TDM#5

[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: morning glory and gladiolus. Time spent too close to the morning glory flowers invokes a state of intense obsession. Obsession over an event, a person, or things/objects are all possible, but the victim’s drive to be involved with their obsession is intense and all-consuming. Be careful, not all obsessions are peaceful ones. Pollen from the gladiolus flowers will find their strength increased tenfold. It might make day-to-day interactions a little difficult especially when gripping a pen or a cup winds up in a broken utensil or shattered mug. Of course, no amount of strength can affect the labyrinth walls, however…

Draconic Departure

CW: mood altering substances

It is time. Everyone knows it, and there is no denying it. It is time for the dragons to leave. No effort to keep the dragons from leaving will work, the dragons themselves inexplicably compelled to leave. It’s both a happy and a sad time for the pairs who have helped raise these dragons, but even the parents know somehow that it is time.

Dreamers and their dragons have one last night on Starlight Cliff before the dragon’s departure. It’s a simple gathering, put together by those who cared for the dragons and those who favored them. Picnic fare and simple decorations with glowing lanterns and soft blankets decorate the grassy flat portion of the cliffs. As the dragons leave, they leave a gift— one each for their adoptive parents. Gold dragons leave behind an item that reminds their parents of a loved one, red dragons leave behind an item that reminds their parents of their childhood, and blue dragons leave behind an item that reminds their parents of the wish they made when they found their way here.

It’s important to note that all are welcome to this celebration and departure. Some dragon parents have commissioned the townsfolk to create gift pouches for attendees. Each pouch has several packages of colored dust that when thrown into the air creates shimmering lights and effects similar to fireworks. However, if misused, like when thrown on others it can cause hair color changes, temporary sparks glittering from fingertips that can cause things to smolder, or even dye clothes that will all then affect the mood of the wearer. Red can cause tempers to flare, blue can create a morose mood, green will inflict an amorous feeling, and yellow will induce generosity. Luckily, washing off the dust will remove all of these effects immediately. Maybe throwing a glass of water on someone might help?

[ In the interest of fairness, each character who helped raise a dragon will get only ONE gift from them, even if they have helped raise more than one. In the case of multiple colors, it is up to player choice which gift they receive.

Items received from the dragons must be mundane in nature; magically powered or mystical items are not allowed. Weapons are allowed if they are likewise mundane and could have been received based on the 50 shard reward.

Dragon parents who received a magical tattoo will find that their tattoo persists even after the dragons' departure. ]

Mystic Grotto

CW: spiders, tentacles

It happens in the middle of the night, a rumbling and tearing of earth that ricochets shaking throughout the land. Nothing is damaged, but even the air is awash with a new scent like something old has reappeared. Those who investigate the origin of the disturbance will find a small portion of the island has risen up out of the sea. It's land damp, still dripping with saltwater and half covered in seaweed, at first glance there’s little remarkable about this new piece of land. That is until wandering past craggy rock and slick ground lands the most daring explorers right in front of a large cave entrance.

The environment inside changes almost immediately. Gray crumbling stone gives way to more surfaces giving way to shiny dark obsidian the deeper inside you go. It’s hard to see, the lighting nearly pitch black past the entrance. As the cave twists and turns, something ahead seems to glow. As pools of salt water in the grotto appear, so too does the glow increase. Water that shimmers like a starry night blots a patchy, swampy chamber, crystals of deep watery hues jut from the walls and ground, reflecting glowing light that seems to zigzag across plant life that grows from every corner. Pools of dark tar-like substances are a hazard, creating a mess and potentially trapping explorers who aren’t watching their footing. Webbing that looks crystalized decorates the darkest corners, and those who wander too close might disturb crystalline spiders that will defend their nests with a vengeance.

