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

[shemara]

[Maybe she can't go home. Razz never mentions her being there after this point. She knew she did something that changed things for Etheria. But maybe she's not gone because she died. Maybe she's gone she's gone. And if she's not supposed to go back...what might happen if she does?]

No, I wanted to know more about why we're here. Why us. There has to be a reason.

[waswrongtoo]

Ah. Well... in that case, I think you're bound for disappointment even if they have fixed the Augur. The closest answer I've been able to find for that question is that we're all capable of generating great amounts of "Eros Energy". Why that's true of us specifically, they weren't at all clear on when I asked.

[Honestly, she's not sure their hosts know either.]

I will grant them this, though... it does appear to be working.

[shemara]

Eros Energy?

[She's never heard of that before. If her people had, she knows they would have been interested enough in trying to study it.]

What does Eros Energy do?

[waswrongtoo]

They're using it to restore this world from... whatever catastrophe resulted in it being in the state it was when the first group of us arrived. They aren't telling us what that was, assuming they know.

[Which is not reassuring in the slightest.]

So far, it's regrown a wide area of plantlife, brought back a few types of animal, restored the library and the public baths, and brought this beach back into someplace we can actually go. So it's clearly real.

[shemara]

...So we're hear to heal the world.

[Well...that certainly does brings some irony to it. Bringing her here for a job she failed to do in the world she wanted to save the most.]

We save the world from what destroyed it before and...what? Have they told us what they will then?

[waswrongtoo]

That's the general idea, yes.

[Summer's more used to "protect" rather than heal being the overarching mission, but all told she's quite alright with the goal. It's the methods that bug her.]

They haven't. It's generally assumed we'll be sent back where we came from, but I think that's just for lack of a better conclusion.

[shemara]

[So they may not send her back, is what she's getting from this. And if she doesn't go back, what Madame Razz said...about Adora doing what she couldn't, that might still happen.]

If this world needs us, then... I still want to talk to the Augur as soon as I can. I want to know all the expectations.

[Because she's not trusting an artificial intelligence to tell her how to do anything right now. Not after what happened to Light Hope.]

[waswrongtoo]

You don't need to talk to the Augur for that. Look on your left wrist.

[How exactly they managed to get the communication devices attached to people who appeared underwater, Summer can't possibly guess. But there it is.]

There's a program on there labeled "A5". Each of us has a slightly different one, and they each lay out the, ah... expectations being asked of us while we're here. You may not like what you see, though.

[In fact Summer's rather unhappy about having to tell her about it. But she'll have to deal with it sooner or later.]

[shemara]

[Mara does not like the sound of that at all. But she does what Summer says and opens up the program A5 on the strange communicator that is now attached to her arm. What she finds is...

...well, she was right. Mara definitely doesn't like it.]

Is this some kind of joke? What kind of expectations are these?

[Because it definitely seems like some kind of strange off-humor kind of prank.]

[waswrongtoo]

[Yep, that's pretty much exactly the sort of reaction Summer expected. Right down to how she doesn't even raise her voice. Summer hasn't known her long, but Mara doesn't seem the type.]

I wish I could say it was a joke, but... Well, they call it "Eros" energy for a reason, I suppose. As in "erotic", you see.

[Well, hopefully she sees. It occurs to Summer that translating those types of concepts might not be the world's most exact science. Nonetheless. at least it's clear Mara understands.

She may not be happy about it, completely justifiably, but she understands.]

You won't be forced to... ah, participate. You will, however, be heavily encouraged. Especially if you aren't careful about what you eat and drink.

[shemara]

[She may not understand all of them, but she understands enough of them that she can figure out the theme here.]

So they expect us to...do these things, with strangers. And that's supposed to help this world?

[Don't they have more efficient ways of doing things? Like technology? Magic?]

I would have expected fighting to happen, if they brought me here. [It's what everyone expects of She-Ra after all.]

[waswrongtoo]

[Now, Summer can't help but quirk a brow at that.]

Even if you're doing it to protect something, fighting is inherently destructive. I'm a warrior of a sort by trade myself, but I don't really think that's what this world needs.

[It's enough of a ruined mess as it is.]

Not to suggest I approve of this method, but at least there's a certain poetic logic behind it. Bringing new life, and such. And it has proven itself to work... somehow.

[shemara]

...That's not what I meant. I don't get why I'm here. This isn't what I do and I'm not really sure I'm okay with someone demanding it of me, either. Whether through force or "heavy encouragement."

[But then...was She-Ra only supposed to be for fighting? Mara had thought it was her job to protect, but how good of a job had she done at that? Fighting had bought Etheria time, but it hadn't saved anything. It had delayed the inevitable.

If she couldn't save her own world through fighting--the one thing she was good at--how she was supposed to save some other world doing something she had no idea about?]

[waswrongtoo]

I wouldn't expect you to be okay with it. In fact I think I'd be very worried about you if you were.

[Who the hell could just accept that sort of thing so casually, after all? Summer's pretty sure that hypothetical someone would have to be in a very unhealthy mental state.]

But I think I see what you're saying now. I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I'd like to say that I had at least some idea of why they chose you to be one of the people here, but I'm afraid I'm at a loss. This isn't the first time I've had this discussion, and we ended up going in circles then, too. Whatever they look for in their... subjects, it isn't obvious. If it helps, though, you're far from the only combat specialist among us.

[shemara]

Sounds more and more like this A.I. has a terrible sense of humor.

[She doesn't necessarily mean it, but it's all she has right then. It's all a bit too much. She sighs.]

...Thank you. For the information.

[waswrongtoo]

That is one possibility.

[It would certainly explain why it brought both her and her daughter here.]

You're welcome. I'm just... sorry I don't have any better news for you. If I can give just one little bit of advice... make friends. If you can find people from your home, wherever it might be, that's easiest, of course, but I find you can't count on that. Building relationships with the people here, finding ones you can trust... that's probably the most help you're going to find.

[shemara]

[Mara smiles a little at that.]

Yeah, friends do always make things better.

[She never would have managed to get as far as she did without Grayskull squadron. Without Madame Razz giving her hope of the future when she wasn't sure there would be one. Without Light Hope...]

I should find some place to settle myself before I decide what else I'm going to do. [Of which she is certainly not thinking right now of that card or anything on it. Nope.] Take care of yourself, Summer Rose.

[waswrongtoo]

Of course. If you need any help, just look me up with that device on your wrist there. I'll be under "STRQ Contrast".

[She pauses a moment.]

STRQ is pronounced "stark", for the record. Regardless... Good luck out there, Mara. I'm sure I'll see you again.