FINAL TDM.

[ximilian]

● ● ● T D M . 10

UP & AT EM • SPACE STAYTION • KNOCK KNOCK • FYI

// PART I. up & at em  

… 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, a copper 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.

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// PART II. space staytion  

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. 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.

With an illusion so authentic it may leave you longing for a nice glass of ice-cold lemonade, 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.

// VIVECA

Hello, everyone. I hope you've had time to rest, and those new here have got used to being here. Those who’ve been here for longer know the deal, but to the new arrivals: we've got a drop of new supplies. I hope all of you find useful things among them. Anything specifically requested will come with a name tag. We're working on locating the next orb, but in the meantime... I hope those who have just returned get some rest, and those who have just arrived read up on what is expected of you during missions.

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!

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// PART III. knock knock  

Maybe you have taken the warning to be ready seriously, or maybe you’ve heard someone mention the simulation room and want to see what the fuss is all about — whatever the reason for your walking into the room, the first few moments don’t seem too exciting. It isn’t until there’s another person in the room with you that the door suddenly slides shut, and the scenery starts to change.

7.0   Simulation on the Fritz: However, what it changes to is not one of the simulated missions. Instead, the room draws on its occupants. A little flash of memory here, a familiar scene there — the room molds itself after what one (or both) of the people in it know, perhaps a place they’re familiar with: the university library you used to spend hours and hours in studying, or the castle you’ve been trying all your life to conquer.

Or perhaps the room is torn between which person’s memories to draw on, and it ends up producing a strange mix of both: a busy street surrounded by lush forest instead of buildings, or a spaceship sailing on open sea.

As there is no simulated mission, there is no completing it to get out… so look for the little things that are not quite right in the simulation: a shimmer in the air, a grey brick in a red wall — a token of sorts. Finding it will make the simulation die down around you as the room goes dark again.

8.0   Mission — An Open Door: As the simulation starts, the scene that unfolds around you is a gilded hallway. It stretches on and on behind you and in front of you; along its sides, there are countless doors. Some are lavishly decorated, some made of pure gold, some of wood; some are decayed, looking like they might fall apart by mere touch; after a heavily reinforced door comes a door made of frosted glass… and so on.

But the longer you stand in place, the more you start to feel a sense of urgency: you must keep moving… you must find it. The orb. It’s there, behind one of the doors. All you have to do is choose which one to open.

Oh, you can open as many as you want, but be careful: you never know what is lurking behind them. It may be that you open one and step into a room that is nothing but air; it may be you unleash a horde of hungry monsters. Or perhaps you luck out and get a room that is just a room, with lavish couches and plush pillows, and maybe some grapes and apples set in a bowl in the middle of a gold-decorated table.

It’s not just the orb that you need to find, though... because just like in real missions, you receive a message that tells you your task — one that you have to complete, if you want the orb to help you in your quest to undo your regret.

● ● ●

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   Tell someone what you are most ashamed of.

B   Let a teammate get injured during the mission.

C   Steal something from one of the rooms.

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F Y I

• TDM threads can be considered game canon so long as all parties involved agree to it.
• TDM threads can be used as samples for apps. In fact, we encourage it!
• Reserves are now open!
• Apps open September 26.
• For any questions regarding TDM, please direct them here. For questions about the game, please refer to the FAQ.

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FOR SOME FUN:
Have a clue about the upcoming mission—

▶ NAV

Comments

[hallowing]

（ nah, see. he's seen worlds die gasp by agonizing gasp. he's been there. he's had his hands in the fucking dirt of it all, and has moved onto the next, and the next, and the next. if there's still enough people alive on a rock to say the world has ended, then that's not actually the truth, is it? their way of life, maybe. but not the world.

cy smiles, and slurps up a gummi worm with a truly obnoxious sound. ）

How's that workin' out for you, now?

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just gives him a thin, humorless smile. ]

You ended up here same as me. So you tell me.

