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amanimods ([personal profile] amanimods) wrote in [community profile] uhmani2022-04-21 06:09 pm
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TDM #4

Welcome! Everything is fine.
Uploading. . . Complete!


The Lobby.
    When you open your eyes, there is quite a lot of beige to take in. The unassuming walls of the room you've found yourself in are barren save for a single motivational poster directly in your line of sight. An illuminated sign above an open door on the far wall reads 'lobby exit.'

    "Welcome," chimes a polite, synthesized voice. "I'm happy you're here." A moment later comes the clarity of the situation: you have died and so has the world you came from. "This is Amani, your new reality," continues The Peacekeeper. "Everything will be fine."

    At least you aren't the only one here, you'll soon find out, as others who are just as confused and concerned as you are mingling on the main hub's first floor. Hopefully, you find a familiar face among the crowd. If not, that's all right. You'll get to know quite a few people very well soon enough.
The Infirmary
    If you're one of the unlucky few whose death required a bit more intensive re-coding to maintain stability in the simulation, you'll instead awaken on a bed in the infirmary. Everything is strikingly white save for the occasional string of vines with lavender growing in bursts to help keep people calm. Whether or not it works seems to be on a case-by-case basis.

    While there is no active medical staff, the voice of The Peacekeeper is there to explain the situation in a more delicate manner to these individuals. It's already stressful enough having to have gone through such a violent death, after all!

    If characters want more questions answered, they'll need to speak to The Peacekeeper directly. But first, it will encourage socialization in the main hub and hopefully, you'll find someone you recognize to make taking things in a little easier.
WHAT
The fourth Amani TDM!
WHEN
April 21st, 2022
KINKS OF THE MONTH
★ Tickling
★ Facials
★ School Uniforms
★ Sharing
★ Hurt/Comfort
WELCOME
Throughout the main hub where everyone congregates, a light chiming echoes through the first floor. "Hello, everyone," comes the synthetic voice from when you first arrived. "Please, watch your step since there's quite a few puddles around. If you'd like, there is cake, some refreshments, and some eggs for you in these trying times. If they feel warmer than usual, that's because they're going to hatch soon!"

While the Peacekeeper doesn't elaborate, as usual, simulation inhabitants are free to notice the eggs that either they gathered or are still littering the simulation are now warm to the touch, give off a faint glow, and may even move subtly now and again if watched.

APRIL SHOWERS
Granted, there are bigger things to worry about such as the storm that's rolling in.

Dark, ominous clouds begin to gather over every piece of sky in the simulation and before long blot out the sun. Sheets of rain begin to pour down almost without warning. Hopefully, you've managed to fix those leaks in your house! Or maybe you're finding new ones...

Lightning splits the sky with a dramatic crackle and thunder booms not long after it. The wind howls and the worst of the storm won't relent for a few hours at the least. Even after, the rain will linger for days on and off to varying degrees of severity.



While the weather has taken a turn for the gloomy, that doesn't mean that simulation inhabitants have to be! In fact, it may feel somewhat refreshing as if the rain is washing away any negativity lingering after The Overseer's masquerade. Whether by her design or not, she - nor The Peacekeeper - will say but it does seem that she wants to keep relations as peaceful between the simulation inhabitants and creators as she can.

ONE FISH, TWO FISH...
The constant rain brings water levels of the rivers and eddies up at an alarming rate. Flooding is inevitable and, hopefully, the place you've claimed as your own isn't in the way. If it is, you might want to get the buckets ready or consider a relocation!

Of course, your buckets might not just be catching water. With the rising water levels, the fish that inhabit the simulation's waters are just as confused as anyone else. Even more confusing is the glitch causing them to transform once they find themselves on solid (mostly) ground.


Thankfully, they don't change into anything harmful. Well, maybe to your teeth since an abundance of sweet treats is bound to cause a cavity or two... Not to mention the other odd effects that food here is known to have.

    Taiyaki » Despite having just jumped out of the chilly waters, these tasty treats will be warm to the touch and generate steam. After biting into one, you'll radiate warmth no matter what for a brief period of time. Being a walking furnace sure is nice with this damp, cold atmosphere... Maybe you'll find a friend or two to huddle up with and keep warm.

    Swedish Fish » Eating one of these stretchy, gummy candies will increase your flexibility. Literally and metaphorically! It might be easier to be convinced to do something you wouldn't have before and now you can bend just the right way to make it extra fun.

    Hard Fish Candy » These tart candies will render someone unable to speak until it completely dissolves. This can take a while, too, since they seem to be persistantly stuck to the roof of your mouth! Yet, don't underestimate the power of body language to speak your mind.

    Chocolate Sardines » Eating one of these rich bite-sized treats will make you sweeter. No, really! Candy kisses isn't just an expression after eating these fish. You taste delicious. Maybe too delicious... Be careful! Once someone gets a taste of you, they might not want to stop anytime soon.
Eventually, the fish will go back to normal and the glitch corrected; however, any candy collected will remain until it expires naturally.

