etrayamemes | TDM 001

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!tdm

TDM 001

⏵ arrival⏴
Arrival goes as anticipated. Characters awaken in the pristine, new hospital, greeted by Aurora and potentially getting a rundown of what's happening depending on their approach to being dropped somewhere new. The door to their room opens, and new arrivals are left free to explore their new environment.

Or what exists of it anyway. Exiting the hospital will show that there isn't much of anything just yet. Generally, Echo can build new facilities before new arrivals awaken, but it appears that this time… well, it didn't happen. The apartment complex exists, standing just beside the hospital, and there are a few facilities that are half constructed, companion bots carrying around rebar and other necessary bits and pieces, but they're not quite ready. Oops. But maybe, just maybe, one of those half-built facilities is familiar - a childhood home, a favorite supermarket, the run-down garage they worked at as a youth, a grounded spaceship in the middle of one of the massive bridges connecting land over rivers.

The companion bots will offer quiet apologies if approached; they were expecting new arrivals to touch down, but not quite this early. They'll be ready soon! A few more days at most, they promise. In the meantime, do not stray too far from the hospital. While most of Etraya looks habitable, they have not finished verifying that it's safe for its new inhabitants.

The apartment building and hospital are safe, and the land directly around them is fine, but beyond that? Stay away. But hey, the hospital's cafeteria is fully stocked with cuisine from across the multiverse! Please feel free to settle in, choose an apartment, and get to know your new friends.

⏵ water you doing?⏴
Decide not to listen? Well, the companion bots had offered their warnings.

Etraya is a new establishment, one that received newcomers before it was ready. And as such, the land has not quite been prepared for their arrival. Wandering off the land the apartment building and hospital are settled on comes with very, very poor results. Take a step down into the river below, and you'll find yourself uncomfortably hot. Or cold. Or hot and cold, because whatever that 'water' is, it wasn't meant to be played in. The only way to resolve the temperature regulation issue, as Aurora informs, is finding a buddy to cuddle up with. Those who are lucky may have a nearby friend they're familiar with and don't mind leaning a shoulder against. Those that don't? Well. . . have fun having a very uncomfortable conversation with a stranger, asking them if it's alright if you lean into them or hold their hand for a bit. Any physical contact will do, as long as it's directly skin-to-skin.

Except that's not where the contact stops. Characters will find that, for the next several hours, they'll feel everything that their companion feels. Frustration, anger, amusement, homesickness that comes from being so far away from their families and friends - all those feelings? They're not your feelings, they're our feelings now.

No explanation is given for how the empathy bond and the temperature regulation are related, but it may have to do with how since they had decided not to listen, it was time to test how well they could cohabitate with their new friends.

⏵ bonding bingo ⏴

Maybe it feels a little too much like Obi-Wan had when receiving Leia's message, but all new arrivals are their universe's only hope. Except they're not the only ones arriving, and not the only ones who are trying to keep their worlds safe. Instead, they've arrived with several others who carry the same weight on their shoulders. And they aren't meant to go through this alone. The people they've arrived with are both their new companions and their competition. Both comrades to fight beside and enemies to battle against, depending on what the specific mission of the month is. But currently?

They're here to bond. It's important to get to know those who they'll be spending the next unspecified but lengthy amount of time with, isn't it? To that extent, Aurora's hologram waits just inside the hospital's front doors, offering bonding bingo cards to those willing to participate. It's not necessary, but she does specify that this is one way to get ahead: cooperation is important, especially given what they're going to face together. Bingo cards are three long and three across, and offer a multitude of activities you can do to check each box off.

Some examples include:

Learn someone's biggest secret

Get into a fight

Tell someone something that you've never admitted out loud to

Throw a drink on someone

Win a game of pool in the apartment building's recreation room

Cheat on a card game without getting caught

Hug a new friend

Get stabbed

Steal something important to someone

Pull off an elaborate prank on a stranger

⏵ matchmaker ⏴

When the earpiece is put on, a nice green HUD(head-up display) lights up in front of new arrivals. It asks them for their name, which is fairly standard for these.

Except it seems it wants them to put together a profile to help pair them off with other new arrivals. For some, this information may autofill with what Aurora was able to discern about them from watching them in their home worlds. But some lucky individuals may catch their profiles before they're posted live, and have the opportunity to edit out information included in fields, even if they're not able to clear it out entirely.

