![[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}
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.
● ● ●
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—
A blessing and a curse
His gaze focuses again on the microphone. It’s definitely an unusual design, though one that could easily be explained away by the futuristic, alien setting. But. That sound. That was special, wasn’t it.
He glances at Ciri, to see if she noticed, but she is still trying to power through this "performance" while also being deeply perplexed. She seems to know something is weird, but she may not know enough about stage equipment to understand what.]
Ah, well. That depends. [he says in response to her question] They say it’s best to leave an audience wanting more. [he looks at the audience] Do you all want more?
[And they all start cheering because of course they do. It’s actually ridiculous.
However, they are making enough noise that he is able to lean in and whisper to her.]
It’s the sound system.
[And he glances pointedly at the microphone.]
no subject
The cheering is so strange, that what he whispers when he leans in almost doesn't catch her attention the way it should. And the words, sound and system as if there's an inherent meaning to them, wouldn't, if he wasn't looking toward what the singer had been singing into earlier. The device projecting voices, including theirs at present, when speaking louder than he just had. She whispers back: )
Can we just take it and run?
( Before the crowd stops finding this entertaining? Trying to make her grimace more of a scowl, which doesn't actually take much. It's strange. If this is a mimicry of what an orb can cause as influence, then she also wonders, who or what made a deal? Did anyone? Do orbs act like this without an active connection?
It's headache inducing. Don't be distracted. She blinks, and stalks toward the microphone and its stand. Which is coincidentally the direction of the unbroken mug. )
If that's what they say—
( She says, reaching out to take hold of the smaller attachment on the pole. A twist of her wrist has the microphone coming free, the odd ball structure of its end glinting in the light as she turns. )
Then leave them wanting?!
( Ciri bolts off stage, leaping at an angle to land on her feet with knees bent and simply dodging through the laughing, confused crowd toward the door. Outcries of hey! Or "did she just take the microphone?" are starting to make themselves heard above the hubbub of the crowd. )
no subject
For a moment he appears to be as startled as the audience, blinking a few times as she jumps off the stage and flees. But then he hops down too, albeit more casually and with a little more care than Ciri did.]
Don’t worry, I’ll get her.
[He tells the crowd as he follows her. Though his tone lacks conviction and he’s not exactly running to chase her down. He’s just kind of walking briskly after her as the audience continues to murmur in confusion, wondering if this is all just part of the act.]
no subject
Instead, she's managed to weave her hurried way back to the metal construct who gave her the drink to start this all in the first place. The murmurs behind them get louder, odd good cheer of the crowd shifting into confusion, beyond into irritation. Ciri shoves the microphone into the construct's hands, meriting a pause on its part. She's still staring down the bartender who's staring her down in turn when her companion in this farce arrives.
Which is when the bartender construct smiles. )
Congratulations. Orb retrieval a success. Would you like to remain?
( With the increasingly unhappy crowd. )
no subject
Oh, I think I’m done here.
[He glances at Ciri to see what she says. He sort of assumes she won’t be in a hurry to go back in there, but he’ll let her speak for herself.]
no subject
( She echoes at the glance, with a nod from the bartender and the sudden, abrupt shift of the thriving room with its increasingly unhappy crowd to an empty, grey room, with smooth walls and an upraised section that clearly was the stage they'd been on earlier. Likewise, a long, rectangular box that was as good as the bar now simply existing as a surface with nothing on it.
Ciri blinks, thrown off, before shaking her head and walking toward the door, made visible and not a match to where the bar's door had been. )
Do you think that's really how these missions go?
no subject
When Ciri speaks he turns his attention back to her.]
Maybe sometimes, but I doubt it. Practice tests are usually easier than the final exam.
no subject
Then you think we're as... that we don't have anything to run with when we go looking? Just, there's an orb here, figure out where any why?
( Asked with a glance his way, and then looking forward, approaching the door. She answers her own question in the end. Sighing. )
Yes, it would be.
no subject
We might have some information to work with, but I think there will be more between us and an orb than a stage or an angry crowd.
[There's no way others won’t be trying to get to that kind of power. And he’s seen the infirmary. Do they really keep all that medical equipment and all those supplies just for injured new arrivals? Maybe, but he doubts it.]
no subject
That part had to be simple. And I'm not sure that orb was meant to be... I don't know. Contracted? They affect what's around them. Which is most of what that felt like, to me.
( The singing, the way the crowd reacted to them on stage. It's contained and containable, but not coming in with explicit directions, just "do this, find that." Listen to the people around and hope you catch what's noteworthy, when it's all foreign in the first place.
Maybe more foreign to her than to her companion. He'd recognised equipment on that stage, after all. )
... I'm Ciri. Who're you?
no subject
[What he saw here was beyond the technology of his own world, certainly, but it would make sense that it can only go so far in recreating what retrieving an orb would be like.]
Chishiya.
no subject
Would it have allowed us to die?
( Is her rhetorical question, because she can't see the benefit and doesn't expect him to answer. Injure, to whatever degree, sure. Death removes them out of use, and teaches nothing. For the most part. )
Thank you for coming on stage, Chishiya.
( She says his name a touch slower than she would a more familiar one, but it's care for the unfamiliar, and respect for what mangling names feels like (politically). Better to try and not cause frictions from first meeting.
... Ignoring the thrown drink and the 'performance' on stage. )
no subject
Unless whoever is running this place is a sadist, which wouldn’t necessarily surprise him, but still, even sadists can be pragmatic and killing your crew members is impractical.
He doesn’t answer the question, since the answer seems obvious enough. He casts her a sidelong glance when she thanks him, though.]
Mm. Well, it worked nicely for both of us, as it turned out.
no subject
It helped with your whispered goal, didn't it.
( She's not sure entirely which part, but given how it started, something about throwing her drink against the wall. If it was also serviced being on stage, then whatever links those together. Attract a lot of notice? What oddities were asked on missions? She has no idea, really. )
no subject
It did. Making a scene. That’s exactly what we did, don’t you think?
[An even more elaborate scene than he’d originally intended, honestly, but he’s not mad about it. It worked beautifully.]
no subject
Yeah, we did. Mine was putting on a performance. Those usually involve scenes, don't they?
( ... If they're plays. Which, well. It was on a stage. )
no subject
Depends on the performance. The good ones often do.
no subject
( she lifts a shoulder in a partial shrug. )
Mission success. I guess.