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⏴

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ The rhythm of push and pull on sussing out someone else's capabilities is easy to fall back into. It feels like being present, part of what's happening to him instead of a bystander. ]

It seems like the kind of thing it would have been useful to put out there as an incentive.

[ So why didn't they? Were they depending on curiosity to make people try it? Was it some misplaced faith in the people they selected? Or is it a test already, the first round of evaluation?

He rolls his shoulders back, expression thoughtful. ]

We got the fight down. Technically. Maybe there's a loophole for the stabbing, too. [ Loopholes, workarounds, technicalities. Try smarter, not harder. ] A hospital has scalpels. I'm not bad at stitches.

What would you say to some quid pro quo?

Quid pro quo?

[ She can't help but sound slightly dubious. But she's also curious and...well, a masochist and full of self-destructive tendencies. ]

You want to stab me and stitch me up?

[ Krouse smiles slightly, one corner of his mouth higher than the other. ]

I was thinking more along the lines of you stab me, we see what happens.

But if you want to swap stabbings, why not. [ He shrugs. ] If we disinfect first, keep it superficial, we might even be able to skip needing stitches.

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.

[ 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. ]

Getting stabbed?

[ She shrugs. Probably not a great thing that it won't be the first time. ]

Some people don't like my charming personality.

[ Krouse smiles in a way that almost reaches his eyes, ironic and sharp. ]

There's no accounting for mediocre taste.

[ It's a compliment, in a sideways fashion. Recognition of something they have in common. He's never made himself easy to like either. ]

Don't think many people would agree with you.

[ But does she care? No. This is, in fact, one of the longer conversations she's had over the years that hasn't ended with her storming off or getting into a fight.

Maybe she's growing as a person or some shit. She shakes her head at herself. ]

Maybe you're a masochist too.

I wouldn't say that.

[ His smiles dwindles to a filmy residue. He finds himself struck with the urge to do something with his hands: pick at a cuticle, flip something light over his fingers, tap a nonexistent cigarette out of a nonexistent pack. ]

I appreciate people who cut the bullshit. That's all.

Well, you've definitely come to the right place for that.

[ Talking to her and all. She couldn't give much but no bullshit and brutal honesty? That was something she could give. ]

Spend a lot of time around people that like to sugarcoat everything?

[ He makes a noise at the back of his mouth that's a little less than a scoff, cutting her a sidelong look. ]

Do you mean, do I spend time around people?

[ People lie. They tiptoe around the truth, if they even let themselves know what it is. They say whatever they have to say to save face, get what they want, convince each other that everything's fine when it's categorically not.

And he's a hypocrite, because he's no different. ]

Sugarcoat, exaggerate, undersell. Everyone's got an angle. I just have the sense you're being upfront about yours.

[ He looks ahead, and gives into the urge to tap his index finger with his thumb. ]

You don't like being fucked with.

I don't.

[ Been there, done that. She's been fucked with more than enough in her life and, after all that shit, she'd made a vow with herself that she wouldn't let it happen again.

Never again. ]

Does anyone like being fucked with? I just make it a point to not let it happen. Some people get walked all over. Some people like being door mats.

[ Krouse doesn't answer her right away. He examines the ground ahead of his feet as they walk, the hospital coming ever closer. ]

Liking it. Letting it happen. What's the difference?

[ The tone is bleached out of his voice, his eyes dulled and unfocused. ]

You are what you do, right?

I don't think everyone would agree with that sentiment.

[ But it's definitely something she can get behind. ]

Accountability seems to be a handicap for some people. Not their fault, never their fault.

[ He glances at her again from under the shade of his eyelashes, not lifting his head. ]

There's always somebody else to blame if you're looking for it.

And sure. I get it. We're all subject to forces outside our control.

[ Some people more than others, and what would she think, if she knew what he'd been letting happen to him, lately?

Except he's not thinking about that. He can't think about that. Less than denial, and more like the skip of a disc over a scratch. ]

But unless you've got a gun to your head? You're the one making your choices. [ He tips his head back, looking up into the wide blue sky. ] Even then. You could always just take the bullet.

And I would if I were in that situation.

