TDM #6

[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: holly and bluebells.

Standing too close to the bluebells for too long or smelling them will make a Dreamer unable to refuse requests. This can last for however long a player may wish, whether it be for a few days or just a few minutes. The holly, however, also gives off a strange effect when getting too close to it: Dreamers will feel compelled to be more helpful & outgoing, no matter how gloomy and closed off they are. This effect can also last for a few days or a few minutes-- it is up to the player!

Eventually, Dreamers will find their way out of the Enchanted Garden and into the city of Somnius, whether it be by following the alluring light or on their own.

Webby's Sleepover Extravaganza

It’s funny how if you ask for something, sometimes that’s all it takes to have it given to you. Maybe Webby is just that lucky, or Vaeros is feeling just that generous the day it’s requested but for two days and one night only in the beginning of the month of November, a large castle stands where one didn’t before. It’s grand in that it doesn’t need repairs like some of the available housing does, but it’s certainly nothing too awe-inspiring. But, it’s big enough for its purpose—a sleepover party for every inhabitant new or old.

During the night a few days before the party, EVERY person receives a handwritten invitation to this sleepover blowout. It doesn’t matter who, young or old. For those who wake up in Somius after the invitations arrive, they’ll find an invitation just for them in their pocket or satchel, like they were always meant to be invited from the beginning.
Decorations are bright and colorful, spanning the whole rainbow. One giant room full of cots and sleeping bags, blankets and pillows has been made to be the centerpiece of the whole affair. This is where most of the partygoers will mingle and play games, if they’re not too busy with one of the other activities located in one of the other rooms nearby. There’s plenty of room to wander, though any room that has not been decorated and made up for the party is locked down completely with no way in. There are, of course quiet spaces provided for those who need a quick getaway from all the partying. Or maybe going outside for a stroll in the night garden would be calming too?

For those who don’t have anything appropriate to sleep in, pajamas are even provided. But they might be a little silly, since beggars can’t be choosers. Who wants the unicorn fuzzy pajamas?

Games Galore - There’s plenty to play with, at Webby’s insistence (and by insistence we mean she gives you the biggest doe-eyes you’ve ever seen) and she’s more than happy to give you overly-detailed means on how to play the following -

🎉Twister - a huge sheet blotted with colorful spots has been laid on the floor, along with a square with similar colors and a spinny arrow. The rules are simple - one person spins the arrow, and where it lands you put your foot or hand. First to fall loses, so amp up the embarrassment - er, fun as you all get tangled up with each other.
🎉Truth Or Dare - Two options, one chance for chaos. Surely you’re all going to be mature individuals and not ask mortifying questions or dangerous dares.
🎉Pin The Tail On The Donkey - Yes, Webby’s sole guardian was a woman whose idea of fun was from the 1950s, how did you know? But she’s also put up optional sheets of different animals to stick their tail/bodyparts on while you’re blindfolded, including past threats like zombies and skeksis.

Bountiful Buffet - The best way to stay up late is to stuff yourself silly with sugar, which is why the dining room table is loaded with all kinds of desserts. Remy and Aurora have supplied some of their own sugary confections, and you’re more than welcome to have added your own creations to the buffet. Just don’t start any food fights. At least not where Webby can see it!

As though the castle (or whoever ACTUALLY owns it) wants to help assist the party atmosphere, those who partake of the food might feel a little more inclined to be friendly and amenable to party activities. You know, just for those gloomy gusses out there. There are no drawbacks to this little bit of fairy dust, just a little bit of social greasing, you know?

Makeover Makeover Makeover - Vil has ever so kindly offered his beauty supplies for those of you who want to experiment with some new looks, and you’re free to have brought your own. Test it out on one another or try it out yourself. Then again, when he’s not looking, what’s to stop you from trying to paint yourself up like a B-movie monster?

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark - Some of you may have had more than enough of your share of frights due to last month’s… fun, but surely you can handle a bit more fright? In a dark room with only one light torch, gather in a circle and share a spooky story from times gone by. Just be prepared for that one person who always sneaks up from behind and goes BOO at the right time. It’s inevitable.

