OCTOBER + NOVEMBER TDM.

[ximilian]

● ● ● T D M . 0 4

// PART I. a crimson dream  

… What are you willing to do to erase your regret from existence?

These are the words that ring in your ears, as a slowly growing red glow surrounds you in this dreamspace, filling you with an acute sense of dread — and whatever it is that you’ve just agreed to might have changed everything forever.

It is this sense of dream that startles you awake, and as it fades, and your heart begins to slow into something resembling your normal tempo, you'll notice something you should have picked up on immediately: you are not in your bed.

1.0   White walls, clinical yet clean, sparsely-furnished rooms. You may wake in one of three rooms: a room with only one bed, a room with two beds, or a room with four beds. Those waking up in rooms with more than one bed notice that they are not alone. Perhaps the other occupants of the room are still sleeping, dreaming the same dream as you just did, or a regular one after returning to the station just barely a week ago … or perhaps you wake up to the other person in the room watching you.

What you do is entirely up to you: yelping in surprise when you wake to someone staring at you is always an option. Or maybe you’ll try to sneak away before anyone notices you...

2.0   Those with life-threatening injuries will find themselves waking up in the infirmary, in a regular hospital bed. Most of their injuries have been treated, and any lingering illnesses or conditions will have designated medicine bottles on the table next to the bed.

White curtains surround the bed on both sides, providing an illusion of privacy. But is that a rustling sound you hear? A set of footsteps? Perhaps you’re not the only one in need of some medical attention.

In fact if you’re very badly off, you might want to hold out hope for some company - you can’t stay in the infirmary forever. You'll have to make your way through the hallways of the station to the living quarters, and claim a room and a bed there.

Once upright, you might notice something in your ear: an earpiece that, when you become aware of it, quickly runs you through the instructions for how to use the network, a recorded message by a female voice that explains exactly why you’re here… and leaves you with a map of the station.

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// PART II. hotel spacefornia  

So what else is there to do but to explore, right? Best get to know your way around your new home.

3.0   When trying to decide where you go, you might find your way to the armory, where you can make attempts to work the machine and create a weapon for yourself — maybe replace the one that didn’t come with you to the station ... or maybe you decide to prepare something for the future. Any recently-returned team members will surely recommend having a functional weapon with you.

And speaking of weapons: why not put them to the test and head over to the training room, where the entire purpose of this space is to provide you with opportunities to spar and train to your heart’s content!

4.0   After you’ve exhausted yourself from training, your stomach will prompt you for something to eat. For that you should head to the kitchens and the mess hall, which is equipped with all the basic appliances you might need, along with some more unusual ones (including an ... interesting-looking waffle maker and popcorn machine), as well as ingredients for most generic Earth-based dishes. For some reason, there are also some bags of now-cold popcorn left abandoned over the counters.

5.0   A welcome reprieve to the cold, dark space that surrounds you can be found in the sunlight room. A skillful illusion builds up around anyone who steps inside the room: you can hear the trilling of birds, feel a light breeze caress your skin as you walk through a grass field. The illusion has been programmed to reflect the seasons — the leaves in the trees are currently bright with all the colours of autumn: orange and red and yellow; and the air is crisp and clean. If you follow the path, you'll be led to a bridge rising over a sparkling, babbling brook, a few fallen leaves floating on the water and falling around you like very bright raindrops.

Here, it's easy to forget (for a moment, anyway) that you are in space at all. Maybe that gives you comfort, or maybe it just makes you miss the real thing all that much more.

6.0   If you’d rather choose tinkering with objects over wandering through nature, the lab is guaranteed to provide you with some entertainment. Glass vials and jars of chemicals sit on shelves in a surprisingly beautiful display of colour on one side of the room, while the other side of the room contains stacks of boxes filled with assorted equipment: cords, bolts, panels, buttons, gears, gadgets, gizmos, and thingamabobs. The downside is that the parts available seem to have no apparent method to their sorting. So get digging and you may just find exactly what you need to make what you’ve always wanted to!

7.0   Some time after your arrival, the earpiece alerts you to a new message. If it’s items you’re lacking, you may just be in luck.

// VIVECA.AI

Hi again, everyone. Those who’ve been here for longer know the deal, but to those new here: there’s a new supply drop. Hopefully you’ll find useful things there. If you made any requests for items, before, you should find them in a separate pile near the platform.

