![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
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:
no subject
Oh a little that, and some this, and also maybe those? You know how it is.
( he tosses the bandages back at him, suavely slipping a hand into nikolai's pocket of goodies and pulling out a bottle at random, waving it around in the air as if he has any idea about what it even does. )
There it is, my special treasure. Wonderful. Now — I can tell you there are plenty of extraordinarily lovely women here who fit that description, and we can run down the entire alphabet of them in just a moment, but the more dire need is getting away from the scene of the crime, yes, marigold? I've heard the doctor here ( doctor bones, in fact ) knows all the most intriguing ways to hurt someone in a medically professional sense, so if you don't want to get dissected, bisected, or otherwise sected — follow the Fae! For future reference, that's generally terrible advice to follow.
( not right now, obviously. he's being very helpful, isn't he, to newcomers who are lost like little babes in the moonlight? alina will surely be pleased by his good deeds done today. pointedly, rhys spins on his heels and walks to the infirmary door, checking that the coast is clear, before casually walking away from the scene of all this criminal activity. )
no subject
[ the fae. another curiosity in a place that makes little sense. the hallways wind to darkened spirals while nikolai tries to commit to memory the passing rooms and the mannerisms of the man beside him. dark hair, eyes a strange violet color that seem to sparkle despite the lack of light. the bandages end up absently wound around each finger in lieu of his currently missing gloves, the blackened scarring slowly covered up by thin strips of white. ]
Your name? [ his stomach churns uncomfortably, eyes flickering left to right, then back to his companion, tearing the bandages with his teeth. ] Call me Nikolai. Now, about these women. I'm looking for someone named Zoya Nazyalensky. She can pop your lungs like hollow gourds but I'm hoping she hasn't done anything of the sort yet. She's short-tempered, you see, and it's important that I find her. What sort of things can a Fae do? Bad at stealing, but good at finding?
no subject
( an artful brow arches at the speed the so-named nikolai puts forward into keeping up — rhys is a male founded on and born into courtly rituals, so he sees the movement and interprets it as — self aggrandizing? positions of power. let him fall humbly beside then, hands tucked into his pockets, his shoulders hunched, such a pensive and modest little fae, making himself so small and delicate. he's entirely nonviolent, nondestructive, up until the moment he is — and he fears for quite little.
including pretty humans, trapped on an island in the stars with him. still, he can play the game. rhys offers him a grin, charming and charmed, winking. )
Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court. But Rhys works just fine, since we're criminals together, now. ( he sighs, guiding them into the living area — a collection of sofas arranged for comfortable living. blissfully empty, for now. with a little heave, rhys flops down on one, kicking his feet up and crossing at the ankles, fetching the stolen bottle from his pocket to watch the amber liquid inside swish as he tilts the glass. ) Of course, you might rethink that dynamic once I say I don't know of anyone by the name of Zoya Naza-whatsit. Or anyone who can pop lungs for that matter, though I would like to see it happen. As far as the fair folk are concerned — I do magic tricks of all kinds. ( he grins at him more brightly, mischievously. ) And I can read your mind. Want to play?
no subject
[ this comfortable space is not where he wants to be. trading a bed in the infirmary for a sofa seems counterproductive to his current mission, which is to find zoya and locate the exit. as if on cue — as if the saints are pulling his strings in a grand play, damn elizaveta and her currently absent bees — he stumbles in a bout of sudden dizziness. not stumbles. that sounds altogether too weak, too pitiful. swoons. appropriately dramatic. he blinks at rhys, taking in his title in an effort to push away the memories of being pinned onto the fold by the unforgiving stalks of the thorn wood. ]
A lord, you say? You are in need of a fancy hat. Perhaps you can magic one into existence? And if you can, I'd like a crown. Not too heavy, though. This place and its subpar decor has given me a terrible headache. [ against his better judgment, he begins to pace around the room. ] Reading minds is rather overrated. I can do it, too. You're thinking about how charming and handsome I am, and that perhaps I'm not adjusting well to my current surroundings, and that I should probably sit down. Well, I have far too many pressing matters at hand to waste time on sitting or adjusting, as you may imagine a king might face when his country may be on the brink of war. So, kindly, I need to find Zoya, and I need to get the hell off of — [ he waves a hand around, then ceases his pacing to pinch the bridge of his nose, squeezing his eyes shut. ] Wherever we are. A floating castle in the sky? A figment of someone's fractured imagination? A slip in time of a curmudgeony saint? Wouldn't you know, Rhys?
no subject
he's on the brink of war too, after all. though mostly, he'd just been happy for the escape, the vacation that oftentimes doesn't feel like a vacation at all. the second question — if this is what he's saying, what else could be hiding in that brain of his?