Welcome to Aurora's idea of matchmaking. Have fun getting paired off with a buddy or four, with your profiles exchanged between one another. Maybe they're the perfect match. Maybe this is a nightmare in the making.

⏵ OOC ⏴
Welcome to our first TDM! We're excited to have you here. For more information on character arrivals, click here. For any questions relating to the TDM please reply below. All other questions can be directed to the FAQ.

⏵FULL NAVIGATION⏴

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( the stranger glares at her, and clarke somehow manages to feel a flicker of fear and excitement all at once; folding in on each other and wrapping together in a neat little emotion one might call suspense. her half hearted goal here had been to start a fight on top of dumping a drink — do these bingo cards even mean anything? one can't find out without checking off the little boxes can they — and for a moment it seems like it's about to be realized. he looks pissed, and she braces for impact.

only to find herself a little disappointed in her own expectations of people. living in violent places for so long, one had come to expect... oh well, he's not lunging in her direction and, after sizing him up, she ought to count that in her favor. )

I — ( give her a minute to buffer, and also remind herself that getting stabbed is not on her list; stabbing someone is, but she doesn't want to go that far (yet). then: )

Okay, but could you at least yell at me?

( there's no fine print saying a fight has to include blood and bruised knuckles; a verbal spat should quantify. )

Edited (edits a dozen times, jfc) 2024-03-01 05:56 (UTC)

Yeah— I took a swing at her and I may have also tried to toss one of the pillows when she was being unresponsive to my questions. [or more like her threats and demands which in retrospect might have been the wrong approach but too late that now]

( incoming: one drowned rat-looking late-teens-early-twenty's blonde wearing her best black and white prison stripes, and only moderately dried out from an earlier attempt at the river. she comes equipped with a grass-stained pillowcase full of stolen hospital provisions over her shoulder, and a solid set scowl; the sort of look that means the gears are really grinding behind that brow, and maybe with enough time she'll puzzle out the mysteries of this new universe they've been dropped in — by sheer force of will, if nothing else.

but then there's a bingo card being shoved in her face, and clarke's eyebrows creep up her face. a few emotions flicker across her face; surprise, frustration at being stopped short on her trek to nowhere in particular, and then an almost soft sort of concern. she blinks between the card and the face of the young man holding it. )

Can you not read?

( sure sounds like it ought to be an inflammatory question, but for whatever it's worth clarke carries no judgement in her tone. if anything, she just sounds... a little tired, a little distracted, with a steady undercurrent of on edge. )

I try to be as well, it doesn't always work but at least I try.

[So sue her for not wearing her costume around the house, Damien. Unlike some people who shall remain nameless she actually likes to be comfortable when she's not out on patrol.]

I'll see if I can find anyone who has tried it, if not maybe I can sneak into the kitchen area and prepare something myself so we know it isn't tampered with.

[She offers him a little smile.]

Do you have any requests for meals? I'd be happy to make extra.

That's fine, isn't it?

[He gives her an encouraging grin and when she stumbles to the side, helps to steady her with his other hand. It's only once she's stabilised and engaging again that he lets her go to make her next attempt.]

Not a rule breaker, huh?

I might have been a little different from you.

It's a good thing, then, that people can change, isn't it?

( what she means is to say, they can be something different from what they were. it's possible, it's done! feeling him steady her with his other hand, her mind registers the glove but she doesn't consider it beyond that, too preoccupied with their current -- oh, does she dare call it a fight? is she really ready to tick a box?

finally managing to wrestle free from him, she steps back a step and looks him over, trying to figure out how to land a punch. she could never hit his face, people don't change more than that either, but maybe kick him in the shin?

crotch, she can almost hear eloisa whisper at the back of her mind, that's the knock-out point, topolina.

no, sylvie couldn't do that either. but shin would be fine, too. he said himself, no one has insisted that she win to do her job. she circles him, hoping he'll turn after her. )

I might have become a rule breaker later.

Anything for you my love.

[He hesitates and quickly glances around the room before leaning in and giving her a quick kiss. He's smiling bashfully as he pulls away, always so grateful that she feels the same as him.]

I'll be back before you know it.

[He keeps scanning the area for other familiar buildings, but resolves to reach the woods without another stop, unless Krouse suggegts otherwise.]

How would you prove something like that? A universe can have billions of planets, each with billions of souls. One person "proves" nothing.

