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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.”
wildcard — ✨ sweaty shirtless boys edition ✨
of course, testing out his arm in a fight doesn't work too well without a a partner; luckily he'd been able to find one in one of the newer guys on the station, someone whose fighting techniques speak a little more closely to the various kinds he's trained with in the past, the kind he found outside of ctac's militaristic training.
the sparring even gives him a good sweat, not bothering to put his shirt back on afterwards and just tossing it over his shoulder as they make their way to the kitchen for a much needed meal after a hard workout. ]
You were damn good in there. Where'd you get your training?
i have the perfect icon response
[ That sparring session definitely worked up a sweat, and more than that, a pretty ravenous appetite too. It's been pretty slim-pickings since his arrival here, mostly because he'd been too wired and maybe a little paranoid about this place to hold much food down. He found the coffee this morning, had a little of that, but now he feels like he could eat anything and everything, cautiousness be damned.
Shang-chi also gathers his shirt up from off the ground and slings it around his neck, before following Kovacs out of the training room, glad to be in search of sustenance and then a long hot shower after. ]
You weren't so bad yourself. It's been a long time since I'd gone up against someone who could kick my ass like that. [ He laughs, resisting the urge to duck his head. It isn't that he's shy or anything, but compliments don't come around so easy with a family like his. He almost doesn't know how to respond except what he says about Kovacs is sincere. He's good. He's really, really good. His father would have tried to recruit him into the Ten Rings for sure, if he'd known him. ] Felt a little rusty for a moment there.
no subject
[ that kind of naming system isn't unfamiliar to him, though. plenty of people take on an intimidating name as a means to to build up their reputation as something to fear. it's a way of building on something of a nightmare, the way he and rei had dread the "patchwork man" for so much of their childhood.
but whoever this death dealer was, they seem to have been a capable mentor, considering that the spar they'd just taken on had been plenty challenging, and would still have been even if he hadn't had the handicap of a still healing arm. ]
If we'd been on opposite sides, I really would have aimed for kicking your ass. [ his lips purse up into a smirk, opening the door of the training room to begin stepping out through the hall, already memorizing the paths of the station. ] Good to keep the muscles hot here, though. Missions tend to come out of nowhere, and while the last one had a bit of down time, I really had to pull my weight at the end.
[ almost didn't make it either. ]
no subject
[ Shang-chi's mouth quirks as he delivers the response in the most deadpan tone he's got available to him. Death Dealer was aptly named because he was so viciously swift with his actions. No nonsense, no pity, no room for comfort or error. You either did what you had to do correctly or you'd get punished for being wrong. He was a harsh teacher and one he felt absolutely no emotional attachment to whatsoever.
Hell, given the chance to kill him for all he'd been put through as a child on that fateful night in Macau a couple weeks ago, Shang-chi would have done it. Only his father stopped him. (Turns out he'd meet his end anyway, though. Shang-chi just wasn't around to see it.)
He follows Kovacs out into the hall, the sterile lights and the air around them cooling against his skin. He thinks about whatever snacks the kitchen has in store for them and he can't wait. You work up a pretty good appetite training against a big guy like Kovacs. ]
Yeah? Tell me about these missions. What was the last one like? Any other useful tips for a newbie?
no subject
Word is every place is different but the planet we ended up on wasn't too different from the kind of usual stuff I see — rich assholes scheming for power, desperate manipulation from the top, buncha gangsters playing dirty under the table.
[ it was almost like he never left bay city at all. or harlan's world, for that matter. ]
Best advice I can give is not trusting anyone out there. [ a part of him considers adding even the people on this station, but after his chat with alina, he knows that tends to be a sensitive subject for some. ] Some bitch with an old grudge almost drained my insides just to keep her hands on the orb.
no subject
[ Shang-chi's mouth twists ruefully, the sarcasm made clear enough that it wouldn't be hard to miss. It's a joke, or at least it's meant to sound like one — but it's really not untrue either.
It also makes him realize how messed up those seven years of his childhood were when his father started aggressively working to rebuild the Ten Rings the moment his mother was killed.
He clears his throat. ] But, okay. So things get varied, that's good to know. Do you think everyone here was picked for having some kind of useful skill for one of these worlds? Or is it a little more random?
[ He's gonna file that bit about trust away, too. Not that he hasn't had his own fair share of trust issues in the past, but on the whole Shang-chi makes an effort to remain ... cautiously hopeful about the strangers he meets. ]
Yikes. Well, I'm very in favour of keeping my insides where they are, so. No trusting outsiders, got it. Can you vouch for the people on this station too?
[ Sorry, man, we're gonna go there. ]
no subject
But we're all here cause we all made a deal. So chances are, we've all got something that'll help get these orbs together. Least they seem to think so.
[ people of varying backgrounds, different time periods, different planets, and a range of ages.
but in being asked about the people on the station, his mind ventures back to alina again momentarily, on how he'd warned her of monsters, that they were likely plenty here with them (that he could be considered one of them). he sighs, not the kind for sugarcoating but trying to find a different spin on it all the same. ]
There ... there's some good people on here. I don't know them all personally, but lot of hero types, a few realists. You got the saviors, the killers — but we're all here cause we all wanted something for ourselves. Just something to keep in mind when it really comes down to wire of making choices.
no subject
[ Shang-chi would attribute most of his strategic skill and calculation to the grueling training regimens his father had forced him into, but even the people of Ta Lo (his mother's people) were careful, skilled warriors. They were a good group, hero-types, like Kovacs mentions — and opposite to the people his father collected around him, but they were fierce too. So maybe it's just in his DNA to think the way that he does.
But he nods, grateful for the truth and the lack of sugarcoating. Something like this, with people like them, a sweetly delivered response would only feel insincere. Maybe it'd make him trust the guy less. ]
Well, thanks for being honest with me about it.
no subject
[ one that he's asked a thousand times since he's shown up at the station and to which he still doesn't have an answer to. if anyone's been questioning this deal thing plenty, it's been kovacs, even bringing up the skepticism of it in a few conversations just to get a feel on what the consensus is.
but he's relieved that shaun is accepting of his review of the station's current guests, since he's had people put up more of a fight about the good intentions and the more "bonding" aspect that puts a false illusion that everyone could instantly be viewed as an ally, or even more unrealistically, a friend.
never mind that they seem to be getting along alright. ]
You'll find plenty of the "budding" types elsewhere. All about holding hands and shit. You're never gonna find me on that aisle, don't worry.
no subject
What, taking a guy down in the training room doesn't count to you as holding hands and shit? Well, now I'm offended.
[ Nope, he's good on that too, honestly. No need for kumbaya circles and free 'Eat, Love, Pray' posters for this guy. ]
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[ it might not be the sort of brotherly bonding that someone like newt would go on shouting out and professing (accompanied by a loud and annoying rift on a guitar), but in fairness, this is probably the friendliest someone could likely expect out of kovacs.
at least, openly, without prior layers of asshole one-liners. ]
no subject
[ There's more good-natured laughter.
Honestly, it'd be a real shame if he turned out to be a bad dude. :c
(Also, there's an art to appreciating a good asshole one-liner. Shang-chi's never really gotten the hang of it himself, it might be the lack of a resting bitch-face, but oh he can appreciate it.) ]
no subject
You know what, maybe it'll persuade them to keep their distance. Gets to be pretty fucking annoying when everyone is on your back trying to persuade you into the spirit of friendship and all that shit.
[ his comments are almost crude but it's spoken almost with an endearing flair, like he's definitely fallen victim to exactly that more than a number of times against his hope for resistance. ]