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TDM 010: PARTNER UP, PARTNER
| TDM 010: PARTNER UP, PARTNER |
00. 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” barracks. Your inventory will be found a day later, wrapped up haphazardly and delivered to each person's makeshift home. I. Laid Bare Basics There is a new addition to the scenery at the beach, and everyone is welcome! Especially new arrivals, who will be ushered to the recently-established Laid Bare Spa, where (provided they don't slip away from the bots' helpful grasp) their uncomfortably wet, sandy clothing will be stripped away and they will be lovingly pampered by the cold metal hands of the resident robots. Long-time Islanders and newbies alike are welcome to enjoy such amenities as hot and cold baths, sauna rooms, scrub-downs, thorough whippings with birch brooms, skin treatments, massage and energy work, and more! All rooms are thoughtfully decorated with tasteful murals of naked and disrobing bodies. Maybe you'll see someone you recognize?! (Maybe you'll see... you?) Islanders who happen to find their clothing mysteriously missing are welcome to borrow a Laid Bare branded towel to cover up with on their way home. II. Tattoo to You, Too The Augur understands that sometimes, it's difficult to find a partner to indulge you in those favorite Auspicious Acts - especially for new arrivals, but surely even long-time residents could benefit from a little assistance now and then. That is why ever-benevolent entity has gifted Her precious Islanders with tattoos which feature their most secret, urgent, and/or shameful of desires! (Even if that desire is to simply complete a Bingo.) The tattoo may be a picture or a word, and it can appear anywhere on the body. At first it is pleasantly warm to the touch, like a soft glow of light on your skin. It soon becomes apparent - through either robot advice or a notification on your communication device - that your task is to find a match for your tattoo and complete the depicted act with that person. The longer one goes without completing the act, the more the tattoo seems to heat up, until it feels like it is burning into your skin. Take too long, and the tattoo may become permanent. Otherwise, the tattoo will fade within hours of completing the Auspicious Act. [ For TDMers: feel free to select any favorite kink for this prompt! If you complete a kink that doesn't appear on your card, you may switch one square for the completed kink. For current players: by participating on (tagging into) this TDM, you may switch one kink into your card (it must be the kink in the toplevel prompt you responded to). ] III. Creepy Crawly Caterpillar Crawl Are you on the hunt for credits? Then have the robots got a task for you! The 'bots of the Nameless Island are recruiting Islanders to go bug collecting in the caves, crevices, and hollowed-out logs of the wilderness. The quarry? The (shudder - literally, the robots will shudder) doom-summoning harbinger bug. They describe these creepy creatures as fat, fuzzy, and rainbow-colored, with long, fluffy antennae that look like rabbit's ears. The robots describe these critters as so dangerous that Islanders should only hunt them in pairs. Should your team return successful, you both will be rewarded very handsomely for every caterpillar caught! The bugs are typically very docile and seem to enjoy soft pets, judging by the cooing and squeaking noises they make (especially to scritches behind their "ears"). Poke or disturb them however, and they may bite! Body parts bitten by angry caterpillars will swell up cartoonishly, and can only be treated by having someone else suck the venom out. Good thing you're traveling with a partner! The 'bots strongly recommend against keeping these little buggies as pets, but they're not your dad. N A V I G A T I O N |
hangar
[ Of course, Duo had noticed the new mobile suit in the hangar. He'd have to be blind not to notice that hulking thing in the hangar at any rate, and so he'd kept an eye out for the suit's pilot. partially because he's nosey, partially because he thinks it's a good idea to know all of the applicable parties if they ever have to rally all of the mobile suits and move on something.
Who knew what this place could end up being, after all. Always good to have a safety plan.
He turns up to run a few diagnostics and do some maintenance to notice the new suit's cockpit is open and notices a body moving around in there. Curiosity not sated just yet by knowing there is a pilot here for this mobile suit, Duo scales the scaffolding but bypasses his own darkly colored mobile suit to instead see who is inside the new one's cockpit. Duo has no way of knowing if the new person is as paranoid as him, but... considering...
He'll treat them like they are. Duo calls from a respectable distance away from the entrance to the cockpit, leaning slightly, half-smiling but also keenly aware just in case. ]
Uh, hey! I've been waiting around to see who the pilot of this suit was.