[ Everyone here has regrets, he's been told. ]

[hallowing]

Yeah, I left a really good quiche out on the counter and it spoiled. You wanna talk about fuckin' regrets, man, I got 'em in spades.

（ he studies the man for a moment. that self-effacing friendliness, such as it is, is absent from his eyes. then: ）

Where'd you serve?

[fortitudosalutis]

[ It's an easy sort of banter to fall into, Carver knows, if he let himself. The sort he had with other soldiers before the world ended, give and take, barbs shot over the bow, none of it meant anything until it meant something. But Cy is a dangerous thing, despite the casualness of his tone. And that smile no longer meets his eyes.

Carver's own is very thin. All men are the same in the end. They're weak, and they turn on each other in their weakness. Why would a lowercase g-god be any different? This is what men are now.

A good lesson. Even if he has to learn it again. ]

Never said I did.

[ But is there a point in deny it, really? In dancing around such a fundamental truth? ]

Afghanistan. [ This time, Carver flashes his teeth. ] Korengal Valley. But we had another name for it.

[hallowing]

You didn't have to say you did. I can tell.

（ ominous. but he leaves it at that. he basks in being an unnerving motherfucker sometimes. ）

Was it edgy? Tell me it's edgy. Love a good ol' fashioned look what you made me do T-Swiftie narrative.

（ this time what he pulls into his hand is a bottle of beer. this too was in his room, left out on his nightstand. it's warm and half-drunk and he's pretty sure he tapped off the ash of a cigarette into it, but he has had remarkably worse, so it gets to wash down the next gummy worm. as chasers go, not half bad. ）

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver just stares at him, unblinking. There are two ways to read that. The first one is direct experience, someone who knows how soldiers move, how they talk, who can sniff it out in a stranger. The second is something much stranger.

God with a lowercase g. It's fucking bonkers. But so is everything else here so, fine. A god. But a god of what?

That's the better question. ]

You don't get to disrespect our dead.

[ It comes out flat. There's a whole goddamn lot Cy can do, but not that. Never that. ]

[hallowing]

（ he tilts his head to one side. for a moment his face is eerily devoid of all expression, and it looks wrong given how animated he's been up to this point. like there's another person that's just slipped in beneath his skin.

and then he blinks it away, and he settles back into that devil-may-care passivity. ）

No disrespect — settle down. I'm just an irreverent asshole about everything, comes with the territory.

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Oh, there you are, Carver thinks, and the triumph twists sick in his throat. He knows what men are deep down, what they always are in the end. The vicious, hungry things that men become when their backs go to the wall, when they learn what they could lose. Only his people were ever pure. This stillness fits strange on Cy, like maybe he's put it aside for a long time. Like he tried to hide it but it boiled back up. What sort of ghosts follow behind a god, Carver wonders. What does he name them. Do they stand in the corners like Carver's do. Do they do they do they.

Carver just smiles. I see you, he thinks. I fucking see you. ]

What're you the god of?

[hallowing]

Sucking dick.

（ it's said with a leer. ）

[fortitudosalutis]

[ No, Carver thinks, and he takes a step forward for a better look. Staring at Cy like he stares at the face of the dead and dying sometimes, watching for the moment they finally go quiet and stop being a threat to him and his. He forgets the men he's killed the moment they're done, he forgets and he walks on and he never dwells, he never stills, he never stops because the war never stops. He knows what he is. He saw God in the blood, and he hears Pope's voice in the dark, and his dead will never leave him. That lesson came hard but it was learned.

When he speaks, his voice is low, steady. But his eyes are very bright. ]

What are you the god of?

[hallowing]

Oh, I think you've already figured it out. But nah, I confirm or deny nothing. That one you gotta earn.

（ he takes another swig of that nasty beer — fuck, he really did put out a cigarette in here, didn't he? — and then the can gets crumpled up in one hand. ）

You ever play MarioKart?

[fortitudosalutis]

Mhmm-hmm.

