TDM #6 - Planned Outage

[perchancetodreammods]

TDM #6 - Planned Outage

Pardon Our Dust

Things are a little odd in the Dreamscape at the moment! Typically, newcomers are met with beautiful scenery, a note inviting them to come speak to the Dreamscape's host, an explanation about where they are, and a handy Constellation pendant connecting them to the rest of their new neighbors. But this time, there is something odd afoot, and nothing here to help you make sense of your new surroundings if you've just gotten here. Don't worry, though, it will all make sense soon! Hopefully! Just hang tight. More details to follow... probably? Oh dear.

​

This is our second Crisis Event, and as such, things are a little different from our usual fare! Details for entry will be in the prompts below, as the rules are a little different from our standard TDMs. There's also usually pictures.

DATE

2/12/2023 (ICly intended to begin 2/15/23, posted early because I love you)

THEME

Crisis Event!

QUICK NAV

Locations

Feather Info

The Outsider

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Programming

Valentine’s Day comes and goes, and the romantic atmosphere that the Dreamscape had taken on has dwindled after a good long month as the seasonal excitement begins to dwindle. Those who have been here for a while and are familiar with the Outsider’s antics will no doubt be wondering when and what the next big thing will be. They tend to begin a new and exciting project shortly after the previous one ends. However, regardless of how long you’ve been here, the announcement arriving today will more than likely come as a surprise.

A jingle plays from your Constellation pendant, and a stream of light pours from the little star. A suspended screen of light hangs in midair, displaying the Outsider. A video message.

To Bring You This Message From Our Sponsor

“Hello again, my friends!” The Outsider smiled, albeit a bit anxiously. “I hope that those of you who attended had a lovely holiday, however you chose to celebrate it. I do have a rather important bit of news to share, and it’s regarding a somewhat… unique… situation, so please listen carefully, as I will be starting the process shortly after this announcement.”

“Those of you who were here in early January might recall a certain mishap.” There were many words for the dream-shattering event that took place at the beginning of January. “Mishap” was certainly an interesting choice. Anyway, “Ever since that incident occurred, I have been working diligently to find the source of the problem and rebuild a stronger, safer, happier Dreamscape for all of us. While normally I have never fully lost control of my domain in that way, I’ve also never created anything as large scale or structured as this Dreamscape before, so all of this is new territory for me. As such, at this time, I think the best course of action would be for me to rebuild most of the Dreamscape from scratch, as much as I can without putting all of you into unmanageable conditions or giving you the boot.”

“What I intend to do is to shut down all non-essential functions. The outer structure that keeps the Dreamscape intact and separate from the Greater Illogic, the Nimbus Clouds, and parts of the Torn Oak will remain active. The rest of the Dreamscape will be--- well, a blank slate. You may find this alarming at first, but I assure you it is part of the process. While I am gone, many of the normal functionalities of the Dreamscape, including restrictions, will be non-operational. This means that in all communal areas of the Dreamscape, you all will collectively have as much control over the environment as you do your own Nimbus Cloud. So, feel free to experiment and paint the town, or lack thereof, red! Just be cautious with what you imagine, as I will not be available to correct any issues, and be respectful of one another.”

“Unfortunately I will need to be outside of the Dreamscape for this process, and thus will be unreachable, but I’m certain you all will be just fine. Have fun, be safe, and I will see you all soon!”

And then, without any further ado, the display cuts out, and the Dreamscape goes with it.

Have You Tried Turning it Off and Back On Again?

Before you can even process what’s going on, the world around you begins to break apart into tiny fragments and fall away like a dissolve effect on a bad Powerpoint. As promised, you are in very short order left standing in an empty white void. It’s a bit disorienting, hard to even tell what constitutes as the “floor” in this situation, though after a moment your brain adjusts. If you aren’t thinking too hard about it, you can almost see a flat plane of a slightly different shade of white that serves as your walking surface. The Torn Oak, with its blanched trunk and periwinkle leaves, and the cluster of fluffy pink Nimbus Clouds are all that remain. The Twisted City, the Barren Freeway, the Glass Lake, the forest, the sea, the mountain--- everything else is gone. Everything beyond the few remaining amenities appears to be just a blank, white void that goes on forever.

