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

You're less convincing by the moment. I don't know what kind of bullshit this is, but take it from a professional - at least get some of it right.

[ Molly crosses his arms, eyes narrowing. ]

Where's Yasha and Jester?

[ Nothing bad on Fjord, he was a great roommate and a fun friend, but if they wanted to fuck with him, it should have been those two. ]

My details are right!

[ ... That sounds weird out loud. ]

Clearly they're not here. [ Kicking some sand to the side. Fuck this beach. ] We're all probably trapped in Caleb's spell, everyone's room was soaked in magic. I don't know why I'm surprised something went wrong.

Yasha's probably with Beau and ... I don't know about Jester, she went looking for the cat servants.

You're not making any sense!

[ Molly groans and brushes back his hair, curls getting trapped behind his horns. ]

You can stop this now! I know it isn't real!

[ Please stop, weird-ass illusion place. It's starting to hurt a bit - he was already worried about them, and now this? ]

Of course I'm not making any sense to you, Molly wasn't with us! You're just a ... a projection of my memory of him.

[ He sits down heavily on a log by the fire, pulling his cloak around himself for extra warmth and adjusting the Wildmother's pin. ]

[ Since he has nowhere else to go, Molly sits down on the other side, trying to figure out of how get out of this. If Lorenzo's people had these powerful spells, maybe the plan wasn't going to work.

Maybe Keg was wrong about him being a melee fighter?

'Memory of him' makes no sense either. It had only been a day, but... maybe this was an illusion of a Fjord where the rets of them never came. Just to shame them even more. ]

We're not just going to be a memory. We have a plan, it will be okay.

[ Why is he trying to appease an illusion? He doesn't know. ]

A plan for what?

[ Faux!Molly can't possibly mean all this, aka the illusory prison they're in. Fjord squints across at him, trying not to feel sorry for something that isn't really his friend even though his heart aches at the sight of him equally dispirited.

He's been guessing the illusion is picking and choosing what it knows of reality, but maybe ...

Curiosity gets the better of him. ]

What's the last thing you remember?

To free you! Them. Whatever.

[ Molly sighs again, and then his red eyes meet gold for a moment. This is all fucked up, and he can't really tell the truth to this... thing. What if Lorenzo found out what they were about to do? ]

Following your tracks. Meeting someone that could help us. Getting ready. I'm not gonna tell you more than that.

Keg. You've found Keg and think she'll help.

[ It's so weird hearing all this from Molly's point of view, even a fake one. Fjord keeps his eyes on the fire, boots entrenched in the warm sand nearby. ]

You should never have come after us, it wasn't ... wasn't worth it.

How do you... shit, she's not really looking for her friend, is she? She's part of them.

[ He shakes his head, but then that Molly grin comes back when he hears the next part. ]

Now you made a mistake, you bastard!

[ The tiefling says, accusingly - with a wagging finger and everything. Almost chastising, as he'd been with the bandits. ]

Of course we'll come for them. We're all part of... something together. In the Carnival, you learn to take care of eachother. You take care of your people.

[ The rest might not feel the same, but for a long time, Molly thought about just taking Yasha and leaving. ]

I didn't trust any of the Mighty Nein for some time, but I knew they were my people as soon as you assholes took those three.

[ Because it hurt. ]

[ The anger makes Fjord smile wanly, too weirded out to look directly at those red eyes. Eyes of Nine. He glances at the eye on the snake, then the red dot on a peacock feather on Molly's neck. He definitely tries to avoid thinking about Molly dying with the same verve with which he scolds him now, fired up and protective, anything but that.

Taking off the flowercrown, he sets it nearby to continue supposedly warding off the monsters. ]

Caleb just made a house out of magic. Widogast's Nascent Nine-Sided Tower, it's a spell. That's where I came from, the home he made for us.

[ Molly's not prepared for 'Fjord' to not argue, and instead talk about... things that the tiefling doesn't understand. It takes him so off guard that he doesn't even gather enough bullshit power to deflect. ]

...what? That's...

[ What does it mean, what it had to do with this, what kind of spell...? Caleb was powerful, but that? ]

He made you a home?

[ This is weirdly cathartic, talking about this to a shade. ]

It's a mansion made of magic, you float between levels. There are feline servants, it's ... really something. [ He misses it, even if it fucked up. ] He's been working on it since Lorenzo, around the time you're talking about. But it must have messed up and sent me here, nothing about this world makes any sense. I don't know why there would be metal people in any of Caleb's personal dimensions, though ... and he wouldn't have thrown me in the ocean like that.

[ He sighs and rubs his eyes. ]

I don't know. The only thing that makes any sense is that you'd be running around here.

Edited 2020-10-07 17:55 (UTC)

What are you talking about? After Lorenzo? We're... going there now, aren't we?

[ He's going to get a headache like this. ]

I agree with the metal people, though... and these wrist things with sex acts on them.

[ That made sense the least. Why was that in the illusion? Some sick thing added just to have something to watch for whoever did this? ]

...and why am I the weird choice?