( when rita sits down with her knees drawn to her chest, sylvie laughs and does the same, so they're sitting side by side at the riverbank, just looking out over the water. she feels a strange curiosity about this place, about this water, like a part of her can tell nothing is what it looks like. well, why should it be, this is a whole other world, a whole other universe! everything could probably happen here. applesauce, what a thing to think about. none of the constraints she knew back home.

she leans forward, resting her chin on her knees, cocking her head a little to the side to look at rita when she asks about where she's from.

does sylvie even know where she's from? she was in paris last she checked, and it was where she was born, but all the time in between those two points... she spent those elsewhere, with different people, in different places, away from where she wanted to be.

sometimes she wonders if she even truly knows where she wants to be. right now, though, she's here, with rita. )

The Seine is a river in the city I came from, called Paris. They say it's the most beautiful city in the world, but the river is nothing like this. Not that clear, not that inviting. ( a small smile. ) Your turn!

( she actually takes a moment to consider that in depth. she did learn to speak from her parents and from charles, but everything past a certain point, she knows only from books or teachers handing books over to her to be read. like it stopped being a family effort.

a hard swallow and she looks down. in some ways, of course, it did. stop.

she doesn't look up as she replies, )

Sometimes there are no generations or parents. Sometimes, ink on paper is all there's left of them. ( she thinks about her father's library. then, she thinks about charles. slowly, she looks back up. ) Were they good teachers, those who passed those things on to you?

[For all his gifts with the Force, Anakin simply misses the tension within her. If he was a more empathetic person he might have been able to sense the remnants that linger in the Force, but he simply doesn't notice.]

No. [There's the faintest hesitation before he continues.] There's someone I've worked with here as well.

[He doesn't know how safe it is to introduce his wife as such. Even if none of this got back to his galaxy, everyone here was simultaneously a team mate and competition.]

Yeah, because I told you to.

[He crosses his arms and uses every bit of his height to look over her.]

You were about to run away.

[Anakin is going to take that at face value because he himself is straight-forward.]

The fact that one of our goals is to do that?

[He picks up a card from the stack and immediately he frowns.]

It is the goal, certainly. But I hesitate to call it my goal.

Arrival

[Rastaban's heart hadn’t naturally beaten for years now and the monitor by his bed seemed to be tracking some kind of energy signature instead. He was born with a frail body, so the heaviness felt normal, albeit unpleasant. He hated being reminded he was weak, and he stubbornly pushed past his lethargy and opened his eyes.

The room was too bright. It reminded him of the lab where the Order had taken Altair. The thought made him sit up in a panic. Realizing he wasn’t alone he quickly closed his eyes feigning a headache to hide the golden glow in his eyes.]

Where am I?

[Rastaban left the hospital room in a bit of a daze after hearing Aurora's explanation. His eyes flickered with an erratic, golden glow that resonated with his inner turmoil. He needed some fresh air and he ignored everyone around him as he left the hospital.

He rested against a tree with a sigh. He subtly drained some of the tree’s life energy. The bark underneath his hand withered from his touch as he let the comforting warmth flow through him. He didn’t need his weakness weighing down on him on top of everything else right now. First he was meant to destroy the world and now he was chosen to save it?

The golden glow from his eyes softened as he looked up at the sky.]

How ironic.

[But maybe it would be enough to atone for their sin.]

Water you doing (cw: energy vampirism)

[The rich life energy from the other newcomers was too tempting so Rastaban ignored the warnings and wandered away from the hospital. He could take care of himself, and he was also curious to see what kind of plants this world had to offer.
He preferred the outdoors. The quiet sounds of nature were comforting, until he dipped his hand into a stream. He quickly pulled his burning hand out of the water with a sharp inhale. As soon as he did so, it felt like all the warmth was sapped from him and it was replaced with a deathly cold. What was going on?

Aurora’s explanation wasn’t comforting either. Getting closer to anyone right now was a terrible idea and he tried to push past the fluctuating hot and cold spells instead. Each wave only made him feel weaker and the golden glow in his eyes shone brighter with the hunger he tried to suppress. His eyes narrowed in a silent warning whenever someone approached him.]

I don’t need any help. You should leave.

Bonding Bingo

[Once Rastaban had calmed down, he reluctantly returned to the safety of the hospital. He didn’t want to make a bad impression when his world was on the line. Although if someone like him was chosen to represent his world he had to question Echo’s judgement. Still, it was best if he played along for now.]

