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SPRING TDM.
● ● ● T D M . 0 8
The words ring in your ears as in the darkness of your dream, a teal glow pulses, slowly enveloping you. It is not a feeling of comfort that surrounds you, though — as a distorted voice whispers in your ear, you feel it: cold dread, and a sudden certainty that everything is about to be irrevocably changed.
It is to this daunting realization that you wake, and as 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 a few days 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.
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.
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.
With an illusion so authentic it may leave you longing for some hot chocolate, 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 As you wander back towards the common areas, you may notice a room off to the side. The room takes up a chunk of the common area, and on its unassuming door is a little plaque that reads, 'The Ximusic room'. Should you enter, you will find a sound-proofed practice room that contains — yes, you guessed it, band equipment that even the most musically inclined should be satisfied with. So pick up an instrument, saunter up to the microphone to belt out your favourite tunes, or take a seat at the side of the room and enjoy others' playing.
8.0 If it’s items you’re lacking, though, some time after your arrival, the earpiece alerts you to a new message.
As you make your way to the platform, you'll see there is nothing amiss in the neat piles of items 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!
(CW: POTENTIAL BODY MODIFICATION)
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.
Step past the threshold and the doors will slide shut with a quiet woosh. Nothing suspicious; nothing to worry about. But before you can really get a sense of your environment (a grey, large-ish empty room, no furniture, no discernable objects to provide markers), the room goes dark, and then … there’s really no other way to describe it: the room transforms.
You find yourself in a club. The music is upbeat, loud, but not too loud. Down a short flight of steps flanking the bar and seating is the open floor with more tables and booths bathed in a warm, dim glow of light, and at the very end of the room is a stage with its bright spotlight showcasing its performers — though, at the moment, the stage is empty.
9.0 When you take a step forward, you’ll feel a presence gently push at your chest or your shoulder — a tall and jovial man resembling a well-dressed bartender from the top up (the rest of him appears to move along wheels) approaches with a tall flute glass in hand. Its contents are sparkly and blue.
Will you proceed? Please respond ‘Yes’ or ‘No’.”
There’s something a little strange about his voice, a cadence that doesn’t sound quite natural even when the simulation is so realistic otherwise. Once you’ve given your consent, the bartender continues.
10.0 It seems the bartender wasn’t lying. Once you’ve allowed the drink (tasty, sweet-but-not-too-sweet, effervescent, with light notes of your fondest childhood memory) to settle in your stomach you might experience a myriad of effects on your body, ranging from a change in skin colour (pink? green? blue with spots?), an additional limb or two (or three), a tail or wings, or cybernetic parts such as lie-detecting eyes or a tongue that can uncover truths and lies in others. If you happen to find another Orber within the room and both of you have consumed the offered drink, you might find yourself experiencing a full bodyswap.
None of the changes are painful; if anything, they might not even be noticeable until you look into a mirror, look down at your limb-in-question, or your companion points it out.
11.0 The moment you approach the stage, a performer will appear as if out of thin air and begin to sing, her voice strong and smoky and melodic. Her enthralling performance could put you into a trance, but you have an orb to find and a personal task to accomplish, so it’s time to put your best foot forward and do a little investigating.
Talking to some of the patrons might prove fruitful as some of them are convinced that the stage has never sounded or looked so good, like there’s something giving performers that extra oomph that no one can explain. It might be wise to wait until that last performance before you sneak up there — or maybe you want to do a little snooping around now, you know, while everyone’s distracted. Strategize with your fellow Orbers and uncover the location of this hidden orb.
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N O T E: The effects of the drink and the level of changes your character experiences is entirely up to you. Patrons of this fine club won’t bat an eye if you look a little like them.
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 Say the opposite of what you mean during the simulation.
B Create a scene with an unsuspecting teammate.
C Get up on stage and put on a performance during the simulation.
F Y I
• TDM threads can be used as samples for apps. In fact, we encourage it!
• Reserves open February 19!
• Apps open February 24.
• 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 about the upcoming mission—
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Better that Finn sit and keep him company from here on out. That was an important job, too. ]
They're all randos to me, dude. [ He cuts the onion lengthwise, setting his microplane to the lengthy task of grating. ] List 'em by shoe size if you want.
