ercookies | TDM 005: HAPPY SPOOKTEMBER

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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N A V I G A T I O N

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

He definitely stopped talking after mentioning the lack in the library. She also definitely heard the same voice whining about reading porn all day, and how he would read porn all day if it was more subtle and tried to seem different from the other porn.

"... I don't see why they'd be that limited in their literature. Encouraging people to read about these things instead of do them seems counterproductive."

Quietly sounding out if her audio hallucinations were truly just in her own head.

He tilted his head slightly feeling like he had missed a line somewhere, but he didn't think too much about it at the moment. "Perhaps they feel reading enough will put one in the mood to act."

'There was probably some sort of merit to it. Drug everyone on aphrodisiac, give them only R-18 material and wait for the OOC PWP to start! If it worked for such accomplished hacks as Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky, why not work here? This island is already far more shameless!' not that he quite felt Airplane was that low of an author, pretty low, but not quite rock bottom of PWP R-18.

Now she felt it was more and more likely she was getting some kind of thoughts from him in addition to his spoken words. Not usual, and not like how Eren had announced what he did, but in the scheme of crazy shit she's already started to deal with here, not impossible either.

Still, she knew she'd been hallucinating earlier. Trusting in this second supposition wasn't wise.

"Has that actually worked for you. Or anyone." Whining about why not didn't mean it was actually useful.

He seemed to debate on the matter and then glanced to the side as if mildly embarrassed. What could he say, not that the library did anything for him, or that he read such content to try and get off, but it would be a lie to say he had never felt warm by certain reading material.

"In this place? No," he finally spoke with a definitive tone.

'But I can only speak for myself, some poor sod out there might be eating up every drop, taking self-care to a new level and acting out whatever stupid thing is written there. As if acting out such things is any good!' this time accompanied by his leaked internal ranting, a flash of something came forth as well, it was a split moment as if his own thoughts had gone to a memory that shut him up momentarily, impossible to really take in or know what it was. 'Fiction is not a how-to manual!'

Physically he seemed to retreat into himself a little bit, his tail swishing more as he tried to sink deeper into the water like there was some sort of deep shame that might be noticed if he didn't hide more.

He looked more and more agitated, which would have been slightly amusing if she weren't still confused over what was going on. Fiction was never a guide to reality, she wanted to say, but even reality was a shitty guide to reality. People had all different ideas and dreams and fantasies they made up for themselves. Why wouldn't physical intimacy be the same?

She hadn't thought about it much before, not in depth. It was disconnected from her life for good reason, and considering her first warm fuzzy anything toward another human happened while the world was being trampled into the ground, envisioning more than... she didn't know. Envisioning anything felt like too much.

"Then elsewhere it did," she said, not because she thought it was true, but because of his spoken ambiguity. "Probably to stupid consequences."

'Don't call me out! Don't dig into the unsaid like that! Of course everyone has their dark past! Who doesn't? Who doesn't read something and get invested? Who doesn't sometimes have reactions to a good setting with good character chemistry and when those moments come, who can't help but let their heart follow! I'm still a man! Don't punish me for it!' his soul was crying. 'You're not supposed to bring attention to it! And for other people! I don't control other people! If they want to play around with RPS how can I say no when I said yes before!'

"Who said anything about elsewhere or consequences?" denial to the end.

"... I don't really care what you've touched yourself thinking about before, but can you not go on at length about it? You're giving me a headache with all that... thinking chaos."

Truly, she doesn't care that you masturbate, name her someone who doesn't or hasn't, she doesn't even care what inspires you, Shen Qingqiu. She's just hit a point of testing to see if all this nonsense filtering through her head is actually sense-filled to him, because at this point, she'd like it to stop!

There's a big difference between wanting to know what someone's thinking in a given moment, and wanting to know every coherent thought that comes through their head!

Despite his years of practiced control in his expressions, at least not going beyond subtle changes, they almost all get thrown out the window. The blood drained out of him and he could almost feel the blood rising up his throat.

What was she talking about?

"What?" go at length...?

'Fuck! Fuck! What is going on? What the hell is going on!? I haven't gone on about anything. I've said very little! I've been properly short, ambiguous, and aloof! What is this about!?' he fully panicked while attempting to keep his outward cool going. 'Is it the water...? Did I eat something?'

He slowly lifted his wrist, tapping at it, looking at it carefully, trying to act nonchalant about it all, however....

"Fuck!"

Something had been redeemed!

"..." So it wasn't a hallucination. Now she knew that for sure. The blood drained out of Shen Qingqiu's face so fast she was worried he was going to faint.

"Does anyone know exactly how much of a pretense you put on?" she felt compelled to ask, as someone who had her own she'd lived under for years as a matter of survival. "I'd ask why, but that's your business." Not hers, she implied, and for someone sitting naked in a big ol' public bath with a strange man, she looked even less potentially disturbed by it now. "I assume the one fuck you said out loud was because you figured out why this is happening."