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Mika had always earned a 'hesitant' reaction. His large, piercing blue eyes that softened for only Orga at first had been enough to make the other boys feel uneasy.
He's been aware of the other pilots buzzing around on the lower floor, naturally curious about the new mech resting in the hangar with their own suits. He assumes they are sizing him up the way he's been sizing them up. Without Orga, it's hard to tell friend from foe. Without direction, it's hard to tell what he should or should not be doing.
He can't communicate with them for the time being and as much as he wants to barrel out of here in Barbatos, it doesn't have enough fuel to go all the way to Mars from wherever this place was. It could never make a trip that long. It's meant for fighting, not for long haul transport.
Duo isn't the first to approach him and won't be the last. It's pesky to have them keep sniffing around him, but he supposes he can't expect less in this scenario. He doesn't understand people well, but he's starting to understand other pilots well. They're always in fight or flight mode, aside from him, who has never been able to kick out of 'fight' without Orga calling his name.
He peers over in the direction of Duo's voice. He's perched on the open door of Barbatos's cockpit, a long cable connecting him to the giant machine and plugged into his bare back. He has a tablet in his lap that he's been using to write on in, currently paused. There's something he's chewing on while Duo speaks to him.
A pesky question from another nosy person, but this one doesn't look like an adult. He feels less agitated, but not by much. ]
Ah... it's me. This one is named Barbatos.
[ It's matter-of-fact and simple, in a near-monotonous tone. He assumes that's all Duo wanted and turns back to his tablet, starting to write with his index finger, slow and meticulous, mumbling to himself: ocean... oc... ean.... ]
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[ Duo had trained alone, despite all of the time he had spent before being a gundam pilot primarily in the company of a gang of others. In a way, being thrust in to a situation where he had to work alone had been sort of bizarre. He wasn't a big fan of it, by any means, and had been practically estatic to learn that there were others.
Of course, Heero hadn't exactly wanted to connect with him at first. In fact, he'd stolen his parts and fucked off for his next mission. But it hadn't put Duo off much in the end. Instead, he'd ended up becoming closest with the other pilot and, in a way, they all formed their own little gang by the end of the war. Duo wasn't opposed in any form to that. He quite appreciated knowing there were at least four other people in the world that understood his problems and the odd things he tended to do.
Duo offers a wave as he's acknowledged, as per usual in a faux 'relaxed' body language that isn't necessarily what he's actually feeling at any moment. But, in general, it makes others feel better around him, and more relaxed as well. ]
Barbatos.. [ Duo repeats it with a little nod, looking up at the mobile suit's face for a moment. In typical form, Duo keeps talking despite the other pilot turning and going back to his task at hand, too used to Heero to be put off for too long. ]
Mine's the black Gundam over there, between the one with the angel wings and the one that's.. kinda dragon themed. It's called Deathscythe Hell.
no subject
They've been lied to so often in life, skepticism is baked into him as hard as his lack of trust.
He doesn't look up this time at first, but he does stop writing. It's not hard to practice his homework, but he can't do it solidly while talking to someone else. ]
Ah... so those one are, somehow. But, they're different. They're definitely different.
[ He furrows his brow and huffs, setting it in his lap. He turns to look at the suits. Definitely, definitely different from his and Akihiro's... but somehow still called a Gundam frame? But this guy can't be from his world and though he can vaguely understand that there are 'other realities' if he thinks really hard about it, it's still a concept way, way beyond the frame of reference for a guy who's never even heard a fairytale before. ]
No Ahab reactor... this one can't detect any, at least.
no subject
This is so oddly reminiscent of Heero it may just happen anyways. ]
Huh? You mean that they're gundams? [ Duo follows his gaze over to the line up of the gundams (and the prototype) from their world, appraising them for a moment before turning back to Mika. ]
Yeah, no such thing as an Ahab reactor in those. Though uh... that one there? The ugly white one with the weird spartan helmet thing? That's a prototype made prior to our suits, so.. Don't count that one in too hard.
no subject
He can't deny those suits are Gundam frames, but he can't confirm it either. It doesn't matter at the end of the day, as long as they don't come at him. Looking their way, it is more an understanding that he might have to crush them if the reason comes along. He might have to crush this kid if reason comes along.
