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

Arrival

What the hell? [Are the first words uttered by Xue Yang as he comes to in a pristine white bed. He squints, because everything is too damn bright, and pushes himself into a sitting position. He is sore - definitely bruised - and there is a cut on his cheek again, but amazingly, he is alive.]

Who do I have to thank, hm? [He kicks off the covers and stands, a little dizzy on his feet (it's pretty normal for him these days) and he immediately checks his person.

Then he freezes.]

Where is he? Give him back! [Racing to the door, he staggers into the hall, his dark eyes wild.] Answer me! Where did you put him?! I'll cut you into so many pieces no one will be able to recognize you!

Water You Doing

[He calms, for one reason or another, and ends up exploring. Screw what anybody thinks about boundaries. He can handle himself, right? When he comes to the water, he can't resist. It has been awhile since he has seen good, clean running water.

Stripping down, he enters said water and -

Immediately regrets it. Yelping, he scrambles back to shore and stares down at his arms...his hands. He's hot. No cold. No...both?]

...the fuck?

Matchmaker

Xue Yang (27)

A murderous man who loves candy and anything sweet. People included, though he will never admit it. Watch out, he has quite a mouth on him!

Edited 2024-02-24 04:37 (UTC)

Unlike Xue Yang, in another room, Xiao Xingchen waits silently, listening to the explanation and politely asks a few questions before finding his feet. So what if his heart is pounding and his voice trembles? Anyone who just looks at the man can tell he's Seen Some Things.

Theoretically.

The bandage around his head is a big indicator, though it has been cleaned and replaced, and Xingchen's clothes have been similarly tidied up - as he gives himself a distracted brief pat-down as he stands.

He offers a brief smile and bow in the direction the voice had come from before making his way out of the room. There's no point in lingering when he is apparently expected to explore.

But then he hears...an unfortunately familiar voice. Screaming down the hall. He feels himself pale and he sways, leaning against the nearest wall as he clutches at anything that seems remotely stable.

No...! He can't even escape by coming here!

Xue Yang is beside himself (and then some!) when he comes pounding down the hall. Even his leg won't slow him down much, though his hip catches painfully when he nears Xiao Xingchen's room.

"Give him back! He's mine!" he sounds insane and that impression intensifies when he falls to his knees right in front of Xingchen.

Though of course he hasn't noticed him yet. The angry, frustrated, terrified tears in his eyes are blurring his vision.

"I'm going to bring him back..."

Xingchen shies away as he hears the mad steps heading right for him. Insane words lash at his ears and mind, taking a moment to sink in. Who? Who is this murderer calling for with such desperation?

It makes his heart and chest squeeze painfully, aching in helpless sympathy even as bloody tears drip down his cheeks.

He gasps when he hears a body drop to the ground before him, and shakes his head in mute denial. But...something is wrong. He gradually recognizes that much. Pressing thin, raw lips together, he struggles to gather himself.

And only notices then that he's also crumpled to the ground.

"Who?"

He hears a gasp and then...someone dropping down to the floor beside him. Wiping at his tears with his sleeve, he frowns at the intruder. Either they have nothing to do with his lost spirit pouch or they are the ones that took it! He is ready to lash out at them in either scenario, opening his mouth to rebuke them for being a dumb-ass.

That is, until he sees Xiao Xingchen. His perfect face covered in bloody tears. Xiao...Xingchen. Not in the pouch. Not in a coffin. Beside him. Xue Yang takes one breath, short and sharp, and lurches to the side, dragging the other man into his arms.

"D-Daozhang! Daozhang, is it really you?" he doesn't hide how he sobs, his body, thinner and more fragile, shaking.

Alive. Somehow, alive. The horrible cut on his neck has been closed, leaving just the faintest of scars.

Xiao Xingchen jerks back when arms latch onto him, but the wall stops them both from completely falling over. Panic lashes at him again and he tries to brace himself for an attack.

But it...doesn't come.

Instead, there's disbelief in that voice. And...sobbing, as Xue Yang shakes against him.

Xingchen hears himself panting and struggles to stop. Surely that's what Xue Yang wants. To keep torturing him.

"Why...won't you let me go? Even here...you won't let me go." Despair leaches strength from him and he sags against Xue Yang.

The details don't matter. Not yet, anyway. Xue Yang is too enamored with the fact that Xiao Xingchen is alive and in his arms! Nothing can take this away from him. Nothing. He won't let it!

"You're mine!" he chokes - and that hadn't been what he wanted to say to Xingchen right off the bat. He's so damn tongue-tied around this man and he only ever ends up being silly or cruel!

"You weren't meant to die and - and this proves it!" he pulls back to examine Xingchen's throat, brushing his fingertips over the scar, "You were supposed to stay with me. This place fixed it."

Right?

Contact that had been a fairly normal thing between them until the last day together. Until Xingchen had learned just who he'd been living with for years.

He flinches at the claim that he belongs to Xue Yang and his face blanches somehow just a little more. He swallows heavily, lips parting to deny it when fingertips tenderly brush over his throat. He gasps again, trembling, and shakes his head.

"It...was the only way to escape you." Or so he'd believed in that desperate, hopeless moment.

He'd failed.

"I won't let you escape me." Xue Yang grits his teeth, angry and hurt at the idea that Xiao Xingchen had...does...hate him that much. Of course if he looked back on his actions logically, he would understand it. But he has been living like a starving animal for years, trying to bring his Daozhang back.

"What we had was good, wasn't it? Why did it have to go to shit when I told you who I was?" his voice rises in pitch and he grabs onto Xingchen's arms, "I knew you would react that way! You're too fucking pure to love someone like me."

Xue Yang - The Untamed

Arrival of course :3

Poor XXC.

Poor boys ;;

D:

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Matchmaking

Omg <3

I had to

I love it.

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Matchmaker

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