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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.”
Steve Rogers | MCU | Endgame spoilers
Steve wakes with a start. Last thing he remembers is winning against Thanos - they won, they won - and losing. Losing Tony, after they'd already lost Nat.
He wasn't hurt that badly himself, thanks to his healing ability. Some muscle strain, some bruises and abrasions, and mostly exhausted. But he supposes it's not completely unreasonable that he could've passed out, right? But this doesn't look like a hospital? Has he -
If he's been frozen again in some ridiculous way and has missed everyone again, he will not be happy.
Part II. 3.0 - armory or training
First rule of being stranded is to try to find some friends.
Second rule of being stranded is to make sure you can protect yourself, and said friends, if necessary. He doesn't know how well this will go. This tech is far more advanced than what Howard had, and potentially even more advanced than Wakanda's, but his shield has a very specific weight and feel.
He misses it, to a ridiculous extent. Not like he's never given it up before.
The machine whirrs and clatters. He rests his forehead on it for a moment, then presses the sixth pictogram from the left and hopes that it's the right one.
***
He's grateful for the opportunity to train. It's been a while since that last horrific fight against Thanos' army, and he's twitchy enough anyway. He sets up the system with artificial opponents, and starts with hand to hand, working his way up to weaponry.
For some reason, one of them looks a heck of a lot like Scooby Doo.
Part II. 4.0 - eating
Eggs. He could eat eggs. They're simple.
These eggs seem to be twice the size of what he's used to, but he sniffs at them cautiously and breaks a couple into a pan. They're not purple, or talking back at him, so maybe they'll be okay.
He needs to eat, anyway. He doesn't mind popcorn, but he's not a pigeon. (Not unless those multiverse rumors come true.)
Part III. 8.0 - carnival
This is more like it. Steve grins, hands in his jean pockets (if they're not jeans, they're close enough) as he looks around. Yeah, it's a simulation, but it's not a bad one, and there's no harm in relaxing for a while, right?
Reminds him of Coney Island. The only thing that's missing is Bucky wheedling him to go on the stupid rollercoaster.
He's not sure if he should try the food, but his stomach is tougher than it used to be... so someone who finds him might see him with something fizzy and dripping in one hand.
[ooc: please pm if you wanna work something out together - he's up for anything!]
Part I. 1.0 - waking up [o/ hi there!!]
Maybe it's the after life, maybe they had beds there? And dreams, she knows she was dreaming a moment ago...
To be safe, though, she doesn't make it obvious she's awake. Rather, she cracks one eye open just enough for to see everything washed in white, a blank wall to her side. She hears movement, focusing on where it's coming from and how close it was to her while keeping up her cover of sleep.
If she's not dead, she doesn't need to let a potential threat know she's awake and aware of them being in the room, too. While she's not sure she has a weapon on her- feels like a hospital gown instead of the suit she was last in- she doesn't need a gun or knife, she can handle it unarmed if she has to.
[woo HOO hi!]
The room's basically bare, too. All the decor's in pastels and neutrals. Very bland. Very boring.
The one splash of color is the hair of the person sleeping in the other bed -
"No," he whispers to himself, utterly blown away. "Natasha?"
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Natasha has questions, countless streaming into her thoughts as she finally lets her eyes open and sits up. She holds them for now, no telling who or what is listening and if he's here and they didn't win...
"Your bedside manner could use some work." She greets him the only way she knows how, sarcastic and teasing. There's the touch of a smile with it at least, a whisper of relief threaded into that anxious knot in her chest.
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Maybe he can say hello again, instead.
(Yeah, yeah, it's trite. He doesn't care.)
"You want me to find a teddy bear and a lollipop for you?" he jokes back, smiling so hard. He really, really doesn't want to tell her what he knows, so he deflects. "How're you feeling? I'm assuming we haven't both been frozen through another eight or so decades."
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"Though a lollipop couldn't hurt things." Natasha jokes, looking him over. She has so many questions she needs answers to, so many details she needs to know. But, again, god only knows who can hear them right now. And how that could be used against them...
