TDM #1

[labyrinmods]

Arrival / Enchanted Garden

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, and it simply gives you a welcoming:

“Welcome to my Labyrinth. Per our agreement, you have consented to live your life here for an undetermined amount of time. In exchange, I will grant you the wish that you desire the most.”

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: poinsettias and mistletoe. You’ll soon find out that being around the poinsettias give you an odd sense of joy no matter how confusing the situation may seem and the mistletoe, which is left over from the holiday season, gives you the desire to kiss or hold hands with the nearest person to you. It looks like there are plenty of others who are just now waking up from their dream-state as well.. why not go ahead and say hello?

Somnius / Snow Angels

With the influx of new life, the humble town a barkeep tells you is called Somnius seems to come alive as well, with new faces to join that of the resident fairies, goblins and other townfolk. There’s bustling energy to the land that the townfolk will tell you wasn’t quite there before, and some suspect that the presence of the new arrivals might be powering the world around them in some way - but that’s a question to be answered on another day. The quaint town of Somnius needs a little bit of care, that rustic feel to the mushroom houses, old shops and weathered castles too evident at first glance, but it’s not a bad place to live, as the locals will tell you. It almost seems like everything will be okay…

But of course, things are never so simple.

Whether you have been wandering around to get your bearings, talking to the locals or exploring your new humble (very humble) abode, you can expect to find mysterious ice sculptures - fashioned in the shape of snow angels, with blades in their hands - appearing in random places around the town. There are some that manifest in the middle of the street, some that sit quietly at the edge of an inn, and even some that appear right beside your bed, staring at you as you wake up. It’s unclear how these sculptures even got here, but close proximity to them will conjure up feelings of unrest, like you should not step any closer.

It’s smart to trust your gut in these situations. Step too close to a snow angel and it will come to life, moving with the grace of flowing water. They make a vague request and will spare only those able to heed it.

“Cold … so cold … Even the days of Visium are so cold. Have you any warmth to spare us?”

Some angels will accept an article of clothing as warmth. Others are greedy and keep demanding more, wanting to take everything that you have on your body. Heed their requests and they will spare you. Resist even just a little, and that’s when they draw their swords.

It’s not too easy to defeat an angel with brute force given that they reform themselves immediately. Running away or blasting them with fire could do the trick. Be careful not to get cut by their blades, however…

Characters who get cut by their blades will experience an inconsolable sense of chill and emptiness, right down to their bones. They will find themselves desiring ‘warmth’ from others in different ways - whether through physical contact, or affectionate words and gestures. There might be the few who go feverish in their desire for warmth. For those characters – the open fireplace is looking like a very tantalizing place to sit in right now (Yes, sit in, not by). They might even feel compelled to pull a friend in with them. That can’t be good for anyone…

The effects will only subside if the condition of receiving ‘warmth’ is met. This can be in the literal sense (physical warmth and intimacy) or figurative (feelings of love, acceptance and happiness).

Bonfire

When night falls, the temperatures only drop further, which does no favours for the poor souls who had to give up their clothing. The locals want to welcome the new arrivals and give everyone an opportunity to unwind from a busy and chaotic day of being hunted by snow sculptures. That’s why they’ve set up a gathering in the middle of town square. Food and alcohol is being generously supplied by The Cask & Anvil, and marketplace vendors have set up pop up stands to try and cajole the new arrivals into purchasing some fancy new clothes or a pretty gemstone they claim will ward off danger (claims not verified).

At the center of it all is a large bonfire that’s warming up the square. Everyone is encouraged to warm themselves by it after a long day, eat, and make merry. In fact, there’s a certain sense of enchantment to the crackling fire that seems to draw even the shiest wallflower in, pushing them to sit with others and make conversation. As the night goes on, the newly arrived dreamers will find themselves settling easily into the warm and bustling mood, any stresses and anxieties melting away. With time, they’ll start to find themselves without a filter, more than happy to talk about themselves and the life they had led prior to coming to Visium. In fact, they will feel compelled to share a story from their past - one that might be joyous, comedic, thrilling, or tragic. Whatever sorts of feelings come attached to their story, it will be one of emotional significance.

In the back of their minds, they might get the sense someone else is listening.

OOC

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. Please comment here to request an outcome for your character's labyrinth exploration and a moderator will get to you shortly. (The longest a character can stay in the Labyrinth is 3 days.)