Pillow Fight - Pick a side or be a lone warrior, grab a pillow and show no mercy! The last one standing wins! The only rule is your pillow is your sole weapon! In fact, there seem to be more pillows available than there are people here, so let the feathers fly! If the castle magically produces more, who’s to say? Shrug and keep the battle going!

Bonfire of Growth

CW: memory share, character specific trauma

Some may be aware that harvest season is a season of growth and not just in the cultivating sense. Townsfolk take this time to evaluate themselves and really think about things in their lives that have potentially been holding them back from being their strongest and truest selves. With the newly accessible Indigo Beach providing plenty of room for multiple bonfires, Dreamers will see several bonfires stretched across the dark blue sand, logs and rocks assembled around each one, beckoning Dreamers near.

As soon as they step out on the beach’s sands, characters will find a slip of paper on their person (in their pocket, up their sleeve.. any readily accessible portion of their clothing.) On that piece of paper, they will have a personalized phrase catered to them, making them remember a painful memory that has held them back in some way. The phrase can be anything players want it to be as long as it jogs the memory back into the head of their characters. Those with a paper slip will feel compelled to sit around the bonfire and contemplate their memory; they also will feel encouraged to share that memory with anyone who is sitting nearby. If characters choose to throw the paper slip into the fire, those who have heard the story of their grief will have a very vivid visual of the event in their mind’s eye along with feeling the exact pain they went through as well.

Once these memories are shared and characters take a moment to grieve, they will feel significantly better about the past situation that caused them so much pain. This can be temporary or permanent, it’s up to the player.

Although refreshments won’t be provided, Dreamers are encouraged to bring their own. And yes, something adjacent to s’mores can be something characters may bring.

Suspicious Message #4

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

Who or what from home do you miss the most?

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. Special thank you to Melissa for the player plot and prompts!

Comments

[doctor_uhh]

No heightened senses are necessary to hear Di Feisheng's rapid and soggy approach behind him, and is it just his imagination or do those footfalls sound absolutely furious? The more favorable terrain of the forest is almost within reach and Li Lianhua puts everything he's got left into a sprint, feeling his abused lungs burn and his heart hammer in his veins. And of course he tries to evade, can't help it really, but it's barely more than a stagger to the side at this point, far too easy for Di Feisheng to compensate for.

At the abrupt and unavoidable end of his escape, he lets out a slightly startled and very offended yelp before slumping back into his captor's grip, without which he honestly probably wouldn't be standing anymore right now. His breath is a painful wheeze and his vision is dizzying but he offers up a directionless flail of an arm anyway, as if trying to shrug off the cloak, though Di Feisheng has got his claw all the way into his inner robes.

"Di-M-- Hey! Di Feisheng! Aren't you debasing yourself, fighting like this?" He makes no eye contact with the device nor with the possibility that Fang Duobing heard any of that. Besides, he's a little busy struggling to suppress a coughing fit before it can get away from him, his vague gesturing taking on the quality of a fish dying on land. But sure, killing him would be faster. Not to mention less embarrassing for everyone.

[detective_xiaobao]

Fate has a strange way of playing games, doesn't it? The world turning in such a way that when you want something the most, it only happens when thinking of it the least. For three long months, Fang Duobing had spent every waking minute thinking about Li Lianhua. Where had he gone? Was he dead; was he alive? Was he well, or barely hanging on? Had he found something to warm himself with as the winter months had rolled over them? Did he have regrets? Did he think about the things and people that he left behind at all, or was he at peace with this and all of the hurt rippling in his wake? Sometimes he felt sure that he must have recognized the pain this would cause--Li Lianhua was not a stupid man. Other times, he was certain that he didn't; or his best friend would have never left at all.

However, acclimating to the strangeness of this new land had at least given Fang Duobing something new to turn over in his thoughts. A new mystery, a new puzzle, a new case to solve. A desperate wish (perhaps) to secure... He's so preoccupied with these thoughts that the buzzing of the device in his sleeve is barely a distraction. Nothing like the omen that it should be, if fate understood its purpose. He fetches the thing out, flips it open and activates it with a push of a button in the same motion as he brings it to his ear.