Also since her thoughts weren't getting him to start looking awkward or ask strange questions, it seemed presently limited to him somehow leaking his thoughts out mind to mind.

Oh, how she wished that somehow, she couldn't make sense of that possibility, but when your entire culture is linked by hard to understand ways to one central technical telepathic possible and inheritance granting network... there are weirder things she's heard and seen.

He raised his hand even as his soul attempted to leave, his other hand went to the bridge of his nose as he suppressed the urge to cry. "Stop. Stop. Don't we all have things that we don't say out loud? Don't fault me for keeping a mouth filter."

After making his statement he sighed a little and consciously tried not to think too hard or trail off.

"I may have received a reward...."

"A reward that leaves your thoughts leaking out like water from a sieve." How is that rewarding? Sure, he was over there looking distressed, but this was not remotely close to her fault.

Pointing out his filter was being used as a pretense for how elegant and mysterious he was... whatever made him happy. She didn't honestly care, but it was still something else to learn half his lacking answers were because he thought it built his persona.

"If I remember correctly, along with furniture and infrastructure, there are enhancements available," not that he had paid much attention to it. "I didn't look at them that hard though, who needs power-ups when they're already an immortal cultivator?" he just gave up on not just speaking his full mind now. He really would have to go meditate or something to figure out how to keep it in check.

Personal enhancements? What bizarre island society was being created here? She didn't like the sound of that, plenty of her own reasons to be biased against it, but she kept her peace. Her opinion objectively didn't matter. Why speak about something neither of them controlled? Other than some implication of selection, with what he said.

"An immortal cultivator being what, exactly?" As for power ups, some people were never satisfied. How the hell telepathic accidental overflow was a benefit was something she failed to see, unless it would work both ways eventually, or it was better for coordinating events silently.

Not her concern! She wasn't anyone who had to coordinate with anyone else past figuring out the basics of survival here, and following that, comfortable enough living.

He would only assume that the robots just don't know how to bribe people properly, and came up with a lot of stupid ideas.

"A cultivator, one who cultivates spiritual energy, following the Way, towards the path of immortality, or something like that," he waved his hand slightly, the gesture looked like he was used to holding something while doing it. "No one really knows what one is, other than the people who are one. I thought it was far more popular and well known."

He probably wasn't wrong, while he probably also wasn't all right.

His explanation was less than satisfactory, on several levels. She aimed a flat look his way, asking after a moment, "Were you born a cultivator?"

He opened his mouth with the intention of stating of course not, no one was born a cultivator, you had to have a talent for it and stopped. His ruse was up already, wasn't it? And, it was a lie that part of him didn't want to talk a little about it. Not having Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky around, as much as he was a little worm, was... in a way, a bit lonely.

"No. I happened to become one rather suddenly," not a proper explanation, but the truth none the less.

She was tracking on a completely different level, so his admission merited a blink, and a, "But you still knew exactly what you were?"

How did one become a cultivator suddenly? All the whatever he'd said, which hadn't amounted to much of anything understandable, and then... what?

"Of course, because this body is a cultivator, the world a cultivation world, what could it be other than being a cultivator," as if that explained anything more.

'That's just the way of transmigration-' it really was hard to not think sometimes. "There are certain tropes that are just simple and universal. Even this world is easy to predict when you know the sort of low hanging fruit such situations go for."

She lifted a hand from the water, making a stopping gesture.

"Stop. Explain why you said this body, what trasmigration is, and what you mean by tropes." Her headache slowly blossoming was almost welcome compared to the uncertain headache from earlier hallucinations. Now she was fully in reality, and confused as hell.

"This body isn't mine originally...." it was strange to say it out like that. It was the first time he had said it out loud... ever. "Transmigration, when your soul migrates to another dimension or reality, or time. A popular story element in fiction. Tropes are, over used plot devices in fiction."

Just everyday stuff everyone should know.

She had a new headache, and this man was largely responsible. Annie reached up to rub at her face with both hands, consequently brushing the rest of her wet strands of hair off her face. Piecing together what he said and taking it as a literal truth wasn't as hard as it could have been, but...

"You're saying your soul took over someone else's body. In another time or place. Like in fiction."

"Yes. Literal fiction. Don't think about it too much. Is it really much more of a leap than waking up on papapa island?" seemed about the same amount of believable to him.

"Are you telling me you're fictional."

No, it was not more or a leap, it was just more pathetic if it was how he thought of himself. Life was hard enough to bear with when it was all you had. Hearing it was all someone else's story, like denying its reality, was heartbreaking. What was your suffering in the face of that? What was the pain of your world?

"Of course not!" who had ever heard of a fictional person transmigrating into the real world? Though maybe there was something like that in the sea of web novels and comics. "The world I woke up in was."

"Wouldn't that mean the world was real from before you got there, or else everything wouldn't have ever existed, even after you showed up?"

TDM 005: HAPPY SPOOKTEMBER

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makes this nice and terrible

As he deserves

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