The deeper the explorers get, the more dangerous the cave seems to become, like it is a trial that must be passed in order to see what is in its deepest reaches. Mist and fog hide deeper pools that house mysterious creatures who will reach out with large suckered tentacles in an attempt to pull in stray creatures no matter their size, almost as if they’re looking to sate a driven hunger. Those who make it past these creatures will find traps laid out that when sprung will loop adventurers into rope and twine cages, netting, and loops. Unfortunately, these traps only seem to be able to be cut by the sharp edges of crystal growing in the cave. Hopefully, travelers have considered picking some up on their way…

But those who are sensitive to magic and will might sense an urge to press forward, guided by an unseen force to see their exploration through until they come across a spiraling staircase to the exit. Just watch out for that slick stone, which could send you all the way back down to the bottom, luckily any falls will be softened by glittering moss surrounding the base of the staircase.

Mystery Revealed

CW: potential death, emetophobia, body horror

Past the Mystic Grotto, beyond the carved exit and dangerously thin path that stretches along a cliffside that drops straight down into the waters below, is a small outcropping suspiciously connected to the Labyrinth itself. Those who look closer will notice that the outcropping is home to an entrance into the labyrinth. Unfortunately, thorough investigation reveals that this older, more run-down section of the labyrinth does not connect to the one that is more familiar, almost as if it was cut off purposefully. Those who want to get to this portion of the labyrinth only have one option, and they will need to tread along the cliff path carefully, Falling from this path will only end in death.

Twists and turns will eventually lead to the main chamber of this section, wildly overgrown with greenery and inhabited by fireflies of different shapes and sizes all with a pleasant, soothing glow. Most important is the tall stone fountain, still somehow functional despite the apparent overgrowth and decay. Perhaps it is because the fountain is encased in something clear and glass-like, preventing anyone from actually touching or entering the pool of water. From each of the 5 spouts different colors of water pour down into the main pool to converge in an almost oil slick like appearance where the colors blend and mix together in places. Next to the fountain, a stone and wood contraption sits, levers still intact. Should a visitor decide to investigate the device, they’ll find that it is magically enchanted. Any attempt to harm the device will result in the character being blown back with force, enough to shove them off their feet or send them airborne into the walls of the room.

Pulling the lever, however, activates a groaning sound, and the exposed gears of the machine clamber into life as the sound of something opening and clattering echoes through what must be an empty stone chamber. Eventually, a small potion bottle filled with one of five colors (Purple, Brown, Teal, Chartreuse, Navy) rolls out of the ground and toward the operator’s feet. The colors seem misty inside, sparkly but dull, almost as if their mixture is incorrect or incomplete somehow. Upon opening the bottles, the scent that wafts out is foul: overly sweet but spoiled. But perhaps this is the way these potions are meant to be? Those brave (or stupid) enough to drink the potions they receive will struggle with stomach cramps moments later, others might feel the need to regurgitate the potion forcefully. Characters’ sight may blur and they may feel dizzy or ill at ease, but should they hold the potion down one of several things may occur.

⚗️ Teal potion drinkers will find themselves crying, unable to stop no matter how hard they try. Their tears will not stop flowing, and the fireflies in the area seem oddly attracted to the tears that drop from their eyes. It makes catching these creatures easy, but also an annoying hindrance to anyone who is subjected to crying their eyes out.

⚗️ Navy potion drinkers will find themselves feeling lighter than air. Though the effect is slow in the beginning, the longer they are in this part of the blocked-off labyrinth, the more they are affected. At first, it’s like walking on the moon, then they slowly find they have a harder time landing… until they wind up floating up slowly, up and up and up. But instead of winding up in the heavens, or seeing anything useful of the main labyrinth, they find themselves mysteriously floating back toward the garden. Once there they find they stop moving but will need to hold hands with others who are affected in order to land safely onto the ground again.

⚗️ Purple potion drinkers will find themselves consumed by hiccups that cause bubbles to float out of their mouths. These bubbles, when popped by anyone other than the owner, will release a secret said in the character’s voice.

⚗️ Brown potion drinkers will grow the sickest initially, but will also feel better the fastest. However, they may find that as they walk, mushrooms and other fungi grow in the wake of their steps, the kinds varied and assorted and not at all safe to eat or touch. It might be best for those who didn't drink this potion to avoid eating, touching, or spreading this fungal growth.

⚗️ Chartreuse potion drinkers will find that much like some species of frog they have become incredibly sticky. Not only do they stick to other characters, but their skin will stick to anything they touch. It’s best to be careful when under this effect unless you want to become a living katamari ball!

