![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
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. 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 |
no subject
She has a point: given how stingy every single robot's been about any amount of information concerning the island (including how to yeet oneself off of it), he's not convinced he won't be here for the foreseeable future. Not exactly an ideal situation, but he'll make do. He's learned to cope with worse. ]
Even if I told you, you wouldn't understand any of it. [ Wow, that sounds really presumptous. He makes a small hmmph noise and gets to work on Wall #2. ] Most Society members don't even understand.
[ We live in a Society.....literally. ]
no subject
Riveting. So then, what do you think about the island? Have you been here for very long?
[ If she won't be getting any info on Eustace, she might as well dig for info on this place... ]
no subject
A few days. Long enough to find out that none of the robots here know anything worthwhile.
[ He'd given up after the tenth time of being told to go reap the karmic rewards of entering into joyful bliss with another person. ]
I think the rules of this place are beyond obtuse but I don't see another way to proceed other than following them for the time being.
no subject
Well. We could always become an island of crab farmers. We've got all our starting materials right here.
[ She's not completely serious, but crab farming sounds a lot more palatable to her at the moment than gratuitous sex with strangers. ]
no subject
Crab farmers.
[ Just all of them on this island, with rolled up sleeves and straw hats, picking away at the crabs ready to decimate the island. Actually, all things considered, it's not a half-bad suggestion. It sounds peaceful, if nothing else, and only the gods know how much he needs that break. ]
Hmph. [ His hands, which had stopped moving briefly, get to work again. ] You'll need to practice your crab-hunting then.
no subject
[ She knows her hand-eye coordination sucks!! Get off her neck, man!! She digs around in the sand some more, scrounging up one more handful of promising crabfood before returning to Eustace with her haul.
She looks down at the top of his head as he works on the walls, does a double take, and then squints. After a moment, she reaches into her lab coat and pulls out a magnifying glass. Which she uses for a closer look at his head -- specifically his ears. She does this with zero shame or pretense of politeness, bending in for a nice, close look. ]
no subject
Except...she never gets to the part where she hands him the fruits of her labor. Instead, she stands there, shuffling around a bit. He stiffens, ears twitching irritably as he senses her leaning in closer. To do what, he has no idea, but he doesn't like it regardless! ]
What are you doing?
[ Hello?? They're supposed to be collecting crabs for credits here? Why even suggest being a crab farmer if she's not going to farm said crabs? ]
no subject
She leans over to the left, then to the right, scrutinizing his ears from different angles as they twitch. Then, very calmly and coolly, she straightens and slips her magnifying glass back into her pocket. She looks into the distance as if completely uninterested. ]
W-Wow, they've really started making them lifelike. Technology's come a long way.
[ Pay no attention to her stutter. Everything is perfectly fine and his ears are definitely fake. ]
no subject
boyfurry!!It takes him a moment to puzzle out just exactly what she's talking about. His gun, maybe? Certainly beyond the scope of the average level of tech found in any of the skydoms he's been to, but there's no way she could possibly know about—
Ah. Of course. He really should have expected this from the get-go. What else could she be talking about, when everyone else he's seen thus far in this place has been in possession of tiny human ears?
He sighs, and gets back to work. Construction of wall #3 starting in 3...2...1... ]
Hmph. Are you going to tell me next that the rest of my body is made of wire and metal too?
[ Please do not vivisect him in an attempt to find out. ]
no subject
Cat ears on a person don't make any sense! Why would a race of humans become evolutionarily divergent over cat ears, and only cat ears? They're not even on the same area of the skull! How would you like it if I evolved my nose onto my chin?!
[ She's barely coherent by the end of that, but such is the enormity of her scientific wrath. ]
no subject
Don't know. [ Sorry, Ema's going to have to stay perplexed on that one. ] Does it really matter right now?
[ Make like Elsa and let it go. Although, actually, while they're on the subject, he feels compelled to make one last point. ]
They're not all cat ears.
no subject
[ She's done with this topic!! She already knows the biology of Eustace's awful cat ears will haunt her waking hours and she hates it.
She drops her bucket of crab delights and aggressively squats next to him so that she can glare at his work. Hurry up, geez. ]
no subject
He's not a child, so he doesn't angrily retort back that those ears aren't in fact stupid, but he certainly does scowl further at the sand as he finishes up his handiwork. Once the last wall's complete, he abruptly stands. ]
There. Catch the rest on your own.
[ He's not going to stand here and tolerate insults towards his race. ]
no subject
That said... ]
Suit yourself. And... thanks.
[ Credit where credit's due and all. Assuming this plan pans out, he did do half the work. ]