ximilian: (Default)
ximilia mods ([personal profile] ximilian) wrote in [community profile] ximiliugh2021-08-19 10:36 am
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AUGUST TDM.

T D M . 0 3

// PART I. all that glitters  


… What are you willing to do to erase your regret from existence?

The words, when they die out, leave you in emptiness — despairing, all-consuming, the kind that invites only the worst thoughts. What have you done? What have you agreed to do?

But then, from the emptiness, a golden light shines, and as you reach for it —

you wake up.

1.0   Perhaps it was less the golden light in your dream and more the insistent feeling of something metallic poking your side repeatedly, making beeping noises… wait, beeping noises?

When you look down, you’ll see a small robot staring at you and looking less than happy (maybe it has something to do with your disheveled state, maybe it's still mad about having to clean up after a certain pizza-induced mess). When you get up, it unleashes a series of beeps — and then furiously starts to scrub the floor.

Yes, the floor — instead of waking up in a bed, you find yourself lying on a hallway, white walls and white floor surrounding you. You don’t have long to stare at the minimalistic look of everything around you before the little bot starts poking you again, the word MOVE blinking across its visor.

So better get out of its way! Perhaps you’re on the hallway on your own and leave on your own… or perhaps there’s someone else, sleeping near you. Maybe do them the courtesy of waking them up before this little angry bot does! Or perhaps you’re the poor soul still sleeping and needing a rescue before the beeps make it to you.


2.0   If you need a visit to the infirmary, the situation may be more dire — perhaps there’s blood on the wall that you wake up against, your clothes may be dirty or ragged… whatever it is that has happened to you before waking here and has left you injured, it sure doesn’t create a reassuring sight. Best get to the infirmary as soon as possible.... with some assistance, perhaps.

Once upright, 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.

TOP


// PART II. the new staycation  


So what else is there to do but to explore? Best get to know what is now your new home.

3.0   The most pressing question that you might ask yourself is: but where will I stay? The question is answered once you walk through the winding white corridors to the common area. Behind it, there are three types of rooms: those with one bed, two beds and four beds. The rooms are clinical yet clean, and sparsely-furnished — and most importantly, most are occupied. So be prepared to get some roomies!


4.0   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!


5.0   After you’ve exhausted yourself training, it’s time to grab a bite. For that, you should head to the kitchen, which… seems to be filled with a lot of leftovers: takeout boxes with an assorted collection of pizza slices, kung pao chicken, lamb curry... not to mention the entire tray of chocolate brownies. Feel free to eat your fill — or if takeout isn’t your cup of tea, open one of the large fridges to pick fresh ingredients and make your own lunch.


6.0   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. A new addition is a flower garden where there once was a meadow — now, roses, camellias, lilies and dozens of other flowers sway in the wind, all varieties in their own flower beds, with a winding path of stones leading through them. The path leads to where a bridge rises over a sparkling, babbling brook.

Here, 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.


7.0   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!


8.0   If it’s items you’re lacking, though, some time after your arrival, the earpiece alerts you to a new message.

// VIVECA.AI
Hi everyone, just letting you know there’s a new supply drop. It should be a little more… well, organised than before. If you made requests for items earlier, you should find them in a separate pile near the platform.

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!

TOP


// PART III. bright young things  


(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.

“Hello, there. Care for a drink? I’m afraid you won’t be allowed to continue until you do, and I assure you this is entirely safe. All effects you might experience remain only so long as you participate in this simulation.

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.

“One thing you should know: there is an orb within this club. This drink will aid in your ultimate retrieval of the orb. To better blend in with our patrons, you may experience temporary changes within your body. Good luck.”


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   If you’ve been given a particular body change that might aid you in this mission, do not use it to your advantage.

B   Team up with a fellow Orber to uncover the hidden location.

C   Get up on stage and put on a performance during the simulation. Your song choice will determine the outcome of success in your investigation.

TOP


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 currently open!
Apps open August 27.
For any questions regarding TDM, please direct them here. For questions about the game, please refer to the FAQ.

TOP


FOR SOME FUN:

Have a listen for some clues about the second mission.
(Hint: there are four clues in total.)


NAV

lateness: (o24)

[personal profile] lateness 2021-10-27 04:09 am (UTC)(link)
Ah, that is quite a bit into the future, loads of things happen after the 21st century, don't they? But still not quite before cities fly through space on the backs of whales, and then oh, we're really talking, aren't we?

[ Well! The Doctor's just going to file this bit of information away for a future date. Perhaps there might come a time when he and the TARDIS find their way to the year 2384 in search of this Harlan's World.

Of course he'd have to find his TARDIS again, wherever she might be at the moment, and sort out all of this orb business first, and then get Clara back to her proper timeline, River to hers, him to his own ... and then! Then he'll think of different worlds and times to hop into.

He looks thoughtful, fingers idly tapping the ceramic of his mug, and considers this world the man has mentioned. ]


Now. Is Harlan a person or a god, perhaps, or simply the name of the world itself?
kovach: (■ 223)

[personal profile] kovach 2021-10-29 04:44 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, as far as I know, whales haven't made it up in space.

[ which could be complete nonsense, but he's not really in the business of trying to correct nonsense. if people want to believe crazy shit, that's all on them. he's mostly just trying to get by.

he's not really thrilled to be thinking back to harlan's world right now. the planet carries a lot of personal history for him, leagues of blood and ash that still invade his thoughts, his mind, his sight, from time to time. but at least the question is less about him and more about geographically history.

he scoffs at the word god. ]


Konrad Harlan. One of the founders who colonized the planet. Made it a mining ground for the same alien elder tech they use to actually make stacks. He sure thinks of himself as a god.
lateness: (149)

[personal profile] lateness 2021-11-15 12:34 am (UTC)(link)
[ Well, you're in luck, Mr Grumpyface, because whales in space is absolutely real and they'll be about in another few hundred years time, according to the Doctor's own experience. ]

Human, then, was he? How did he find himself in a place to own a planet, or call it his own?