[ Take the bullet, let it happen, die. Better her than smeone else. Hell, she might even survive it. Or maybe she won't and the world will lose her shining presence. ]

Anyway, you say that and I agree with you. You make your choices but I know plenty of people who have an issue standing behind their damn choice. They'll say it was influenced by some shit or that it wasn't really their choice. Anything to not take responsibility.

[ Jessica's answer earns her one more of Krouse's lingering looks, this one capped off by a short nod. The flicker of respect that comes with it cuts through his haze, weary as it is. ]

I'm starting to see why people would want to stab you.

[ Even moreso than the aggression or the attitude. There's few things people resent more than someone who makes them feel spineless by comparison.

The hologram is still standing by the hospital's front door, somehow holding onto her stack of cards. Krouse walks past her like part of the scenery and pushes the door open, leaning against it to let Jessica in after him. ]

And let me guess. [ He tips his head. ] They usually blame you.

No. I don't let them.

[ She was more the 'put you in your place' type of person. That's not to say that she didn't have her own ways of avoiding accountability for her actions. She did but they weren't going to talk about that.

She eyes him as she moves past and back into the hospital. ]

And why do people want to stab you?

[ Krouse smiles like a lightbulb breaking, tilting his head back to hit the door behind him. ]

Me?

[ He peels himself off the door and strides forward, beelining for a hallway leading off to the right. ]

I'm just fucking annoying.

Exam rooms are this way.

Well, at least you're aware of that.

[ Hey, he'd said it, not her. She was just going to be gracious and agree with her. ]

So, are you gonna stab me first or am I gonna stab you?

[ Krouse shoulders into an exam room, still smiling. It's a basic standard set up: an exam table for a patient, a counter with a sink, cupboards with medical supplies, various fixtures on the wall. ]

Me first. My idea, right?

[ He rifles through the cupboards, coming up with two scalpels in paper sleeves, sterile gauze, bandages and tape, disinfectant, and a few packets of suture kits. He sets them out with efficiency, and then washes his hands in the sink. He wasn't exaggerating about knowing his way around the basics of wound care.

Despite the context, he doesn't really want to do anything that'd hurt her. It's easier, somehow, to treat it like a procedure, or an experiment. Better to go first.

He dries his hands and daubs disinfectant onto a cotton ball, then circles out a clean patch on the back of his left forearm. When it's done, he holds it out towards her, his gaze steady. ]

Ready when you are. Just be careful tearing the sleeve. [ He tips his head, indicating the scalpels. ] I'm not sure it counts if you stab yourself.

[ She takes the scalpel and looks it, thumbing the edge. It's plenty sharp and she nods. ]

So, you want me to jab it in your arm or just slice you?

[ Would slicing count as stabbing? She's not sure. Semantics and all. ]

If we're going to do this, let's not fuck around.

[ Just stick it in feels a little too open to misinterpretation. Krouse braces his free hand against the counter, letting out a slow exhale. ]

Straight down. Stop before the handle.

[ There's an errant 'are we really doing this?' thought in her mind but she chases that away. They were really doing this. Why the hell not?

She nods at him and grips the scalpel before eyeing the spot. She doesn't count down or give him a warning before she stabs him with the scalpel. She presses, going to the end of the blade and then stops, eyeing him. ]

Not gonna pass on me, right?

[ There are people who can take injury with cool, steely resolve, a set jaw, and a harsh exhale. Krouse is not one of those people. His whole body goes rigid with the initial burst of pain, his eyes wide and mouth twisting as he curses. ]

Fuck!

[ He manages to hold his arm in place from as much shock as willpower, pulling away only once he can wrap his fingers around the end of the scalpel and take over control of the implement. ]

Fuck. [ He mutters, bringing the blunt tip of the scalpel up to his mouth to hold it in place with his teeth as he fumbles next to him for gauze, distorting the rest of his words. ] No. Not after that. Fucking Christ.

[ When he pulls the scalpel free, the gush of blood already dripping off his arm turns into a spout. Thick red droplets splatter the floor before he slaps a pad of gauze on top and bears down with firm pressure, cotton instantly blooming crimson. He discards the blade in the sink with a metallic clatter. ]

I know I said we weren't fucking around, but you're really not fucking around.

Edited 2024-03-06 17:08 (UTC)

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cw: stabbing, blood