etrayamemes | TDM 006

TDM 006

⏵ arrival ⏴
Arrival is absolutely not normal this month. Instead of a hospital bed, you wake in a tunnel with a large group of other people. These are the residents. A woman’s voice in an earpiece hurriedly clues you in with an apology.

I apologize; I had not planned to introduce you this way, but we are low on time. Please proceed down the hallway.

An image of a shattered pearl pops up on your personal HUD and rotates.

I am Aurora. You are joining many others on Etraya in order to save your world from destruction by completing missions. Your current mission is to find the pieces of this object that have become scattered in the library ahead of you.

For everyone else, coming in is much the same. The instruction goes out to head to designated areas immediately, where companion bots will escort the residents of Etraya down into the depths, the area beneath where much the same is explained.

⏵ disrobing ⏴

The tunnel eventually opens directly into the foreroom of an expansive library, painted in marvelous hues and patterns with skylights far above. There are wizards milling about, bearded and holding tomes, quietly chatting amongst themselves.

The reception area of the library has tall ceilings with equally tall doors Before you get too caught up in the scenery, a voice directs you forward. A gentleman, hunched and bespeckled craws out.

"Make a line! Make a line, everyone! You cannot enter the library dressed as you are... Come forward and give me your name."

The receptionist asks your given name and then hands over a box from underneath his counter. You can give him any name you want, he doesn’t seem to mind. It is tied with a tagged ribbon- labeling it accordingly. “The _____ robe of _______.”

	(First Letter of Given Name)				(Last Letter of Given Name)
A	Controlling	N	Helpful	A	Melodies	N	Light
B	Glimmering	O	Floating	B	Discretion	O	Mind-Reading
C	Wet	P	Handsome	C	Growth	P	Climbing
D	Gruesome	Q	Gullible	D	Grasping	Q	Jumping
E	Observant	R	Ratty	E	Flying	R	Hurting
F	Powerful	S	Adhesive	F	Reading	S	Guiding
G	Psychedelic	T	Sweltering	G	Dancing	T	Bug-Speaking
H	Swift	U	Cheerful	H	Shouting	U	Exploding
I	Voracious	V	Anxious	I	Extracting	V	Complaining
J	Soft	W	Likeable	J	Punishing	W	Dividing
K	Keen	X	Ruthless	K	Creeping	X	Slapping
L	Fabulous	Y	Dramatic	L	Walking	Y	Charming
M	Fair	Z	Demonic	M	Listening	Z	Combustion

As you read what the contents of the box may be, they form inside- Looking and behaving as your character expects them to. After all, magic is all in the wielder’s mind.

Don your robes and enter the library.

⏵ unfamiliar familiars ⏴

For those without a familiar (like one hatched from an egg not too long ago) you may borrow one from the library counter. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but they will all assist in the very important mission. As you roam the library, they will make little indications that you are closer or further from finding a piece of the pearl.


Pro	• Hardworking • Gives correct directions 75% of time • Won’t run away from you	• Very affectionate • Gives correct directions only when paired with another rat, toad, or personal pet.	• Gives correct directions 90% of the time
Con	• Must feed bookworms	• Will run away if too close to a cat	• Does not care for you • Sleepy • Will run ahead • Gets distracted by rats

⏵ the task at hand ⏴

With robes donned and creature in hand, you must now complete your mission. Find the pieces of the shattered pearl. As you enter the library, you may notice that it’s all very dim. There’s oil lamps around the place that may be moved with you to assist in your journey if your robes do not already emit light.

Break off and search the library. There is a directory at the front to point guests to all the different sections.

	Wings of the Library
A	General Works	B	Music
C	Philosophy, Religion	D	Fine Arts
E	History, Auxiliary Sciences	F	Language and Literature
G	Magic, General	H	Science
J	Geography, Anthopology	K	Medicine
M	Agriculture	N	Hobbies, Recreation
P	Social Science	Q	Military
R	Political Science	S	Practical Arts
T	Law	W	People
X	Education	Y	Spiders

Each section looks enough like the last, though the books within have immense power. Pick up the wrong book, and you might conjure a dragon or a historical figure! You must persist and avoid making too much noise or breaking too many things.