[ He lifts his mug to his lips and takes a sip of that very nice, quite hot, chamomile tea.

(And distantly thinks: oh, it really would go well with some biscuits.) ]
kovach: (■ 187)

[personal profile] kovach 2021-11-18 09:03 pm (UTC)(link)
People considered Earth to be a dying planet, so they began venturing off, traveling to different planets.

[ as far as they could be taken in the span of single lifetimes, before stack tech became more widely spread, originally succeeding in what quell had wanted its purpose to be.

he stares into his own mug, sighing. ]


Harlan's story's been pretty vague through the years, left only with the pretty details since he still governs it. Keeps it shiny and attractive for the public. The planet's actually surrounded by a natural defense system we call "angelfire" which glows like an electric net in the sky. Story is that Harlan and the founders found a gap in this defense network that allowed them to make a landing and had the luck of detecting no life on the planet, so they claimed it for themselves. Pure luck.

[ spoken like a man who hardly believes it. ]
lateness: (170)

[personal profile] lateness 2021-12-10 05:54 am (UTC)(link)
A planet without life? Really? Oh, well, I don't believe that for one moment — planets always have life, unless they're the sort that don't and then that's because it'll kill you. Well, not you you, but life. A sort of — defence mechanism.

[ The Doctor sets his mug down and decides, yes, this really would go well with some biscuits, so he's going to do just that.

Look for biscuits. There must be some around here. ]


You never find an empty planet, not unless it's because something else has happened to it. Suppose that ruins the story though, doesn't it?
kovach: (■ 295)

[personal profile] kovach 2021-12-18 09:57 pm (UTC)(link)
No one wants to ruin a pretty story. So no one questions it.

[ but he follows the doctor's suspicions about there being a sketchy air to the story, that it was just something that harlan and the other founders had come across spontaneously. that all the elders had just left their technology there, abandoned.

he takes a long sip of the tea, letting the warmth soak down his throat as he ponders it. ]


There used to be life there — some mysterious alien race we just call the Elders. But no one knows what happened to them. They all just died off or disappeared, leaving behind all their tech. It's what we all use now for our stacks. Guess we never had to worry about competition.

[ doubtful. ]

Maybe the planet did something to them. No one can say.
lateness: (266)

[personal profile] lateness 2021-12-21 10:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Ah.

[ He pokes his head over past an open cupboard door to glance in Kovacs' direction with a knowing nod. ]

The Elders, then. [ He ducks back around, and what follows is the sound of things being shifted and shuffled in an attempt to find a decent snack to accompany their tea. ] And therein lies the first crack in the old story. Pure luck. Oh, it's very hard to find pure luck these days.

[ Things generally happen by chance more than they do by act of luck, and it's rather suspicious that the planet could have been left empty and open to claim. He thinks Kovacs might be right, and that the planet did something to those previous inhabitants.

The Doctor, however, thinks its very lucky that he's managed to find a package of creamed biscuits. They aren't Jammie Dodgers, but they'll do.

He comes back around and places them on the table between them. ]


So these stacks sound very interesting, this blending of technology with biology. How long does it last?
kovach: (■ 116)

[personal profile] kovach 2021-12-30 05:20 am (UTC)(link)
No pure luck. Just strategy.

[ which speaks loosely to his theories about what might have occurred with the elders. but it's been some few hundred years since he's even been to harlan's world and the politics of what's happening there are far out of his hands. he wonders if he'll ever even go back home at all. maybe once he makes it out of this station, and once he finishes bancroft's case. would going back even matter with nothing left for him there?

he gives a squint at the doctor's scavenge for food, eyeing the snacks for a moment when they're set upon the table before picking one up and bringing it up against his nose. it's not that he's suspicious of it necessarily, but he's not much for sugar. ryker's taste buds definitely haven't improved on that.

but since he's starving, he takes a bite anyway. ]


The stacks are pretty durable, but it's more about the data that's inside — the actual consciousness. Bodies still run their course like normal for any human, aging like they should unless cloned, but that data can be bounced around a few centuries give or take. Too much transferring between sleeves and you risk personality frag, but with the right amount of money, you can get away with making it last however long you want.

[ like bancroft. like every other meth he's met since he woke up. drawing out their greedy lives as long as they want. ]

Some people tried to put a 100-year long expiration on DHF to keep it from getting out of control — [ the envoys. his people. ] Didn't work.
lateness: (214)

[personal profile] lateness 2022-01-03 04:32 am (UTC)(link)
[ It pleases the Doctor to watch the man pick up a biscuit and take a bite, and for that he won't ruin the moment. He simply grabs one for himself as well, casual as they come. And then he takes a sip of his tea. ]

No, I suppose if the technology exists to continue going on for as long as you can continue to go on, there really isn't stopping it. Not permanently. Not if the possibility is there. So life, then, has become entirely transactional ... no longer a gift but something that can be bargained and purchased.

[ The Doctor shakes his head.

It's nothing new, of course, this push to extend one's life further than it is natural. Beings from across entire galaxies and universes have been trying to find the answer to an eternal life for as long as life existed. Even amongst his own people, some tried to find ways to extend their lives past twelve regenerations. But to see that actually come to fruition in one timeline of humanity's future ... to imagine that brightness and optimism be squandered in greed ... well, it's depressing. ]