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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
Yeah, I just uh, washed up the other day. [ Of all the stragglers he has seem in similar situations, he doesn't remember seeing Apollo among them. So what does that mean? ] Wait, so how long have you been 'here', then?
[ As if things weren't strange enough already. Surely he would have heard something about Apollo going 'missing' if they hadn't arrived at the same time. ]
no subject
[Apollo casts a suspicious look at the ocean before looking back to Phoenix, frowning a little. Why did he even need to ask? Sure, Apollo wasn't in the same country anymore, but he thought he was still calling them regularly enough for someone to notice his disappearance. Unless they thought he was just swamped with work... which was a perfectly reasonable assumption, he had to admit.]
It's been about two months now. Prosecutor Gavin showed up last month, and between you and me, I think he's having a tough time with the general lack of luxuries here.
[Then Apollo pauses, because... if he somehow bypassed the normal way that people arrive, then did the robots even know to give the same speech the Augur usually did?]
Did you at least get filled in on, uh, how things work around here...?
no subject
[ Come to think of it, dragging himself out of the ocean as he had the other day might not even be the worst he's experienced. Top 5, maybe. ]
Oh, yeah, they gave me the uh... gist of it. [ He holds up his wrist with the bracelet device, giving it a skeptical look. Sure they had told him, but actually believing it- he still wasn't convinced. Or at least, wasn't letting himself be convinced. ] It's some kind of joke, right?
no subject
[Apollo's face is starting to turn a little red, but he's at least grateful that he won't have to sit down and give Phoenix the whole 'welcome to sex island' talk. That was one silver lining to all of this.]
It's not a joke, though I really wish it was. There's not a whole lot out in the city, so the A5 cards are, uh, one of the few ways we have of requesting resources. The robots and the Augur don't seem to respond to anything else.
[And sure, Apollo managed to make that explanation completely professional, but he's still a little too embarrassed to meet Phoenix's gaze now.]
no subject
[ He twists his wrist, watching the bracelet bounce against it. To think such a thing is really possible- he's not sure if he's in awe or horrified. H-awe-rrified? Of the great number of things he's done to get by this... is certainly something else. ]
I guess it could be worse? [ Could it? He's trying to take it in stride. ] So, uh, any... tips?
[ Wait, he does not like how that sounds. ]
no subject
Uh... okay. There's monsters outside the city, plants that shoot things at you, and we even had zombies come out of the water once, so watch out for those. Sometimes you can find supplies if you look through the empty buildings, but it's not usually in good repair.
[And that was just the more mundane stuff...]
The robots give out canned food if you pester them enough, but it's laced with something, so be careful if you aren't getting food from the greenhouse or another source. Don't bother with the library, there's nothing but porn in it. And, uh... most people seem pretty willing to... you know, help with squares if you need it. So there's that.
no subject
I see.
[ That's going to take a while for him to process. As he watches Apollo explain, his expression becomes a bit more serious. ]
Have you been alright, then? Dealing with all of this.
no subject
[That question is a lot harder to answer. It doesn't help that Apollo's becoming slowly clued into the fact that some things were a little off; Klavier hadn't remembered who Athena was and talked about the Gavinners breaking up like it happened weeks ago, not well over a year ago.
Did Phoenix remember anything about the past year? How much did he know?]
I'm settled in, more or less. I got a little hurt during the zombie attack and sort of freaked out, but I'm fine! I had friends nearby, and I got fixed up at the hospital. They have some incredible tech there.
[It's the truth, even if he's omitting a few details.]
no subject
Wow. [ That's all about he can manage at this point, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. Did people really get used to that kind of thing? ] I'm glad you're doing alright, at least.
no subject
But Apollo takes a deep breath and straightens his stance, offering him a little smile.] Yeah, I am.
I'm a little more worried about you right now, Mr. Wright. Just let me know if you need anything, okay? I'm sure I have some extra supplies lying around.