Or else the Librarian, a tall mass of knotted fabric will confiscate your robe and usher you back outside. Your name will be struck from the list, and you must pick a new one to re-enter the library to continue the search.

You can try to fight back against him- he may be set alight with the lamp. But should you be starting fires in here?

⏵ NOTES ⏴

Any thread with 15 comments between you and another may be submitted to find a piece of the pearl. There are 20 pieces altogether, and we will determine if the mission was successful by March 28th. A post will go live on the OOC comm for this!

This mission occurs out of time, similar to how the spaceship had. Meaning, those currently in game can experience these events any time between now, and March 14th.

Please direct all questions to our mod queries comment!

⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't want to go.

(He doesn't mean to be difficult, he's just horrified at the aliveness of it all. It's a little easier to just be here, under the GROUND WHERE HE BELONGS!!!

It wouldn't even give him the creeps to stay here ; it's going up with other people that is very, very concerning.)

Can I just stay here? And then it's done?

[ Fabian understands what the other is getting at, but it's not like he hasn't thought about this himself. It's why the teen seems to be answering relatively easily and confidently - like he believes in what he has decided in this particular regard. ]

I sat out the last mission. The race. [ He clarifies, unsure whether or not John had been part of that. ] I thought I would see what would happen, but.. nothing happened at all. It's as if didn't matter.

[ Which felt weird, given the goal they had supposedly been drawn to this place for, but he doesn't want to get into all of that right now. Not in the middle of a different explanation. ]

And while it made me realize I could just do the same thing here, there are new people showing up in this very library right now. And I want there to be people who can properly warn them about this place, and also make sure they don't immediately get injured or worse because of the first thing they have suddenly been thrown into. [ Rather than looking at John as if he's trying to convince him of any of this, Fabian instead looks ahead of them as he speaks. ]

Oh fuck off, dude. You try getting attacked by thousands of tiny spiders.

( he doesn't panic loudly! he panics the perfect amount of panic for the situation at hand! which. okay, maybe the panic was a little internally loud, but externally he wasn't all that loud. probably. he thinks. it's irrelevant.

especially now that he's just fucking covered in tiny spider-bites. ow. hopefully none of them were - venomous. aside from all the red splotchy spots that hurt a little, he feels fine. julian considers mercy, eyeing the giant telekinetic bubble that is just full of creepy crawlies. watches as it slowly gets smaller, bit by bit by bit, until they're fresh out of wandering space, but he and quentin now have an actual library isle to walk through.

but okay. he's had a bit of time to recover. well. kind of recover. with all the tiny bubbles quentin had used, julian's assuming he'd been tracking their tiny little spider-minds, so there's no need to worry about anything alive left in his hair. dead? maybe. gross. ugh, his hair. an arm moves up, feeling along messy strands. )

Is my hair okay? ( if he has bald spots now he's squishing all the spiders. )

Yeah, I did, dingus. I was in your head when it happened.

[Quentin taps the side of his head with a grimace and shudders at the memory.]

Gonna be feeling invisible spiders all over me for weeks. Ugh.

[And then Julian asks about his hair, prompting Quentin to look at said hair and, uhh. Hmm. He hesitates, tilts his head thoughtfully, and narrows his eyes. Probably not a good sign.]

Define "okay."

[So that's a "no." Could he have said something more helpful or descriptive? Like "it's a good thing you have a lot of volume"? Or "you look like you got attacked by a thousand tiny hairdressers who were all very mad at you?" Yes. But this is more fun. For Quentin, obviously, not for Julian.]

I'd worry more about your hands, personally. Those suckers are gonna be crunch-y. [He separates the second syllable for emphasis, glancing at Julian's hands skeptically.]

Anyway, we probably oughta get out of here before the terrible library monster shows up. It doesn't like noise.