You can find more information about the game here. Any questions regarding the TDM can go under the comment below.

Comments

[himbomb]

[Now, it would be great if heroes got therapy, what with all the perks available to those of Rex's security clearance level. Except Cecil Steadman is always one step ahead of the curve, fully aware that the access to this particular brand of help would leave him with left with no trump cards. Being a superhero is not a sustainable business, it is a badge of honor, a prestige career only possible for a passionate few...

And the unfortunate minority who simply couldn't survive doing anything else.]

Normal?

Tch!

[There go the lines around his nose and mouse again, darkening once more. He clenches and unclenches a fist, reminding himself that his ledger is already filled to the brim with an incorrigible amount of red, full of so many names of people who never deserved to die in the first place.]

I don't do normal, shithead.

[Inhale, exhale, relax.

Or, well.

"Relax."

If his explosions aren't working, it's likely that his healing factor isn't either, so he'll have to conserve his strength. It would be foolhardy to start a fight right now... he do be a fool tho]

In my line of work? Callin' someone that just means they're first in line to-

[Rex gestures with an index finger, dragging it horizontally over his neck.]

Well, y'know.

[tsygan]

( cain's really gonna have something of a fit when he realizes that this whole superhero thing is real where this idiot guy comes from, because where he's from it's all a matter of things like old comic books that no one reads anymore, or maybe they just don't bother with them because there are more pressing things at hand. like staving off an alien invasion, but that's neither here nor there.

rex doesn't have his powers, and this one never had any to begin with, which means he's not about to think twice about throwing down if it really does come to that, and the longer he looks at this guy, the closer he's getting to thinking that this is going to end in either one or both of them throwing hands. and if you think for a second the other's likeness to a brick wall is about to make him stop and think about throwing the first punch … well.

we never said he was smart, did we? and we never will.

he waits until the guy looks like he's a little bit less likely to blow a gasket before he speaks up again. )

We got a word for those where I come from, too. ( he gives offhand, like he isn't about to be offensive to anyone that's ever tried to help anyone else in his presence. ) Stupid. The ones that try to help others before they help themselves. ( when are you going to learn to not be such an asshole, jesus.

he shrugs, snorts. ) That sound about right? ( you are literally offending every superhero that has ever existed, sir. except omni-man. but we're not breaking the fourth wall or anything here. )

[himbomb]

[Oh.

How bizarre it is for someone to say what he’s known so damn well for so damn long. In some ways, it’s almost nice to hear, having had the opposite forcefully shoved up his metaphorical butthole for the past few weeks.

Rex thinks upon it briefly, growing surprisingly quiet. In a short window of time, he had seen the bodies of much stronger superheroes torn apart. He recalls Mark, beaten to a bloody pulp, first by a giant space cat and then by his own father. Monster Girl and Black Samson had barely made it out alive, too.]

Yeah.

[But most of all, the thing that’s actually made his stomach churn, occupying
His deepest, darkest thoughts late at night… Is that goddamn bloodstain.

The original Guardians had been some of the world’s greatest heroes, the GOATs. Action figures, medals, monuments… Those guys had it all, in addition to power and impeccable teamwork. And yet, they had all been murdered… Slain by an evil greater than the greater good.

Whose blood was it? Red Rush’s? War Woman’s? The Immortal’s?

It doesn’t fucking matter, apparently. ]

Yeah, that sounds about right.

But somebody’s gotta do it.

[tsygan]

( what's this? he's actually going quiet for a minute, maybe longer than that? cain gets the feeling he's struck some kind of nerve without meaning to, and it makes him curious, but it isn't to go out of his way to ask any questions or anything. not yet, at least. they haven't gotten over their first bro spat yet.

of course he's not going to know everything that's going on in rex's head, but he can almost see those gears turning from where he's standing and for the first time in a long while … he waits for some kind of response. he doesn't interrupt, he doesn't shoehorn his own two cents just for the sake of being able to do so, and when the other finally does speak up again?

yeah, there's definitely something going on in that singular brain cell of his. and now he's even more curious.

he shrugs. )

Says who?

[himbomb]

[It’s a difficult question, one that doesn’t have an answer Rex thinks on too hard. He remembers having to steal food for his no-good mother and father and returning home to nearly freeze to death in the harsh Chicago winters, knowing that neon-clad weirdoes were zooming through the sky and keeping the city “safe.”

