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buttrinthum2024-04-30 10:34 pm
TDM #9
Whether it be sleep or death, you feel your eyes close, and as your body begins to let go, you see a barn owl that is flying through the darkness, soon sweeping you across the clouded sky. You feel yourself mouth the words, “I wish, I wish..” and utter your deepest and darkest desire.
When you regain consciousness, you’ll find you are in an unfamiliar place with no recognition of how you arrived here. You have the clothes on your back, but nothing else. No weapons and if you had a particular superpower, you’ll notice it is missing. All you have is a satchel with a piece of bread, a vial of water, and a potion. The potion could be red, blue or golden. There are no instructions about these potions other than two words: Drink Me.
Will you drink it or not?
There is a parchment, handwritten in scrawling, jagged lettering that seems a bit... ominous:
You’re in a garden, surrounded by flowers and plants– most of which you cannot identify. However, there are a few that you can make out: Larkspur and Anemone You’ll soon find out that being around the Larkspur makes you almost overwhelmingly tired, to the point you might even feel sluggish and in desperate need of a comfy place to rest. Why not lie down right in the garden? Or better yet, find someone to snuggle up with and sleep your worries away. The only truly strange part? You don’t seem to dream. At all. Straying too close to the Anemones, meanwhile, grants an entirely different effect. One second you’ll be walking through the garden and then suddenly you’re twenty feet away and facing the wrong direction. Even worse, whatever those flowers have done to you will sometimes make it so you “glitch” through solid objects – your leg might suddenly be lodged in the ground despite it being perfectly solid a moment before, or your arm could be shoved halfway into a wall that… actually, was that wall even there before? Nevermind that. The effects only last for a few minutes at worst, so at least you’re not stuck there forever, right?
Thanks to the combined efforts of dreamers and dragons, Vaeros is asleep. No one knows for how long. The locals aren’t particularly pleased with this turn of events and the village is a mess, but at least the moon is high in the sky again and everything is back to normal… relatively speaking. Things start to change... morph into something more dreamy, more surreal. It's subtle at first but after a few days…
The aftermath of the overgrowth, animal attacks, and the overall chaos of Vaeros' tantrum has left the village a little worse for wear. While most of the damages are cosmetic and could be fixed by the local's efforts alone, maybe a little help would be appreciated? If nothing else, it might help alleviate a little bit of the tension still lingering in the air after the events at the castle.
That, and the locals seem to be acting kind of strange. Leaving them to their own devices might not be the best idea. The Gelfling you are aiding in repairing a half-broken wall has been hammering for what seems like hours and when you look to see what they're doing, they haven't actually made any progress - they're just hitting the same spot over and over again, potentially making the hole even bigger. Did the goblin you just passed have a completely blank face for a moment? Others might walk into things, off of things (Starlight Cliff might be a hazard zone), or suddenly and inexplicably become aggressive toward dreamers, grabbing anything they can get their hands on (kitchenware, vegetables, a goose??) to use as a weapon. It's a very bizarre scene and the villagers don't seem to notice there is anything wrong with the people around them.
It’s not just the locals either. The animals have been acting equally strange. There's a wolf inside the clothing shop trying on suits, a goat standing (or trying to stand) on its hind legs, bleating out random words like a town crier while jingling a bell around its neck to get everyone's attention. Where you should find the local baker, suddenly they're replaced with a deer holding a paddle in its mouth to stir up a batch of brownies.
To top it all off, there's an eerie sense of deja vu no matter where you go or what you do. Didn't you just help that goblin with the wheelbarrow an hour ago? So why is it halfway across town again? You could have sworn you had to go and grab groceries, but your pantry is full like someone already had.
Days pass and the oddities continue to make themselves more and more apparent. The sidewalks seem uneven and wobbly at times, threatening to toss people walking across them to the ground or even fling them into the air with a sudden violent ripple. Walking through the forest sees the leaves of the trees melting into green goo that sticks to your clothes, your hair, and your skin - potentially staining them green and leaving you in dire need of a bath. You can always wash off in the lake, of course, but even that is not free of the strangeness occurring in Visium. The water of Lake Omen has turned to lava, at least in color; although there is no heat radiating from it when one approaches. That, and the locals are still fishing in it without issue, save the fact that they keep pulling up fish with tophats on.
Speaking of fish - they're raining from the sky now (tophats or not) in all sorts of different colors, shapes, and sizes. Good news! They're still edible. Bad news, they're probably trying to sell you something.
If you do decide to try the fish or any other meal in town, especially those served by the locals, you'll find that it doesn't taste like much of anything and most certainly doesn't fill you up, at least not at first. Everything is bland and unappealing until left in the presence of dreamers - and the more you share the meal with, the faster the taste returns.
Even with Vaeros asleep, only a small portion of the labyrinth is still accessible. Those that attempt to explore will find sections made up of pillows and cushions, and no matter what time of day it is elsewhere, this portion of the labyrinth seems to be stuck in perpetual twilight. Explorers will also immediately feel drowsy, then lulled to sleep by the quiet singing whispered through the air like a lullaby. Anyone brave enough to try and rescue those poor souls from their impromptu naps would be wise to plug their noses and cover their ears with earmuffs to block out the sound.