[Ace keeps trying to find where the little rat is and follows Yuri wherever he's going.]

Oh! I think i might know some people who compliment others without meaning it. Super rude!

[Ace takes the book and inspects it, amazed at the glowing.]

If you can make water glow that would be really fun to drink!

[He laughs, and then nods.]

I get what you mean. Your power allows you to see light the way though! And even if it's not warm, it's useful!

Absolutely! Most people are terrified of them!

[Ace chuckles, and nods.]

There is! You can't really gain a cool power without giving something in return, right?

You could call it that. The country I was raised in was constantly warring with its neighbors, after all.

[ And one of those neighboring nations was the one he'd been stolen from. Him and so many others. ]

People in charge aren't going to be honest about something like that.

It's an effective form of manipulation, but I can't say I enjoy it.

[ Giving or receiving, either leaves a bad taste. ]

It is?!

[OOPS? Has he been manipulating people by accident?!]

I honestly never thought of that...

[Ah, now that gets Quentin's interest.]

{ Eh? Ten months? }

[Now isn't that something. All at once, his defensive posture melts away. Because as it turns out, he wasn't in fact such a miserable failure that within a few hours the mysterious Powers-That-Be immediately wrote him off and replaced him with the more successful, more well-liked, "better" Omega level telepath. Jean was already here. And while Quentin isn't dumb enough to believe he's Jean's replacement, persay—particularly since she's obviously still here—it does mean he's here to do something she can't. Which, contrary to popular opinion, does in fact exist. He's worked hard at carving out his specific expertise, using his powers in ways nobody else would ever consider. This is proof it's paying off. And that—that is worth putting on a ridiculous magic costume and playing by the rules.]

{ Sheesh, talk about burying the lede. Alright, what's the plan? How's this party usually go down? }

[Quentin moves his hand away to peer at the kid skeptically.]

No offense, kiddo, but kinda seems like "takes in a lot of information" isn't a high bar for you. [Not that he expects "being offended" to be really within this kid's emotional repertoire.] But technically you are right, so.... E for Effort, I guess.

What's your name, anyway? Ghost-kid? Spooky-boy? Poe?

(Nope, not offended, didn't get it, it is fine.)

Deathdream. We are four Outliers, so if you hear Jitter, Calico, or Ransom, you can tell me, right? You'd tell me. You're a good guy. They'd tell me that. If they'd be here... Which they aren't.

It is if someone's intentionally buttering you up, such as when they want something.

[ Ace is the other kind, he knows. ]

( maybe quentin should have just stayed out of his head. think of how few spiders he would have had to suffer through if he wasn't being nosy. which julian would sass him over, except quentin says something stupid like define okay and - crap. do you know how hard it is to maintain his hair as it is, without hands? how fucked is it? did he yank out enough strands that it's noticeable? he knows it's fucked style-wise, but a good shower'll fix that. now, missing hair? something else entirely. and he can't even see it. or feel it.

he'd check over the spots that are sore from getting bit, but julian is significantly less concerned about that. if the spiders were going to kill him, he'd already be dead probably. venom usually works pretty fast, right? and maybe death by venom would be preferable over living with fucked hair for however long it takes to grow back. )

Hands I can fix. Hair? Unless you're hiding Foley in your back pocket, I'm fucked.

( death by spiders or the library monster would be better. at least he'd just come back, right. maybe he'll resurrect back on krakoa with his hands in tact, too. save him a round through crucible also.

but okay, fine. julian doesn't shove against quentin this time as he moves to walk passed him, while the green telekinetic bubble the spiders are in suddenly shrinks down to nothing, squashing all the spiders instantaneously. that's what they get for fucking up his hair. )

Damn, wouldn't you know it, my Elixir pants are in the wash.

[Shit, was that a joke? Like... not a snarky, insulting joke? Like a joke joke? Like the kind of joke he'd say to his team back home and not, you know, the telekinetic prima donna he's stuck with who less than an hour ago was throwing out vague, ominous threats and growling about "finishing fights" and generally being the absolute worst. Not that Quentin prefers that, but... it's surreal, right? That's not normal, is it? That doesn't seem normal.

