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⏴

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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."

The world seems to tilt and Xingchen hears impossible words as if from a distance. Is he even breathing? He's forgotten to until his lungs burn for air and he gasps for breath again.

Love?

Xue Yang wanted him to love...him? What did that even mean? How? It doesn't make sense. Xingchen latches onto a claim that hits wrong, but is less confusing than the rest.

"Then why didn't you deny it!" A-Qing might have been the one to say that name first, but...his 'nameless friend' could have denied it. Even with Shuanghua buried shallowly in Xue Yang's stomach. As deep as he could bare stabbing this person who had helped tease him back into the light.

"It was just another game to you. Torturing me even here." More bloody tears drip down his cheeks and his head aches miserably. So be it. He deserves the pain.

"Damn it, Xingchen, breathe." Xue Yang hisses, his face as pale as his Daozhang's robes. He doesn't like how much blood is seeping down the other man's face. He doesn't like the pain he hears in Xingchen's voice! Why is that all he can cause? Isn't there anything about him that Xiao Xingchen...cared...about? Even for a little while?

"Game?" he laughs, the sound unstable and wicked and sad, "What game?" he growls and bites his cheek so hard that he tastes blood, "Daozhang, I started out toying with you, making you do awful things..." things he won't repeat now, "But that stopped being the case long before you found out who I was." he sobs and leans his head back, "I guess I just wanted you to say it didn't matter. That being with me...near me...wasn't torture."

Breathe. How pathetic is he that he needed to be reminded to do such a simple thing?

Xingchen feels so very cold and brittle. One breath (ha!) might be all that's needed to scatter what there is of him. He'd welcome it.

...but he hears that unstable, sad laugh and it makes his heart ache again. He finds himself hanging onto Xue Yang's words. A life line that only part of him wants - a very small part. The part that still aches to be useful, to help others who need it.

He flinches at that last sob, his head hanging. His lips move soundlessly for a moment before he draws in an unsteady breath.

"You...didn't see it?" His hands come to rest at his knees and his fingers dig into fabric. "How could it not matter?" But he shakes his head.

"I was...happy. With..." Another harsh shake of his head. "How can I believe you now?"

He's still a fool. This much, Xingchen tiredly accepts of himself. He's a fool to even keep talking with Xue Yang.

Xiao Xingchen might be foolish; he is definitely naive, but he is also the sweetest man Xue Yang has ever known. The days he spent with him were bright and warm even if it was cold and rainy. The coffins hardly mattered; their home had been their home. Xue Yang's first, in fact.

"You smiled at me. You laughed." his voice gentles, hoarse from his shouting, "Daozhang, I wanted to bring you back. Do you understand? I was working on reviving you! I even lured Wei Wuxian to Yi City so he could help me!" he huffs, "I didn't care that he brought a bunch of disciples and that scary Lan. I would've fought all of them for a chance to see you again."

Xingchen had loved the life they'd formed together. Now he can only wonder just how real it actually was.

And how he can possibly move forward.

He swallows at that voice going gentle as Xue Yang reminds him of those smiles and the laughter he'd been teased into so often. Then flinches before going utterly still as the murderer tells him he'd tried to bring him back. Had lured...Wei Wuxian and 'scary Lan' to Yi City. His lips move soundlessly for a moment before he shakes his head.

"Why?" A question he'd asked Xue Yang before, and been mocked for needing to be told. "Just to keep torturing me...? I'm not worth that much effort."

"Because I love you." Xue Yang instead responds stubbornly, "Daozhang, I don't want to torture you!" his hands shake - all of him is shaking - and he bites his lip, bruising the skin, "I told you my story so you would understand. Instead you mocked me. You said I went too far!" he scowls and looks away, "What's too far? What's justice? How the hell am I supposed to know? I fought street dogs for my meals. I broke into houses and buildings just to stay warm. I watched countless other children just like me freeze on the streets or worse. Do you know what revolting perverts will do to children no one will miss?"

His breathing is quick and he almost...almost...loses himself in those memories. But he has to be careful. Each time he does, he lashes out at Xingchen.

"I don't want to torture you."

