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buttrinthum2024-07-20 09:30 am
TDM #10 OVERFLOW
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: Sunflowers and Hibiscus. You’ll soon find out that being around the Sunflower makes it difficult to pass through the already disorienting garden, even with the light guiding you. Where patches of them grow, even if only waist-high, you cannot pass through them, over them, or even destroy them to get them out of your way. In each grouping that blocks your path, there is one that has a key-shaped opening in the middle of the flower. Maybe the key is nearby? (Spoiler: it's probably under a rock nearby that you forgot to check!) The hibiscus offers an entirely different effect - inhaling the pollen grants you the temporary ability to shoot fireballs out of your hands. But be careful, those fireballs are difficult to control and seem to bounce in random directions no matter how hard you try to aim (cannot be used to destroy the sunflowers). The effect ends once you step out of the garden.
Somnius is once again recovering from a devastating blow. Buildings need to be restored to their former glory and the emotional turmoil of the previous weeks surely needs to be alleviated. What better way to lighten the mood than a little fun for the whole family? A new arcade has appeared in town, beckoning residents with its stone doors set wide open.
With multiple levels, a variety of games and even a snackbar, Appl3 Pi Arcade is sure to be a hit!
Of course, as with everything that ever happens in Somnius, the arcades appearance is not without some complications. For one, playing the games inside might see characters teleported into the machine itself, perfectly pixelated to fit the game they're in. Hope you weren't about to fight the final boss, because now you might be fighting for your life! The good news is, if you die in the game... you don't die in real life and are just popped back out into the arcade again.
Strange things happen outside the arcade too. Walking down the road you might suddenly see a healthbar pop up above someone's head. Are you supposed to fight them? Are they going to fight you? Best to be cautious and reach for any trusty weapons you have just in case. Weapons that have become pixelated and can be pulled seemingly out of nowhere like some kind of hammerspace. They are also prone to breaking and shattering into glimmering pixel pieces (your normal weapons are still intact, don't worry).
Boxes and pots around Somnius are somehow more breakable than usual, smashed open with a single swing of those pixel weapons and producing gold coins! What a shame gold coins aren't the currency here. But if you don't want to destroy more things around Somnius, why not try fishing instead? That seems safe - if not suddenly more difficult with the fishing minigame that popped up in front of you. Quick! Keep the fish icon in the green bar or you'll lose it!
All things considered? It's all relatively harmless fun up until-
Vaeros wakes up. For those new to town, this means nothing. For those that were here for the castle raid? They can rest assured that they're in for a surprise. The Overlord of Visium has finally awoken from his Hyalily induced coma and he is furious. A shout echoes from the castle:
A wave of magical energy sweeps through the town, shaking it to the very core. Miraculously, the destroyed buildings and any remnants of the forest onslaught are gone and returned to their usual state. Perhaps Vaeros shouting was just another tantrum, an empty threat?
Not quite.
The town has been restored, but the locals? They are nowhere to be seen - cowering in their homes and fleeing to the sanctity of the Church of the Moon in hopes of staying out of sight of Vaeros and Dreamers both. The once tame video game effects are now far more intense - monsters from within those games are now rampaging through the town. They seem to shift through buildings, but if they run face first into a Dreamer, they will find them very corporeal and very deadly.
Not only that, but the lines are starting to blur between reality and fiction again, the healthbar above your head flickering in and out, the monsters turning from pixel beasts to real, live animals that roam Somnius - both feral and not. One second you are walking through town, and the next you are stepping onto a platform that starts to break under your weight, demanding you jump to the next platform before you plummet into an odd, multicolored abyss.
And strangest of all is that music coming from the labyrinth, growing louder when you approach and fading out when you move away.
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.
Oh no you did not. XD
And so he had started to search the ground for...Yazoo didn't even know, really. He'd just hoped that something would stand out to him and he'd be able to put two and two together to get out. So to hear someone speaking, presumably to him, had caused him pause. But then there was the familiarity of the voice.
And the phrasing...
The lean man turned his head ever so slowly towards that voice, a scowl of puzzled disbelief already furrowing his brow as he looked over and then slowly up at the blond man as if he'd just personally insulted Yazoo in the most degrading way possible. Which in a way Finnick had as he used the ever so thoughtfully and maliciously selected nickname Yazoo had dubbed him with upon the Remnant himself. The gall.
"Tch." It was more of a reply then the other deserved, at least in Yazoo's opinion, but it did raise a question or several as he dropped his search for whatever the hell he was trying to find and stood up, green eyes looking around the bizarre garden once again. "What is this? That damn Amplitheater again." No force in existence could stop the exasperated eye roll that notion received, "Don't tell me this is all about finding another obnoxiously placed bubble."
