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

[lyingheart]

She'd probably argue back it was both, but she admittedly also didn't care enough. So instead she lifted her shoulders in an approximation of a shrug, letting it go.

His summary of their situation earned him a snort on her part. "It's pretty direct," she admitted. "Go with the flow of things, indulge yourself and others, end up doubly indulged. It beats falsified national pride over the honour of dying young for a nation that only tolerates you as long as they can use you, and prefers you dead as soon as they can't."

She pulled her hands back out of her sweatshirt, turning her palms up, like she was weighing something. "The bullshit of political groups trying to outmaneuver each other for who deserves to die more in their wars, or having sex for personal benefits."

The hand she'd moved for 'sex for personal benefits' rose up higher, until she held it at shoulder level. The one for politics fell down in the same approximation of a scale balancing, landing at her hip.

"There are worse things they could be asking. I'm glad this isn't a war recruitment. Even if I'm not exactly happy about what it is."

[zechs_isonfire]

Seeing her lay those options out ... made him look at his companion in a new light. Zechs looked at her with a different expression, new. One of honest respect.

“When said so baldly?” Zechs’ tone was quiet. “I can’t help but agree. I’m ... long through fighting. I will do it as long as I’m required, to remind those of the foolishness of war. But I would rather humanity remembers the lessons of the past, and be content with peace.”

He looked out to the distant shoreline. “Wherever you’re from, it doesn’t sound too unlike where I’ve been taken. On the balance. You’re entirely right. I have no grounds to complain, save for what my absence might mean.”

[lyingheart]

"All the wondering," she said after a long moment of silence, having turned to listen to him, her hands coming to hang down at her sides. "That's probably going to be the worst."

She brushed dust that didn't exist off her stomach, thinking of the faces she last saw before boarding the ship, of Hange falling holding off the walking Titans for long enough that the air ship could get airborne.

"How old are you?" She looked back to him, the question seemingly out of nowhere. "When did you start fighting?"

[zechs_isonfire]

Six was on the tip of his tongue, a glib answer that would invite too many questions. This was an island in a place that seemed unconnected to Earth. Earth, knew who he was now, anyway. But it was a corpse he simply didn't want to exhume.

"I was a cadet starting at the age of ten," Zechs told her instead. "I had a particular talent for it."

[lyingheart]

Ten was one year after she'd gained the Female Titan. Just a marker to her, considering she'd been in the military since five.

"How old are you now?" she repeated, simply accepting ten without even blinking. She knew younger. She was younger, and not even the youngest.

[zechs_isonfire]

Much smaller than ten, and they simply couldn't reach the mobile suit controls.

"Twenty-one," Zechs shared easily, looking at her, analyzing her in turn. "How old were you then, and now?"

[lyingheart]

She might have been amused, in other circumstances, that he's the same age as her and her compatriots. She's not, for unrelated reasons: ten years of fighting was nothing to dismiss, but she doubted he had a known end coming in the next year or two. She had to believe that level of bullshit wasn't universal, even when child soldiers appeared to be.

"Five," she said, just as matter of fact as earlier, "And twenty, for all I don't look it." Reiner didn't look his age either, but he'd gone the way she would have outside of crystal: aging too fast, instead of stuck in a moment of time. Maybe it'd mean lasting the next two years, she'd die looking her age.

[zechs_isonfire]

"I'd normally make a joke that a lady, usually, would enjoy appearing younger than her age - " Zechs smirked instead, a brief flicker, cynic amusement, " - but I admit. You're familiar, in a way, and I don't think you'd appreciate a stranger teasing you about such shallow vanities."

[lyingheart]

"There are worse things," she said, not smiling, but lifting her eyebrows like she'd possibly considered it. Then dismissed it. "But no, I don't appreciate strangers teasing in general. It's usually annoying and paired with wandering hands."

A lazy blink, and she gives him another sideglance. "Nothing I'm going to have to worry about here." In present company. She doesn't have that hope for the island as a whole, given its proclivities.

"You, however, look positively your age. How pleasant."

Utterly deadpan.

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs met that glance with a nod. "I wouldn't direct my attentions where they weren't wanted. Even with this island's demands."

He suspected there would be plenty of people willing enough once he was prepared to cross that bridge.

Then, Zechs smirked, amused. "I'll take that as a compliment, I suppose, that one's new. I've heard all sorts of things said about my looks, of course, so you get points for originality."

[lyingheart]

She only nodded in return. It was her philosophy as well, but also more of a nod to fair warning (not that he needed it, but she figured the robots and their Augur were listening regardless) that she would meet the untoward with appropriate consequence, given her mood.

Also, good on you, Zechs, you go get your best lay on!

"I'd assume most of them are compliments," she observed, shrugging again. "Depending on what passes for attractive where you're from. Longer hair's less common on men for me, even outside of the military. The rest is genetics and training."

