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

[halforc]

[ It's the stress of the day, of the sudden attack, it must be, that's why Fjord can barely open his mouth to protest when Charm Person hits and he rolls a 1 plus -2, i can't even before all his features relax. He feels like giving Molly the benefit of the doubt ... really trusting him, for some reason. ]

Sure, Molly. What do you want to know?

[devilstongue]

[ That's such a relief, so see that familiar change in tension. ]

Oh, you know. What the point of this illusion is. Why I'm here. Where our people are.

[ Shrug. ]

Just simple, easy things to share between friends.

[halforc]

I'm not an illusion, I thought you were ... but now you're casting spells.

[ He looks worried about that for a moment then the compulsion to answer the other questions takes over. ]

Everyone's back in Caleb's magical tower, we just had dinner. There was a stained glass window that he made above the hearth in the main common-room because he missed you, it looked like your coat.

I went to sleep in my hammock and woke up in the ocean, it was terrifying.

[devilstongue]

[ ...what is going on here? All he has now were more questions. 'Fjord' says he's not an illusion even after the spell, and Molly knew it affected him.

Caleb's magical tower. Missing him. All the shit Fjord said. ]

Fuck, am I dead? Is that what this is?

[halforc]

Yes.

[ Something feels weird when he says that, as if he shouldn't be speaking so freely, and he starts to frown. ]

Just like I died, only you didn't come back.

[devilstongue]

I... really don't understand any of this.

[ If he was dead, how the fuck did that happen? He was just there, on the road! Nothing dangerous had even happened yet.

Unless they somehow got ambushed and he died immediately.

Frowning, Molly drags his claws over an arm, digging deep. It hurts, and he hisses slightly. How can he be dead if he can still feel pain? ]

You died?

[halforc]

[ He holds out a hand to hover over Molly scratching his own arm, not wanting him to do that. When he speaks it's because he wants to be useful to Molly, emotion vaguely on the sidelines but also suppressed. He can't stay quiet if Molly wants to know something. ]

He stabbed me in my sleep on the ship. They came in the night to attack, I fell from the crow's nest and he carved into my chest as he pinned me to the deck. It hurt more than anything, then it went dark ...

When I woke up it was raining but I could tell people were crying.

[devilstongue]

[ It still doesn't make much sense, but at least he has an hour of compliance from not-Fjord. The reaction to hold a hand out when he hurts himself is so convincing, and it irritates him even more.

So does the story he's telling, but only because it sounds real even if it's impossible. Ship? ]

Who? Lorenzo?

[halforc]

Uk'otoa's minions. He wants me dead because I broke my pact as his Warlock and became a Hexadin of the Wildmother.

[ He looks down, over at the dark ocean. ]

I thought they were going to murder me when I woke up in the water today. I think they might tonight. I don't have any magic again, and I'm useless ... again.

[devilstongue]

Uk'otoa...

[ It really doesn't ring a bell, but somehow this thing had taken Fjord's powers? Now he was a... hexadin?

Has he been missing things? Did he bite it and crawl out again? No, nothing about this made any damn sense. ]

Fjord is not useless. Never will be. You're not going to talk shit about him. Nobody's going to murder him, either. They'd have to go through me.

[halforc]

I'm Fjord.

[ The rest would make him smile but his expressions feel geared toward serving up attention, not reactions, and he's too focused on Molly to think about himself. Charmed by him, almost. ]

I feel really weird.

[devilstongue]

[ He doesn't understand this. Part of him doesn't want to. The truth is ugly and harsh and Molly hates it, but it seems more and more likely that this is Fjord.

Accent, build, little tusks... he's so different that it could be another person, but still.

Everything else that had been said is mulled over, and the tiefling sighs. ]

...we got you out of there, Right? All of you.

[halforc]

[ Rubbing his head, he nods absently. ]

If you mean the dungeon of the Iron Shepherds, yes. Me, Yasha, and Jester were freed. Others too.

[devilstongue]

[ He tries to go back through the arguments, picking out some details. ]

...it's been a year?

[halforc]

Well, [ because he's charmed and not just a forgetful idiot, he corrects himself, ] almost nine months, but closing in on a year.

[devilstongue]

How did you change so much in just nine months? You're a completely different person!

