TDM 005: HAPPY SPOOKTEMBER

[erkumods]

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: Always watch your back. - Characters will be compelled to walk, or even speak, backwards for the duration of the day. Those who mishear it as "wash your back" may spend longer in the shower than usual. Fake it til you make it. - Characters will feel compelled to act performatively. They will more readily fall into acts for serious or flirtatious roleplay, or try on costumes that reflect a particular persona they're interested in exploring. Faked orgasms will seem quite realistic. You will receive an affectionate letter from a friend. - Just as it is said, someone will be compelled to engage in correspondence - and whether it turns dirty or not, well, that's up to you! Characters may also quite literally receive an article of clothing with a red letter sewn on the top. What could it stand for? Hold on tight. - Characters who are given this life advice will start to feel rather clingy. They'll attach themselves to someone's side and refuse to leave, or they may find a "security blanket" item and won't let it go. You are a generous, giving person. - Characters will feel compelled to do something kind for someone else. Maybe they'll invite someone to the movies, come over and cook, or do that thing their partner is always asking for. Don't think. Feel. - Even if they weren't before, characters temporarily experience impulsive and hot-headed urges. They will also become very tactile. ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● N A V I G A T I O N

Comments

[silky_bearing]

[The skepticism is what finally pushes Lorenz from conversational if a little flushed to outright violently blushing and indignant, looking furiously away from Seteth as much as possible while still keeping to the little game trail they were following.]

I-It isn't as though other options weren't tried!

[By him. He tried. Alright. He tried spells, he tried to wait it out he-

Are the ears still cute when they're pinned back and his tail is poofed out in irritation?]

[garreg_much]

I'm certain you tried your best. Still, I must say it all sounds as farfetched as the excuses students cook up to escape detention. It seems truth really is stranger than fiction.

[He's heard all manner of tales spun by students scrambling to justify being caught out on trysts. It's not what it looks like, (Then pray tell what is happening, finding you on top of each other with your tongues down each other's throats?) they were just sparring, (And just what sparring technique has Professor Manuela been teaching you that requires you to put your hand down someone's pants, exactly?) it's for their magical research..... (Then surely they won't mind explaining what hypothesis they're testing while still on their knees like this, will they?) Quite frankly, explaining kissing as a form of emergency magical healing is exactly the sort of nonsense he'd expect a horny teenager to come up with to defend themselves in the heat of the moment. Lorenz's reputation in his school days doesn't exactly help that impression, either, no matter how far he's improved since them.

Still, in a place like this, where random acts of carnality are assigned like missions, and body parts grow and vanish upon essentially random circumstance? He's far more inclined to actually believe it, no matter how dubious it sounds--and even he has to sympathize, seeing Lorenz so fluffed up and flustered like one of the courtyard cats. Seteth turns a little as he walks, reaching up to pat one of the hands holding Darby's reins with the one not occupied by feeding one (1) messy, impatient horse.]

[silky_bearing]

[The pat is as embarrassing as it is reassuring and it still takes him a moment to calm his indignation.]

Stranger than fiction is an understatement, I daresay.

[At least there's a bit more space up ahead, the trail widening out where it looks like there might have been a den of sorts once upon a time until foul weather had washed most of it out. Now it's just a little wall of shelter that will be ideal to set camp against.]

Here we are. Much better... and I can tell you about Enkidu.

[garreg_much]

Are they a friend of yours?

[He's already racking his brain as they come upon this little shelter, trying to remember all of his old comrades, no matter how painful it is to look back on how many he's lost. The name isn't familiar, though.....

Or at least, he thinks it isn't. Is it possible he's forgetting a family member? Or had they gone by another name, perhaps? His memory is good, considering how the sheer length of time there is to run through, but it's not perfect by any means.]

[silky_bearing]

An acquaintance. Small frame but surprisingly powerful, hair and eyes perhaps a shade or two darker than your own. They keep it very long, longer than Lady Rhea even.

[As he speaks he dismounts, turning to deal with Darby's tack before anything else. But once she is able to graze more freely he turns back to Seteth.]

They openly talk about being non-human and just... generally have a rather unsettling disposition. Not unlike the Professor was at first. Detached... it's quite strange.

[garreg_much]

Green hair and eyes?

[Seteth folds his arms thoughtfully, head canting to the side as he reviews his comrades. A slender man with very long, dark hair, a flat and distant affect, someone who spoke openly of their inhumanity.....

Try though he might, he can't recall anyone who fits that description--and even if they had changed their appearance over the centuries, the name itself isn't familiar, either. That's not to say they couldn't have chosen a different one for themselves, of course--heaven knows he discards his own name and appearance as routinely as a serpent sheds its skin.

What baffles him most, though, is the more personal description. The Professor was the way they were for a reason, weren't they? So that should mean..... hmmm. The mystery only deepens, it seems.]

The Professor is a..... somewhat unique case. Such a demeanor isn't one I would expect to find in any of my kin. Nor have any of us lived so openly since the war, to my understanding.