]

What's up, "mysterious viewers," it's me, ya boy. Let's get this over with, shall we?

[He gestures at himself with his thumb.]

Quentin Quire here, Omega level mutant, superhero, all-around iconic. Look at me, I've got pink fingerless gloves color-matched to my hair. [He holds up a hand to demonstrate.] You know this shit was custom. Gotta commit to the bit. Anyway, get used to seeing my name on the leaderboard because I'm going straight to the top and staying there. Me and uh—

[He glances around and points at the most interesting-looking person nearby, regardless of whether or not he knows them.]

This idiot, I guess. That's my cool friend, and we're going to the top together.

[What a team player :) ]

network. un: kidomega

roll call time. what kinda cool x-cats and kittens* are hanging around this dump? i can sense you so i know some of you freaks are here somewhere. hmu.

--QQ

*does not apply to sabertooth, if you are any sabertooth kindly FUCK OFF

casino royale

[Quentin didn't pay the wheel much mind when it landed on 12. Whatever, some kind of challenge or entry fee or something, blah blah blah, who cares. 
When he gets inside, things start going south. The first thing Quentin notices is, well, not a black out of his powers, but maybe a brown out. He can still hear the usual drone of everyone's thoughts muddled together in an unintelligible cacophony, sense the presence of psychic signatures around him, but pinpointing them? Feeling the difference between one mind and the next? Gone. Ix-nayed. Kaput.

What the hell?

What the hell?]

Oof.

[Distracted by whatever the fuck is going on in his head, Quentin runs into a trashcan. And it... doesn't... hurt? Okay, so it's not just his brain senses that are fucked up. Good to know? He steps back and away from the trashcan, lost in thought, and for a moment forgets that his primary sense for knowing where people are is "offline".

And immediately bumps into someone. Perhaps even you!]

Shit. Hey, you wanna watch it?

[Oops. At least he's pretty scrawny.]

wildcard

[Go nuts! Current canon point is end of X-Manhunt fyi]

network un: hope

[futuremessiah]

Wait. Aren't you some big shot telepath? Why not just use it?

network un: kidomega

[querulus]

[Oh, hi Hope.]

uh to make sure i don't miss anybody?? multiverse, alternate timelines, mfers with psychic resistance or brain stank, etc etc etc

ALSO it's just funnier to tell sabertooth to fuck off where everyone can see.

[It's mostly that second thing.]

[futuremessiah]

Didn't think about it like that.

Who's Sabertooth? And why are you pissing him off?

[querulus]

privilege of us full-time psychics

the asshole who cut off my head and put it in a box

[futuremessiah]

So you're just a head in a box?

[querulus]

no??

i got better dwbi

so i'm guessing there's no victor creed variants then. who else do we have?

arrival

[shoplifter]

[Laura is watching this... interesting display of an arrival with mild interest. She's here to scope out the new blood because she figured she should be aware of who is new to the Etraya landscape — especially with the arrival of new mutants. Lo and behold, he marks himself as one out loud, and she zeroes in on him once the focus has (quickly) shifted away from him.

As she wanders closer, she adjusts her sunglasses, pushing them up on her forehead.]

You're really a mutant?

[Híjole, it's getting harder to keep track of all of you.]

[querulus]

[Oh. A kid. Asking about mutants.

Quentin squints down at her, trying to get a read on her. Keller mentioned a younger version of Laura, and this kid does kinda look like Gabby, but the psychic signature doesn't quite match up.]

Uhh, yeah. Sure am. Say, does the word "snikt" mean anything to you, squirt?

[shoplifter]

My name is not Squirt. It's Laura.

[Obviously. But that's an interesting question, one that tickles her brain in a way she can't quite place. The word itself isn't particularly familiar at first. Snikt? Strange. But she mouths it a few times to get the feel of it...]

... Is it a sound?

[Because yeah, that does sound familiar. She holds up her hands suddenly when the sound clicks -- and then her claws burst out of her knuckles, her eyes round and glittering with interest. They go SNIKT -- at a safe distance! Mostly!]

You mean this sound?

[querulus]

[Well, that answers that question. Doubly so, since the name alone would've been sufficient, but well, watching the wheels turn in her little noggin until she pops her deadly murder claws with childlike wonder? That's a bonus.]

Got it one, kiddo.

[A mini-snikt? Adorable. And terrifying.

He wants ten.]

Hey, guess what? You know who's also from Grandpa Logan's Home for Wayward Ankle-Biters? This guy. [He points both thumbs at himself.]

That means I'm basically your big brother, yeah? From an alternate universe or something. But whatever.

[shoplifter]

[Big brother, huh.... Her wrinkled nose says 'press x to doubt'.

(Also, who is biting ankles, and why are they doing it? It sounds ineffective.)

Still, there's too much going on in his response to linger on that even a little.]

Then you are from the universe where there are a lot of mutants, yes?

The one Ororo spoke about.

[querulus]

[It's too late, he's already declared her his little sis. This is your fate now, Laura.]

Sure, yeah, probably. Hey, you know Hellion and Icarus, right? Angry dude with the green TK, red wing boy? I'm from their universe. But our version of you isn't so... you know, puny.

[He taps the side of his head.]

I'm a telepath. They got those in your universe, kid?

network un: HELLION

[vexant]

You ever think about how stupid the name "Kid Omega" is?

[querulus]

nope

:)

[vexant]

Aren't you older than me?

[querulus]

[Does time travel you don't remember because a psychic robot was screaming in your head the whole time count? Or being astral plane goo? Or being resurrected in a realm outside of time and space? Don't answer that. Any of it.]

bold of you to assume i know how old you are

[vexant]

Younger than you, but I wouldn't go by "kid" anymore
But it'd just be even more stupid if you dropped the kid part of your name for just omega
Who the hell goes by "omega"?
And who keeps "kid" going into their 20s?

network; un: appleaday

[unaliveyourself]

nya?

[does he have any idea what this guy is talking about? not quite. but it sounds interesting. especially the sabertooth part. dazai does enjoy popcorning some good drama.]

[querulus]

new phone who dis

[Whomst.]

[unaliveyourself]

hmmmm
i'm not sure if i should say. secret identities and all that~

[this bitch doesn't have a secret identity,]

but coworkers have described me as like a burnt black cat on several occasions! and one of them turns into a tiger, too!
just a regular tiger, though, not a sabertooth
no worries there ♥

[querulus]

bruh you replied to my roll call

are you actually a mutant or just a tire kicker?

[unaliveyourself]

if you're really a psychic, shouldn't you be able to tell?

[unfortunately, it's difficult to call his bluff when he's a living power nullifier. alas.]

» Storm is pre-XManhunt but post-possessed by Eternity 🥲

[agoddessonce]

un: Storm

Cats and kittens? What inspired this choice of terminology, Quentin? I know it couldn't have been Scott, and it definitely would not have been Magneto.

[ "Hello, Quentin." ]

[querulus]

really, ororo? [Yes, "Ororo." Because he's a pain. Sorry, Storm.] no tiger king? carole baskin?

sigh. my pop culture references are wasted on like half of you people.