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TDM 005: HAPPY SPOOKTEMBER
| TDM 005: HAPPY SPOOKTEMBER |
Arrival  This time, you come out of the water, the Nameless Island's own inherent energy drawing people in. It's like being suspended between realities and abruptly pushed from behind through a rift in dimensions. It may make you sick, or that might be the motion of the ocean, lifting you to the surface 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. Feel free to explore the Island, though there isn’t much to see. Most of the buildings are abandoned and in dire need of repair, and beyond the city lingers a thick fog that obscures much of the wilderness from view. Wander too far into this fog, and you will find yourself mysteriously looping back to where you began, your memories of what you were doing and how you got there erased. With that in mind, it may be wise to stake your claim on a rundown apartment, a tent on the beach, or a bed in the "comfortable" new barracks. Your inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each person's makeshift home. I. Harvest Hunt  As the daylight grows shorter and the muggy heat of the island’s summer gradually shifts to temperate days and chilly nights, Erku’s accessible wilderness explodes with a colorful collection of tempting fruits, fragrant-smelling herbs, and nuts and seeds plumped and ready for harvest. With warnings to beware of monsters, the robots of Erku encourage Islanders to take advantage of the land’s bounty by distributing basic camping supplies to those who are interested in exploring, hunting, and harvesting. They strongly encourage making the journey with a friend! Any surplus foods that Islanders bring home with them can be exchanged for credits with cafeteria robots! Just be careful out there - some of these fruits have strange effects once consumed. For extra protection out there in the wilds, the robots have fashioned crowns of flowers or foliage to wear on their adventures. The sweet and herbal smells from the crowns will discourage most Erku-native monsters from approaching, they assure - this is ancient knowledge from the planet’s long-gone civilization, so it can’t be wrong! What the robots don’t know is that the crowns have a deeper, more ritualistic purpose: after a few hours, the scent of flowers or herbs begins to awaken primal instincts within the wearer. Those who are wearing the foliage crowns feel overwhelmed by an urge to hunt, while those who wear the flower crowns delight in every opportunity to tease, outrun, and outwit the hunters. What happens when the chase ends? Well, that depends on the personalities and the chemistry between the hunters and their prey. While the robots are very insistent on placing crowns atop the heads of any Islander they see, they aren’t stuck on in any way and they are easy to remove, which can prevent or break the hunting trance. II. seeds and sap  Of particularly high credit value, the robots explain, is an elusive flower known as the skull sunflower. It appears exactly as one might imagine: at the center of an otherwise innocuous, towering sunflower is the gruesome visage of an open-mouthed skull. Don’t worry, the flowers are harmless! Even if it’s strange how the empty-socketed eyes seem to follow your every move. And why is it that the teeth - which, on closer inspection, are actually the seeds of the flower - only seem to chatter when your back is turned? Any Islander who can withstand their heebie-jeebies long enough to collect the petals and seeds from the flowers will fetch a handsome reward in credits upon exchange with the robots. Beware the sticky, blood-red sap that seeps from the eyes of each skull, however. Those who absorb too much through their skin will begin to hallucinate, visions of frightening or emotional events from their past dancing in the shadows. One might even mistakenly imagine that another Islander is someone they recognize from their past, someone who meant something to them - no matter whether that person is alive or dead in the present. The hallucinogenic effects of the sap can last for hours, or they can be shortened by a dip in the public baths. III. Tarot  Night comes, and in the darkness, a robot sets up a table by the beach. A solitary candle sits in the center, illuminating a deck of cards. F̶i̴n̵d̸ ̸y̶o̸u̸r̵ ̵f̵o̸r̷t̵u̶n̶e̷?̴ The robot reveals tarot cards and will do a variety of spreads to tell your fortune. Each fortune can be distilled into one central theme, which characters will find pervades their life for the next 24 hours. There is magic afoot: it can be sensed, and perhaps even dispelled, if luck is on your side. Though most robots on the island show a capacity for greater-than-average artificial intelligence, this pseudo-psychic 'bot -- M.S. Cl30 -- is less advanced. It only has six interpretations prepared:
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no subject
She frowns a little, continuing to stare at the metal constructs. Setting her sock down across one damp thigh, she taps a finger against the towel she's sitting on. ]
I accepted two of the towels from them, but the one speaking at me didn't make sense, and I don't trust anything handed to me with that much insistence.
[ There were bound to be catches, and she didn't want to be in a system from the moment she confusedly stopped spitting out saltwater and sand from her mouth. Another pause, and she looks back to Yuri. ]
You understand them?
no subject
So, she'd received towels. That much is obvious without her having to tell him. Yuri honestly wasn't sure if he was able to understand the robots immediately. He'd been pretty dazed and had felt dizzy and nauseous.
He does give her a very clear nod at her question.] Yes.