[ Honestly! ]

[halforc]

I was punished for being myself as a child and when my captain died I adopted his accent, people liked it better than mine. Then I let my tusks grow in when the Nein proved to be real friends, they didn't want me to be ... less. After I betrayed Uk'otoa the Wildmother adopted me as her Paladin, but she had to put me in a seaweed egg on top of a mountain which me get bigger. I'm still her Warlock, too.

I think Hexadin is a cool name.

[ He looks away from the ocean to Molly, even-toned while charmed as he offers up all his secrets. His head cocks, curious. ]

I wonder if you would have liked me at all, if I hadn't lied so much.

[devilstongue]

[ Molly quiets at that, and then curls up a bit more in front of the fire. He wishes he could just wake up from this... thing, but it sounded like he wasn't going to wake up again. Ever.

He sighs, running his hand over his face. ]

Hexadin is pretty cool.

[ It's something he can reply to, at least. ]

...and I don't know. I don't know this Fjord. I only know the Fjord that slept on the floor every time because he was too chicken to share a bed or too nice that I took advantage and claimed it. The Fjord I fell on more than once when we did have two beds because I was shitfaced.

[ Sigh. ]

The Fjord I would be a shit to, and we'd be dumb together. I don't know if lying or not would change how I felt about that. Maybe not. Maybe it was something we had in common.

[halforc]

[ Softly, he speaks as bidden by the spell and sits down nearby. Panic and anxiety is dulled by the enchantment. ]

You were the most splendid creature I had ever laid eyes on and I was scared shitless by how well you knew yourself, even when you didn't.

[devilstongue]

[ Molly's eyes widens a bit at that, and then he chuckles. ]

I'm flattered. I made myself, so it was easy to remember.

[ He moves and gives Fjord's shoulder a pat. ]

I should ask you all your little secrets right now, but even I'm not that much of a dick.

[ Smirking, he instead slaps his friend over the face. Hard enough to count as an 'attack' in order to break the charm, since sitting here with Fjord for the rest of the hour might actually make him blurt out secrets that had nothing to do with what Molly wanted to know.

It was hellish to be in that Circle of Truth, after all. ]

[halforc]

I'd tell y —

[ The slap knocks him out of the spell and for a moment he groans, rubbing his face. Then he remembers, blinks wide-eyed and finds himself going through a reel of emotions; astonishment and anger war for dominance. ]

You — You son of a bitch, you charmed me!

[ He grabs at Molly's coat but even that action is a shock to his system, staring at a real Mollymauk after months and months of thinking he's beneath the ground, and he doesn't do anything else. Just stares as the astonishment wilts into something more raw, Molly's soft coat in his fist. ]

You ... ?

[devilstongue]

[ He doesn't try to defend himself, letting Fjord grab him. It wasn't as hostile a reaction he'd expect from a fake, either, and Molly watches as his friend wars with his own brain until that handsome face turns from anger to... something. Something a lot softer. ]

Me.

[ Molly replies, shrugging. ]

Whatever that means right now.

[halforc]

... Holy fuck.

[ Molly will just have to live with the knowledge of what it's like to be yanked into a hug with an armoured Paladin because for Fjord it's an automatic reaction. He hauls him in and grabs onto that coat, squeezing tight as harsh, half-laughed breaths are punched out of him in residual shock. ]

I'm sorry. Sorry about ... I. I'm sorry. Hi. You bastard! You complete bastard.

[ How dare he evoke such a strong reaction, shaking Fjord with joy. ]

[devilstongue]

[ Molly's always fond of hugs, even if this one was a real surprise. Fjord's not the most comfortable to hug in armor, but he really seemed to need it - and honestly, so did Molly right now, digging his fingers into that cloak.

Under Fjord's fingers, the coat is like it has always been, fake silk and embroidery, smelling strongly of instance. Undoubtedly Molly. ]

Nothing to be sorry about, I didn't believe it either.

[ He's still not sure he does, but he's too tired right now to fight it. He just has to keep his guard up. ]

...a paladin, huh?

[halforc]

[ It's a long hug, as one goes between them, a blend of stress and various degrees of relief. His rubs the back of that coat and breathes Molly in, chest sagging forward into him. ]

Not much of one right now, unfortunately.

[ Fjord leans back to see him, giving his cheek a pat in return for that slap. ]

You're a sight for sore eyes. How are you? I mean, aside from ... fucking shipwrecked.