[ He has to agree in reverse that making it Fjord was a little strange, since if they wanted him to break down it should be Yasha... or was it related to the sex thing, and they somehow knew he'd be happy to jump in bed with pretty much everyone in the Mighty Nein if that wasn't going to mess the group dynamics up?

...how would they know that, though? ]

Lorenzo was over a year ago, from my perspective. You must be ... stuck there. At that time. [ Where you died. That's why I'm imagining you with no more memories. Murmuring, ] And of course you'd be part of Caleb's dreams.

[ He looks down at the device strapped to his bracer, pulling a face at it as he unstraps it for a closer inspection. He pokes it hesitantly, the glow of it underlighting his beard and the attentive flicker of his eyes ... the darkening of his cheeks as he reads down the grid. Gods.

His voice is a little strangled when he speaks. ]

These are ... fucked up. Little offensive too, to be honest.

Over a year ago. Stuck there.

[ Molly stares for a moment, unable to actually process that, and instead ends up laughing about it. ]

Right. You make this image of Fjord - shittily done, by the way; not the right accent, and he's not that big even if he might think he is. Anyone could tell it's fake. Then you try to make it sound like it's been forever and insinuate Caleb dreams about me? Hah!

[ He shakes his head and really wishes he had his scimitars right now, just in case this turned ugly. Yet it doesn't - instead he's given the treat of seeing someone who looks like Fjord blushing, having that slight squeak as he did when invited to the threesome.

It's a break, though, a way to talk about anything else that isn't this confusion.]

I mean, some of them are pretty good. Which one are offensive?

[ He looks put out at the notion he was remarkably smaller before Melora made him her Paladin, flat-faced throughout Faux!Molly's ranting. Fjord can't summon the energy to even begin bothering on an explanation about all the differences this imposter is pointing out, suspicious he's being needled to feel worse and drop his guard.

His jaw sets and he glances over only to avoid eye-contact all over again. ]

No need to go into detail.

[ What in the fuck is breeding? Is that an orc thing? And the threesome option can fuck straight off, he doesn't have the confidence for that. ]

[ Molly's not even sorry that it looks like he's hurting not-Fjord's feelings, instead feeling kind of pleased with himself to have found all those faults.

The deflection of the A5 thing was very Fjord, though, and the tiefling snorts. ]

Most of them seem tame to me.

[ Which he'd say even if they were out there, just to be a shit. ]

These aren't tame, they're —

[ Suddenly in bright blue in front of him, the projected image hovering like an illusory spell as he startles and stares. ]

Fuck! What did I press? Shit.

[ Button-mashing to make the hologram vanish, words glimmer brightly against the backdrop of a dark sky. Breeding; in heat. Discipline. Multiple Partners. Oral fixation; Oral sex. Tattoos. Water ...

The board vanishes and he drops the bracelet onto the sand in relief, hiding in his hands. ]

[ Molly... just starts laughing. A mildly hysterical, full-belly laugh both from the fact that it was funny and the fact that he was stressed to the max with this bullshit.

He can't stop after he starts, and it's all just really stupid. ]

[ Reluctantly but irresistibly tempted, he starts laughing into his hands too, the stress piquing as he shakes his head and muffles a shriek of frustration. Once he's done and has taken a deep breath, he looks up at the night sky and finds his gaze roving back to the realistic illusion of his lost friend, smile lingering. It's one of the stupidest, freakiest situations he's ever found himself in, and that's saying something.

This time when Fjord sighs, he sounds less angry than tired. ]

I do wish you were real.

I am real.

[ Molly replies with a sigh, but it's too tired and a little sad to be as convincing as before. ]

We're not giving up on them. I still have to know if Fjord considers lobsters mermaids to scorpions, he 'fell asleep' right in the middle of that 2 AM nugget.

That's really messed up but absolutely.

[ Mystery solved! ]

[ When Molly has nothing else to do, he talks. Add this bullshit to that, and he's definitely going to let his mouth wander. ]

I ate some lobster, once. It was said to be this delicacy but I'm pretty sure another town called them 'rats of the ocean' and fed it to their criminals. I suppose anything can be true if it's plentiful or not... or if you make them sound fancier than they are.

[ He waves a hand dismissively. ]

Anyway, I almost chipped a fang on the fucking thing! Nobody told me you're supposed to crack them open!

[ Lies? Truth? Does it matter? ]

Lobsters were for fancy humans when I was growing up. Expensive shit.

[ He chats away too, too exhausted both mentally and physically not to need an outlet, riding that assumed bullshit like it's nothing but a road beneath his feet. His stomach growls loudly, betraying him. ]

... Gods, now I'm hungry.

Edited 2020-10-07 21:25 (UTC)

Ugh, me too. I didn't even know you could get hungry in some kind of messed-up illusion.

[ Ugh. ]

Those automatons tried to tell me things, I should probably have listened.

[ Maybe they had rules for this mess. Then again, this place had thrown Fjord on him pretty much immediately, so that seemed to be the main event. ]

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