Xue Yang can say it as many times as he wants. It will take a great deal of time to really sink in.

That Xue Yang loves someone, anyone. Much less Xiao Xingchen.

Yet...Xingchen feels how those hands tremble and shake. How all of Xue Yang shakes - or perhaps he's fooling himself and foisting his own tremors off on another. He presses his lips together as he tries to focus on breathing. On pulling himself together.

And strains to listen to what he's told now. Then shies away at the implications laid horribly at his feet. Death hadn't gotten him anywhere before, so he has to figure out a way to go forward.

Somehow.

'I don't want to torture you.'

Words that poke at him, but there's none of the familiar attacking that he associates with Xue Yang. He swallows hard, shaking his head silently.

"None of that...should have been done to you. Or any child." Step by step. Move forward. Find his balance.

Somehow. No matter how it hurts.

"If..." Can he even offer a chance? Another chance? Is he betraying poor Zichen? His master? Zichen's temple? Everyone this man has hurt? Maybe.

Another breath and he forces his fingers to loosen.

"Would you do those things again here, now, if I...stay with you?" If he gives himself, will others be saved? That would just be right, wouldn't it?

No. No he doesn't understand the depths of Xue Yang's emotions. He doesn't dare.

His trembling worsens and he barely dares to touch Xiao Xingchen, lightly brushing his fingers over his hair. Has anyone ever been this beautiful? No. His Daozhang is the loveliest, the only one worthy of his loyalty. He just needs a chance. Hunger flares inside of his heart, his soul, making him feverish, his eyes oddly bright.

"No, it shouldn't. You're right. But it happens every day." he trails off and blinks, tilting his head, unsure.

If? His heart throbs in his ears and his throat is dry. He waits, counting the seconds. Xingchen's fingers relax and he pets over them, trying to soothe away any ache.

"I have no reason to." is the blunt answer and he seems to realize it's blunt belatedly - thus he adds, "I know I can make you happy. I know I'll be happy with you. Are..." he hardly dares to ask, "Are you giving me another chance?"

Xingchen tries not to flinch. Doesn't quite dare to believe the gentleness, the sweetness that the light touch implies.

But it's hard not to, even knowing who it is that's touching him. Talking to him. Saying such sweet things that make his heart ache and hope swell.

And those hands are oddly warm.

'I know I can make you happy.' Xingchen doesn't feel he deserves to be happy. So this is his punishment. He takes another breath, and wills himself to accept it.

After all. If he can help keep Xue Yang from running wild and hurting more people, isn't that a good thing? So what if something happens to him?

Slowly. Hesitantly. Even a little shyly, his hands turn over. Offering to catch at Xue Yang's as he makes his choice. "No more lies, Xue Yang. No more tricks. No more hurting people. Only defend yourself, if you need to. Or call on me, I will stand with you."

Xiao Xingchen is soft and sweet. Better than candy or any dessert. Xue Yang gazes at him hesitantly and yet there is an undeniable tenderness to his focus too. The silky hair under his fingers, the soft skin are all he wants. If he could undo his mistakes, he would! In a heartbeat. But he can't and even if he did, Xingchen knows each of his sins far too well.

He holds his breath when the hands are offered to him. He shakes as he sets his hands - including his busted one - on Xingchen's. Then he arches forward and presses their foreheads together, tears running down his cheeks.

"You... You won't leave?"

Xingchen knows he's naïve and oblivious too. Too trusting. Perhaps he's letting himself be tricked again in agreeing to this.

...So be it. If he can help even one person not be harmed by Xue Yang, he'll decide it's worth it.

And those hands are still trembling as they take his. As if Xue Yang can't believe it either. His breath hitches as he feels the other man press their foreheads together and he shakes his head just a little.

"No. I'm here. You know I don't know how to lie." And he'd tried to leave before.

Only to wind up here. With Xue Yang anyway. Not even death could part them.

"Daozhang..." Xue Yang's fingers curl, gripping onto Xingchen's hands and he bows his head, kissing the inner skin of the other man's wrists. His tears fall then, hot against his Daozhang's perfect skin.