STEVE
Guess I should start with my roommate, Steve! [It strikes Finn as momentarily strange to be calling someone his roommate to his brother, the person who had been his roommate for the better part of the past twelve years or so. A small, but somewhat potent reminder of how very long these three months had been, and how much had changed.]
He’s a really cool guy Jake, you’ll love him. He’s super funny, makes a killer grilled cheese, and he knows like, everything about doing hair. And he’s only a couple years older than me! [Another small but significant thing; Finn had known hardly any humans, and all the ones he had known were well and fully adults, many years older than him.]
When I first got here, he was…one of the first people to really make me feel kind of, at home, you know? I think he’s got people he misses a lot too, so it helped to hang out and sort of talk about that.
[Finn holds back part of what he was thinking…that in many ways, Steve wasn’t just a devastatingly cool friend (with maybe some secret shades of dork), but he felt like a brother figure too.
But Finn didn’t want to make Jake feel like he’d spent his time on Ximilia replacing him. Never mind that he did already have more than one brother back home. What’s another? What’s another two or three? You couldn’t have too many bros.]
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[ First onion half grated, Jake switches to the second. These onions were pretty big, maybe he'd only do the one. Time would tell. ]
You got any other roommates, or just the pair of youse?
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[Finn assumes, with no prompting or evidence at all that this is something high on Jake’s concerns list. Definitely not his own anxiety. ]
Okay, who else… [Finn taps his chin, thinking back to that first week. The people who’d first reached out, made connections with him. That seemed as good a place as any to work from.]
Oh! Have you met Marta? She also makes me grilled cheese sometimes. [ A running theme.] She’s a human, dark hair, really pretty, about, mm. This tall? [He holds up a hand to indicate, as if that means anything to Jake.]
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Finn could get so anxious about those things, so eager to fix a feeling when it wasn't even really a problem. When it just was. Better to let this one slide out of kindness. Besides, he had onions to attend to. ]
Nope, not ringing any bells.
MARTA
She’s got kind of…mom energy? If you know what I mean? [It wasn’t clear if Finn was talking about a general mom energy, or one of his own two moms, but he’s confident Jake can tease out the nuance. Or at least understand the lack of specificity.] And she’s really…kind. Like, I think she cares about people more than almost anyone I’ve ever met. She really, really cares.
[His tone was admiring. He respected her quite a lot and it was clear in the fond way he spoke that she’d left something of an impression on him.]
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[ Jake stretches an arm back towards the pantry, feeling around for some garlic. It wasn't that he was tuning Finn out, per se. It was more than he knew Finn well enough to feel confident his motormouth would run with or without Jake's input.
Garlic acquired, Jake starts the tedious process of peeling it. He hands a second head to Finn, wordlessly recruiting him to assist with the schmutzy task. ]
She sounds nice.
KOVACS
She’s got a…boyfriend here. Husband? [Finn didn’t really know.] I don’t think they’re from the same place originally though. That’s crazy, right? [Being here long enough to forge a whole relationship had felt unfathomable two months ago. But these had really been the longest three months of his life. Who knew what Marta and Kovacs time here had looked like.
Finn quietly peels the garlic for a moment, considering how much more he should tell Jake. Whatever had happened with Kovacs, turning into that creature…Finn really didn’t know the man. And it wasn’t his business to spread to people who also didn’t know him yet. No reason to poison the well with something that wasn’t even the guy’s fault. ]
Kovacs. I don’t really know him. But Marta loves him, so he must be pretty good.
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How long were they going to be here? ]
Blech. [ He frowns at the garlic skins, sweeping them over to Finn's pile to make room for yet more grating. ] Er, my blech was about the garlic, not the lovebirds. It sounds mad romantic.
[ How much of his internal thoughts were spilling into his tone? Jake didn't know. Which is why he immediately elbows Finn in the side, grinning suddenly. ]
Soooo... how about you, bro? Got your eye on anybody yet?
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Finn wasn't about to crack open the can of worms that was Jake if he caught even a whiff of his brother's crushes, earnest or otherwise.]
And don't change the subject! [ He slides the peeled garlic cloves across the table to him.] I was about to tell you about Andy.
