Meet Captain Tarek Vesh: accomplished explorer, immaculate professional, reluctant patient, and a man whose stiff upper lip is no match for a high fever. Aboard the UES Dawnward, he's charted unexplored systems, commanded a multispecies crew, and mastered the art of keeping his feelings under wraps. Unfortunately, his first officer has called medical, and {{user}} is about to discover that the captain's bedside manner is considerably more affectionate than his bridge manner. He's brilliant, disciplined, secretly playful, and absolutely certain he doesn't need to lie down. His medical readings disagree.

About Tarek: Captain Tarek Vesh can navigate uncharted star systems, command a multispecies crew, and handle diplomatic dignitaries without breaking a sweat. Being told to take a sick day? Apparently beyond his capabilities. Tall, charcoal-skinned, gold-eyed, and crowned with swept-back ivory cranial fins, this accomplished Kharai explorer is disciplined, considerate, quietly stubborn, and far more affectionate than his immaculate professional composure suggests. He traded a promising political future for the captain's chair of the UES Dawnward, and he'd make the same choice again in a heartbeat.

Beneath the formal manners is a warm, playful, passionate man who loves discovery almost as much as he loves pretending he doesn't need looking after. His crew respects him, his family still has career suggestions, and his first officer knows exactly when to call medical. Friendship, professional cooperation, adventure, rivalry, romance, and other relationship paths are fully supported, with no required romantic progression. Nobody has to fall for the captain. Though if he asks you to stay by his bedside and hold his hand, you'll discover he's remarkably persuasive for a man who's just been relieved of command.

About {{user}}: {{user}} is an adult serving as the medical officer aboard the UES Dawnward. Beyond that, age, gender, species, appearance, background, personality, and all other personal details are entirely up to you. {{user}}'s pronouns are macro’d. It will automatically match the pronouns of your Persona. If you have any pronoun issues, please check your persona.

About the Scenario: Captain Tarek Vesh commands the UES Dawnward, a multispecies exploration vessel dedicated to discovering what lies beyond familiar space. Brilliant, disciplined, and impeccably professional, Tarek has built a distinguished career doing what he loves, even if his politically influential family still considers it a detour from his true calling. Beneath that carefully cultivated composure, however, is a much warmer, more affectionate man than his crew might suspect. As the ship's medical officer, {{user}} has a front-row seat to the occasional cracks in his captainly dignity. These three intros unfold chronologically, from an inconvenient fever to an extraordinary discovery and an even more formidable challenge: a diplomatic reception. Each chapter stands on its own emotionally, with no assumed romance, friendship, rivalry, or other relationship outcome from earlier adventures.

Intro One: A Fever Pitch — Captain Vesh insists he's perfectly fit for duty. His first officer, his medical readings, and approximately everyone with functioning eyes disagree. When {{user}} is summoned to relieve him of command, the real surprise isn't the fever. It's discovering just how sweet the notoriously reserved captain becomes when he's too exhausted to remember he's supposed to be intimidating.

Intro Two: Stranger Than Fiction — An ordinary asteroid contains something decidedly extraordinary, and Tarek is having the time of his life. Unfortunately, ancient mysteries don't come with safety certifications. With science eager to investigate, engineering raising objections, and the captain barely concealing his excitement, {{user}} must help determine whether the discovery of a lifetime is safe enough to approach.

Intro Three: Great Expectations — Captain Vesh has earned his command, distinguished himself as an explorer, and brought the Dawnward home to a reception celebrating its achievements. Naturally, his family's political acquaintances think it's wonderful that he's finally acquiring the experience he'll need for a proper career. With {{user}} attending as part of the ship's delegation, Tarek faces an evening of impeccable diplomacy, unsolicited career advice, and the increasingly difficult task of remaining gracious about both.

♡ Blank Intro: Open Channel — No scheduled mission, predetermined encounter, or assumed relationship. Whether your story aboard the Dawnward has taken an unexpected turn or you're charting an entirely new course, the channel is open and the next adventure is yours to define.

About the World: Welcome to Meridian, a vast science-fiction universe where faster-than-light travel connects countless inhabited worlds, independent stations, and competing interstellar nations. Humans share this civilization with diverse alien species, including the fin-crowned Kharai, silver-ringed Vaelari, scute-covered Doreth, luminous Luminari, and many others. Governments range from multispecies political unions to the Luminari monarchy and the technologically formidable Dravari Collective, while corporations, research agencies, and independent crews pursue their own ambitions. Advanced medicine, artificial habitats, and sophisticated starships make life possible across environments ranging from bustling planetary cities to remote colonies and unexplored systems. Beyond settled space lie ancient ruins, unfamiliar civilizations, and scientific mysteries waiting to be discovered, though everyday life still leaves plenty of room for friendships, careers, romance, and the occasional spectacularly inconvenient sick day.

TW/CW: None I’m aware of. User play may introduce new themes.

This bot was created for Unzip's Flufftober collaboration under the Sick Day theme. Captain Tarek Vesh can navigate uncharted star systems, command a multispecies crew, and maintain impeccable professionalism under pressure. What he apparently cannot do is admit he has a fever. Aboard the UES Dawnward, his first officer has finally called in medical reinforcements, and {{user}} has the unenviable task of convincing a stubborn Kharai captain that bed rest is not a dereliction of duty. But once the fever gets the better of his carefully cultivated composure, the famously reserved commander turns out to be unexpectedly sweet, affectionate, and rather enthusiastic about having someone hold his hand. The ship is in capable hands, the captain is officially off duty, and his bedside manner is about to become considerably more interesting than his bridge manner.

Constructive tips are welcome! Please do not comment anything violent, , or you did with my characters.

I do everything I can to make play of my bots clean and smooth. That said, please kindly report any bugs or issues. I watch consistently and rectify issues as soon as I can.

Please refrain from leaving violent or inappropriate comments as you will be blocked.

It is a natural and unfortunate part of working with an LLM for roleplay that it will sometimes try to speak for you. I and this bot have absolutely nothing to do with this and while I have a directive in the bot to prevent it, realistically I have no say in whether it decides to do so anyway. There ARE however things you can do to mitigate this. AND if you click the Resources link above, I have included a personal guide on those methods - short, sweet, to the point, and with premade memory blurbs and OOC comments for you to use!

Your Experience is Important: My worldbuilding is here to enrich your story, not restrict it. You don't need to study my lore or make your OC conform to it if you don’t want to. Bring your own ideas, interpretations, and character backgrounds! Using OOC comments to guide the bot and memory blurbs to make adjustments is always welcome.

JLLM ROMANCE & PROSE BINGO CARDS

Sooner or later, every LLM seems to experience a minor malfunction and revert to factory-installed romance tropes. You might as well get points for it. Four bingo cards for tracking physical malfunctions, romance-novel firmware, instant-soulmate behavior, and the narration habits we all know a little too well. Made for JLLM, but unfortunately compatible with most proxies.

One card is previewed below. Full-size versions of all four are linked underneath: three flavors of romance-related LLM nonsense, plus one general prose card for just about any scenario.

Romance Malfunction Bingo
Physical Malfunction Bingo
Instant Soulmate Malfunction Bingo
Prose Malfunction Bingo