TDM 001

[etrayamods]

⏵ 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. <center><table style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 2;"><tr><td width="260" align="center"><img src="IMG URL HERE" style="width: 245px; border-radius: 15px; border: 1px solid #7F7F7F; box-shadow: #8D8D8D 1px 1px 1px;"><br /><b><big><big>CHARACTER NAME (CHARACTER AGE)</big></big></b><br><div align="justify"> CHARACTER BIO</div></center></td></tr></table></center> ⏵ 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⏴

Comments

[once_reborn]

Uh, ok. I'll try to keep up. I'm not good at much dancing other than...swaying a bit, really.

[dawnfacing]

Don't worry, swaying will do.

[once_reborn]

Glad to hear it. If it comes with nice drinks, I'll definitely take it.

Especially if they come in a clean glass.

[dawnfacing]

If they don't, we'll have to get one cleaned for you. Any kind of title earns you the right to a clean glass, I'm sure it's a law somewhere!

[once_reborn]

I wish, but let's just say I've spent a lot of time in backwater cantinas on a lot of dustball planets.

[dawnfacing]

I didn't know travelling to other planets was possible before coming here. It was the kind of thing we read about in fiction.

The stars were an awfully long way away, back home. That was what made them so grand.

[once_reborn]

For me, they were always right there, growing up. You'd see the starliners coming in to refuel, the cargo transports coming and going like it was the most regular thing in the world.

Makes the dream much more tantalizing, you know? When it's that close.

[dawnfacing]

So close that you can touch it.

I always figured we wanted things we couldn't have the most, but I've been proven wrong before.

[once_reborn]

[And she'd gotten them, eventually. In some ways, many ways, not the ways she would have wanted. But now...now things were getting better. And then this whole thing happened.]

I've been more in the 'careful what you wish for' category. Adjacent, I guess you'd say.

[dawnfacing]

Has it helped you? Carefulness?

[once_reborn]

Not especially. Sometimes the universe just brings down a boot too big to dodge, you know?

[dawnfacing]

I didn't know the universe wore boots.

( she's teasing! )

[once_reborn]

Heh, yeah. Big, stinky ones.

[dawnfacing]

Would they be better wrestled off or do you think the universe's feet would be even worse?

[once_reborn]

Heh, no, I think we've about tortured that metaphor enough.

[dawnfacing]

It's not torture, it's fun!

[once_reborn]

It is.

Fun, I mean. I haven't gotten to have much of that in a while, so...thank you.

[dawnfacing]

Life can be a lot of smelly feet, right? That's why it's important to smell the roses. Or the jasmine. Or any other flower that you dig.

That's to say: you're welcome.