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∎ ETRAYA MODS ∎ ([personal profile] etrayamods) wrote in [community profile] 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:
  • 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

thelightshines: (I'd leave if all behind)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-14 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
[The camera drones hovering just out of reach of anyone might answer Amy's question as to how. How quick they differentiate which Shadow is which. There's hardly any privacy provided to anyone in this world. It's all one big spectacle.

Eyes turn to the gates across from them, ignoring anything else. They start to open as the caster speaks excitedly about their opponents. Shadow's fur nearly stands on end, seeing crimson eyes peering from the darkness, a familiar silhouette of a dark hedgehog walking out into the light. Two of them.

A few golden sparks slip from his clenched fists. The nightmare doesn't want to end it seems. More of them? Or is actually a trick? Their movements aren't as naturally fluid if one observes, more robotic as they go into a fighting stance. He doesn't wait for them to call the start of the match, he's already blipped out of existence, reappearing beside one to kick it into the wall.

OH! IT LOOKS LIKE SOMEONE IS ALL TOO EAGER TO START! CAN THE ROSE KEEP UP WITH THE DARK MENACE!?

The other Shadow opponent is already speeding towards Amy, moving to come in towards the side. Despite the combatants already being here, the gates on the other side remain open.]
pricklybloom: (pic#17792563)

[personal profile] pricklybloom 2025-04-15 09:40 am (UTC)(link)
[ Taking note of the cameras floating around, Amy can't help a frown, feeling uncomfortable how many there were. Was everything just being watched and broadcast in this place?

When their opponents step out into the arena, her eyes widen a little. She's fought Shadow robots before, but she hadn't expected to see any here. Before she has a chance to really process what's going on, though, the Shadow beside her disappears. ]


Hey, wait - !

[ She doesn't have a lot of time though before the other Shadow robot is speeding towards her, and she raises the mallet. If these were anything like the actual Shadow, she knows she can't out-speed them. So instead she lets it come to her, and when it gets close enough she swings her weapon - using a speed that one might not expect for someone wielding a giant mallet - and feels the impact as she hits the robot, sending it flying back several feet. ]
thelightshines: (more than life)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-15 05:20 pm (UTC)(link)
[...They don't feel right. Shadow had continue to pursue the one he had kicked into the wall, pinning it. He has come to expect immediate retaliation by something with his face, but they don't appear to be of the same calibur as the other he encountered. The opponent manages to free it's arm and Shadow reaches to grip theirs. Still just as strong though. His ears swerve at the sound of gears turning. He sees now.

He hears the other robot getting hit by presumebly the pink hedgehog. After taking a quick glance, he grabs the copy by the head with the other hand. Shoes against the wall, he boosts himself off, taking the copy with him and with a well aim throw, sends them crashing into the other robot. He comes skidding to a halt nearby Amy while the robots are in a tangled mess.]
pricklybloom: (pic#15196424)

[personal profile] pricklybloom 2025-04-18 09:14 am (UTC)(link)
[ Amy takes a few breaths, her hammer still raised even as the robots don't move. ]

...something doesn't feel right.

[ Maybe it's the fighter in her, but she'd been expecting something more. Even during the war, the Shadow bots weren't quite up to Shadow's level, but they were still dangerous and effective. She can't help feeling that this had been much too easy. ]
thelightshines: (a wish for me)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-18 11:46 pm (UTC)(link)
[She be right to think that. The two they were fighting are already getting back on their feet, undeterred by the attacks that had been inflicted onto them. Not quite as flimsy as GUN robots it seems. His ears swerve as he picks up a new sound coming from the opened gate. The next moment, he's suddenly locking hands with a new Shadow android that's joined the fray.

A fourth appears from above, Shadow having to dodge out of way, taking the third android with him as they try to land a punch. The force of the punch caushing cracks to appear where they hit the ground. Should Amy try to assist, she'll find the first two androids are now coming for her.]
pricklybloom: (pic#15093386)

[personal profile] pricklybloom 2025-04-22 11:28 am (UTC)(link)
[ There it is. Even if the robots aren't as fast as the real Shadow, if too many start showing up this could get pretty bad. Amy starts to head for Shadow to help him, but then the first two are rushing towards her.

Gripping the mallet's handle tighter, she waits for them to get closer before quickly spinning in a circle, swinging the mallet in a wide arc to hit them both at the same time and knocking them into one another.

Then she leaps into the air, mallet raised, before bringing it down to try and smash them hard into the ground. ]
thelightshines: (thе snow falling in summer)

[personal profile] thelightshines 2025-04-22 03:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[Is this exactly what the other went through...? The thought keeps going through his mind while throwing hands with these copycats. The fourth continues their assault, Shadow turning the third to them to use like shield. Their punch lands onto their android companion and Shadow kicks them both back.

Light appears around his left hand as he forms a chaos spear. Seem like a good time to utilize the trick he picked up from the other.

One of the androids Amy was working on crawls out from beneath their partner in time before the hammer comes slamming down. The bounce and tumble away from the shockwave, Shadow come in to thrust his spear into them. The android twitches and sparks from the attack. Their eye screen visibly glitching. This seems to be the play he has to make. Sparks fly from the android caught under Amy's hammer, but it still functions as it claws at the hammer.

Android three and four have decided to switch off and are now coming for Amy. Three tries to grab hold of Amy so the other can land a punch to free their brethren beneath her hammer.]
pricklybloom: (pic#15093412)

[personal profile] pricklybloom 2025-04-30 10:01 am (UTC)(link)
[ Seeing the two androids coming for her, Amy only has a split second to make a decision. As much as she hates to risk the android under her hammer not being completely down yet, she lifts the hammer only to slam it back down once more as she jumps, using the momentum to launch her higher into the air and out of reach from the androids, at least momentarily.

Even as she comes down though, she rears the hammer back, swinging it down as hard as she can. Even if she misses the androids, the shockwave she creates is powerful enough to rattle the ground, hopefully enough to stun them or throw them off balance at least. ]