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

billy butcher ( the boys )

[cheapbastard]

3.0 ARMORY

How the fuck...?

( the question trails off while billy stands in front of machine, trying to figure out how the fuck it works. he hasn't seen nothing like this before and all he can do is just stand there, a look of confusion on his face.

after a moment, he kicks it. the machine, of course, doesn't respond to his kicks and billy starts swearing under his breath, pushing different buttons and trying to get something to work. )

Is there a password to this fuckin' thing? Give me a fuckin' gun!

( if he was going to flung some place that he doesn't fuckin' know, he wants a goddamn gun to shoot if someone decides to step up on him and try and do weird shit. he's seen alien shows on late night television and he is not going to let that happen to him. )

4.0 MESS HALL

( all he wants right now is a drink. he thinks the mess hall is the best place to get that sort of thing but when he steps inside, he doesn't see anything that looks like a bar. )

Really? Not even any of those little travel sized bottles? Come on, everyone's got those tucked away in case of emergency. Might be five years old but who gives a shit?

( he looks around like he's expecting agreement. when he doesn't get much of it, he rolls his eyes and moves over to try and find something to eat. if he can't drink, fine, he'll get some fuckin' carbs in his body. )

God, I thought my days of eating cold ramen were behind me.

( what a fuckin' trip this was turning out to be. )

9.0 GRAVEYARD

Well.

( he honestly doesn't know what to say and that's a fuckin' rarity. in front of him, there's a tombstone. that isn't too rare a thing, he's been to funerals before, put on a fuckin' suit and dressed up and mourned.

but this is something new because the name etched into the stone in front of him is his wife's. and last he knew, she wasn't dead. his breath gets caught in his throat and he takes several measured breaths before he twirls around, looking for the person who'd done this. )

You wanna play a fuckin' prank on me? This ain't it, fucker. This ain't it. Come out and play. Let me break your fuckin' nose and drink your fuckin' blood.

( around him, things remain quiet and billy whirls, taking the toe of his boot to the granite. as soon as he does, he feels a sharp pain run up his leg and he curses. )

Ow. Fuckin' ow.

010 WILDCARD

( for anything else that doesn't fit the mold. )

4.0 well hey there handsome

[homeostatic]

( There's not a drop of liquor in the Mess Hall, but there sure is in the kitchen next door, where Bones is pouring himself two fingers of Scotch whiskey, courtesy of Theo Crain's intel. Capping the bottle, he eyes those bags of popcorn, and snags one from the counter to take with him, stepping out into the Mess Hall with his glass–

–and narrowly missing a collision with Billy. He doesn't drop the glass, but he loses his drink regardless: it sloshes out of the squat tumbler and splashes over the floor. )

Well that's just great.

my my what a looker you are

[cheapbastard]

Open your fuckin —

( that's about the time that billy takes his own advice and actually looks. that is a very familiar jaw line he sees and though there's no beard to make him look as ruggedly handsome as billy himself. )

What the fuck is this now?

( trickery or magic or some kind of hallucination? he can't stop himself from reaching out and poking bones in the cheek with a finger. )

Are you real?

[homeostatic]

( Irritated that his I Patched Up A Whole Space Station By Myself-reward is now getting mopped up by an angry-looking little robot, Bones isn't really paying attention to the stranger, but his gaze snaps up when the man prods his face. )

As real as they come, ( Bones snaps, and has no qualms about swatting that finger away from his face. It's the accent that throws him, probably, not seeing the resemblance just yet- his last depression!beard was more a miserable scruff, and that was a good eight-ish years ago. Rolling his eyes, he turns back toward the kitchen. )

I'm getting another whiskey.

[cheapbastard]

Wait wait wait just a fuckin' minute —

( billy doesn't have any qualms at all about following his younger and less handsome lookalike. no no, if there's whiskey, he'd deal with the fact that there was some shitty looking twin of his around. )

There's whiskey? Where the fuck is there whiskey? I looked everywhere and all I found was some granola bars and liquid that looked like melted ketchup.

( maybe it was tomato juice or something. )

[homeostatic]

( He lets the door before him slide open with a soft hiss, revealing the station kitchen and the bottle of whiskey on the counter where he left it. Probably shoulda put it away, but here they are. Tossing the popcorn bag aside, he snatches up the bottle first like a kid trying to keep a favorite toy away from a careless sibling, and helps himself to another generous pour.

...okay, maybe a little more generous than that. He sets the bottle down after, pushing it toward the stranger. )

Cabinet beside the fridge, behind some stuff. The glasses are behind you, by the sink.

( This time, mollified by a dose of Johnnie Walker, he has himself a better look of the other man, squinting over the rim of his glass. )

...you gotta be kidding me.

[cheapbastard]

Oh, you finally notice that, did you?

( billy had been waiting for that and now that mccoy has, he just smirks and grabs the bottle before hunting for a glass. he doesn't want to think too much about it though. )

So, how the fuck did you steal my face?

( he pours the whiskey and leans back against the counter, eyeing the other man with suspicion. )

9.0

[flickerandfade]

[ Looming silently, as if he well might belong amongst the gravestones and statuary looks across the graveyard when he hears someone cursing and yelling--and then the cry of pain. He studies Billy for a long moment, turns more directly towards him with his looming nine-foot height. ]

From what I understand organic bodies are quite fragile. Kicking stones seems inadvisable.

