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OCTOBER + NOVEMBER TDM.
● ● ● T D M . 0 4
… 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.
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.
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.)
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.
F Y I
• 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.
FOR SOME FUN:
Have a clue for your upcoming mission:
“I’m going to bed, where I may die.”
no subject
[He steps away from her and adjusts the brim of his hat.]
The dead are not the only creatures that lurk there.
no subject
[Free Magic spirits could be found in Death- they were far less common than the Dead, but some used the realm to hide, to gather their strength- or more commonly, to travel from one point in Life to another without worrying about the space in between.]
Is that what you are?
[Between what she'd observed, and the way he spoke, Sabriel was certain he wasn't human.
But... had the Orb really struck a bargain with such a creature? Could such beings actually have regrets?]
no subject
Yes. That is precisely what I am.
[He walks towards her, his feet not making any sound with his movements. If she doesn't back away he will press into her personal space and loom.]
So you understand, then? You understand my power?
[Despite his looming his voice has a note of respect in it.]
no subject
[She doesn't back away- but the mark on her forehead starts to shine. Sabriel might not be actively casting, but she's reaching out to the Charter, letting it wash over her.
If she needs to draw on its power, she can do it quickly. But she doesn't- not yet.
Somehow, despite hearing her heart pounding in her ears, she manages to keep her voice level.]
It is the nature of such entities to resist any constraint or direction.
[So Sabriel won't try- not unless- or rather, until, this creature proves a threat. Until then... Best not to antagonize it on a crowded station, and risk goading it into attacking the crew.
But she should prepare precautions, and try to learn more.]
Which makes me wonder why you accepted the same pact the rest of us did.
[The Orb seeks chaos, but such entities rarely have much fellow-feeling towards each other, with the strong dominating the weaker in an endless battle.]
no subject
Regret.
I have something I must do. It's the same with you humans, yes?
no subject
[But what on earth would such a creature regret?
Such a question might come across as antagonistic, as searching for a weakness. And right now, Sabriel does not want to do that so blatantly.
So instead she takes a different tack.]
Do you understand the nature of what we've contracted with?
[The orbs seek chaos, for one reason or another. Perhaps this Yuber might have more insight into their nature, being a similar creature himself.]
no subject
[It strikes him as a strange question.]
We are to collect these orbs to gain the power to undo a regret. Is there more to it than this?
no subject
[So he doesn't know more about the Orb's true nature- they approached him the same as they would everyone else.]
I'm sure there's more to it- both the nature of the entity and the intentions of those in charge of this station. But that is at the heart of it, yes.
no subject
[Slowly, he folds his arms across his broad chest.]
Chaos suits me just fine.
If these orbs serve chaos then that is all the more reason for me to assist them. Their power could tip The Balance.
no subject
[Although what the orbs define as chaos, Sabriel doesn't fully understand. Apparently their mere presence spreads it.
At the mention of Balance, Sabriel raises an eyebrow.]
What do you mean by The Balance?
[It's not a term she'd heard in any discussion of Free or Charter magic.]
no subject
[It's a big question. He has to take a moment to think of an answer.]
The Balance, my dear, is the force that governs the cosmic equilibrium. On the one side is Dharma, on the other Discord.
For far too long The Balance has leaned in Dharma's favor. Order's favor. Those of us aligned with Chaos cannot just sit back and let that happen.
no subject
[And Sabriel bites back several comments about assuming she's a servant of Chaos, or that Order has had the upper hand, given the state of the Old Kingdom.
They're not helpful, and antagonizing Yuber will have no point. Given his nature, as far as Sabriel understands it, he's been remarkably cooperative.]
And yet there is a point where both exist, neither devouring the other, but instead interconnected.
[The Book of the Dead. Abhorsen's bells, and the Abhorsens themselves, including Sabriel. All of these contained a mixture of Free and Charter magic, existing in a relatively stable equilibrium.]
no subject
[He doubts The Balance will ever be in equilibrium. Dharma or Chaos will always reign.
If he has his way, Chaos will reign. He'll destroy The Balance if he has to.]
Do you believe it?
no subject
[It is the calling of an Abhorsen to wield both, after all. For all that they protect Life, and bear one of the Great Charters... the power in their blood also ties them to Free magic and Death.]
no subject
[He quietly looks her over.]
Or are you saying your family is able to main The Balance?
no subject
[Which meant that perhaps those forces were not entirely antagonistic- though both could be dangerous, in their own way.
And if he looks at her with more supernatural senses, he might sense that- Order and chaos in equilibrium, if not in perfect balance- within both Sabriel and the book she was reading.]
no subject
That could be dangerous.
[He lifts a gloved hand and quietly hovers a slender finger an inch from her face.]
Order and Chaos are always in conflict. All it would take is a little push and one side will start to consume the other within you.
no subject
I'll remember that. But those like me have existed for generations, without becoming purely one or the other.
[She's reluctant to make physical contact- Free Magic, as a substance, is generally inimical to Life, and she's not interested in getting burned hands if it turns out this man's nature is close to that power.]