ercookies | TDM 003

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TDM 003

TDM 003: #BEACHBUMS

I. BEACH

Welcome arrivals, new and old! The skies on Erku may be perpetually gray, but the weather has taken a sudden turn to summertime heat. Fortunately, soaring temperatures have chased away more of the strange fog that conceals so much of the island, unveiling a charming, sandy cove dotted here and there with rustic love shacks. These shabby little lean-tos are dusty and sparse, but they provide everything one (or two, wink wink) might need for a little relief from the sun. Just don’t wander too far... that fog has memory-loss properties.

II. DRINKS

The 'bots are very apologetic about the whole fog incident, and they are trying to get on the new arrivals' good sides by giving out fancy drinks. Of course, they still haven't mastered the art of making things properly, so each drink has a little something... extra.

Geloso: Has a slightly bitter, yet refreshing herbal taste... and it will make you feel inexplicably envious of virtually anything, to a petty degree! Be it someone else’s shoes or their incredibly muscular physique, you’re jealous enough to tell them about it!
Colpito: Fruity and sweet like candy. If you drink this, you will feel hopelessly infatuated with the very next person who catches your eye!
Vivace: Delightfully tart, with a flavor somewhere between citrus and raspberry. This summery drink will fill you with bubbly energy. Whether you’re feeling flirty or just mischievous and playful, you’ve never felt more alive!
Verace: Creamy, earthy, and a little nutty - the flavor is hard to describe, but delicious. After drinking this, you’ll feel strangely compelled to spill something you’ve been keeping a secret, no matter how incriminating or embarrassing.
Conoscere: The robots are especially excited about this flavor! They’ve heard organic beings enjoy chocolate, and hope you like their first attempt (it’s a little bitter, but it is chocolatey). Those who drink this will feel incredibly confident and sensual. Better yet, if you share it with a partner - which the 'bots encourage you to do - you’ll find that every touch is enhanced, and every sensation is shared between the two of you. A lucky few may even be able to sense one another’s thoughts!

III. SNACKS

Lo! As you ask, the Augur shall provide. Thanks to the efforts of your organic predecessors in restoring the planet’s Eros energy, edible fishes and seaweeds have returned to the ponds and the shores of Erku. If you fancy yourself savvy to basic survival skills, why not fashion up a fishing rod and catch yourself dinner? Just be careful if you happen to hook one of the octopus creatures from the deeper waters - they can be quite forward with their tentacles!

Or, if primitive angling isn’t in your repertoire, you can always trade some credits for a tasty catch from one of the food stalls along the coast. Most stalls are manned by 'bots, but there’s nothing stopping an enterprising arrival from setting up shop. No credits? No problem! The robots have also provided a bit of entertainment, and any volunteers to man the kissing booth, get dunked in the wet t-shirt dunk tank, or grill up some fish - among other opportunities - will find credits automatically loaded onto the payment app of their bracelet devices. The 'bots are recruiting especially hard for participants to work in the gloryhole tent!

IV. SPARKLES

As dusk descends, the white sands of the beach suddenly come alive with glittering lights. It’s as if the darkened waters have carried a thousand shining stars from the depths of the sea to the shores of the cove. In actuality, each little twinkle is a bioluminescent plankton or jellyfish! Feel free to wade among them and admire their shine; even the sting of the jellies won’t hurt you... though they do pack a different punch. The tentacles of the jellyfish elicit a powerful aphrodisiac response, which gets the heart racing and the blood pumping for an intimate touch. The effects come on within a matter of minutes, and last for a few hours. Only time will relieve the symptoms, but a partner will help to make it more bearable.

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N A V I G A T I O N

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"Seriously? You just not live near any beaches or?" Jim had been wandering the shores of the cove and just taking stock of the surroundings.

He'd spied the woman looking out to the horizon, enraptured, and mindlessly wondered until he was in earshot.

"Well, now you know what you were missing out on, he laughs as he comes to sit down next to her, a respectable chatting distance away. He had no idea how he'd got here from-
Well no, okay, Teleporter malfunctioned happened to the Enterprise far more than the normal amount of deviation so he he has a general idea of how he got here, but this one seems far more permanent.

He's trying not to think about it.

"The Empire I grew up in had plenty of coastland, but I was never near it. Is it always this magnificent?"

Mercedes was just as unsure of how she'd arrived, and trying to take it in stride in her own way-which was, apparently, to appreciate the upsides. Like this beautiful view. ~~Shame that it likely wasn't going to last, but *she* didn't know that.~~

"What about you? You've been to the beach before, then?"

Jim can't help but frown inwardly at the usage of 'Empire', but then he acquiesces that he's not nearly experienced all Empires that existed ever, just the ones intent on destroying the federation, but oh well.

"Sometimes more!" Jim gets excited at this actually, if he thinks of this as an exploration mission, maybe he can stop the anxiety that's cause by his crew not being able to reach him for several hours. "I've been to many. There's one planet called Risa, in my universe, and it's a holiday favourite for a reason. Water as clear as glass, you can see almost all the way to the bottom of the sea floor until the coastal drop-off. The skies shift from blue to a deep, deep purple and the stars, they're almost more beautiful from down there than they are when you're actually on a starship," he grins, "Almost."