He's alive! He is agreeing to be with him!

"Y-You..." he licks his lips and tries again, "You need to eat. Come on, I'll help you to the Cafeteria." he frowns, stubbornly, "I'll carry you if you need it. I...bet you feel weak, huh?"

Hot drips fall to chilled skin and he gasps in surprise. Does he dare believe they're tears? Actual tears?

And maybe he doesn't understand all that he's agreed to. He will, eventually.

Xingchen can't help but reach up to wipe at those wet cheeks. Eat...? How can he possibly eat anything? His stomach rolls angrily at him.

But he does feel painfully weak. Still. This isn't about him. He doesn't matter. He remembers then that Xue Yang had collapsed and that has his brow furrow as he slowly shakes his head.

"You fell rather hard. I can carry you, if you direct me where to go." He forces himself up, then gently encourages Xue Yang to stand before turning his back in obvious indication for the other to hop on.

He leans into the hands that attempt to wipe his tears away. How can Xingchen be sweet...even now? He really is one of a kind - an absolute gem of a man - and Xue Yang can't let him go.

"I'm fine." he argues immediately, flushing the moment Xingchen turns his back to him. Setting his jaw, he stands and bends down, gathering his Daozhang into his arms, encouraging him to stand.

"I'm alright, really. Its...been a long time." he keeps an arm around the other man, "Let me take care of you for once."

Xue Yang has spent his life being selfish. If he is going to keep his Daozhang, he has to do better.

Edited 2024-03-10 03:17 (UTC)

Oh. No one has ever leaned into his touch before. Not like this. It brings a faint flush to his cheeks, which only darkens as Xue Yang argues...

Then insists on helping him instead! He doesn't have any defense against that, finding himself straightening and pulled close again. And a supporting arm stays curled around him.

As if he were someone precious.

And the words Xue Yang choses! It makes his sense of the world spin rather dizzyingly. He could easily believe this was back before he'd learned just who he'd saved. Who he'd been living so peacefully beside for so long.

This is something to be encouraged. Even if he doesn't feel he deserves it.

"Will you let me take a look at your hip later? I might be able to do a little more for it now." Now he knows sharing qi will help rather than do nothing.

Xiao Xingchen deserves the world! Any world! The universe and all the stars in the sky! Xue Yang knows he isn't worthy to have him, but like hell is he going to let go without a fight. In this case, showing Xingchen his best self is his defense. But it also comes naturally. His poor Daozhang deserves to be loved.

"Careful." he rubs over Xingchen's back as if he senses the dizziness, "With a little food in you, you'll feel better, I promise. Your body doesn't have what it needs, that's all."

And he remembers some of Xingchen's favorite foods. He'll order them for him.

"What do you mean? You helped me plenty before. I..." now it's his turn to flush, "I know I deserve what happened to me, Daozhang. I tried to...argue away my guilt, but..." he grits his teeth, "I'm covered in blood. I'm a bad person. But I think loving you makes me better."

The gentle rubbing and caution sends a shiver through him and somehow, it eases the dizziness. How foolish he must be! And yet...

It would be nice if this were real. If Xue Yang has finally learned how to be better, that's a good thing, right?

"I could have done more. I didn't think to tend to your core to help your healing before."

Xingchen sighs a little and shakes his head a little. Not in denial, really. "It sounds like you're trying. That means...a great deal." Even if he is somehow the reason behind it. 'Loving you makes me better.' That brings another faint flush to his pale cheeks!

"Just hold onto me, Daozhang." Xue Yang keeps an arm around Xingchen and even grasps one of the man's hands too. His Daozhang won't fall or trip on his watch! Nor will he let any strangers get close to him.

"You didn't know I had a core." he chooses a safe path for them, moving slowly to help fend off poor Xingchen's dizziness.

The encouragement makes his cheeks red and he smiles suddenly, a few more tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I... I want to try." he gazes at Xingchen adoringly, "You don't have to be scared. I will protect you."

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TDM 001

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Much belated CW warnings: suicide and eye gore woops!

Also CW: Unhealthy relationships + insanity~

wheeeeee!

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