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

[instrumentalized]

... no.

[ Okay, let him just finish his food so he can toss the stick aside and twirl his hair as he speaks, it helps him focus. ]

You're still thinking too small. The colonies house a majority of human population. There are seven Sides and most of them are made up of several cylinders. They house landscapes, cities, theme parks... Space migration is a major fact of daily life.

In my time, we are currently at war with the Earth Federation over attaining independence. That's how far space living has progressed.

[marmoron]

Oh.

[ He blinks, finally starting to get the picture here. It's honestly strange to think about being in a space war with Earth of all places. Even stranger to be told he's the one thinking on small scales considering what he's been through in the last several months. ]

Well. You're definitely not from the same timeline.

[instrumentalized]

I was getting that impression, yes.

[ It is so strange to explain the very basis of his life as if it's a sci-fi concept... ]

You said you were interested in space travel, though? What is the state of it on your Earth?

[marmoron]

[ He's still frowning a little at Garma, though he's not exactly sure how to feel about what he's just heard still. He eats the last of his taiyaki and claps his hands clean before folding his arms. ]

So far, the Earth I'm from has sent astronauts out to Kerberos. One of the moons on the farthest planet in our solar system. [ If that's rdundant information, well Garma's getting it anyway. ]

But there are aliens -- the Galran empire -- who've discovered our solar system. They have technology advanced enough to destroy whole planets with ease. [ A beat. ] So far they haven't attacked Earth because they're focusing their efforts on retrieving the Voltron Lions from me and my team.

[instrumentalized]

[ Huh. That's... certainly very different. For as much as human life has spread out during the Universal Century, aliens have remained a concept firmly rooted in science fiction and conspiracy theories. Garma blinks, looking equally baffled now. ]

So you haven't settled anything yet? Not even the moon? That... dos not sound like you are equipped to deal with invasion. We haven't even made first contact with anything and we've settled the whole Earth sphere and a little beyond...

[marmoron]

[ Keith's expression sours. ]

Yeah, well. That's part of why I have to get back home instead of messing around in a place like this.

[ Not that he really expects Garma to relate to sentiments like that. ]

[instrumentalized]

[ Garma's face does turn serious at that, though. ]

I certainly have sympathy for this plight. If it were possible for me to return and change anything about my war, I would feel much the same.

[ He knows, now, that they lose the war and the people he loves will die. People from his world have kindly informed him. But if it wasn't so... he'd do anything to get back. ]

Many people are searching for ways home, at least.

[marmoron]

Not that there's been much success.

[ He sighs at that, not bothering to hide just how tired he feels already. ]

Technically my lion has the ability to travel between realities, but I think the other four lions all have to be here in order to cut open an entry point between universes. It'll probably be better to bank on seizing control of whatever device was used to bring us here in the first place.

[instrumentalized]

[ ... there is a lot of information in all this and Garma is visibly struggling to keep up with all the weird technological differences, but then... ]

... why lions? If I may ask.

[marmoron]

Huh?

[ The question throws him off visibly. Ever since he figured out that the energy calling to him from the desert likely belonged to a mysterious blue lion, he'd merely accepted the concept. He hasn't taken a step back to evaluate why the hell lions even existed on Altea to begin with. ]

...I don't actually know the answer to that.

[ Especially now that he's seen what the transreality comets looked like in their original form it seems all the stranger than ever that Alfor took the time to lovingly craft those comets into lion shape. ]

Guess the creator of the Voltron lions just... had a thing for them.

[instrumentalized]

Huh.

[ 'Huh' has been his feeling about so much of this, might as well say it out loud. ]

Mobile Suits are humanoid, but I always assumed my brother's design team chose that based on adaptability to known combat styles and the like. A lion felt... less intuitive.

[marmoron]

Wait. Your ship is a human shaped robot?

[ And here he thought this dude was talking about lil spaceships and fighter jets. ]

[instrumentalized]

Oh, no, my ship is the Gaw, shaped like... well, a ship. I do own a Zaku though, which is a 'human-shaped robot' if you really will.

[ It feels like a kind of disgraceful description, but he can deal. ]

Mobile Suits, which are humanoid by default, are the state of the art warfare weapon currently.

[marmoron]

.. I see.

[ He definitely does not see. ]

So you and your brothers are all engineers as well then?

[instrumentalized]

No, we're all military. My brother Dozle merely oversaw the development of mobile suits at his base.

I say 'merely' because he did not have a hand in the design process itself, but it is still no small feat.

[ Can't sell his bro short, he loves his bro!! ..... who is also dead. Not thinking of that now. Nope nope nope. ]

[marmoron]

Dozle.

[ Excuse him while he sounds a lil incredulous, but what kind of future Earth name is Dozle... ]

Right. Ok. Military. So that explains the uniform then.

[instrumentalized]

[ The repeating of the name just earns Keith an eyebrow-raise. You got a problem with his brother? ]

Yes. You're speaking to Colonel Garma Zabi, son of Sovereign Degwin Zabi of the Principality of Zeon. It's a pleasure. And your name...?

[marmoron]

[ Look. His name fucking rhymes with nozzle was he not supposed to find it kinda silly? In any event, that introduction is getting a raised eyebrow right back, followed by a noticeable silence. ]

I'm Keith. From Texas.

[instrumentalized]

Texas.

[ Garma repeats this hollowly and for a small moment seems very far away. ]

... ah, apologies. A... person I know is from the Texas Colony, a theme park recreation of Texas in space. I was just... reminded.

[ Char was not actually from the Texas colony and he knows this NOW, but there is no need to open this can of worms. ]

It is nice to meet you, Keith. Just calling me Garma is fine.

[marmoron]

[ If nothing else, his expression does soften a little there with sympathy. ]

Sounds about right that Texas has its own space colony.

[ A beat. ]

So what are you planning on doing here, Garma?

[ He's at least somewhat desensitized to the weird name thing after Dozle... ]

[instrumentalized]

[ Texas is eternal. Yet Garma has never been to either Texas, tragically. ]

I don't really know, if I am honest. Build a new life for myself, I suppose. I don't know this island well enough yet to really be aware of the possibilities.

I'm going to assist someone from my world in returning to it, on the side, so don't worry that I will neglect the common cause.

[marmoron]

I wasn't --

[ Worried. He was going to say, but stops mid-thought. In a way, it just seems cruel to expect someone who died and may not be able to go back home to work towards a common goal that sounds like it'd be the source of a lot of internal conflict.

Garma offering that reassurance up so freely out of nowhere shouldn't catch Keith off guard like that, but it does for just a split second. ]

... well, thanks for keeping that in mind, I guess.

[instrumentalized]

Of course. Just because I will likely have to settle for this island does not mean everyone else should have to.

[ ... that's gonna be real awkward when everyone just leaves and Garma is left behind, but maybe at the time they find a way out something will have come up to solve that problem. ]

[marmoron]

Maybe by then we'll have found a solution for you as well. Regardless of what happened before, you're alive now. There should be a way to make something happen.

[instrumentalized]

I have considered if it would be possible to return with the person from my world I am allied with, into the future. It would raise a lot of questions if I were to reappear, but...

[ He trails off, shaking his head. ]

I don't want to get my hopes up right now.