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

[occulti]

<sub>[ It’s always jarring to try and figure out where to start. “Number Four, cause my dad was an asshole and couldn’t bother naming us.”

Or..

“Klaus, cause that is the name my robot mommy gave me.”

They’re always conversation starters, but never pleasant ones.

He reaches out to shake Ryuji’s hand. ]</sub>

Klaus. Oh, wait.. Ryuji is Japanese, right?

[skullmish]

[Ryuji nods, and even though he doesn't usually shake hands he will since it'd make the atmosphere awkward if he didn't.

Then again, he's not sure it COULD be more awkward even if he tried to make it so.]

Yeah. And with a name like yours I'm guessing you're not Japanese.

[What is "Klaus", like...German? Ryuji is a godawful student so even if he tried to pay attention in class he wouldn't know.]

[occulti]

_{[ Don’t worry, Ryuji. Klaus will do the honors of making it awkward. ]}

Haha, ch’yeah. I don’t know what I am other than a disappointment.

_{[ He says this but with a smile. Klaus, don’t. ]}

Anyone from your home here or is it just you?

[skullmish]

[DUDE...Ryuji's expression sort of tightens a little, but he decides to just slide past that quickly.]

Jus' one so far. One of the girls from my class.

[Ann...he'll run into Ren later, when he inevitably tries to muscle his way into his tent.]

Might as well just be me, though. She didn't know any more about this place than I do.

[occulti]

Yeah? Do you think she’s cute?

_{[ don’t try to wingman YOU JUST MET HIM. Anyway, he seems completely at ease to be in a new place. Way too relaxed. It’s weird. ]}

I found one of my brothers here. My dead tentacle brother. But guess what! He’s alive. So that’s great.

_{[ that may explain why he’s in such a good mood. ]}

I don’t know anything about this place either, but dicks and debauchery are sort of my thing.

_{[ also might be why he seems so chipper. ]}

[skullmish]

What? [At first it seems like Ryuji is going to be all NO WHAT SHE'S JUST MY FRIEND MAN, but...Ryuji likes the ladies, and even if he doesn't have any specific crush on anyone right now...he has no reason to hide it. Especially not when he's intoxicated.] Well yeah, duh. 'Course she is. She does like, modeling gigs and stuff, so she knows it too.

[Of course, his response is a little short lived as he's left just...squinting. After Klaus says that.]

Your...you lost me there.

[occulti]

Oooh, a model. I've had my.. times with them. Mostly good, I assure you. Okay, well.. if you need any tips or help with that, you let me know. I'm rooting for you.

_{[ A beat. Right. ]}

Well my brother.. he died. Tragically, really. A very young age. But he ended up here and.. somehow he's alive again. So that's good..!

_{[ Another beat. ]}

And he has a Cthulhu monster inside of his body that occasionally bursts out and kills people, but.. he has a great personality.

[skullmish]

[Ryuji's brow furrows a little. Yeah this guy definitely thinks he's trying to get with Ann...and while maybe he might do the whole "dude no we're just friends" thing normally, he is just way too out of it to care to bother. Instead he just sort of inclines his head in acknowledgement because the rest of what Klaus says completely loses him.

He may have been better off without the explanation, now that he thinks about it.]

So, like...don't that mean if it does that here, he'd just die again?

[occulti]

Hmmmmmmm. No, not really. It's more of like.. a portal-y thing than it coming out of his actual chest.
It's just sort of dangerous.

_{[ We speculate it is what actually killed Ben— having his own monster turn on him— but who knows. ]}

Neater than my ability, that's for sure.

[skullmish]

[Ryuji smirks.]

Well you know you can't just say that and not tell me what yours is.

[He's jealous you guys HAVE cool powers...at least ones you can use in the real world, anyway.]

[occulti]

_{[ Klaus sighs, pursing his lips together. ]}

It's reaaaaaalllly stupid, you sure you wanna know?

[skullmish]

Trust me man, I do.

[Look at Ryuji, he's like. King stupid.]