ercookies | TDM 004: WASHED ASHORE

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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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N A V I G A T I O N

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ By the time Marco speaks up to her, Kasumi's already gotten halfway through a drink of her own with eyes bright and cheeks lightly dusted pink. ]

I've been trying to figure that out, myself. It's really quite delicious, isn't it?

[ She has no idea that there's alcohol in this at all, but maybe that's for the best. It's making her a bit more friendly than she might have been normally. Hence her willingness to speak to a stranger she hadn't met before now. ]

Yeah, it is.

[Well, she's friendly and non-threatening, and the whole being-stranded-in-an-unfamiliar-place thing is making Marco lonely, so he scoots over a little closer to her so they can talk more easily.]

We don't have juices like this where I come from. Mostly just apples and pears and things.

[ As far as things went? Kasumi was probably the most non-threatening person around, until someone tried to mess with the people she cared about and then she did have some skills to back herself up with, thanks to her few excursions out with her persona.

Right now it was just her and this cute guy and he wasn't at all giving her any bad vibes whatsoever. Which meant she didn't mind when he scooted a little closer to her, fingers smoothing over a fold in her clothes absently. ]

Oh! I see. Were things quite scarce where you came from?

[ It's an honest thing to ask, she thinks. Though something else compels her to keep going before she can stop herself, still unaware of it being alcohol. ]

At least you'll have a chance to try a lot of new things while you're here, right?

[Marco has no desire to mess with anyone right now! He's just happy to have someone to talk to, and he smiles as she asks her questions.]

A lot more scarce than around here. There was a big famine a few years back, and a lot of places are just now getting back on their feet.

[If you can call it that.]

I guess so! [He lifts his cup towards her like a little toast.] To trying new things?

[Yeah, the alcohol is starting to hit him too.]

It must be a bit difficult to get by, then. I'm sorry things are like that for you.

[ Kasumi's expression is 100% sympathetic to him to match her words as she looks at him in this moment, her heart going out to him and the situation he had been in prior to arriving here. Not even that soft buzz clouding her head a bit could change that.

She blinked for a second before smiling and then raising her cup towards him in turn. This was how they did that, right? ]

To trying new things! Cheers!

[ With a small 'clink' that came when their cups met briefly, Kasumi brought hers back so she could take a good drink from it. Only after, finally realizing something. ]

Before I forget, though? My name is Kasumi Yoshizawa. It really is nice to meet you.

It is. Things are hard for a lot of people.

[Marco's expression clouds for a moment, but he pushes the grim thoughts about home away. He can worry about home when he is home, there's no point in fussing about it here.]

Cheers!

[They clink glasses, and Marco drinks deep before she tells him her name. The sound of it makes him sputter a little, and he chuckles quietly as he lowers his cup.]

I'm sorry, you're going to have to repeat that for me. It's really nice to meet you too, and I don't want to say your name wrong.

[ Briefly she had considered apologizing when she saw the way his expression had clouded up for a moment but held her tongue for the time being.

Instead opting to just bring her free hand up to stifle a soft giggle, not seeming at all offended that he wanted her to repeat her name for him. Kasumi knew not everyone here was from Japan, and some people came from different worlds entirely so of course some names would be a little harder to correctly get right the first time when one heard it. ]

There's no need to apologize. It's completely okay and I understand.

[ She nodded her head and cleared her throat. Slowing it down would help, hopefully. ]

Ka-su-mi Yo-shi-za-wa. Was that a bit easier to understand that time?

Ka-su-mi Yo-shi-za-wa.

[Marco repeats it carefully, hoping he doesn't completely butcher the pronunciation. It has a musical quality to it that he likes, and he repeats it a few more times, under his breath, to cement it in his mind.]

Much easier, thank you. Am I saying it right?

I'm Marco Bott.

[ For this being his first real time saying her name aloud, he did a fairly good job as far as she was concerned. Especially since he even repeated it a couple of times after that. ]

You're welcome! [ Kasumi gave a small nod, her eyes bright to match her smile. ] Mm-hm! You are, actually.

[ His name was definitely foreign sounding as well, which attributed to that he seemed from a different country or something along those lines. Something which still was just so fascinating to her. ]

That's a really good name, I think. It suits you quite well!

[Success! Marco is really pleased that he's not completely mispronouncing her name, and then she compliments his, which makes him laugh and his cheeks blush.]

Wow, thanks! You're the first person to say that.

[Basically ever.]

I am?

[ Kasumi blinks a bit before beaming once more with a nod of her head. It has to be because she's from a different world, probably. Since that name was definitely not common where she came from, but also a different country as well. ]

You're very welcome for it, then! I'm glad I could be the first person to tell you that, Marco.

[ Her accent is a little thick on some syllables of his name but she seemed to get it for the most part which is what mattered. ]

[Hey, if she's willing to be forgiving with his pronunciation, Marco is willing to be forgiving with hers. The question of how they're understanding each other won't occur to him until later.]

[Marco takes another sip from his cup, and is surprised to see that it's now empty. When did that happen? Before he can think too much on it, one of the robots is pressing another one into his hand, and that one is nice and full.]

They sure are generous around here.

[Down the hatch!]

So what's your world like? Is it anything like this place?

[ The idea they could all come from different worlds and countries and still be able to understand each other was still kind of baffling but she understood it for the most part. She'd come to terms with it being something that just kind of happened in this world, as a result of the machines that resided here... maybe even magic.

It was in spotting him get a new drink that made her realize she didn't have much left in her own, taking a sip to finish it off before another hands her a new one as well. ]

That is true! I suspect I know why, but it's better than them being hostile towards us.

[ Kasumi knew she could handle that if it happened, but preferred not to fight unless she had to. For the time being, there was something familiar she could speak of, since he'd asked that. ]

Not quite. Perhaps it's just because I live in a city, but it can get pretty crowded and hectic at times. Such as when I take the train to school as there's usually nowhere to sit. [ She let off a soft hum in thought before taking a sip of her drink. ] I wouldn't say there's really anything special about my world, though. There's always something to do and places to go and it's hard to be bored there where I live.

TDM 004: WASHED ASHORE

III

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