He looks at Duo again, finally, somewhat interested in the existence of the other suits. It's a mild interest, but it's interest. It's enough to get him to scoot on his butt enough to face him, shifting the cable at his back along with him. ]
But you aren't from Mars... right? People are from places here that I don't know, right?
So you don't know Tekkadan... is that right?
no subject
Mars? Nah. I'm from colony L2. Where I'm from they're only just startin' to terraform Mars... [ Though, damn, if people live there in his time it's completely possible that he's from a future version of their world. Maybe. Or something that's parallel but close enough considering there's Gundams and Mars is terraformed. ]
Tekkadan doesn't ring a bell, nah. That your like.. team or somethin'?
[ Duo tucks his hands into his pockets, turning to look at his, Heero and Wufei's gundams. It's still kind of weird to see them all docked together like that. In particular, Altron, if only because Wufei tended to stick to himself in their time in the war. ]
Or your gang I guess, maybe.
no subject
[ That was two years ago, now. He didn't really keep up on colony development, but maybe he's from some past time if he also had Gundams. Barbatos was 300 years old, after all, and some great war had happened for it to be born at all. Still... no Ahab reactor. As far as he knew, that was an essential aspect for pretty much all mobile suits. ]
... Family. Tekkadan is my family. That's what Orga said. That's who I was with. This one is also Tekkadan's.
[ In essence, he knows they're a company or a business. That's what Orga had made them so they could do honest work. Still, to him, 'Tekkadan' must be his family. That's what they had learned about themselves and it feels wrong to call them anything else. ]
no subject
Yeah, no Dort ones in my side of the universe either. [ Duo's shrugging, laughing a little. It's cool, actually, to hear about all of these new places, new colonies out in the vacuum of space that he appreciated so much.
Tekkadan is his family. That softens Duo a little bit, actually, nodding in a way that says he perfectly understands. He's been there before. A found family that had become so much more than that, many times, actually, in life. Solo, and then the church, and now the other pilots in their own ways. ]
Yeah.. I get that. That's basically me and the other guys who pilot with me. Didn't start out that way, but.. [ Duo shrugs. ] It's okay.
Are any of your other people here? Not tryin' to get all in your business, but.. I know it woulda been a lot harder for me without the other two here..
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[ This has all been a little too much to wrap his head around. He usually lets Orga or, in the past, Biscuit, think about things like this. He followed. He did what he was told, happily, because he trusted them all.
Being on his own is difficult. Already, he's having to make decisions that he's never had to make. It makes him starkly aware of Orga's absence. ]
I see...
[ They could be like the Brewers or like the Turbines, if that's the case. They could be a problem or allies. It's hard to tell when he's only, at the moment, having to think about his own survival. It's all 'too big'. ]
I haven't found them. I can't contact them with Barbatos and I didn't see them.
no subject
Yeah. It's wild all the differences you can find between worlds, trust me. Every place is so damn different. A lot of them don't even have space colonies to begin with, which is like... they're in the damn stone age, you know?
[ Duo's always been so self-determined it doesn't occur to him that this may be the other man's first time deciding a lot of things for himself. If his family is a group of other people, Duo sort of assumes, rightly or wrongly, that there's no blood family around. ]
Sounds like they aren't here yet then.. Apparently, I disappeared for a little bit and then came back. No memory of the joint though so that's... [ Duo pauses, sort of stares off for a moment, and then finally comes up with - ] ... concerning.
To say the least, anyway.
But then again people we know have been floodin' in so it's possible your people will be along shortly.
no subject
[ The long and short of it. He doesn't care where 'here' is or where other places are and what they're like right now. They aren't the place he should be. It's aggravating. Knowing that he can't kill those metal things and overcome this his usual way is equally aggravating.
Nothing is more of a challenge to him than feeling like he isn't strong enough or skilled enough to help Orga. If he can't get home, will he be left behind? Can he even be found here? ]
I don't want them here. I want to go back. It's not good for any of us if we're separated. [ He already struggles with the idea that there's a base on Earth now. He never liked them being split up. ]
More of us here means less people at home. Going back is better.
no subject
Fair enough. I'll leave the complete understanding part to .. you know. Scientists and shit. [ Duo shrugs. Yes, he's not stupid, but he's also not a physicist or a scientist who would be capable of trying to figure the math and do all of that, either. He may be able to idiot savant quite a few things when it comes to his mobile suit, but when it comes to that?
