TDM 010

[etrayamods]

❬ Arrival ❭

Arrival goes normally! Hooray! Characters awaken in a sterile hospital bed in a clean, white room to the hum of machines under the unnatural lighting common to well-kept institutions.

The door to the room swings open, revealing a hallway that stretches out ahead of them adorned with framed photographs of Jack-o-Lanterns. There’s noise from outside and the enticing scent of autumn coming from the lobby. Today the welcome buffet has mulled cider in a hot drink dispenser and mini-loaves of pumpkin bread.

❬ Shake it, Shake it. ❭

Outside the hospital, a weird fog is clearing. For those who have just arrived, this doesn’t meant much. But for everyone else, this is the hard-earned success after two weeks of blindly groping about in the spooky fog. The pollution is steadily clearing as it is being cycled out of the air. The people of Etraya should be getting back to normal physically, though surely the lingering feelings are no fun. For newcomers, there is just a weird energy in the air. Perhaps an activity as diversion would help?

As everyone tries to gain their bearings, Aurora asks everyone through their earpiece, new and old, to survey their surroundings for odd goings-ons.

It is a little unclear if this is something Aurora needs done dressed up as an activity, or if this is an activity dressed up with enough mystery and urgency to warrant involving all the people of Etraya. Either way, there is a task to complete.

So what sort of odd things are occurring? Just look around! Everything from homes suddenly subject to mundane, harmless poltergeisting to full blown bizarre weather phenomena and creature sightings. It seems that although the fog is leaving, it left some souvenirs behind, and Aurora needs help cataloging what's happening around Etraya for the bots to address.

Maybe you just think you’re really unlucky today and stuck in an episode of the X-Files. Maybe you catch sight of a bizarre creature that shuffles off into the woods. It might be raining upside down from the lakes, or the electricity in your home just won’t work for whatever reason.

Or maybe you’re particularly personally unfortunate, and your powers are working again, but not as expected.

In any case, you had better capture it on film. At your feet will be a regular old polaroid camera, a stack of film, and a sharpie to explain the photo and note the location.

Go to each of the islands and survey your surroundings. If anything seems strange, snap a picture! Though it seems some things about the geography have changed, so you might want to check with the HUD map to gain your bearings first.

❬ Bingo was his Name-o ❭

To encourage the people of Etraya to go out a little further than they ordinarily might -- and maybe to help ease them out of the terrible fog -- Aurora has presented this task in a light-hearted format: bingo-based raffle prizes! Available in your HUD is a bingo board! Listed are the 21 islands to explore as well as 4 main anomalous areas to look at.

If you open the HUD, it looks like so:


It seems someone tried, but not very hard, to make it fun.

✨RULES✨

• Each square is completed with a thread taking place on that island that includes 5 or more comments from your character. In character, it's completed by them documenting an anomaly on that island.


• For every completed bingo line, the character gets one ticket entry for the raffle prizes, up to a maximum of 5 for a full card.


• Each bingo card can only win one prize, and we will draw in order from grand prize down sometime after apps are processed this round.


• Teaming up is allowed, but if you share a card you have to share the prize!

✨PRIZES✨

• Grand Prize (1): Place and name a new trolley stop!


• Runners Up (6): Notes related to the meta plot like the ones seen here. Each is unique.


• Consolation Prize (3): A small item that will assist with the next mission.

❬ Tra la la ❭

Whether it’s coming to a new land suddenly or trying to reattach a sense of reality to your surroundings, exploring as buddies or a group is highly encouraged. After all, you might need a hand out there. Depending on who you are, getting all around might be tricky. However, this should be doable over a couple weeks, especially as a team.

Apart from the islands themselves, four bingo squares are for the big anomalous areas that just appeared:

The Farway Craters: It looks like meteors struck the land here. Narrowly missing the bounce castle, a new lake has formed in its place. Each of the craters does something different. One might be highly magnetic, making a miserable time for a robot or someone wearing armor. Another might be full of alien sea life. The largest crater hosts a little hurricane whipping about, throwing objects that may have mysteriously gone missing as of late.

Nevergrey and Ochreward: Where two lands were once separated, they now meet in a steep hill. Should you climb one side to go down the other, a powerful gust will blow you back the way you came with echoing laughter.

Alcyone’s Sandening: Heading south from the hospital, past the forest and the campgrounds, it seems the peninsula has gone missing. Or that Seasands has gained a new island. It seems both can be true. The space where some land once was is now engulfed in a thunderstorm, roughly 30 feet wide and 50 feet long.

Uketon: Heading south in Dewpoint, someone familiar may notice the abrupt break in the island. Should you wish to cross this way, you will have to content with large rocks floating up from below the water’s surface, rising high until they’re out of sight.

