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FEBRUARY TDM.
● ● ● T D M . 0 5
… What are you willing to do to erase your regret from existence?
The words ring in your ears as in the darkness of your dream, an ocean-deep blue glow hovers in front of you. Transfixed, you reach out to it... only to hear a different voice, a distant echo of cruel laughter, and with a sudden certainty you know — whatever you’ve just agreed to has changed everything forever.
It is to this laughter that you wake, and as it fades and your heart slows into something resembling a normal tempo, you notice something you should have noticed 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 very much 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 to the other person in the room watching you.
What you do is entirely up to you: yell in surprise when you wake to someone staring at you? Or maybe you’ll try to sneak away before anyone notices you...
2.0 Those with life-threatening injuries find themselves awakening 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, giving an illusion of privacy. But is that a rustling sound you hear? Some footsteps? Perhaps you’re not the only one in need of some medical attention... or you've attracted the attention of those with experience in medical aid, and they rush to your bedside, surprised about this sudden new patient.
It is not just for your injuries that you may want some company, but also for leaving the infirmary — you can’t stay there forever, after all, and will have to make your way through the hallways of the station to the living quarters, and claim a room and a bed there.
Once you’re up, you may notice there’s 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? Best get to know what is now your new home.
3.0 When trying to decide where yo go, you may find your way to the armory, where you can try to work the machine there to make yourself a weapon — perhaps to replace one that didn’t come with you to the station… or maybe you want to be prepared for the future. The recently-returned team members will surely recommend having a functional weapon with you.
And speaking of weapons: to put it to good use, head to the training room, where the entire purpose is to provide you with a space to spar and train to your heart’s content!
4.0 After you’ve exhausted yourself training, it’s time to grab a bite. For that, you should head to the kitchen, which is equipped with all the basic appliances you might need, and ingredients for most regular dishes... and large amounts of chocolate. Weird.
5.0 A welcome reprieve to the cold, dark space that surrounds the characters can be found in the sunlight room. A skillful illusion surrounds 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. It seems that the illusion reflects the season — the leaves have fallen, a layer of white covers the ground, and the air is crisp and clean. If you follow the path, it leads to where a bridge rises over a brook that has now iced over — but maybe don't try your luck walking on it, as the ice may crack underneath your feet and you'll find yourself plunging into the freezing water.
Regardless of whether you like the wintery atmosphere, it is easy to forget you are in space at all. Perhaps that gives you comfort, or just makes you miss the real nature all the more.
6.0 If you’d rather choose tinkering over 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 containing 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 make!
7.0 If it’s items you’re lacking, though, some time after your arrival, the earpiece alerts you to a new message.
Indeed, the platform near the personal quarters is still whirring with power, and new items form neat piles on it. There’s clothes, shoes, dishware, skincare, books… even a couple of CDs, and a few cute stuffed animals. So sort through what there is and grab what you want, before someone else does!
Eventually, you’ll find yourself at the doors of the the simulation room — it has been equipped with a new simulation to take you through possible mission-like scenarios so it’s best to prepare yourself and see what it has in store for you.
8.0 The doors slide shut behind you and the room goes dark. Small pinpricks of light will start to build on each other until you’re surrounded by grey skies overhead and grassy green lawns, a row of old stone columns lining your vision. It seems you’re in a courtyard of some kind, but that’s not all. Something tugs at the hem of your sleeve or nudges at your leg, a warm presence that feels comfortable and ultimately very familiar. They look up at you, or maybe they meet your eye-level, a creature that varies in size, shape, colour, and form depending on what reflects you best. This creature, known as a compalion is a physical manifestation of your spirit or soul and will stay by your side on this journey.
You can stay here and get to know your compalion, or you can take your new companion and explore the campus. Because, if you do move forward past the line of columns (a hallway it turns out), you’ll find that the small cluster of buildings forms an academic campus of some kind.
a) They cannot go any further than a few yards away from their person; the further the distance, the more painful the separation will feel.
b) Your compalion will shift into one form throughout this simulation and can be any creature that best mirrors your personality.
c) They can be as small as a flea and as large as a small elephant; get creative!
d) Whether they speak to you in your native tongue is entirely up to you (some speak, some don’t)
e) Basically daemon rules apply.
9.0 While it might seem like fun to spend hours just exploring the old buildings with your compalion and any Orbers like you that you might bump into along the way, it’s important to remember that you have a goal to achieve: follow the clues and retrieve the orb. Your compalion might offer an idea or two for where to go, or it may just be voicing the thoughts in your head, but it’s not a bad thing to follow your heart (or your gut) as it were. You might find that the rooftops of the campus buildings are easily climbable to get a good vantage point of your location. (Just be careful not to slip and fall! The height from here is quite dangerous.) A clocktower stands proud in the distance among a cluster of other campus buildings, marking the time.
