ercookies | TDM 004: WASHED ASHORE

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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!

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N A V I G A T I O N

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Typically speaking, a collision like that wouldn't affect Summer much. She'd stagger a bit, then smile and brush it off, possibly helping up the other person. It had happened plenty of times back in school.

But this woman sends her tumbling backwards onto her butt with an inelegant squawk, and she finds herself blinking in startlement for a moment at how much of an impact that was. Someone this size shouldn't have felt like that.]

Ah, I'm fine, nothing hurt but my pride. [She accepts the hand up and gives a reassuring smile, noting the raw strength in such a small frame... Well, some might note the same thing about her, so she can't be that surprised about that little detail.]

You're very... solid. [Seriously, it was like walking into a wall.]

[ 6O gave a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of her head, a habit born entirely out of imitation of human behavior, but felt just as natural to her as anything else. ]

We YoRHa units, even Operator Units like me, are built pretty sturdy. Other androids point this out a lot, but since I've spent basically my whole life with other YoRHa units, it's going to take me some getting used to not accidentally throwing my weight around, huh?

I'm Operator Unit 6O, by the way! But you can just call me 6O, heh...

[ It was a little strange. Part of what she was saying seemed to be operating under the assumption the woman she'd bumped into was also an android... ]

Edited 2020-08-23 18:46 (UTC)

[Androids? Well, that's a new one for her. Summer raises an eyebrow curiously.]

Summer Rose. Please, just call me Summer. Your world must be much more advanced than mine, 6O. I don't think even the most advanced civilization in my world could create a fully functional android like yourself.

[Which pretty much pulls the rug out from the possibility of her being one, herself.]

It sure did. And of course that made 6O's expression shift from polite friendliness to eyes going a bit wide, and leaning in close to... reach and press her hands to Summer's cheeks, as if to examine her.

Then Lys was right... she isn't the only humanoid here... Y-you're real. You're really real! An actual human!

[ It was... hard to place where 6O's tone was. It was a mix of reverence and apprehension, almost close to fear. It had fascination in there as well, as if she was being confronted with something at both times deeply alien but also deeply familiar... ]

[Well, that wasn't the reaction she'd have expected. Confused, but not pulling away from 6O's curious touch, Summer responded the best way she could think of.]

Um, yes? A hundred percent human, right here!

[Okay, so that was a little silly.]

I'm... a touch puzzled. Wouldn't you have met plenty of humans already? Your creators if no one else... or were they not human?

[Entirely possible, she supposed, but then how would she know what a human was?]

[ That was a tough one to answer. And it's something she'd thought about before. Mankind isolating itself was something she'd always accepted as a necessary truth of existence. Their only contact was via Command, and occasional messages from the Human Council, but she'd never seen one, never met one...

She'd studied humanity itself to find a proper metaphor for it. ]

Have you ever met the being that created humans? Well... it's the same for us androids.

[ "Have you ever met God?" She knew it was a heavy question, but it was the best way to convey the matter that she knew of. ]

Meeting humans... is like meeting God.

I haven't, no-

[Oh. That... yeah, that's kind of a wild comparison to make, but completely appropriate, now that she thinks about it.

And then 6O proceeds to just make it completely explicit what she means.]

Well. I can't say I've ever been seen in that light before. I... I rather hope I don't disappoint you.

[But then, how can she not, if she's being compared to a god of all things?]

[ 6O managed a smile, though it was an anxious one, visible beneath her veil. ]

It's fine! I just... I had no real expectations, but I'm still just...

[ Awestruck. Actual humans, on top of everything else she was experiencing. It was a lot. She felt a bit lightheaded, but that was probably purely just part of her imitation of human behavior. There was no functional reason for it. Still, she staggered... ]

It's just a bit startling to hear. Then again, I suppose the humans responsible for your creation would have been engineers and designers, anyway, and I'm neither, so-

[Summer's musings were cut short as she saw 6O wobble a bit. Momentarily forgetting how heavy she'd proven to be, Summer moved her hands out to steady the android]

Hey hey, careful! I'm not sure I'll be able to help you up as easily as you helped me!

S-sorry... [ Thankfully, 6O's internal stabilizers managed to adjust her balance. Why they had to was something she had no wherewithal to examine, but she appreciated Summer's support, either way. ]

I guess that makes my presence here more understandable. We YoRHa dedicate ourselves to the Glory of Mankind. It's basically our motto. So if there's humans here, I was sent here to help, for sure.

[ Not... that she could confirm any of that. No contact with Command, with the Bunker, with 2B. She felt lost, but... she had to find some sort of direction, right? There was no way she just wound up here by bizarre cosmic chance... ]

The... Glory of Mankind, huh?

[That sounds like some sort of human supremacy doctrine, which is... just a touch disturbing.]

