+ TDM 001.

[luxflowmod]

Welcome to Luxflow's first TDM.

Let's get into it.

ARRIVAL

— You wake up encased.

It’s dark, naturally, but a few tendrils of light slip past the — vines? Why are you tangled up in vines? It gives you panic — why can’t you remember — breath quickening, in and in and in again. Your frenzied movements against the vines let in more light, more air.

And you breathe.

As you exhale, a shaky but sure breath against the rough foliage, a light flows out of you. It’s just a little orb that pours out, past the greenery and into that unknown.

The vines melt away into ash, and you’re left standing in a clearing, trees impossibly tall and swaying in the night breeze. Your breath comes in deep and steady, now, and it occurs to you that you should be panicking still … But then as you look around the clearing, you see more vine cocoons, like yours, and others climbing out of them …

There’s people in the center of the clearing. They’re armed but they’re friendly, and they tell you in short and sweet sentences about the place you’re in now …

“ You’re in the Feeding Forest. ” says one, “ This place’ll eat you alive if you can’t break out of the vines. You must be special, huh? ”

Special?

“ C'mon, we’ll take you back to the city. You’re probably here for a while. We’ll fill you in … ”

SPIT SHINE YOUR BLACK CLOUDS

You're trying to get your bearings, but this City stops for no one.

On the next morning after your arrival, there's a festival! It's near the hole, Heart and Center, in the middle of the place. When you arrive there, you're fooled for a moment, and the place doesn't seem so scary; the colors are bright and the citizens are so cheerful as they dance and cheer on the new arrivals to strange music.

No one really knows why they're celebrating, but the arrival of the strange ones feels like it's heralding something good. Maybe there's unheard prayers that are being answered! Maybe their prayers will be answered! There's drinks and food and song, so why not join in? You can get drunk or high or just chill and take it all in.

Yet as the festivities burn on, the locals all hush at some point late in the evening. Words ripple through the throngs, and it reaches you fast. They're going to heave prayers up to the Setting Sun. But first, the great chasm needs an offering from those praying.

They throw in valuables and invaluables alike; drinks and food and clothes and jewelry and weapons and boomboxes are thrown in without a second thought.

What will you offer? If you choose to at all, you'll feel bereft; if it's a memory or power, a light will flow from your mouth and down into the chasm ...

They're silent thereafter in their prayer. Do you pray, too? If you do or you don't, you can't help but feel intense shame, like someone is laughing at you ... Still, after all that, the party continues on.

You're just a little more unsettled, now, a little more uncertain.

SILHOUETTE SALOON

The Silhouette Saloon is open! Or so the signage around town says. Excessive and garish, these signs point characters down a winding path into a place called the Silhouette Saloon. When you enter, everything goes white and everyone appears merely as shadows ... Pretty on the nose, but it provides a strange anonymity.

The fixtures of the saloon are all shadowed out too, stark black against the misty backdrop of white. You can drink here and be free to tell your secrets to anyone who'll listen. The bartender or maybe one of the dancers just finishing their set will tell you that this place keeps secrets.

If you were to tell someone a secret, or hear one, you wouldn't remember it exactly. You would, however, feel a strange nagging sensation about the person who told it to you. Once on the outside, you might not be able to get through a conversation with them without thinking they're hiding something ...

If you don't tell someone a secret, you'll feel compelled to tell someone one once you're out of the Saloon, where the secret won't be so hidden ... It might be better to tell one in the safety of anonymity then, hm?

But the longer you're in there, the more you lose of yourself. You'll forget your name, your purpose, everything about yourself until you pass out on the dance floor. You'll wake up outside the Saloon, stricken with amnesia. It'll wear off after a few hours, though.

PITY'S GOT AN UGLY PRICE TAG

Besides the Drifters and Givers, a new group has popped up. They're called the Pleading, or called plain annoying. They beg for anything you've got from the roadside, calling you over. If you hear them out, they'll hypnotize you in a way; they plead for anything you can possibly spare their poor soul -- the shirt off your back, a memory, an ability. Their sob story goes from believable to something horrifying and personal to you. They'll tell you your mother won't forgive you if you don't, or they'll tell you that the fate of your very best friend hinges on you giving them your wallet.

What do you do?

If someone breaks you out of the grasp of the Pleading's hypnosis, you'll be free.

If you give in, they'll take, and you'll be bereft of what you gave and that will be that.

If you don't, you'll feel immeasurable guilt, mounting more and more with each step ... You might have to be talked out of that guilt, or you might throw yourself into the chasm, inconsolable ...

