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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 |
Ivan Karelin | Tiger & Bunny | let's try this again!!
[ Ivan slogs through the water, trying to swim despite the heavy clothes clinging to his body. He spits water like a park fountain. He flounders, he goes under, he rolls forward--
Incoming ninja rocket! ]
[ Crabs ]
Ow! [ When the crab snaps at his ankle, Ivan reaches down to grab it but misses. The creature is free and he... has never felt so inclined to ask the person next to him for a cozy little favor. Maybe a hug?
It's not so easy, though. He's not so bold. ] Excuse me? If you don't mind...
[ Phestival ]
[ Wearing a purple sheet with shuriken on it, he curiously wanders the festival.
"You there!" a robot calls out to him. "Would you like new clothes?"
It holds up a maid outfit. Ivan pauses. ]
Cosplay...?
[You've got crabs]
Mind what?
[He'll just scoop that little guy up. Carefully. And hand it over-]
I think he was yours.
[crab battle intensifies]
Ah--
[ he fumbles with it, but ultimately manages to get his hands around its claws. hah!
aaaaand just kidding, he drops the crab and it hurries off with a parting snap in amuro's direction ]
If you don't mind, I thought we might become friends?
[crab battle!!]
Uh... sure?
[Well, this guy is forward enough. Probably mostly harmless, though.]
I'm Amuro. Are you alright? You haven't been out here in the sun too long, have you?
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Ivan. I think I must have... [ he takes the lukewarm reception to heart and curses inwardly - of course he shouldn't have asked. he's probably imposing. he probably sounds weird. ] I'm sorry. I'll go. It's probably safer in the shade.
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[ Except that he steps on another crab as he's walking away. ]
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No. [ And here they are in the shade, how nice! ] At least they probably won't follow us here. Are you new, too?
[ Arrival ]
She wasn't expecting someone to just burst out of the water like that, though.]
Whoa!
[Thankfully she was far enough away from him to avoid being struck by him or splashed by the water. She hurried down the beach towards him as he landed on the sand.]
Are you okay?
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[ He shakes like a dog. ]
I'm sorry! I didn't mean to... I mean, I just wanted to start drying off, but I... I'm fine, are you okay?
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Yeah, I'm fine. I'm glad you're okay - the means of arrival seems a bit rough this time.
[One of the robots attending to the new arrivals trundled up at this point and offered Ivan a towel and a bracelet. She eyed the bracelet a little, but all things considered it was better to have it than not.]
You should take those.
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[ He takes the robot's offerings and slips the bracelet on. Without looking at what it's doing, he begins to towel-dry his hair. ]
I think there's something on your forehead. [ No. Wait. It moves every time his hand does. Is this a projection? ] "Free space"?
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[Realizing that Ivan must have accidentally triggered his A5 card, Zoe stepped to the side so that it wasn't being project directly on top of her, deliberately not looking at its contents.]
That's one of the things you'll have to deal with while you're here, unfortunately.
[Zoe took a deep breath before speaking again.]
You've been brought to a different world than your own. We're on an island - the robots here haven't provided a name for it. Starting three months ago, groups of people have been brought here against their will, and nobody's found a way to get back home yet. According to the robots, who were the only residents here before we started arriving, the reason we've been brought here is to bring life back to this world. And there is at least some truth to that - I was in the first batch to arrive, and there was nothing growing here then, nor were there any animals living here. But as you can see - [she gestured to a nearby tree] - that has changed.
[And now comes the stuff that's really awkward to explain.]
The means by which this planet is being revitalized is what the robots call 'eros energy' - by which they mean people having sex with each other. Everyone who's brought here is given a bracelet, which connects to a communications network... and also contains what's basically a bingo card of the stuff the robots want us to do. If you mark off squares, you can ask for rewards from the Augur, which seems to be the main intelligence behind the robot's actions. This island doesn't have a lot in the way of resources, so unfortunately that's the only way we've really been able to improve the living situation in this place.
[Are Zoe's cheeks a little pink after having to explain all that to a stranger? Yes, they are.]
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[ "Free space" wavers and comes to a stop as Ivan's hands freeze midway through a vigorous towel-stroke. ]
You've been here for three months? Does anyone know that you're missing?
[ Ivan fiddles with the bracelet, casting a full bingo card on the sand in front of himself. He doesn't even know some of those words. His face reddens, too. ] W- Wait, sex? This isn't funny...
[ Time to reassure her without letting her know who he really is. ]
But that's okay. Heroes will save us.
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[Zoe sighed.]
I'm not joking, though I wish I were.
['Heroes'? That's not quite the term she's used to, but...]
If you mean people with superpowers, there's already some here, but none of them have been able to get out of here either.
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[ Shit, he really spoke too soon. Not only does he have to figure out what she's talking about with "teammates" (is she part of a sports team, maybe?), but he's at risk of exposing his own identity. ]
Superpowers? Where I'm from, we... In Sternbild, people with powers are called "NEXT", and I'm sure they'll be able to rescue us. There has to be something they haven't tried yet.
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[Zoe hasn’t given up hope on getting out of here, but she doesn’t think it will be quickly or easily accomplished.
And what he’d described was definitely a bit different from what she was familiar with. Another alternate version of Earth, maybe?]
Is Sternbild where you’re from? I was living in Metropolis on Earth before getting brought here.
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[ And why is it always evil robots? ]
Yes, I live in Sternbild. It's a wonderful city. I've never heard of Metropolis, but I don't leave very often...
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I haven’t heard of Sternbild, either, but I’d love to hear more about it sometime.
[She kind of got the feeling that the whole everyone’s been taken from different worlds thing hadn’t sunk in for him yet, but she was sure he’d get it eventually.]
I’m Zoe, by the way. Zoe Saugin.
crabs
Right. Ivan. His name is Ivan. Wait, do they call each other by their civilian names here? Probably, right?? That's gonna feel sooo weird but hey it looks like the two heroes with the shittiest luck got blessed with a fully sponsored trip to Who the Fuck Knows, right?
Kotetsu sighs from where he's squat, poking at a few crabs with a stick as he ruminates over his fate here. He's still in miserable child mode over this whole affair. ]
Ehh? What's wrong, O-- Uhh... Iv...an...?
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Ti... [ Oh, but he called him Ivan. Right. Other people might be listening. ] Ko... tetsu-san...?
[ Were all of the Heroes being targeted, or was it just a few of them? ]
It's nothing.
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Er... sure. Well -- uuuh -- [ He scoops up a crab and throws it into the bucket he has. He's trying hard to not get pinched. He is candidate most likely to be victim to a crab attack. ]
You... holdin' up here? Okay?
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[ It takes awkward to know awkward.
No just kidding Ivan is the worst. ]
We're on a strange island with evil robots. I'm not doing well at all. But that's not what a Hero should say, is it? [ He winces as he narrowly sidesteps another crab. ] We'll both survive somehow.