WHAT'S YOUR DTF STATUS?

If the party and its cake don't appeal to you, that's perfectly fine. This is the perfect time to configure your Digitized Technical Friend or your DTF status. A DTF is similar to a dæmon from His Dark Materials in that it is connected to and a reflection of a character's soul. These DTFs take shape accordingly and are projections similar to the NPCs. Think of them as your own personal Clippy except less annoying. Hopefully.

Once that's set-up, there are other locations of the main hub to investigate! You can still find an (off-key) instrument to play in the music lounge or check out the (algae-ridden) pool.

You can even visit The Peacekeeper themselves on the second floor. They're always happy to have visitors! They're also conveniently where you might place a complaint about that status of the main hub and its amenities.

RAINING CATS AND DOGS
While the fishy foods are odd enough as is, another glitch appears to be occurring throughout the simulation but this time originates not from the rain but The Peacekeeper's humble musings. "Did you know," speaks the resident AI, "that there is an expression called 'raining cats and dogs'? I think that's such a curious saying! It made me wonder what it might actually look like..."

Following the strange, unexpected 'announcement,' inhabitants may begin to notice large globs of water falling periodically from the sky now amidst the regular rain. When they hit the ground with a large splash, nothing is there... at first. The water will burst apart only to reassemble into a canine or feline friend. Well, it's shaped like a dog or a cat.

Due to the sudden nature of their spawning though, some things aren't quite right. Perhaps that cat has only three legs instead of four; a dog may be missing an eye, an ear, or even its tail. And those are the more tame oddities! While the unique animals aren't overly abundant there are still a good number that spawn across the days of rain. Don't be surprised if a dog takes up shelter from the storm on your porch or you come home to a cat you don't own having climbed through a loose window.

While this might be exactly the addition to your home that you wanted, it doesn't change the leaky roof or broken window in your new place. Or, unfortunately, the fact that there's no extra space for a pet yet. No, unfortunately that will still need to be fixed the peaceful way. If you'd like more lighting or even cozier clothes, simulation inhabitants are reminded that 'peaceful interactions' are very important!

It might be a good idea to stick close to someone you know, for now, since even the smallest amounts of intimacy might see subtle changes occurring where they're staying. Perhaps that broken window is now fixed, the grime and dust seem a little less, or the floor doesn't creak quite as loud.

Larger changes, however, will only come after demonstrating the more powerful peaceful interactions. If you want new hardwood floors or a fresh coat of paint on the walls, you're going to have to demonstrate how well you 'get along' with others against them first.
SEEING PINK
ear the end of the week, the rain finally relents and temperatures continue to gradually increase. Those May flowers can't quite seem to wait though since several of the trees lining the edge of the forest bloom brilliant pink blossoms that a DTF will be able to identify as love blossoms. While the blooms won't last very long, they certainly are using all the time they have to take over.

The pollen is one thing. It may start out as just a tickle in your nose or stuffy head but eventually turns into something much more lovely. You're tickled pink about almost everything, it seems, and want to share that happiness with others. And who needs rose-colored glasses when almost everywhere one looks there's a string of love blossoms blooming?

These invasive flowers are in your garden, along the vines in the city, and even sprawling through the main hub! It actually seems almost impossible to avoid them. The Peacekeeper assures inhabitants that it isn't purposeful and just the natural cycle of the love blossoms.

Enjoy the mood-lifting and groin-tingling effects while they last! The love blossoms will only linger for a few days, at most, before receding back to the forest line and eventually falling dormant again until next spring.
SEXY STAMP CARD
If you're wondering about these 'peaceful interactions' that keep being mentioned or what the kinks of the month are for... Here's your answer! Upon arrival, all characters will receive a digital copy of their very own sexy stamp card.

Sexy Stamp Card
Issued by: The Peacekeeper
1 2 3 4
6 7 8 9


Completing peaceful interactions (i.e. kinks) will reward characters with stamps that they can turn in for re-gains and many other things! While the example one here is the standard issued card by The Peacekeeper, players are more than welcome to customize it how they see fit. Have fun with it! NOTES

★ The kinks of the month have changed! Be sure to check this post for what the new ones are. Also, give a congratulations to Corrin ([personal profile] fatefulprince) as the as the new leader of the sexy leaderboard! 🎉

★ The effects of the strange fish candies can, as always, be as heavy or light as you'd like! It can be chalked up to differences in resistance, non-humanity or not, etc. etc. Also, they can mixed-and-matched! Have fun with that.

★ The flora and fauna page will be updated. It's also still open for player suggestions! All you need to do now is link your check-in (or player claim) comment to make a submission!

★ Make sure to dunk your questions/feedback in the thread below!

