TDM 010: PARTNER UP, PARTNER

[erkumods]

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

Comments

[silky_bearing]

"Would that it were so simple." Lorenz sighs heavily, leaning back against the wall. "The Augur is not something one can simply fight. Otherwise I'd have leveled the hospital with a couple Agnea's Arrows by now."

But he does offer Felix a sympathetic look, even if it is still a bit unnerving to be so close to the man. He'd hardly had opportunities to speak to Felix before and now that little bit of progress was lost. Still Felix had been friends with Constantin so, their own rather tense history aside, he owed it to him to try to be as helpful as he can.

"We're doing our best to find ways to gain some independence from the Augur, however. Trying to become more self sufficient."

[swordthot]

"There has got to be a way." Felix wrings his hands, still feeling so strange without a blade, much less his clothes. He rakes his fingers through the untamed hair falling around his face to very little effect.

"I can appreciate putting up resistance in any aspect, but it sounds like you've given up hope of leaving. If this Augur is a god- I don't know. Even gods are not infallible." The borderline heresy sounds very casual the way he puts it. If there is truly no church here though, there is no one to punish him. "I don't suppose everyone has given up then? If we cannot fight it directly, there has to be some kind of weakness. After all, why would it need us if it were that powerful?"

[silky_bearing]

"Precisely. Still the Augur is a... technological being and far, far beyond the scope of many of us from worlds such as Fodlan. Right now we're working as a community to remove our reliance on the Augur, at which point we can safely begin taking steps towards more advanced magic that may be able to warp us home. As it stands right now, however, if something were to go wrong and the Augur were destroyed or convinced to withhold it's rewards those of us that are here would not be able to survive, our resources are far too limited to support a community of this size for long." They're working on it Felix but it is a complicated issue when so many of them are civilians. More than that many of them are also from worlds that are so reliant on technology that the idea of being cut off from any kind of power source is rather panic inducing.

Which makes little enough sense to him but Lorenz has been here 6 months and still doesn't understand how to use a microwave.

[swordthot]

"Well that's great." Felix is useless for this then. He's only good at two things; swords and being audacious. Neither of those assist them in this. There's the tiniest little wash of despair, but giving up so easily simply isn't his style. He'll find a way to make trouble for their captors... he just has to figure out how.

"There's work to be done, then. At the very least I can keep busy here. I don't suppose there's any need of defensive measures?"

Please tell him there's a place to put a blade to work.

[silky_bearing]

"Sometimes! There's... a small collection of former soldiers and such that... well they've called themselves a militia but they only thing they have to test their blades against are the monsters that roam outside the city." There's something you can do, Felix, no worries.

"It has been quite some time since anything untoward entered the city proper but many of the resources we do have access to grow in the wild. Herbs and fruits and things that require going deep into the wilderness. I am perfectly capable of defending myself but many of the healers and priests need to employ protection for such ventures."

[swordthot]

"Well, at least I have something to test myself against." He's actually oddly relieved. Not that there's monsters but that there's still a function for him. If all he did here was exist and have sex, he might just go off the deep end.

"Oh you are, are you?" He can't help himself. The way Lorenz says it, Felix has seen him in combat, he's plenty capable, but the swordsman's default reaction is to test everyone's limits. "Well. I suppose I can find some use for my blade then." If he ever gets it back.

[silky_bearing]

"Yes, I thought you would find that... acceptable at least." But... But Felix snaps off with his usual challenge and Lorenz immediately tenses, the hand gripping the edge of the bench they're sitting on going white-knuckled. For one horrifying moment he thinks that maybe Felix will demand some additional challenge, something he more. Even if he only means it as a spar the idea of standing across from the man again is enough to make his blood run cold.

He doesn't though, just comments about his blade and Lorenz' breath rushes out in a quiet, awkward chuckle. "Ah... um, y-yes. Of course."

[swordthot]

The little jab doesn't quite go over like he'd expect. Felix was used to sniping at people and having them either brush it off or get huffy about it, but Lorenz almost feels... nervous.

"Well that's... good?" If anyone would push back, he'd expect it to be Lorenz but something is clearly off. "Do you uh- hm." Honestly it's hard to know what to do when his antagonization of people doesn't go off how he expects it to.

"Do you know where I could get something to eat around here?" That's a safe question, right?

[silky_bearing]

"I would recommend the cafe. So long as you avoid the tarts nothing there is tainted. Even the tarts aren't so bad, compared to much of the Augur's... mm less subtle influences." Sorry Felix, he may logically know that you have likely never tried to kill him but there's still something distinctly unsettling about it all.

"Once you get yourself settled in do stop by and see me. The golems are hardly well versed in things organics need to care for themselves so I have taken it upon myself to begin making soaps and creams and such. If you wish to keep your hair I suggest you come by before you shower anywhere other than... here."