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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 |
ren... ren plz
[ So Maruki mostly just gapes like a ruddy fish as Ren sidles up out of nowhere like a spirit to take the dick right out of his hand like it's no big deal at all, like Maruki didn't just have his entire vision for their future gutted and cast aside, like he's not still wearing bruises here and there from that probably pointless scuffle of theirs. It couldn't have been more than a matter of days since all that, right?
Right...?
Well, the heart knows what it believes the truth to be. And isn't that always how it is? For a moment, it's as if the entirety of this new, strange world has shrunk down to the head of a pin, and there he stands. Amamiya-kun. Like it's nothing at all. ]
But -- why? Why are you here?
[ The way he asks the question, he's really not happy or unhappy about it. But these circumstances do have a way of scraping open an aching set of wounds that haven't really even begun to close. ]
he's gotta
[ That's the big truth he's figured out so far. There isn't a rhyme or reason to it, although they're technically here to save the world via sex.
But like, "why" still exists and the answer is still "just because I said so". ]
Don't worry about it too much, is my advice.
wish u wouldn't, bud (jk he's perfect)
...is what a less patient and more self-involved person would say, but in this case, in their case, the first thing that actually happens is Maruki sort of gasps out a laugh -- a fragile sound, breathy and soft and a little bit pained -- and sags against the wall just behind him. ]
Haha... you really never change, do you? No matter what happens, you're always still just...
[ Because on closer inspection, Maruki actually looks like a bit of a wreck. Dejected, dark circles under his eyes. Exhausted inside and out.
He dares to glance in Ren's direction. What a time to have to do this. What a setting. Truth be told, he'd like nothing more than to shut himself away in a quiet room somewhere, maybe stay there forever, or however long it takes to sort his thoughts out.
When the Phantom Thieves turned all the others... is this what that felt like? There's a piece of him that wants to press his forehead to the ground in front of Amamiya's feet, to cry, to apologize for days. He almost does it, too; he can feel the weight of the words in his mouth.
There's another piece of him that genuinely wonders if this entire changed world isn't a sign that he succeeded after all. Somehow. So instead of apologizing to Ren like he wants to, he just says (tiredly, a little sadly): ]
You're... pretty amazing, Amamiya-kun.
[ Sigh. ]
So when you say "a while"...?
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He's not much for grudges in the very end. Sure, he gets angry sometimes, but...he's also a lot more willing to forgive than most people. Even when people try to murder him. It's an issue. ]
It's been a few months for me. The people here aren't bad, generally...
[ Ironically he's run into less messed up people here than back home! ]
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M-Months--?
[ Trawling on in the background, irrespective of the gravity of the moment, a parade of dongs. Luckily, the absurdity of the whole scene seems to be just what Maruki needs to overcome his momentary dismay; hard to say whether staring gobsmacked at Ren with his mouth full of dickpop is better than navelgazing, but it... sure is something. ]
I heard the rumors... that things work a little differently here, that is. But I never really thought...
[ Maybe anything's possible here... huh. ]
Maybe anything's possible in a place like this, huh, Amamiya-kun?
[ Maybe this world's even more malleable than it seems, maybe -- maybe this is a bad idea. The wrong train of thought. ]
More importantly, though, how, um...
[ With a wash of something like guilt or shame, Maruki glances away for a minute before his gaze slides back and drags over Ren's inscrutable face. ]
...how has it been here? For you. Are you--
[ "Happy now?" ]
--doing okay?
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[ He's always been easy to adapt, when it comes down to it. Being taken from everything he knows and thrown elsewhere...
Well, it's not the first time it's ever happened. And it's apparently not about to be the last, either. ]
I've been getting by, at least. I'll just assume you got the rundown already...