So, instead, she just offers him a teasing half-smile, "I don't think we were frozen, exactly, but something is up." Something she's unsure of, she doesn't understand, but she should be dead, so. She'll face it as she's always done. With determinate spite and focus. Go ahead, Galaxy, show us your worse. We can take it-!
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II + 3.0
The next best thing to meditation and fostering inner peace was, naturally, finding something to beat the hell out of. Never overlook the catharsis of incredible violence. Against simulated opponents, of course.
By the time Drift had made it down to the training room, he had procured two swords, both strapped on either hip of his holoform. It would have been more conducive to his training to come out in person, but he didn't want to hurt some poor organic by accident overdoing it. Speaking of which, apparently, this room had already been claimed by someone else. Human, male, and demonstrably well-trained, but was that...?
"I'm curious as to what vendetta you could have against the Mystery Machine."
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He turns properly, breathing hard, and gives the newcomer a wry grin. "Hey, I was only defending myself. I think there are a couple more of them in here somewhere. You want to help?"
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"I'd be delighted to spar with you, instead."
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In fact, he may be far stronger than Steve, but Steve'll cope.
"I'd like that. Steve Rogers. Anything in particular I need to be aware of? Injuries, anything else?"
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Drift takes a step forward and appraises the other with open curiosity. This one was clearly above a baseline human but wasn't wearing any augmented armor or something similar.
"Only that I get disoriented if I take too much damage," Drift answers vaguely before following up with, "You're not with the Joes, are you?"
Having only been on Earth for a brief time, Drift wasn't overly familiar with the organization. Only that anytime his kind and the G.I. Joes crossed paths the atmosphere was tense at best and acrimonious at worst.
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II/3.0
"Pardon me," that deep, rasping voice rumbles into the room. Yes, Steve, that's a nine-foot tall robot.
"I am looking for someone."
holy shit two Transformers, my 10 y.o. self is freaking out
Ultron?
...not Ultron. Unless Ultron has one heck of a new body. And much better manners than before.
"Hi," he says cautiously. "Who are you looking for?"
It wasn't a line, right? This robot isn't hitting on him? (What will he do if it IS a line, he wonders to himself. He shouldn't be speciest, after all.)
we're here to add gay robot drama
"Someone named 'Drift.' A companion, you could say," Megatron says. Sadly, this is not a line and he isn't hitting on you Steve. Sorry to get your hopes up.
"I thought he might try to arm himself."
I love eet
"I haven't met anyone else in here yet. Does he look like you? I'll keep an eye out."
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"About my height, White and gray plating with some red markings. He prefers to use swords. He has a more ornate helm than I as well." Of course Drift might be using his holoform but Megatron has no idea what that looks like.
"Are you having trouble with the... dispenser?"
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[Daisy asks when she spots someone inspecting the eggs, her neutral expression quickly giving way to surprise when she sees who it is.]
Uh--
[She should probably stop staring at him and actually say something.]
Captain.
[Except he's not the Captain anymore. That's Sam. Wait. Does Sam know that he's here?]
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[He's pleasant enough; tosses a smile over his shoulder but he's clearly focused on the eggs. He blinks, and turns the packet sideways. Nope. Still doesn't work.]
[That gets more attention.]
'Steve' is fine.
[Another smile, and he puts the eggs down for the moment. She looks put off. Why does she look put off? Is everything all right?] What's your name?
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[Daisy corrects, looking around the room. No one else is in here right now.]
I'm Daisy.
[...]
Does Sam know you're here?
[Daisy still doesn't know the truth, having been told by Sam that he went to the moon. She knew it was BS, obviously.
Definitely didn't fall for that for a second.]
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[Why does she look so nervous? She carries herself like someone with some physical abilities. Could be a fighter, or a dancer, but he's pretty sure that whatever she is, she works hard to be good at it. Why is someone like that so antsy around him?]
Sam-
Sam Wilson?
[Good. She's a smart cookie. Possibly a butterscotch fudge ripple.]
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[She's sure they'd all be happy to see him. Daisy obviously lacks that personal connection with him, but she's a fan of his work. Although she's no fangirl in comparison to Coulson.]