You have a few options here. You could retreat to your Nimbus Cloud, or take this opportunity to visit that of a friend. After all, there’s usually too much going on in the Dreamscape to spend much time dawdling around at home, so this could be a good time to visit one another. You could also explore the Torn Oak. There’s not much to it right now, but the Outsider is away and this might be an opportunity to wander their unusual home unsupervised.

Or, if you’re feeling creative, you can take this once-in-a-lifetime chance to manipulate the Dreamscape--- with no restrictions. No wish required. Rebuild places from your waking world, create impossible feats of architecture or luxurious amenities, have an adventure of your own making, or just dream up nonsense. Truly the only limitation is what you can imagine. However, when shaping the Dreamscape, take care not to let your mind stray, as you may inadvertently create something out of a nightmare.

​

Aside from continuing to observe the blacklist and common-sense trigger warning guidelines, there is no restriction on what can happen in the Dreamscape. Create your own fun, or a disaster. The choice is yours. However, the Outsider will not be available to be contacted in relation to this event and will not return until March 1st.

Just Passing Through

Another interesting effect of this little procedure is that the barrier between the Dreamscape and the rest of the dreams of every sentient being in the multiverse is now far thinner. Normally, the Outsider hand-selects everyone whose consciousness is brought into the Dreamscape, but at the moment, it seems just anyone can end up here. Perhaps you are one such member of the unfiltered rabble. (No offense, of course.)

Instead of landing where most newcomers do, you’ll find yourself wandering through a version of a certain H.C Escher art piece that is done up in pink marble tile and wrought iron. Take a staircase or find a door, any door, to be released into the strange white void from a disembodied door perched on the stump of a blanched oak tree, while the severed trunk and canopy of blue leaves loom impossibly overhead. Without the normal orientation for new arrivals, you are on your own. No personal cloud, no instructions, no explanations. Just a beautiful, terrifying tree and a bright, blank world. Maybe someone here can tell you what’s going on.

​

New arrivals entering the Dreamscape during the Planned Outage crisis event do not need to abide by normal universe rules. They do not have their own Nimbus Cloud or Constellation pendant, do not require a plot reason to be here, and are not subject to normal restrictions. They can be doubles of existing characters, can ignore cast caps, and can wake up and disappear at any time. They don’t even have to ever figure out that they are in a collective dream. They may ask to remain in the Dreamscape after the event, get stuck by accident, or disappear entirely! Additionally, this is a great time to canon-update your characters by having them wake up and come back later in their canon.

Mod Note: Feather Leaderboard

Hello friends! Earlier I made an announcement regarding a Feather Leaderboard that we'll be launching next week, and the March 1st event, which will definitely benefit from folks knowing how many feathers their characters have. If you haven't read that yet, it's pretty brief, but the gist is that the feather tracker spreadsheet is available now and we'll be checking it on Feb. 22nd to establish the leaderboard and announcing the winners with the plotting post for the March event!

The prize for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place is a special RP prompt for just those characters and a friend of their choosing, plus bragging rights, of course!

UNRELATED NOTE: I am posting this TDM a few days in advance, meaning it slightly overlaps with last month's Valentine's TDM. I would like to note that while ICly the prompts here state that the event is over, the feather bonus that was in place for Valentine's day is still in effect until Feb 15th OOCly, so you can still collect on Valentine's day threads started between now and then!

Comments

The Doctor | Doctor Who | OTA

[borntolove]

Have You Tried Turning it Off and Back On Again?

The Doctor can't help but feel partly responsible for what is happening to this Pocket Universe and with The Outsider, now, gone, well - someone has to watch the DreamScape, right?

He can't, however, stand the lack of anything, too many times seeing dead barren planets because of the Time War and time, literally eating that world away.

