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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 |
no subject
Allura, what are you talking about? We made it back to our reality just fine. But Lotor stole the comet from us and we've been trying to get it back ever since. Haven't had any luck finding Lotor, but I did find Shiro.
[ Frowning a little, he continues. ]
Do you seriously not remember any of this?
no subject
Lotor? Oh no. Keith, what...?
[ Her gaze drops to the ground, fist clenching. The remains of the ice cream she's holding are all but forgotten as they continues to dribble down her wrist. ]
I don't remember that at all. But if that's true... oh... Of course. He was waiting for us, wasn't he? How could I be so stupid.
[ She shakes her head, overcome with anger at her own mistakes. Still there's good news there, too. ]
Is Shiro all right? What happened to him?
no subject
[ He gives Allura an appraising look. It's obvious enough that her confusion isn't feigned and he doubts she'd be pretending to have amnesia for shits and giggles. It's disconcerting to say the least, and Keith isn't sure what to make of it right now. He remains guarded, unsure if he's dealing with yet another alternate reality situation or if he should stop talking entirely just in case he creates a time paradox. ]
It's ... Shiro is fine. [ At least in some sense of it. Certainly better than dead at any rate. ] Maybe we should talk about something else.
no subject
I'm so glad, and relieved that he's been returned to us safely.
[ Her ears droop slightly, but she nods. If he doesn't want to talk about it, she won't press him for more information just yet. ]
All right. Ah... this is... certainly a strange situation we've found ourselves in, is it not? I'm pleased to see you, but I can't help but feel it'd be better if you were back with the team.
[ If Shiro is back, then that kind of makes her the superfluous one, doesn't it? She'd only stepped in as a paladin because they'd been short after his disappearance. ]
no subject
Strange is one way of putting it.
[ Of all places one could be stranded why is it sex island? ]
It's more of a problem that you're here, isn't it? HOw is the team supposed to form Voltron or go anywhere without you to open wormholes?
[ His own presence here doesn't matter nearly as much when they have Shiro to lead and pilot the Black Lion again. ]
no subject
[ But... if it's both of them, what then? How many members can the team lose before they're unable to function? Allura shakes her head. ]
But now that you're here, we can work together to find a way home.
no subject
In some respects, it'd almost be easier if the reason she doesn't remember what he does really is due to her coming from an alternate reality, if only because that doesn't compound the problem back home.
For now, the details are neither here nor there. ]
Right. [ He gives her a nod. ] DO you have any dieas?
no subject
[ Looking down at her hand and the melted ice cream, Allura sighs. She glances around for a garbage bin and moves to toss what's left of her cone. She's lost her appetite. ]
Walk with me? Everything here is a bit... distracting.
no subject
[ He starts walking alongside her, pointedly ignoring the display of toys in every shape and color on display. ]
Speaking of Pidge -- building something that can broadcast a distress signal might help. It's how she got out of the trash nebula.
no subject
[ Pausing at a fountain, Allura rinses her hands and shakes them off. ]
It seems this place is some sort of... crossroads of a vast number of realities. There are robots, so there must be enough erstwhile pieces of tech for us to work with, don't you think? And there are others here who I'm sure are just as eager to return to their respective homes--perhaps there are some among them with the knowledge and willingness to help.
no subject
[ The place isn't exactly subtle about its power source and Keith doesn't really want anything to do with it, thanks. Grumping aside: ]
What time loop? What happened to Coran?
[ Maybe she really is from an alternate reality after all??? ]
no subject
I think it's fairly clear how it would have to be powered. It seems there's only one energy source in this place.
[ Keith's question makes her blink, and she shakes her head in amusement. ]
I suppose I never did tell you all about what happened after the lions were all separated. The wormhole I'd opened became destabilized due to Haggar's magic; rather than an exit point, the tunnel terminated in what seemed like ... a void. There were no readings we could detect. At any rate, when we entered the void, it returned us to the point of origin, only Coran seemed years younger and the mice had been transformed into some bushy-tailed creatures.
[ Because Altea didn't have squirrels, apparently. ]
Each time we hit the void, we'd be returned to the same point in time as before, only Coran kept growing younger and the mice kept changing into different sorts of animals. I was the only one who was unaffected, apparently. Thankfully, Pidge's beacon gave us a way to escape in the nick of time. I had Coran in my arms--he was just a baby. If we'd passed through the void again, he would have disappeared altogether.
no subject
That ... sounds completely insane.
[ Surely if this happened, this wouldn't be the first time he's heard of it?? ]
no subject
no subject
[ The chatter probably wouldn't have annoyed him as much if he weren't so preoccupied with Shiro getting patched up in the healing pod and trying to forget that about that awkward "if something happens to me" conversation. Keith lets out a deep sigh, then splashes his own hands with water to get any dicksicle residue off his gloves before it gets sticky. ]
He probaly left out the part where the mermaid instantly regretted doing that.
no subject
I'm sure Lance will meet someone someday who doesn't mind... all that.
[ Not her, though. Astrals, not her.
After a moment, she casually gestures to the bracelet on Keith's wrist. ]
I see you received one as well.
no subject
Wish I didn't. Don't know what the Augur is thinking, but this stuff is pretty messed up.
no subject
[ Not that Keith necessarily wants to see everything on her card, but he's about to. She pulls it up, projecting a holographic image. ]
Kissing and cuddling? That's... not bad.
[ Of course, now that she's looking at it with another person present, some of the squares make her face turn bright red. ]
no subject
Oh. I ... am not sure what some of that even is.
[ Pointedly avoiding eye contact with both the princess and her card, he continues. This is all just fine. Surely. ]
Well hopefully you won't have to do any of these things.
[ ...And also maybe she won't ask to see his card because he is very much still not acknowledging any of it. ]
no subject
[ With the press of a button, she dismisses the card. ]
We can hope, but... we might also need to be prepared for the possibility that we'll be stuck here for a while. A few of the people I've spoken to have been here for months on end, Keith.
no subject
Wouldn't be so sure about that. The Augur thinks whipping is a good time.
[ Not that this is on his card that he isn't talking about or anything. He straightens up. ]
I don't want to think about us being stuck here for months. We don't have that kind of time. [ A beat. ] And besides ... this is all....
[ Rather than finishing the sentence, he trails off. ]