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

mukbang... also

[acquaint]

[ it was honestly a matter of time before ingrid showed up? like they've been three for four now and sylvain was counting down the days to seeing ingrid again, as much as the alternative would have been better. none of them are where they should be, most of them remember different things—it's a big mess that he hasn't been able to puzzle out yet, but well. she's here now, and sylvain can't help but smile at the sight of her roving the stalls with her armful of food. never change, ingie. ]

Right? You get your meat and your dessert all in one. [ sylvain steps up next to her, sporting his own awful toga that they were gifted earlier in the day. ] Convenient, isn't it?

[ he asks the vendor for three, taking one for himself and handing the other two to her with a softer smile. ]

Good to see you, Ingrid.

[eques]

[ how is that awful, it's very cute.

and it's the first thing that ingrid notices when sylvain steps up next to her, unable to hide her amusement and letting out a chuckle. look, she's been giving a piece of cloth too and some instructions on how to wear it, but she's given up on trying it on, clumsy as she is when it comes to anything else but putting armour on. ]

You make it sound like we haven't seen each other for a while, Sylvain. [ she accepts her share with a smile. ] Don't tell me you've been walking around wearing that?

[ she can't see how that would be very attractive to the girls he's been flirting with. ]

[acquaint]

[ listen, if ingrid expressed any hint at all that she wanted to wear a toga with them, sylvain would help her with it. but this is ingrid, the same ingrid who only suffered through mercedes' makeover for the ball because no one can actually say no to mercedes, so the chances of her actually wanting to wear one is undoubtedly slim. it's fine, seeing her in her armor feels a little bit like being back home again, so he will let this opportunity pass.

anyway, he visibly deflates at what she says, a long-suffering sigh leaving him as he all but drapes his tall ass self over her shoulders. ]

Oh, Ingie... these few months here have been miserable without you. [ he laments, while sneaking a bite of her chocolate banana. ] This robe is all I've had to brighten up my days until you got here. Every night I fall asleep to the dulcet tones of Felix calling me a fool, it almost makes me miss your lectures.

[eques]

[ at least one thing hasn't changed: sylvain's a dead weight, with or without armour.

ingrid tries to shrug him off, her mouth pulling to a thin line when he takes a bite of her banana when he currently has one in hand. he's clearly being dramatic and she would've happily railed at him as she usually would, but his remark catches her attention and gets her to pause.

and no, it's not the remark about falling asleep to felix's verbal abuses and missing her own. ]

Few months? [ she glances at him sideways with a frown, head tilted in question. ] What do you mean "few months"? I've seen you only a day ago.

[acquaint]

[ he's definitely being dramatic, yes. is he going to stop? no. but he does sober up a little at what she says, straightening up and taking most of his weight off her shoulders. he's only talked about this to two others so far, and it's still a lot to take in after just arriving. but this is ingrid, and he's never been good at lying to her either, so— ]

Humor me, [ he says, nibbling on his corndog as he watches her expression. ] Before you got here, did we win the war back home?

[eques]

[ what a strange question to ask her, her brows furrowing as she meets his eyes. but having known him since forever, she can tell when he's joking and when he's not. despite the carefree expression that seems to regularly occupy his face, ingrid knows that this isn't something he would ask anyone for giggles. ]

... We did. [ she's very careful with that answer, uncertain as to how sylvain would react. ] You don't remember?

[acquaint]

[ the relief is obvious in his expression, one that he doesn't bother to hide. ]

I remember. And I remember Dimitri and our professor killing Edelgard, but she is here in this world. Alive and well.

[ this isn't something he'd lie about; the war took too much from all of them for him to make light of it. none of them wanted to fight, but they did it because they had to, because it needed to be done and now here they are, a country ravaged by war waiting for them to get back to. ]

I know it's hard to believe. [ sylvain sighs, rubbing the back of his head as he looks away. ] I didn't at first, but... it's the way this place works. There's some of us back home that are here who remember things differently.

[ there's a wry smile on his face when he looks back at ingrid, but it doesn't reach his eyes. ]

According to Hilda, Felix and I never made it out of the battle at Gronder.