He does wonder, he wonders if he could start re-building and he tries and sees that ability, those 'physics' still exist and goes to start re-building, things as he once saw them. Reminding himself not to abuse this ability.

Somewhere, along the lines, however, in the re-building of the Dreamscape, he finds himself re-creating Gallifrey.

The purple snow-capped mountains, with the meadows of tall red grass. The silver-leaved tree forests on top of those mountains.

He stands there completely stunned but in the best way possible, with near-happy tears in his eyes at what he's seeing.

"No, this can't be real."

Even if his hearts want this to be and want it to pretend to be real.

"But it is beautiful, isn't it? Just needs the orange sky with the two suns."

For John Rambo CW: for PTSD

[borntolove]

The Doctor stands in blankness. The nothing-ness. And he begins to have flashbacks of the Time War. How The Time Lords and the Daleks could time travel and they'd battle on a planet that wasn't their own and if one side won, the other side would time travel and win the fight, instead. And this cycle would continue. And as it did... the time winds would slowly eat the planet. Till there was nothing left. Sometimes the planet was completely wiped from the timeline.

"Hold it together, Doctor. It's going to be alright." But he's clearly trying to not panic.

CW: PTSD, allusions to graphic death due to explosives

[theydrewfirstblood]

John...has no real frame of reference for the chaos going on around him.

It was one of those things, like Hope--one minute he's breathing that familiar cold, crisp air, and the next it's light and fire, the chaos of battle and something...else. Something bigger than he could imagine or feel, something more terrible than even the war.

He couldn't fathom the nature of this conflict--the scope, the stakes, the way it had to be quantified--but he knew a war when he saw one.

And amid the explosions and the painful sound of screaming, terrible and strangely artificial sounding, he knew one face up ahead that reflected a fear he understood all too well.

Something starts to roll past him, a monstrous looking...Christ, what is that machine? What is that sound it's making? Is it...

...it's talking. It's--charging.

Breaking into a dead run, John stays as low to the ground as he can and tries to take the Doctor down at the midsection as the sound of something like a laser goes off above his head.

He doesn't want to know what that strange weapon could do if he wasn't fast enough.

Dan Forest, screaming his name. "I wanna go home! I wanna go home, Johnny!" Too hot, too wet, looking and looking and looking...

No time. No room. No pain.

John lifts his head, searching for the Doctor's gaze.

"Sir? You all right?"

Re: CW: PTSD, allusions to graphic death due to explosives

[borntolove]

The Doctor recalls his first War Crime when he had to remove an entire species from existence completely. And that still doesn't sit well with him but what choice did he have? He didn't. His own people were trying to find ways to win The Time War by any means necessary. Even using other species to bring back their own people a bit merged. Even if they had some of the Horned One in them.

There are vague images of humanoids rising from the floor as if brought back to life again.

What his War self said is right and seems to echo; "War does make you a monster and you need to become one to fight in a war."

There's something about the forest too, how that is winded but without weather happening.

The Dalek looking in their direction does make The Doctor begin to snap back and pushes John out of the way before someone Exterminate.

Thankfully, John speaking to The Doctor makes the visuals less real. Is he alright? Of course not. The sweat on his brows and the twist of fear and anxiety on The Doctor's face,

"I'm fine. Just fine. Are you alright?"

The Doctor blinks and looks around, "What happened to the Dalek?"

[theydrewfirstblood]

“Dalek?…”

John looked around in confusion for the sci-Fi tank, but it was gone. There were others in the distance, screams and explosions and weapons…

Turning back to the Doctor, John took in his face—twisted with confusion, slick with sweat, fear in his eyes. It’s a face John knows, and knows intimately.

“I’m fine.” John tried again, reaching out to squeeze the Doctor’s shoulder. “Doctor, this—it isn’t real. You can stop it.”

He knew the name of that tank-thing. That fear, that anguish…

He knows this war—it belongs to him as much as Vietnam and Hope belong to John. Jack helped him escape…maybe John can help the Doctor.

“It’s a dream. All of it, all of us…we’re dreams. You don’t have to stay in this one, though.”