NAVIGATION

F.A.Q.RULESCHARACTER CLAIMLOCATIONSMAIN NAVIGATION
rhapscdos: (Moody look away)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-26 04:54 am (UTC)(link)
"I wouldn't dream of asking you to forgive me," Genesis agrees, a hand held out to his side as if it was always the given. "What I say will make little difference to your suffering, but to hide the implications of those last few days in Nibelheim, and the results thereafter, would only leave gaps in the story to fester."

Genesis ends up following Cloud's steps, and nods for the other to sit back down. The hand he'd motioned with ends up on Cloud's shoulder again, to help keep him upright. The boy looks like he's about lurch over.

"Still, I'd ask that you lessen your blame for Sephiroth. I'd much rather bear it than let him shoulder my cruelty, and Jenova's parasitic manipulation of him. What you witnessed was not my old friend."
nimbuster: (snarling wolf)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-26 05:49 am (UTC)(link)
Cloud pushes Genesis' hand away. He'd rather fall than accept this man's help. Fortunately, he doesn't; he manages to make it back to his seat and leans forward, folding his arms on the bartop.

"I don't care." Maybe he sounds petulant, and if so, so be it. He tries to leave it at that, but the words keep falling out of their own volition. "Tell that to all the people he killed in cold blood. Tell that to my mother. There's plenty of blame for the both of you."
rhapscdos: (curious headtilt)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-26 07:23 am (UTC)(link)
Genesis settles his hands back on the bar, palms cradling the glass he'd half abandoned earlier. He lets Cloud go on, angry and stubborn, and fully within his right to be so. Genesis won't begrudge him that.

"I've made my request, I cannot ask anything more of you then." Genesis takes a slow drink from the glass, focusing on the tactile feel of it for a moment to clear his head. Babbling more apologies and wallowing isn't what's needed here. After a lapse into silence though, something seems to compel him to speak in honesty again. It's softer, a faraway kind of amused fondness.

"I see now why Zack became so fond of you. You're fiery."
nimbuster: (omg no way)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-26 08:17 am (UTC)(link)
Cloud uses the silence to return to his own drink, taking it a little slower now than before. He half expects Genesis to just leave, and he considers leaving himself, but then the man breaks that silence again and Cloud can't stop the completely honest response that comes out of his mouth as he turns to stare at Genesis:

"Zack said he was fond of me?"
rhapscdos: (saucy)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-26 08:54 am (UTC)(link)
Genesis pauses mid-motion to bring the glass to his lips again. His gaze flicks sidelong to Cloud, and an elegantly groomed brow raises at him. Oh, well isn't that a curious response to something innocuous?

"In so few words," Genesis explains, and smiles against the rim of his drink before swallowing another sip of what is essentially acholic truth serum. "I'd trailed him from the shadows plenty. Fond is... perhaps too small a word, even."
nimbuster: (satisfied)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-27 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
Cloud brings his drink up to sip again as he ducks his head, mostly just to try to hide whatever little pleased expression he might be making. Buddy, do you like like me? Zack asked him, and Cloud wasn't sure what the reaction to his non-answer meant, but...is it possible Zack wanted him to say yes?

"Well...what other word would you use, then?" At this point he's stopped questioning why he's still talking about any of this, especially with Genesis of all people. It's just happening, and he'll have to accept that.
rhapscdos: (saucy)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-27 11:24 am (UTC)(link)
"Dare I say, the puppy certainly had an air of lovesick about him that was nauseating." Genesis rolls his eyes skyward, and makes some semblance of a disgusted expression with his lip curled back. Except the rest of his body language is perfectly lax, he's just being dramatic.

He glances at Cloud again, the expression melting into a smirk.

"Is this news to you, Strife?"
nimbuster: (the most unimpressed face ever)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-27 07:25 pm (UTC)(link)
"Color me surprised that the guy with so much blood on his hands thinks caring about people is nauseating," Cloud shoots back. Wait, did Genesis just call Zack a puppy? ...wait, did he just say--

"Wouldn't have asked if it wasn't." He silently wills himself to stop there, but no. "Zack is incredible, why would I expect anything like that? Plus I thought he had a girlfriend."
rhapscdos: (saucy)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-28 02:30 am (UTC)(link)
"Settle down... little chocobo. I am plenty familiar with love. No need to raise your hackles over the thought," Is he teasing now? Hard to tell between his haughty tone, and sly smirk, but there's hardly anything malicious to such a cutesy name. The laugh that follows is genuinely amused too.

"Mm, so the feelings are mutual between you then, and yet...? And if you mean young Aerith, well, death has certainly sailed that ship to open sea, now hasn't it. Besides that, what's stopping him from caring for both of you?"
nimbuster: (I'll think about it)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-28 03:13 am (UTC)(link)
Great, now Genesis is calling him a chocobo. Because he's never heard that one before. Damn unruly hair...