Perhaps it might be best to investigate what this fountain actually is and leave it alone for now, instead? By the time afflicted and nonafflicted explorers make their way back to the mouth of the grotto, they will find the effects of the potions drunk by characters have weakened to nothing.

[ Anyone who tries to take a potion with them will find the potions mysteriously absent the moment they leave the fountain chamber, their containers dry and void of any liquid that may have been inside. ]

Suspicious Message #3

On the morning of the 1st, some dreamers will receive a message from an unknown user.

What is it that you are most thankful for?

They will feel compelled to respond with a truthful answer, as if their brains had gone into a trance, and before they know it, their response will be there for everyone to see. It cannot be deleted or changed. The user will not respond personally, but you get the sense they are definitely reading.

[ This is an additional network option for characters to interact with. Feel free to add a network prompt into any of your top levels. If you do not want to interact with this prompt, simply assume your character did not get the message. All threads are public unless actively privated by characters. We generally encourage threadjacking and engagement, so feel free to mention if threadjacking is fine with you so that others are aware. Note that the NPC will not be actively responding. ]

OOC

Welcome to the labyrinthum TDM! All events are game canon. New characters (invited or not) and old characters alike are welcome to play in it. Existing characters can start their own logs or network posts for the event if they wish to.

New and Old characters are welcome to top level on the TDM. Please state in the header if you are a new or old player! Also, new characters may link their top levels under the new character comment so they are easier to find. Thanks for your cooperation!

New 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.

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

Comments

[xploud]

It says something about their relationship that all Katsuki does as he's practically used as a body pillow is to scowl deeply and growl just ever so faintly - like a feral cat that doesn't necessarily like being approached and touched, but allows it from a very select few without going on the offensive. When Sero does get off at his prompting - mostly just so he can explain to his face without have to crane his neck uncomfortably - Katsuki waits for it all to sink in.

"Bank, coin purse, debit card...whatever you want to call it, this rock stores this world's currency, and it it's used for basically everything you want to get from the local shops and stalls and for things off world - from back home. It's the reason there's light in this place without lighting a candle, or that you down have to crawl outside to an outhouse past midnight to take a leak." Katsuki snorts, looking around his small cottage. He still has to modernize it a bit more, but electricity and plumbing was the first on his list of housing gains.

He eyes Sero touching his elbows and instinctively stops using his quirk, shaking off the wisps of smoke that still cling to his fingers. Listen, Katsuki gets it. Not having one's quirk feels like a piece of yourself is just missing, that you're incomplete. And especially for Sero, where it causes a physical change...it must be so unsettling to both know, see, and feel that it's gone. Averting his gaze for a second, Katsuki wonders if he could...buy back his friend's quirk with what he has stored. It's not like he has anything pressing he wants to get that couldn't simply wait.

"Yeah, well...get used to that shit, because it's as real as anything else. I can tell you stories of the storybook bullshit I've dealt with already."

[cellophanehero]

Sero knows that he can only get away with that kind of thing because in spite of the way that Katsuki growls and spits and yells, they are friends. He gets away with a lot that nobody else would except maybe for Midoriya. That said, he also knows when to give it a rest just for the sake of his friend's comfort, knowing better than to overstay his welcome. Even if Katsuki presents a pretty good spot to lean when he holds still.

He sits down on the floor and turns his stone over and over in his hands, watching the way that it catches the light, frowning with his teeth worrying at the corner of his lip as he considers the thing. Thin brows knit as if he's blaming the rock for stealing his Quirk.

"Like the dragon shit," he offers, looking back up at Katsuki as his posture slouches forward, elbows atop his knees. "Okay, tell me somethin'. Is this the afterlife or an alternate dimension?"

[xploud]

They are friends, all of them. Certainly there are people even in the class itself that Katsuki likes more than others, but he still cares about each member of the class so, so much - they're no longer just NPCs, or extras, or whatever... He's seen their strengths and respects them as people who can stand their ground and match his pace, even. Equals. ...Even Deku, too, though he's loath to ever admit it. Katsuki does still want to be number one, after all, in everything he does.