[borntolove]

"Stop it? Wut do you mean I can stop this? I did stop this."

After he makes that remark, it does click in his head that what he saw, probably wasn't real. Very slowly, his hearts begin to slow down a bit. The images begin to slowly fade. However, the terror on his face still remains for the moment.

He finds himself trying to figure out what is going on here. The Doctor swallows hard, "Where did that - come from?"

Why are you being so kind?

[theydrewfirstblood]

John doesn’t know much about the Doctor. The Rainbow Maze didn’t show him much save that he was resourceful, empathetic, and smarter than anyone John had ever met. He saw the signs of a soldier, but not like this.

Not that glassy look in his eye, caught between the war and the rest of the world. The same place John got into trouble.

The same place Jack saved him from.

John shifts to take one of the Doctor’s hands in his, holding tight, never breaking his gaze.

“The same place they always come from, sir. The only place they can come from.” John replies simply. “As long as we’re still alive, it’s still going on…but it can’t hurt anyone else. We won’t let it.”

Because no matter how many people, worlds, universes, or time streams fall, a war is a war. No one understands that better than John Rambo.

That’s why he’s being so kind, Doctor—the blood on his hands is just as impossible to wash away.

[borntolove]

The Doctor grips his hands back, his eyes continue to look in panic and he's trying very hard to ground himself. Him, it's coming from him. There's a look in The Doctor's eyes that he understands that John has been through something of this sort.

There's vague imagery of a certain blonde hanging onto a lever and floating for some reason. Like she's going to be stuck into - nothingness.

The Doctor is glaring at his teeth, "Can you... Create something for this place? So, it's not so - white?"

Re: The Doctor | Doctor Who | OTA

[wildfirecatcafe]

"It is quite pretty," Beatrix says, leaning casually on a tree. How long has she been here? "... I'm guessing this is your home world?" Either he was born there or he decided it was home later, she figures.

[borntolove]

The Doctor beams smiling that person who just came along, "Don't know. Given that time isn't timey-wimey here. Doesn't seem to exist at all."

The Doctor's widen at her statement, "Oh, you are clever," his tone clearly impressed. "Yes, this was my home."

There's something of a look in his eyes that he hasn't seen this for quite awhile. Deep reminiscing.

"Sky's not right but otherwise.... Where are you from?"

[wildfirecatcafe]

Bea shrugs. "Around. A not particularly interesting medium-sized city, originally. Though I spent more of my time online than interacting with the world outside."

[doubledollar]

[ he's seen things like this before. in videos that his 'mother' showed him, in books and pictures he'd studied nearly a hundred years ago, merely memory now of a child who'd dreamed of what a planet capable of sustaining life looked like. ]

The colours are a bit off from what I've seen on Earth. [ said as if he had any concept of what Earth looked like, other than second-hand knowledge. ]

But I'm a big fan of the red grass. Unless it's not supposed to look like that.

If it's not supposed to look like that, I'm not a big fan at all, actually.

[borntolove]

[The Doctor snaps out of his lost thoughts because of a new voice and turns to look. Someone is really flexible going about how things are but The Doctor understands the stranger isn't trying to offend someone. What is curious is that they don't seem to know if this is correct or not for sure. He does his best though to hide the pain in his eyes and is allowed to pretend that he is on Gallifrey for the moment.]

That's because this isn't Earth.

Who are you?

[doubledollar]

[ he would never try to offend anyone!!! he means it when he says the sight of gallifrey is a beautiful one, but... it's also, like. what if the trees are dying and therefore turning silver? it'd be weird to call something dying beautiful. so. ]

--Oh, that right? Sorry, I don't have much experience with--

[ ah, the doctor looks... confused. he caught that flicker of pain on his face as well--if only because he recognises it. fleeting, as one tries to replace it before it's seen. he'll not draw attention to it. this man's pain is his own. ]

Oh, well. I. I've just got here myself, so I'm not some angel come down to greet you or something. Name's Vash the Stampede.

[He points out into the beautiful starry sky that expanses out above them. ]

I came because I saw that. I recongise those skies, at least.