Cloud feels like he's lost track of what kind of conversation this is even supposed to be. Genesis' moods - or at least, his tone - seem to change like the wind from moment to moment. It doesn't help that Cloud's now finished his second drink.

"And yet...?"

Aerith. That must be the name of the girl who sent Zack all those letters. He thinks those letters had something to do with the reason Zack wanted to get to Midgar, although the impression is filtered through a year of half-heard, half-processed rambling, and trying to remember any of it gives Cloud a headache. "If the whole planet is gone, she might show up here, too."

Genesis' last question gives him pause. "Uh...dunno. Nothing, I guess."
rhapscdos: (awkward)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-28 05:04 am (UTC)(link)
"Indeed she might," Genesis agrees, and finishes his glass. He beckons for another for them both. He's still got too much familiar confidence in his SOLDIER metabolism to think better of the laced effects in the drink. Besides, what does he have to lose? What is Cloud going to do about anything Genesis says? Punch him again? He'll survive.

"And yet, here you are, giving me these half-hearted, unsure responses to your own feelings. Blind as you are, or if you truly didn't know, I cannot say. But be honest with your feelings, Strife, it'll do you, and perhaps Zack, a world of good. I could practically smell the anxiety on the puppy the other day."
nimbuster: (squints...really)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-28 05:56 am (UTC)(link)
Cloud shakes his head at the bartender. "No more for me." The effects of the drink will linger until the buzz itself is gone, and although he's not in such a hurry to sober up that he asks for water, he's also in no hurry to become truly inebriated - especially not around Genesis.

"My feelings are none of your business anyway." Which seems contrary to the fact that Cloud's been offering them up freely, but whatever. He frowns, though. "Anxiety? Why?"
rhapscdos: (saucy)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-28 04:49 pm (UTC)(link)
"An interesting statement," Genesis observes, a touch wry for the fact all they've been doing is expounding on Cloud's feelings. But at the so blatantly unaware question, Genesis actually groans. A hand comes up to pinch the bridge of his nose, wondering how it's not painfully obvious. If Cloud somehow misses the dripping sarcasm in his voice, Genesis just might laugh at the sheer absurdity.

"Oh, I couldn't possibly imagine. Surely nothing to do with you."
nimbuster: (I'll think about it)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-29 01:44 am (UTC)(link)
Cloud does not miss the sarcasm, and although he shoots Genesis a dirty look for being such a jerk about it, he does frown in thought. Maybe he should have given Zack a more definitive answer the other day...it's not his fault that Zack and the DTFs put him on the spot! How was he supposed to know what to say?

"...I'll think about it." He picks up his empty glass and rolls the bottom of it around on the bartop idly. "Can't just take your word for it that he wants...more from me, though. You could be wrong. Or lying. And he could say no."
rhapscdos: (saucy)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-29 08:08 am (UTC)(link)
"You'll think about it, surely. But will you act on it? Because I've already had to endure one session of the puppy's endless pacing while he makes an attempt at parsing complex thought. I'm not interested in a second." Could Genesis say 'get your act together' in a nicer way? Certainly. But he's getting a kick out of these dirty looks and frowns Cloud keeps shooting him, so- not his fault the blond is cute when annoyed.
nimbuster: (the most unimpressed face ever)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-29 08:25 am (UTC)(link)
"If you kept your nose out of everyone else's business, you wouldn't have to." Cloud puts the glass back down with a firm clunk. "'I'll think about it' means 'I'll think about it.' What's the matter, can't parse that complex idea?"
rhapscdos: (heh bitch i lived)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-29 08:40 am (UTC)(link)
Genesis's eyes go wide a moment, but instead of morphing into anything annoyed, his expression is almost sadistically gleeful. Maybe the alcohol has him a little punchy.

"First of all, little chocobo," he says, leaning his cheek into his hand, gaze sly. "The puppy came howling to mine and Sephiroth's apartment, not of my volition. Secondly, that smart mouth of yours may be incredibly pretty, but it's going to get you into trouble, fast."
nimbuster: (go ahead try me)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-29 08:57 am (UTC)(link)
"I have a name. And so does Zack." The more Genesis talks, the more Cloud sort of wants to punch him again. Why would Zack be friends with someone like this? ...and why is Genesis calling him pretty?

"Is that supposed to scare me?"
rhapscdos: (curious headtilt)

[personal profile] rhapscdos 2022-04-29 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
Genesis barks a curt laugh, and shakes his head.

"Believe me, if I ever wanted to threaten you, you'd very well know it. A little teasing gets you riled though, I see. Adorable."
nimbuster: (who do you think you are)

[personal profile] nimbuster 2022-04-30 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
Cloud grunts, annoyed, and steps off his stool to turn and walk toward the door. He doesn't have to sit here and endure whatever weird game Genesis is trying to play.