Watching Sero absently turn the gemstone over in his hand, the furrow on his brow and the way he chews his lip reminds Katsuki so much of how he first reacted when his own quirk was gone. He was furious, obviously, but also deeply upset and frustrated...perhaps a bit panicked as well. It really is like a part of you, something so firmly connected to oneself was just...gone. It was unsettling, and extremely uncomfortable. It's why he's trying to make that his prime objective now - getting his friend's quirk back.

"Mm...yeah," he grunts, looking away from Sero when he mentions the dragons. The wound's still fresh, raw, so he doesn't want to pick at it much right now. But his gaze snaps back to the taller boy and he looks a bit more surly, that deep scowl on his face lined by a very mild anger. "You're not dead, and neither am I."

He will not amuse that thought. Period. He and his friends are too damn stubborn to die during this war. Plus, they're strong. They wouldn't go down the the likes of some D-rank villains.

"Alternate dimension. You'll find other people here from worlds well beyond ours - different variations of Earth, even different variations of Japan itself, too. I've come across a few characters that even appear in books and movies and shit."

[cellophanehero]

It might not always be obvious, he doesn't show affection like the rest of them do, but it's obvious that he does care about them in his way. They would tease him about that fact too, amusing themselves with the YEAH WHAT OF IT reaction that doesn't even remotely refute the idea.

Sero thinks of the apology that his timeline's Katsuki made when they got Midoriya back. It wasn't shallow, or dismissive, or appeasing in any way. It was important. It meant just as much to him to say, as it meant for their wayward problem child to hear. It was a moment that the rest of them shouldn't have witnessed, but they did. He wouldn't say anything more about that part of the story. He wouldn't risk changing it for anything.

Just as Katsuki doesn't say anything else to the mention of the dragons, Sero doesn't dwell on it. It was just what his mind went to, considering that he knows next to nothing else about this place and the way it works. He wants to be able to hold on to something as a reference point. Stability. There's so little of that in his life right now, and what he did have was utterly demolished upon his arrival here.

The immediate insistence that they weren't dead isn't as comforting as Sero hoped it would be. It means that they're not where they need to be. It means that they can't fulfill their duty as heroes in the world they wanted to protect. The information that there were supposedly fictional characters here settles in with every other bit of weirdness in a way that makes it a little less impactful.

"So...what happens now? It's not like I can just live in your spare room for however long."

[xploud]

The class knows he cares and there's a weird sort of dichotomy that Katsuki has of where he hates that they know, and that they SHOULD fucking know by now. He hasn't smeared what little brains they have onto the walls, and lets them get away with more than quite literally anyone else around him, even the poking and prodding and teasing. Yes he gets mad, yes there's explosions tossed at the assholes sometimes, but that's still just...their norm. He misses that norm so much.

Stability broken? Oh yeah, this place certainly likes to do that. Katsuki's been unstable in a lot of different ways since his arrival, and it's only gotten worse with time. Sero brings a lot of that stability back, but not all of it. His presence alone is mending more than he knows, more than the blond puts out. He'll discuss the dragons one day, maybe, but not right now. It's still a sore spot he doesn't want to press too hard.

"Supposedly, time is frozen back home, or at least our individual timelines. You're farther ahead in yours, obviously, but it won't change or advance without you in it. I don't know how much I fucking trust that, but...it's enough." Because he knows exactly where Sero's thoughts are going to - the same direction his did when he was taken here. They're all the same that way...Heroes thinking of how much they're needed, that if they're not there, it's just another cog lost to the machine. And if that machine stops turning... "I don't give a shit if you stay or if you don't," he says, but there is a tightness in his chest that bears noticing. He doesn't want Sero to leave right away. "If you want, there are other houses here that are vacant, and free to just take and live in. There's a school to learn some of the basic shit, and weird events happen every other month that keeps people busy...you can get a job or whatever, too."

There's a pause, as Katsuki closes his eyes and leans back in his chair, so his head hangs back and he stares up at the ceiling when he finally cares to open his eyes.

"You live, simple as that. However you accomplish that is your own choice to make."