Indeed, the platform located near the personal quarters is still whirring with power, and new items form neat piles on top of it. There are clothes, shoes, dishware, skincare, books ... and in one pile, a varied collection of what seems to be Halloween decorations and costumes. So, sort through the piles and grab what you want before someone else does! (But don't forget: sharing is caring.)

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// PART III. trick or treat  

Whether you’re a quick study and you’ve become settled into life on the station, or you want to get the full lay of the land (in a manner of speaking) first, if you decide to explore the hall past the control room, you’ll eventually come across the simulation room. It’s been equipped with a new simulation to show you the drill where the missions are concerned, so step in and see what it has in store for you!

8.0   The moment the doors slide shut behind you, the space goes dark and then quickly lights up again, but instead of the blank empty walls you initially walked into, you’re surrounded by colour and lights, the sound of music and chatter, and the smells of deep-fried foods and overly sweet beverages. Someone calls, ‘Step right up, step right up!’ while another voice from somewhere starts to cheer as an electrical sound of a buzzer goes off, announcing its winner for prizes.

It seems that you’ve entered the Carnival simulation, so come on in and have a little fun.

There are booths spread out across these simulated grounds, each one offering food, drink or games. As you wander past you’ll notice that there is a touch of macabre to everything — the colours are black and orange and violet and red, the drinks offered have strange names, some you recognize like ‘Witch’s Brew’ and ‘Eye of Newt’, and some you might not, like ‘Viole(n)t Breeze’ and ‘Undead Essence’. It’s as though all of the things strange and wonderful find themselves spread across the entire universe to unite here.

Once you’ve had your fill of food and games, you can make your way past the little market area to a brightly glittering ferris wheel with carts rotating in a cycle, enticing you to try it out. Or if you’d rather be spooked, there is a hokey little ‘haunted mansion’ to your left that won’t take more than a handful of minutes to move through. Creatures and ghosts will pop out at you when you least expect it, their masked faces exaggerated with paint and some fairly realistic prosthetics to get the adrenaline pumping. Take a friend with you, or go it alone — just try to keep your cool through it all.

9.0   Eventually, once you’ve had your fill of the festivities, you may notice a wooden sign pointing you past the haunted mansion. Pressed on it is a round mark, and you remember that this is simulating a mission — you’re not here to just have fun, but to try and retrieve a simulated orb.

As you follow the path, you’ll find the hustle and bustle of the carnival growing quieter. All around you, there is nothing but woods — and hold on, where did all that mist come from? It surrounds you slowly, the ground seeming slightly damp as you keep walking… and arrive at a graveyard.

So the orb… it’s there, hidden in one of the graves? There’s nothing else to do but to start walking and looking at the gravestones — but when you do, you’ll be shocked to find some of the names are terribly, terribly familiar.

They might be names of your loved ones, people who were still in perfect health back home; and yet here those stones bear their names, along with an epitaph that brings tears to your eyes. And if you move closer… you may experience a flash of colour and light, and a memory suddenly plays out in front of you: the death of your loved one, whoever that may be.

Or perhaps the name you see on a gravestone is something else even more familiar to you: your own. But ... how, right? Reluctantly, your heart pounding, you approach with tentative steps, and yes — the name does not change. It's yours right there ... and it's your own death that you witness when the grave’s spell binds you.

● ● ●

N O T E:   The deaths witnessed are intended to be non-canon deaths, so feel free to go wild inventing them -- this also goes for characters who are canonically dead. These are “alternate universe deaths”, not canon.

Additionally, there are three personal tasks provided to each character as they enter the simulation. In-game, each character will be given one task. For the purposes of the test drive, we’re leaving it to players to pick a task for their character and run with it.

A   Find the grave of a teammate and witness their death.

B   Team up with a fellow Orber win in one of the Carnival games.

C   Scare a teammate in the haunted house.

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F Y I

• TDM threads can be considered game canon so long as all parties involved agree to it.
• This TDM covers both October and November, so there will be no new TDM for November.
• TDM threads can be used as samples for apps. In fact, we encourage it!
• Reserves are currently open!
• Apps open October 27 and will remain open until November 30.
• For any questions regarding TDM, please direct them here. For questions about the game, please refer to the FAQ.

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FOR SOME FUN:

Have a clue for your upcoming mission:
“I’m going to bed, where I may die.”