At night, dreamers dream. They will be visited by the same melody heard in the labyrinth, though it is distant. They will also hear a woman telling them to spend more time together, to bond and create things together in order to soothe the effects of Vaeros' magic growing wild in his dreams. Dreamers will also have the ability to visit other's dreams, meeting in a dreamy light liminal space that will not feel so real when they awaken.
Welcome to the labyrinthum TDM! Characters will arrive depowered and with only their clothing, and will be given a satchel with a crystal pendant, a communication device, some water and bread and a magic potion. If they drink the potion, they will manifest an elemental, healing or animal transformation ability.
With the exception of Castle Vaeros, characters are free to go as they please, so feel free to place them in any of the locations available on the map. Yes, this includes the Labyrinth - though characters will not be able to clear the maze.
You can find more information about the game here. Any questions regarding the TDM can go under the comment below.
arrival
[ She doesnt seem to shy away from approaching either! ]
SHEEP IT'S BEEN 10000 YEARS.....
H-Huh? Me?
( He hopes that he can be the former...! Especially when she seems to be lost, too. )
Ah, no... I was just hoping to find my way home... Then, did you suddenly end up here, too?
yes it has been!! hello!! ♥
Did you get a little paper too? Maybe a little bag with goodies~?
♥♥♥♥♥
Ah-- Different dimensions? Can something like that... really be real? But, I'm sorry that you woke up here, too...
( She doesn't seem to be upset! But, he can't help but apologize all the same. )
Do you mean the vial? Y-Yes, but... I don't know about drinking it...
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[ She then takes this moment to make an impromptu twirl. ]
My name is BB, by the way~! [ Sparkle, sparkle. ] Since we're both new and lost to this world, why dont we be friends?
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No, he'd definitely wake up soon -- he hopes. )
Does that mean that you think we'll end up somewhere new soon...?
( And where exactly could that be? )
Ah -- it's nice to meet you, Ms. BB. My name is Basil. It's nice to have some company...
D-Do you really want to be friends -- even though we just met?
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Yes of course! [ Because, you know - that's so mature of her to do. ] What's wrong with that? I mean like, logically speaking, you should never trust someone right from the get go - that's free advice, by the way. But when faced with such hard circumstances that we together - are sharing, [ She says this, with a higher pitched voice. Leaning into a territory of dramatics ] its easy to make friends with those you meet!
Come, Basil! Let us learn the strange new ways of this place! Maybe we will make new friends, or enemy's! [ Gasps, for dramatic effect. ] Or maybe, we'll meet old friends! Friends that are here with us even now?
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Either way, Basil will follow her. She does seem nice, and he isn't really sure where to go from here... At the least, she seems experienced with situations a bit similar to this one. )
O-Oh... uhm... Do you really think we'll run into someone familiar here...?
That'd be nice, but-- I don't want anyone else to be lost, either.
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Ah -- n-no... I haven't done anything special. Why do you ask...?
( And what about asking about the year? Is she could have come from the past or the future...? This is all very odd and confusing, but the conversation is just making it more so for Basil. )
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BB begins to churn and cycle data into her pool of information. Correlating thoughts come together, but she finds herself wanting to press into him more and more. As if he were nothing more then another object of hers to be discerned. The idea of information she has
yet to obtain, far too tantalizing for her to pass up. ]
For example, I may seem human to you but I am anything but that. For your age.... Clothing... Hmm, you should know about computers no? Well, to simply put it - I am actually a computer. So if I am a computer, and you are mostly human - what remarkable thing in life have you done~?
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O-Oh... um.... Are you... a robot?
( Is it rude to ask? He hopes not... )
But -- ah... I-- ( Have only done horrible things. ) haven't really done anything special. I-I'm just a normal person.
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What do you mean by isekai...? ( It's not a word he's familiar with at all. ) And-- uhm-- do you know what's going to happen, then...?
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[ She kind of seems to want to hinge on that conversation because it gives her the opportunity to bully him, but she answers his question. A sort of promptness that leaves a bit of awkward air hanging between them. ]
NOPE! Not at all.
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( For a robot -- or computer -- she definitely seems very much human... Anyone could be fooled. )
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( Or, what a lot of what she says means! Ah, but it seems positive? He offers a small smile. )
Are you sure...? Thank you, but... I know that the both of us have just gone through a lot... Is it really okay to focus on something like that soon?
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Moving onto something you can work on for the time being, will help provide immediate relief. In this instance, we can say - that is going for a walk and leaving this wonky place. To learn more about computers. By doing this, we, inevitably as we move along - learn more about our situation.
Again, at least at this time, we have a goal post - learning about computers. That goal post, will help guide us and in our natural progression, we learn about other things on the way there~~? [ Suddenly spanish. ] Comprende?
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( He wants to be polite! Even if it's new, that's no reason not to do so if she asks him to.
When she speaks again, he can't help but stop. It's... a little strange. Right now, she seems almost like a completely different person. There's a lot that's said, but he thinks he understands: )
A distraction would be really nice... I think we could both use it. But, um... are you sure you don't want to try to find a way out...?
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Mhmmm, so like I said, small steps. Goal posts! [ Points to herself. ] Senpai!
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B-But... aren't you Mrs. BB?
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