But safe for who? Rex has experienced a great deal of his own cynicism, tired and burnt out from years of child labor. He’d kept on trudging in his own, selfish little lane until now, where he finally has a chance to make a difference.

He is no great superhero, that much is true. As a combatant, he’s not the strongest or most dedicated guy out there, and as a person, he has even less to offer.

It suddenly dawns upon him that when he had needed someone most, he hadn’t been saved by anyone from the big leagues. In fact, his singular plight as a vulnerable young man victimized by a capitalist, racist society was unimportant to the original Guardians…

But it had meant something to a very young, very freckly faced little girl with the kind of superpowers nobody in her life could understand.

So maybe that’s all it takes. Maybe he doesn’t have to be the all star he’ll clearly never be… To make a difference that is.]

Me, I guess.

And everybody else who does what I do.

They’re better at it, though.

[tsygan]

( one might assume that someone coming into a way to make a world better after it's been nothing but cruel to them personally is kind of a no-brainer decision, but it might make cain wonder; if he found out he had powers, if he had a way to make something easier for someone else with them, would he?

he's not an outright bastard, at least not really, since he hasn't been in the habit or learning how to be a decent human being up until now — but the concept of superheroes is something that belongs in fiction, and if it's not cold, hard fact right in front of his face he has a difficult time wrapping his head around simple theoretics.

he's quiet for a second after he gets that response, mulls it over, because he says it with the kind of conviction of someone that's lived by that kind of code, that set of morals, and he has to remember that there are people out there that just want to help for the sake of being able to do it at all.

like some sheltered blond boy he knows. )

Nobody starts out perfect. At anythin'. ( he shrugs. ) Or, shit, even good.

[himbomb]

[Rex is, in fact, the polar opposite of sheltered, someone with the kind of background who wouldn't even be able to fathom the life of someone as privileged as Abel. He's impulsive and young, brash and thoughtless, but naive? No.

Perhaps his quest to become a real hero is selfish, at the end of the day. He has hundreds of innocent lives to pay the world back for, and other than the whole combat thing, no real way of making a living legally with that novel-long rap sheet of his. His job as a superhero is a fuck you to his mom and dad, a sign that his life does actually mean something despite hailing from the bottom rung of the socioeconomic ladder, but...]

Yeah, see... If you live long enough for the whole self-improvement shitshow to happen, you're one of the lucky ones.

[Wow, depressing...]

But, hey, whaddya know? The ladies love a guy in tights! It leaves so little to the imagination, they start imagining even worse!

So the deal works out! For me, at least.

I know it's not the same for everybody.

[Far from it.

For the others, they were offered a real choice.]

[tsygan]

( he doesn't know a whole hell of a lot about the blond companion he'd left behind, but he gets the feeling that there's a lot more he doesn't know with regard to how he'd gotten himself into the program in the first place. his business, not cain's.

but he supposes there has to be a reason for everything, even if it doesn't seem like it, and whatever rex's reasoning for taking this path is … it's his own, and his alone. he doesn't have to explain himself to anyone.

cain thinks that's one of the nicer parts of being a human being. he's never wanted to have to explain himself to anyone, and he's probably never going to.

he shrugs, quiet for a second, thinking but trying not to look like he's thinking too hard. )

Long as it works out, right? Ain't that the important part? ( and he snorts for the hell of it. ) Dunno if I could ever rock the tights, myself … I like to leave a little mystery when I can.

( just. not much. don't get it twisted. )

[himbomb]

[As long as it works out.

Chances are, it won't. The superhero business is one in which everybody dies, even the guy called The Immortal, for cryin' out loud. Rex knows that he's dead meat, as he's been skirting the possibility of going down early by keeping his head down and putting in as little effort as (super)humanly possible, letting his other more dedicated teammates do all the work.]

Mhm.

[Rex looks the other man up and down, squinting. Clearly, he doesn't buy it.]

Riiiigght.

Because man-sluttiness is sooo TOTALLY all-about secrecy.

[It's uncomfortable being vulnerable in front of a stranger. He should walk away from this interaction feeling grateful, but the hateful, spiteful part of him doesn't want to.]

You're on thin ice, pal.

Remember that.