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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. |
water you doing?
She clasps her hands, one over the other, and manages not to indicate the inconvenience in her expression. ]
I might. [ And then, because he looks so uncomfortable to be asking at all and that's somehow reassuring, ] I do. Why are you wet?
no subject
I touched the river down there.
[ He points out its general direction, in case she could miss it. ]
It turns out you're not supposed to do that. The hologram said it messes up your temperature. [ He drops his hand to his side, flexing his fingers absently. ] And apparently, the only way to fix it is to touch someone else.
[ He hears how that sounds coming from him, in his sweaty, shivering glory, which manages to sound worse than it did coming from the suspicious hologram down by the river. His face screws up in frustration as he shakes his head. ]
...fuck. No, forget it, this is - I'm not fucking doing this. Just don't go in the river, got it?
no subject
I did not dismiss you.
[ There are probably better ways to tell someone she isn't rejecting a request outright. But. ]
Curses that rely on physical contact to dispel typically involve an energy transfer or an abjuration. If you touch someone, dispelling it from yourself may infect another. [ Common knowledge, but he's taking the 'hologram' at its word. He doesn't seem the common knowledge type. ] How long were you in contact with the water?
no subject
A few seconds. [ He reports, then furrows his brow. ] Less than ten.
[ The inaccuracy bothers him. He should have timed it. Details like that can matter, and they clearly matter to this stranger. He doesn't know what abjuration means in this context, but he can parse energy transfer.
He runs his fingers through his damp hair, short strands clinging unpleasantly to his palm until he breaks away. ]
So if I touch someone else, they might catch this.
[ Which is just repeating what she said. He seems to need that to have it sink in. ]
Good to know.
no subject
[ The tone is flat, uncommitted. Rownan stares at Krouse for a moment, considering. If she leaves him, he’s almost certain to die at best or seed the effect elsewhere at worse. Dealing with it now is easier than dealing with it tenfold later.
That’s all. ]
Show me where.
[ She knows the general direction of the riverbank, so she starts off that way at a brisk pace. He’ll follow. He doesn’t know how to say no, and if he asks someone else, they might actually try to hold his hand. It’s a sentiment she can understand. ]
Did you notice the effect immediately, or did it begin after you broke contact?
no subject
So he catches up to her, with a vaguely preoccupied look on his face that fades out into nothing but vagueness as he points the direction to the part of the bank he climbed up from. ]
Immediately.
[ He tends to try to be slightly more forthcoming than most students at his level. Residuals of the untutored self. ]
The effect escalated to this point without plateaus. It's been holding consistent since then.
no subject
[ Krouse himself won't be an issue. He's listening and he's answering and he doesn't seem to be lying. All of that is good. It makes this easier.
If she needs to kill him, he'd probably let her. That's convenient.
Rownan gathers her robes in her hands as she crouches dangerously close to the water's edge, her body turned at an angle so she can keep her peripheral on Krouse while she studies the water. She reaches out, and with her index finger, begins to draw a shimmering rune in the air just an inch from the surface. ]
I'll make a series of assumptions. You will provide feedback and correction.
You're lucid and articulate. Your muscle function and memory appear unaffected, aside from what may be normal from the adjustment to your temperature regulation. Your emotional state is comparable to normal. You do not feel compelled to touch someone. Instead, you seek that course of treatment because you trust Aurora at least that far, but the trust is not new since the water.
[ She flexes her hand. The rune fizzles and dissipates into the water. Her brow furrows minutely. ]
Tell me a lie.
no subject
Krouse stands at a respectful distance, folding his hands behind his back, and listens through her assumptions. He checks them against what he knows about himself at the moment, and there's a cool, calm sliver at the core of his fever that comes from a sense of temporarily acquired purpose. ]
My focus is impaired. Otherwise accurate.
[ He flexes his fingers behind his back as he thinks of what to fulfill her request with. There are varying definition of 'lie'. He decides on something neutral. ]
My favourite colour is blue.