[zechs_isonfire]

"They were, if empty ones." Zechs then smirked. "I took particular pride in performing well enough that my superiors didn't care about how I kept my hair. In a way, it was as much of a badge as my rank. At a certain level, making a fuss over petty regulations is pointless. Results are what counts."

And that should neatly sidestep why he wanted to keep it long to begin with.

[lyingheart]

"Results count, but military officers being pedantic isn't strange, either." Another partial shrug, and no sign of her asking or wondering why he wore it long. Too many reasons, not enough interest or need to know.

However, she did ask about something related, remembering a few of the young women who had been through her second cadet training. "Do you ever braid it back at night for sleeping?"

Her dorm had been some sort of split, and the question felt... perfectly small talk, albeit in an odd way.

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs hadn't been expecting the question, and blinked at her. It wasn't a bad surprise - it's just few people took a personal interest in, well. Him behaving and dealing with his life as any person would. They more saw him as a symbol, in a way - for good or ill.

"Not generally," Zechs told her, honestly. "When I lived on earth in the summer, it's easier to pin it up under a cap. Kept it off my neck and back under high humidity."

"At the station, it's often far too dry to be concerned about that," he told her. "Rolling on a braid or rolling on it unbound tangles it exactly as much, I'm afraid to say."

[lyingheart]

Welcome to the reality of near anonymity to most around you, and general apathy to whatever you'd been. It's weird, and Annie's not sure she knows what to make of it, which is why she resolved to be the least secretive she can be from day one.

"Like a night cap?" She'd seen those before, though hadn't used one herself. As for the rest, she blinks twice, tilting her head at the word that seems like it has more... meaning than she knows. "When you say station, what do you mean? A way-station? Something smaller than a usual fort?"

Followed by a softer snort (less sharp than before, no less obvious). "How long does it take you to brush that out in the mornings?"

[zechs_isonfire]

"Yes, exactly," Zechs noted, bemused. His eyebrows raised. "Ah. A space station, of course. Not quite as extensive as the Colonies, obviously. You've heard - hm."

Different worlds. "Are they working to terraform Mars, where you've been taken from?"

He smirked a little, appreciating that she saw it as funny, believe it or not. "Not as long as you'd think. Just as yours, working from bottom to top, there's a certain rhythm to it."

[lyingheart]

"Like I brush my hair everyday," she said, which was in fact being flippant over something she did as regularly as she rose before dawn, or gravitated toward where she could practise kicking as a way of working through her own head.

It was also a gap between the one thing he said that made sense and all the rest of the nonsense that clearly meant something, falling out of his mouth. She held up her hands, giving one clear, slow shake of her head.

"No, you're talking space. Universes? Or even just one, it doesn't matter. We're planet bound where I'm from, and it's not... I've never heard of a Mars."

[zechs_isonfire]

"You haven't heard of Mars," Zechs blinked, slowly. Looking thoughtful. "What planets then orbit around the same sun as yours?"

He looked at her and it wasn't with confusion, or contempt. Zechs was intrigued with this difference. "Where I have been taken from, we have built colonies that orbit the Earth in space. That happened roughly two hundred years ago ... so times before that, that idea would've seemed impossible."

[lyingheart]

She listened, quiet, and sighed after, reaching up to rub her forehead with one hand.

"Not one name you used means anything. Other than sun, obviously, we have that, but I'm assuming colonies are... places people live in space? As far as what any other planets are, who knows? I never heard. And our world is just the world, assuming Earth means the world you came from, and not just one more planet orbiting your sun."

[zechs_isonfire]

"So you're from another planet entirely," Zechs marveled. Interesting. Fascinating. She could be lying, of course, but to what end? It'd serve no purpose. "The Earth is both the world I was born on, and another planet orbiting the sun. All worlds, I'd imagine, are exactly that."

"I didn't mean to presume, before," Zechs apologized slightly, "but I simply hadn't known humans could live on other worlds, without remembering the Earth as their origin."

[lyingheart]

Not caring for an apology over something that didn't matter, her response was a non sequitur.

"Mudball."

[zechs_isonfire]

He blinked at her response. Zechs asked, a little blankly, "Beg your pardon?"

[lyingheart]

"We can call my planet Mudball."

Her lips twitched up into a lopsided sort of smirk. "Since all the ones you know are named, it'd be convenient if mine was too, wouldn't it?"

[zechs_isonfire]

Zechs smiled too, surprised and a little charmed by the gesture. "I'd call it hardly an elegant name - but earth literally means dirt, so there you are."

[lyingheart]

"It's a step up from Shithole, which was also in the running."

Her smile might be more tooth than friendliness at that one, but it wasn't aimed at him. Her feelings about her home were not kind. They never had been.