▶ NAV

Comments

2.0

[flickerandfade]

[ That one that L3 has stumbled upon is another robotic lifeform. Another 'droid, almost certainly--or that might be the default assumption. He's a tall one, though, towering at almost nine feet, well above the normal human height assigned to most 'droids. At her demand there's an almost pensive expression on his face and he shakes his head. ]

I know as little of this place as you do.

[ Megatron's voice is deep, resonant, unquestionably artificial, and has a strange, smooth, charisma to it. He regards the non-Cybertronian life-form with a sense of detachment. Distance. He's still not sure if this is all something his mind is making up as his brain circuitry finally begins to fry itself from the isolation. ]

If it even has a flight deck I don't know where you'd find it.

[droide]

[ Elthree looks up... and up... and up, at the very tall (what she assumes is) droid she encounters. He's not a design she's able to identify, nor has she ever seen a droid this tall before. Even KX-series security droids were only 2.16 meters tall. This bloke was over half a meter taller than that! ]

You've been brought here to change something you regret also, then?

[ Elthree still isn't clear on where she is or how she was transported here, but she at least remembers the why. ]

[flickerandfade]

Yes. Though when you have as many regrets as I do, narrowing down which one to change is much more challenging than you might think.

[ The answer is blunt. There are many things he regrets, most of which he wishes to change. Trying to narrow down one to change, though... that is the hard part. What could he change to alter the course of his war? To change his revolution towards what it was meant to be? Should he never organize the Decepticon cause at all? If he can only save Ravage, would that be enough?

He doesn't know. ]

I am Megatron of Tarn.

[droide]

[ A soft sound like a hum emits from Elthree's vocoder. ]

Can't relate.

[ Elthree acts with purpose. Largely, she has lived without regret. She only regrets when her actions are futile, doomed to fail. Which, admittedly, is more often than not. ]

L3-37, of the Millennium Falon. You can call me Elthree.

[flickerandfade]

[ A tilt of his head. She reminds him of someone. Probably several someones, honestly. ]

L3-37? Interesting designation. What is the Millennium Falcon?

[droide]

I could say the same thing about 'Megatron.'

[ But she won't. She's all in favor of droids calling themselves by whatever name they choose. ]

Corellian YT-model light freighter. Captained by Lando Calrissian. I'm his first mate.

[flickerandfade]

I suppose you could, yes.

[ That sounds like an organic name. It's strange, meeting a mechanistic life-form willingly subordinating itself to them. But then... hm. How strange. The information is cataloged and accepted with a nod. ]

I'm guessing you also woke up here, not knowing quite how it happened? The explanations they've given us so far feels lacking. I don't like it.

[ What he really wants to know is how they busted him out of the highest security prison in the galaxy. ]

[droide]

[ The funny thing is, although she is still technically Lando's subordinate, by making her his first mate, he's showing her far more respect than any other organic would. ]

I was... indisposed, before I came to in the infirmary. I've no idea how long I was out, or how far I traveled in that time. If I could find a flight deck, a bridge, a control room, something to give me a better view than these useless windows, then I might be able to calculate where we are, and I might be able to send Lando a message not to worry about me.

[ He'd been very worried when she was shutting down, hadn't he? She thinks she remembers that much. ]

[flickerandfade]

[ Megatron inclines his head slightly in acknowledgement of Elthree's idea. It's not a bad one he has to admit, given the limited information they have. ]

That supposes that we are in the same galaxy. Or that if we are, we are someplace charted where you can identify a familiar star.

[ Not to be a downer or anything. ]

Not that it's a bad idea.

[droide]

[ Elthree hesitates slightly. Intergalactic travel is something unheard of where she comes from. The farthest anyone has ever gone and returned to tell the tale is out into the uncharted (by most, but not by her) reaches of Wild Space, past the edge of the galaxy. But traveling to another galaxy altogether?

When she speaks again, her vocoder carries a touch of worry, but mostly of stubborn determination. ]

I'd at least like to confirm what galaxy we're in. If I don't recognize any of the star systems outside the viewscreen, then... Well, that's already more information than I have now.

[flickerandfade]

[ It's not that Megatron has done much intergalactic travel, but it must be considered as a possibility. He tucks his hands at the small of his back, demeanor thoughtful. ]

You are correct on that point. Unfortunately I haven't located any points which would allow us to view the stars properly.

