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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 |
II
Oh! Takamaki-senpai!
[ How else did you address someone older than you? She hadn't gotten to spend a LOT of time around her and the rest of Ren's friends before the new year but it didn't diminish the fact that she was still a familiar face right now amidst all this mess. ]
It's alright! [ An almost sheepish laugh follows that. ] It's kind of hard to get around here and not look at... everything. You're not hurt, are you?
! a good girl arrives
Yoshizawa-chan! [ It's true that she barely knows Kasumi at all, but Ann is nonetheless incredibly happy to see a familiar face. ] I'm not hurt at all. Are you okay?
[ It's dumb, but Ann feels the sudden need to cover her junior's eyes and, y'know, defend her innocence or something, but Kasumi seems pretty composed. ]
Ryuji's here too, and I saw Ren and Doctor Maruki, too. That makes five of us from Shujin. Isn't that weird?
<3
I'm doing alright, I promise! There's no need to worry about me.
[ Even though she'd been here for a couple of months and was a tiny bit more desensitized to some of the things that went on here but not all of it. Especially since she wasn't wanting to look too much at the display of... well, everything too much. Her slightly pink cheeks told a story of that much at least so maybe it was a sign she'd still kept her innocence for the most part.
Not that she's going to want to talk about the things she's done here, however. ]
It is!
[ She frowned a bit out of concern before shaking her head and smiling once more. ]
I didn't know the others were here besides me and Senpai, though. You're the first one i've seen show up here, actually!
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[ In a non-sexy way, she means. ]
I met Ryuji on the beach, catching crabs. [ That sounds real bad when you say it like that. ] And I saw Doctor Maruki here at the festival just a little while ago.
Are you sure you're okay, though? You know you can count on me if you ever need anything, right?
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[ At least she doesn't get why Ann's wording is bad in any way, a soft laugh escaping her before she can stop herself otherwise. ]
It sounds like they're doing okay, at least. I'm glad.
[ For a second, something in her smile faltered but it was for such a brief moment it'd be hard to miss. Nothing too bad or anything, but more of something she couldn't put a finger on at the moment. ]
Thank you so much, Takamaki-san. I really appreciate the support. [ A pause. There's that falter again. She can't keep it up fully, can she? ] I admit it has been a little hard to adjust to the way things are here. Especially being so far from home.
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Just call me Ann, okay?
[ Ann is unsure how to respond--Yoshizawa was always closer to Ren than to the rest of the group. Even so, she rests her hand on the younger girl's shoulder and gives a squeeze. ]
It's hard when you're away from the people you love, but that's all the more reason to stick close to your friends, right?
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O-Oh! Alright! Then... if you're sure, you can call me Kasumi, okay?
[ Had they still been at home she may have persisted in calling her -san or even -senpai as she was older than her. Perhaps it was just due to her time here that she was not as against it. ]
You do have a point. I'm glad I have you guys all here with me, then.
[ Her smile was fully back and without any sadness to it whatsoever, genuinely happy she did have them here. ]