[ The god of something familiar, Carver thinks. He doesn't say the word but he knows. He knows deep down. Maybe this is part of the rest.

Maybe this isn't Hell at all, but something abjectly stranger. He watches Cy, eyes bright and focused. ]

No. I have not.

[hallowing]

Fuuuuck, man, you should. All arguments should be settled on the rainbow road, I said what I said.

（ he tosses the can into a nearby trash-can.

it misses.

not the god of aiming real good, apparently. ）

So tell me more about these hungry dead. Zombies?

[fortitudosalutis]

[ I saw you, Carver thinks. And then: you're wearing a mask now, but I saw. This is another test, isn't it?

Something brittle and wary uncoils in his chest. Things smooth out. He knows how to survive a test. And he's always better for it. Always.

He tilts his head back. ]

Zombies?

[ That's not a word he knows. ]

[hallowing]

Zombies, Walkers, Living Dead. Undead. Jiangshi. Animated corpses.

（ he waves a hand. ）

Or you meant vampires, but I figure you would've just said vampires. You're clearly from Earth.

[fortitudosalutis]

We called them a lot of things. Rotters, mostly.

[ He stares at Cy. Watching intently. I saw you, he thinks, and that becomes a mantra. I saw you, I know what you are. ]

There's something in people now. Goes wrong when they die. They come back hungry.

[ It's in him, too. ]

[hallowing]

Yeah. I've run into that.

（ not on earth, but.

he's seen a lot of things on a lot of worlds, across a lot of times. no stranger to all things wild and sundry. his own variant of earth had witches and vampires and other nonsense as required, but he learned very quickly that's not the standard here. ）

— want a beer?

[fortitudosalutis]

You ever been bitten?

[ Is that something that a god with a lowercase g can shake? Maybe so.

Carver just stares at him. Then: ]

Sure.

[hallowing]

Asked me that already, hotshot. Answer hasn't changed.

（ he blows a kiss, for flavour, and then reaches for another beer (he's got a warm six-pack on his table) and pulls. one materializes in his hand, and then he tosses it in an easy underhand to the guy. ）

Trying to figure out if I'd get over that too, huh?

[fortitudosalutis]

[ He catches the beer reflexively. It's not cold but it's solid in his hand. Carver smooths his thumb absently over the rim. Sometimes, it's hard to focus on things he can't touch, on a target that isn't directly in front of him. You've got a focus problem, son, Pope used to say, and his disappointment always cut so goddamn sharp. But the beer is real, he thinks, real enough he can hold it in his hands: that's something.

Isn't it? ]

Would you?

[hallowing]

Yep.

（ it's said with absolute confidence. there's something to be said for the self-assurance that comes with millennia, and he pops that p with a smack of his mouth. ）

Gods are concepts, not people.

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Carver nods just once. Accepts that. Life isn't fair. Gods aren't people. This, he knew.

But: ]

If someone was bit, could you help them?

[ Matthew was bit, his traitorous mind supplies, and Carver puts that thought away into a little box. But - if this is about regrets, and fixing shit, maybe this is how he does it. Maybe this is how God with the capital G intended it all along. We have the tools to save ourselves, son, Pope murmurs in his ear. Didn't I teach you that? ]

[hallowing]

Nope. Not my circus, not my monkeys.

（ he pops that p, too. maybe there's a god of medicine out there — he's never asked and iantha's never offered. whatever goes on in that universal pantheon, he's never paid it much mind. ）

I'm more old testament, if you need a comparison.

[fortitudosalutis]

[ Of course not. It can't be that simple. He was foolish to voice the thought. Carver just nods, holding the beer in his hand. Tracing the rim with his thumb. Feeling the shape of it through his sap gloves. Real. ]

Good.

[ Divinity shines best in brutality. That was an old lesson - one of the first. ]

Good.

[hallowing]

My freaky l'il guy, drink your beer and stop making me think you're about to join Cyentology.

（ man, humans. what a bunch of quirky little fuckers. ）