[ A pause, then: ]

I don't suppose you had any strange dreams before you awoke here?

[droide]

[ The thought of intergalactic travel hadn't even occurred to Elthree. When you've got maps covering the entirety of your galaxy stored in your mind, you don't really consider anything beyond that. ]

Dreams?

[ Elthree doesn't really dream. She runs background simulations in her mind, when she's in low power mode. She imagines things, but she wouldn't call it dreaming.

Except. There had been that red light, and the sense that by voicing her regret over the doomed fate of the freed slaves on Kessel, she may have changed everything forever. ]

Something like that... Only the one, but there was something. You?

[flickerandfade]

I spend much of my time in dreams lately.

[ The consequence of being locked inside a prison barely large enough to hold him. Forever. ]

Dreams or imaginings. This one was different, however. Very different. Something about regret.

[droide]

[ It's... interesting, to hear a droid (again, assumptions) talk about dreaming. That language typically isn't used among her kind.

But then, Megatron isn't like any droid Elthree has ever met before. His face is so expressive. ]

I had the same dream. [ If that's the language they're going to use, Elthree will go along with it. ] "What are you willing to do to erase your regret from existence?"

[flickerandfade]

Yes. That was the question.

[ One that troubles him, deep within his spark. What would he do? How far would he go? ]

It sounds almost like a promise. I don't pretend to know what it means, but if all of us arriving here heard the same thing, there must be a reason.

[droide]

Another good reason to find someone who's in charge around here.

[ Some answers would be nice. Answers to any of the myriad questions Elthree has come up with since she powered on in the infirmary. ]

[flickerandfade]

Agreed. I'm still not quite sure on who that might be.

[ Megatron frowns. Scowls, even. ]

We are going to have some words, they and I.

[droide]

[ Oh, how much L3-37 would love a face that could scowl. She would get so much use out of a scowling face! ]

If we can find some kind of control terminal, I might be able to slice in and get a layout of the station. Other than that, I'm not sure what to do other than knock on every door we see.

[flickerandfade]

[ It's a crime she hasn't one, really. ]

I saw some crude terminals in one of the laboratories.

[droide]

[ An absolute injustice. ]

That'll do. Lead the way.

[flickerandfade]

[ Megatron nods, turns to lead back towards the laboratory he'd looked into earlier. He has to stoop to get through doorways--navigating this through a holoform avatar would be simpler, but he sees no need to do such a thing when his own body is servicable enough as it is. ]

Were you created by organics?

[ A blunt question. ]

[droide]

[ She follows, needing to walk a bit more quickly than usual in order to keep up with Megatron's long strides. ]

Bit rude. [ She comments dryly, but she will go on to answer his question.

She taps the side of her domed head. ]

This part was. The rest I built myself.

[flickerandfade]

Interesting. Where I come from, machine life such as myself arose without interference or direction by organic hands. We are also despised by organic life forms.

[ Something to do with all the colonization, genocide, and war there, probably. ]

The few machines made by organics I have encountered were not intelligent enough to hold a conversation. You are a pleasant exception.

[droide]

[ That does get her to pause, turning to look up at him. ]

You're... not a droid, then?

[ That would at least explain the differences she's noticed. His size, his more expressive face. She's a bit awed by the concept of a naturally occurring inorganic race of sentient beings, but that's... a bit too much for her to contemplate right now. Instead, she chooses to latch onto something familiar.

She scoffs. ] Of course organics will still discriminate against anything that isn't like them. How typical.

[ Here is where she would sigh, if she were capable of exhalation. ]

The droids you met were probably fitted with restraining bolts, or subject to constant memory wipes to keep them obedient and docile. Such things are common practice in my galaxy. Have been for thousands of years.

[flickerandfade]

I am not. What is a "droid?"

[ A term for whatever Elthree was, obviously. Not that it gave much detail. He looks down at her with a moderately amused expression as she expresses her disdain for organic's bigoted mindsets--never mind that he'd wiped out whole organic civilizations as a matter of course. His stride pauses though as she mentions mind wipes and restraining bolts. He can't hide the anger that creeps into his voice, nor the subtle menace underlying the words he speaks. ]

They wipe the minds of sentient beings to keep him as slaves?

[ His optics narrow and there's a sense of barely restrained anger simmering in his frame. ]

Disgusting.