He recognizes when he's out of his league. ]
Yeah, I get that.. [ He'd once lived like that. In their little gang of insular kids who didn't want or need help from those outside of them. Duo pauses for a moment, adjusting how his braid settles on his shoulder, before offering : ]
Look, I'm not gonna crowd you, but.. if you prefer workin' and livin' in a group, that kinda thing.. we've got some room. Or we can make some room. It's not easy transitioning to bein' by yourself. Been there, done that much.
no subject
Mika had never been victimized in his life, as far as he could tell, but he could understand the frustration of being forced into limitation. He'd gotten better with reading thanks to his studying over the past two years, but there's still so many things he can't read or write. It's restrictive and he's sure he'll soon feel that heaviness here if there's nothing to fight to get home. ]
Mm... maybe. I don't know how much difference it makes if I sleep here or somewhere else. [ Without the others, he'll be lonely regardless, right? He can't belong anywhere they aren't, isn't that true? It's the reality he knows. He isn't sure he can settle comfortably around other people and it's not like he has an issue sleeping on the floor of a hangar among the boxes. ]
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You shootin' to at some point? [ Look, Duo knew what he did best - idiot savant level mechanics, and that's about it. He wasn't about to push it trying to understand how universes and universe travel worked. Sounded to him like something to ask the Peter guy Relena mentioned the next time he saw him and it wasn't for a candy date.
In fact, he notes it as something to ask later. ]
A bed's a bed, really, so it doesn't make much difference, but - [ Duo shrugs. ] - I thought I'd offer.
It sucks to suddenly be by your lonesome in a place when you're used to bein' with people. I know I'd be a lot more on edge if the others weren't here.
Besides, who knows what those fuckin' machines want with our gundams. Probably better to know each other and stick together a little in that case.
no subject
Ah. Thanks.
[ That is probably the kind of thing he should say whether he takes the offer or not. He'd slept in the streets so long, it didn't faze him to curl up under his coat and sleep on the floor or in Barbatos's cockpit. He felt comfortable there and spent a lot of time in it. Besides, with Barbatos near him, it feels less quiet and isolating. ]
I'm not worried. Barbatos isn't easy to take. If I'm with it, they can't bother it anyway.
[ He roots in his pocket, then pauses, realizing he shouldn't deplete his snack supply too quickly. Annoying that he has to regulate himself, but it's better than being without too quickly. ]
Besides, I don't know who you are. You might try to kill me or steal him. And if you do, I'll have to erase you. So I can't trust you and you can't trust me. Can we live together like that?
no subject
Too far behind? [ That... seems a bit too defeatist if he's honest. But then again, Duo Maxwell isn't necessarily known for much more than stubbornness and ingenuity, as well as his evasive piloting, so... Leave it to him to be so damn stubborn he'll become a scientist just to say 'fuck you' to someone who told him that he couldn't.
Mika's reasoning mostly makes sense, and he nods his agreement with his reasoning easily enough.
- At least until it becomes that he may steal his mobile suit, at which Duo begins to laugh pretty earnestly. ]
I don't want your damn mobile suit and you don't want mine. Why the hell would I? Have to learn a whole new system and try not to fuck up too royally while I'm doin' it.
... And it's not my style, man.
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[ It's not that Mika cares much to learn about those high level things. You don't miss what you never had. At his age, it would just be a waste of time to focus on it when he's got better things to learn. If he can cultivate more vegetables on Sakura's farm, then they'll have more food to sell and it'll have more value. More value means more money, and more money means more stability. It's sensible to him.
His eyebrows go up when Duo laughs, clearly confused for a moment before he huffs. Is he laughing at him?
It's fine. Pilots outside of Tekkadan tended to ridicule them a lot and he doesn't care much about what some skinny kid thinks about him. ]
You're right. You can't pilot it. You don't have whiskers... but even people who can't pilot it try to steal it. It's valuable, I guess.