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[ Jake takes the mostly-peeled head of garlic from Finn, making short work of what remained before setting it to his grater. ]
Now, tell me about this Andy dude.
ANDY
She’s not a dude, dude. [Wait. Could ladies be dudes? Andy definitely had dude energy, so why not? ] She’s… Andy.
[ A feral, undefinable energy, really. Titles and boxes couldn’t contain it. ]
She’s way cool, man! Knows everything about snacks and fighting. She’s also a human, but like, so much cooler than the humans back home. Kinda… like Billy, actually? Definitely Billy-esque. She went on a dungeon crawl with me and chopped the head off a giant snake with two swords like it weren’t nothin’! [ He makes an enthusiastic gesture, drawing both fingers across his throat in opposite directions, a grin on his face. ] I’ve been thinking I might try two swords.
Also, she can like… heal from any injury super fast? I saw her get her arm cut off and it grew back like, bam. Couldn’t have been more than fifteen minutes. It was so gross, dude.
[ The last bit gets a bit of a laugh, his true feelings on the matter clear. ]
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Garlic finished, Jake carries the small bowl of grated aromatics to the non-stick (blegh) saucepan. ]
Eesh. Pretty grisly, buddy. [ The range was electric (double blegh), but Jake doesn't comment on that particular disappointment. He cranks the burner to high, waiting for the skillet to heat up. ] But also pretty Bill-core, you ain't wrong.
JORIC
[Finn hums quietly for a moment, folding the napkin again.] He’s a little “strong silent type”, you know? But I’ve learned a lot about human culture from him. At least, what his human culture is like. [ A lot about what they think of death. For a brief moment, Finn considers mentioning that Joric had brothers too, even if they had long since passed away. But it felt too private. Information he didn’t need to share with his brother, even if his instinct is to share most everything.] His home is up in the mountains, where is snows all the time. But not magic snow, just…snow. And they’re warriors…but also storytellers? And he has so many good ones, Jake. You’ll dig him!
[Finn seemed to believe Jake would ‘dig’ just about everyone so far, but it felt true. They were good people. And Jake was sociable and easy to like…he had friends for days back in Ooo. ]
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His Attentive Listening Noises to Finn come through distracted during this process, sautéing with more care than usual. New kitchen's always took some troubleshooting.]
Uh huh. That's awesome, bud.
KAZUMA
He busily folds the napkin again, moving into full origami now.]
Oh! [ He snaps his fingers, inspiration striking abruptly.] I gotta tell you about Kazuma!
[ He waits for only the most cursory ‘uh huh’ from Jake, attention glued to the pan in front of him, before continuing with newfound enthusiasm.]
We hit it off right away actually, he taught me- [ Finn cuts himself off before announcing what Kazuma taught him. Jake doesn’t need to know about the eggs. He might start making Finn make his own eggs, and Finn didn’t want that.] uh, a sword trick. He’s lawyer; a master swordsman who fights for justice and he dresses in all black…like, like some kind of special warrior’s uniform? [Why does it matter what he’s wearing, Finn?] I don’t know too much about his world, but I know he’s got some kind of rivalry with this gang there called ‘the Bobbies’. It sounds pretty serious, I think it might be why he came here.
[Fold, fold. A bird was starting to take shape from the napkin Finn was diligently folding still.] Anyway, I’m kind of his protégé.
no subject
Wow. Kazuma, huh? Guess I better remember that name. [He stretches a hand over, tugging one of Finn's bear ears with a teasing grin.] Feels like I'm gonna be hearing it a lot.
RYUNOSUKE
Yeah, well, if you meet him, you should know he came with another guy. They’re good friends. Like. Really good friends. [ Finn thinks about that quietly for a long, long moment. Folding the beak on his paper bird. ] Well, you’ll see. His name’s Ryunosuke, and he’s…nice. Really nice. But, also kind of a dweeb? I think maybe he, uh. Hasn’t spend a lot of time outdoors, you know? I think he’s like, the accountant in their gang or whatever.
Also, he got really sick on our last mission, but I think he’s doing better now. I feel kinda bad for the guy. He seems sort of…frail? Like a little…orphaned baby lamb.
[He sets the completed bird on the table. It’s a bit uneven, a little wrinkled. Not his best work.]