Sure, an argument could be made that there isn't a single "normal" thing about a couple of maladjusted, histrionic egomaniacs with mind powers, but... Okay, well, that's actually a pretty good argument. Touché. But still! Julian Keller is being half-way decent enough that Quentin bantered without even thinking about it, and that is, frankly, bizarre. He raises an eyebrow questioningly as Julian passes him without being an ass, and... pretty immediately turns and matches Julian's speed. You know, in case it turns out Keller's sudden lack of being deeply unpleasant is just him being delirious from the spider-bites, and he's about to keel over. To that end, Quentin also keeps his head on a swivel, looking over his shoulder frequently to keep an eye out for the librarian. Would be easier if he could sense the damn thing, but magic has to go and suck.]

I mean, I wouldn't wanna use the word mangy, but... Let's say "disheveled." Bedraggled. In disarray.

[Rude? Yes. But hey, at least while he's reciting a bunch of no-doubt-alarming synonyms, he also retrieves a comb—pink, obviously—from the pouch at his hip and holds it out to Julian.]

Lugubrious. Besmirched. I could go on.

( quentin gets snarky, and julian snorts but doesn't offer a smarmy comment in response. if only life was that convenient that they could just carry around pocket healers; julian might have not had to get used to life without hands. or without a spleen. or with fucked ribs. you know. just normal crap for mutants who happened to suffer through m-day and everything that happened after.

the hair comments are more concerning, because julian likes his hair, and bedraggled isn't a word he'd ever want to associate with it. a prosthetic hand reaches for the comb, fingers bending in to grab onto it until he hears the telltale crunch of spider cuts stuck between metal joints and scrunches up his nose. yeah. that's a problem he'll have to deal with later. for now? he picks it up with his tk instead, running the comb through his hair a few times to try and get tangles and spider guts out of it. )

Thanks again.

( for the comb. he should really invest in some pockets.

why is quire carrying around a comb? jesus. is he that extra that he just walks around fixing his hair? not that julian can say crap, given he's doing the same thing right now - but that's mostly to make sure they're not attacked by the library monster. )

But if you don't shut up, I'm going to fuck yours up even worse.

( can't be too nice. )

[Aaand there's the old classic Julian Keller "charm." Guess he's fine. Wonderful. At least he's easier to ignore when he's throwing out one of the emptiest and least threatening threats in all of mutant history.]

Uh-huh. You know, you should really be nicer to me. I did just save your ass from a billion tiny spiders. And let you borrow my personal belongings. Really, I deserve—Uh.

[And the world will never know what Quentin thinks he deserves (nor does it need to) because his stupid magic coat is beeping. He looks down in confusion at his sleeves, holding up his arms to stare at the glowing pink arrows sliding smoothly across them like they're a marquee sign and not fabric.]

That's, er... new.

[Quentin moves his arms experimentally, and the arrows shift to continue to indicate the same direction no matter how he turns, pointing down a row of books. Oh. Right. Robe of "Guiding." He glances at Julian in bewilderment, shrugs, and heads off to follow the robe's "instructions."]

Uhh, hang on. Keep an eye out for library monsters, would ya? I'll be right back.

[It's not hard to find the book the robe's magic is leading him to. In fact, he's barely had any time to think about how much he's going to lord it over Julian that he's three times the hero Julian is at this point before he's located the dusty old book, pulled it off the shelf, opened it to definitely find this stupid pearl bullshit they're after and—

—immediately gets absolutely suckerpunched by some kind of terrible psi-jammer screeching directly into his brain that he really, really hopes Julian is not psychically gifted enough to hear because otherwise they are so boned. Quentin crumples like he's been actually suckerpunched with a strangled yelp, clutching his head in pain, and oh god it feels like his brains are being scooped out with a cheese grater and all he can think is that the robe lied, the stupid fucking magic robe fucking lied, who makes a magic robe that fucking lies]

[ At least there's one person among the young mutants here that has the grace to be embarrassed when someone invites others to check them out and compliment them. It's Jay. Obviously, it's Jay, because he's trying not to follow the waves of Quentin's hand with his eyes.