❬ NOTES ❭

📌 — The above prompts are just there to get you started. Feel free to play with the setting and concept beyond what we've suggested here! In particular, we encourage everyone to add to the new world-building threads on the location page for each region as they explore!

📌 — Turn in your bingo cards here and edit the comment with thread links as you complete them. Bingo prizes are available for current characters. We will wait to draw prizes until after apps have been processed, so new characters on the TDM can also participate if accepted.

📌 — For all questions relating to the TDM specifically, please use the mod queries comment below. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

🔵FULL NAVIGATION🔵

Comments

[goodcommunist]

[ The expression on his face drops rather suddenly after John says the part about being brought back to life. He's still listening, of course, but there's a distinct lack of the previous almost theatrical surprise. Instead, he shrugs his shoulders, finding another thing to latch onto. ]

I can't believe it. It's so calm here we're fighting boredom, [ and muttered, half under his breath ] s-suka.

If there are no jobs, then how is it you came upon yours, eh, John?

[aimsforknees]

[ John does note the sudden shift in demeanor. A sensitivity to death? ]

The library is from my world. I became the caretaker and the bots to leave it alone. We have a librarian who handles the patrons. If you get enough points you can request a building to be added to Etraya.

[ The calm is always before the storm, in this case. ]

[goodcommunist]

[ It gets weirder and weirder, and Pavel has almost run out of shock for the novelty. Especially after realizing that he may be alive only because he's here.

He sighs, but it's also partly a laugh, like all the information is exhausting even when he was the one asking for it. ]

Riiiight, that makes sense. Well, hopefully I can find something to do! I don't like standing around.

[ And this cider isn't alcoholic. It's disappointing. Pavel switches his empty cup for the one he had tried to give John. ]

So, what kind of world are you from?

[aimsforknees]

[ The whole situation is exhausting, John doesn't blame him. And there's still so much to cover. ]

The world I'm from is called Earth, the year 2015. I lived in a city called New York. The technology isn't too different from what's here in Etraya, but the helper bots and Aurora are far more advanced than what I know. Where are you from?

[goodcommunist]

[ He was wrong. He still had some surprise in him yet. But this is different. This is exciting. ]

No way! So, we are from the same world after all, Vanya! I am from Moscow, 2034! [ Wait. How does that work? Is John just short of twenty years off from the big impact or is this like a parallel worlds deal? ]

I would say I have some bad news for you, but... I guess that is why we are here, huh? To prevent the worst? I don't know if I understand it. If we could save the world back in 2015, then there'd be no reason to try and salvage what it's come to twenty years later. [ Uh, how does he say it? ] The entire world was destroyed in a nuclear exchange. Real serious shit, priyatel.

[aimsforknees]

[ So Pavel is from a world on the back foot. It's not impossible that they're from the same world but as far as John can tell all the worlds named "Earth" are subtly different. At least, John hopes there's no all out nuclear war in his world's future. ]

We likely come from similar worlds but not the same one. There are more people here who come from Earth and we went to Earth-2 on a recent mission, but they're all different from mine. But the "saving" we're undertaking in Etraya is from oblivion, not human made destruction.

[goodcommunist]

Are you sure?

[ Damn, that explanation doesn't really make much sense. It's why he responds that way, instinctually. So much for the little scrap of commonality he'd found.

Also, they literally went to an "Earth-2"? Is that like Metro-2, where the future elites went once Earth-1 went kaput? Pavel's lip curls faintly. ]

I'm just going to say it. I don't know if I understand the fucking difference, man.

[aimsforknees]

I'm not sure. It's easy to tell some worlds apart, they have super powers or magic, but some are more similar. We could be from the same world, you could be in my future, there's no way to tell unless we dig through historical events and find a discrepancy. And if what Aurora says is true the disasters back home are made by the inhabitants, and Echo is giving us a chance to follow that path to the end.

[ It's a lot to take in, and the skepticism is earned. He's not surprised that Pavel is finding it hard to follow. ]

[goodcommunist]

[ So it's just a matter of numbers, then? Are there really that many iterations of "Earth" that people here have come from? Interesting, but sure, maybe there's really no point in delving that deeply anymore.

It's unclear if that response helped him or not, but Pavel shrugs nonetheless. His tone after he takes another drink of cider is a touch teasing, as if he's following along with an exaggerated tale. ]

All right. If you say so.

[ Still, he has to wonder. If you don't live through the world ending, does it even matter at all? ]

I appreciate your help in trying to answer my questions. Thank you. Not everybody would do that for a total stranger.

[aimsforknees]

[ John doesn't take the bait of the tease, though he's not sure if the tone is because Pavel doesn't believe him or is actually just teasing. ]

Adjusting to life in Etraya can be hard but we're in this together. If you need help or think of more questions later you can message me. There's also a network for everyone here to post messages and read messages, and people are mostly friendly there too.