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Training - Sorry for the late tag in <3
And if Steve follows these sounds, what he'll find is Sam, training with the shield. He looks like he's been at it for a while, both arms beginning to show the faint signs of bruises, because Sam pushes himself. He catches the shield mid-air, landing on a flip, and nearly stumbling when the motion brings him to face the entrance of the room - and with it, one Steve Rogers.
And Sam is... stunned, for a moment, just standing there mid-workout, shield on his arm, with Steve Rogers across from him. Steve who left to travel back in time half a year before Sam came to the station. Steve who's been on the station, briefly, and vanished. Just another friend and partner Sam keeps gaining and losing, because the universe plays cosmic jokes on him like that.
"I feel like one of us should break the tension by saying 'On your left', huh?"
noooo, you're perfect <3 (so is he)
Steve grins, folds his arms, and leans against the doorframe while he waits for Sam to finish. He has no concern whatsoever about Sam not coping if he threw himself into Sam's training as well, but hey, this is more fun.
How did Sam get-
He must've gone ahead with it. Must've given Sam the shield, and Sam's from a later time than he is himself. Time travel is a heck of a thing. It both breaks his heart and heals it to see Sam using the shield so adeptly. Pushing himself too hard, as always, though.
(Steve never does that. Shut up.)
"That works," Steve says, grinning harder. This is not a great situation, and they should be back on Earth, but he's not going to let it stop him from being glad to see his friend. "How about a hug, does that work, too?"
sorry again - this time for writing you an entire novel
He remembers morning jogs and regaining his wings, pool games and safe houses, four years side by side near constantly, remembers throwing his life to the side without a second thought.
He remembers dying, remembers coming back, back to back battles against forces so beyond something a dude with a fancy jetpack should tango with.
Remembers living with Steve and Natasha for two years on the run, only to come back from the dead and be told that five years passed, that Natasha is dead.
Remembers the floor falling out from under him when Steve didn't appear back on that platform.
Remembers losing Natasha and Steve a second time when they disappeared off Ximilia Station within days of each other.
Grief has dug deep trenches into Sam Wilson. Six months of mourning his closest friends in the entire world, jostling a legacy he never asked to carry. For a moment, he's not sure what he's meant to feel here - relief, excitement, resentment, grief. Is he supposed to laugh, to cry, to yell? Pushes that down, too. He can untangle that with Bucky, the only person here who knows what this rollercoaster feels like.
So Sam puts the shield down with some care and steps forwards, meets Steve halfway for a hug. There's a part of him that doesn't want to, a part of him that wants to be petulant and resentful, push back against opening himself for hurt to be repeated. There's a part of him that is deeply, irrevocably hurt by what happened - not by Steve pursuing happiness or finding peace the way he did. Just by not being included in the talk about it. By being blindsided. By not getting to say goodbye before Steve lived out his life where Sam couldn't follow. By getting Steve back on Ximilia before, only to lose him all over again.
But the truth is that while it hurt, he doesn't resent Steve. Never could. The man's been through more than enough, and Sam knows with the entirety of his own too big heart that Steve thinks of others long before he thinks of himself - that it wasn't malicious that just this once, Steve didn't think things through.
So for now, he chooses to put the hurt aside. To focus on having that reunion that they never got. He meets Steve halfway, lets himself be pulled in, and hugs back tightly. Bit too tight for anyone else, but hey. What do you have a super soldier for if not hugs like this, right? It only takes a moment or him to hug Steve like he's missed him for months.
"It's good to see you, man."
And Sam's relieved to discover that he means it.
still perfect, hush you, lol
What he gets, though, feels like about a thousand years. His eyebrows draw down together over his nose in concern. What's happened to him?
After a moment, Sam processes - something he's always been good at - and strides towards Steve, meeting him in the middle. Steve wraps his arms around Sam and near lifts him off his feet. He'll have to tell him that he's seen Nat. That she's alive.
But first things first.
"Sometime you'll tell me what's happened to you, right?" he asks quietly, cupping the back of Sam's head for a moment like he's the most precious thing in the universe.
<3
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