Get stabbed? How is that bonding?

[He looked up from his card with an exasperated sigh. More importantly, how many idiots was he going to have to patch up.]

Matchmaker

Rastaban Aesen (2̷̰͎͙͔͑̆͊̕1̷̠̫̠̼̓)

Sole heir to the once illustrious Aesen house. When he's not playing the role of his twin sister Rasta in order to protect the family image, Rastaban enjoys studying herbalism as well as pretending to read whenever anyone enters the room.

Edited 2024-03-01 10:25 (UTC)

Where you come from sounds boring.

[ And she doesn't sound like she's much for manners anyway. She rolls her eyes, shrugs one bony shoulder. ]

But you can just tell me if you're a chickenshit. I won't hold it against you.

Maybe we stab each other.

[ What...in the hell were they talking about and why was she considering this? ]

It's something to. [ She's made stupider decisions. ] Come on, let's go find the hospital again.

[Kate knows a thing or three about multiverse hopping, having spent way too much time bouncing around with the other Young Avengers when they were running from Mother. They met other versions of themselves and others along the way, so she wouldn't be surprised to hear that someone else has met a version of her as well. ]

that's like asking me my favorite child

Careless Whisper

You should still eat. Never know if the food will be here the next time you are hungry.

[She's been there and done that in other worlds. It's not a fun time.]

[ In fact, his helmet is actually the most easily dented and potentially damaged part of his armor there is—unlike the rest of it, it's not actually beskar. It means that when the woman lunges for him and he realizes she's aiming one of those unnaturally-powerful punches straight for his visor, he has an instant to make a rather unpleasant decision.

Namely: he's not risking having someone smash another dent into his helmet over a square on a bingo card. She's too fast and too close to dodge this time, so instead, he snaps his head back at an angle, her blow landing just along base of the helmet—

And sending it flying.

It lands somewhere far behind Fett with a loud clatter, revealing a visage likely far older than the woman had expected. At 71 years old, Fett's face is a patchwork of dark, weathered skin and smooth, almost glossy scar tissue where the Sarlacc's acid had done its work. Blood seeps from a new cut above his brow where the edge of his helmet had clipped him in the process of being knocked from his head, yet his expression is neither pained nor angry. In fact, there isn't much expression on his face at all—only a slight narrowing of the eyes that might be focus or might simply be a reaction to having the his face exposed so suddenly to the sunlight. For an instant, he's still, his gaze calculating as he watches the woman. And then— ]

Uncle. You got me.

[ His voice is just as impassive as his face, inflected as it is by a distinct Concord Dawn accent. Were this a real job, he wouldn't have let the loss of his helmet stop him. He would've kept fighting until either this opponent was neutralized or he was. Right now, though, that isn't necessary. They'd both landed some good hits on each other. Surely, that qualifies as a fight.

Even so, he doesn't relax, nor turn his back on the woman to retrieve his helmet. He might be willing to leave the fight there and consider it done. That doesn't mean she feels the same way. ]

[ Knowing what to watch out for helps. If Krouse sees anything he recognizes, he'll be ready to pretend he doesn't.

The same principle holds for how he reacts to Natsuno pointing out one of the glaring problems with what they've been told: he barely does at all, only tilting his head and giving Natsuno a faintly thoughtful look. ]

It does make you wonder about the selection criteria.

Why us? [ He shakes his head. ] Out of all those billions of billions?

Not exactly. He was my inspiration mostly, but I got together with some others and we formed our own team. After we proved ourselves, Captain America sent me Clint's bow and suggested I use the name. Clint was going around under a different name at the time.

[He was thought to be dead at the time since he had actually died but had been brought back to life after someone messed with the timeline. ]

I had to prove myself to him eventually, and then became the adult in our relationship keeping him out of trouble.

[More often getting into trouble with him.

She's definitely a do-gooder though. Not wanting to be a victim again as well as wanting to keep others from being one. ]

[ Krouse nods to both suggestions, pivoting slightly and starting to walk.

It's not a good idea. He's committed to worse ones before. Sometimes you just have to act, test the limits of a scenario to see what happens. ]

I'm taking it that this won't be your first time?

[ That's the sense he's getting, at least. He wouldn't have suggested it to someone who didn't seem like they knew what they were getting into. ]

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TDM 001

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bingo!

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Rastaban Aesen | Original Character

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is all good/I checked out your notes as well -- sorry Wally

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