And then he laughs.
"I've been rude, I'm sorry, the name's Jim," he says, holding his palm out to shake Mercedes' hand. "It's nice to meet you," he says in his best charming voice.

Far, far too much of that simply went completely over Mercedes head-but it didn't stop her from accepting the shake, taking Jim's hand and shaking it gently. "Mercedes. It's nice to meet you, too."

The confusion was written on her face as she looked back out over the ocean, and after a moment, she finally asked what would likely be the first of many, many questions. "What's a starship?"

Ah- Jim's seen that look before.

There's a tinge of disbelief in his face, but also a gentle smile.

"As sure at Ships sail along the waters of the world below, so to starships sail amongst the stars," he recites with dramatic flair.

He points to the sky, overcast as it is.

"I'm a Captain of a Star Ship. We travel through Space to Explore, to discover new things and study them," he grins. "I take it you definitely don't have those where you're from?"

"We definitely don't. That sounds amazing. Impossible-but it would be a strange lie to tell, wouldn't it?" Jim was the first she'd met since arriving, and Mercedes had yet to see just how primitive Fodlan and the rest of her world might seem in comparison to the other places people had been taken from.

"So I'll just have to have faith you're telling the truth. What's it like to be a captain of one?"

"If it's a lie, it's the best one I've ever lived," he grins.

But to Jim, Mercedes' world would be just as full of the new and wonderous!

"It's..." he smiles, remembering his talk with Admiral Paris. "There's nowhere else I'd rather be."

"It's a lot of things. It's organising 500 people into some form of team, it's being able to look on in awe as we discover a new star system, of a planet that might potentially harbour life. It's having another family on board. It's the rush of escaping a Hostile force unscathed." He pauses, looking out at the waves that lap the shoreline.

"It's having to reprimand irresponsible crewmembers. It's having to sit there and right letters to next of kin to inform them their loved one won't be able to come home. It's Emergencies and missions gone wrong and being responsible for those 500 people."

He takes a deep breath, and steadies himself.

"Thankfully, it's mostly more of the former. How about yourself? What sort of world do you come from?"

"Not one that's nearly as impressive as all that, I think. I serve-well, served, I guess, since the war should be over now-in an army, as a general and healer. But what I really like to do is just the latter. All the fighting was for the good of Fodlan, my home, and its people... but I had to fight so many of my friends."

Her gaze drifted down from the horizon to the lapping waves as she thought back on all of those who had been killed or even 'only' displaced by the war.

"Hopefully I can do something about that, when and if I get home. So many people have been impacted by war, so helping them all now that we're at peace would be nice."

"Hey, serving in an Army can be just as impressive," he says, even though the fact that 'Army' grates on him. The federation is meant to be an exploration and diplomatic organizations, but he knows they could be mobilized at a moments notice to defend their territories and peoples.

"You... you knew the other side?" His heart drops. It's hard enough when you simply know you're taking another life, but to know the life on the business end of your phaser... He tries to focus on the lighter part of that.

"You said you were a healer? It's good that someone like you will be able to help with the Peace. I'm glad you managed to win it."

"There were healers on the other side too-but I can't let that hold me back. Regardless of what we did in the past, now we have to work to a brighter future." And Mercedes *had* been fortunate enough to have to do very little in the way of combat herself, mostly staying to the back lines and tending to those who had need of her.

The fact that many on the other side were close friends-once classmates, who she might have fought alongside if not being recruited to join the Black Eagles house-still weighed heavily on her now. But all she could do was try and honor their own hope for a better future for Fodlan.

"Hopefully we can make a longer-lasting peace. But enough about the war. You said something about a place that's all like this? That must have been something to see."

He agrees to the change in topic, he feels kind of bad for bringing it up, but he knows now that he can avoid the topic.

"My best friend's a doctor, you know? He hated the first time I went to that beach, he keeps telling me. 'You were a right pain in the ass! I had to babysit you for at least a day!'," Jim laughs.

"I know he was just looking out for me, I have some pretty bad allergies sometimes. But when you see a- Well, not a 'real' beach, but a beach that- I don't know, is more pituresque?" He know's he's not doing very well at describing it... oh!

"Instead of this white and grey, imagine pale gold sand, soft blue-green water, a purple hazy sky. The sounds are the same, the heat is the same but it feels different." He hopes that's sort of enough.

"Maybe I'll get the chance back in Fodlan. Or, maybe if we're lucky, this might get nicer some time." She didn't know nearly enough about where they were yet to realize just how unlikely that was, so some degree of optimism wasn't entirely unwarranted.

"Have you had reactions to anything here? I bet your doctor friend would be worried if they knew you were here." Thinking on that, she frowned slightly. "I'd be worried if any of my friends were somewhere strange. I hope none of them are too concerned for me."

Jim also has no idea about how this place works, so as far as he knows it might as well get better.

"Here's hoping," he smiles.

"And no, not yet. I just have to stay away from nuts, Pineapples and a couple of other things," he lists off.
"And yeah, Bones would be loosing his head but I have a feeling that if they knew where I was I wouldn't still be here."

"Do you think they'd find a way to get you home?" Perhaps the very same could be said about her friends-while they didn't have access to the same technology as Jim's, there was some powerful magic at their disposal.

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TDM 003

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