What about non-humans? People as intelligent and dynamic as any human being, but who... simply are something else? What sort of orders would you have regarding them?

Non... humans? [ 6O looked puzzled for a moment. ]

Do you mean androids like me? I mean, that's really not the same. We're tools to serve mankind, after all. It's kind of our whole, like... thing.

I'm... not sure how comfortable I am hearing you talk about yourself like that, honestly. But no, that's not what I meant. My world has another species that shares it with humanity, called the faunus. And I know other worlds have species that are in similar situations. How would you react to them?

[She's a liiiiittle bit worried about her daughter's partner right now, if nobody else.]

[ 6O stared at Summer rather blankly for a moment, mostly because... what? Another world? A species that had sapience comparable to humans that shared that world with them? It just didn't seem to sink in, and she could only tilt her head, just... baffled by the concept.

She had no way of answering her. Those logic paths just weren't written. ]

[It takes several moments for Summer to realize that 6O isn't just startled at the concept, but seems to have completely lost the ability to speak simply by hearing about it.

Did... did she just crash her?]

6O? Are you... still there?

[ 6O blinked, and shook her head a bit, a physical reflex born from her internal data systems trying get her back on a functional track. ]

S-sorry! [ She waved her hands, cheeks darkening slightly. ] I guess I just can't answer that because I can't conceive it. I mean, I've never even met any sapient beings besides fellow YoRHa units, so it's something I have no ability to really even think about.

[ Androids struggled with hypotheticals, one supposed. ]

[So, difficulties in the imagination department. That... might prove troublesome for her while she was here.

Then again, the demands of their hosts usually didn't stay in the realm of the theoretical for long.]

Well, I suppose we'll just have to wait and see what happens when you meet one, then.

[Hopefully there aren't any "kill all non-humans" orders hidden away in her programming. Probably not, but Summer wouldn't put it past a group that programs their androids to serve "The Glory of Mankind".]

In the meantime, I suppose we should try to get you set up. A roof over your head and the like.

I mean... I'm an Operator, not a Battle Unit, or even a Scanner. I have no combat, or even self-defense, capabilities. My default protocols are usually to run away from anything that's threatening, not that the Bunker would ever face an invasion.

[ HA HA.... HA.... ANYWAYS, MOVING ON. ]

As for shelter, I'm pretty sturdy! If I can find a place where I'm relatively safe from sand or sea salt, I should be fine!

Oh. Well, I suppose there's nothing to worry about, then.

[At least, not from her. Summer's actually very relieved... though the comment about lacking self-defense is pretty worrying. There are threats around the city on occasion, after all.]

Sand and sea salt? So... basically you arrived in the worst possible environment you could have?

[That's almost comical.]

Let's get you off the beach then.

[ Another laugh, this time a lot brighter, shaking her head and waving off Summer's concern. ]

It's fine, it's fine! I'll go further inland when it's time for me to test, but for the moment, I can stay here and...

... Well. Try to ignore the festival, I guess.

[ She'd been escaping it when she collided with Summer in the first place. ]

[Yeah, Summer isn't so easily placated. She puts her hands on her hips and raises her eyebrow in a very mom fashion.]

That hardly seems wise. Especially if you have no pressing reason to be on the beach in the first place.

[Since after all, if she's avoiding the festival anyway, wouldn't anywhere else be a better place to be?]

Maybe not, but... [ 6O's smile only grows, brilliant even beneath her veil. ]

I've... never seen a beach before. I lived in the Bunker, in space, my entire existence. I've only witnessed the terrestrial world through pictures, videos... replications and approximations.

Everything here is so breathtakingly real... I don't want to just walk away from it without experiencing it for as long as I can.

[Okay, that she has less of an objection to. After all, how can she deny someone who's never been to the beach before a chance to stay out and enjoy themselves for a bit?

Even if it might not be exceptionally healthy.]

Well, I can hardly argue with that. Wait, you said in space? Your world has ways to travel off your planet too?

[One day Summer will stop being amazed by this. Today is not that day.]

[ "Your world". There was that term again. Something she lacked the protocols to even really consider. It could have easily just have been not said at all... Maybe someday it'd be compatible with her sense of logic, but for the moment, she can only sally forth. ]

Oh yeah! If not for space travel, the human race wouldn't have even survived. They currently live in a special base on the moon, while the planet below is still a warzone.

[ wait what ]

Oh... Remnant's not far from that sort of situation, ourselves.

[Indeed, for someone like her, who knows more about the situation than most, it sometimes feels like the whole world is about ready to collapse at the slightest push.

The difference being, they can't escape the planet if it comes to that.]

So that's why you and yours were created, then? To fight the war your humans lost?

TDM 004: WASHED ASHORE

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of course i broke my formatting in the last tag oop

It happens!

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