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etrayamemes2024-02-23 01:16 pm
etrayamods) wrote in etrayamemes2024-02-23 01:16 pm
Entry tags:
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:
 ⏵ 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. 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. |
arrival
He tilts his head up at Krouse, regarding the other teen with... well, without much of an expression, honestly, merely taking in his presence like he does with all the other arrivals.]
Multiverse scale battle royale, right?
no subject
At least that's what he's going to go with if anyone questions him about the screaming prison orange of his jumpsuit. He meets Natsuno's lack of expression with the same, paired with a slight nod. ]
That's what I heard.
[ More or less. Aurora hadn't said it would be as competitive as that implies, but Krouse is making an inference. He makes another when he looks at the guy's bag. ]
You heading out somewhere?
no subject
Yeah, trying to map out the place. Can't be that big if it's still "under construction."
no subject
He considers it, leaning forward slightly where he's sitting. ]
Do you want a hand?
[ He's not doing anything else, and the mild drive to be cooperative in group endeavors exists independent of the group. ]
no subject
[Might as well. He should figure out the people he got stuck with, and a scouting mission is a good opportunity. Snooping around does not always yield results, but you learn a thing or two.]
You got any experience with weird stuff?
no subject
Some.
[ And on that quiet word, he pushes off the wall to land with practised carefulness, distributing the light shock of impact through his body evenly. ]
Where are we going?
no subject
Some, [He echoes, dry and unimpressed, but doesn't push for now.] Right. Looks like there's a forest ahead. I'll go until I find the edge.
[He does look the unfinished structures over, wondering what they're all for, but mostly he's set on reaching the outskirts... until they pass by a house, surrounded by pipes metal beams. A wooden, one story house, with shoji windows and an unfinished section in one side, worked on by bots.
Natsuno stops to stare. His expression shifts from surprise, to scowl, and back to his usual stoic mask.]
...typical.
no subject
Walking outside still feels strange. The expanse of space around them, no walls hemming them in. The illusion of being able to go anywhere, even if he already suspects one of the things they're going to find is the edge of that illusion.
When Natsuno stops, he stops in sync, looking between him and the house. It doesn't take a genius to put two and two together. It's just an unexpected connection to make. ]
What's typical?
[ He asks, instead of you know this place? ]
no subject
[Looks like, because it will never be the real thing. My parents', because it was never truly Natsuno's, just a place he used to live in.]
Guess that's their idea of a nice gesture. Familiar stuff.
[His tone remains calm, with just a hint of disdain at nice gesture. Natsuno had left that place long ago. He feels nothing for it, only scorm for those who thought it's a good idea to copy it.]
Or a reminder of what's supposedly at stake.
no subject
He stares at Natsuno too long, neutral blankness replaced by the rigidity of repression.
He hasn't thought about his house in forever. He doesn't want to think about it now. It comes back in pieces: the checked linoleum in the kitchen his mom kept putting off replacing even though it was hideous, the bird feeder in the backyard, the battered couch in the basement. ]
Who needs a fucking reminder?
[ He asks, with a pressured edge. ]
no subject
He shrugs.]
Someone who doesn't want to play along. Or doesn't believe this place's story.
no subject
[ The opinion slips out of his mouth as unprompted as the question. It's a muted, dull one, so obvious it's hardly worth saying, but that he's giving it at all is enough to make him second guess himself.
His mouth thins as he looks towards the outskirts they were headed for. ]
Do you want to go in?
no subject
[He doesn't sound too bothered, though. Carrots or sticks, it's all the same to him, because there's nothing Natsuno Yuuki hates more than being told what to do.
His gaze lingers on the house for another moment before he turns, focused on the outskirts once more.]
No. I already left that place.
[What is he supposed to do, look at textbooks he'll never need or the bed he died in? Best to just leave it there.]
no subject
Your call.
[ Maybe someone else would get curious, push the topic. Even before, Krouse likes to think he'd be respectful enough to leave it alone - unless there was something to gain by pressing the issue. Home's a touchy topic.
He has another angle he's interested in following up on, anyway. ]
That's one way to put it. [ He'll pick up walking again whenever Natsuno does. ] Some people would have it the other way around. That it's on us to prove our worlds are worthy of surviving.
no subject
How would you prove something like that? A universe can have billions of planets, each with billions of souls. One person "proves" nothing.
no subject
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?
no subject
[Natsuno certainly isn't chosen one material. Granted, this is not his first interdimensional kidnapping, so perhaps his perspective is wider than the average 17 year old on his version of Earth. But he's still a 17 year old, a dead one who just wants to be left alone with his second chance.]
Maybe there's no selection criteria. Maybe it's all random.
no subject
But even in the absence of caring, Krouse can't help who he is. Without anything else concrete to preoccupy his thoughts, he can't resist coming back to the knotted problem at hand, picking compulsively at the edges before veering away from it. ]
That'd be one way to pretend it's fair.
[ Or, more generously, one of the least unfair ways to approach an inherently unfair dilemma. ]