[borntolove]

[Some angel to come down and greet him. For some reason, Reinette's remark of being a 'lonely angel' rings in his mind but his despair washes away because he reminds himself both Rose and Jack are here and they are his angels.]

Good to meet you, Vash. The Doctor.

[Ten eyes upwards at the sky, the sky that he doesn't know those stars. Even if, he has been up in them. Sort of.]

You've traveled in space before?

[doubledollar]

[ its a bit funny to claim not to be an angel, given he most certainly is capable of looking like one. not that he's about to admit that or anything. the doctor's own angels are more impressive than he is, anyway. ones who can actually save the lonely man lost in this dream. ]

Doctor, huh. [ he wont comment about how that sounds more like a title than a name. who knows, maybe the guy had ambitious parents. ] Name like that's real easy to remember, at least.

[ tilting his head back up from where he was looking at the bespectacled man for a moment, his eyes are on that sky again, a smile shifting across his face. ]

Yeah. Actually, I was born in space, technically. On a spaceship, part of a fleet travelling for years through the stars.

[borntolove]

[The Doctor sits criss-cross in the tall red grass beneath them]

Oh? Why were you born in space? Why was the fleet traveling? From where?

[doubledollar]

[ sitting down isnt a bad idea. maybe he will too, in a bit. right now hes content looking up. ]

Same reason anyone else is born, I guess. Sometimes that sort of thing just happens.
Even if my birth wasn't exactly planned.

[ its complicated. he's not sure if he wants to clarify. ]

It was aboard the grand fleet ship called SEEDs. Sent from Earth to find a new, uninhabited planet to start a new life on, to do better than our forefathers before us.

[thysania_agrippina]

"Wow!"

The voice came from a short way off from where the Doctor stood. It belonged to a strange creature, the likes of which were not previously seen in the Dreamscape. Here by accident, perhaps, but obviously new. Their appearance resembled that of a humanoid moth, with ivory fur all over their body and broad wings, standing on digitigrade legs at a whopping nine feet tall. Their eyes, wide and dark, took in the sights of this strange, beautiful place with reverence and delight.

[ OOC note: Please see this page for important details about Bronwyn! Aside from clairsentience, all psychic abilities are opt-in only. ]

[borntolove]

[The Doctor turns and stares in amazement because he doesn't know what he's looking at.]

Oh, look at you! Aren't you beautiful, now?

[thysania_agrippina]

[ At the voice, their eyes snapped to the source, and their face lit up all over again at the sight of a person. Then they flustered at the remark. ]

Oh--- Thank you! You're not so bad yourself, haha! Did you imagine this place? It's incredible!

[borntolove]

Wut are you?

[The Doctor continues to stare at the being with great curiosity. It does warm his hearts that this place is being called incredible.]

Well - I'm a bit of a traveler me before I came here. Wut about you?

[thysania_agrippina]

[ Bronwyn didn't care much for reading the minds of strangers as anything deeper than a psychic parlor trick, but it wasn't hard to tell just from his emotional aura that he wasn't frightened or shocked. He was used to seeing unfamiliar creatures. He likely wouldn't need a ton of context. ]

My species is called the Lunari! We're moth-people, if that wasn't obvious. [ They spread their wings widely for show, each one nearly as long as they were tall, and covered in short, soft, fur-like bristles and thousands of tiny scales. ] My name is Bronwyn. Yourself?

[borntolove]

[The Doctor gives a slight head nod.]

Been an awful long time since I've met moth beings.

I'm The Doctor. Wut have you made of this place we've found ourselves in?

[thysania_agrippina]

[ Just "the Doctor" huh? How mysterious. ]

Honestly? I couldn't tell you! It's very strange. I spend a lot of time dealing with the subconscious mind, and generally this kind of stuff isn't really supposed to happen. Dreaming minds can sometimes overlap by accident, but things get real weird, real quick when that happens. So this whole thing just seems like a fine recipe for a hot mess. But maybe it'll be a fun hot mess?