letting himself be taken by the vial in his hand, he instead grows distant, mentally palming his way along the vast network of minds to find nikolai's. his eyes only go briefly fuzzy, finding the wooden ( golden? no, steel. iron. no it is wood. or paper? sapphire. ) door of his mind left ajar — wonderful, no defenses. it means rhys can slip in quietly and unnoticed, into the inner sanctum of nikolai's mind. what first strikes him is the chaos involved — the clashing of two dualities met inside of one person, like the halves of a copper coin split down the middle, bleeding into each other. rhys turns his head and he's in a palace, splattered in blue and gold, covered in odd, rich nicknacks — on the other side he's on a ship, the floorboard creaking under his weight, saltwater splashed against his boots, seeping in through an unknown hole in the bow.
always nearly drowning, rhys gets the impression of. water droplets on the bedspread, golden coins tucked into ledgers as bookmarks. the melding scent of paper, ink, salt, and something distinctly floral. flashes of raven hair, of silky ribbons, of a gut wrenching need to do and be done.
no, asking this man to sit quietly by was never going to work, was it. )
That was pretty good, actually. ( rhys grins. there are similarities between the two sides of nikolai — a desk on either end, covered in water warped papers, spilled ink, and odd sculptures made from scrap bits of wire. ) Also, I already have a crown. You can borrow it, if you like.
( standing, he snaps his fingers — the vial disappears into thin air, and from that same pocket of air rhys swarms his fingers around, reaching until he finds something tangible and pulling it out with a flick of his wrist, and a glittery, purple cloud of smoke. his crown. black and silver metal, detailed by gems that sparkle with all the complicated hues of starlight. stepping forward, he drops it on nikolai's head, artfully left askew. )
There. Now you are High Lord in the way of the Night Court, and I am King Nikolai, of Lemon Meringues and various other Merry, Golden things. ( tapping his chin, he steps aside, knocking a knuckle against the wall. it gives a strange, metallic echo in response. ) And I need to find beautiful, dangerous Zoya, with hair as black as night, and an impossible to pronounce family name. My first guess would be ( out a nearby window, he points. ) there.
( where is there? well — nowhere, it seems. the black emptiness of space and time, glittered by a million speckles of stars in a distance so far from them, rhys can't comprehend it. somewhere deep below all the black and the shadows and the starlight, there's a world. somewhere on that world, there is a zoya. presumably exploding someone's lungs. )
She isn't the one who moved. You are. So — welcome, my darling. To the Ximilia. ( his fingers do an animated twist in the air, detailing the space around them. ) It's a ship. So if you took a ship and ( he plucks the imaginary ship from somewhere around their waists and lifts it up, placing it up somewhere above their heads ) plop, put it up in the sky. Just like that.
( a little different. but he can still smell the salt imbedded in the wooden frame of nikolai's mind, so maybe it'll serve as a good enough explanation. )
no subject
wherever he is now. saints. the crown goes back on his head, because — well, it's the most convenient place to put it and he needs both hands to press to the window, his eyes wide as he stares out into the glittering dark. this feels much worse than elizaveta's nightmare, much grander in scale. rhys' demonstration, unfortunately, makes too much sense to him. a ship in the sky. the evidence is right before his eyes. ]
A ship. [ murmured to himself. he mimics his action, his bandaged knuckles knocking against the wall while listening closely to the sound. his ear presses to the cold metal, eyes closing, a strange hum in the barely perceptible vibrations. if this is truly a ship, it's far more advanced than anything he's ever built, and he'd very much like to take it apart once it's given him safe passage back home. but when he thinks of the expanse all around them, and the fact that rhys has made the presumption that zoya is out there and not in here, it does little to settle his growing panic.
the monster, predictably, does not fancy the idea of being trapped in a cage within a cage, uncoiling restlessly to test the edges of nikolai's tattered control. he thinks of zoya — lost. thinks of home — lost. thinks of the calm waters of the sea, but they turn into a roiling tempest as the monster claws at the cavity of his chest, delicate fissures of black fragmenting his skin, creeping up past the collar of his shirt, webbing from the corners of his eyes, cutting down the high points of his cheekbones. he draws in a sharp breath and yanks at the demon's leash, whirling from the window to face rhys with a keenly manic grin. ]
A ship, you say? A ship that flies? [ he barks out a triumphant laugh, a finger pointed directly at rhys' face as if he's just had a grand idea. ] I happen to be well-suited to all forms of flight. I can fly this ship exactly where I need it to go. I'll find Zoya myself. Where are the captain's quarters? Who is the captain? Is he or she an agreeable person or do you think I'll have to steal this ship for myself? It won't be my first time, but I generally let my other personality do the dirty work. Kings have a reputation to maintain, you know.
[ from halfway down the hall, hands casually resting on the revolvers at his hips — ] Are you coming? Where are you going, anyway, in the grand scheme of things? You seem rather content to slum around the — Ximilia, was it? Are you fond of this ship?