Which was probably oh-so-cleverly tucked away inside the stupid keyhole in an equally ridiculous sunflower. If he wasn't the victim of it, he'd almost admire the level of sadism involved in whatever ridiculous play this was supposed to be about this time through.
Had to...
"This isn't the amplitheater. You're in a completely new world again. I think Seven might be falling apart or something, because a lot of our people are getting chucked here."
Hythlodaeus, Harry, Lahabrea, now Yazoo, not to mention that there's a Maruki, a Bakugo, an Eren, and an Izuku who aren't even from Seven...? So weird.
"It's called Somnius."
+1 Point.
There was just the barest flash of panic to his eyes before something switched behind them and that cool and unmoved expression of indifference slid back into place. A lifetime of conditioning and training was easy to fall back on, even if it wasn't his own. Not that it really mattered one way or another as long as it got the job done and gave him an objective to work towards.
"Your people." Yazoo corrected, as he was not part of whatever Finnick as implying. Whatever gathering of the collective refugees were here, he wasn't involved much like he hadn't been back there either. He had no reason to be then and he didn't want one now.
"It can be called whatever it wants to be. How do I go back?" What was one more broke world to him, anyways? It wasn't as if that was something new, after all.
no subject
"Alright, they're mine then." He smirks, finding it a bit funny, all these people belonging to him somehow. He puts out his hands palm-up, curling his fingers like a villain and putting on an evil expression. "All mine!"
"Huh. I thought you were smart enough to figure out by now that we have absolutely no control over that."
Apparently not.
"Same as before. You're yanked between worlds with no rhyme or reason."
no subject
And quite insane. Frankly, existence was better off without the professor and his 'brilliance'.
"And I would think that you would have realized that someone must be. Unless you expect me to believe that we've all just magically fallen through the cracks of reality."
Well, stranger things have happened admittedly but there had been someone responsible the first time, even if they'd never found that individual and there must been someone or thing equally responsible this time. Otherwise, none of it made sense and that would not stand with the younger man.
"Helpful." He answered dryly and with an eye roll to make it just that much more clear how unhelpful the actual reply had been. "Fine, no one knows why this continues to happen and no one finds it at all odd that it's happened again. The frustration makes so much more sense now..."
Not that Emet-Selch's constant irritation back in the city hadn't been perfectly understandable then either. Yazoo just wasn't expecting to gain a more empathetic understanding on why that was so quickly.
no subject
As far as Finnick is concerned, Vaeros isn't the worst overlord he's had, plus he has a mixture of apathy and learned helplessness going on with the whole situation, at the moment. Not that he could never be convinced to fight Vaeros, just that at this time, it doesn't really serve his interests. Plus, he doesn't think it would fix anything.
no subject
The rest of the statement was, well, mixed reception. At least there was someone to hold over the coals if necessary. Provided enough people were sufficiently motivated to do so. Though, the idea of someone being a wizard was different. At least in the terms that Yazoo would understand one to be. The insanity part was nothing knew though. He was well versed in that concept, even dabbled in it himself a few time. Family did that to a person sometimes though, or at least so he believed.
"Hmm. Most likely there's no rush at the moment. You might be blasé now but would that be so much the case if your allies were mounting an assault against this...Vaeros what it?"
Did he care to remember it? Probably not. Would he simply because it was important to know the enemy? Yes, absolutely.
no subject
"Sure, if my friends and lovers wanted to launch an attack against him, I'd probably help them out. But no current beef with him personally. As far as overlords go, I've had far worse."
no subject
"Power hungry military despot?"
Weren't they always? Not that he had any direct interactions with those. Just the ruins that were left behind and the empty shells of a dying population left in the wake; wretched creatures all waiting around to die instead of doing anything useful for themselves. If only they hadn't been so small minded that they...
No, that train of thought only lead to outrage and disgust with all humans. And unfortunately, survival did currently depend on his ability to ignore his utter annoyance with most everyone.
no subject
He's hopefully dead now.
no subject
Well, it wasn't as if Yazoo didn't understand a thing or two about insanity and obsession but that was a different place and circumstance. As well as something he was still untangling out of his own memories. One day at a time as he'd been told before.
"If they had an standing army at their beck and call, then it's a safe assumption indeed." And he was not incline to share how or why he would think that way so confidently, or could he be bothered to ask why Finnick could only guess. That would imply a level of curiosity and friendly interest that he simply didn't have, nor did he think the other man shared towards him.
"How similar is this place to the last? Districts? Factions? Insane monthly 'Plays' with practically mandatory participation lest everything collapse in on itself?" Really, if that last part was the same, he might just let the place rot as he was done having his mind fucked with anymore if he could help it. He'd had enough before he'd arrived at the City and it certainly hadn't helped any either. A third time was a bridge too far currently for the lean and coldly aloof man.