Inside, you might be led down dark stone halls and into a series of classrooms: including reading quarters, study rooms with old leather couches and warm carpets covering stone floors; lecture halls with stiff wooden seating and individual desks to match, a chalkboard with indiscernible scribbles half-wiped away; and a laboratory that deals with something a little less modern than you might be used to, or perhaps with its twisty vials and bubbling potions, it suits you perfectly. There is the large library filled from floor to ceiling with books beyond imagining.
If you look out from the tall arch-shaped window from a classroom, or if you’re outside and you tilt your head up to the sky, you might notice that the sky appears to be darkening further, growing heavy with what is inevitably an oncoming rainstorm. If you’re inside, it might be best to stay indoors; if you’re outside, perhaps it’s time to find some shelter. Or if you’re determined to find that orb outside, risk you and your compalion getting wet.
● ● ●
N O T E: 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 Team up with another Orber and their compalion to find the orb's location.
B Climb into the clocktower and ring the bell.
C Explain your best theory regarding your compalion’s manifestation to a fellow team member.
F Y I
• This TDM covers the month of February.
• TDM threads can be used as samples for apps. In fact, we encourage it!
• Reserves are currently open!
• Apps open February 24 and will remain open until February 28.
• 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:
Kitchen
[The speaker is a young woman, tall and pale who is currently... making a sandwich.]
Although between eating food that turned out to be illusory for two months, and then having to hunt and forage for food during the last part of the mission... I think everyone just wanted an excuse to gorge themselves.
[Sabriel among them. With everything that happened- the deaths, the nature of the orb's bargain... The station, with readily available food and lack of dust and scorching heat, seems incredibly luxurious.]
no subject
[This is so much information that this poor dragon boy is having aa hard time following.]
Explain, what do you mean by illusory foods?
no subject
[And since Touchstone isn't here, it's utterly irrelavent to Sabriel. Although between the starvation and the bloodshed, she doubts anyone was feeling particularly amorous.]
As for the food... Our last mission brought us to a town that someone had made a bargain to try to bring back after every living thing there died. The problem was that whatever power a single orb holds, it wasn't enough- so the people acted like... bad simulacrums, the food was flavorless, and it turns out, what we were eating was ash, if it wasn't just air.
And then the illusion ended and I'm not sure if that was better or worse.
no subject
[But that happened a while ago... And is meant to happen again soon.]
The dead should stay dead, no matter what, and that sounds atrocious, also slightly gross. Where did the ashes come from, do you know?
no subject
[A person who might not have been literate, given how all of the written material had been impossible to read. But it would have explained why the man's family had seemed so much more lifelike than the rest of the town- his memory and sense of them were much stronger.]
Given how they died, there weren't any spirits to call back- pulsefire destroys living things entirely, body and spirit.
no subject
[There's so much about this place he wants to know now, it doesn't sound as boring as it looks anymore.]
How did they die?
no subject
[Up until the illusion ended, and Sabriel had been slammed into the sensation of hundreds of deaths happening in a single, awful moment. Sabriel frowns, going still, contemplating her sandwich.]
Like I said- pulsefire. A phenomenon unique to that world- a fire that only burns living things- and consumes them utterly. Bandits set off a storm of it in the town, so they could take all the valuables without needing to worry about anyone trying to stop them.
no subject
[Malleus is no expert on anything like that, but he imagines suddenly being told "everyone is dead" would suck.]
Oh, so it's completely unable to leave that world.
[Well, but that's rude.]
Bandits had access to this powerful power?
no subject
[The lack of food, the odd blankness of the people, the struggle to survive in the desert- Sabriel hadn't been alone in her discomfort.]
Well, it was apparently connected to the ore found on that planet, and how it interacted with the light of that planet's sun and moon.
[Sabriel shuts her eyes, trying to to dwell on that place.]
Yes. And they were able to apply it to weapons- blades that would burn anyone they cut, guns that could shoot it.
no subject
[Malleus understands, and decides he's not going to ask anything else about the way the villagers were killed. He's curious beyond belief, but he doesn't want to cause this person any more discomfort.]
no subject
[And they're trying to put them back together- to seal them away in one location, but Sabriel's aware that this could backfire.]
no subject
[He wonders how big the actual thing is, and how powerful, if the small ones that the people here have collected have had so much power.]
Is there a fixed time you have to use to get the orbs from each world?
no subject
no subject
That must be difficult.
[Malleus crosses his arms in front of his chest, completely ignoring the things he doesn't want to eat, and thinks for a moment.]
Does that mean there have been recoveries that have taken longer than a month?
no subject
I think the longest was... three months? Although people arrived at different times during that mission, to avoid suspicion from more than fifty people showing up in a small town at once.
no subject
That's quite a lot. But it makes sense, I guess?
no subject
no subject
[Malleus sighs.]
Will collecting these orbs be part of my life now?
no subject
no subject
[Getting nothing free eh? Makes sense.]
no subject
no subject
[Interesting.]
no subject
[Sabriel suspects that it because the orb seeks out those who will be motivated to uphold their end of the bargain.]
no subject
[His is not insignificant, but it's not world altering either. He hopes.]
no subject
[Not when it meant putting up with curses, starvation, and people repeatedly trying to kill you.]
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