And the whole world tips sideways.

He feels off-balanced, and there's a ringing in his ears that makes him question if he heard correctly. Li Lianhua? Here? In this place? At first, there's no sound to confirm to Di Feisheng that his message was received, not even breathing. He feels... Dizzy. Sick. Elated. Hoping beyond any reasonable hope. Scared...

A war rages in his heart with no clear victor emerging. He thinks he hears another voice, and that might not be a feverish delusion washing over him. He is immediately and viciously torn in two directions. Good on Di Feisheng for keeping a strong hold on him--but gently he hopes. No matter the circumstances, he can't be in good health now.

"Where is he?" comes his response, finally and determinate. This news has coiled him like a spring, ready to snap at a moment's notice. He just needs to know which direction to run.

[wife_material]

Being cursed and flailed at is easy to ignore, with no more effect than light has on a rock. It's good even, welcome that Li Lianhua is spirited enough for it, but that doesn't mean he has to pay any attention. Though between the extremely ill advised running and the protesting, Li Lianhua doesn't seem to have anything else left at the moment besides labored breathing, which is out of his wheelhouse but deeply concerning. Enough so he will adjust his grip, conscientiously allow just the tiniest increment of slack, even as the majority of his focus remains on the task at hand. For all that he just threatened to kill him, he won't be caught strangling Fang Duobing's mentor a second time. Shouldn't have even been necessary to chase him down in the first place. Incredibly admirable force of will, insanely misdirected.

Whatever turmoil he's caused on the other end of the line goes utterly unnoticed beyond feeling a thread of impatience; Fang Duobing is practical when it counts and isn't asking stupid questions, which is appreciated, and anything else isn't his business. It might be Li Lianhua's business, but the last time he'd suggested that, he'd been wrong, so he's swearing off the whole thing for now. He's done the thing he thinks will have the strongest effect, which in this case is also luckily the right thing. But this time he won't leave until he's sure.

"The blue beach, near the tree line," which is a clipped and irritated use of negative space in communication if there ever was one. "I've got him, but hurry."

[doctor_uhh]

What, no reaction at all, not even to the obvious insult to his honor as a fighter? Li Lianhua should be offended, honestly. Why all this effort to catch and restrain him, just to ignore him? If Di Feisheng had just taken a moment longer in the ocean, he could have escaped and neither would have needed to be blamed for it. And if Li Lianhua wasn't so painfully out of breath, he could maybe even say all of that out loud in self-righteous, self-soothing chatter. But as it is, all that's left for him to do is to sulk put his hands on his hips, and because that's not reproachful enough he then crosses his arms in front of his chest instead. That'll show Di Feisheng.

For some reason, it's not until the word hurry that it fully sinks in; Fang Duobing will be here very soon. It's already too late, he knows. Everything Li Lianhua had tried to preserve, the ending to his story, Fang Xiaobao's unburdened future, everything he'd fought so hard to leave as well taken care of as he could-- now ruined. He should be angry at Di Feisheng for that, but it all drains from him like the last flush of color from his face. In the end, isn't it him who didn't walk far enough, didn't die fast enough? So it will be on him to listen and explain, to appease and soothe and hurt him all over again. It's so tiring. It's not what Fang Xiaobao deserves. But it's all he's got left to give to the one who understands the man named Li Lianhua the best.

[detective_xiaobao]

The request to hurry is hardly necessary; Di Feisheng will likely hear the sound of movement before he's even finished speaking it.

"I'll be there," Fang Duobing confirms, then disconnects the call and stashes the device so that he can focus everything he has on running. The scenery passes by in a blur that mirrors his thoughts at the moment, moving too fast to catch notice of anything in particular. He only knows the pound of his feet against the stone path, his eyes seeking out in the dim evening that hole in the wall leading to those strangely blue sands. And as he draws closer to the beach and to the man he's been searching after for three months, he only feels more and more aware of how ill-prepared he is for this meeting.

