TDM 004: WASHED ASHORE

[erkumods]

TDM 004: WASHED ASHORE

Arrival This time, you come out of the water. While the Augur reboots, the Nameless Island's own inherent energy draws people in. It's like being suspended between realities and walking through a rift in dimensions. It may make you sick, or that might be the motion of the ocean, lifting you and carrying you to shore. Waterlogged and covered in sand, new arrivals will be greeted by robots who welcome them with towels and bracelet devices. The A5 card is already loaded up. Inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each person's makeshift home. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● I. Feel the friendship! Recent arrivals and visitors to the beach may notice a sudden influx of hundreds of bright red crustaceans crawling (and coupling) across the sand. It's crab mating season, as it turns out, it's a regular invasion! To keep the beach a pleasant place to gather for the island's inhabitants, the robots are offering credits to especially enterprising crab-catchers. Grab a bucket and get to work! Be sure to watch out for their pinch, mind you. Their little claws are tiny, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hurt. Surprisingly, there is another effect that even the robots don't anticipate: islanders who are pinched by the crabs find themselves feeling instantly buddy-buddy with the next person they spot. Did you just become best friends?! Get pinched one too many times, however, and those feelings may sour into a crabby mood, indeed. If you are feeling particularly vengeful (or just hungry), the little crabs do make for delicious gumbo. Once cooked, they have no side effects whatsoever. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● II. Phallus Phestival Although the Augur is offline and supplies are scarce, the robots of Erku are still eager to make their run-down little island a welcoming place for the new arrivals. To that end, they have arranged a three day festival to boost morale and promote the generation of plenty of Eros energy to assist in the restoration of the damaged and decayed parts of the city. The robots claim that this celebration was once a cornerstone of the long-lost civilization of the island. By the dawn of the first day, every island resident will find at their doorstep (or tent flap, mobile suit, etc) the traditional costume of the ancient islanders to wear to the festival. It appears to be... a giant sheet? There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the sometimes garish colors and patterns of the fabric, but at least the robots have uploaded instructions on how to wear it to your bracelet device. Attendees will find food (mostly crab-flavored), confections, and household necessities in rather suggestive shapes, as well as goods you might find handy to complete your A5 squares: sex toys, pervertibles, sexy maid outfits, and the like. While islanders are welcome to set up shop on the festival grounds and sell (or charge) whatever they like, all items from the robots are offered up for free to those who wear their traditional island garb! ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● III. Fireside Adventures Each night of the festival is wrapped up in style with an enormous bonfire on the beach, where drinks, fruity cocktails, and lively music appropriate for dancing is all provided at no cost by the robots. Even if you’re not usually much of a dancer, the longer you stand by the fire and allow it to warm your limbs, the more you feel like moving! Not only that, but everyone is looking quite beautiful by the firelight, are they not? If you’ve grown tired - or if dancing just isn’t your thing - you might prefer to sit back and swap stories on one of the many driftwood log benches the robots have prepared for seating. Or, maybe you’d prefer to rough it for the night in one of the beachside canvas tents. Better claim one quick, though, or be prepared to share… there’s only one sleeping bag! ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[torso]

[ While he's noticed Exxis' peculiar appearance, he's not about to start throwing rocks from within his glass house. There's no judgement about it, just curiosity, a nagging question of wonder of if that's something the Augur did or if this was how Exxis was before ever coming to the island. ]

Yeah? I kinda wanna ask what the most un-subtle thing you've seen so far is, but I'm not sure I wanna know the answer.

[ Takes a moment to survey the area around them, glancing back into the dildo still stuck to his hand. Not subtle, indeed. ]

'Cause this whole festival is pretty far-out there on the list of things I've seen.

[vicissitudinal]

[Mutual courtesy, it is a wonderful thing.]

Considering they fixed the library but only provided erotic literature and graphic pornographic films, I doubt they know what subtle means. Even their attempts at providing foods and drinks meant to affect our behavior are very obvious. They mean...well, perhaps, in their own way. Trying to make it easier for us. For their own purposes.

[torso]

To heal the world and all that jazz, right?

[ Which, don't get him wrong — Chase is all about restoring worlds, works real hard at it back home. Still, the method is questionable. And hold up, he's gotta backpedal here, did Exxis say... ]

They do things to the food, too? I thought it was enough to go around shaping everything like this.

[vicissitudinal]

The rations they provide to us for typical meals don't seem to be tainted, but food provided by things like this...

[He motions to the various tables of candies, donuts, sandwiches, sausages...everything else.]

If it is provided during a significant occasion or location, there's a high probability of it being contaminated by something to encourage sexual behavior. Do not accept drinks from the bar if you are not sure the robots are giving you water.

[torso]

I don't think taking drinks is gonna be much of an issue for me.

