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

The stone makes him a little less of a squishy Wizard in combat, that's all. Hardier. It fucking better, it cost five-thousand-five-hundred fucking gold.

[ He will also trust Pumat. ]

As for my room ...

Five... five-THOUSAND gold?? That's... that's insane amounts of money.

[ Honestly, Molly's almost a little pale. Sure, they had a lot of money, more than he's ever seen in his life - but to buy something like that?? ]

What did you do, raid a dragon hoard?

A couple, kind of. We've fought a lot of weird shit and I've barely been spending anything, don't think too hard on it. [ Not going to mention how much his missing ring cost. ] Caleb was worth it.

[ Fjord was at a loss as to how to show his emotions, so obscene spending took their place. ]

Do you want to hear about my rooms or not?

That's...

[ He laughs, shaking his head. That was some supreme bullshit, or they really had done all these things, both were crazily impressive. ]

I can't believe I've missed this... I'm going to be so mad when I get back.

[ Molly gives Fjord a pat. ]

Yes, yes. Please tell me about your magical room of wonders and amazement. Don't tell me about mine, I want it to be a surprise.

[ That spare room isn't much to describe so he'll just avoid mentioning it isn't really Molly's, he's not that tactless. ]

I share a floor with Jester and Beau, there's an anchor on my door so you know it's mine. Inside, he made it look like a ship's cabin with portholes and a stained glass window of a ship at sea. There's a table that looks like the altar-top of a sea-witch's lair we visited, he put some books on it.

[ Not that Fjord has read Tusk Love or anything. ]

There's a meditation room with a map of the Menagerie Coast on one wall and a statue of the Wildmother opposite, and the bedroom has a four-poster as well as a hammock and bathtub, the latter perpetually filled with hot water.

[ Molly smiles like a child at all these descriptions, loving the way Caleb has just... done this. For Fjord. For everyone, just... all wonderfully made rooms with deep thought behind them.

For all the wonders, though, he utterly moans at the last part. ]

Oh, gods.... let me have that and I'd be the happiest person in Exandria.

[ Never-ending bath? Yes please. ]

[ He thinks about the stained glass window in the main room, the one that looked like Molly's coat. How Caleb made that so central. ]

Tell you what. You pluck these birds and then you can test out that fancy tub with the taps while I get dinner going, like I said. Go get your relax on.

How about it?

That would be amazing, but I have no idea where to warm water, and we're down a fire mage.

[ Molly shrugs a bit, smiling. It would have been wonderful, but he's happy they even have water in this strange city. ]

I can wait until we have a fireplace and things going in that house, I don't think I even saw one.

Well, the taps said hot and cold on them. So ... well, let's see if those are empty promises when we get back.

[ Because oh, yeah, Molly can't read. Funny the things that Fjord has forgotten. ]

[ There's a pause at that while Mollymauk just stares at his friend, before he takes off running towards their house. ]

Hurry up, slowpoke!

... I shouldn't have told him that.

[ Taking off at a quick stride so the bloody geese don't drip over his boots, he makes his way after Molly back to their new house. He heads into the back garden, sitting on the back step as he starts plucking the birds; there's no point holding Molly to his word when the words "hot water" have been spoken, and that's okay. ]

[ Molly's boots have been hopped out of and his clothes tossed all over the place, and there's already a sound of water running from above when Fjord catches up. However, just ten minutes later, a tiefling slinks down next to Fjord, wearing his pants and shirt.

His hair is wet, and he seems cleaner, but he's somehow here instead of simmering like a purple potato, reaching for the second bird. ]

The second knob doesn't work. It gets lukewarm at best, so at least we'll be clean.

[ This is a broken man that eventually needs to find out there's a bathhouse in town. ]

[ Prepared for an hour spent alone, he's surprised to see Molly and keeps a clamp on his amusement, seeing him so dispirited. Simple soul, simple needs. Poor sod. ]

Oh, no. [ That sounded genuine, right? ] You smell a lot nicer, though. Still a win?

I suppose it's better than to be a sweaty mess after our bird hunt. Still, I feel like I got my heart broken!

[ Molly dramatically sighs while ripping feathers from the goose's chest, saving some in his lap as he does. Maybe they could make another pillow, after all. They were on a really nice gold mine of quills in these wings and tail feathers, too, so he keeps those as well.