It's one thing to think someone's got an interesting look. He doesn't want to encourage this much ego. The mansion is only so big.

Also, the guy's knocking Julian again. ]

Hellion's worth his weight in gold. I know he can be bossy and ignore that other people might have ideas of their own, but he always comes through when you need him. Lately... he's really surprised me with his - I don't know what to call it. Consideration?

[ Another shrug. He doesn't want to make it sappy, but Julian deserves a defense, too. Same as Paige. ]

So I'm cutting you off on talking shit about him. I know he can be a pain. But enough's enough. Also? I'm not in some powers competition with you. If you want to know else I do, you can ask, but it's not a pissing contest and nobody who went to this school got to pick their powers. Grow up.

[ ...

Fine. You know what? For once in his life - it's a rare event, okay! - Fabian does shut up for a second, realizing he's not exactly helping Ace's quest of capturing that cat if he's talking and potentially startling the cat.

So he keeps quiet for a second. Mostly quiet. Fabian does mumble, even if it's under his breath: ] Don't come complaining to me when I turn out to be right..

[ Usually Fabian might put up a bit more of a fuss about it. Toxic masculinity is dead and all, sure, but it still doesn't feel fully right to let a stranger strike first. Not when Fabian still has an impression to build up with the other.

But he can at least let it go when it's for this reason. They're going to be in trouble if that wyvern just decides to fly away from them onto a different bookcase, after all. Especially when Fabian can enhance himself a little bit, but certainly not enough to leap all the way over to a different bookcase.

So he stops moving, leaning a little to the side so Kaeya can move past him and get to the wyvern first. ]

Well, do it quickly then. Before it notices us.

[ Then it'd be flying either way! ]

[He ghosts past him, silent as a cat. The temperature plummets sharply as pale blue light suffuses him. Ice spreads over the shelf and races towards his target. He has his eye on it, the Wyvern is going no where. He flicks his wrist. The ice surges up too fast for the sluggish to wake Wyvern to react.

Too close to winter temperatures. The ice closes over the wyvern’s legs like shackles, anchoring it in place. He looks at Fabian and gives a two finger salute. He forms a blade of ice and moves to the side, giving Fabian room to run across the ice bridge formed as part of the strike on the creature.

It isn’t happy with any of this. What is this winter bullshit.]

[Aaaaand now future Quentin's problem is present Quentin's problem. That was quick. Damn you, past Quentin!

He raises his eyebrows in mild surprise at Jay's little speech, glancing away awkwardly for a brief moment before he figures out how to work his usual devil-may-care attitude back into the conversation without looking like a complete asshole.]

Psh, I mean, yeah. Obviously. I was just [talking out his ass?] Look, I know the drill, everyone's special in their own unique way, blah blah blah. Don't take it so personally.

[Cringe. There's no other way to describe this. It's cringe. He's going to die from a self-induced cringe aneurysm.

Quentin clears his throat uncomfortably and soldiers on.]

And anyway, Keller doesn't need you defending him. Trust me. I've known the guy for years. Can't say he's ever "come through when I needed him" [doing the air quotes again, with a bonus eyeroll] or anything, but sure, he's an above average telekinetic. I'll give you that. Not completely useless.

[Not that Jay even brought up Julian's powers in his defense. But it's the most genuinely positive thing about the guy Quentin can come up with at the moment.]

Oh, I don't think that's ever happened to me, but I've seen others do it.

[Freaking Teach.]

[Ace smiles, but keeps moving slowly towards the cat.

He stops at an arm's length of the cat, and extends his hand, only for the kitty to actually get up and rub against it! Ace smiles widely.]

Here, come with me, yes?

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TDM 006

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