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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. |
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Do they have things such as paint here? I've not seen much yet.
[ Leave it to him to follow his nose towards food first. ]
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she eats more fried potatoes. the sound of their chewing the only sound to disturb the comfortable silence between them for a moment. )
If they have pigments and oil, I can make my own. It's not exactly a black and white world, this, so they must be hiding the colours somewhere!
( she smiles, cocking her head at him. )
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No indeed. I prefer the colors of nature, but they seem to think their town being built is good enough and tell us not to venture out there. I do not know why that should be. Perhaps wild animals or something. Still, I would prefer looking at trees and grass than these buildings.
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Wild animals, or they are keeping secrets from us!
( laughing, she leans back again and grabs another french fry on the way, eating it in contemplative silence. she looks at him for a long moment. charles would like this man. although he lives and thrives in the city, her older brother, she thinks he would prefer looking at trees and grass that the bustling cityscape, too.
unlike this man, though, he'd never admit to that. )
Will you tell me about your world?
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[ She seems unconcerned with either, perhaps because she sees safety in the buildings here or for some other reason. As someone who's lived the better part of two years out in the wild however, he knows to be cautious of predators. ]
I suppose I could. I've been to various lands, but my homeland is best. Fjelldalr, it is called. It's a land of mountains and valleys far to the north of the continent. My people thrive in colder environments and we've made lives for ourselves in different clans throughout the mountains. My clan lives at a higher elevation where we farm and fish. It's a quiet, simple life, but we thank the gods for it. I would rather be there than anywhere else.
[ Too bad he's an exile who can never return. But his voice and expression clearly show what home means to him. Still, he doesn't linger on it. ]
And what of yours?
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longing for something you arene't certain will ever be. not for you.
looking down, she is silent for half a minute, thinking his question over. her home is in paris now, but it still feels like a place where she is a foreigner, like she hasn't earned the right to be called a parisienne yet.
maybe she never will, so she can only describe it as she knows it. has come to know it. )
I live in a city now, it's called Paris. It's a grand place, full of old sights and buildings, though new structures are constantly being built, too. It's a place that is never at a standstill. It never sleeps. At night, people go out, they dance and they party. I think Paris is called 'the city of lights' because none of us dare turn down the illumination.
( she meets his eyes, her expression for once serious. )
We're too afraid of the dark.
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[ His face is thoughtful. ]
The rest sounds like here. Buildings being built, those metal men never stopping.
[ A pause. ]
Though I have yet to see night here.
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( she is done with the potato fritters, nodding at him when their eyes meet to indicate her gratitude, thank you for letting me eat your food, and in turn taking her plate with the éclair and putting it between them in offer. the cake looks shiny from glaze and fluffy. it makes her smile, because it seems so... oh, applesauce, it reminds her of home, the home she had before the one she found in the city and like that, of every home before that, right back to paris where it all began.
before the sky fell and the boat sank and au revoir only meant goodbye.
she blinks a couple of times, looks away from him once more. )
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Hard to say. The fact that we were brought here from all over means that night could be anything.
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she watches him as he tastes the cake, her smile turning softer, amused. yes, her brother would truly like this man, and she wants to say it speaks in his favour, but that might be an old part of sylvie talking. a young part. an innocent part. in reality, it could be a warning sign, for all she knew. ) We'll have to be ready, then, won't we?
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[ He's chewing for the moment, but says soon enough: ]
I was a soldier once. If anything dangerous lurks in the night, I have no fear in facing it.
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time does that. the years pass and people forget. she hardly even remembers the great war at all, tugged away at her boarding school, as she was, safe and warm.
but joric looks like someone who doesn't forget. the night. )
Did you win? Your war.
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[ His gaze lowers to his plate and he picks at his fries, as if looking for a certain type. Naturally he's going to eat all of them because he never wastes food, but for the moment it's a distraction from his deeper feelings. ]
I have not be home in a few years.
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she feels with him. she lived away from paris and her brother for fifteen years, and while maybe it was a necessary distance - and maybe nothing much was gained from returning, not in relation to them, at least - it was also difficult and painful.
it's something she recognises. )
You'll get there. You'll get called home eventually. I believe that.
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It's difficult to think up a response because he definitely can't return home again if he values his life but that's also not something he wants to speak of right now. Another complication is he never lies, so he can't directly agree with her either. ]
Thank you.
[ That's close enough, he thinks. ]
In the meantime, we'll have to see what they want with us here.
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what are they supposed to do here? luckily, she's an optimist by nature and will find a way in any of it. all of it. and she hopes her new friend here, joric, will keep her company along the way.
man wasn't made to be alone, after all. neither was woman. without each other, all they'd have would be their individual ghosts.
so, she says: )
Whatever it is, I hope there's more cake. Wouldn't that be the bee's knees.
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Yes. I think. I'd want more cake, but I don't know what you mean by bee's knees.
[ Do bees even have knees? It's not like he's ever bothered to look. ]
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( she waves it off with a laugh. she, too, isn't even sure bees have knees, but isn't that the point? impossible things. amazing because they might not be at all.
with a purse of her lips, she looks at him again and cocks her head to the side a bit. )
Don't you have any funny expressions you use where you're from? Something silly?
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[ By now he's polishing off the last of his meal and the chewing gives him time to thing of something. ]
"Like getting a mouse from an egg."
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she leans forward a little, eagerly. )
Does it mean something impossible? Or something very difficult? It sounds so cute!
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[ At her reaction he can't help but smile a little in return. It almost feels unnatural. There had been a time when he smiled and laughed all the time, but for the last few years there had been no reason to do so. The muscles need to get used to it again. ]
I suspect that it will be common to hear phrases from others that make no sense to us.
tw: implied colonialism.
( if she sounds breathless, it's because she is - breathless from wonder. she used to think the dubois coffee plantations in abyssinia were another world, but this is further even than that. this is a melting pot of worlds!
imagine!
she leans on her elbows, resting her chin in the palm of her hand, looking over at him with slightly slouching shoulders and a dreamy expression. )
Someone should make a dictionary just over phrases common to people who aren't us.
( how she would like to illustrate such a book. )
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[ His continent is large enough for his tastes, with varying landscapes, cultures, and peoples.
His head tilts a bit like a curious dog. ]
What does dictionary mean?
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which reminds her...
she smiles, small and soft and nods her head, the movement making her whole arm move a bit, sway like grass. man is like grass, the bible says. life is short.
she's here to save her home, but at what cost? )
It's a book full of words and the definitions of them. Someone would write "continent" and then define is as "a continuous expanse of land" - ( she deepens her voice a little bit as if she's pretending to read aloud from a book in front of her. ) - so people would know how to use the word or the phrase correctly!
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[ Who has need of books? Especially when paper is rare. Animal skins and wood have better uses that to write things down. ]
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