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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 |
no subject
All of that is some shade of alarming. But it's not wholly unprecedented in Matt's experience. Back home, what Edelgard's described could be caused by a spell, some kind of psychic ability, or maybe, more mundanely, a psychotic break.
But there is one item on the list that sticks out.
"Cat ears," Matt repeats. "And a tail?"
Transmutation that's not associated with lycanthropy is really tough to do! It's not completely impossible? But it kind of boggles his mind.
"Is that what happened here?" he adds, gesturing around at the inn and the run-down block it occupies. "I mean, not cat ears specifically, just--these phenomena. Did they like, cause some kind of societal collapse?"
no subject
Not as inconvenient as the urges, of course, but one of these is much more acceptable to talk about with strangers... or, well, anyone.
His question is a fascinating one, though, and as she opens the door to the inn, letting him into a modest common area complete with couch and coffee table, she raises her eyebrows.
"That is a possibility I had not considered. I have witnessed the rebuilding and restoration that our intimacy can cause, but we have been told much less about what actually happened to the island's former inhabitants." Could they have gone overboard with intimacy and somehow destroyed themselves? She truly cannot say. "Months ago driftwood skeletons rose from the ocean and attacked the building where the Augur is housed. That may well be a clue but if so I have not pieced together the puzzle surrounding it."
no subject
Yeah, no, he's got nothing.
"Still not a hundred percent clear on who or what the Augur is," he admits for transparency's sake, "but an attack speaks to some kind of external force, right? Or a seditious one."
A thoughtful pause.
"Though usually, when cities or even nations collapse, it's a lot of things. Outside attacks, decades of bad policy, some natural disasters thrown in." Some of what Edelgard's describing sounds like a natural disaster to him, even if the hurricane is internal. "But--wait, okay, second big question. Intimacy leading to restoration: can you say more about that? It's been described to me a little, but I don't totally trust my recollection."
Or, to be perfectly candid, that the robots communicated using the best possible phrasing.
no subject
It is not a host, in her mind. She was brought here against her will and has been given no information about the possibility of being sent back.
"One moment, please."
While he seems agreeable enough, she does not invite him to follow her to her room. It's a quick trip, though, and when she returns she still carries the sack over one arm but in the opposite hand she easily holds a large distinct axe, its blade like the fierce jawbone of a large creature. In her hands a kind of magic pulses from it, subtle but certain.
"What I can tell you is that there are now a handful of shops and other buildings where there were none when we arrived. There were no animals that I can recall at first. This building itself was nearly a ruin when we claimed it, and when I filled a square on my card I was rewarded with improved quarters." She pauses slightly. "Sometimes effects like the ears and tail I mentioned only disappear once an act from your card has been fulfilled."
Please tell her that you have seen your card already, Matt.
no subject
(Either's good by him.)
Luckily for Edelgard, incidentally, there's exactly one thing around here Matt does know:
"Ahhh, right," he says, "the auspicious acts. That's fascinating." For a moment, his expression is both bright and thoughtful, as if he's contemplating something wonderful a long way off. "I ... believe that it's an act of creation, fundamentally. Connection, love. But it's usually not on that kind of scale."
no subject
Nodding for him to follow her out, she locks the door behind them but not without a quick sideways study of his profile when he turns more thoughtful.
"In my world those skilled in certain types of magic are capable of healing, although not on the same scale or by the same method. What happens here is far beyond any act of restoration I had ever personally seen before."
Easily handling the axe, she quickly locks the door behind them and turns them in the general direction of the caves, where caterpillars supposedly await.
"It sounds as though the concept is not strange to you at all."
no subject
He walks along with her, strides easy, diving his attention between Edelgard and the scenery around them. This whole thing is an involuntary vacation, but he's still fascinated to see a new place.
He's intrigued, too, by how fluidly she mentions magic.
"In terms of restoration, though ... so like, what I can do back home is like ... encourage the plants in a community garden to grow better, and make the people who breathe their air a little healthier. Or purify a single source of drinking water for awhile--until the pollution catches up to it again. We wouldn't call that eros, though--just magic. And not everyone can do it directly."
no subject
"Were you a scholar of magic then? Not everyone in my world has the same aptitude for learning magic, but with the proper training many can improve."
no subject
"A self-directed scholar, I guess. Most of what I know I pieced together from books." He smiles at her, a touch wry. "My world doesn't really believe magic is proper, generally speaking, so the channels for learning are all pretty informal."
no subject
But no doubt he realizes that quite well. She meets his smile with a smaller one of her own. Without mages her army would be at a disadvantage but offensive purposes are just one use for powerful magic. After months of wanting to return home and finish what she started, she is still angry to be here but can find something refreshing in not constantly thinking in terms of war.
At times that concerns her.
"Do you consider yourself to have a specialty?"
no subject
But at the same time, it's something Matt's wanted to hear so badly from someone, for so long, that it startles him a little. It seems too close to a wish to be real.
His smile quirks crooked. "That's what I try to keep in mind."
The follow-up question is a good distraction. Matt muses, "I guess it'd be protective wards, probably? Or amulets, but I'm always trying to learn new things. Push myself, you know?"
This would've been a great time to say sex magic, but at the moment it genuinely does not occur to him. They're talking about helping people!
no subject
"I understand. When I was a student I was eager to master each new skill introduced to me." Her smile, while small, does linger. "I am trying to adopt a similar attitude here."
Half a moment later she glances sideways at him, hoping he doesn't immediately think she means something sexual.
"So I can be at my best when I am finally allowed to return home."
no subject
Matt's been so tunnel-visioned, thinking only about what's ahead: what he can learn, how he can help. He hasn't even thought about going home. But of course, other people probably have more than student loans and distant relatives to look forward to back where they come from.
(He returns Edelgard's look with one of his own, but there's no obvious lasciviousness in it.)
"Well, there's a lot to learn, I'm sure. There's no interplanetary travel where I'm from, so ... being anyplace like this is outside of anything it'd be possible to experience."
no subject
"My world is also less scientifically advanced. There is no interplanetary travel. If you travel by air, you do it on the back of a pegasus or wyvern." Or dragon, she supposes, but she personally knows no one who has managed to do that. "The ability to effortlessly draw a hot bath is my favorite thing about our odd island prison, although I have also learned about microwaves."
Her most used 'cooking' skill is tea preparation, but she recently received a small combined kitchen and living room upgrade to her quarters. Perhaps one day she will learn the secrets of grilled cheese.
"Does your world have metal golems like the ones shepherding us here?"
no subject
It's enough to make him feel sort of bad for resenting his tent on the beach and lack of wifi.
"We have ... limited versions of them. Ours definitely don't have the personality that these do." He smiles again. "And we don't have pegasus ... es. Or wyverns. Is it pegasi?"