DIGITAL VEIL ( network )

A question appears on the network. There's no handle attached.

BRUISES OR ROSES OR CRADLES OR COFFINS? WHY WHY WHY? :'D

Answers to this 'question' will be displayed to all; feel free to comment on others, try to gain some sense of what this could mean ... You can also post to the network freely.

QUESTIONS?

Ask below. Have fun.

Comments

[hopesong]

[Her instincts are saying to not trust the people who were their on their arrival, but she can't place why. It just seems odd, and things not adding up has usually resulted in some very painful surprises later on.

She'd like to not have a knife shoved up through her diaphragm, if she can help it, but she also has to agree that they might know what's going on a little better than any of them.]

If you're sure, but I'll be right here if you need any help, alright? [Stick together to survive. That's always been a good motto.]

As for what they might or might not know... I think they might be waiting on everyone to come shamblin' out of the vines we were all in.

[deadanimemom]

Probably. It makes more sense to have everyone together before making an announcement.

Can you fight? [Yuri doesn't know if she can, right now. But she's not naive enough to just assume that those armed strangers have good intentions. It would be nice if they did.]

[hopesong]

I'm more of a runner, honestly. [... But also, she's well since learned how fighting against super powered murderers goes for her.

.... About the same as it'd go if they weren't super powered supernatural murderers, she thinks.] I can put up a decent struggle if I get caught, but that's about it.

[deadanimemom]

[Yuri nods, watching other people as they emerge from the strangling vines.]

If you need to run, don't let me hold you back.

[hopesong]

Don't worry too much about me, darlin', I'll be just fine. An' I'd prefer making sure you were safe before me.

[What's the worst that can happen? She gets stabbed? Been there, done that. Hurts like a bitch, but she's got more than enough scars under that slip to last a few lifetimes.]

[deadanimemom]

[... later, if it becomes necessary, Yuri will have to figure out a way to get this woman to safety. But for now, she just nods.]

What's your name?

[hopesong]

Kate Denson. I'd say it's a pleasure to meet you normally, but I don't think this situation is quite what either of us were expecting.

[She gives a squeeze to her arm, and then finally pulls away, offering her hand for a proper shake.]

[deadanimemom]

[Yuri takes a breath, steadies herself as that support pulls back, and smiles. Strained, exhausted, but still a smile.]

It's very nice to meet you. [Sure, she can do a handshake. She'll even rearrange her name for the obviously Western audience.]

I'm Yuri Egin.

[hopesong]

[Her grip is firm and gentle, and recedes after a few seconds. She's still keeping a close watch on Yuri, just to make sure that she'll be fine, and if not, that she can move in to steady her if need be.]

If you don't mind my askin', what were you doing before ending up here, Miss Egin? Just trying to piece things together.

[deadanimemom]

[How to explain it, safely, without saying too much?]

"Running for my life" might be the best way to explain it. I... wasn't very successful. [There was no way she could have survived, bleeding out in the snow as they tried to escape.]

[hopesong]

[Running for her life? Then... there might be a chance that they were in the same situation, that that Benedict Baker person was right in his notes.

Kate's entire demeanor changes, more hesitant.]

I know the feeling. I don't... I don't suppose you were runnin' from a deranged killer, were you?

[deadanimemom]

No, [she says, shaking her head. Nothing like that.]

Were you? Are you all right?

[hopesong]

[.... No, not the same as her then. She shakes her head.]

I was. But it's alright. I was... well, it's a bit hard to explain, but I would have been alright in the end even if I was caught. [She pauses for a moment, and gives a laugh, though it sounds humourless.]

Sorry, that probably sounds weird.

[deadanimemom]

[Yuri's life has always been nothing but things that sound weird.]

It's good that you're all right. But it does mean this place isn't the afterlife, or where either of us came from.

[hopesong]

You're right, and I'm certain of that.

[... But did the Entity let her go? Or is this the Void? Or did some other external force bring her here? Something of the same nature as the Entity, maybe?]

Well, if we end up havin' to get generators workin' to escape, I'm your gal.

[deadanimemom]

[Yuri laughs, a little bit.]

That's a useful skill to have.

I'm not bad at hand-to-hand fighting, [she's had martial arts drilled into her since she was a child] and I'm a pretty good exorcist.

[hopesong]

I knew nothin' about them before I ended up where I was. Had to learn real quick how to splice wires and the like. [Another laugh, but her smile returns when she says she's an exorcist.]

Well, I definitely could have used you a few trials ago. Got chased by an angry spirit pretty bent on murderin' me and mine. [... Who, unfortunately, did.]