His tail is flicking slightly as he cleans the bird, like an annoyed cat that wasn't given their treat today. ]

These look nice enough to make me feel better, though. Grapes or not, still starving.

[ He's never seen someone pout with a tail before but there it is. Maybe he'll take pity. ]

If I make a fire down here for the birds, once they're done we can heat up water in a pot and ferry it upstairs. If you, you know, really had your heart set on a hot bath.

I mean, what else are we going to do? Sit around without any useful powers, in my case. I've got nothing but time.

Mmm, food and a bath all accomplished in one. I'm into it.

[ It was essentially his first idea, after all. The fact that it might just come preheated from the taps was a pipe dream. Nevertheless, Molly seems a little less put out as he fishes some broken quills from within the goose skin with his claws. ]

Bird doesn't dry well, or we could make it last. Still, it didn't look like they were rare.

[ He's an adult man (technically) and will eat a whole damn goose, watch him. ]

[ Fjord is meanwhile tossing feathers carelessly to one side in a heap, keen to expose the flesh. ]

I'll smoke some of mine and keep it in case we get the munchies tomorrow.

[ With his bird mostly feather-free, he pats Molly on the shoulder with one of its feet (slap!) and heads into the kitchen to find a knife. Back on the patio he starts carving open the bird and dumping the innards in the grass, chopping off the wings and legs until he can wash it all neatly enough in the sink indoors. Just feels a bit cleaner doing that. ]

Can you get a fire going if I do the other bird?

[ Ugh, webbed creep things! The tiefling makes a face at Fjord, but there's amusement in those red eyes as he nods and sets aside his naked birdie to go get that tinderbox he had been sneaking around with yesterday while trying to find a fireplace.

There's plenty of broken shit to use for the fire as well, so he sets up a rudimentary pit with the ease of a carnie and adventurer who has done this even when blind drunk.

It takes a little while to get the fire going, but soon it's nice and ready. It would be excellent if they could build a spit, but for now he's so damn hungry that it doesn't matter as long as it's cooked and in his mouth.]

All yours!

Okay, let's get these cooking.

[ He stabs sticks (washed in the sink, he's no barbarian!) through the meat, legs and wings and breasts all set at an angle over the fire. Two glasses of water are set down with some grapes floating in each (saved some!!) and he takes off his armour before sitting next to Molly. ]

All we need is a cart to drive around in.

[ Meanwhile Molly strings up livers, kidneys and hearts on a smaller stick, like some kind of voodoo shishkebab. (It's food, okay!) Setting that in as well, he leans back with a content smile.

This was very nice and domestic. ]

'Molly and Fjord's geese on a stick.' I'm into it, a solid business idea for Fucksville.

Fucksville, jeez ...

[ Shoving his stick in the dirt to let his meat roast, he takes the tech off his bracer to look at the grid of "options" and winces. ]

I'll be honest, I'm not sure what half of these even entail. I mean, [ voice going shriller, ] what in the sheer fuck entails breeding in a kink? Am I supposed to impregnate someone? Gods. No.

[ Molly leans over to look, curious. ]

Even I don't understand some of them, either. Breeding, hmm? Let's not make any little Fjords in some weird sex place, that sounds utterly irresponsible.

[ There's definite amusement there, like he knows exactly what it means. Or he's just full of shit, as usual. ]

Some of it is kind of tame, I guess? Unless biting and rough sex is too kinky for you?

If I bite someone I'll rip their fucking throat out, look at these bad boys.

[ Pointing to his tusks!! ]

You sure let those grow, huh? They look really great on you, Fjord.

[ Wink! Totally not hot or anything, shush. ]

Probably leaves nice bruises, I doubt you'd rip anything out.

[ He bares his own fangs instead, the sharp canines on both his upper and lower set. ]

[ Compliments are well-received! He pulls down his lower lip idly to poke at his fangs, watching Molly bare his. ]

I wouldn't want to accidentally rip out someone's jugular, that miiight be a moodkiller. [ With a flat look, lol. ] I'm not like you though, these might not be super sharp but, ah, it's been a ... well, a hot minute, shall we say, since the filed-down versions were even put to use.

[ Someone's sadly never been intimate while the owner of his own tusks. ]

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