He'd imagined it many times before. Coming upon Li Lianhua in whatever place he'd managed to hide himself in--maybe not well, but alive and within Fang Duobing's power to assist. He would have Huli Jing with him to appeal to him; he would invoke all of the people who cared for Li Lianhua; he would convince him to return to Lotus Tower or Tianji Manor or anywhere that allowed him to care for his friend and find a cure for his illness. His logic and his connections were laid out like a surgeon's tools, carefully presented for the quickest and most potent effect.

But here? He has nothing, save for his desperate feeling of wanting to save Li Lianhua... A feeling which had already proven inadequate in reaching his friend in every other instance. What did he hope to accomplish now when his argument was all conjecture and no evidence, so weak as to be laughable? A threat of defeat creeps in on the edges of his thoughts, curling like poison in his own veins; and it takes all his will to push it back and keep his focus steady.

It doesn't matter. If all he has is how much he cares about his friend's well-being, then he will just have to make that be enough. If he has to wear the man down like water eroding a stone, then he will be the river that cuts through a mountain. No matter what, he can't watch Li Lianhua disappear in front of him again.

Past the broken wall, he breaks from forest out onto sand and comes to an unsteady halt. His muscles burn in protest from pushing so hard and his chest heaves for air as he scans up and down the treeline for discernible figures. With what light is left to him, he barely catches sight of two people lingering by the forest edge and makes a line straight for them.

The scene that he comes upon is... informative. The annoyance in Di Feisheng's tone suddenly makes perfect sense with the way he's got a hold of Li Lianhua's collar. He'd clearly caught the man trying to escape in some manner, and that piques a little ire in Fang Duobing's own heart. Wasn't their task hard enough without this sort of evasion? He can't understand the need for it, but that annoyance barely registers with Li Lianhua standing right here in front of him. Real. Alive. Looking... not well at all, but he'll take what he can get.

Action takes over quicker than thought; as soon as he's stopped in front of them, he takes a hold of Li Lianhua's elbow and looks him over with deep concern. It might seem like yet another restraint--or maybe even a concern for support if one is being generous, but in this moment Fang Duobing needs the grounding just as much. His heart feels lodged in his throat somewhere, tight and uncomfortable and blocking the ten thousand things he thought he would say when his search was finally over. It's not often that he's at a loss for words... He does manage to spare a glance to Di Feisheng and a nod of gratitude. He can let go if he likes.

"Is this where you've been all this time?" Fang Duobing finally finds his voice, as he turns his gaze back to meet Li Lianhua's (if he'll even allow it). Does he sound angry? He doesn't mean to yet. In the torrent of his emotions, he feels more disbelief than anger in this moment; but all the questions he's built up in the past three months threaten to shake loose into an avalanche with just that one. It's all he can do to limit them to just a few, hurt bleeding into his voice and stinging at his eyes despite his best intentions to remain composed.

"You run off while our backs are turned, and this is where we find you? You couldn't have picked an easier place to hide?"

[wife_material]

That will not show Di Feisheng anything, because Li Lianhua is the worst man alive (but he IS alive) and he is not going to put any attention on that. Or on how long it's taking him to recover from a short sprint. Or on anything that was said before he successfully invoked the threat of Fang Duobing. Di Feisheng is done for the day and that's probably in everyone's best interests.

And he will let go of Li Lianhua, though carefully, and with an acknowledging nod of his own for Fang Duobing. Your problem now, says the look, or possibly Good luck, before his eyes skate off this unseemly display of emotions he has chosen to orchestrate. He takes a moment to shake a cramp out of his hand, or possibly just dispel tension, but is otherwise still very secure in his decision. Fang Duobing probably doesn't have any use for his luck, anyway. He's always been an effective avenue for targeting Li Lianhua, where any kind of argument or action have not been. To the list of things he is done paying attention to for now can be added just how completely his own grievance had been evaded, whether skillfully or tragically, but this will have to do for now.

Though just hearing Fang Duobing talk about Li Lianhua running off while their backs were turned would be enough to make a lesser man wince, and is enough to have him crossing his arms defensively. He's not even the target, but. Still sore. If it weren't for literally just having been reminded of how much he should second guess that urge, he would be sorely tempted to take his leave.

[doctor_uhh]

((continued here