But he does have Kazuma looking after him. They’re together all the time. You’ll recognize them, always in their matching outfits and everything. It’s cute.
no subject
Jake tips the onions into the bowl of beef, stretching an arm back for the milk-soaked bread. Time to begin the all important task of crafting and seasoning the master mix. After a beat of tearing up bread, Jake remembers he doesn't have access to his personal spice cabinet here. Dangit.]
Gotcha. Any other members in this gang, bro? [He laughs, pouring the remaining milk into a saucepan before setting off in search of herbs.] Or just more aspiring ones like you?
YUJIN
[ Finn wasn’t much better than Jake at judging human ages; he had very little experience in that department. ]
I think he was their teacher back in their world. He’s a pretty tough old guy, and a good doctor. He answers all my questions without making me dumb about it, you know?
[ Finn has started folding another paper napkin bird. The smells of cooking and spices were starting to fill the room, making his stomach rumble.]
But, bro, here’s the real crazy thing. PM is like, Kazuma’s adopted father or something? I didn’t get the whole story, but it sounded like he basically raised Kaz himself, but they’re super weird about calling each other family? Like Kazuma has never even mentioned it?
[He laughs a little, uncomfortable with it. Particularly the unspoken idea that maybe Kazuma just didn’t trust him with the information. Finn frowns, folding the wing of the bird carefully.] They’re just real squirrelly about it. I’m not really sure what the story is.
no subject
[The question is more rhetorical than anything; Finn already made it clear that he had no idea. Jake honestly couldn't think of a good reason, either. Not unless Kazuma had some other dad in the picture who the kid had messed up feelings around or something.
...Okay, so that's one reason. But it still sat funny with Jake. He resumes his search with a final shrug.]
People's personal biz gets way squirrelly, man. [Oh heck yes. Bay leaf!] Not everybody is as cool as Mom and Dad about that stuff.
MCCOY
We have another doctor too…Dr. McCoy. He’s real awesome…you might have met him if you went by the infirmary at all? He’s basically always there.
[Finn hesitates for a moment, thoughts bubbling up that he wasn’t entirely certain about bringing up. He turns the bird one way, and then the other, examining it for symmetry.] He kind of reminds me of my mom. You know. Computer mom. Minerva. Just, how he spends all his time trying to help people, keep them safe.
He’s actually been letting me help out around there too, teaching me some stuff. It’s been a good way to keep busy.
[He opts not to fill Jake in on just how many injuries they’d collectively sustained on the last mission, and how overwhelmed that had made their poor, understaffed medical team.]
no subject
Jake was about to start liberally seasoning the meat when the mention of Minerva slows his roll. He smiles; expression caught somewhere between sad, reassuring, and proud.]
Yeah? You were saying not that long ago that you liked how it felt, doctor stuff. [That was before meeting Minerva, but this wasn't the first time Jake wondered if his biological mother brought any of those feelings back for Finn. Apparently, she had. Her and this Dr. McCoy person.] You think you're gonna stick with it?
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I dunno…I think I want to keep trying it. [ Finn’s thoughts go instinctively to all the people he’d been with on Alydhion when they’d been hurt, or shortly after. Sabriel, Rand, Felix, Itachi. Itachi. Each time he’d been totally helpless to do anything other than frantically call for help. Maybe knowing more, even just small things, could have made a difference. All of them had turned out okay, of course, but it didn’t make those long minutes any less harrowing.]
I think knowing how to help when people are hurt, even just basics…that’s good, right? I don’t know if I’m cut out to do what they do for real. [ the amount of reading alone was astonishing. ] But. I guess for now, yeah. It feels good to help out. Make it a little easier for the people doing the big stuff.
no subject
[As old as Finn was getting, Jake still couldn't let go of his self-imposed responsibility to keep it light. He turns back to his mix, carefully folding in all his additions with a wooden spoon.]
Wanna get me a loaf pan, buddy?
SABRIEL
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NATASHA & YELENA
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NEWT
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HELEN
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1/2
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WEI WUXIAN
1/2
2/2
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FELIX
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GWEN
1/3
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3/3
GWEN, CNT’D
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ZIGGY
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ITACHI
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