[ Laughs lightly, gesturing down to himself with the hand that's got the fan after a moment of consideration between the two options of what he could wave. A dildo-gesture seemed a bit much. ]

But thanks for the advice, I'll try to remember it if I ever go on a bar-crawl with my body.

[vicissitudinal]

[With his body implies he does have one somewhere around here. At least that answers that. Perhaps he uses the hologram due to limited mobility. He remembers those days before he was capable of leaving the hospital room.]

You're welcome. Ah...rude of me to not introduce myself. I'm Exxis.

[torso]

[ He's a few years into this arrangement, pretty comfortable talking about it casually — so far as he's allowed to, anyhow. His contact with others was limited for a long time, mostly to people who already knew the situation, due to just about everything regarding him in his current state being Classified Information. ]

No worries, I forgot to bring it up myself. The name's Chase.

[vicissitudinal]

It's been good to meet you, although... [He does finally decide to discuss the element in the room.] Do you not have a way to disengage from those?

[He casually motions to the fan in his hand.] Perhaps you could trade it to another robot for something less...distracting.

[torso]

Yyyeah, that's kinda the problem with them. No option to put them away, but it looks like I would be able to send them to someone else.

[ Pauses, considering. ] Haven't asked the robots, though. Honestly, most of them have been ignoring me since I'm not dressed for the occasion and don't have any, uh. Credits.

[vicissitudinal]

I see. [The robots have been very stringent about their clothing rules...] I wonder if a holographic overlay over your own could simulate clothing enough to convince them.

[torso]

I'd have to be able to design one, and that's not quite my forte.

[ Despite spending actual years projecting his image, he's changed it up exactly once, to something another person had made at his request. It'd take longer than the effort would be worth, and he's sure it'd wind up looking bad, to boot.

He laughs a little as a thought strikes him. ] Wouldn't be surprised if they'd prefer me showing up naked to whatever I'd come up with.

[vicissitudinal]

[Exxis shifts the droopy fabric of the toga he's wearing to reach into one of his many pockets and pull out a small device. He right eye blinks twice, activating it and a small light on it blinks twice back in return.]

This device can do the same, if you are interested in trying. It's for cloaking and assimilation purposes. We would need to stand next to each other to allow for a projected overlay onto yourself as it cannot be...attached, but otherwise it would look as if you were wearing the required clothing.

[torso]

Oh, nice.

[ He's not seen this exactly, doesn't think he could duplicate what Exxis just did to interact with it, but he doesn't need to if the offer is being made to give him a hand in order to, well, finally free up a hand here. ]

Yeah, man, let's give it a try. You think it's gonna be a problem if I'm suited up to the neck under it? 'Cause I can take that stuff off buuut it doesn't leave much to the imagination, you hear me?

[ Yes, he recognises the irony of giving the warning while standing in a veritable sea of dong, but Chase would rather give the guy a chance to tell him it'll work before he jumps straight into that kinda thing. ]

[vicissitudinal]

[Exxis pulls the neckline of his own toga away to reveal the black skintight tactic shirt he always wears.]

They do not seem to care as long as the traditional clothing are also worn. And the assimilation device will overlay onto your own hologram, it should not disrupt it as long as we are not as a distance from each other.

[If Chase accepts, he'll program the style into it himself, which is noticeable from the glowing of his one eye. Then he holds it up and the little crescent shaped device blinks twice in return before a projection of light flashes in Chase's direction. Within seconds the toga would appear, draped almost perfectly over his non-existent shoulders in shades of black, blues, and silver ombre that swirls back onto itself.]

Is this appropriate? I could adjust the design if you prefer.

[torso]

[ Chase looks down, appreciating the change. It's the second time his outfit has switched up in any capacity in the past four years, so it's a little bizarre to see, but he likes it. ]

Nah, this looks great. Couldn't have picked out a better design myself.

[ He really couldn't. He looks around, trying to find a robot who might not have been paying attention when the overlay dropped. ]

Should we give it a try?

[vicissitudinal]

[Exxis smiles and nods, spots a robot that was advertising paintings. Paintings of male genitalia in various poses, usually erect. It was closest and Exxis did not think they were going to purchase anything, merely test the robot. He points out the robot to Chase.]

That one seems suitable.

[torso]

[ Chase heads over, has a nice conversation that includes him leaning harmlessly on the display as he talks to the robot, aaaand... Shuffles back towards Exxis with an uncertain look to his face. ]

That's a no-go on the trade but it offered to send me some files of the paintings to "spruce up" the design of my robe?

[ He declined, obviously. He didn't want to risk his suit beneath to get covered in dicks by accepting. ]

Sooo... I think we're going with partial success.

[vicissitudinal]

So they accept it's a toga...but don't want to take the files? [That was not the expected outcome there. But what else should he have expected? These robots can be far too focused on their directives.]

I wonder if perhaps we might encourage them to take them through bartering. Have you performed any Acts as of yet?