[Wait, anything else they'd handed her? Like what? All he'd gotten was a towel. Oh, right, and the bracelet... which she isn't wearing. Not that he really thinks it will make any difference but he does raise his arm and tap on it, motioning to it.] You mean this thing? I wish there was some way to tell you this, but I think you'll need it.
[Yuri isn't thinking about translations, he's thinking about Annie eventually needing things and not being able to trade for them. He sort of assumed that he likely wouldn't understand other people who didn't speak his language either.]
no subject
The yes she understands, but the rest is more interpretation of babble and the accompanying actions. He was tapping on... a band? Was it an accessory or...
Her blank stare for a moment transforms into a thoughtful, albeit not terribly happy, look. Was there anything familiar in what that band was? She looks more closely, leaning in and squinting. It takes a few moments before it starts to loosely click where she'd seen something like it before: with the metal constructs. ]
Your band... bracelet, whatever it is. Did that come from the constructs?
[ She gestures toward one robot down the beach, currently standing around in a suggestion of pleased happiness, if its body language could be considered vaguely similar to human. ]
no subject
[He motions between himself and Annie and then points over at the robot.] Do you want to go see if it has an extra one?
They seem pretty harmless. [He knows he's mostly just talking to himself but it feels even more bizarre not to say anything and to just motion wildly.]
no subject
She sighs, frowning and continuing to wring out her sock. ]
Will you watch my boots?
[ She thought about using his word for boot, but it was the singular as far as she knew, and he couldn't hear the difference anyway. With the amount of gesturing that'd followed, she's assuming he's encouraging she reapproach the metal constructs in all their... whatever the hell she'd call it. Enthusiasm, perhaps.
But bracelets... ones advanced enough to be interpreting for their wearers... what the hell else did they do? ]
no subject
[He holds up a hand to indicate that she should wait for a moment before turning to look at the robot, bringing his fingers to his lips to whistle loudly to take its attention.
The robots head swivels first, body, and then legs following. It seems to understand and begins to approach.]
There you go. I'll still make sure no one swipes your boots, though. [He point to his eyes and points to the boots with a smirk.]
no subject
My hero.
[ She practically drawls, squaring up to face the robot that comes ambling over, shoulders tensing as it draws close. She doesn't have to like taking practical matters into concern, but she will face them, even if she's still wanting a break from this most recent break from reality. Peace, she objects, is not being stranded on an island you can't get off of. That is the very opposite of peace. ]
Interpreter device, please.
[ She holds out her hand, sounding not so much like she's asking as like she's reporting in for duty, hand over the necessary equipment, and let her get to her beat. The robot doesn't precisely comply, though she does have her hand enthusiastically gripped and shook, the chat, chat, chat, chat, chattery nature of what breaks down to being part of a propaganda team with its own skewed agenda shoves a bracelet on her and encourages her to... she tunes it out. ]
Don't you ever shut up?
[ She asks instead, working on prying her hand free, while the robot cheerfully replies: ]
If it inclines you toward intimacies, then happily so! Would you like to engage in a rousing round of beach sexual exploration now?
[ ... she pulls her arm free with a definitive yank. ]
Do your joints break?
[ Was her "cheery" response. ]
no subject
But in the meantime, Annie gets a bracelet and seems to understand the robot at the very least.]
It's a little pointless to yell at them. I believe that their existence relies on us -not just you and I, but everyone who has washed up here- being intimate, kinkily so apparently.
[He half expects that she still doesn't understand what he's saying, which is annoying but fine. What could he do about it?]
no subject
You're telling me we washed up on voyeur island.
no subject
[His tone is aloof and factual. Honestly, he's unsure how he feels about all of this and he despises not knowing why they're here or who was behind it. Not knowing, he hated not knowing.]
Now that you can understand those golems, you really should try listening. If I'm understanding correctly, we're here because they think that we'll be able to help rebuild their city... through sex. Pretty wild, right?
no subject
It hurts her brain just thinking about it. She promptly stops wrangling with the hows. It simply is, and that means it has to be dealt with. ]
Wild? No, wild is being told we're here to battle to the death and feast on the remains. Rebuilding a city through sex is right out of bad literature. Last I heard, the only thing that much sex got you was a bad reputation if you're female, a fantastic reputation if you're male, and an increase in the population if you're not careful. Which I'm assuming no one is asking for here.
[ the robot can actually answer. it beams down with a smile displayed on a rounded facial display, and starts sing-song listing off the worries she shouldn't have, treasured guest, when engaging in her auspicious acts. no children, no disease, no--she interrupts, addressing the metal construct: ]
No lacking partners?
[ the golem trails off, and gives her what is a robotic equivalent to an apologetic shrug. ]
Practise, [ the robot advises ] increases the probability of mutual satisfaction.
[ she then gives Yuri another flat, unimpressed look. this is what listening is giving her. ]
My expectations are lower than ever.