[ That low, sonorous voice rumbling from somewhere in the mechanism's chest. ]

[cheapbastard]

Yeah, thanks for the advice, I —

( that's about the time that billy happens to look towards the source of the voice and his eyes widen. he doesn't step back or turn and run but he squints like he can't be seeing what he's seeing. )

Am I going fucking crazy right now?

( or was that some kind of robot who was giving him advice on how to not break his toes? )

[flickerandfade]

[ Ah. The human seems to be in denial about this. That seems common for confrontations with things beyond understanding. Megatron turns himself more fully towards Billy. ]

No. You're not going crazy.

[cheapbastard]

( the human is very much in denial. he rubs a hand across his face and blinks a few times to see if that clears it up but no. no, that doesn't do anything. )

What in the blood fucking fucksticks are you?

( besides a nightmare wrapped in what he guesses is fuckin' brain damage. )

[flickerandfade]

[ Megatron's head tilts slightly, as if acknowledging the question and taking it under consideration. ]

A Cybertronian. And I assume you are human?

[ His tone suggests that he considers this line of question slightly silly at best and positively deranged at worst. ]

[cheapbastard]

Last I checked.

( but honestly, maybe he was dead or something now. some fuckin' hallucination that was cursed with seeing robots that were huge and shit. )

Never heard of a Cybertronian. You alive or you just a bunch of bolts and metal with an on/off switch somewhere?

3

[bindsthedead]

Try describing what you want in more detail? I've been able to get it to make training swords just fine.

[Sabriel's leaning over, curious at what this new crewmate is trying to do.]

Be too imprecise and will just make something useless- like a gun-shaped piece of metal.

[cheapbastard]

I want a gun. A gun that shoots bullets.

( is that precise enough? he's not a very patient man and he's used to just having an armory at his fingertips. he spares the other person a glance and then shakes his head. )

What the hell kind of machine is there? Ain't there just a room to go to and get a weapon?

[bindsthedead]

You're probably going to need to be more precise- a pistol, or some sort of rifle, for example.

[The other person is a tall young woman, with skin that is just a shade too pale to be entirely healthy.]

As for why- everyone here has different preferences when it comes to weapons. So it's probably easier to just make what people as for rather than gathering a bunch of weapons and hoping they've picked what people want.

[cheapbastard]

What about big fucking gun? If I say that, is it gonna give me a rocket launcher?

( because he could really do with a fuckin' rocket launcher now. frustrated, he peers over at her. )

This machine really gives you anything you want? Or is there some sort of limit on it? I'd hate to order up something nice and juicy and come back with some leftover cold shit.

[bindsthedead]

Well, there seems to be a limit to the size of what it can create. But if you just ask for a big gun, you might get that- or an oversized rifle.

[It's a tricky piece of machinery, after all.]

I've never bothered much with guns, so I'm afraid I can't give you much advice.

[cheapbastard]

If not guns, what do you bother with?

( he gives the machine a kick again. )

Knives? Grenade launcher? Baton? Hammer? Axe? Something else?

9.0 - utd on canon, let me know if you're down for spoiler b.s. or not

[topman]

[A deal, a fair trade for the grief and suffering he'd been party to but the headstones as they were still felt like a knife in his side. Too many of them were a direct result of his hand, and so it felt fitting that after signing the so-called contract he'd see this. The absolute totality of what made him choose space travel in the first place.

What he isn't expecting to see is Billy, a face familiar enough to deter the glassiness of his eyes for the moment. Some lives couldn't be saved, and they would all meet this fate sooner or later. Sooner, in their case and their chosen field.]

Butcher? [There's been no notice of the grave yet. He's too preoccupied with his long-time capitaine floundering around the sea of epitaphs.]

i'm up to date on canon!

[cheapbastard]

What?

( there's frustration lacing his tone and, at first, he doesn't realize that the owner of the voice is familiar. he spins around, fixing frenchie with a look of anger that seems to ease once he does realize that he knows the other man. )

Oh great, you're here too. Are you here to haunt me? Because I did right by you.

( mostly. )

[topman]

Not yet, lucky for you. Between you and me, I'm not sure I deserve that kind of peace.

[It's good that he recognizes him at least, he came upon a fellow that looked just like him. That was enough to dial his distrust up a little further. He saunters over once he's sure that he won't start throwing punches.]

What's haunting you now?

[cheapbastard]

Nothing.

( he's not in a sharing mood so he's not going to say a fucking thing right now. )

The hell are you doing here? Where did you even come from?

[topman]

Maybe I'm just a manifestation of your guilt, mon ami. [The smug grin on his face betrays his words on purpose and he exhales a puff of his cigarette and uses the same thumb on the hand holding it to dig his thumb into his brow.] I don't know. Went through the automatic doors and wound up on a path to this place here. With you.

[cheapbastard]

With me.

( at least he's familiar and...well, tolerable. no, billy does like frenchie a lot more than he let's on which is why he tries to keep the other man around. )

You see anything on these tombstones? Anything strange? Don't lie to me. I'm not in a good mood and I won't hesitate to make you uglier.